Selections from The Heavenly Doctrines ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
What is man, that thou art mindful of him? And the son of man, that thou visitest him? (Psalm 8:4)"Man" signifies the understanding of truth and the perception of good, because it is by virtue of these that man is man, therefore when "man" is mentioned in the Word it means in the spiritual sense that by virtue of which man is man, for this is his spiritual [part]. Man has two faculties of which his whole life is made up, namely, understanding and will; therefore such as is the quality of his understanding and will such is the man. If he has the understanding of truth and the will of good he is truly a man, for truth and good are from the Lord, and it is from the Lord alone that man is man. But if he has not the understanding of truth and the will of good, but falsity in the place of truth and evil in the place of good, he is still called a man, yet he is not a man except from this alone, that he has the faculty of understanding truth and perceiving good. From this it can be seen that in the Word by "men" such things as constitute them men are meant, and here the understanding of truth and the perception of good. (Apocalypse Explained 546:2)
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THE ENTIRE HEAVEN, AS ONE WHOLE, RESEMBLES ONE MAN
That heaven in its whole complex resembles one man is an arcanum not yet known in the world, but it is very well known in the heavens. To know this and the specific and particular things relating to it, is the chief thing in the intelligence of the angels there. Indeed, on it many things depend which, without it as their general principle, would not enter distinctly and clearly into the ideas of the angels' minds. Since they know that all the heavens with their societies resemble one man they therefore call heaven the GRAND AND DIVINE MAN — Divine because it is the Divine of the Lord that makes heaven.Those who have not a right idea of spiritual and celestial things cannot perceive that celestial and spiritual things are arranged and conjoined into such a form and image. They think that the earthly and material things of which a man's ultimate part is composed, make the man, and that, apart from these, the man is not a man. But they should know that it is not from these that the man is a man, but from his ability to understand what is true and to will what is good. Such understanding and willing are the spiritual and celestial things that make a man.
Moreover, it is acknowledged that everyone's quality is determined by the quality of his understanding and will; and it can also be known that his earthly body has been formed to serve the understanding and the will in the world, and to perform uses in conformity with them in the ultimate sphere of nature. For this reason, the body does nothing of itself, but is actuated always in complete subservience to the bidding of the understanding and will, even to the extent that whatever a man thinks, he speaks with his tongue and mouth, and whatever he wills, he does with his body and limbs, so that the understanding and the will are what act while the body of itself does nothing. Evidently, then, the things of the understanding and will are what make man, and as these act into the minutest particulars of the body, as what is internal into what is external, they must be in the same form, and on this account, man is called an internal and spiritual man. Heaven is such a man in the greatest and most perfect form.
Such being the idea of angels about man, they (the angels) never pay any attention to what a man does with his body, but they are concerned with the will from which the body acts. This they call the man himself, and the understanding they call the man so far as it acts as one with the will.
The angels, it is true, do not see heaven in its whole complex in such a form, for the whole heaven does not come within the view of any angel, but now and then they see, as a one in such a form, remote societies consisting of many thousands of angels; and from a society as from a part, they draw their conclusion as to the whole community which heaven is. For in the most perfect forms, the general things are conditioned like the parts and the parts like the general things with simply such a difference as there is between a large and small edition of the same thing. Hence the angels say, that because the Divine sees all things from what is inmost and highest, so in the Lord's sight, the whole heaven is such a form.
Such being the form of heaven, it is ruled by the Lord as one man, thus as a unit. For although man, as is well known, consists of an innumerable variety of things not only as a whole but also in each part - as a whole, of members, organs and viscera, and in each part, of series of fibres, nerves and blood - vessels, thus of members within members and of parts within parts - yet the man when he acts, does so as a one. Such then is heaven under the oversight and leadership of the Lord.
CONJOINED IN A LIKE FORM IN ACCORDANCE WITH USES
So many different things act as one in a man, because there is nothing whatever in him which does not contribute something to the general welfare and perform a use. The general performs a use for its parts, and the parts for the general, for the general is composed of the parts and the parts make up the general. Therefore, they provide for one another, have regard to one another and are conjoined in such a form that each single thing and all things have reference to the general and its good. So it comes about that they act as one.
In the heavens there are the same sort of consociations. Those there are conjoined in a like form in accordance with uses. Consequently, those who do not perform a use for the community are cast out of heaven because they are heterogeneous. To perform use is to will well to others for the sake of the common good, and not to perform use is to will well to others, not for the sake of the common good but for the sake of self. The latter are those who love themselves above all things while the former are those who love the Lord above all things. Thus it is that those who are in heaven act as a one. This, however, they do, not from themselves but from the Lord, for they look to Him as the one and only Source of all things, and to His kingdom as the community whose welfare is to be considered. This is what is meant by the Lord's words,
Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His justice, and all things shall be added unto you. Matt. 6:33.To seek His justice is to seek His good. Those who in the world love their country's good more than their own, and their neighbour's good as their own, are those who in the other life love and seek the Lord's kingdom, for there the Lord's kingdom takes the place of their country. Also, those who love to do good to others, not for the sake of self but for the sake of good, love the neighbour, for in heaven good is the neighbour. All such are in the Grand Man, that is, in heaven.
Since the whole heaven resembles one man and is a Divine spiritual man in the greatest form in its very likeness, so heaven, like a man, is arranged into members and parts which are similarly named. Moreover, angels know in what member this or that society is. This society, they say, is in the head or a certain province of the head, another in the breast or a certain province of the breast, that, in the loins or a certain province of the loins, and so forth. In general, the highest or third heaven forms the head down to the neck, the middle or second heaven forms the breast down to the loins and knees, the lowest or first heaven forms the feet down to the soles and also the arms down to the fingers, for the arms and hands are the ultimates of a man, although at the sides. This again makes it evident why there are three heavens.
The spirits who are beneath heaven are greatly astonished when they hear and see that heaven is not only above but below, for they have the same idea and belief as men have in the world, that heaven is above only. For they do not know that the position of the heavens is like that of the members, organs, and viscera in man, some of which are above and some below, or like the position of the parts in any one of the members, organs and viscera, some of which are within and some without. Hence they have confused notions about heaven.
These things about heaven being the Grand Man have been set forth because without that knowledge in advance the things about heaven which follow cannot be at all comprehended. Nor without it can one have any clear idea about the form of heaven, the conjunction of the Lord with heaven, the conjunction of heaven with man, the influx of the spiritual world into the natural, or indeed any idea at all about correspondence - subjects to be treated of in order in what now follows. The above has therefore been premised to throw some light on these subjects.
ANY ONE SOCIETY IN THE HEAVENS RESEMBLES ONE MAN
I have frequently been permitted to see that each society of heaven resembles one man and is in the likeness of a man. There was a society into which many who knew how to feign themselves angels of light had insinuated themselves. They were hypocrites. When these were being separated from the angels, I saw that the entire society appeared at first like a single indistinct body, then by degrees in a human form but still indistinctly, and at last, clearly as a man. Those who were in that man and made up the man were such as were in the good of that society. The others who were not in the man and did not make up the man were hypocrites. The latter were cast out, the former retained. Thus a separation was effected.
Hypocrites are those who talk well and do well but regard themselves in everything. They talk as do the angels about the Lord, about heaven, love and heavenly life, and they also act rightly that they may appear to be such as they are in speech, BUT they think otherwise, believe nothing and wish good to none but themselves. Their doing good is for the sake of self, or if for the sake of others, it is in order to be seen and thus still for the sake of self.I have also been permitted to see that an entire angelic society, when the Lord manifests Himself as present, appears as a one in the human form. There was visible on high, towards the east, something like a cloud, from dazzling white becoming led, with little stars round about, which were descending; by degrees as it descended, it became brighter and at last was seen in a perfect human form. The little stars round about the cloud were angels, who so appeared by virtue of light from the Lord.
It ought to be known that, whenever all in one society of heaven appear together as one, it is in the likeness of a man, yet no one society is just such a man as another. They differ from one another like the faces of individuals of one family, that is, they vary in accordance with the varieties of the good in which they are, and this determines their form. The societies of the inmost or highest heaven and in the centre of it appear in the most perfect and most beautiful human form.
HEAVEN NEVER CLOSES
It is worthy of mention that the more there are in one society of heaven, all acting as one, the more perfect is its human form, for variety arranged in a heavenly form is what makes perfection, and variety results from plurality. Moreover, every society of heaven increases in number from day to day and as it increases, it becomes more perfect. Thus not only does the society become more perfect, but also heaven in general because it is made up of societies. As heaven gains in perfection by increase of numbers, it is evident how mistaken are those who believe that heaven may be closed by becoming full. For the opposite is true, that it is never closed but is perfected by greater and greater fullness. Therefore, the angels wish for nothing more than to have new angel guests come to them.
Each society, when it appears as one whole, is in the likeness of a man for the reason that heaven as a whole so appears. Moreover, in the most perfect form such as that of heaven is, there is likeness of the parts with the whole, and of lesser parts with the greatest. The lesser forms and parts of heaven are the societies of which it consists which also are heavens in lesser form. This likeness is continuous throughout because in the heavens the goods of all are from one love, thus from one origin. The one love which is the origin of the good of all in heaven is love to the Lord from the Lord. It is from this that the entire heaven in general, any one society less generally, and each angel in particular is a likeness of the Lord.
THEREFORE EACH ANGEL IS IN A COMPLETE HUMAN FORM
In the two preceding sections it has been shown that heaven in its whole complex resembles one man, as does any one society in heaven. From the sequence of reasons there set forth, it follows that this is equally true of each angel. As heaven is man in the greatest form, and a society of heaven in a less form, so is an angel in the least form. For, in the most perfect form such as that of heaven is, there is a likeness of the whole in the part and of the part in the whole. This is the case for the reason that heaven is a communion, for it communicates all it has with each one, and each one receives all he has from that communion. An angel is a receptacle, and by virtue of this, a heaven in least form. A man, too, so far as he receives heaven, is also a receptacle, a heaven and an angel This is described in the Revelation as follows,
He measured the wall of the holy Jerusalem, a hundred and forty-four cubits, the measure of a man, that is of an angel. Rev. 21:17.
This is the spiritual sense of the words. Without that sense, who could understand that the wall of the Holy Jerusalem is the measure of a man, that is, of an angel?
THOSE WHO THINK FROM THE SENSE IMPRESSIONS
Sometimes I have marvelled at their being such. Lest this might be said to be a delusion or a vision of fancy, I have been permitted to see them when I was fully awake, in possession of all my bodily senses, and in a state of clear perception. Indeed, I have quite often told them that men in the Christian world are in such blind ignorance about angels and spirits as to believe them to be minds without form, even pure thoughts, of which they have no idea except as something ethereal in which there is some vitality. Because they thus ascribe to them nothing human except a thinking faculty, they believe that, having no eyes they see not, having no ears they hear not, and having no mouth or tongue they speak not.
To this the angels replied that they are aware that such a belief is held by many in the world, and is prevalent among the learned and also, to their amazement, among the clergy. The reason, they said, is that the learned who were the leaders and first propounded such an idea about angels and spirits, thought about them from the sense impressions of the external man, and that men who think from those, and not from interior light and the general idea implanted in everyone, can do no other than invent such notions, since the sense impressions of the external man take in only what belongs to nature, and nothing above nature, thus nothing whatever of the spiritual world. From these leaders as guides, this falsity of thought about angels extended to others who did not think from themselves but from the thoughts of their leaders. Those who first form their thoughts from others, make that thought their belief, and afterwards view it with their understanding, cannot easily recede from it and so, for the most part, acquiesce in confirmation of it.
The angels said, furthermore, that the simple in faith and heart do not have this idea about angels but have an idea of them as men of heaven, for the reason that they have not extinguished, by erudition, what is implanted in them from heaven, neither do they apprehend anything without a form. For a like reason, angels in churches, whether sculptured or painted, are always depicted as men. In respect of what is implanted from heaven they said that it is the Divine flowing into such as are in the good of faith and life.
From all my experience which is now of several years, I can declare and avow that angels as to their form are wholly men, having faces, eyes, ears, bodies, arms, hands and feet, and that they see and hear one another and talk together. In a word, they lack nothing at all that a man has, except that they are not clothed over all with a material body. I have seen them in their own light which exceeds by many degrees the noonday light of the world, and in that light all their features were seen more distinctly and clearly than the faces of men on the earth. It has also been granted me to see an angel of the inmost heaven. He had a more radiant and resplendent face than the angels of the lower heavens. I observed him attentively, and he had a human form in all perfection.
It ought to be known, however, that angels cannot be seen by a man through the eyes of his body but through the eyes of the spirit within him, because this is in the spiritual world, while all things of the body are in the natural world. Like sees like from being alike. Besides, as everyone knows, the bodily organ of sight which is the eye is so gross as to be unable even to see, except through magnifying glasses, the smaller things of nature; still less then can it see the things that are above the sphere of nature such as are all things in the spiritual world. But these things may be seen by a man when he is withdrawn from the sight of the body, and the sight of his spirit is opened. This takes place instantly whenever it pleases the Lord that these things should be seen. In that case, the man does not know but that he is seeing them with his bodily eyes. Angels were seen in this way by Abraham, Lot, Manoah and the Prophets. Thus, too, was the Lord seen by the disciples after the resurrection, and angels have been seen by me in the same way. Because the Prophets saw in this way, they were called "seers", and were said "to have their eyes opened" 1 Sam. 9:9, Num. 24:3, and enabling them to see thus was called "opening their eyes" as with Elisha's lad of whom we read,
Elisha prayed and said, Jehovah, I pray Thee, open his eyes that he may see; and when Jehovah opened the eyes of his young man, behold, he saw that the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha. 2 Kings 6:17.
Upright spirits, with whom I have spoken on this matter, have been grieved at heart that there should be such ignorance within the Church about the condition of heaven, and about spirits and angels, and, in their displeasure, they charged me to declare that they are not minds without a form, nor ethereal breaths, but are men in very likeness, and that they see, hear and feel as fully as those who are in the world.
(from Heaven and Hell 59-77)