7247. In the idea of spirits the planet Venus appears to the left, a little behind, at some distance from this earth. It is said "in the idea of spirits" because neither the sun of the world nor any planet appears to any spirit; but spirits merely have an idea that they exist, and according to this idea they appear-the sun of the world behind them as something very dark, the planets not moving about, as in the world, but constant in their places (see n. 7171).