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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 #76

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76. The second account:

The next day the same angel came to me and said, "Would you like me to take and accompany you to the peoples who lived in the silver age or period, so that we may hear from them about the marriages of their time?" He also said that these people, too, could not be approached except under the Lord's guidance.

I was in the spirit as before, and I went with my guide. And we came first to a hill in the border region between the east and the south. Then, as we stood upon its slope, he showed me a far extended stretch of land, and we saw in the distance an elevation like that of a mountain. Between it and the hill on which we stood was a valley, and beyond that a level area, and after that a gently rising incline.

We descended from the hill to cross the valley, and here and there on each side we saw blocks of wood and stone carved into the shapes of people and various kinds of animals, birds and fish. So I asked the angel, "What are these? Are they idols?"

And he answered, "Not at all. They are figures representative of various moral virtues and spiritual truths. Among the peoples of this age there was a knowledge of correspondences. Since every person, animal, bird and fish corresponds to some quality, therefore each carving represents some aspect of a virtue or truth, and a group of them taken together represents the whole virtue or truth in a general, extended form. They are what in Egypt were called hieroglyphics."

[2] We continued through the valley, and as we entered the level area, suddenly we saw horses and chariots - horses with variously decorated harnesses and halters, and chariots variously shaped, some carved out like eagles, some like whales, and some like stags with horns, or like unicorns. At the end we also saw some wagons, and stables around at the sides. But when we drew near, both the horses and the chariots disappeared, and instead of them we saw people in couples and pairs, walking, talking and reasoning together.

The angel then said to me, "The various horses, chariots and stables - as they seem at a distance - are appearances expressive of the rational intelligence of the people of this age. For by correspondence a horse symbolizes an understanding of truth; a chariot, its accompanying doctrine; and stables, sources of instruction. You know that in this world, all things take on appearances according to correspondences."

[3] We went on by these things, however, and we ascended by a long incline, until at last we saw a city, which we entered. As we wandered through it, from the streets and public squares we observed its houses. They were all palaces, built out of marble. In front they had steps of alabaster, with columns of jasper on each side of the steps. We also saw temples made of precious stone the color of sapphire and lapis lazuli.

The angel said to me, "They have houses made of different kinds of stone because stones symbolize natural truths, and precious stones symbolize spiritual truths. The people who lived in the silver age all had their intelligence from spiritual truths and so from natural truths. Silver also has a similar symbolism."

[4] As we surveyed the city, we saw married couples here and there in pairs; and since they were husbands and wives, we waited to see if we would be invited in somewhere. Even as we had this in mind, moreover, as we were passing by, two of them called us back into their house. So we went up the steps and went in. Then, speaking with them on my behalf, the angel explained the reason for our coming to that heaven, saying that we had come to be instructed concerning marriages among ancient peoples - "you here being some of them," he said.

They then replied, "We come from peoples in Asia, and the focus of our age was the pursuit of truths, by which we acquired intelligence. This pursuit was the focus of our soul and mind. But the focus of our physical senses was on representations of truths in forms, and a study of correspondences combined the sensory interests of our bodies with the perceptions of our minds, gaining for us intelligence."

[5] Hearing this, the angel asked them to tell us something about marriages among them.

So the husband said, "There is a correspondence between the spiritual marriage, which is a marriage of truth with good, and natural marriage, which is the marriage of a man with one wife. And because we have studied correspondences, we see that the church with its truths and goods can by no means exist except in people who live with one wife in a state of truly conjugial love. For a marriage of good and truth in a person is the church in him.

"Consequently, we who are here all say that a husband is a form of truth, and his wife a form of good, and that good cannot love any other truth than its own truth, nor can truth love any other good in return than its own good. If it were to love another, the inner marriage that forms the church would die, and the marriage would become merely external - the kind of marriage that idolatry corresponds to, not the church. Therefore we call marriage with one wife a sacred union, but if it were contracted with more than one among us, we would call it a sacrilege."

[6] Saying this, he showed us into an anteroom outside the bedroom, which had a number of works of art on the walls and little images apparently cast out of silver. I then asked what they were.

They said, "They are pictures and forms representing the many qualities, attributes and delights which have to do with conjugial love. These ones here represent the unity of souls; these other ones, the conjunction of minds; the ones there, the harmony of hearts; those over there, the delights arising as a result."

While we were looking, we saw on the wall a kind of rainbow, consisting of three colors, purple, blue, and bright white. And we saw how the purple color passed through the blue and tinted the white with a purplish blue hue, and that the latter color flowed back through the blue into the purple and raised it into a kind of flaming radiance.

[7] Then the husband said to me, "Do you understand it?"

And I said, "Instruct me."

So he said, "The purple by its correspondence symbolizes the conjugial love of the wife; the bright white, the intelligence of the husband; the blue, the beginning of conjugial love in the husband's perception from the wife; and the purplish blue, which tinted the white, conjugial love then in the husband. This latter color's flowing back through the blue into the purple and raising it into a kind of flaming radiance symbolizes the conjugial love of the husband flowing back to the wife. Things like these are represented on these walls whenever we reflect on conjugial love, its mutual, progressive and simultaneous union, and then look closely at the rainbows exhibited there."

At this I said, "Things like this today are more than mysteries, for they are of a representational type, representing the secrets of the conjugial love of one man with one wife."

He replied, "So they are, but to us here they are not secrets, and therefore not mysteries."

[8] When he said this, a chariot appeared in the distance drawn by white ponies, and seeing it, the angel said, "That chariot is a signal for us to depart."

Then as we were going down the steps, our host gave us a cluster of white grapes with leaves from the vine still attached, and suddenly the leaves turned silver. And we took them away with us as a memento that we had spoken with people of the silver age.

  
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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 #622

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622. 1 The second experience.

All who have been prepared for heaven, a process which takes place in the world of spirits, half-way between heaven and hell, after some time has passed, sigh and long for heaven. Soon their eyes are opened, and they see a road leading towards some community in heaven. So they take this road and climb up; and on the ascent there is a gate with a guard at it. The guard opens the gate and so they go in.

Then an investigator comes to meet them, who gives them a message from the governor to go further in and search to see if anywhere there are houses which they recognise as their own; for there is a new house for every newly-arrived angel. If they find one, they report this and stay in it.

But if they do not find one, they come back and say they have not seen one. Then a wise man there checks to see whether the light that is in them agrees with the light in the community, and what is more important, whether their heat does. For the light of heaven is in its essence Divine truth, and the heat of heaven is in its essence Divine good, both of them proceeding from the Lord as the sun there. If the light and heat in them is different from that in the community, if, that is, the truth and good are different, they are not made welcome. So they go away and travel along roads which open up between communities in heaven; and they continue to travel until they find a community which exactly matches their affections, and there they live for ever. For there they are among their own people, as if among relations and friends, and they love them from the heart because they share the same affection. There they enjoy the whole bliss of their life and the pleasure which fills the whole breast coming from tranquillity of the soul. For the heat and light of heaven contain an inexpressible delight, which is shared. That is the lot of those who become angels.

[2] Those, however, who are subject to evils and falsities may get permission to go up to heaven, but on entering they begin to gasp and breathe with difficulty. Soon their sight becomes dim, their understanding is darkened and thought comes to a stop; it is as if death stared them in the face, and so they stand like blocks of wood. Then their heart begins to pound, their chest feels tight and their mind is desperately worried. Their pain becomes more and more severe, and in this condition they writhe like snakes placed on a hearth. So they roll away from this spot, and cast themselves over a precipice which then appears; and they do not rest until they are in hell with people like themselves, where they can draw breath and where their heart beats freely. After this they hate heaven and reject truth, in their hearts blaspheming against the Lord and believing Him responsible for the pain and torment they experienced in heaven.

[3] These few remarks will enable it to be seen what is the fate of those who treat as of no consequence the truths of faith that none the less constitute the light enjoyed by the angels of heaven, or the kinds of good which make up love and charity, despite the fact that they constitute the vital heat enjoyed by the angels of heaven. It can also be seen from this how erroneous is the view of those who believe that anyone can enjoy the blessedness of heaven, so long as he is allowed in. It is believed at the present time that it is nothing but mercy which secures admission to heaven, and that this is like someone in the world coming into a house where there is a wedding, and so at the same time joining in the joy and happiness there. They ought to know that in the spiritual world the affections of love and the thoughts they produce are shared with others, since a person is then a spirit, and the life of a spirit is the affection of love and the resulting thought. Affection of the same kind establishes a link, affection of different kinds causes separation. It is this difference in affection which causes torment to a devil in heaven, or an angel in hell. For this reason people are properly separated according to the diversities, varieties and differences in the affections which make up their love.

Footnotes:

1. This and the following section are repeated from Apocalypse Revealed 611.

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

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