The speech of the celestial angels abounds in the vowels A (ah, as in father), and U (as u in rule). One may often determine from the Hebrew vowels in a passage which words belong to the class of celestials and which to the spirituals — i.e., whether they involve good or truth. The former use more frequently the sounds of O and U, for they have a full tone, and also occur oftener in the Third Heaven. (Heaven and Hell 241; True Christian Religion 278;, Spiritual Experiences 5112, 5620, 5787)

278. The second experience.

Once a paper was sent down to me from heaven written in Hebrew letters, but in the script used in ancient times; the letters which nowadays have in places straight lines were curved, with flourishes pointing upwards. The angels who were then present with me said that they gathered complete ideas from the letters themselves, knowing them especially from the curves of the lines and the serifs of the letters. They explained what these meant separately and what when combined. They said that H, which was added to the names of Abram and Sarai, meant what is infinite and eternal. They also explained in my presence the meaning of a verse of the Word, Psalm 32:2, simply from the letters or characters; their meaning was in short that the Lord is merciful to those who do wrong.

They told me that writing in the third heaven consists of letters bent into various curves, each of which conveys some meaning. Vowels there stood for the sound which corresponds to an affection. In that heaven they cannot pronounce the vowels i and e, but substitute for them y and eu ¹ , They used the vowels a, o and u, because they give a full sound. They also said that they did not pronounce any consonants harshly, but softly; and this was why certain Hebrew letters have a point inside, as a sign they are pronounced softly. They said that harshness in letters was used in the spiritual heaven, because there they possess truths, and the truth admits harshness, but good does not, and the angels of the Lord's celestial kingdom, that is, the third heaven, possess good.

They also said that they had among themselves the Word written in curved letters with flourishes and serifs which conveyed a meaning. This made it plain what these words of the Lord mean:

Not a jot nor a stroke shall pass away from the Law, until all things are done, Matthew 5:18.

Also:

It is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dot of the Law to fall out, Luke 16:17.

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5112. About angelic speech

It is to be noted that when spiritual angels speak, their words, which are the mental images in their understanding, have an affinity with the vowels "e" and "i" and when they say "a" there is still something of an "e" that is, "ae" in it; and when they say "u" then there is something of "i" or "y" It is also to be noted that I was granted to know from this that when their speech falls into human speech, it falls into such words as have these vowels in them. But the words of heavenly angels have an affinity with "a", "o", "u", on account of which their speech falls into such words as have these vowels in them. For this reason when a person speaks with these angels, [the person's speech] is turned from words in which there are "e" and "i" to words in which there are "a", "o", "u". ¹

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