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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 #80

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80. The fifth experience.

Once a satan was given leave to come up from hell together with a woman, and he approached the house where I was. On seeing them I shut the window, but carried on a conversation with them through it. I asked the Satan where he came from, and he said from the company of his own people.

I asked where the woman came from, and he made the same reply. She belonged to the crew of sirens. Their skill is by fantasy to put on every appearance of beauty and every adornment of dress. At one time they assume the beauty of Venus, at another the charm of countenance of a Muse, at another they deck themselves like queens in crowns and robes, and pace in regal fashion leaning on silver staves. Such women in the spiritual world are prostitutes and specialise in fantasy. They induce fantasies by thinking sensually, which blocks any ideas from a more inward mode of thinking.

I asked the Satan if she was his wife. 'What is a wife?' he replied. 'This is a term unknown to me and my community; she is my woman.' Then she roused her man's lewdness, a thing these sirens are skilled in doing. On feeling this he kissed her, saying, 'Oh my Adonis!'

[2] But to more serious matters. I asked the Satan what was his calling. 'My calling,' he said, 'is learning; don't you see the laurel wreath on my head? 'This his Adonis had conjured up by her magic arts and put on his head from behind.

'Since you come from a community,' I said, 'where there are schools of learning, tell me what you and your companions believe about God.' 'God,' he replied, 'is for us the universe, which we also call nature. Simple folk in our country call it the atmosphere, by which they mean the air; but the intelligent mean the atmosphere which is also the ether. God, heaven, angels and the like, the subject of many tales in this world, are idle words and fictions inspired by meteors, which many people here have seen flash before their eyes. Is not everything to be seen upon earth the creation of the sun? Every time it approaches in springtime are not insects born, with and without wings? Does not its heat make birds love each other and reproduce? And does not the earth, warmed by its heat, cause seed to sprout and produce fruits as its offspring? Does this not mean that the universe is God, and nature a goddess, and she as the wife of the universe conceives, bears, rears and nurtures these things?'

[3] I went on to ask what he and his community believed about religion. 'We who are educated above the ordinary level,' he replied, 'look on religion as nothing but a toy for the common people. The sensory and imaginative areas of their minds are surrounded with a sort of aura, in which religious ideas flit about like butterflies in the air. Their faith, which links these ideas into a sort of chain, resembles a silk-worm in its cocoon, from which the king of butterflies flutters forth. For the uneducated masses love images which rise above the bodily senses and the thoughts they engender, because they have a longing to fly. So they make themselves wings, so that they can soar like eagles and show off in front of the earth-bound, saying, 'Look at me!' We, however, believe what we see and love what we touch.' At this he touched his woman, saying, 'This I believe, because I see and touch it. But we throw all that sort of rubbish out of our windows of mica, and waft it away on a gale of laughter.'

[4] Then I asked his opinion and that of his companions on heaven and hell. He laughed and said: 'What is heaven but the ethereal firmament on high? What are angels but spots wandering round the sun? What are archangels but comets with their long tails, on which their company lives? What is hell but marshland full of frogs and crocodiles, which their imagination turns into devils? Everything but these ideas of heaven and hell is mere nonsense, thought up by some church dignitary to seek fame among an ignorant populace.'

He said all this exactly as he had thought in the world, unaware that he was living after death, and forgetful of everything he had been told when he first entered the world of spirits. Therefore even when asked about life after death, he replied that it was a figment of the imagination, but there might perhaps be some effluvium given off by the corpse in the grave in shape resembling a person, or something like the ghosts which some tell tales about, and this had led people to fantasise on the subject.

[5] On hearing this I could no longer stop myself bursting out laughing. 'Satan,' I said, 'you really are mad. What are you now? Are you not in shape like a person? Don't you talk, see, hear and walk? Remember that you lived in another world, which you have forgotten, and now you are alive after death, yet have been speaking exactly as you did before you died.'

He was given back his memory, and on remembering he was ashamed and cried: 'I am mad. I have seen heaven up above, and heard angels there speak things beyond description. But this was when I was a recent arrival. Now I shall remember this to tell the companions I left behind, and then perhaps they will be ashamed too.' He had it on the tip of his tongue to call them mad, but as he went down forgetfulness blotted out his memory, so that on arrival he was as mad as they were, and called what I had told him madness.

Such is the state of thought and conversation among satans after death. The name of satans is given to those who have convinced themselves of falsities until they completely believe them, and the name of devils to those who have fostered evils in their characters by living a wicked life.

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

From Swedenborg's Works

 

True Christian Religion #135

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135. The second experience.

On waking up one morning I saw the sun of the spiritual world shining brightly, and below it I saw the heavens at a great distance, as remote as the earth is from its sun. From these heavens inarticulate sounds were audible, which joined to form an intelligible utterance: 'God is one, He is man and His dwelling is in that sun.' This utterance passed down through the middle heavens to the lowest, and from there into the world of spirits, where I was; and I noticed that the angels' idea of one God as it gradually descended was turned into the idea of three Gods. This observation induced me to start a conversation with those who thought of three Gods. 'What a monstrous idea!' I said, 'Where did you get it?'

'We think of three,' they replied, 'because this is how we grasp the idea of a Triune God, but still we do not allow it to pass our lips. In speaking we always say out loud that God is one. If we have a different idea in our minds, so be it, so long as it does not spill over and shatter the oneness of God when we speak. Even so, from time to time it does spill over, because it is within our minds, and at such times, if we were to speak out, we should say that there were three Gods. We take care to avoid this, so as not to become a laughing stock to our hearers.'

[2] Then they began openly to speak as they thought. 'Surely there are three Gods,' they said, 'since there are three Divine Persons, each of whom is God. We cannot think differently when the leader of our church quotes a whole bookcase full of his holy dogmas, ascribing to one creation, to a second redemption, to a third sanctifying; even more so when he attributes to each of them His own characteristic, which he says cannot be shared; and these are not merely creation, redemption and sanctifying, but also imputation, mediation and performance. Is there not then one God who created us and also imputes righteousness to us? Another who redeemed us, and also acts as mediator? And a third who puts into effect the imputation which is achieved through mediation, and also sanctifies us? Is there anyone who does not know that the Son of God was sent into the world by God the Father to redeem the human race, and thus become an expiator, mediator, propitiator and intercessor? And since He is identical with the Son of God from eternity, are there not two quite distinct Persons? And since these two Persons are in heaven, one sitting at the right hand of the other, must there not be a third Person, who puts into effect in the world the decrees issued in heaven?'

[3] On hearing this I said nothing, but thought to myself: 'What idiocy! They do not have the slightest idea of what is meant by mediation in the Word.'

Then at the Lord's command three angels came down from heaven and joined me, so that I could employ inward perception in speaking with those who thought of three Gods. I was especially enabled to speak about mediation, intercession, propitiation and expiation, the functions they attribute to the second Person, the Son, but only after He had become man; and His incarnation took place many centuries after creation, so that during this period these four means to salvation did not yet exist. So then God the Father was not propitiated, no expiation had been made for the human race, nor had anyone been sent from heaven to intercede and mediate.

[4] Then I spoke with them by means of the inspiration I had received. 'Gather round,' I said, 'as many of you as can, and listen to what is meant in the Word by mediation, intercession, expiation and propitiation. These are the four things predicated of the grace of the one God in His Human. God the Father could under no circumstances be approached, nor can He approach any person, because he is infinite and in His Being (esse), which is Jehovah. If He approached anyone in that form, He would destroy him, as fire does wood, reducing it to ashes. This is plain from His reply when Moses desired to see Him: that no one can see Him and live (Exodus 33:20). The Lord too said that no one has ever seen God, except the Son who is in the Father's bosom (John 1:18; Matthew 11:27); and again, that no one has heard the Father's voice or seen His appearance (John 5:37). We do read that Moses saw Jehovah face to face, and spoke personally with Him; but this was done through an angel, and the same happened in the cases of Abraham and Gideon. Now because such is God the Father in Himself, He was pleased to take upon Himself human form, and in this to allow people to approach Him, so as to hear them and speak with them. It is this Human which is called the Son of God, and this it is which mediates, intercedes, propitiates and makes expiation. I shall tell you therefore what is the meaning of those four actions attributed to the Human of God the Father.

[5] 'Mediation means that the Human is the intermediary by means of which a person can approach God the Father, and God the Father can approach him, and so teach and guide him to salvation. This is why the Son of God, meaning the Human of God the Father, is called the Saviour, and on earth Jesus, which means salvation. Intercession means continual mediation; for love itself, to which mercy, clemency and grace belong, continually intercedes, that is, acts as intermediary for those who obey His commandments, and whom He loves. Expiation means the removal of the sins into which everyone would rush, if he were to approach Jehovah without mediation. Propitiation means the working of clemency and grace, to prevent anyone consigning himself to damnation through sins; likewise, protection against profaning what is holy. This was the meaning of the Mercy Seat above the Ark in the Tabernacle. 1

[6] 'It is well known that in the Word God spoke in terms of appearances. For instance, He is said to be angry, take vengeance, tempt, punish, cast into hell, damn, in fact to do evil. Yet the truth is that He is angry with no one, never takes vengeance, tempts, punishes, casts anyone into hell or damns him. Such actions are as remote from God as hell is from heaven, or rather infinitely more so. This is why they are expressions of appearances. In another sense, expiation, propitiation, intercession and mediation are also expressions of appearances, meaning the characteristics of approach to God and of grace coming from God by means of His Human. Failure to understand these things has led people to divide God into three, and base all the church's doctrine upon these three, thus falsifying the Word. This is the origin of the "abomination of desolation" which was predicted by the Lord in the book of Daniel, and further mentioned in Matthew, chapter 24.'

At the end of this speech the group of spirits around me broke up, and I noticed that those who were really thinking of three Gods were looking towards hell, and those who were thinking of one God, in whom is the Divine Trinity, which is in the Lord God the Saviour, were looking towards heaven. To this party there appeared the sun of heaven, in which is Jehovah in His Human.

Footnotes:

1. Exodus 25:17-22.

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

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