The Circles of Things

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

The consummation of the age can be illustrated by various things in the natural world, for here each and all things on the earth grow old and decay, but by alternate changes which are called the circles of things.

Times in general and in particular pass through these circles. In general, the year passes from spring to summer, through this to autumn, then ends in winter, and from this returns to spring; this is the circle of heat. In particular, the day passes from morning to noon, through this to evening, and ends in night, and from this returns again to morning; this is the circle of light.  Again, every man runs through the circle of nature, beginning life in infancy, advancing therefrom to youth and manhood, from this to old age, and dies.  So likewise every bird of the air and every beast of the earth. Also, every tree begins with a germ, goes on to its full stature, and gradually declines until it falls.  The same is true of every bush and every shrub, and even of every leaf and flower, also of the soil itself, which in time becomes barren; and of all still water which gradually becomes foul.

All these are alternative consummations, which are natural and temporal, and yet periodical; because when one has passed from its origin to its end, another like it arises; thus everything is born and dies and is born again, in order that creation may be continued. This is like what takes place in the church because man is a church and in general constitutes the church, and one generation follows another with a constant variation of disposition; and iniquity once enrooted, that is, an inclination to it, is transmitted to posterity, and is extirpated by regeneration only, which is wrought by the Lord alone.

(True Christian Religion 756)

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Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

The very process of the glorification of the Lord's Human, and of the regeneration of man, is fully described by the things commanded concerning the sacrifices and burnt-offerings; and in order that this process may be apprehended, I may set it forth by means of such things as can fall into the understanding.

It is known that what is seen with the eyes and heard with the ears is perceived inwardly with man, and as it were passes out of the world through the eyes or ears into the thought, thus into the understanding, for the thought is of the understanding; and if they are such things as are loved, they pass from this into the will, and from the will by way of the understanding into the speech of the mouth, and also into the act of the body. Such is the circle of things out of the world through the natural man into his spiritual man, and from this again into the world. But be it known that this circle is instituted from the will, which is the inmost of man's life, and that it begins there, and is from this accomplished; and the will of a man who is in good is directed from heaven by the Lord, though it appears otherwise. For there is an influx from the spiritual world into the natural, thus through the internal man into his external, but not the reverse; for the internal man is in heaven, but the external in the world.

As this circle is the circle of man's life, therefore during man's regeneration he is regenerated according to the same, and when he has been regenerated, he lives and acts in accordance with it. Therefore during man's regeneration the truths which are to be of faith are insinuated through the hearing and sight, and these truths are implanted in the memory of his natural man. From this memory they are withdrawn into the thought that belongs to the understanding, and those which are loved become of the will; and insofar as they become of the will, they become of the life, for the will of man is his very life; and insofar as they become of the life, they become of his affection, thus of charity in the will and of faith in the understanding. Afterward the man speaks and acts from this life, which is the life of charity and of faith; from charity which is of the will goes forth the speech of the mouth and also the act of the body, both by way of the understanding, thus by the way of faith. From all this it is evident that the circle of the regeneration of man is like the circle of his life in general; and that it is in like manner instituted in the will by means of an influx out of heaven from the Lord.

Hence also it is plain that there are two states in the man who is being regenerated:

• the first when the truths of faith are being implanted and conjoined with the good of charity,
• the second when he speaks from the good of charity by means of the truths of faith, and acts according to these;

thus that the first state is from the world through the natural man into the spiritual, thus into heaven; and the second is from heaven through the spiritual man into the natural, thus into the world.

... the spiritual or internal man is in heaven, and the natural or external man is in the world. This circle is the circle of the regeneration of man, and consequently is the circle of his spiritual life (concerning this twofold state of the man who is being regenerated, see the places cited in Arcana Coelestia 9274).

From what has been said, some idea may be formed of the glorification of the Lord's Human; for as the Lord glorified His Human, so He regenerates man, and therefore, as already often said, the regeneration of man is an image of the glorification of the Lord.

From this it is evident that -

• the first state of His glorification was to make His Human Divine truth, and to unite it with the Divine good that was in Him;
• the second state was to act from Divine good through Divine truth. For heaven and the church are founded through the Divine truth that proceeds from the Lord's Divine good; and through this are regenerated all who are in the church.

These are the things described by the sacrifices and burnt-offerings, and their rituals ... By the sacrifice from the bullock and by the burnt-offering from the first ram is described the first state; and by the fillings of the hand from the second ram is described the second state; and finally by the sacrifice from the bullock, and by the burnt-offerings, is signified the continuance of this.

Be it known that with a man who is being regenerated, purification from evils and their falsities goes on continually, for insofar as a man is purified from evils and falsities, so far are implanted the truths which are of faith, and these are conjoined with the good which is of charity, and insofar the man afterward acts from the good of charity. Purification from evils and falsities with man is not liberation from them, but is their removal (see Arcana Coelestia nos. 868, 887, 894, 929, 1581, 2269, 2406, 4564, 8206, 8393, 8988, 9014, 9333, 9446-9451, 9938).

But with the Lord there was not removal, but casting out of those things which He derived from the mother, thus full and complete liberation from them, insomuch that He was no longer the Son of Mary (see the places cited in n. 9315, at the end).

(Arcana Coelestia 10057)

Impressed on the Life by the Lord

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Truths are said to be impressed on the life, when they become of the will and from this of the act. So long as they stay merely in the memory, and so long as they are looked at only intellectually, they have not been impressed on the life; but as soon as they are received in the will, they become of the life, because the very being of man's life is to will, and from this to act; and before this they have not been appropriated to the man.

That "to write" denotes to impress on the life, is because the purpose of writings is remembrance to all posterity. So is it with the things impressed on a man's life.

Man has as it were two books, in which have been written all his thoughts and acts. These books are his two memories, the exterior and the interior. The things written on his interior memory remain to all eternity, and are never blotted out, and are chiefly those which have become of the will, that is, of the love; for the things of the love are of the will. It is this memory which is meant by every man's book of life.

(Arcana Coelestia 9386)

The Distinction Between Natural and Spiritual Faith; and also Charity

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Faith in its beginning in man is natural, and that as man draws near to the Lord it becomes spiritual; so also with charity. But no one has known, as yet, the distinction that exists between natural and spiritual faith and charity. This great arcanum must therefore be disclosed.

There are two worlds - a natural and a spiritual; and in each world there is a sun, and from each sun heat and light go forth; but the heat and light from the sun of the spiritual world have life within them; this life is from the Lord who is the midst of that sun; while the heat and light from the sun of the natural world have nothing of life in them; they simply serve the former heat and light as receptacles for the conveying of these to man, as instrumental causes always subserve their principal causes. It must be understood, therefore, that all things spiritual are from the heat and light of the sun of the spiritual world. These are spiritual because they contain in them spirit and life; while all things natural are from the heat and light of the sun of the natural world, which viewed in themselves are without spirit and life.

Since then faith is a matter of light, and charity of heat, it is plain that so far as a man is in the heat and light that go forth from the sun of the spiritual world, he is in spiritual faith and charity; while so far as he is in the light and heat that go forth from the sun of the natural world, he is in natural faith and charity. Evidently, therefore, as spiritual light is inwardly in natural light as in its receptacle or casket, and spiritual heat in like manner within natural heat, so also is spiritual faith inwardly in natural faith, and spiritual charity inwardly in natural charity; and this is effected in the degree that man advances from the natural to the spiritual world; and this he does so far as he believes in the Lord who is light itself, the way, the truth, and the life, as He Himself teaches.

This being so, it is clear that when man is in spiritual faith, he is also in natural faith. For as just said, spiritual faith is inwardly in natural faith; and as faith is a matter of light, it follows that by that implanting of spiritual faith man's natural becomes, as it were, transparent, and according to the nature of its conjunction with charity, beautifully colored. This is because charity is ruddy and faith shining white; charity is ruddy from the flame of spiritual fire, and faith shining white from the splendor of the light therefrom.

The contrary happens when the spiritual is not inwardly in the natural, but the natural inwardly in the spiritual; which is the case with men who reject faith and charity. With such the internal of their mind, in which they are when left to their own thoughts, is infernal, and they think from hell, although they do not know it; while the external of the mind of such, from which they converse with their companions in the world, is in a manner spiritual, but it is filled full of such unclean things as are in hell; consequently they are in hell, for compared with the former class they are in an inverted state.

When it is thus known that the spiritual is inwardly in the natural in those who are in faith in the Lord, and at the same time in charity toward the neighbor, and consequently the natural in them is transparent, it follows that to the same extent man is wise in spiritual things, and therefrom in natural things; for when he thinks about or hears or reads anything, he sees interiorly within himself whether it is the truth or not. This he perceives from the Lord, from whom spiritual light and heat flow into the higher sphere of his understanding.

So far as faith and charity in man become spiritual, he is withdrawn from his own, and ceases to look to himself or to reward or remuneration, and looks solely to the delight in perceiving the truths of faith and doing the good works of love; and so far as this spirituality increases, that delight becomes blessedness. From this is man's salvation, which is called eternal life. This state of man may be compared with the most beautiful and charming things in the world, and in the Word is compared with them, as for instance, with fruitful trees and the gardens in which they are, with flowery fields, with precious stones, with delicacies, with nuptials and their festivities and rejoicings.

But when the reverse is the case, that is to say, when the natural is inwardly in the spiritual, and consequently the man in his internals is a devil, but in his externals is like an angel, he may be compared to a dead man in a coffin of costly and gilded wood; he may also be compared to a skeleton adorned with clothing like a man, and drawn about in a magnificent carriage; or to a corpse in a sepulchre built like the temple of Diana; and his internal may be pictured even as a nest of serpents in a cavern, and his external as butterflies whose wings are tinted with all kinds of colors, but which nevertheless stick foul eggs to the leaves of useful trees, and so destroy the fruit. Or the internal of such may be compared to a hawk, and their external to a dove, and their faith and charity to a hawk pursuing a fleeing dove, which at length he wearies and then darts upon and devours.

(True Christian Religion 360 - 361)

Such As The Affection Is

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

And you, be ye fruitful and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth, and be ye multiplied therein. (Genesis 9:7)

Nothing is multiplied with the regenerate man in his external man, that is, nothing of good and truth receives increase, except as the effect of charity.

Charity is like heat in the time of spring or summer, which causes grass and plants and trees to grow. Without charity, or spiritual heat, nothing grows, and for this reason it is here said in the first place, "Bring forth abundantly in the earth" which is predicated of the goods that are of charity, by means of which there is multiplication of good and truth.

Anyone may understand how this is; for nothing is increased and multiplied in man unless there be some affection, for it is the delight of the affection that causes it not only to take root, but also to increase, and everything depends upon the influence of the affection. What a man loves he freely learns, retains, and cherishes - thus all things that favor any affection. Those which do not favor, the man cares nothing for, regards as nothing, and even rejects. But such as the affection is, such is the multiplication.

With the regenerate man, the affection is that of good and truth from the charity that is given by the Lord. Whatever therefore favors that affection of charity he learns, retains, and cherishes, and thus confirms himself in goods and truths.

(Arcana Coelestia 1016)

The Conjunction of Good and Truth in the Genuine Rational

Selection from Arcana Coelesita ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

It is to be known concerning the rational man in general that it is said to receive life, to be in the womb, and to be born, when the man begins to think that the evil and falsity in himself is that which contradicts and is opposed to truth and good, and still more is this the case when he wills to remove and subjugate this evil and falsity. Unless he can perceive and become sensible of this, he has no rational, however much he may imagine that he has.  For the rational is the medium that unites the internal man with the external, and thereby perceives from the Lord what is going on in the external man, and reduces the external man to obedience, nay, elevates it from the corporeal and earthly things in which it immerses itself, and causes the man to be man, and to look to heaven to which he belongs by birth; and not, as do brute animals, solely to the earth in which he is merely a sojourner, still less to hell. These are the offices of the rational, and therefore a man cannot be said to have any rational unless he is such that he can think in this manner; and whether the rational is coming into existence is known from his life in his use or function.

To reason against good and truth, while they are denied at heart, and only known by hearing about them, is not to have a rational, for many can do this who openly rush without any restraint into all wickedness. The only difference is that those who suppose that they have a rational and have it not, maintain a certain decorum in their discourse and act from a pretended honorableness, in which they are held by external bonds, such as fear of the law, of the loss of property, of honor, of reputation, and of life. If these bonds, which are external, were to be taken away, some of these men would rave more insanely than those who rush into wickedness without restraint, so that no one can be said to have a rational merely because he can reason. The fact is that those who have no rational usually discourse from the things of sense and of memory-knowledge much more skillfully than those who have it.

This is very clearly evident from evil spirits in the other life, who although accounted as being preeminently rational while they have lived in the body, yet when the external bonds which caused their decorum of discourse and their pretended honorableness of life are taken away, as is usual with all in the other life, they are more insane than those who in this world are openly so, for they rush into all wickedness without horror, fear, or shame. Not so those who while they lived in this world had been rational, for when the external bonds are taken away from them, they are still more sane, because they have had internal bonds - bonds of conscience - by which the Lord kept their thoughts bound to the laws of truth and good, which were their rational principles.

(from Arcana Coelestia 1944)

The genuine rational is from good, but comes forth [existit] from truth.

     • Good flows in by an internal way; but truth by an external way.

Good thus conjoins itself with truth in the rational, and they cause the rational to be. Unless the good therein is conjoined with truth, there is no rational; although there appears to be, because the man can reason (see above). This is the common way in which the rational is formed with man.
...
The good itself of the rational, which is formed by the internal way, is the very ground; but truth is the seed which is to be sown in this ground. The genuine rational is never born in any other way. ...
...
[G]ood itself flows into the natural through the rational, thus by an internal way, and enlightens the things which are therein; whereas truth itself inflows into the natural through the sensuous part, especially that of hearing and sight, and thus by an external way. Truth has its rise from this source, as may be known to everyone who reflects; but the conjunction of good and truth is not there, but is in the rational; therefore truth is called forth therefrom, thus out of the natural sphere into the spiritual; for the truth that is to be conjoined with good is spiritual.

(Excerpts from Arcana Coelestia 3030, 3098)

[Revisions by Ed.]

First in End is that To Which All Things Look

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Every man individually is the neighbor who is to be loved, but according to the quality of his good.

Man is born not for the sake of himself but for the sake of others; that is, he is born not to live for himself alone but for others; otherwise there could be no cohesive society, nor any good therein.

It is a common saying that every man is a neighbor to himself; but the doctrine of charity teaches how this is to be understood, namely, that everyone should provide for himself the necessaries of life, as food, clothing, a dwelling, and other things which are necessarily required in the social life in which he is, and this not only for himself, but also for his family, nor for the present alone, but also for the future. For unless a man acquires for himself the necessaries of life, he is not in a condition to exercise charity, since he is in want of everything.

But how every man ought to be a neighbor to himself may be seen from the following comparison: Every man ought to provide his body with food; this must be first, but the end should be that he may have a sound mind in a sound body; and every man ought to provide his mind with food, namely, with such things as pertain to intelligence and judgment; but the end should be that he may thereby be in a state to serve his fellow-citizens, society, his country, the church, and thus the Lord. He who does this provides well for himself to eternity.

From this it is plain what is first in time, and what is first in end, and that the first in end is that to which all things look. It is also like building a house; first the foundation must be laid; but the foundation must be for the house, and the house for a dwelling place.

He who believes himself to be a neighbor to himself in the first place or primarily, is like one who regards the foundation, not the dwelling, as the end; and yet the dwelling is itself the first and the last end, and the house with its foundation is only a means to the end.

(True Christian Religion 406)

(Emphasis added)