149.  In like order the angels in each society in heaven dwell in relation to one another-towards the east there those who are in greater degree of love and charity, towards the west those who are in less degree; towards the south those who are in greater light of wisdom and intelligence, and towards the north those who are in less.  This arrangement prevails because each society represents heaven, and is a heaven in a smaller form (see above, n. 51-58).  The same arrangement prevails in their assemblies.  They are brought into this order by virtue of the form of heaven, from which everyone knows his own place.  The Lord also provides that there be in each society those of every kind, for the reason that in form heaven is every where like itself; and yet the arrangement of the whole heaven differs from the arrangement of a society as what is general from its parts, since the societies towards the east surpass those towards the west, and those towards the south surpass those towards the north.

150.  Because of this the quarters in the heavens signify such things as pertain to those that dwell in them,—­the east signifying love and its good clearly perceived, the west the same obscurely perceived, the south wisdom and intelligence in clear light, and the north the same in obscure light.  And because of this signification of the quarters in heaven they have a like signification in the internal or spiritual sense of the Word,{1} since the internal or spiritual sense of the Word is in entire accord with what is in heaven.

{Footnote 1} In the Word the “east” signifies love clearly perceived (n. 1250, 3708); the “west” love obscurely perceived (n. 3708, 9653); the “south” a state of light, that is, of wisdom and intelligence (n. 1458, 3708, 5672); and the “north” that state in obscurity (n. 3708).

151.  The reverse is true of those in the hells.  Those who are there do not look to the Lord as a sun nor as a moon; but they look backward away from the Lord to that dense darkness that is in the place of the sun of the world, and to the darkness that is in the place of the earth’s moon.  Those that are called genii look to that dense darkness that is in the place of the world’s sun, and those called spirits look to the darkness that is in the place of the earth’s moon.{1} It has been shown above (n. 122) that the world’s sun and the earth’s moon are not seen in the spiritual world, but in place of that sun a dense darkness over against the sun of heaven, and in place of that moon a darkness over against the moon of heaven.  For this reason the quarters with those in the hells are opposite to the quarters of heaven.  The east to them is where that dense darkness and darkness are, the west is where the sun of heaven is, the south is to their right, and the north to their left, and this also in every turning of their bodies.  Nor can they face otherwise, because the whole bent and consequent determination of their interiors tends and strives that way.