astle, each in his own position in the royal service.
This makes evident the meaning of the Lord's words, that:

In His Father's house are many abiding places (John 14:2);

also what is meant by the dwelling-places of heaven, and the heavens
of heavens, in the prophets.

52. That each society is a heaven in a smaller form can be seen from
this also, that each society there has a heavenly form like that of
heaven as a whole. In the whole heavens those who are superior to the
rest are in the middle, with the less excellent round about in a
decreasing order even to the borders (as stated in a preceding
chapter, n. 43). It can be seen also from this, that the Lord directs
all in the whole heaven as if they were a single angel; and the same
is true of all in each society; and as a consequence an entire
angelic society sometimes appears in angelic form like a single
angel, as I have been permitted by the Lord to see. Moreover, when
the Lord appears in the midst of the angels He does not appear as one
surrounded by many, but the appearance is as a one, in an angelic
form. This is why the Lord is called "an angel" in the Word, and why
an entire society is so called. "Michael," "Gabriel," and "Raphael"
are no other than angelic societies so named from their function.{1}

{Footnote 1} In the Word the Lord is called an angel (n. 6280,
6831, 8192, 9303). A whole angelic society is called an angel,
and Michael and Raphael are angelic societies, so called from
their functions (n. 8192). The societies of heaven and the
angels have no names, but are distinguished by the quality of
their good, and by the idea of it (n. 1705, 1754).

53. As an entire society is a heaven in a smaller form, so an angel
is a heaven in the smallest form. For heaven is not outside of the
angel, but is within him, since the interior things which belong to
his mind are arranged into the form of heaven, thus for the reception
of all things of heaven that are outside of him. These also he
receives according to the quality of the good that is in him from the
Lord. It is from this that an angel is a heaven.

54. It can in no sense be said that heaven is outside of any one; it
is within him. For it is in accordance with the heaven that is within
him that each angel receives the heaven that is outside of him. This
makes clear how greatly misled is he who believes that to come into
heaven is simply to be taken up among angels, without rega