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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

 

Doctrine of the Sacred Scripture #90

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90. Because we are dealing here with the Divinity and holiness of the Word, to what we have already said let me add a relevant narrative account.

I was once sent a little piece of paper from heaven with Hebrew letters on it, but letters written as they were among the ancient people. Today the letters are to some extent formed with straight lines, but among the most ancient peoples they were then rounded and had little hornlike strokes projecting upward. Angels who were with me then said they knew whole meanings from the letters alone, and that they knew the meanings chiefly from the curves of the lines and points of a letter. They then explained what some letters signified separately, and what in combination, saying that he (h), which was added to the names of Abram and Sarai, symbolized infinity and eternity.

The angels explained for me, moreover, the meaning of the Word in Psalms 32:2 from just the letters or syllables alone, the gist of their meaning being that the Lord is merciful also to those who do evil.

[2] They informed me that writing in the third heaven consists of no straight letters, but of letters variously curved, each of which has a meaning, and that the vowel points there serve to indicate the part of the pronunciation which corresponds to affection; that in that heaven they cannot pronounce the vowels i and e, but instead say y or eu; and they do use the vowels a, o, and u, because these vowels have a full sound. They also said they do not pronounce any of the consonants as hard, but as soft. This, they said, is the reason some Hebrew letters have a dot placed within them, to indicate [that they are pronounced as hard, but without a dot] that they are pronounced with a soft sound, saying that hardness in consonants is employed in the spiritual heaven, because there they are concerned with truths, and truth is capable of hardness, unlike the goodness that prompts angels of the celestial kingdom or third heaven.

They said, too, that the Word they have is written with curved letters having symbolic little hornlike projections and points.

It was apparent from this what is meant by the Lord’s saying, “Not one jot or one tittle will pass from the law till all is fulfilled, ” (Matthew 5:18). And, “It is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one point of the law to fail” (Luke 16:17).

  
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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 #569

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569. The third experience.

Every love a person has emits a pleasing sensation which allows it to be felt. It is transmitted immediately into the spirit, from where it passes into the body. The pleasure of a person's love together with the beauty of his thought makes up his life. These pleasures and beauties are only dimly felt by a person, so long as he lives in this natural body, for this body absorbs and blunts them. But after death, when the material body is taken away, thus removing the covering or clothing of the spirit, then the pleasures of his love and the beauties of his thought are fully felt and perceived. It is remarkable that they are sometimes perceived as smells. This is the reason why the company all in the spiritual world keep depends upon their loves, those in heaven depending on their loves, and those in hell depending on theirs.

[2] All the smells, into which the pleasures of loves are turned in heaven, are experienced as the kind of sweet and fragrant smells, the lovely breaths and delightful sensations, which are experienced in gardens, flower-beds, fields and woods in the morning in springtime. The smells, into which the pleasures of the loves of the inhabitants of hell are turned, are experienced as rank, fetid and rotten stenches, such as arise from latrines, corpses and ponds full of garbage and excrement. It is remarkable that to the devils and satans there these smell like balsam, perfumes and incense, which refresh their nostrils and hearts. In the natural world too animals, birds and insects use smells to select their company, but this is not then allowed to human beings, until they have sloughed off their bodies.

[3] This is why heaven is arranged in the most elaborate order in keeping with all the varieties of love for good, and hell by contraries in keeping with all the varieties of love for evil. It is because of this opposition that there is between heaven and hell a gap that cannot be crossed. For the inhabitants of heaven cannot tolerate any smell from hell, since it causes them nausea and vomiting, and threatens to render them unconscious, if they sniff it. Much the same happens to the inhabitants of hell, if they pass beyond the mid-point of that gap.

[4] I once saw a devil, who looked from a distance like a leopard - I had seen him a few days before among the angels of the lowest heaven, since he knew how to disguise himself as an angel of light. He was crossing the mid-point and standing between two olive-trees without noticing any smell upsetting to his way of life. The reason was that no angels were present. As soon, however, as they came on the scene, he went into convulsions and fell to the ground with all his limbs contracted. He then appeared like a great snake writhing into coils, and finally rolling down through the gap. He was picked up by his companions and carried off to a cave where the foul smell of his own pleasure revived him.

[5] Another time too I saw a Satan punished by his companions. I asked the reason, and was told that he had blocked his nostrils and approached those who smelt of heaven, and on coming back brought that smell with him on his clothes. On a number of occasions it has happened that a stench as of a corpse rising from an open cave of hell has assailed my nostrils and made me feel like vomiting.

These facts can serve to establish why it is that smelling in the Word means perceiving. It is often stated that Jehovah smelt a welcome odour from burnt-offerings; and that the oil for anointing and incense were made from fragrant substances. On the other hand the Children of Israel were ordered to carry what was unclean in their camp outside the camp, and to bury and cover up their excrement (Deuteronomy 23:12-13). The reason was that the camp of Israel represented heaven, and the desert outside the camp represented hell.

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

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