27. The Word’s Literal Sense Is the Foundation, Containing Vessel and Buttress of Its Spiritual and Celestial Meanings

Every Divine work has in it a first, intermediate, and final element, and the first one progresses through the intermediate one to the final one, and so takes form and endures. Thus the final element is the foundation. Moreover, the first element is present in the intermediate one, and present through the intermediate one in the final one. Thus the final element is the containing vessel. And because the final element is the containing vessel and foundation, it is also the buttress.

7. Nor can the difference between these levels be known unless one is acquainted with correspondence, for these three levels are each completely distinct from the others, like end, cause and effect, or like something prior, something subsequent, and something terminal. And yet they operate as a unit through correspondences. For something natural corresponds to something spiritual, and also to something celestial.

But what correspondence is may be seen in the book Heaven and Hell, where it is discussed in The Correspondence of Everything in Heaven with Everything in the Human Being, nos. Heaven and Hell, nos. 87-102, and in The Correspondence of Heaven with Everything on Earth, nos. 103-115. It will also be further seen below from illustrations presented from the Word.