The Serpent that Seduced Eve and Adam

Selection from Apocalypse Explained ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

The serpent, in olden times, were those who perverted all things of the Word and the Church. According to the historical sense of the letter of the Word, it is the serpent that seduced Eve and Adam in paradise.

Out of the ground Jehovah God made to grow forth every tree that is desirable to the sight and good for food, and the tree of lives in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

And Jehovah God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden eating thou mayest eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou mayest not eat, because in the day thou shalt eat of it dying thou shalt die.

And the serpent was more crafty than any wild beast of the field which Jehovah God made; and he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, Of the fruit of the tree of the garden we may eat, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said, Dying ye shall not die; for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened and ye shall be as God, knowing good and evil. And the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to give intelligence, and she took of the fruit thereof and did eat, and she gave also to her husband with her and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig-leaves together and made themselves girdles.

And Jehovah said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, cursed art thou above every beast and above every wild beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. And I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed; he shall trample on thy head, and thou shalt wound his heel.

And Jehovah God sent forth the man from the garden of Eden and made to dwell from the east of the garden of Eden cherubim, and the flame of a sword turning itself to guard the way of the tree of lives      (Gen. 2:8, 9, 16, 17; 3:1-7, 14, 15, 23, 24).

How the historical narratives of the creation of heaven and earth that are contained in the first chapters of Genesis down to the story of the Flood, are to be understood, no one can know except from the spiritual sense that is within every particular of the sense of the letter of the Word. For these historical narratives of the creation of heaven and earth, and of the garden in Eden, and of the posterity of Adam even to the Flood, are composed historicals; and yet they are most holy, because every particular idea and every particular expression therein are correspondences, and thence signify spiritual things.

Anyone of clear intelligence might discover this from the history of the creation in the first chapter, which began with light when the sun did not yet exist, and from various other things there; also from the creation of Eve the wife of Adam out of one of his ribs; also from the two trees in paradise, and from the prohibition to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and yet, although they were the wisest of all they were seduced by the serpent and did eat; and that Jehovah should place such trees in the midst of the garden and suffer them to be seduced by the serpent to eat of the forbidden tree, which yet He might have averted; and finally that the whole human race was condemned to eternal death merely because they ate of that tree. Who cannot see that these things, with other like things which an obscure understanding might believe in simplicity, would be contrary to the Divine love and contrary to the Divine Providence and foresight?

And yet there is no harm while children and the simple believe these things according to the historical letter, since they serve, as well as the rest of the Word, to conjoin human minds to angelic minds, for angels are in the spiritual sense when men are in the natural sense.

But what is involved in these historicals in the spiritual sense shall be told in a few words.

THE NEW CREATION OR ESTABLISHMENT OF A CHURCH

The first chapter [Genesis] treats of the new creation or establishment of a Church, which was the Most Ancient Church on this globe, as well as the most excellent of all, for it was a celestial church, because it was in love to the Lord; and consequently the men of that church were most wise, having almost immediate communication with the angels of heaven, through whom they received wisdom from the Lord.

Because they were in love to the Lord, and had revelations from heaven, and because they at once applied to life the Divine truths revealed to them, they were in a similar state as the angels of the third heaven; consequently that heaven consists chiefly of the men of that church.

• That church is meant by "Adam and his wife."
• "the garden in Eden" signifies their intelligence and wisdom, and this is also described by all that is told about that garden understood in the spiritual sense.
• how wisdom was lost in their posterity is described by "eating of the tree of knowledge." For the two trees placed in the midst of the garden mean perception from the Lord and perception from the world;
• "the tree of lives" perception from the Lord
• "the tree of knowledge of good and evil" perception from the world, which yet in itself is mere cognition and knowledge.
• "the serpent" that seduced them signifies the sensual of man, which communicates immediately with the world, therefore their seduction by the "serpent" means their seduction by the sensual, which derives all it has from the world and nothing from heaven.

YEA, YEA – NAY, NAY

The men of the celestial church are such that they perceive all the truths and goods of heaven from the Lord by influx into their interiors, whence they see truths and goods inwardly in themselves as if they were innate, and they do not need to acquire them by a posterior way, and to enrich the memory with them. So neither do they reason about truths whether they are so or not; for those who see truths in themselves do not reason, since reasoning implies a doubt whether a thing is true. For the same reason they never make mention of faith, for faith implies something unknown which must be believed although it is not seen. That the men of the Most Ancient Church were such has been revealed to me from heaven, for it has been granted me to speak with them and to be informed, as can be seen from the various things related concerning the men of that church in Arcana Coelestia.

But it is to be known that they were never forbidden to acquire for themselves the knowledges of good and evil from heaven, for by these their intelligence and wisdom was perfected; neither were they forbidden to acquire for themselves the knowledges of good and evil from the world, for from this source their natural man had its knowledge [scientia].

FORBIDDEN TO VIEW THESE KNOWLEDGES BY A POSTERIOR WAY

But they were forbidden to view these knowledges by a posterior way, because it was granted them to see all things that appeared before their eyes in the world by a prior way.

To view the world and the things in it and to deduce knowledges from it by a prior way is to view them from the light of heaven, and to know in that way their quality. Therefore they were also able by knowledges from the world to confirm heavenly things, and thus to strengthen their wisdom.

But they were forbidden to view knowledges from the world by a posterior way, which is done when conclusions are drawn from them respecting heavenly things, which is an inverted order that is called by the learned the order of physical or natural influx, and of this there is none in things heavenly.

POSTERITY BECAME SENSUAL

Such did the men of the Most Ancient Church become when they began to love things worldly more than things heavenly, and to exalt themselves and to boast of their own wisdom; from this their posterity became sensual, and then their sensual, which is meant by "the serpent," seduced them; and the sensual is not willing to advance by any other than a posterior way. This, therefore, is the signification of "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil," of which they were forbidden to eat.

They were permitted to acquire knowledges from the world and to view them by a prior way is signified by "out of the ground Jehovah God made to grow every tree that is desirable to the sight and good for food;" for "trees" signify knowledges and perceptions; "desirable to the sight" signifies what the understanding desires; and "good for food" signifies what conduces to the nourishment of the mind.

The knowledges of good and evil from the Lord from which is wisdom, and the knowledges of good and evil from the world from which is science, were represented by "the tree of lives" and by "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" in the midst of the garden.

That they were permitted to appropriate to themselves knowledges from every source, not only from heaven but also from the world, provided they did not proceed in the inverted order — by reasoning about heavenly things from worldly knowledges, instead of thinking about worldly things from heavenly things, is signified by "Jehovah God commanded them to eat of every tree of the garden, but not of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil;" that if they did, heavenly wisdom and the church would perish with them is signified by "in the day that thou shalt eat of it dying thou shalt die," "to eat" signifying in the spiritual sense to appropriate to oneself.

SEDUCED BY THE SENSUAL

That they were seduced by the sensual, because it, [the sensual], stands next to the world and thus is sensitive to every pleasure and delight from the world, and from these is in fallacies and is ignorant of and also rejects heavenly things, signified by "the serpent;" "the serpent" means the sensual, and no other sensual than the sensual of such. The serpent is "the devil and Satan," because the sensual communicates with hell and makes one with it, for in it resides all the evil of man in the complex.

And because man from the sensual reasons from fallacies and from the delights of the loves of the world and of the body, and indeed skillfully and cunningly, therefore it is said that "the serpent was more subtle than any wild beast of the field which Jehovah God had made;" "the wild beast of the field" signifying in the spiritual sense the affection of the natural man.

As the sensual supposes that wisdom is acquired by means of knowledges from the world and by natural knowledges [scientiae], and not by any influx out of heaven from the Lord, therefore from such ignorance and fallacy, the serpent said to the woman,

Ye shall not die; for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof then your eyes shall be opened and ye shall be as God, knowing good and evil;

for the sensual man believes that he knows all things, and that nothing is concealed from him; but not so the celestial man, who knows that he knows nothing from himself but only from the Lord, and that what he does know is so little as to be scarcely anything as compared with what he does not know.

THE SENSUAL MAN BELIEVES THEMSELVES TO BE GODS

In fact, their posterity believed themselves to be gods, and that they knew all good and all evil; but from evil they were not capable of knowing heavenly good, but only worldly and corporeal good, and this in itself is not good; yet from heavenly good man is able to know what is evil.

That the affection of the natural man persuaded by its sensual supposed that intelligence in the things of heaven and the Church may be acquired through knowledge [scientia] of cognitions from the world signified by, "the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to give intelligence;"

• "woman" here signifying the affection of the natural man, which draws its desires from the sensual, and that affection is such.
• That affection seduced also the rational is signified by "the woman took of the fruit of the tree and did eat, and gave to her husband with her and he did eat,"
• "the husband of the woman" signifying the rational.
• That they then saw themselves to be without truths and goods is signified by "then the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked;"
• the "nakedness that is ashamed" signifying the deprivation of heavenly love, and thence of good and truth.
• That they then clothed themselves with natural truths, that they might not appear to be deprived of heavenly truths signified by "they sewed fig-leaves together and made themselves girdles;"
• the "fig-tree" signifying the natural man
• "its leaf" true knowledge [scientificum].

WHAT THEIR SENSUAL BECAME

Afterwards what their sensual became, namely, that it turned itself entirely away from heaven and turned itself to the world, and thus received nothing Divine, is described by the curse of the serpent.

The sensual with man cannot be reformed, consequently when man is reformed it is simply removed, since it clings to the body and stands out before the world, and thus enjoyments from it, it calls goods, as it feels them to be. For this reason it is said that "the seed of the woman shall crush its head, and that it shall hurt His heel;"

• "the seed of the woman" meaning the Lord;
• "the head of the serpent" all evil; 
• "the Lord's heel" Divine truth in ultimates which with us is the sense of the letter of the Word; this the sensual man, or the sensual of man, perverts and falsifies and thus hurts.
• the sense of the letter is a guard that the Lord be not approached except through the appearances of truth, and not through genuine truths, by those who are in evils, is signified by "the cherubim" which with the flame of a sword turning itself were placed at the garden of Eden to guard the way of the tree of lives.

(from Apocalypse Explained 739:5-12)

Human Prudence

Selection from Divine Providence ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven.         (John 3:27)

By means of His Divine providence the Lord leads the affections of a man's life's love, and at the same time leads his thoughts, from which human prudence is derived.

The affections of a man's life's love are known to the Lord alone.

Man knows his thoughts and consequent intentions, because he sees them in himself; and as all prudence is from these, he also sees that in himself. If, then, his life's love is love of self, he comes into the pride of his own intelligence and ascribes prudence to himself, and collects arguments in its favor, and thus recedes from the acknowledgment of the Divine providence. It is the same when his life's love is love of the world; although in this case he does not recede in the same degree. This shows that these two loves ascribe every thing to man and his prudence, and, when interiorly examined, ascribe nothing to God and His providence. Consequently, when such men happen to hear that the truth is that human prudence is nothing, but that it is the Divine providence alone that governs all things, if they are complete atheists they laugh at it; but if they retain in their memory something of religion, and it is said to them that all wisdom is from God, at the first hearing they assent, although inwardly in their spirit they deny it. Such, especially, are those priests who love themselves more than God, and the world more than heaven; or what is the same, who worship God for the sake of honor and gain, and yet have preached that charity and faith, every good and truth, also all wisdom and even prudence, are from God, and nothing from man.

HUMAN PRUDENCE, WHETHER IT IS FROM GOD OR FROM MAN

In the spiritual world I once heard two priests disputing with a certain royal ambassador about human prudence, whether it is from God or from man. The dispute grew warm. In heart the three believed alike, namely, that human prudence does all things, and the Divine providence nothing; but the priests, who were then in theological zeal, asserted that nothing of wisdom or prudence is from man; and when the ambassador retorted that then there is nothing of thought from man, they assented to this. And the angels perceiving that the three believed alike, the ambassador was told to put on priestly robes and to believe himself to be a priest, and then to speak. He put them on and believed, and then loudly declared that there could not possibly be anything of wisdom or prudence in man except from God; and with his accustomed eloquence, full of rational arguments, he defended this. Afterwards the two priests were told to lay aside their vestments and to put on the robes of officers of state, and to believe themselves to be such. This they did, and at once thought from their interior self, and spoke from arguments they had inwardly cherished before, in favor of human prudence and against Divine providence. After this the three, since they held the same belief, became cordial friends, and entered together upon the way of one's own prudence, which leads to hell.

NO THOUGHT IS POSSIBLE TO MAN EXCEPT FROM SOME AFFECTION OF HIS LIFE'S LOVE

Thought is nothing but the form of affection. Since, then, man sees his thought, but cannot see his affection, for that he feels, it follows that it is from sight, which is in the appearance, and not from affection, which comes into feeling and not into sight, that man concludes that his own prudence does all things. For affection is evident only through a certain delight in thought and satisfaction in reasoning about it; and this satisfaction and delight then make one with the thought in those who from self-love or love of the world believe in their own prudence; and thought floats on in its delight like a ship in the current of a stream, to which the master pays no attention, regarding only the sail he spreads.

Nevertheless, a man may reflect upon a delight of his external affection while that delight is acting as one with the delight of some bodily sensation. Nevertheless, he does not reflect upon the fact that this delight is from a delight of his affection in his thought. For example:

when a fornicator sees a lewd woman his eye glows with the fire of lasciviousness, and from that fire he feels a delight in the body. And yet in his thought he feels no delight of his affection or lust except a certain longing connected with the body. So a robber in a forest when he sees travelers; or a pirate on the sea when he sees vessels; and so on. Evidently it is these delights that rule the man's thoughts and the thoughts are nothing apart from them; yet they seem to him to be nothing but thoughts; when in fact, thoughts are nothing but affections so composed into forms by his life's love as to be presented in light; for all affection is in heat, and thought is in light.

Such are the external affections of thought, which manifest themselves in bodily sensation, but rarely in the thought of the mind.

But the internal affections of thought, from which the external affections have their existence, never manifest themselves before man. Of these man knows no more than one sleeping in a carriage knows of the road, or than one feels the revolution of the earth.

Considering, then, that man knows nothing of the things that are going on in the interiors of his mind, which are too limitless to be numbered, and yet those few externals that do come within the view of his thought are produced from the interiors, and the interiors are governed by the Lord alone by His Divine providence, and only those few externals by the Lord and man together, how can any one say that his own prudence does all things? If you were to see but one idea of thought laid open you would see wonderful things, more in number than tongue can express.

IN THE INTERIORS OF MAN'S MIND THERE ARE THINGS TOO LIMITLESS TO BE NUMBERED

That in the interiors of man's mind there are things too limitless to be numbered is clear from the infinite things in the body, from which nothing comes to sight or feeling except action only in much simplicity; and yet in this thousands of motor or muscular fibers concur, thousands of nerve fibers, thousands of blood-vessels, thousands of lung cells, all of which must co-operate in every action, thousands of cells in the brains and spinal cord, and many more yet in the spiritual man, which is the human mind, in which all things are forms of affections and of their perceptions and thoughts. Does not the soul, which directs the interiors, direct also the actions from them?

Man's soul is nothing else than the love of his will and the love therefrom of his understanding. The quality of that love is the quality of the whole man; and that is determined by the way in which the externals are disposed, in which man and the Lord co-operate.

Consequently, if man attributes all things to himself and to nature the love of self becomes the soul; but if he attributes all things to the Lord, love to the Lord becomes the soul; and this love is heavenly, while the other is infernal.

Since, then, the delights of man's affections, from inmosts through interiors to exteriors, and finally to the outermosts which are in the body, bear man along as a current or breeze bears a ship, and nothing of these is evident to man except what goes on in the outermosts of the mind and of the body, how can man claim as his own what is Divine merely because these few outermosts appear to him to be his? Still less ought he to claim what is Divine as his own, when he knows from the Word that a man can of himself "receive nothing except it have been given him from heaven;" and from reason, that this appearance has been granted him in order that —

• he may live as a man,
• may see what is good and what is evil,
• may choose one or the other,
• may appropriate to himself that which he chooses,
• may thus be conjoined reciprocally with the Lord, be reformed, regenerated, saved, and may live for ever.

That this appearance has been granted to man in order that he may act from freedom in accordance with reason, thus as if from himself, and may not let his hands hang down and wait for influx.

Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees; and make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed.

Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord: looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled; lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.         (Hebrews 12:12-17)

(from Divine Providence 197-200)

The Very Nature of Love

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

The souls who come into the other life are all ignorant of the nature of heaven and of heavenly joy. Very many suppose it to be a kind of joy into which any can be admitted no matter how they have lived, even those who have borne hatred against their neighbor and have passed their lives in adulteries, being quite unaware of the fact that HEAVEN IS MUTUAL AND CHASTE LOVE, AND THAT HEAVENLY JOY IS THE DERIVATIVE HAPPINESS.

I have sometimes spoken with spirits fresh from the world concerning the state of eternal life, telling them how important it was for them to know who is the Lord of that kingdom, and what is the nature and form of its government, just as those in this world who go into another kingdom are especially interested to know who and of what sort is the king, what is the nature of the government, and many other things that belong to the kingdom; and how much more should they be interested in this kingdom, where they are to live forever.

I told them that the Lord alone rules both heaven and the universe, for He who rules the one must rule the other; and that the kingdom in which they were now is the Lord's kingdom,

the laws of which are eternal truths, all of which are based on the one great law that men shall love the Lord above all things and their neighbor as themselves, and now even more than themselves,

for if they would be as the angels this is what they must do.

To all this they could make no reply, because in their bodily life they had heard something of the kind, but had not believed it. They marveled that there is such love in heaven, and that it is possible for anyone to love his neighbor more than himself, seeing that they had heard that they were to love their neighbor as themselves. But they were instructed that in the other life all goods are immeasurably increased, and that the life in the body is such that men can go no further than loving the neighbor as themselves because they are in the things of the body, but that when these are removed, the love becomes purer, and at last angelic, which consists in loving the neighbor more than themselves. The possibility of such love is evident from the conjugial love that exists with some persons, who would suffer death rather than let their married partner be injured; and also from the love of parents for their children, in that a mother will endure starvation rather than see her infant hunger, and this even among birds and animals; and likewise from sincere friendship, in that perils will be undergone for our friends; and even from polite and feigned friendship, that would emulate real friendship in offering the better things to those to whom we wish well, making great professions even when they do not come from the heart.

And finally its possibility is evident from the very nature of love, which finds its joy in being of service to others, not for the sake of self but for the love's own sake. But all this could not be comprehended by those who loved themselves more than others, and who in the bodily life had been greedy for gain, and least of all by the avaricious.

The angelic state is such that everyone communicates his own bliss and happiness to others.

For in the other life there is a most exquisite communication and perception of all the affections and thoughts, so that each person communicates his joy to all, and all to each, so that each one is as it were the center of all. This is the heavenly form. And therefore the more there are who constitute the Lord's kingdom, the greater is the happiness, for it increases in proportion to the numbers, and this is why heavenly happiness is unutterable. There is this communication of all with each and of each with all when everyone loves others more than himself.

But if anyone wishes better for himself than for others the love of self reigns, which communicates nothing to others from itself except the idea of self, which is very foul, and when this is perceived the person is at once banished and rejected.

(Arcana Coelestia 547-549)
(series to be continued)