Now that I have discussed the spiritual world’s sun and its essence, its warmth and light, and the Lord’s consequent presence, I need to talk as well about the regions of that world. The reason for talking about the sun and that world is that our subject is God, and love and wisdom. To discuss these apart from their origin would be to start from effects and not from their causes. Yet effects teach us nothing but effects. When only they are highlighted, they do not show us any cause; rather, causes show us effects. Knowing about effects on the basis of their cause is being wise, but exploring causes on the basis of their effects is not being wise; because when we do, various illusions present themselves that we as investigators identify as causes. To do this is to make foolishness of wisdom. Causes precede and effects follow. We cannot see preceding things from following things, but we can see following things from preceding things. That is the pattern.
This is why we are dealing with the spiritual world first here. That world is where all the causes are. Later [Sections 134, 154] we will discuss the physical world, where everything we see is an effect.
from Divine Love and Wisdom, Section 119
Secrets of Heaven 