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Memorable Occurrences in Swedenborg's Writings

This list of Memorable Occurrences in Swedenborg's Writings was originally compiled by W. C. Henderson in 1960 but has since been updated.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Conjugial Love #316

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316. The second account:

Walking once with tranquil heart in a pleasantly peaceful state of mind, I saw in the distance a wood, which had in the midst of it an enclosed path leading to a little palace; and I saw young women and men and husbands and wives going in. I, too, in the spirit went over there, and I asked one of the keepers standing at the entrance of the path whether I might go in as well. He stared at me; and so I asked, "Why are you staring at me?"

"I am examining you," he replied, "to see whether the pleasant state of peace reflected in your face draws any of its character from a pleasant delight in conjugial love. After this path there is a little garden, and in the middle of it a house with a newly married couple in it. Their friends are coming here today to wish them happiness and joy. I do not know the people I am allowing to enter, but I was told I would recognize them from their faces. If I saw in them a delight in conjugial love, I was to let them in, and no one else."

Every angel can see from others' faces what the delights of their heart are; and because I was thinking about conjugial love, it was a delight in that love that he saw in my face. This contemplation of mine shone from my eyes and lent an inner glow to my face, so that he told me I might go in.

[2] The enclosed path through which I went was lined with fruit trees joined together by interlocking branches, thus forming an unbroken wall of trees on either side. Through this pathway I entered the little garden, which exhaled a pleasant fragrance from its bushes and flowers. The bushes and flowers grew in pairs; and I learned that gardens of this sort appear around houses where weddings are being or have been celebrated, on which account they are called wedding gardens.

After that I went into the house, and there I saw the married couple holding each other by the hand and speaking to each other out of truly conjugial love. Moreover, from their faces I was given to see then an image of conjugial love, and from their conversation, its vibrancy.

Later, when I among many others had expressed my prayers for them and wished them happiness and joy, I went out into the wedding garden; and I saw on the right side of it a group of young men, to which all who left the house went hurrying over. They all hurried over there because they were having a conversation about conjugial love, and this conversation drew the hearts of all with a kind of hidden force to it. I listened then to a wise person in the group speaking about that love, and what I heard was in summary the following:

[3] "The Lord's Divine providence is most specific and therefore most universal in connection with marriages and in its operation in marriages in heaven, because all blessings of heaven flow from the delights of conjugial love, like sweet waters from a sweetly gushing spring. It is therefore provided by the Lord that conjugial pairs be born, and they are raised and continually prepared for their marriages, neither the boy nor the girl being aware of the fact. Then, after a period of time, the girl - now a marriageable young woman - and the boy - now a young man able to marry - meet somewhere, as though by fate, and notice each other. And they immediately recognize, as if by a kind of instinct, that they are a match, thinking to themselves from a kind of inner dictate, the young man, 'she is mine,' and the young woman, 'he is mine.' Later, after this thought has for some time become settled in the minds of each, they deliberately talk about it together and pledge themselves to each other in marriage.

"We say as though by fate and as if by instinct, when we mean by Divine providence, because when one is unaware that it is Divine providence, that is how it appears."

With respect to his statement that conjugial pairs are born, raised and prepared for their marriages without their knowing, the speaker supported it by the conjugial similarity visible in the faces of a couple, also by the innermost and eternal union of their hearts and minds, neither of which would be possible the way they are in heaven unless foreseen and provided by the Lord.

[4] Having said this - to which the group responded with applause - the wise person speaking went on to say that there is a conjugial element in the smallest particulars in every person, both male and female; only that the conjugial element in the male and the conjugial element in the female are not the same, but the conjugial element of the male possesses a capacity for conjunction with the conjugial element of the female, and vice versa, even in the least particulars.

This he showed by the marriage of will and understanding in every individual, the two of which operate together in the least constituents of the mind and in the least constituents of the body; from which it can be seen that there is a conjugial element in each component, even the least. "This is also made evident," he said, "from the composite organs of the body which are formed from its elemental constituents. We find, for example, two eyes, two ears, two nostrils, two cheeks, two lips, two arms and hands, two legs, two feet; and inside the body, two hemispheres of the brain, two ventricles of the heart, two lungs, two kidneys, two testicles. Even when an organ is not paired, still it exhibits a division into two parts. The reason there are these sets of two is that one is connected with the will and the other with the intellect, which operate in conjunction with each other so marvelously that they give the appearance of being one. Thus the two eyes produce one power of sight, the two ears one power of hearing, the two nostrils one sense of smell, the two lips one speech, the two hands one labor, the two feet one gait, the two hemispheres of the brain one habitation of the mind, the two chambers of the heart one life of the body through the blood, the two lungs one respiration, and so on. Only that in the case of a married couple, the masculine element and feminine element united by truly conjugial love produce one life that is fully human."

[5] As he was saying this, a shaft of lightning appeared in the sky to our right having a red color, and another shaft of lightning to our left that was white, neither of them very intense. These entered through our eyes into our minds and illumined them as well. Then, following these, we heard the sound of thunder - in actuality a low murmur coming from the angelic heaven and growing louder in its descent.

Hearing it, and having seen the lightning, the wise person speaking said, "These are meant for me as a signal and admonition to add to my discussion something further, that in the twinned pairs of organs I have mentioned, the one on the right symbolizes the good connected with the two, and the one on the left the truth connected with them; and that this is owing to the marriage of good and truth engraved on each person in his whole being and in his every least part, good having relation to the will and truth to the understanding, and the two together to a union of these. For this reason, in heaven 'the right eye' means the good connected with sight, and 'the left eye' the truth connected with it. So, too, 'the right ear' means the good connected with hearing, and 'the left ear' the truth connected with it. Similarly, 'the right hand' means the good connected with a person's strength, and 'the left hand' the truth connected with it. And so on with the rest of these twinned pairs.

"Moreover, because 'right' and 'left' have these symbolic associations, the Lord said:

If your right eye causes you to slip, pluck it out.... And if your right hand causes you to slip, cut it off.... 1

"He meant by this that if something good is turned to evil, it should be cast away.

"For the same reason He also told His disciples to cast their net on the right side of the boat, and when they did so, they caught a great number of fish. 2 And by this He meant they should teach the good of charity, and by doing so would gather in people."

[6] Following these remarks, the two shafts of lightning appeared again, still less intense than before. And we saw then that the lightning on the left drew the whiteness of its light from the reddish fire of the lightning on the right.

Seeing this, the speaker said, "It is a sign from heaven confirming what I have said, because something fiery in heaven means something good, and something white there means something true. As for our having seen that the lightning on the left drew the whiteness of its light from the reddish fire of the lightning on the right, this is visible evidence that the whiteness of light or light itself is nothing other than the luminance of fire."

At the end of this discourse, all in the group were fired with a joyful state of goodness and truth inspired by the shafts of lightning and what they had been told concerning them, and in this state they departed for home.

Footnotes:

1. Matthew 5:29-30.

2. John 21:6.

  
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Many thanks to the General Church of the New Jerusalem, and to Rev. N.B. Rogers, translator, for the permission to use this translation.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

True Christian Religion #135

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135. The second experience.

On waking up one morning I saw the sun of the spiritual world shining brightly, and below it I saw the heavens at a great distance, as remote as the earth is from its sun. From these heavens inarticulate sounds were audible, which joined to form an intelligible utterance: 'God is one, He is man and His dwelling is in that sun.' This utterance passed down through the middle heavens to the lowest, and from there into the world of spirits, where I was; and I noticed that the angels' idea of one God as it gradually descended was turned into the idea of three Gods. This observation induced me to start a conversation with those who thought of three Gods. 'What a monstrous idea!' I said, 'Where did you get it?'

'We think of three,' they replied, 'because this is how we grasp the idea of a Triune God, but still we do not allow it to pass our lips. In speaking we always say out loud that God is one. If we have a different idea in our minds, so be it, so long as it does not spill over and shatter the oneness of God when we speak. Even so, from time to time it does spill over, because it is within our minds, and at such times, if we were to speak out, we should say that there were three Gods. We take care to avoid this, so as not to become a laughing stock to our hearers.'

[2] Then they began openly to speak as they thought. 'Surely there are three Gods,' they said, 'since there are three Divine Persons, each of whom is God. We cannot think differently when the leader of our church quotes a whole bookcase full of his holy dogmas, ascribing to one creation, to a second redemption, to a third sanctifying; even more so when he attributes to each of them His own characteristic, which he says cannot be shared; and these are not merely creation, redemption and sanctifying, but also imputation, mediation and performance. Is there not then one God who created us and also imputes righteousness to us? Another who redeemed us, and also acts as mediator? And a third who puts into effect the imputation which is achieved through mediation, and also sanctifies us? Is there anyone who does not know that the Son of God was sent into the world by God the Father to redeem the human race, and thus become an expiator, mediator, propitiator and intercessor? And since He is identical with the Son of God from eternity, are there not two quite distinct Persons? And since these two Persons are in heaven, one sitting at the right hand of the other, must there not be a third Person, who puts into effect in the world the decrees issued in heaven?'

[3] On hearing this I said nothing, but thought to myself: 'What idiocy! They do not have the slightest idea of what is meant by mediation in the Word.'

Then at the Lord's command three angels came down from heaven and joined me, so that I could employ inward perception in speaking with those who thought of three Gods. I was especially enabled to speak about mediation, intercession, propitiation and expiation, the functions they attribute to the second Person, the Son, but only after He had become man; and His incarnation took place many centuries after creation, so that during this period these four means to salvation did not yet exist. So then God the Father was not propitiated, no expiation had been made for the human race, nor had anyone been sent from heaven to intercede and mediate.

[4] Then I spoke with them by means of the inspiration I had received. 'Gather round,' I said, 'as many of you as can, and listen to what is meant in the Word by mediation, intercession, expiation and propitiation. These are the four things predicated of the grace of the one God in His Human. God the Father could under no circumstances be approached, nor can He approach any person, because he is infinite and in His Being (esse), which is Jehovah. If He approached anyone in that form, He would destroy him, as fire does wood, reducing it to ashes. This is plain from His reply when Moses desired to see Him: that no one can see Him and live (Exodus 33:20). The Lord too said that no one has ever seen God, except the Son who is in the Father's bosom (John 1:18; Matthew 11:27); and again, that no one has heard the Father's voice or seen His appearance (John 5:37). We do read that Moses saw Jehovah face to face, and spoke personally with Him; but this was done through an angel, and the same happened in the cases of Abraham and Gideon. Now because such is God the Father in Himself, He was pleased to take upon Himself human form, and in this to allow people to approach Him, so as to hear them and speak with them. It is this Human which is called the Son of God, and this it is which mediates, intercedes, propitiates and makes expiation. I shall tell you therefore what is the meaning of those four actions attributed to the Human of God the Father.

[5] 'Mediation means that the Human is the intermediary by means of which a person can approach God the Father, and God the Father can approach him, and so teach and guide him to salvation. This is why the Son of God, meaning the Human of God the Father, is called the Saviour, and on earth Jesus, which means salvation. Intercession means continual mediation; for love itself, to which mercy, clemency and grace belong, continually intercedes, that is, acts as intermediary for those who obey His commandments, and whom He loves. Expiation means the removal of the sins into which everyone would rush, if he were to approach Jehovah without mediation. Propitiation means the working of clemency and grace, to prevent anyone consigning himself to damnation through sins; likewise, protection against profaning what is holy. This was the meaning of the Mercy Seat above the Ark in the Tabernacle. 1

[6] 'It is well known that in the Word God spoke in terms of appearances. For instance, He is said to be angry, take vengeance, tempt, punish, cast into hell, damn, in fact to do evil. Yet the truth is that He is angry with no one, never takes vengeance, tempts, punishes, casts anyone into hell or damns him. Such actions are as remote from God as hell is from heaven, or rather infinitely more so. This is why they are expressions of appearances. In another sense, expiation, propitiation, intercession and mediation are also expressions of appearances, meaning the characteristics of approach to God and of grace coming from God by means of His Human. Failure to understand these things has led people to divide God into three, and base all the church's doctrine upon these three, thus falsifying the Word. This is the origin of the "abomination of desolation" which was predicted by the Lord in the book of Daniel, and further mentioned in Matthew, chapter 24.'

At the end of this speech the group of spirits around me broke up, and I noticed that those who were really thinking of three Gods were looking towards hell, and those who were thinking of one God, in whom is the Divine Trinity, which is in the Lord God the Saviour, were looking towards heaven. To this party there appeared the sun of heaven, in which is Jehovah in His Human.

Footnotes:

1. Exodus 25:17-22.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.

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