5519. ABOUT THE CELESTIAL KINGDOM: WHAT SORT ARE THERE. There was a certain one along with those who were of the Lord's celestial kingdom. He was a preacher. He belonged to the spiritual kingdom. The reason that he came thither, was because I spoke with him about those who were in that kingdom. When he came thither, he saw them sitting at a table; and, upon the tables, were foods of various sorts. When he saw them, he noticed how they passed the foods one to another, changed the plates, and various other things, which he supposed to be actings and drunken gesticulations. He was asked whether he understood what those things meant. He said that he did not. Others, who were along with me, who belonged to the same kingdom, did not see them acting, thus, but [saw] that those things were appearances corresponding with their thoughts. It was explained by the latter what it signified - which was done by means of spiritual ideas; and they said that they could not express the thousandth part by spiritual ideas, and even through those few [movements], nothing in fullness. They also said that they did indeed speak together, but by a cogitative speech that entered through an internal way, and thus became audible in a particular manner. The ideas of those who belong to the spiritual kingdom cannot be otherwise expressed than that they are variegations of light; but the ideas of those belonging to the celestial kingdom, that they are variegations as it were of the flame from which the light is; consequently, inexpressible in words of natural speech. The celestials understand the spiritual readily, but not vice versa; because celestial things are interior, and, from the interior, exterior things can be seen and perceived, but not the other way about.