Some Summary Ideas about Correspondence
— by Erik Sandstrom Sr. —
E. g., The natural, or literal, sense of the Word is formed from the spiritual, or internal, sense, not the spiritual from the natural. When we explain the natural sense according to correspondences, we are simply unfolding what was already in the living spiritual sense and is constantly there.
2. Correspondence, influx, and discrete degrees are virtually synonymous terms. There can be no influx without corresponding levels, and these levels, or degrees, are discrete.
Again: Whenever discrete degrees are in correspondence, there is at once influx.
Influx is effected by correspondences
Let application of this be made to living conatus, and to living force, and to living motion.
Living conatus in man, who is a living subject, is his will united to his understanding; living forces in man are the interior constituents of his body, in all of which there are motor fibers interlacing in various ways; and living motion in man is action, which is produced through these forces by the will united to the understanding. For the interior things pertaining to the will and understanding make the first degree; the interior things pertaining to the body make the second degree; and the whole body, which is the complex of these, makes the third degree. That the interior things pertaining to the mind have no power except through forces in the body, also that forces have no power except through the action of the body itself, is well known. These three do not act by what is continuous, but by what is discrete; and to act by what is discrete is to act by correspondences. The interiors of the mind correspond to the interiors of the body, and the interiors of the body correspond to the exteriors, through which actions come forth; consequently the two prior degrees have power through the exteriors of the body. It may seem as if conatus and forces in man have some power even when there is no action, as in sleep and in states of rest, but still at such times the determinations of conatus and forces are directed into the general motor organs of the body, which are the heart and the lungs; but when their action ceases the forces also cease, and, with the forces, the conatus. (DLW 219).E. g., Thought and speech correspond (if the person is sincere); thought and speech are on discrete levels; and thought flows into speech, not speech into thought.
3. It follows that true correspondences are dynamic, not static—not like a graph. There is at once influx, from one discrete degree into another, when these degrees are in correspondence. This law keeps the natural world alive from the spiritual.
E. g., When the external mind (which speaks and acts) is brought into order by repentance and self-compulsion, then it comes into a state of correspondence with the internal mind (where conscience is); and since there is now correspondence, therefore conscience flows into the external mind and fills it with its essence, so that the external as to quality is like the internal.
"Blessed is the man who is in correspondence, that is, whose external man corresponds to his internal man"
So long as he lives in the body, man can feel and perceive but little of this; for the celestial and spiritual things with him fall into the natural things in his external man, and he there loses the sensation and perception of them. Moreover the representatives and correspondences in his external man are such that they do not appear like the things in the internal man to which they correspond, and which they represent; therefore neither can they come to his knowledge until he has put off those external things. When this happens, blessed is the man who is in correspondence, that is, whose external man corresponds to his internal man. (AC 2994).4. There is synonymity between the three terms when there is a state of order, not when there is disorder. When there is disorder, there can be representation, but not correspondence.
E. g., If an insincere person speaks, then what he says may represent good affections and true concepts, but there is no correspondence with his actual affections and thoughts. Nor is there a straight influx, for the actual affections and thoughts wish to remain in hiding and therefore appoint substitutes to act for them.
"These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips; but their heart is far from Me" (Matt. 15:8, ls. 29:13).There is an Ordering and Actuating downward motion through Correspondences, thereby bringing material together from each region.
From Arcana Coelestia 5131:2 —
To enable end, cause and effect to follow one another and act as one, the effect must correspond to the cause, and the cause must correspond to the end.
Nevertheless, the end does not manifest itself as the cause, nor does the cause manifest itself as the effect.
Rather to enable the cause to exist, the end must act on the level where the cause belongs, calling on assistant means to help it – the end – to bring the cause into existence; and to enable the effect to exist, the cause likewise must act on the level where the effect belongs, by calling on assistant means to help it – the cause – to bring the effect into existence.
These assistant means are the ones that correspond; and because they correspond, the end can exist within the cause and bring the cause into operation, and the cause can exist within the effect and bring the effect into operation.
