The Medium of Conjunction

Selection from Heaven and Hell ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Everything in nature that comes into existence and continues in existence from Divine order is a correspondence. The Divine good that proceeds from the Lord makes Divine order. It begins from Him, goes forth from Him through the heavens in succession into the world, and is terminated there in ultimates. The things that are there in accordance with order are correspondences. All things there which are good and perfect for use are in accordance with order, for all good is good according to use, while the form has relation to truth since truth is the form of good. For this reason all things which are in Divine order in the whole world and also partake of the nature of the world, have relation to good

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How the conjunction of heaven with the world is effected by means of correspondences —

The Lord's kingdom is a kingdom of ends which are uses, or what is the same thing, a kingdom of uses which are ends. On this account, the universe has been so created and formed by the Divine that uses may be everywhere clothed in such a way as to be presented in act or in effect, first in heaven and afterwards in the world, thus by degrees and successively down to the ultimates of nature. Hence it is evident that the correspondence of natural things with spiritual things, or of the world with heaven, is through uses and that uses conjoin.

And the forms in which uses are clothed are correspondences and means of conjunction just to the extent that they are forms of uses.

In nature, in its threefold kingdom, all things that come into existence in accordance with order are forms of uses, or effects formed from use for use, and this is why the things in nature are correspondences. With man, however, so far as he lives in accordance with Divine order, thus, so far as he is in love to the Lord and in charity towards the neighbour, to that extent, his actions are uses in form and are correspondences by means of which he is conjoined with heaven.

To love the Lord and the neighbour means in general to perform uses.

Further, it ought to be known that man is the means by which the natural world is conjoined with the spiritual world, that is, man is the medium of conjunction; for in him there is a natural world and also a spiritual world. Therefore, to the extent that man is spiritual, so far he is the medium of conjunction; but, to the extent that a man is natural and not spiritual, he is not a medium of conjunction. Nevertheless, apart from the mediation of man, Divine influx into the world and also into the things of the world pertaining to man, goes on, but not into man's rational faculty.

(from Heaven and Hell 107; 112)

The Angelic Idea of the Universe Created by the Lord

From Apocalypse Explained - Divine Wisdom ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
THE ANGELIC IDEA OF THE CREATION OF THE UNIVERSE BY THE LORD

The angelic idea of the universe created by the Lord is as follows:

God is the center, and He is Man; and if God were not Man creation would not have been possible; and the Lord from eternity is that God.

Of creation:

The Lord from eternity, that is, God, by His Divine proceeding created the universe and all things in it; and as the Divine proceeding is life itself, all things have been created from life and by means of life. The Divine proceeding that is nearest to the Lord appears before the angels as a sun; this appears to their sight fiery and flaming; this is so because the Divine proceeding is the Divine love and the Divine wisdom, and these so appear at a distance. (The angels add that the Divine proceeding is what the ancients represented by golden or shining and pure circles about the head of God, which modern painters still retain from the ancient idea.) They said that from that sun as a great center proceed circles, one after another and one from another even to the last where their end is subsisting in rest. These circles, of which one is from another and one after another, appearing as spread out in breadth and length, are spiritual atmospheres, which are filled with the light and heat from their sun, and through which the light and heat extend themselves to the last circle; and in this last circle by means of these atmospheres, and afterwards by means of the natural atmospheres from the sun of this world, the creation of the earth and all things on it which are for use was accomplished, and this creation is afterwards continued by generations from seeds in wombs or in eggs. The angels who knew that the universe so created was a continuous work from the Creator even to ultimates, and that being a continuous work it depends upon the Lord, who is its common center and is moved and governed by Him as a single continuous chain, said that the First which proceeds is continued even to ultimates through discrete degrees, just as an end is continued through causes into effects; or like a producing agent and its products in a continued series; also that the continuation is not only in but also around from the First, and so from everything prior into everything posterior, even to the postreme; and thus that the First and the posterior from it exist together in their order in the postreme or ultimate. From this continuity as a one they have their idea of the Lord, that He is the All in all, that He is omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient, that He is infinite and eternal; and also their idea of the order according to which the Lord, through His Divine love and Divine wisdom, arranges, provides, and governs all things.

It was asked, "Whence, then, is hell?" They said, "From man's freedom, without which man would not be a man;" that man by that freedom broke the continuity in himself, which being broken a separation took place; and the continuity that was in man from creation became like a chain or a linked work which falls when the links above are broken or torn asunder, and it thenceforward hangs by slender threads. Separation or breaking was effected and is effected by the denial of God.

(Divine Wisdom XII Appendix)

Two Worlds — Natural and Spiritual

Selection from Divine Wisdom ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

MAN ON HIS MIGRATION FROM THE NATURAL WORLD INTO THE SPIRITUAL WORLD

A natural man is wholly different from a spiritual man, and a spiritual man from a natural man; the difference is so great that they cannot be given together. One who does not know what the spiritual is in its essence may believe that the spiritual is only a purer natural, which in man is called the rational; but the spiritual is above the natural, and as distinct from it as the light of midday from the evening shadow in the time of autumn. The distinction and the difference can be known only to one who is in both worlds, the natural and the spiritual, and who can change alternately from one to the other, and be in one and then in the other, and by reflection can look at one from the other. From this privilege, which has been granted to me, I have learned what the natural man is and what the spiritual man is who is a spirit. That this may be known it shall be described briefly.

In all things of his thought and speech, and in all things of his will and action, the natural man has as his subject matter, space, time and quantity; with him these are fixed and permanent, and without them he can have no idea of thought and speech from it, and no affection of the will and action from it.

The spiritual man or the spirit does not have these as subjects, but only as objects. The reason is that in the spiritual world the objects are altogether similar to those in the natural world — there are lands, plains, fields, gardens and forests, houses containing rooms, and in them all useful things; moreover, there are garments for women and for men, such as are in the world; there are tables, food, and drinks, such as are in the world; there are also animals both gentle and destructive; there are spaces and times, and numbers and measures. All these things have such a resemblance to the things that are in the world that to the eye they cannot be distinguished, and yet all these are appearances of the wisdom belonging to the understanding of angels, and perceptions of loves belonging to their wills; for these objects are created in a moment by the Lord, and in a moment are dissipated. They are permanent or not permanent according to the constancy or inconstancy of the spirits or angels in the things of which they are the appearances. This is why these things are merely objects of their thoughts and affections, while their subjects are those things of which these are the appearances, which, as has been said, are such things as relate to wisdom and love, thus spiritual things.

For example, when they see spaces they do not think of them from space; when they see gardens containing trees, fruits, shrubs, flowers, and seeds, they do not think of these from their appearance but according to the things from which these appearances spring; and so in all other cases.

In consequence of this the thoughts of the spiritual, and their affections also, are wholly different from the thoughts and affections of the natural, and so different that they transcend natural ideas and do not fall into them except in some measure into the interior rational sight, and this in no other way than by withdrawals or removals of quantities from qualities.

This shows clearly that the angels have a wisdom that is incomprehensible and also ineffable to the natural man. As their thoughts are such so their speech is such, and so different from the speech of men that they do not agree in a single expression. The same is true of their writing; although as to its letters this resembles the writing of men in the world, no man in the world can understand it. Every consonant in their writing expresses a distinct meaning, every vowel a distinct affection. The vowels are not written, but pointed. Their manual employments, which are innumerable, and the duties of their callings, likewise differ from the employments and duties of natural men in the world, and cannot therefore be described in the terms of human language.

From these few instances it can be seen that the natural and the spiritual differ from each other like shadow and light. Nevertheless, there are, various differences; there are some who are sensual-spiritual, some who are rational-spiritual, and some celestial-spiritual, also there are the spiritual evil and the spiritual good. The differences are according to the affections and the thoughts therefrom, and the appearances are according to the affections. From all this it is clear that man from natural becomes spiritual as soon as the. lungs and heart of the body cease to be moved, and by this means the material body is separated from the spiritual body.

(from Divine Wisdom VII:5)

A Very General Outline of Creation and Its Progress

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
— A MEMORABLE RELATION —

One day I was meditating upon the creation of the universe; and this being perceived by the angels above me on the right side, where were some who from time to time meditated and reasoned on this subject, one of them descended and invited me to join them; and coming into the spirit I went with him; and having joined them I was taken to the prince, in whose palace I saw some hundreds assembled, with the prince in the midst.

Then one of them said, "We perceived here that you were meditating upon the creation of the universe; and we too have sometimes indulged in like meditation; but we have never been able to reach a conclusion, because there clung to our thoughts the idea of a chaos, as having been the great egg, as it were, out of which each thing and all things in the universe in their order were hatched; whereas we now perceive that so great a universe could not have been so brought forth. Then there also clung to our minds another idea, namely, that all things were created by God out of nothing; but we are now able to see that out of nothing nothing comes. From these two ideas we have never yet been able to extricate our minds, and to see with any degree of clearness how creation was accomplished. Therefore we have called you from the place where you were, that you might set forth your mediation on this subject. "

Having heard this I replied, "I will do so." And I said, "I have meditated on this subject for a long time, but to no purpose. But since I have been introduced by the Lord into your world I have perceived how idle it would be to try to form a conclusion about the creation of the universe without first knowing that there are two worlds, one in which angels are, and the other in which men are; and that men through death pass from their world to the other. I then also saw that there are two suns, one from which all spiritual things flow, and the other from which all natural things flow; and that the sun from which all spiritual things flow is nothing but love from Jehovah God, who is in its midst, and that the sun from which all natural things flow is nothing but fire. Having learned these facts, at one time when in a state of enlightenment I was permitted to perceive that the universe was created by Jehovah God by means of the sun in the midst of which He is; and as there can be no love apart from wisdom, that the universe was created by Jehovah God from His love by means of His wisdom. The truth of this is evinced by all things and each thing I have seen in the world where you are, and in the world where I am in the body.

It would take too much space to explain how creation progressed from its primordial state; but when I have been in a state of enlightenment I have perceived that by means of the heat and light from the sun of your world spiritual atmospheres, which are in themselves substantial, were created one from another. As there were three of these atmospheres, and consequently three degrees of them, three heavens were made; one for the angels who are in the highest degree of love and wisdom, a second for those who are in the second degree, and a third for those who are in the lowest degree. But as this spiritual universe cannot exist without a natural universe wherein it can work out its effects and uses, so at the same time a sun was created from which all natural things proceed, and through which in like manner, by means of heat and light, three atmospheres were created, encompassing the three former as a shell its kernel, or as bark its wood; and finally by means of these atmospheres the terraqueous globe was created where men, beasts, fishes, trees, shrubs, and herbs were formed of earthly substances, composed of soil, stones, and minerals.

This is a very general outline of creation and its progress. It would require many volumes to explain the particular and most particular things of it; yet all things point to the conclusion that God did not create the universe out of nothing, for as you have said, out of nothing nothing comes, but that He created it by means of the sun of the angelic heaven, which is from His very Esse, and is therefore nothing but love joined with wisdom. That the universe, by which is meant both the spiritual world and the natural world, was created from the Divine love by means of the Divine wisdom is attested and proved by each thing and all things in it; and this, if you will consider these things in their order and connection, you will be able to see clearly in the light that illuminates the perceptions of your understanding. But it must be kept in mind that the love and wisdom which make one in God are not love and wisdom in an abstract sense, but are in Him as substance; for God is the Very, the Only, and thus the primal Substance and Essence, which has Being and Subsistence in itself.

That it was from the Divine love and the Divine wisdom that each and all things were created is meant by these words in John:

The Word was with God, and God was the Word. All things were made by Him, and the world was made by Him (John 1:1, 3, 10),

'God' signifying here the Divine love, and the 'Word' the truth or Divine wisdom; therefore in the same passage the Word is called 'Light', and in relation to God 'Light' means the Divine wisdom."

When I had finished and was bidding them adieu, some rays of light from the sun there descended through the angelic heavens into their eyes, and through these into the abodes of their minds; and when thus enlightened they assented to what I had said, and afterwards followed me into the hall; and my former companion took me to the house where he had found me, and from there he reascended to his own society.

(True Christian Religion 76)

Heaven — The Purpose of Providence

Selection from Divine Providence ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
THE LORD'S DIVINE PROVIDENCE HAS AS ITS END A HEAVEN FROM THE HUMAN RACE

Heaven does not consist of any angels created such from the beginning, and hell does not originate from some devil who was created an angel of light and cast down from heaven. Rather, both heaven and hell arise from the human race - heaven from people who are motivated by a love of good and a consequent understanding of truth, and hell from people who are caught up in a love of evil and a consequent understanding of falsity. ...

Now because heaven arises from the human race, and heaven is a dwelling with the Lord to eternity, it follows that the Lord had this as the end in creation; and because it was the end in creation, it is the end in His Divine providence.

The Lord did not create the universe for His own sake, but for the sake of those with whom He would be in heaven. For spiritual love is such that it wishes to give what it has to another, and to the extent this is possible it is in the enjoyment of its being, its peace, and its bliss. Spiritual love derives this characteristic from the Lord's Divine love, which is infinitely of such character.

It follows from this that Divine love, and consequently Divine providence, has as its end a heaven consisting of people who have become or who are becoming angels, to whom it is possible for the Lord to impart all the blessings and felicities connected with love and wisdom, and to impart these from Himself in them. Nor can it be otherwise, because from creation people have in them His image and likeness - His image in them being wisdom, and His likeness in them being love. And the Lord in them is love united to wisdom and wisdom united to love, or to say the same thing, it is goodness united to truth and truth united to goodness.

(from Divine Providence 27)

Freedom of Choice in Spiritual Things

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
— A MEMORABLE RELATION —

I was once in that interior spiritual sight in which the angels of the superior heaven are, but I was then in the world of spirits. And I saw two spirits not far away, standing apart from each other; and I perceived that one of them loved good and truth, and was thereby in conjunction with heaven, while the other loved evil and falsity, and was thereby in conjunction with hell. I approached and called them; and from their tones and their replies, I gathered that one could perceive truths as well as the other, could acknowledge them when perceived, could thus think from the understanding, and direct his intellectual faculties as he pleased, and his voluntary faculties as he wished; consequently that they were in like freedom of choice in rational matters. I observed, moreover, that from that freedom there appeared in their minds a lucidity extending from their first sight, which was that of perception, to their last, which was that of the eye.

But when the one who loved evil and falsity was left to his own thought, I noticed that a kind of smoke arose from hell, and extinguished that lucidity which was above the memory, so that there was a thick darkness in him there like that of midnight; and also that the smoke ignited and burned like a flame, which illuminated the region of his mind below the memory, and this caused him to think enormous falsities arising from the evils of the love of self. But when the other, who loved good and truth, was left to himself, I saw, as it were, a gentle flame flowing down from heaven, which illuminated the region of his mind above the memory, and also the region below it even to the eye; also that the light from that flame shone brighter and brighter, in proportion as from the love of good he had a perception and thought of the truth.

From seeing this, it was made clear to me that every man, good and evil alike, has spiritual freedom of choice, but that hell sometimes extinguishes it in the wicked, while heaven exalts and enkindles it in the good.

Afterward I talked with both of them, first with the one who loved evil and falsity, and when, after a few words about his lot, I mentioned freedom of choice, he fired up, and said, "What madness it is to believe that man has freedom of choice in spiritual things! What man can acquire faith of himself, or do good of himself? Does not the priesthood of today teach from the Word that no man can receive anything unless it be given him from heaven? And the Lord Christ said to His disciples, 'Apart from Me ye can do nothing.' To which I will add, that no man can move hand or foot to do any good, or move his tongue to speak any truth from good. Therefore the church by her wise men has concluded that man can no more will, understand or think anything spiritual, or even adapt himself to willing, understanding, or thinking truth, than a statue, a stock or a stone; and therefore it is God who according to His good pleasure inspires faith, to whom alone belongs most free and unlimited power; and this faith, without any labor or power of ours, under the operation of the Holy Spirit, produces all that the unlearned ascribe to man."

I then talked with the other, who loved good and truth; and when, after a few remarks about his lot, I mentioned freedom of choice, he said, "What madness it is to deny man's freedom of choice in spiritual things! Who is not able to will and do good, and think and speak what is true of himself from the Word, thus from the Lord who is the Word? For He has said, 'Make the fruit good,' and 'Believe in the right,' and 'Love one another,' and 'Love God,' and also, 'Whosoever heareth My precepts and doeth them, loveth Me, and I will love him;' besides thousands of like sayings throughout the Word. What then is the Word good for, if man has no power to will and think, and from that to do and say what is there commanded? Without that power in man, what would religion in the church be but like a wrecked vessel lying at the bottom of the sea, with the captain standing on the very top of the mast and crying out, 'I can do nothing;' while he sees the crew in the small boats with sails spread and sailing away? Was there not given to Adam the freedom to eat of the tree of life, and also of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? And because from his freedom he ate of this latter tree, smoke from the serpent, that is, from hell, entered his mind, on account of which he was cast out of Paradise and cursed. And still he did not lose his freedom of choice, for we read that the way to the tree of life was guarded by a cherub, and unless this had been done, he might still have wished to eat of it."

At these remarks the other, who loved evil and falsity, said, "What I have heard, I pass by; what I before advance I still adhere to. But who does not know that God alone is alive and thus active, while man is of himself dead and therefore merely passive? How can a being who is in himself dead and merely passive take to himself anything living and active?"

To this I replied, "Man is an organ of life, and God alone is life; and God pours His life into the organ and into every least part of it; as the sun pours its heat into a tree and every least part of it. It is also God's gift that man should feel that life in himself as if it were his own, and it is God's will that he should so feel it, in order that man as if of himself may live in accordance with the laws of order, which are as numerous as the precepts of the Word, and thus may dispose himself for the reception of God's love. Nevertheless, God perpetually holds with His finger the perpendicular above the scales, and moderates man's freedom of choice, but never violates it by compulsion.

A tree cannot receive anything that the heat of the sun brings to it through its roots, unless it grows warm and is heated in every least fiber; nor can the elements rise up through its roots, unless every least fiber gives out heat from that which it has received, and thus contributes to the passage of those elements. Man does likewise from the heat of life that he receives from God; but unlike a tree, man feels the heat as his own, and yet it is not his own; and while so far as he believes that it is his and not God's, he receives the light of life, he does not receive the heat of love from God, but the heat of love from hell; and this being gross obstructs and closes the purer branchlets of the organism, as impure blood clogs the capillary vessels of the body. Thus man from being spiritual makes himself merely natural.

Man's freedom of choice is from this, that any life in himself is felt as his own, and that God leaves him so to feel in order that a conjunction may be effected between them, which is not possible unless it is reciprocal; and it becomes reciprocal when man acts from freedom altogether as if of himself. If God had not left this to man, he would not be man, neither would he have eternal life; for reciprocal conjunction with God is the cause that man is man, and not a beast, and also that he lives after death to eternity. This is the effect of freedom of choice in spiritual things."

After hearing this, the evil spirit removed to a distance, and then I saw upon a certain tree a flying serpent, such as is called a fiery serpent, which held out to somebody fruit from the tree. I then drew near in spirit to the place, and instead of the serpent a monstrous man was seen there, his face so covered with beard that only his nose was visible; and instead of the tree there was a burning stump, near which stood the man whose mind the smoke had formerly entered, and who had afterwards rejected the idea of freedom of choice in spiritual things. And just then a similar smoke came out of the stump, and enveloped them both; and as they were thus taken out of my sight, I went away. But the other spirit, who loved good and truth, and held that man has freedom of choice in spiritual things, accompanied me home.

(True Christian Religion 504)

Divine Providence Continually Leads to Good

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
— Doctrinal Things of Charity —

Divine Providence of the Lord

The government of the Lord in the heavens and on earth is called Providence.

And as all the good which is of love, and all the truth which is of faith, are from Him, and absolutely nothing from man, it is evident from this that the Divine Providence of the Lord is in each and all things that conduce to the salvation of the human race. This the Lord thus teaches in John:

I am the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6).

As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, so neither can ye, except ye abide in Me: without Me ye can do nothing (John 15:4, 5).

Moreover the Divine Providence of the Lord is over the veriest singulars of man's life; for there is one only fountain of life, which is the Lord, from whom we live and act and have our being.

Those who think about the Divine Providence from worldly things, conclude from these that it is only universal, and that the singulars appertain to man. But these persons are not acquainted with the arcana of heaven, for they form their conclusions solely from the loves of self and of the world and their pleasures; and therefore when they see the evil exalted to honors, and gaining wealth rather than the good; and also that the evil succeed in accordance with their skill, they say in their hearts that it would not be so if the Divine Providence were in each and all things. But these persons do not consider that the Divine Providence does not look to that which is fleeting and transitory, and which comes to an end together with the life of man in the world; but that it looks to that which remains to eternity, thus which has no end. That which has no end is; but that which has an end, relatively is not.

Everyone who duly reflects is able to know that eminence and wealth in the world are not real Divine blessings, although from the pleasure in them men so call them; for they pass away, and likewise seduce many, and turn them away from heaven; but that life in heaven and happiness there are the real blessings which are from the Divine. This the Lord also teaches in Luke:

Make for yourselves treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where thief draweth not near, nor moth destroyeth. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also (Luke 12:33, 34).

The reason why the evil succeed in accordance with their skill, is that it is according to order that everyone should do what he does from reason and also from freedom; and therefore unless it were left to a man to act in freedom according to his reason, and thus also unless the consequent arts succeeded, the man could not possibly be disposed to receive eternal life, because this is instilled when the man is in freedom, and his reason is enlightened. For no one can be compelled to good, because nothing compulsory cleaves to the man, for it is not his. That becomes the man's own which is done from freedom, for that which is from the will is done from freedom, and the will is the man himself; and therefore unless a man is kept in the freedom to do evil also, good from the Lord cannot be provided for him.

To leave man in his freedom to do evil also, is called permission.

To be led to happiness in the world by means of his skill, appears to the man as if it were done from his own sagacity. Nevertheless the Divine Providence continually accompanies by permitting and by constantly withdrawing from evil. But to be led to happiness in heaven is known and perceived not to be of man's own sagacity, because it is from the Lord, and is effected from his Divine providence by disposing and continually leading to good.

That this is the case a man cannot apprehend from the light of nature, for from this light he does not know the laws of Divine order.

Be it known that there is providence and there is foresight. Good is that which is provided by the Lord, but evil is that which is foreseen by the Lord. The one must be with the other, for that which comes from man is nothing but evil; but that which comes from the Lord is nothing but good.

(Arcana Coelestia 10773-10781)