564. Moreover, from them* I could more fully comprehend many things because they only think, and do not care about particulars. For instance, when I kept my mind intent upon the subject of what intellectual light is, namely, that it is the light of truth flowing in from our Lord, and is indeed the cognition of universals - as that our Lord governs all things - (1) then those things that are particulars obscure that light, and the singulars, or the truths of singulars, are in that general light as varieties in the world, which produce colors. For this reason also regeneration is compared to the rainbow. Furthermore, [I perceived] that thoughts are what make man to be such as he is: when the thought only inheres in worldly and corporeal things, then intellectual things connect themselves therewith, (2) so that the man cannot by any means speak with the heaven of spirits, for the thought proceeds outwards, and into oneself, the world, and nature; thence are the phantasies remaining in the other life that must be shaken off and die, and this is effected by a painful separation. It is otherwise with those who are only in thoughts concerning the Lord, thus concerning heavenly things. There is therefore a double arch of the rainbow, (3) the one consisting of phantasies joined to spiritual things, which is what souls love; the other consisting of a variety of spiritual and celestial things without the natural, which is the character of the more interior heaven. 1748, Jan. 26. * That is "angelic spirits" as they are called in the Index (s.v. Foviales).