682. And there were great voices in the heavens, signifies enlightenment and joy in the higher heavens. This is evident from the signification of "great voices in the heavens," as being enlightenment, wisdom, and joy in the higher heavens; for "voices" have various significations in the Word, as Divine truth, revelation, the Word itself with us, also every precept and command of the Word; these are signified by "voices from heaven," but "voices in heaven" signify the enlightenment from which angels have wisdom and consequent joy; for when angels are in enlightenment they are also in wisdom, and they then have "great voices," by which they express the arcana of wisdom; and there is consequent joy, because the joy of angels is from wisdom; this, too, is why the voices are called "great," for "great" is predicated of the affection of good and truth, which is the source of joy in the heavens. The higher heavens are meant because through them and from them influxes descend into the lower parts, and by these the evil, who have been conjoined in externals to those in the lower heavens, are separated. So long as this conjunction continued there could be no enlightenment or joy, but so far as the separation was effected there was enlightenment and joy. Thence it is that the higher heavens are meant; since there is such a connection between higher things and lower things, in the spiritual world, that so far as lower things are in order, the higher are also. For lower things there are like the lower parts of a house and its foundations; so far, therefore, as these are unimpaired the higher parts are stable, secure, and complete, not swaying or tottering or gaping open. Or they are like the exterior things in man, as the organs of sight, taste, hearing, and touch, in that so far as these are unharmed their interiors see, taste, and hear clearly, and the touch is sensitive; for it is the interior things which sensate in the exterior, and the exterior sensate nothing of themselves. It is similar in the heavens; the higher heavens close into and rest upon the lower, and there is therefore between them an unbroken bond like that between things prior and posterior, or between causes and effects; if the effect does not altogether correspond to its cause, that is, if it does not have formed in itself everything that is in the effecting cause, which relates to the forces and the endeavor to act, the cause is weakened and acts imperfectly, for all things of the cause are inscribed on the effect, therefore it is the cause alone that acts, and no effect separate from a cause. It is similar with the heavens higher and lower; causes are in the higher heavens, and effects corresponding to the causes present themselves in the lower heavens. This has been said that it may be known why "great voices in heaven" signify enlightenment, which is the source of wisdom and joy in the higher heavens when the lower heavens are purified, that is, when the evil are separated from the good and removed.