Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
Representations are nothing but images of spiritual things in natural ones, and when the former are rightly represented in the latter, the two correspond. Yet the man who knows not what the spiritual is, but only the natural, is capable of thinking that such representations and derivative correspondences are impossible, for he might say to himself, How can the spiritual act upon the material? But if he will reflect upon the things taking place in himself every moment, he may be able to gain some idea of these matters; namely, how the will can act upon the muscles of the body, and effect real actions; also how thought can act upon the organs of speech, moving the lungs, trachea, throat, tongue, and lips, and thus produce speech; and also how the affections can act on the face, and there present images of themselves, so that another often thereby knows what is being thought and felt.These examples may give some idea of what representations and correspondences are. As such things are now presented in man, and as there is nothing that can subsist from itself, but only from some other, and this again from some other, and finally from the First, and this by a nexus of correspondences, they who enjoy some extension of judgment may draw the conclusion that there is a correspondence between man and heaven; and further, between heaven and the Lord who is the First.
(Arcana Coelestia 4044)