rd. Nor does the natural man whose spiritual degree has
been opened know that by means of his spiritual man he is in heaven,
when yet his spiritual man is in the midst of angels of heaven, and
sometimes is even visible to them; but because he draws himself back to
his natural man, after a brief stay there he disappears. Nor does the
natural man in whom the spiritual degree has been opened know that his
spiritual mind is being filled by the Lord with thousands of arcana of
wisdom, and with thousands of delights of love, and that he is to come
into these after death, when he becomes an angel. The natural man does
not know these things because communication between the natural man and
the spiritual man is effected by correspondences; and communication by
correspondences is perceived in the understanding only by the fact that
truths are seen in light, and is perceived in the will only by the fact
that uses are performed from affection.

253. (3) The character of the natural man in whom the spiritual degree
is not opened, and yet not closed. The spiritual degree is not opened,
and yet not closed, in the case of those who have led somewhat of a life
of charity and yet have known little of genuine truth. The reason is,
that this degree is opened by conjunction of love and wisdom, or of heat
with light; love alone or spiritual heat alone not opening it, nor wisdom
alone or spiritual light alone, but both in conjunction. Consequently,
when genuine truths, out of which wisdom or light arises, are unknown,
love is inadequate to open that degree; it only keeps it in the
possibility of being opened; this is what is meant by its not being
closed. Something like this is seen in the vegetable kingdom, in that
heat alone does not cause seeds and trees to vegetate, but heat in
conjunction with light effects this. It is to be known that all truths
are of spiritual light and all goods are of spiritual heat, and that
good opens the spiritual degree by means of truths; for good, by means
of truths, effects use, and uses are goods of love, which derive their
essence from a conjunction of good and truth. The lot, after death, of
those in whom the spiritual degree is not opened and yet not closed,
is that since they are still natural and not spiritual, they are in the
lowest parts of heaven, where they sometimes suffer hard times; or they
are in the outskirts in some higher heaven, where they are as it were in
the light of evening; for (as was s