212. There are three heavens, the highest, the middle and the lowest. The highest heaven makes up the Lord's celestial kingdom, the middle heaven His spiritual kingdom, the lowest heaven His natural kingdom. Just as there are three heavens, there are three senses in the Word, a celestial, a spiritual and a natural sense. What was said above in 210 applies to these too; that is to say, the first is contained in the middle and through the middle in the last, exactly as the end is contained in the cause and through the cause in the effect. This makes plain the nature of the Word; its literal sense, which is natural, contains an interior sense which is spiritual, and this contains an inmost sense which is celestial. Thus the last sense, the natural one called the literal sense, is the container, basis and support of the two interior senses.