The Origin of All Things

Selection from Arcana Cœlestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

In heaven all goods and truths — celestial and spiritual — are so distinct in their genera, and these in their species, that there is not the least of them which is not most distinct; and so innumerable are they, that the specific differences may be said to be unlimited.

From this it may be seen how poor and almost nonexistent is human wisdom, which scarcely knows that there is such a thing as spiritual good or spiritual truth, much less what it is.

From celestial and spiritual goods and their derivative truths, issue and descend natural goods and truths. For there is never any natural good and truth that does not spring from spiritual good, and this from celestial, and also subsist from the same. If the spiritual should withdraw from the natural, the natural would be nothing.

The origin of all things [rerum] is in this wise:-

All things, both in general and in particular, are from the Lord; from Him is the celestial; from Him through the celestial comes forth the spiritual; through the spiritual the natural; through the natural the corporeal and the sensuous. And as they all come forth from the Lord in this way, so also do they subsist from Him

for, as is well known:-

Subsistence is a perpetual coming into existence.

They who have a different conception of the coming into existence and rise of things — like those who worship nature and deduce from her the origins of things — are in principles so deadly that the phantasies of the wild beasts of the forest may be called far more sane. Such are very many who appear to themselves to excel others in wisdom.

(from Arcana Cœlestia 775)

Man is Governed by the Principles He Assumes

Selections from Arcana Cœlestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

A desire to investigate the mysteries of faith by means of the things of sense and of the memory, was not only the cause of the fall of the posterity of the Most Ancient Church ... but it is also the cause of the fall of every church; for hence come not only falsities, but also evils of life.

The worldly and corporeal man says in his heart — If I am not instructed concerning the faith, and everything relating to it, by means of the things of sense, so that I may see, or by means of those of the memory [scientifica], so that I may understand, I will not believe — and he confirms himself in this by the consideration that natural things cannot be contrary to spiritual. Thus he is desirous of being instructed from things of sense in what is celestial and Divine, which is as impossible as it is for a camel to go through the eye of a needle.

The more he desires to grow wise [by such means], the more he blinds himself, till at length he believes nothing, not even that there is anything spiritual, or that there is eternal life.

This comes from the principle which he assumes. And this is to "eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" of which the more anyone eats, the more dead he becomes.

But he who would be wise from the Lord, and not from the world, says in his heart that the Lord must be believed, that is, the things which the Lord has spoken in the Word, because they are truths; and according to this principle he regulates his thoughts. He confirms himself by things of reason, of knowledge, of the senses, and of nature [per rationalia, scientifica, sensualia et naturalia], and those which are not confirmatory he casts aside.

Everyone may know that man is governed by the principles he assumes, be they ever so false, and that all his knowledge and reasoning favor his principles — for innumerable considerations tending to support them present themselves to his mind, and thus he is confirmed in what is false.

He therefore who assumes as a principle that nothing is to be believed until it is seen and understood, can never believe, because spiritual and celestial things cannot be seen with the eyes, or conceived by the imagination.

But the true order is for man to be wise from the Lord, that is, from His Word, and then all things follow, and he is enlightened even in matters of reason and of memory-knowledge [in rationalibus et scientificis]. For it is by no means forbidden to learn the sciences, since they are useful to his life and delightful; nor is he who is in faith prohibited from thinking and speaking as do the learned of the world; but it must be from this principle — to believe the Word of the Lord, and, so far as possible, confirm spiritual and celestial truths by natural truths, in terms familiar to the learned world. Thus his starting-point must be the Lord, and not himself; for the former is life, but the latter is death.

(from Arcana Cœlestia 127-129)

The Nature of the Proprium

Selection from Arcana Cœlestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Innumerable things might be said about man's Own in describing its nature with the corporeal and worldly man, with the spiritual man, and with the celestial man.

With the corporeal and worldly man, his Own is his all, he knows of nothing else than his Own, and imagines, as before said, that if he were to lose this Own he would perish.

With the spiritual man also his Own has a similar appearance, for although he knows that the Lord is the life of all, and gives wisdom and understanding, and consequently the power to think and to act, yet this knowledge is rather the profession of his lips than the belief of his heart.

But the celestial man discerns that the Lord is the life of all and gives the power to think and to act, for he perceives that it is really so. He never desires his Own, nevertheless an Own is given him by the Lord, which is conjoined with all perception of what is good and true, and with all happiness.

The angels are in such an Own, and are at the same time in the highest peace and tranquility, for in their Own are those things which are the Lord's, who governs their Own, or them by means of their Own. This Own is the veriest celestial itself, whereas that of the corporeal man is infernal.

(Arcana Cœlestia 141)

The Latin word proprium is the term used in the original text that in this and other places has been rendered by the expression "Own." The dictionary meaning of propius, as an adjective, is "one's own" "proper" "belonging to one's self alone" "special" "particular" "peculiar." The neuter of this which is the word proprium, when used as a noun means "possession" "property;" also "a peculiarity" "characteristic mark" "distinguishing sign" "characteristic." The English adjective "own" is defined by Webster to mean "belonging to" "belonging exclusively or especially to" "peculiar;" so that our word "own" is a very exact equivalent of proprius, and if we make it a noun by writing it "Own" in order to answer to the Latin proprium, we effect a very close translation. [Reviser.]

'The Proprium' - Man's Own

Selection from Arcana Cœlestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

What man's Own is may be stated in this way.

Man's Own is all the evil and falsity that springs from the love of self and of the world, and from not believing in the Lord or the Word but in self, and from supposing that what cannot be apprehended sensuously and by means of memory-knowledge [sensualiter et scientifice] is nothing.

In this way men become mere evil and falsity, and therefore regard all things pervertedly; things that are evil they see as good, and things that are good as evil; things that are false they see as true, and things that are true as false; things that really exist they suppose to be nothing, and things that are nothing they suppose to be everything. They call hatred love, darkness light, death life, and the converse. In the Word, such men are called the "lame" and the "blind." Such then is the Own of man, which in itself is infernal and accursed.

(Arcana Cœlestia 210)

Man's Thoughts and Affections — Spiritual or Natural or Sensual

Selection from Apocalypse Explained ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
What is Meant by Man's Ultimate Sensual

It does not mean the sensual of sight, of hearing, of smell, of taste, and of touch, for these things are proper to the body, but the ultimate of thought and affection, which is the first to be opened with infants, and which is such that they think of nothing else and are affected by no other objects than what make one with the senses just named. For infants learn to think by means of the senses, and to be affected by objects that are in accord with the things that are pleasing to the senses; consequently the first internal that is opened with them is the sensual that is called man's ultimate sensual, or the corporeal-sensual. But afterwards, as the infant grows older and becomes a boy, a more interior sensual is opened, from which he thinks naturally, and is also affected naturally. Later, in youth and early manhood, a still more interior sensual is opened, from which he thinks rationally, and if he is in the good of charity and faith, he thinks spiritually, and is also affected rationally and spiritually. This thought and affection is what is called the rational and spiritual man, while the former is called the natural man, and the first the sensual man.

With every man the interiors that are of his thought and affection are opened successively, and this by a continuous influx out of heaven from the Lord. By this influx the sensual that most nearly adheres to the body is first formed, and from this man becomes sensual; afterwards the natural from which he becomes natural; and after this the rational and with it the spiritual, from which he becomes a rational and spiritual man; but this he becomes only so far as he thinks about God and about the Divine things that are from God, and this is formed and perfected so far as he is affected by these things, that is, so far as he wills and lives according to them. If he does not do this the spiritual man is opened in a general way, but is not formed, still less perfected. By the general opening of his spiritual man, man has the faculty of thinking, and from thought of speaking rationally; this is the general effect of the influx of heaven with every man. This makes clear that man's thoughts and affections may be spiritual, or natural, or also sensual.

Spiritual thoughts and affections are with those who think from God respecting God and Divine things; while there are only natural thoughts and affections with those who do not think from God respecting God and Divine things, but think only from themselves or from the world respecting themselves or the world. But it should be known that to think from self or from the world is to think not from these but from hell; for whoever does not think from God thinks from hell — no one can think from both at the same time.

The Thought of the Sensual Man

Those who deny God, and thence the Divine things of heaven and the church, and confirm themselves against these, all become sensual men more or less, according to confirmations. When they are thinking about spiritual things they think falsities only, and are affected by evils; and if they think any truths, whether spiritual, moral, or civil, it is only from the knowledge (scientia) of such things as are in the memory; and they see nothing beyond the nearest causes which they also are able to prove; and if they are affected by goods, it is only from a delight for the sake of self or the world, thus from a cupidity belonging to the love of self or the love of the world. The thought of the sensual man is what is called material thought, and its affection is what is called corporeal affection, which is cupidity.

Furthermore, it is to be known that all the evils that man derives from his parents, which are called hereditary evils, have their seat in his natural and sensual man, but not in the spiritual — consequently the natural man, and especially the sensual man, is the opposite of the spiritual. For the spiritual man from infancy is closed, and is opened and formed only by Divine truths received by the understanding and will-

so far in extent and quality as the spiritual man is opened and formed, the evils of the natural and sensual man are removed, and goods are implanted in place of them.

As all evils have their seat in the natural and sensual man, it follows that falsities do also, because all falsities are of evil; for when man lusts and wills from evil, he thinks and speaks from falsity. For the evil of the will, when it so forms itself in thought that it is manifest to others or to oneself as to its quality, is called falsity; thus falsity is the form of evil, as truth is the form of good — From this it can be seen who and of what quality the man is who is called a sensual man; also that a man becomes sensual when he follows out in act the evils into which he is born, and adds more to them from himself. So far as he does this and confirms himself in these evils, so far the spiritual man is kept closed; and when it is closed the natural and sensual man denies the Divine things that belong to heaven and the church, and acknowledges such things only as belong to the world and nature; and indeed, the sensual man is then so blind as to believe nothing but what he sees with his eyes and touches with his hands. Such are many of the learned, however intelligent and wise they may be thought to be from their ability of speaking from the knowledges [scientia] that are in the memory, and this apparently as the rational man speaks, since the spiritual mind is opened with them, as it is in every man in a general way, as has been said above.

(from Apocalypse Explained 543:2-5)

When Appearances are Converted into Fallacies

Selection from Divine Providence ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

The Lord conjoins Himself with uses by means of correspondences, and thus by means of appearances in accordance with the confirmations of these by man. As this must needs seem obscure to those who have not yet gained a clear notion of what correspondence is and what appearance is, they must be illustrated by example, and thus explained.

All things of the Word are pure correspondences of spiritual and celestial things, and because they are correspondences they are also appearances; that is, all things of the Word are the Divine goods of the Divine love and the Divine truths of the Divine wisdom, which in themselves are naked, but in the sense of the letter of the Word are clothed. They therefore appear like a man in clothing that corresponds to the state of his love and wisdom.

All this makes evident that when a man confirms appearances it is the same as asserting that the clothes are the man. It is thus that appearances are converted into fallacies. It is otherwise when man is seeking for truths and sees them in the appearances.

(from Divine Providence 220:6)

Why Man Ought To Be In Internal Things

Selection from Arcana Cœlestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Everyone who reflects is able to know that it is by means of internal things that man has communication with heaven, for the whole heaven is in internal things, and unless a man is in heaven in respect to his thoughts and affections, that is, in respect to the things of his understanding and of his will, he cannot go to heaven after death, because he has no communication with it. This communication is acquired by a man during his bodily life by means of truths that belong to his understanding and goods that belong to his will, and unless he acquires it then he cannot do so afterwards, because after death his mind cannot be opened toward interior things unless it has been opened during the life of the body.

A man is not aware that he is encompassed with a certain spiritual sphere that is in accordance with the life of his affections, and that to the angels this sphere is more perceptible than is the sphere of an odor to the finest sense on earth. If a man's life has been passed in mere external things, that is to say in the pleasures that come from hatred against his neighbor, from the consequent revenge and cruelty, from adulteries, from the exaltation of self and the attendant contempt for others, from clandestine robberies, from avarice, from deceit, from luxury, and from other like evils, then the spiritual sphere which encompasses him is as foul as is in this world the sphere of the odor from carcasses, dung, stinking garbage, and the like. The man who has lived such a life carries with him after death this foul sphere, and as he is wholly in it he must needs be in hell, the place of spheres of this character.

But those who are in internal things, that is to say those who have felt delight in benevolence and charity toward the neighbor, and above all those who have felt blessedness in love to the Lord, are encompassed with a grateful and pleasant sphere which is the heavenly sphere itself, and therefore they are in heaven. All the spheres which are perceived in the other life originate from the loves and the derivative affections in which the men have been, consequently from their life — for the loves and derivative affections make the life itself. As the spheres in question originate from the loves and their derivative affections, they originate from the intentions and ends for the sake of which the man so wills and acts — for everyone has for his end that which he loves — therefore a man's ends determine his life and constitute its quality, and this is the main source of his sphere. This sphere is most exquisitely perceived in heaven, because the universal heaven is in the sphere of ends. We can now see of what quality is the man who is in internal things, and also of what quality is he who is in external things, and also the reason why it is necessary to be in internal things and not in external things only.

But these are matters of perfect indifference to the man who is in external things only, no matter how clever he may be as regards the things of civil life, or what may be the reputation for learning he has acquired on account of what he knows, for he is the kind of man who believes in nothing that he cannot see with his eyes and feel with his touch, consequently not in heaven or hell; and if he were told that he will enter the other life immediately after death, and will then see, hear, speak, and enjoy the sense of touch more perfectly than in the body, he would reject the statement as a paradox or fancy, although such is actually the case; and it would be the same if he were told that the soul or spirit which lives after death is the man himself, and not so the body which he carries about in the world.

It follows from this that they who are in external things alone care nothing for what is said of internal things, although it is these which make men blessed and happy in the kingdom into which they are about to come, and in which they will live to eternity. Most Christians are in such unbelief, as I am permitted to know from those who have come from the Christian world into the other life, and with whom I have spoken; for in the other life they cannot conceal what they have thought, because the thoughts there show themselves openly; nor can they conceal what they have had as their ends, that is, what they have loved, because this manifests itself by their sphere.

(Arcana Cœlestia 4464)