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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 #381

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381. The second account:

When I once looked about into the world of spirits, I saw at a distance a palace, surrounded and seemingly besieged by a crowd of people. And I also saw many others running towards it. Wondering at this, I quickly arose from my house and asked one of those running what was happening. He replied that three newcomers from the world had been taken up into heaven and had seen magnificent things there, including maidens and wives of astonishing beauty. Having been let down from that heaven, they had now entered the palace over there and were recounting what they had seen, especially that they had found women of such beauty, the like of which their listeners' eyes had never seen, and which they could not see unless illumined by the light of the heavenly atmosphere. They said in regard to themselves that they had been lecturers in the world, from the kingdom of France, that they had cultivated a facility in the art of speaking, and that they were now overcome with a desire to speak about the origin of beauty. Because this was made known in the surrounding area, the multitude flocked in to hear them.

Hearing this, I, too, hastened and went in; and I saw the three men standing in the center, dressed in sapphire-colored gowns, which, being inwoven with threads of gold, shone as though golden at their every turn. They stood behind a kind of pulpit, in readiness to speak; and presently one of them rose up on the step behind the pulpit to give his lecture on the origin of the beauty of the feminine sex, in which he presented the following:

  
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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 #663

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663. 1 The third experience.

I was once in company with angels and listened to their conversation. They were talking about intelligence and wisdom, saying that a person has no other feeling and perception but that intelligence and wisdom are both in him, and so whatever he wills and thinks comes from him. Yet in fact not a scrap of either comes from the person, apart from the ability to receive them. Among the many things they said was this, that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden stood for a belief that intelligence and wisdom were from man, and the tree of life stood for a belief that intelligence and wisdom were from God. It was because Adam was persuaded by the serpent to eat from the former tree, believing that he would be or become God, that he was ejected from the garden and damned.

[2] While the angels were discussing this, two priests arrived accompanied by a man who in the world had been a country's ambassador. I repeated to them what I had heard from the angels about intelligence and wisdom, and on hearing this the three of them began to argue about these two subjects and also about prudence, whether they were from God or from man. It was a fierce argument. All three believed alike that these came from man, because their actual feeling and so their perception supported this view; but the priests, being then under the influence of theological zeal, insisted that no part of intelligence and wisdom, and so of prudence, came from man. They found confirmation of that in these passages of the Word:

A man cannot take anything, unless it is given him from heaven, John 3:27.

Jesus said to the disciples, Without me you can do nothing, John 15:5.

[3] But the angels allowed me to perceive that, however much the priests talked like this, they still at heart held similar beliefs to the ambassador's. So the angels said to them: 'Take off your clothes and put on those of ministers of state, and believe that is what you are.' They did so, and then they thought from their interiors, and in talking used the arguments they inwardly supported; these were that all intelligence and wisdom reside in man and are his. 'Who,' they said, 'has ever felt that these flow in from God?' They looked at each other and backed each other up.

It is a special feature of the spiritual world that a spirit thinks himself to be what the clothes he wears indicate. The reason is that it is the understanding which clothes each person there.

[4] At that instant a tree was seen near them, and they were told: 'It is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; beware of eating from it.' Yet they were so infatuated with their own intelligence that they had a burning desire to eat from it, and they said to each other: 'Why shouldn't we? Isn't the fruit good?' So they went up to it and ate the fruit.

When the ambassador noticed this, they got together and became bosom friends. Then together, holding hands, they took the way of their own intelligence, which leads to hell. However I saw them brought back from there, because they were not yet prepared.

Footnotes:

1. This section is repeated from Conjugial Love 353-354.

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

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