294. Since the elements which constitute the sun of the spiritual world are from the Lord, and are not the Lord, therefore they do not possess life in itself, but are bereft of life in itself, just as the elements which flow from an angel or person and form the atmospheres about them are not the angel or person, but are from them, bereft of their life. These elements are coupled with the angel or person only in their accordance with them, having originated from the forms of their body, which in them were forms of their life. This is a secret which angels with their spiritual ideas are able to see in thought and also express in speech, but which people with their natural ideas cannot, since a thousand spiritual ideas constitute a single natural idea, and a person cannot resolve a single natural idea into any spiritual idea, still less into so many. The reason he cannot is that these ideas differ according to degrees of height, as explained in Part Three.