Correspondence is the relationship between a natural thing and its spiritual meaning, and it exists according to that thing's use. The spiritual world and the natural world correspond; forms exist here because their purpose exists there. Sacred text such as in the Bible has outward form and inner meaning and the two are in complete correspondence.

This can be illustrated by the following example: when you see someone you love, you smile. It seems like a pretty simple process, but in reality, it's not; instead it’s a whole string of events, with simpler things relating to more complex ones, rising to the spiritual level and coming back down. First light bounces off that person’s face and enters your eyes. Your eyes send information to your brain. From there it passes into your mind - a spiritual organ, according to Swedenborg’s works - and registers in your consciousness. You recognize the person and feel love for them! But that has to get translated back down through the brain, which generates signals to all the facial muscles, which then contract or relax according to orders, producing a smile.

As you can see, the real activity here is mental. You “see” that face in your mind; before then it’s just a string of impulses carrying information. And you “smile” in your mind, with the information translated back into more impulses carry more information leading to physical activity. Your eyes don’t “know” what they’re seeing; your cheeks don’t “know” that they are smiling. They are simply projections of an internal, spiritual thing - your mind - into a lower physical reality.

That’s an example of correspondences, on a very small scale. What you see on the natural plane of existence corresponds to your idea of what you see and the affection you have for it. Your reaction in turn corresponds to the affection you have. The correspondence of one with the other is a way for the more important spiritual reality - the activity in your mind - to project itself into physical reality.

Swedenborg’s works tell us that those correspondences are more important than we could possibly imagine. In fact, everything in the physical world corresponds to something in the spiritual world. Mountains, for example, are not just mountains; they are the spiritual love of the Lord projected into physical reality in the form of mountains. Trees are rooted, lasting spiritual principles projected into physical reality in the forms of trees. A river is a flow of true spiritual ideas projected into physical reality. In a way, it’s like the spiritual world is one huge collective mind, expressing itself through physical reality the way our own minds express themselves through our own bodies.

And then there’s another level: Swedenborg’s works say that the most perfect form of spiritual reality, heaven, is in a state of complete, all-encompassing correspondence with the Lord, with each aspect of heaven expressing some aspect of the deepest reality of all, which is the Lord’s love and wisdom themselves. This is way out at the raw edge of what we can grasp, but it’s really quite beautiful. Spiritual reality is not part of the Lord, but it is from the Lord and can express the Lord as it approaches perfection. Physical reality is not part of the Lord and is not part of spiritual reality, but it is from the Lord by way of spiritual reality, and it can express spiritual reality (and thus the Lord) as it approaches perfection.

This is why the Lord had so many physical laws for the children of Israel: the prescribed physical actions corresponded to spiritual meanings, which in turn corresponded to aspects of the Lord Himself. It explains why we see advanced astronomy and awareness of nature in the remnants of ancient religions worldwide: They came from the Ancient Church, which had a surpassing knowledge of correspondences and used that knowledge in worship and life. To some degree it explains why we still love mountaintops, beautiful gardens, natural beauties like waterfalls: we can still feel the spiritual reality close inside them, even if we don’t know it in its specifics.

Correspondences also explain the continuing power of the Bible even in this skeptical age. The Lord provided that it should be written - most of it, anyway - in correspondences, which actually give access to His whole infinite being. We may not understand them, but that does not limit their power to teach us, to form our minds; this is why it’s important for people to read the Bible with open minds, to let the Lord enter in.

One other fascinating and meaningful aspect of correspondences comes in the form of what Swedenborg’s works call the “Grand Man” or “Grand Human.” Because heaven is in complete correspondence with the Lord and the Lord is the ultimate, infinite, divine and archetypal human, this means that heaven is in human form. And this is quite literal and precise: parts of heaven correspond the heart, others to the lungs, others to the brain, skin, ears, hair, digestive tract, everything. What’s more, just as the body’s organs are broken down into tissues and the tissues into cells, so also is the Grand Human broken down. So as an individual angel you might serve a brain function for a cell that performs a protective function for an organ that plays a digestive role in the Grand Human. That sounds a bit strange, but if you consider the unique mix of ideas and affections in each of us you can see how we could, indeed, fill such precise roles calling for such precise degrees of precisely layered talents.

And since physical reality is in correspondence with spiritual reality, this means that our communities and societies in this world are also in the human form, though obviously not all to a very perfected degree. This also sounds strange, but it’s an interesting exercise to think about the functions of the brain (to think and judge), the skin (to protect and hold together), the lungs (to draw in new thoughts and ideas), the digestive tract (to create energy to do work), heart (to circulate energy and ideas) and muscles (to do the actual work) and relate them to the functions of human organizations. Most likely, effective human organizations will indeed have these elements, and will have them in the proper balance.

Finally, of course, correspondences are one of the primary reasons for this website to exist. Our purpose is to share the knowledge of correspondences offered through Swedenborg’s works, so we can all understand the Bible, the Lord and ourselves a little bit better and find our own places in the Grand Human.

(Izinkomba: Heaven and Hell 89; The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine 261)

261. The Word is written by correspondences, and thus by representatives.

The Word, as to its literal sense, is written by mere correspondences, thus by such things as represent and signify spiritual things which relate to heaven and the church (n. 1404, 1408-1409, 1540, 1619, 1659, 1709, 1783, 2179, 2763, 2899). This was done for the sake of the internal sense, which is contained in every part (n. 2899). For the sake of heaven, since those who are in heaven do not understand the Word according to the sense of the letter, which is natural, but according to its internal sense, which is spiritual (n. 2899). The Lord spoke by correspondences, representatives, and significatives, because He spoke from the Divine (n. 9048, 9063, 9086, 10126, 10728). Thus the Lord spoke at the same time before the world and before heaven (n. 2533, 4807, 9048, 9063, 9086). The things which the Lord spoke filled the entire heaven (n. 4637). The historicals of the Word are representative, and the words significative (n. 1540, 1659, 1709, 1783, 2686). The Word could not be written in any other style, that by it there might be a communication and conjunction with the heavens (n. 2899, 6943, 9481). They who despise the Word on account of the apparent simplicity and rudeness of its style, and who fancy that they would receive the Word, if it were written in a different style, are in a great error (n. 8783). The mode and style of writing, which prevailed amongst the most ancient people, was by representatives and significatives (n. 605, 1756, 9942). The ancient wise men were delighted with the Word, because of the representatives and significatives therein, from experience (n. 2592-2593). If a man of the Most Ancient Church had read the Word, he would have seen the things which are in the internal sense clearly, and those which are in the external sense obscurely (n. 4493). The sons of Jacob were brought into the land of Canaan, because all the places in that land, from the most ancient times, were made representative (n. 1585, 3686, 4447, 5136, 6516). And thus that the Word might there be written, in which Word those places were to be mentioned for the sake of the internal sense (n. 3686, 4447, 5136, 6516). But nevertheless the Word was changed, for the sake of that nation, as to the external sense, but not as to the internal sense (n. 10453, 10461, 10603-10604). In order that it may be known what the correspondences and representatives in the Word are, and what is their quality, something shall also be said concerning them.

All things which correspond are likewise representative, and thereby significative, thus that correspondences and representatives are one (n. 2896-2897, 2973, 2987, 2989-2990, 3002, 3225). What correspondences and representations are, from experience and examples (n. 2763, 2987-3002, 3213-3226, 3337-3352, 3472-3485, 4218-4228, 9280). The knowledge of correspondences and representations was the chief science amongst the ancients (n. 3021, 3419, 4280, 4748, 4844, 4964, 4966, 6004, 7729, 10252). Especially with the Orientals (n. 5702, 6692, 7097, 7779, 9391, 10252, 10407); and in Egypt more than in other countries (n. 5702, 6692, 7097, 7779, 9391, 10407). Also among the Gentiles, as in Greece and other places (n. 2762, 7729). But at this day it is among the sciences which are lost, particularly in Europe (n. 2894-2895, 2994, 3630, 3632, 3747-3749, 4581, 4966, 10252). Nevertheless this science is more excellent than all other sciences, since without it the Word is not understood, nor the signification of the rites of the Jewish church, which are recorded in the Word; neither is it known what heaven is, nor what the spiritual is, nor in what manner spiritual influx takes place into what is natural, with many other things (n. 4280, and in the places above cited). All the things which appear before angels and spirits, are representatives, according to correspondences of such things as relate to love and faith (n. 1971, 3213-3226, 3449, 3475, 3485, 9481, 9574, 9576-9577). The heavens are full of representatives (n. 1521, 1532, 1619). Representatives are more beautiful, and more perfect, in proportion as they are more interiorly in the heavens (n. 3475). Representatives there are real appearances, being derived from the light of heaven, which is Divine truth, and which is the very essential of the existence of all things (n. 3485).

The reason why each and all things in the spiritual world are represented in the natural world, is because what is internal assumes a suitable clothing in what is external, whereby it makes itself visible and apparent (n. 6275, 6284, 6299). Thus the end assumes a suitable clothing, that it may exist as the cause in a lower sphere, and afterwards that it may exist as the effect in a sphere lower still; and when the end, by means of the cause, becomes the effect, it then becomes visible, or appears before the eyes (n. 5711). This may be illustrated by the influx of the soul into the body, whereby the soul assumes a clothing of such things in the body, as enable all the things which it thinks and wills, to appear and become visible; wherefore the thought, when it flows down into the body, is represented by gestures and actions which correspond thereto (n. 2988). The affections, which are of the mind, are manifestly represented in the face, by the variations of the countenance, so that they may be seen therein (n. 4791-4805, 5695). Hence it is evident, that each and all things in nature have in them a latent cause and end from the spiritual world (n. 3562, 5711). Since the things in nature are ultimate effects, which contain prior things (n. 4240, 4939, 5051, 6275, 6284, 6299, 9216). Internal things are represented, and external things represent (n. 4292).

Since all things in nature are representative of spiritual and celestial things, therefore, in ancient times, there were churches, wherein all the externals, which are rituals, were representative; wherefore those churches were called representative churches (n. 519, 521, 2896). The church founded with the sons of Israel was a representative church (n. 1003, 2179, 10149). All its rituals were external things, which represented the internal things of heaven and the church (n. 4288, 4874). Representatives of the church and of worship ceased when the Lord came into the world, because the Lord opened the internal things of the church, and because all the externals of the church in the highest sense regarded Him (n. 4832).

2718. 'A wife from the land of Egypt' means the affection for knowledge, which the member of the spiritual Church possesses. This is clear from the meaning of 'a wife' as affection or good, dealt with in 915, 2517, and from the meaning of 'Egypt' as knowledge, dealt with in 1164, 1165, 1186, 1462. In this verse the member of the spiritual Church is described so far as the nature of his good, that is, the essence of his life, is concerned - that the good residing with him is obscure, but that it is brightened with light from the Lord's Divine Human. From that brightening of it the affection for truth arises in the rational part of his mind, and the affection for knowledge in the natural part. The reason the affection for good such as resides within the celestial man cannot arise in the spiritual man, but instead the affection for truth, is that the good residing with him is implanted in the understanding part of his mind, and is obscure compared with the celestial man's good, as shown in 2715. From this good no other type of affection can be generated and derived within his rational than the affection for truth, and through this affection for truth the affection for knowledge within the natural. No other truth is meant in this case than that which the person believes to be the truth, even though it may not in itself be the truth. Nor is knowledge used to mean such knowledge as the learned possess but all factual knowledge with which a person can be taught from what he experiences or hears in everyday life, from doctrine, and from the Word. It is the affection for such truth and knowledge that exists within the member of the spiritual Church.

[2] So that it may be known what is meant by the affection for truth existing with someone and what by the affection for good, let a brief statement be made regarding them. Those with the affection for truth think about, question, and discuss whether a thing is true, whether it is so. And when they are convinced it is true, or is so, they think about, question, and discuss what it is. Thus they remain rooted on the doorstep and cannot be admitted into wisdom until they no longer have any doubts. Those however with whom the affection for good exists know and perceive that the thing is so from the good itself governing them. Thus they do not remain on the doorstep but are in a room inside, having been admitted into wisdom.

[3] Take as an example the consideration that it is a celestial gift to think and to act from an affection for good, or from good. Those with whom the affection for truth exists discuss whether this is so, whether such a gift can exist, and what it may be. And so long as they are turning over doubts about it they are unable to be admitted. But those with the affection for good do not discuss or turn doubts over but assert that the thing is true and are for that reason admitted. For those with whom the affection for good exists, that is, those who are celestial, start off where those with the affection for truth, that is, those who are spiritual, come to a halt, so that the furthest point reached by the latter is the starting point for the former. That being so, those who are celestial are given to know, recognize, and perceive that affections for good are countless - as numerous as the communities in heaven - and that they are all joined together by the Lord into a heavenly form so as to constitute one human being so to speak. They are also given to define by perception the genus and species to which each affection belongs.

[4] Or take this example: All delight, blessedness, and happiness belong wholly to love, but the nature of the love determines that of the delight, blessedness, and happiness. The spiritual man fixes his mind on the question whether this is true and whether delight, blessedness, and happiness may not spring from some other source, such as from mixing with others, talking to others, meditation, or learning, and also whether they reside in possessions, position, reputation, and the glory resulting from these. As long as he is asking such questions he does not confirm himself in the truth that none of these accomplishes anything, only the affection born of love which is present within them and making them what they are. The celestial man however does not remain rooted in such preliminary questionings but immediately asserts that the thing is true. Consequently he is interested in the end in view and the realization of this, that is, he is governed by the very affections born of love which are countless, and in each one of which there are things beyond description, involving variations of delight, blessedness, and happiness that have no end.

[5] Take as a further example the consideration that the neighbour is to be loved for the good that resides with him. Those with whom the affection for truth exists think, question, and discuss whether this is true, that is, whether it is so. They ask what the neighbour is, what good is; but they go no further than this, and therefore they shut the door to wisdom against themselves. Those however with the affection for good assert that the thing is so and do not consequently shut the door against themselves but enter in and so come to know, recognize, and perceive from good who is pre-eminently the neighbour, also in what degree he is the neighbour, and that everyone in differing ways is the neighbour. Thus they perceive things beyond description, over and above what is known to those with the affection solely for truth.

[6] Take as yet another example the truth that a person who loves the neighbour for the good within him loves the Lord. Those with the affection for truth question whether this is so. And if they are told that anyone who loves the neighbour for the good within him loves the good, and that - since all good comes from the Lord and the Lord is present in good - when anyone loves good he also loves the Lord from whom that good comes and in which He is present, they then question whether that too is so. They also ask what loving good is, as well as what good is, and whether the Lord is present more so in good than in truth. As long as they remain rooted in such questionings they cannot get even a distant view of wisdom. But those with the affection for good know from perception that the thing is so and immediately behold the whole field of wisdom leading right on to the Lord.

[7] From these examples it may become clear why in comparison with those who have the affection for good, that is, with those who are celestial, obscurity exists with those who have the affection for truth, that is, with those who are spiritual Nevertheless the latter are able to pass from obscurity into light, provided that they are willing to adopt the affirmative attitude that all good belongs to love to the Lord and charity towards the neighbour; also that love and charity constitute spiritual conjunction, and that these are the source of all blessedness and happiness, thus that heavenly life consists in the good belonging to love received from the Lord, but not in the truth of faith separated from it.