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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

 

True Christian Religion #277

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277. Here I shall add some accounts of experiences, of which this is the first.

One day I wandered in the spirit around various parts of the spiritual world, with the intention of observing the representations of heavenly things, which are displayed in many places there. In one house occupied by angels I saw great money-bags, in which a large sum of money was stored. Since they were open, it looked as though anyone could help themselves to the money stored there, or even steal it all. But two young men sat next to the money-bags, to guard them. The place where they were put looked like a manger in a stable. In the next room some modest young women were to be seen accompanied by a respectable wife. Near that room stood two children, and I was told not to play with them like children, but to treat them wisely. Afterwards a whore appeared and a horse lying dead.

After seeing these scenes I was instructed that they represented the natural sense of the Word, which contains the spiritual sense. The large bags full of money meant an abundant supply of knowledge of truth. Their being open but guarded by young men meant that anyone can help himself to the knowledge of truth from this source, but precautions are taken to prevent anyone doing violence to the spiritual sense, which contains the bare truths. The manger as in a stable meant spiritual nourishment for the understanding; this is the meaning of a manger because a horse, which eats from it, means the understanding. The modest young women seen in the next room meant the affections for truth, and the respectable wife the joining of good and truth. The children meant the innocence of wisdom, for the angels of the highest heaven, who excel in wisdom, have as the result of their innocence the appearance of children, when seen at a distance. The whore with the dead horse meant the falsification of truth practised by many people at the present time, which destroys all understanding of truth; the whore meant falsification, the dead horse the understanding of truth reduced to zero.

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

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Conjugial Love #151

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151. 9. Chastity cannot be ascribed to people who are born eunuchs or who have been made eunuchs. 1 By people who are born eunuchs we mean chiefly people in whom the outmost impulse of love is missing from birth. And because the highest and intermediate impulses then lack a foundation on which to rest, neither do these impulses develop. Or if they do, the people are not concerned with distinguishing between chaste and unchaste states, since either one is a matter of indifference to them. The diversities among people like this, however, are many.

The case with people who have been made eunuchs is almost the same, as with some who are born eunuchs; only that having become eunuchs, and being such, whether men or women, therefore they cannot help but regard conjugial love as a fantasy and its delights as fairy tales. If anything of the inclination remains in them, it becomes silent, which is neither chaste nor unchaste; and being neither, it is incapable of being classed in one category or the other.

Footnotes:

1. Cf. Matthew 19:12.

  
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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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