Selection from Apocalypse Explained ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates. (Revelation 9:13-14)
At the very end of the church, man speaks and reasons respecting spiritual things, or the things of heaven and the church, from the corporeal-sensual and thus from the fallacies of the senses. Although therefore man then speaks in favor of Divine things, he does not think in favor of them – for a man is able to speak in one way from the body, while thinking in another way in his spirit; and while the spirit, which thinks from the corporeal-sensual is unable to think in any other way than against Divine things. Nevertheless, from the corporeal-sensual, it is able to speak in favor of them, and this especially for the reason that Divine things are to him the means of acquiring honor and gain.
Every man has two memories, a natural memory and a spiritual memory, (
Arcana Coelestia 2469 -2494), and he is able to think from either,
from the natural memory when he is speaking with men in the world, but
from the spiritual memory when he is speaking from the spirit; but man rarely speaks from the spirit with another, from the spirit he speaks only with himself, which is thinking.
They who are sensual men are unable to speak with themselves from their spirit, or to think, in any other way than in favor of nature, consequently in favor of things corporeal and worldly, for the sensual man thinks from the sensual, and not from the spiritual; indeed, he is wholly ignorant of what the spiritual is, because he has closed the spiritual mind in himself, into which heaven flows with its light.
But let us go on to explain these words, that "
a voice was heard from the horns of the golden altar, saying to the sixth angel that he should loose the four angels bound at the river Euphrates."
"The river Euphrates" signifies the rational, and thence also reasoning; this is the signification of this river because it divided Assyria from the land of Canaan
"Assyria" or "Asshur" signifies the rational
"the land of Canaan" the spiritual.
There were three rivers, besides the sea, that were boundaries of the land of Canaan, namely, the river of Egypt, the river Euphrates, and the river Jordan.
"The river of Egypt" signified the knowledge [scientia] of the natural man
"the river Euphrates" signified the rational which is in man from knowledges and cognitions
"the river Jordan" signifies entrance into the internal or spiritual church
for "the regions beyond Jordan," where the tribes of Reuben and Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh had their inheritances allotted them, signified the external or natural church
and because that river was between those regions and the land of Canaan, and through it was the passage from one to the other, it signified entrance from the external church, which is natural, into the internal church which is spiritual.
It was for this reason that baptism was there instituted, for baptism represented the regeneration of man, whereby the natural man is introduced into the church and becomes spiritual.
This explains what these three rivers signify in the Word. All those places also
outside of the land of Canaan signified such things as belong to the natural man, while those
within the land of Canaan signified such things as belong to the spiritual man, thus the things of heaven and the church. Therefore the two rivers,
"the river of Egypt" (or the Nile), and
"the river of Assyria" (or the Euphrates), signified
the terminations of the church, and also the introductions into the church.
TWO FOUNDATIONS OF TRUTH
Moreover, cognitions and knowledges which are signified by "the river of Egypt," are what introduce,
for without cognitions and knowledges no one can be introduced into the church nor perceive the things that belong to the church; for the spiritual man sees its spiritual things in knowledges [
scientiae]
by means of the rational, as man sees himself in a mirror, and recognizes himself in them, that is, its truths and goods, and moreover confirms its spiritual things by means of cognitions and knowledges, both those known from the Word and those known from the world.
But "the river of Assyria" (or the Euphrates) signifies the rational, because man by the rational is introduced into the church.
By the rational is meant the thought of the natural man from cognitions and knowledges, for a man
who is imbued with knowledges [
scientiae] is able to see things in series, that is,
from first and mediate things to see the last, which is called the conclusion, and can therefore analytically arrange, turn over, separate, conjoin, and at length conclude things, even to a further end, and at length to the final end;
which is the use that he loves. This,
then, is
the rational which is given to every man according to uses,
which are the ends that he loves.
Since everyone's rational comes into accord with the uses of his love, therefore it is the interior thought of the natural man from the influx of the light of heaven; and as man through rational thought is introduced into spiritual thought and becomes a church, so that river signifies the natural* which introduces.
(* Latin has "natural," though the "rational" seems to be intended.)
It is one thing to be rational, and another to be spiritual; every spiritual man is also rational, but the rational man is not always spiritual, since the rational is in the natural man, that is, is its thought, while the spiritual is above the rational, and through the rational passes into the natural, into the cognitions and knowledges of its memory.
But it is to be known that the rational does not introduce anyone into the spiritual, but it is only said to do so because
such is the appearance;
for the spiritual flows into the natural through the rational as a medium, and in this way it introduces. For the spiritual is the inflowing Divine, since it is the light of heaven, which is the Divine truth proceeding, and this light through the higher mind, which is called the spiritual mind, flows into the lower mind, which is called the natural mind, and conjoins this to itself,
and through that conjunction causes the natural mind to make one with the spiritual; thus introduction is effected.
Since it is contrary to Divine order for man to enter through his rational into the spiritual, therefore in the spiritual world there are angel guards to prevent this from taking place. This makes evident the signification of "the four angels bound at the river Euphrates," and afterwards the signification of "loosing" them. "The angels bound at the river Euphrates" signify the guard against man's natural entering into the spiritual things of heaven and the church, for thence would result nothing but errors and heresies, and at length denial.
WAYS THAT LEAD TO HELL AND WAYS THAT LEAD TO HEAVEN
Moreover, in the spiritual world there are ways that lead to hell and ways that lead to heaven; also ways that lead from spiritual things to natural and thus to sensual things; and in those ways there are also guards lest anyone should go in the opposite direction, for thus he would fall into heresies and errors, as has just been said. These guards are set by the Lord
at the beginning of the establishment of a church, and are also maintained, lest the man of the church
from his own reason or
his own understanding should invade the Divine things of the Word and thence of the church.
But at the end, when the men of the church are no longer spiritual but are natural, and many are merely sensual, and thus there is no way open with the man of the church
from the spiritual man into the natural, then these guards are removed and the ways are opened, and in these opened ways they advance in a contrary order, which is done by reasonings from fallacies. Thus –
It is that the man of the church speaks in favor of Divine things with the mouth, while in heart he thinks against them, that is, he is in favor of Divine things from the body and against them from the spirit; for reasoning respecting Divine things from the natural and sensual man has this effect.
From this then the signification of "the four angels bound at the river Euphrates," and their being "loosed" can now be seen.
That "the river Euphrates" signifies the rational, through which there is a way from the spiritual man into the natural, can be seen from the following passages in the Word. In Moses:
Jehovah made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed I will give this land, from the river of Egypt even to the great river, the river Euphrates (Gen. 15:18).
In the sense of the letter this describes the extension of the land of Canaan, but in the internal sense it describes the extension of the church
from its first boundary to its last• its first boundary is the knowing faculty [scientificum] which is of the natural man
• the other boundary is the rational which is of the thought
• the first, namely,
the knowing faculty, which is of the natural man, is signified by "the river of Egypt," the Nile
• while
the rational, which is of the thought, is signified by "the river of Assyria," the Euphrates
to these two –
• the spiritual church, which is signified by "the land of Canaan," extends itself
• so too does the spiritual mind which is with the man of the church.
Both these, the knowing faculty and the rational, are in the natural man, the one limit of which is the knowing and cognitive faculty, and the other is the intuitive and thinking faculty, and
into these limits the spiritual man flows when it flows into the natural man;
the conjunction of the Lord with the church by means of these is signified by the "covenant" that Jehovah made with Abram. Such is the signification of these words in the internal sense, while in the highest sense, they mean the union of the Divine Essence with the Lord's Human; according to this sense these words are explained in the
Arcana Coelestia (n. 1863-1866).
(from Apocalypse Explained 569[3-10])
