What Influx is, and What its Effects

Passage from Conjugial Love ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

That the states of mind of each, proceeding in successive order, flow into the state of marriage; and yet in one manner with the spiritual and in. another with the natural. That the ultimate state is such as is the successive order from which it is formed and exists, is a canon which in the learned world should be acknowledged, because of its truth; for thus it is discovered what influx is, and what its effects. By influx is meant all that precedes and composes what follows, and through the things following in order, the ultimate; as all that precedes with man and constitutes his wisdom; or all that precedes with a politician and constitutes his prudence; or all that precedes with a theologian and constitutes his learning; in like manner all that proceeds from infancy and makes the man; so also what proceeds from the seed and the shrub and makes the tree, and afterwards from the blossom and makes the fruit. Just so all that precedes and proceeds with a bridegroom and bride and makes their marriage. This is meant by influx. That all things which precede in minds form series, and that the series bind themselves together, one beside the other and one after another, and that these together compose the ultimate, this has hitherto been unknown in the world; but it is here adduced because it is a truth from heaven. For by this it is discovered what the influx effects, and what is the quality of the ultimate, wherein the series just spoken of successively formed coexist.

From this it may be seen that the states of mind of each, proceeding in successive order, flow into the state of marriage. But married partners after marriage are entirely ignorant about the successive things which are in their minds, insinuated from things antecedent; and yet these are what give form to conjugial love, and make the state of their minds from which they act the one with the other. A different state, from a different order, is formed with the spiritual from that with the natural, because the spiritual proceed in right order, and the natural in a wrong order; for the spiritual look to the Lord, and the Lord provides and leads the order; but the natural look to themselves and thence proceed in inverted order. The state of their marriage is for that reason inwardly full of unchastities; and as many as are the unchastities, so many are the colds; and as many as are these, so many are the obstructions to inmost life by which its vein is clogged and its fountain dried up.

(Conjugial Love 313. (17))

When the Doctrine of Life and The Life of Doctrine are One

A portion of an article from Apocalypse Explained ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

• God created man into His image, into the image of God created He him. Male and female created He them (Gen. 1:27).
• Male and female created He them, and blessed them, and called their name Man, in the day when they were created (Gen. 5:2).

What is involved in the things that are related in the first chapters of Genesis respecting the creation of heaven and earth, paradise, and eating from the tree of knowledge, no one can know except from the spiritual sense, for these historical things are made-up historicals, and yet they are holy, because every least particular is inwardly or in its bosom spiritual.

It describes the establishment of the Most Ancient Church, which surpassed all the churches on this earth; its establishment is meant by the creation of heaven and earth, its intelligence and wisdom by the garden in Eden, and its decline and fall by eating from the tree of knowledge. From this it is clear that "Man," who is called "Adam and Eve," means that church, for it is said "male and female created He them, and called their name Man;" and as that church is meant by the two, it follows that "the male" means its truth, and "the female" its good, so too, "male" means doctrine, and "female," the life, since the doctrine of truth is also the doctrine of love and charity, thus the doctrine of life; and the life of good is also the life of love and charity, thus the life of doctrine, that is, life according to doctrine. These two are meant by "male [and female]," and these taken together and conjoined in marriage are called "Man" [Homo], and also constitute the church, which is meant by "Man," as has been said above. So, again, Adam is from a word that means ground, and ground from its reception of seeds signifies the church in respect to the truths of doctrine, for in the Word seeds signify truths; while Eve is from a word that means life, as it is said: Because she was to be the mother of all living (Gen. 3:20).

These two, doctrine and life, when taken together and joined as it were in marriage, are called "Man," and also constitute the church, because man is man from the understanding of truth and from the will of good, consequently from the doctrine of life, since this is of the understanding, and from the life of doctrine, because this is of the will. It is similar with the church, for the church is in man, and is the man himself.

That these two, which are signified by "male and female," are not to be two but one, the Lord teaches in the Gospels: Jesus said, Have ye not read that He who made them from the beginning of creation made them male and female, and they twain shall be one flesh? Therefore they are no more twain, but one flesh (Matt. 19:4-6; Mark 10:6, 8). This, like every particular of the Word, must be understood not only naturally, but also spiritually, and unless it is also understood spiritually no one can know what is signified by "male and female [or husband and wife] shall be no more twain but one flesh" (as it is also said in Gen. 2:24). Here, as above, "male and female" signify in the spiritual sense truth and good, consequently the doctrine of truth, which is the doctrine of life, and the life of truth, which is the life of doctrine; these must be not two but one, since truth does not become truth with man without the good of life, nor does good become good with anyone without the truth of doctrine, for good becomes spiritual good only by means of truths, and spiritual good is good, but natural good without it is not good. When these are one, then truth is of good and good is of truth, and this one is meant by "one flesh." It is similar with doctrine and life; these also constitute one man of the church when the doctrine of life and the life of doctrine are conjoined with him, for doctrine teaches how one must live and do, and life lives the doctrine and does it. From this it can also be seen that "a son, a male" signifies the doctrine of love and charity, consequently the doctrine of life.

(Apocalypse Explained 725:1-3)

Man by Creation a Type of the Great Heaven

From The True Christian Religion - A Memorable Relation ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

... the joys of heaven and eternal happiness are not a matter of place, but of the state of man's life, and the state of heavenly life is from love and wisdom; and as use is the containant of these two, the state of heavenly life is from the conjunction of these in use.

It is the same if we say instead, charity, faith, and good works, since charity is love, faith is truth from which comes wisdom, and good works are uses. Furthermore, there are places in our spiritual world as in the natural world, otherwise there would be no habitations or distinct dwellings; and yet place here is not place, but an appearance of place in accordance with the state of love and wisdom, or charity and faith.

Everyone who becomes an angel carries his heaven within him, because he carries within him the love that belongs to his heaven; for man by creation is a lesser likeness, image, and type of the great heaven; and the human form is nothing else; so that everyone enters that heavenly society whose form he is as an individual likeness; consequently when he enters into that society he enters a form correspondent to his own, thus he enters the society as if entering into himself from himself, and as if from the society into the society in himself, and partakes of its life as his own, and of his own life as its life. Every society is like a common body, the angels therein are the like parts of which the general exists.

From this it now follows that those who are in evils and in consequent falsities, have formed in themselves a likeness of hell, and this is what suffers torture in heaven from the influx and vehemence of the activity of opposite against opposite; for infernal love is the opposite of heavenly love, and the delights of the two loves come into collision like hostile forces, and destroy each other when they meet.

(True Christian Religion 739:7-8)