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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 #661

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661. 1 At this point I shall insert the following accounts of experiences, of which this is the first.

In the higher northern region of the spiritual world near to the east there are places of instruction for boys. (There are also places for youths, men and old men.) All who died in childhood are sent to these places and are brought up in heaven. Likewise all who are recent arrivals from the world, and want to know about heaven and hell, are sent there. The area is close to the east, so that all may be taught by the inflow from the Lord. For the Lord is the east, being in the sun there, which is undiluted love coming from Him. Hence the heat from that sun is in essence love, and the light from it is in essence wisdom. These are breathed into them by the Lord from that sun; the degree to which this happens is dependent upon their ability to receive it, and this is dependent on their love for being wise. After periods of instruction those who have become intelligent are discharged from there, and these are called the Lord's disciples. On being discharged they go first to the west, and those who do not remain there proceed to the south, some passing through the south to the east. They are admitted to communities where they will be given a home.

[2] Once when I was reflecting about heaven and hell, I began to wish I had a general knowledge of the state of each. I knew that anyone with a general knowledge can afterwards grasp the particulars, since these are contained in the general view, like parts in the whole. So under the influence of that desire I looked towards that region in the north bordering on the east, where the places of instruction were, and went there by a road which was then opened up for me. I went into one college where there were young men, and approaching the senior teachers who were instructing them, I asked whether they knew any general facts about heaven and hell.

They replied that they only knew a little; 'but,' they said, 'if we look eastwards towards the Lord, we shall be enlightened and then shall know.'

[3] They did so, and said: 'There are three general facts about hell, but those about hell are diametrically opposed to those about heaven. The general facts about hell are the three loves: the love of controlling as the result of self-love, the love of possessing other people's goods as a result of love of the world, and scortatory 2 love. The general facts about heaven are the opposite three loves: the love of controlling as the result of being of service, the love of possessing worldly goods as the result of the love of being of service by their means, and truly conjugial love.'

After this conversation I wished them peace, and leaving them went back home. When I was at home, I was told from heaven: 'Examine those three general facts above and below, and then we shall see them on your hand.' They said 'on your hand' because everything a person examines with his understanding appears to the angels as if written on his hands. That is why it is said in Revelation that they had a mark on their forehead and on their hand (Revelation 13:16; 14:9; 20:4).

[4] After this I examined the first general love of hell, the love of controlling as the result of self-love, and then the general love of heaven which is its opposite, the love of controlling as the result of the love of being of service. I was not allowed to examine one love without the other, because the understanding does not perceive one love without the other, since they are opposites. So in order to perceive either, they need to be set opposite, each facing the other. For a pretty or beautiful face shines out when confronted by its ugly and deformed opposite. When I discussed the love of controlling as the result of self-love, I was allowed to perceive that this love is hellish above all others, and so is experienced by those who are in the deepest hell; and the love of controlling as the result of the love of being of service is heavenly above all others, and is experienced by those who are in the highest heaven.

[5] The reason why the love of controlling others as the result of self-love is hellish above all others is that controlling as the result of self-love comes from the self (proprium), and a person's self is from birth sheer evil, and sheer evil is diametrically opposed to the Lord. The more, therefore, these people advance into that evil, the more they deny God and the holy things of the church, worshipping themselves and Nature. I beg those who are possessed by that evil to seek it out in themselves, and then they will see it.

This love is also such that in so far as checks are relaxed, something that happens provided there is no insuperable obstacle, it rushes from one stage to the next until it reaches its acme. Nor does it even stop there, but grieves and groans, if there is no further stage for it to reach.

[6] In the case of politicians this love climbs so high that they want to be kings and emperors, and control, if possible, everything in the world, earning the title of king of kings and emperor of emperors. In the case of clergy the same love rises to the point that they want to be gods and, so far as possible, to control everything in heaven, acquiring the title god of gods 3 . It will be seen in what follows that both these groups of people do not at heart acknowledge any God. On the other hand, those who want to exercise control from a love of being of service are unwilling to exercise control from themselves, wanting it to be from the Lord, since the love of being of service is from the Lord, and is the Lord Himself. These people look upon high offices as nothing but means to be of service. They regard such services as far superior to high office, but the others regard high office as far superior to services.

[7] When I had reached this point in my reflexion, word was sent to me by the Lord through an angel who said: 'Now you shall see and receive visual proof of what that hellish love is like.'

The ground suddenly opened on the left, and I saw a devil coming up from hell. On his head he had a square hat pulled down over his forehead to the eyes, a face covered in spots like those of a raging fever, glowering eyes, and a chest swollen up in the shape of a lozenge 4 . He belched smoke from his mouth like a furnace, his loins were plainly on fire, and in place of feet he had bony ankles devoid of flesh. His body gave off a heat that smelt rotten and filthy. I was terrified by this apparition, and called out: 'Don't come closer. Tell me where you are from.'

'I am from the underworld,' he replied in a hoarse voice, 'and I belong with two hundred others to a community which is the most exalted of all. All of us there are emperors of emperors, kings of kings, dukes of dukes, princes of princes. There is no one there who is merely an emperor, king, duke or prince. There we sit on thrones of thrones, from where we despatch our commands through all the world, and beyond.'

'Don't you see,' I said to him, 'that your imagined pre-eminence has driven you mad?'

'How can you say such a thing,' he replied, 'when this is exactly what we seem to ourselves to be and we are acknowledged by our companions as such?'

[8] On hearing this I was unwilling to go on telling him he was mad, because his madness was the result of his imagination. I was allowed to know that when that devil lived in the world he had been nothing but the steward of a household. He had then been so haughty in spirit that he despised the whole human race compared with himself, and indulged in the fancy that he was of higher rank than the king or even the emperor. This pride made him deny the existence of God and treat all the holy things of the church as of no value to him, but merely something for the unintelligent populace.

At length I asked him: 'How long are the two hundred of you there going to go on boasting to one another?'

'For ever,' he said. 'But those of us who torture others for denying our pre-eminence sink down below. For we are allowed to boast, but not to harm anyone.'

'Do you know,' I went on to ask, 'what awaits those who sink down below?' He said that they sink into a sort of prison, where they are called lower than the low, the lowliest of all, and there they work. Then I told the devil to take care that he too did not sink down.

[9] After this the ground opened again, but this time on the right, and I saw another devil rising up. He had on his head a sort of mitre with coils wrapped round it like a snake's, but with its peak jutting out. His face was leprous from forehead to chin, and so were both hands. His loins were bare and black as soot with a dull glow of fire as if from a hearth showing through. His ankles were like two vipers.

The first devil on seeing him went down on his knees and worshipped him. I asked him why.

'He is the God', he answered, 'of heaven and earth, and is omnipotent.'

So I asked the other devil: 'What have you got to say to this?'

'What can I say?' he replied. 'I have all power over heaven and hell; the fate of all souls is in my hand.'

'How can he,' I asked again, 'who is emperor of emperors so humble himself, and how can you accept his worship?'

'He is none the less my servant,' he replied. 'What is an emperor in the sight of God? I hold in my right hand the thunderbolt of excommunication.'

[10] Then I said to him: 'How can you be so crazy? In the world you were only an ordinary clergyman; and because you laboured under the delusion that you had the keys, and so the power to bind and to release, you let your spirit be so far carried away that you have now reached such a pitch of madness as to make you believe that you are God Himself.'

He was annoyed at this and swore that he was, and that the Lord had no power in heaven; 'because,' he said, 'He has transferred it all to us. We need only issue orders, and heaven and hell respectfully obey us. If we send anyone to hell, the devils immediately accept him; and so do the angels when we send anyone to heaven.'

'How many,' I went on to ask, 'are there of you in your community?'

'Three hundred,' he said, 'and all of us are gods; but I am the god of gods.'

[11] After this the ground opened beneath the feet of both, and they sank deep down to their own hells. I was allowed to see, and beneath their hells were prison workshops, into which any who harm others can fall. For everyone in hell is allowed to keep his delusion and to boast about it, but not to do anyone else harm. The reason why people there are like this is that a person is then in his spirit, and the spirit, when it has been separated from the body, enjoys complete freedom to act in accordance with its affections and the thoughts they give rise to.

[12] Later I was allowed to look into their hells. The hell, where the emperors of emperors and kings of kings were, was full of all kinds of filth. They themselves looked like various wild beasts with glowering eyes. It was much the same in the other hell, where the gods and the god of gods were. In that hell were to be seen the ill-omened night birds called ochim and iyim 5 flying around them. Their delusions produced images like this to my sight.

These experiences made it plain what the self-love of politicians and ecclesiastics is like. The latter want to be gods, the former emperors. In so far as the restraints placed on these loves are relaxed, they want this and strive to achieve this.

[13] After seeing these sad and horrifying sights I looked around and saw two angels standing not far from me in conversation. One was dressed in a woollen robe gleaming with flaming purple with a tunic of glistening linen underneath. The other was similarly dressed in red with a mitre which had a few rubies mounted on the right side. I went up to them and greeted them with the word 'peace'. I asked respectfully: 'Why are you down here?'

'We have travelled down here from heaven,' they replied, 'in response to the Lord's instruction that we were to talk to you about the blessed state of those who want to control others because they love performing services. We are worshippers of the Lord; I am the prince of our community, and the other is the chief priest in it.'

The prince said that he was the servant of his community, since he served it by performing services. The other one said that he was the minister of the church there, since his service to them was the administration of holy rites for the service of their souls. They both enjoyed perpetual joys arising from the everlasting happiness the Lord bestows on them. They said that everything in their community was splendid and magnificent, gleaming with gold and precious stones, and magnificent in its palaces and parks. 'The reason,' he said, 'is that our love of controlling others does not arise from self-love, but from the love of performing services. Since this love comes from the Lord, all good services in heaven sparkle and gleam. And since all in our community share this love, the atmosphere there appears golden as the result of the light it receives from the sun's flame. It is this flame-coloured sunlight which corresponds to that love.'

[14] When they said this an atmosphere of this kind became visible around them; and I smelt an aroma from it, as I also told them. I begged them to add a little more to what they had said about the love of performing services. So they went on to say: 'The ranks we enjoy are something we sought, but for no other purpose than to perform services more fully and to spread them over a wider range. We also have honours heaped on us, and we accept them, not for ourselves, but for the good of the community. Our brethren and colleagues who belong to the common people there are hardly aware that the honours of our rank are not in us or that the services we perform do not come from us. But we can tell the difference; we feel that the honours of rank lie outside us, being like clothes in which we dress. But the services we perform come from the love of performing them which is within us coming from the Lord, and this love derives its blessedness by being shared with others by means of services performed. We know by experience that in so far as we perform services as a result of our love for them, so far does that love increase, and wisdom increases with it, as a result of which it is shared. But to the extent that we keep these services to ourselves and do not share them, to that extent our blessedness departs. Then the performing of services becomes like food stored in the stomach instead of being carried around to nourish the body and its parts; but if it remains undigested it causes nausea. In short, the whole of heaven is nothing but a container of services, from first to last. What is a service but the realisation in action of love for the neighbour? And what holds the heavens together but this love?'

[15] On hearing this I asked: 'How can anyone tell whether he is performing services out of self-love or out of a love of service? Everyone, good as well as wicked, performs services and does so at the bidding of some love. Suppose that in the world there were a community composed of none but devils, and another composed of none but angels. It is my opinion that the devils in their community, fired by self-love and resplendent in their self-esteem, would perform just as many services as the angels in their community. Who then can tell what is the love and the origin from which these services come?'

The two angels replied to this speech thus: 'Devils perform services for their own sakes and to get a reputation, so as to be promoted to honours, or to make a profit. But angels do not perform services for these reasons, but for the sake of the services and their love of being of service. No man can distinguish between those services, but the Lord can. Everyone who believes in the Lord and shuns evils as sins performs services at the Lord's bidding. But anyone who does not believe in the Lord, and does not shun evils as sins, performs services for himself and for his own sake. This is the difference between services performed by devils and those performed by angels.'

After saying this the two angels went away; and from a distance they appeared to be travelling in a chariot of fire like Elijah, until they were taken up into their own heaven.

Footnotes:

1. This passage is repeated from Conjugial Love 261-266.

2. A technical term used to mean the love of adultery not regarded as a sin, the opposite of conjugial or marriage love; see Conjugial Love 423.

3. The last two words are added from the parallel passage in Conjugial Love 262-263.

4. It is impossible to be sure exactly what this phrase means.

5. Hebrew words apparently meaning 'howling creatures'.

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

From Swedenborg's Works

 

True Christian Religion #503

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503. At this point I shall add some accounts of experiences. The first experience.

I heard that a meeting had been called to discuss man's free will in spiritual matters - this was in the spiritual world. There were present from every quarter learned men, who had thought about the subject in the world in which they had previously lived, and many of them had been at councils and synods, both before and after that of Nicaea. They gathered in a sort of circular temple, like the one at Rome known as the Pantheon, which was formerly dedicated to the worship of all the gods, but subsequently consecrated by the papacy to the cult of all the holy martyrs. Around the walls of the temple were what looked like altars; but each had chairs drawn up to it, on which those who had gathered sat, and rested their elbows on the altars as if they were so many tables. No one had been appointed to preside over their meeting, but one by one, as the fancy took them, they broke ranks and coming into the centre gave vent to and made known their opinion. To my surprise, all the members of this assembly were full of arguments in favour of man's complete lack of power in spiritual matters, and they ridiculed the idea of free will in this respect.

[2] When they were assembled one man suddenly rushed into the centre and cried out in a loud voice: 'Man has no free will in spiritual matters, any more than Lot's wife had after she was turned into a pillar of salt. For most certainly, if man had any more freedom, he would of his own accord claim as his own the faith of our church. This is that God the Father in complete freedom and at His good pleasure confers that faith as a free gift on whomever He wishes, whenever He wishes. God would never have this good pleasure nor make this free gift, if by some sort of freedom or good pleasure man could also claim it for himself. For if this happened, our faith, a star which shines before our eyes night and day, would be scattered into the air like a shooting star.'

He was followed by another man who jumped up from his seat and said: 'Man has no more free will in spiritual matters than an animal, or rather, than a dog, because, if he had, he would do good of his own accord, whereas all good comes from God, and man cannot get anything for himself but what is given to him from heaven.'

[3] He was followed by another who leaped up from his seat and spoke from the centre. He said that man has no more free will in spiritual matters, or even in discerning these, than an owl has in daylight, or rather, than a chick has while it is still hidden in the egg. 'In such matters he is as blind as a mole; for if he was a veritable Lynceus 1 to discern what has to do with faith, salvation and everlasting life, he would believe that he could regenerate and save himself, and would actually attempt it, thus profaning his thoughts and deeds with seeking more and more merit.'

Yet another ran out into the centre and delivered this utterance, that anyone of the opinion that he can will or understand anything in spiritual matters since the fall of Adam is raving and becoming deranged, since he would then believe himself to be a tin god or supernatural being, possessing in his own right some portion of God's power.

[4] He was followed by a man who came panting into the centre, carrying under his arm a book, called the Formula of Concord; the Evangelicals at the present time swear by what he called its orthodoxy. He opened it and read out the following passage:

Man with regard to good is utterly corrupt and dead, so that there has remained and subsists in man's nature since the fall before regeneration not so much as a spark of spiritual strength, to enable him to be prepared for God's grace or to seize it when it is offered; or to be capable of receiving that grace of his own accord by his own efforts; or in spiritual matters to understand, believe, endorse, think, will, begin, complete, act, work, co-operate or apply or adapt himself to grace, or to make any contribution, to the extent of a half or even the smallest part, to his conversion. In spiritual matters relating to the salvation of the soul man is like the pillar of salt which was Lot's wife, resembling a block of wood or stone devoid of life, without the use of the eyes, the mouth or any senses. However he has the power of movement and the control of his external members, so as to attend public gatherings and hear the Word and the Gospel. (pp. 656, 658, 661-663, 671-673 in my edition.)

After this all expressed their agreement, crying out together: 'This is true orthodoxy.'

[5] I was standing close by and listening intently to all this, and since in my spirit I was incensed I asked in a loud voice: 'If you make man in spiritual matters a pillar of salt, an animal, blind and mad, what then becomes of your theology? Is not everything in theology a spiritual matter?'

After a period of silence they replied to this: 'The whole of our theology contains nothing spiritual apprehensible by reason. Our faith is the only item in it which is spiritual. But we have carefully shut up our faith to prevent anyone looking into it, and have taken precautions to ensure that no gleam of spirituality escapes from it so as to become visible to the understanding. Moreover man does not by any choice of his own contribute a whit to it. We have also removed charity from any spiritual idea, making it purely a moral matter, and we have treated the Ten Commandments likewise. Neither do we teach that there is anything spiritual about justification, the forgiveness of sins, regeneration and salvation by this means. We say that faith brings these about, but how we have no idea. In place of repentance we have adopted contrition, but to prevent it being thought to be spiritual we have removed it from all contact with faith. Neither have we adopted any but purely natural ideas about redemption. These are, that God the Father placed the human race under sentence of damnation, His Son took that sentence upon Himself, and allowed Himself to be hung upon the cross, thus compelling His Father to have mercy; and we have many more such ideas, in which you will not be able to detect anything spiritual, but only what is completely natural.'

[6] But, so incensed had I already become, I went on to say: 'If man had no free will in spiritual matters, what would he be but a beast? Surely this is what gives him his superiority over mere beasts? What would the church be without it, but the blackened face of a wall-eyed fuller? What would the Word be without it, but a blank book? Is there anything the Word says and commands more often than that man is to love God and to love the neighbour, and he is to believe that his salvation and life depend upon how he loves and believes? Is there anyone who is unable to understand and do what is laid down in the Word and in the Ten Commandments? How could God have prescribed and commanded man to do such things, if He had not given him the capability to do them?

[7] Tell any peasant, someone whose mind is not bogged down in fallacies about theology, that in what concerns faith and charity and the salvation they bring he can no more understand and will than a block of wood or a stone, not even being able to devote himself to or fit himself for them, surely he will roar with laughter and say: "How crazy can you get? What need have I then of a priest and his sermons? How is a church then any better than a stable? How then is worshipping any better than ploughing? What madness it is to talk like that, piling folly on folly. Does anyone deny that all good is from God? Surely man is permitted to do good of himself by God's guidance? And it is much the same with believing."'

On hearing this they all cried: 'We gave an orthodox view based on orthodox principles, you have given a peasant's view based on peasants' principles.' Then suddenly a thunderbolt fell from the sky, and they rushed out in droves for fear it would burn them up, and they all went away, each to his own home.

Footnotes:

1. In Greek mythology a man famous for his acute vision.

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

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