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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

 

Coronis (An Appendix to True Christian Religion) #44

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44. It has been stated that from the people of every Church, at its end, is formed a new heaven and a new hell; and, since I gave an account in the preceding section of the heaven and hell formed from those who were of the Most Ancient Church, it seems well also to do so respecting these [of the Ancient Church]; for access has been granted me thereto, inasmuch as I have been permitted to traverse and observe the whole spiritual world, to the end that the New Church, truly Christian, may not be in thick darkness concerning heaven and hell, and concerning the lot of these after death according to the deeds of their life. These things are likewise in the little work on CONJUGIAL LOVE (n. 76).

CONCERNING THE HEAVEN FORMED FROM THESE

[2] "An angel came to me and said, 'Do you desire me to accompany you to the peoples who lived in the Silver Era, or Age, that we may hear from them respecting the customs and life of their times?' It was also said that they may not be approached except under the auspices of the Lord.

"I was in the spirit, and accompanied my guide, and came, first, to a hill on the confines of the east with the south; and when we were on its slope, he showed me a vast stretch of country, and we saw at a distance an eminence like a mountain between which and the hill on which we stood, was a valley, and beyond this a plain, and from this plain a gently-rising ascent.

"We descended the hill to cross the valley, and saw here and there, at the sides, blocks of wood and stone carved into figures of men, and of various beasts, birds and fishes. And I asked the angel, 'What are these? Are they not idols?'

"And he replied, 'By no means; they are representative forms of various moral virtues and spiritual truths. The peoples of that age possessed a knowledge of correspondences; and, as beast, bird and fish correspond to some quality, therefore, each carved figure represents and signifies some aspect of virtue or truth, and many together the virtue or truth itself, in a certain general extended form; these are what in Egypt were called hieroglyphics.'

[3] "We proceeded through the valley, and when we entered the plain, ho! we saw horses and carriages, the horses variously caparisoned and harnessed, and the carriages variously shaped; some being carved out like eagles, some like unicorns, and some like whales: we also saw some carts at the boundary, and stables round about at the sides. But, when we approached, both horses and carriages disappeared, and instead of them we saw men, in pairs, walking, talking together and reasoning. And the angel said to me, 'The semblances of horses, carriages and stables, seen at a distance, are appearances of the rational intelligence of the men of that age; for a horse, by correspondence, signifies the understanding of truth; a carriage, the doctrine of truth; and stables, places of instruction. You are aware that all things in this world appear according to correspondences.'

[4] "But we passed these things, and went up by the ascent. At length we saw a city, which we entereth; and, in walking through it, we observed its houses from the streets and squares. In the midst of it, were palaces built of marble, having steps of alabaster in front, and at the sides of the steps pillars of jasper. We saw also temples, made of precious stone of a sapphire and azure colour. And the angel said to me, 'Their houses are of stones because stones signify natural truths, and precious stones spiritual truths; and all those who lived in the silver age, had intelligence from spiritual truths, and thence from natural; for silver has a like signification.

[5] "While exploring the city, we saw here and there married partners, both husbands and wives. We expected that we should be invited somewhere; and, while this was in our mind (animus), we were called back by two into a house, which we entered; and the angel, speaking with them for me, explained the reason of our coming to this heaven, informing them that it was "for the sake of instruction, concerning the customs of the Ancients, of whom you are.

"They replied, 'We were from the peoples in Asia, and the study of our age was the study of truths, through which we had intelligence. This study was the study of our soul and of our mind. But the study of the senses of our bodies was the representations of truths in natural forms; and the knowledge of correspondences conjoined the sensations of our bodies with the perceptions of our minds, thus natural and corporeal things with spiritual and celestial, and procured for us communication with the angels of heaven.'

[6] "On hearing these things, the angel requested them to relate something about marriages among them. So the husband said,

'There is a correspondence between spiritual marriage, which is that of good and truth, and natural marriage, which is that of man and wife; and as we studied correspondences, we saw that the Church, with its truths and goods, can exist only with those who live in truly conjugial love; for the marriage of good and truth is the Church with man. Wherefore, all we who are in this heaven, say that the husband is truth, and the wife the good of his truth; and that good cannot love any other truth than that which is its own, nor truth love in return any other good than that which is its own; if any other were loved, the internal or spiritual marriage, which constitutes the Church, would perish, and marriage would become only external or natural, to which idolatry, and not the Church, corresponds.'

[7] "On his concluding these remarks, we were conducted into an ante-chamber, where were many designs on the walls, and little images cast as it were in silver; and I asked, 'What are these?' They said, 'They are pictures and images representative of the many qualities, properties and delights of spiritual things'; as were also the cherubim and palm-trees on the walls of the Temple at Jerusalem.

"After these things, there appeared at a distance a carriage drawn by small white horses; on seeing which the angel said, 'That carriage is a sign for us to depart.' Then, as we were going down the steps, our host gave us a bunch of white grapes with the vine leaves attached; and lo! the leaves became silver in our hands; and we brought them away for a token that we had spoken with people of the Silver Age."

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

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Conjugial Love #78

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78. The fourth account:

Two days later the angel spoke with me again, saying, "Let us complete the course of the ages. The last age remains, which is named after iron. The people of this age live in the north, on the western side, extending inward or in a latitudinal direction towards the interior. They all come from early inhabitants of Asia who had the Ancient Word and who worshiped according to it. Consequently they lived before the advent of our Lord into the world. This is apparent from the writings of ancient authors in which those times are given these names. The same ages are meant by the statue seen by Nebuchadnezzar, whose head was of gold, its breast and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, and its feet of iron and also clay (Daniel 2:32-33)."

[2] The angel told me this on the way, which was shortened and speeded along by the changes of state produced in our minds according to the character of the inhabitants through whom we passed. For intervals of space, and therefore distances, in the spiritual world are appearances in accordance with states of mind.

When we lifted our eyes, behold, we were in a forest consisting of beech trees, horse chestnuts and oaks. And when we looked around, we caught sight of bears there to the left and leopards to the right.

When I wondered at this, the angel said, "They are not really bears or leopards, but people who guard these inhabitants of the north. With their noses they sniff the atmospheres of life emanating from passers-by, and rush upon all who are spiritual, because the inhabitants are natural. People who only read the Word and take nothing of doctrine from it, at a distance look like bears. And people who confirm falsities from it look like leopards."

But having seen us, they turned away and we passed on.

[3] After the forest we saw scrubland, and then grassy plains divided into fields and surrounded by boxwood. After this the ground sloped downward to a valley, in which there were cities, one after another. We passed by several of them and entered into one great one. Its streets were irregular. So, too, were its houses. These were built out of bricks, with timbers in between, and plastered.

In the squares we found chapels made of cut limestone, with the lower part of the buildings below ground level, and the upper part above. We went down three steps into one of these, and around on the walls we saw idols in various forms, and a lot of people on their knees worshiping them. In the middle of them was a choir, out of which the tutelary god of the city projected so that his head could be seen.

As we were leaving, the angel said to me that among the ancient peoples who lived in the silver age (spoken of above), these idols were images representative of spiritual truths and moral virtues. And that when a knowledge of correspondences faded from memory and became extinct, these images became first objects of worship and afterwards were adored as deities. This was the origin of idolatries.

[4] When we were outside the chapel, we observed the people and their dress. They had steel-like faces, gray-colored, and they were dressed like clowns, with skirts around their hips and thighs hanging down from a shirt tied at the chest. And on their heads they had the cocked hats of sailors.

"But enough of this," the angel said. "We are here to be instructed about the marriages of the people of this age."

So we entered into the house of an important person, who had on his head a turreted headdress. He received us kindly and said, "Come in, and let us have a conversation together."

We went into the entrance hall and sat down there. Then I asked him about the marriages in this city and general area.

He said, "We do not live with one wife, but some people have two or three wives, and some more. That is because the variety, submissiveness, and honor entertain us, as though we were kings. These are the things we have from our wives when there is more than one. With only one wife we would not have the pleasure of variety but boredom resulting from sameness. We would not have the deference of submission but the irritation of equality. Nor would we have the bliss of ruling with its accompanying honor, but the annoyance of struggling for superiority.

"After all, what is a woman? Is she not born subject to a man's will, and born to serve and not to rule? For this reason every man here in his own house is like a royal majesty. Because this is what we like, it is also the blessing of our life."

[5] But I asked, "Where, then, is conjugial love, which forms two souls into one? And joins minds together and blesses a person? This love cannot be a divided love. If it is, it becomes a passion which evaporates and passes away."

To this he replied, "I do not understand what you are saying. What else blesses a person but the rivalry of wives for the honor of being first with her husband?"

Saying this, the man went into his harem and opened its double doors. But a libidinous odor came out of it which stank like a cesspool. This was the result of polygamous love, which is matrimonial and at the same time licentious. I got up, therefore, and closed the doors.

[6] Afterwards I said, "How can you remain in this land, when none of you have truly conjugial love, and when you also worship idols?"

He replied, "With respect to marital love, we are so violently jealous of our wives that we do not allow anyone to enter our houses past the entrance halls. And where there is jealousy there is also love.

"As for the idols, we do not worship them, but we cannot think about the God of the universe except through images presented to our eyes. For we cannot raise our thoughts above the sense impressions of the body, nor can we raise our thoughts about God above the visible things we can see."

Then again I asked, "Do your idols not have various forms? How can they present a vision of one God?"

To this he replied, "It is a mystery to us. Something having to do with the worship of God lies hidden in every form."

So I said, "You are merely sensual, carnal people. You do not have any love for God, nor any love for a married partner that derives anything from spiritual love. And it is these loves that together shape a human being, and from being sensual make him heavenly."

[7] When I said this, I saw through the doorway what seemed to be a flash of lightning. And I asked, "What is this?"

He said, "Lightning like this is a signal to us that the ancient one of the east is coming, who teaches us about God - that He is one, alone the Almighty, who is the First and the Last. He also warns us not to worship the idols, but only to look on them as images representing virtues that emanate from the one God, which together form a worship of Him. This ancient one is our angel, whom we respect and listen to. He comes to us and raises us up whenever we fall into a hazy worship of God owing to some delusion regarding the images."

[8] Having heard this, we departed from the house and from the city, and on the way, from the things we had seen in heaven, we formed conclusions regarding the course and progress of conjugial love. With respect to its course, we observed that it had moved in a circle from the east to the south, from there to the west, and from there into the north. With respect to its progress, we saw that it had declined as it went - in other words, that it had been celestial in the east, spiritual in the south, natural in the west, and sensual in the north. We also noted as well that it had declined in the same measure that the love and worship of God declined.

Consequently we formed this conclusion, that conjugial love in the first age was like gold, in the second age like silver, in the third age like bronze, and in the fourth age like iron, and that at last it ceased to exist.

But afterwards my angel guide and companion said, "Nevertheless, I am sustained by the hope that the God of heaven, who is the Lord, will revive this love, because it is possible for it to be revived."

  
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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.

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