23.3 Sub-degrees of the spiritual

Let us return to the spiritual degree according to theistic science. As with the mental degree discussed in the previous chapter, the spiritual degree has its own sub-degrees. These are distinguished according to what the spiritual love is a love about. What is it that occupies the life and dreams of persons whose mentality is focused on each of these levels? The different sub-degrees correspond to the different answers. Is it a love of action, a love of wisdom, or a love of loving? These can be framed equivalently as a love of being useful, a love of truth, or a love of good.

According to the scheme of sub-degrees, the spiritual is divided into three sub-degrees. One, 1.3, is concerned with spiritual actions, another, 1.2, with spiritual thoughts in the understanding, and the last, 1.1, with spiritual loves in the will, all as shown in Table 23.1. This agrees with the reasons and presentations of Swedenborg (1976, ch.), who describes three heavenly states where the highest (1.1) is the ‘celestial heaven’, the middle (1.2) is the ‘spiritual heaven’, and the lowest (1.3) the ‘spiritual-natural heaven’.

Note that these three correspond exactly to the three sub-sub-degrees of the higher-rational described in Section 22.3. That, according to theistic science, is deliberate. There is a systematic correspondence of functions between the three spiritual sub-degrees and between the three sub-sub-degrees in the rational mind that is designed to have particular inputs from those spiritual levels.