1326. That 'therefore He called the name of it Babel' means such worship, namely that meant by 'Babel', is clear from what has been stated so far - about worship which inwardly contains self-love and therefore everything that is filthy and unholy. Self-love is nothing else than the proprium, and how filthy and unholy this is becomes clear from what has been shown already about the proprium in 210, 215. From philautia, ¹ that is, from self-love or the proprium, flow all evils, such as those of hatred, revenge, cruelty, adultery, deceit, hypocrisy, and irreligion. Consequently when self-love or the proprium is present in worship, such evils are present too - but the particular kind of evils and their intensity being determined by the extent and nature of what flows from that self-love. This is the origin of all profanation in worship. The fact of the matter is that insofar as self-love or the proprium introduces itself into worship, internal worship departs, that is, internal worship ceases to exist. Internal worship consists in the affection for good and in the acknowledgement of truth, but to the extent that self-love or the proprium intrudes or enters in, the affection for good and the acknowledgement of truth depart or go away. Holiness cannot possibly co-exist with unholiness, any more than heaven can with hell. Instead one must depart from the other. Such is the state and proper order existing in the Lord's kingdom. This is the reason why among the kind of people whose worship is called 'Babel' no internal worship exists, but instead something dead and indeed inwardly corpse-like is worshipped. This shows what their external worship which is inwardly such is like.

[2] That such worship is 'Babel' is clear from many parts of the Word where Babel is described, as in Daniel, where the description of the statue which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babel saw in a dream - whose head was gold, breast and arms silver, belly and thighs bronze, legs iron, and feet partly iron and partly clay - means that true worship finally deteriorated into the kind of worship called 'Babel', and therefore also a stone cut out of the rock smashed the iron, bronze, clay, silver, and gold, Daniel 2:31-33, 44-45. The statue of gold which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babel set up, and which people were to adore, had no other meaning, Daniel 3:1-end. The same applies to the description of the king of Babel with his nobles drinking wine from the vessels of gold that had come from the Temple in Jerusalem, of their praising the gods of gold, silver, bronze, iron, and stone, and of writing therefore appearing on the wall, Daniel 5:1-end; to the description of Darius the Mede commanding that he be adored instead of God, Daniel 6:1-end; and to that of the beasts seen by Daniel in a dream, Daniel 7:1-end, as well as to that of the beasts and Babel in John's Revelation.

[3] That such worship was meant and represented is quite clear not only in Daniel and John but also in the Prophets: in Isaiah,

Their faces were faces of flames; the stars of the heavens and their constellations do not give their light The sun is darkened in its coming up and the moon does not shed its light Tziim lie down there, and their houses are full of ochim, and daughters of the owl dwell there, and satyrs dance there, and iim answer in its palaces, and dragons in its halls of pleasure. Isaiah 13:8, 10, 21-22

This refers to Babel and describes the internal aspect of such worship by 'faces of flames', which are evil desires; by 'the stars', which are truths of faith, 'not giving their light'; by 'the sun', which is holy love, 'being darkened'; by 'the moon', which is the truth of faith, 'not shedding its light'; by 'tziim, ochim, daughters of the owl, satyrs, dim, and dragons', which are the more interior aspects of worship. For such things belong to self-love or the proprium. This also is why Babel in John is called 'the mother of whoredoms and abominations', Revelation 17:5; and in the same book,

A dwelling-place of demons, ² and a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird. Revelation 18:2.

From these places it is evident that when such things are within, it is impossible for any good or truth of faith to be there, and that to the extent that those things enter in, the goods which are the objects of affection, and the truths of faith, depart. They are also called in Isaiah 21:9 'the graven images of the gods of Babel'.

[4] That it is self-love or the proprium which lies within their worship, or that it is worship of self, is quite clear in Isaiah,

Prophesy this parable against the king of Babel, You said in your heart, I will go up the heavens, above the stars of God I will raise my throne, and I will sit on the mount of assembly, in the uttermost parts of the north. I will go up above the heights of the cloud, I will make myself like the Most High. But you will be brought down to hell. Isaiah 14:4, 13-15.

Here, it is plain, Babel means the person who wishes to be worshipped as a god, that is, worship of self is meant.

[5] In the same prophet,

Come down and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babel; sit on the ground without a throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans. You trusted in your wickedness, you said, No one sees me. Your wisdom and your knowledge led you astray; you said in your heart, I am, and there is no one besides me. Isaiah 47:1, 10.

In Jeremiah,

Behold, I am against you, O destroying mountain, destroying the whole earth; and I will stretch out My hand over you and roll you down from the rocks and will make you into a mountain of burning. Though Babel rise up into the heavens, and though she fortify the height of her strength, yet from Me those who lay waste will come to her. Jeremiah 51:25, 53.

This again shows that 'Babel' is worship of self.

[6] The fact that such people have no light of truth, but only total darkness, that is, that they do not possess the truth of faith, is described in Jeremiah,

The word which Jehovah spoke against Babel, against the land of the Chaldeans, There will come up upon her a nation from the north, which will make her land a desolation, and none will dwell in it; both man and beast will scatter themselves, they will go away. Jeremiah 50:1, 3.

'The north' stands for thick darkness, or absence of truth. 'No man and no beast' stands for the absence of good. For more about Babel, see at verse 28 ³ below, where Chaldea is referred to.

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There is a beautiful line in Swedenborg's work "Divine Love and Wisdom" noting that the Lord loves reverence, worship and praise not for Himself but "for our sake, because they bring us into a state where something divine can flow in and be felt."

This brings to mind the well-known phrases of Micah 6:7-8:

"Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,

Ten thousand rivers of oil?

Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,

The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?

He has shown you, O man, what is good;

And what does the Lord require of you

But to do justly,

To love mercy,

And to walk humbly with your God?"

The message in both is the same: Worship rituals are for us, not for the Lord. The Lord doesn't care what words are in our mouths when we worship, or what holy items are in our hands; He cares about what's in our hearts and what's in our lives.

This is a theme echoed in many discussions of worship in the Writings. When we make an effort to understand what the Lord wants from us and do it because it's right, then we are in a state of worship, even if it's 2:30 p.m. on a Tuesday and the good thing we're doing is starting a new work project instead of goofing off for the rest of the afternoon. Worship, then, can happen any time, or even all the time.

So what about more structured worship - church services and other rituals? The real value there is that structured worship can help us focus our thoughts on the Lord, can teach us more about the Lord's wishes and can move us toward a mental state where "something divine can flow in," so when the 2:30 p.m. doldrums roll around we'll be ready to handle temptation.

One way structured worship does that is through the power of external symbolism. Kneeling in prayer is a symbol of humility, and can remind us to acknowledge the Lord's power. An open Bible on the altar is a symbol that the Lord is seeking to enter our minds, and can remind us to let him in. Even the act of going to church itself is symbolic, forcing us to make time in our lives to specifically worship the Lord.

Such symbolism was, according to the Writings, the essence of worship itself in the most ancient times. Early humans were born into the love of the Lord, and from that love saw details of the Lord's nature in every element of the world around them. The Writings say that when they looked at mountains they were barely aware of their physical presence; instead they saw "height," which corresponds to closeness to the Lord. Instead of fruit trees they saw true principles (trunks) branching out to individual rational concepts (leaves) all supporting efforts to be good and do what's good (the fruit). Through this they were in a state of constant awareness of the Lord - essentially a state of constant worship.

People eventually fell into evil, though, and the Lord raised up a church - the Ancient Church - in which people had a similar knowledge of the relationships between physical things and spiritual ones, but knew it as a learned, intellectual thing rather than something springing from their loves. Because of this knowledge they began worshiping on mountains and in groves of trees because of the meaning those things had, and used carved figures of animals and other objects because of what they represented spiritually. That church would also later adopt sacrifice, with its powerful spiritual symbolism, as a component - and eventually the primary component - of worship.

Over time the people of the Ancient Church began paying more attention to the physical aspects of worship than to their spiritual meanings, however, and started worshiping the objects that had once merely symbolized spiritual things. This evolved into the practice of magic, and the sacrifice of animals and other foodstuffs evolved into human sacrifice. So the Lord raised up a church that knew nothing of spiritual things, but obediently followed and recorded a massive array of spiritually significant rituals: the church of the Children of Israel.

As that church also fell into evil, the Lord came in the flesh as Jesus, to teach about the actual meaning of existing symbolism and offer spiritual truth to people more directly. The Writings say that the nature of worship changed with His advent; through the teachings of Jesus we can learn about the Lord without relying on symbolism, and can worship Him as the ultimate human He is. Knowing the symbolism of the Bible and of the natural world can add immensely to our understanding, but it does not play the central role it once did.

So what does all this mean to us today? The Writings describe worship as "adoration of the Lord from the heart" (Arcana Coelestia 1150). That's something that can be done personally, anywhere and at any time. But it's something that implies some learning - you can't really adore the Lord if you don't know who He is - and also implies some follow-through - if you truly adore the Lord you will try to do what He wants. That's where formal worship can play a significant role.