5. 1. What the spiritual meaning is. The spiritual meaning is not the sense that shines from the literal one when one is studying the Word and interpreting it in order to confirm some dogma of the church. This sense is the Word’s literal sense. Rather its spiritual meaning is one not apparent in the literal one. The spiritual meaning lies within the literal one, like the soul within the body, like thought within the eyes, and affection within the face, which operate in concert, like cause and effect.

That spiritual meaning is what principally causes the Word to be spiritual, not only for people, but also for angels. Consequently that meaning is the means by which the Word communicates with the heavens.

58. The Word shines and is translucent with them because every particular in the Word contains in it a spiritual and celestial sense, and these senses exist in the light of heaven. Consequently the Lord flows through these senses and their light into the natural sense and its light in a person. As a result, the person acknowledges truth from an inner perception, and so sees it in his thought, and this whenever he is prompted by an affection for truth because it is true. For perception springs from affection, and thought from perception, and this produces the acknowledgment we call faith.

But we will say more on this subject in the next section on the conjunction of the Lord with a person by means of the Word.