Spiritual Experiences # 255
255. About the very inward Realm, and about Cherubs
When I was brought into thoughts about how the very inward and innermost angels influence human minds, and was reflecting that they do so in an imperceptible manner, being in the realm of the very beginning points of human thought, consequently in a like realm of mental imagery or depiction, which is imperceptible (such an imperceptibility must be the plane proper to thoughts) - while I was pondering on these matters, then I was given from the mercy of God the Messiah to sense a gentle kind of turning motion overhead, into which I later even seemed to be raised up, or which enfolded my thoughts. At the first sensation, when I was not yet in it, it was like the turning motion of a soft cloud settling down, and it was said that this can be called "the Cherubs," to whom "wheels" are ascribed [Ezekiel 1:9, 10] on account of that turning motion. After this, that field encompassed me, and I experienced a great calmness. The last heaven, in which I had been previously, was below me, and in fact, at my feet and below the feet. There I heard someone speaking, but as if out of the lowest place, complaining that I had been raised up away from them, and that therefore he did not want to live.
When I was later thinking about the very inward realm, which must as yet be called strictly "cherubic" and in which realm I am while writing these things, I am able to understand not only why wheels, but also why four faces, were ascribed to them [Ezekiel 1:10], i.e. "of a lion, of a man, of an eagle" - namely: "that of a lion," because of its strength [extending] into the lower realm, or last heaven, for it holds that in proper order, otherwise it would fall to pieces; "the face of a human," because the very inward person, to which this realm properly relates, is "human" - the kind of thought we have pertains merely to the inward person, which in turn is governed by the very inward realm [see 241:4]); "the face of an eagle," because it rises up high above the realm in which our perception or sense-based understanding lies. "The face of an ox" is omitted, and afterwards by Ezekiel "the face of a cherub" is named in the first place [10:14], because then he understood that it was the cherub to whom three faces were being ascribed. 1747, the 20th day of November (old calendar).
Ezekiel 23:5-21
5
Oholah played the prostitute when she was mine; and she doted on her lovers, on the Assyrians [her] neighbors,
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who were clothed with blue, governors and rulers, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding on horses.
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She bestowed her prostitution on them, the choicest men of Assyria all of them; and on whoever she doted, with all their idols she defiled herself.
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Neither has she left her prostitution since [the days of] Egypt; for in her youth they lay with her, and they handled the bosom of her virginity; and they poured out their prostitution on her.
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Therefore I delivered her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians, on whom she doted.
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These uncovered her nakedness; they took her sons and her daughters; and her they killed with the sword: and she became a byword among women; for they executed judgments on her.
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Her sister Oholibah saw this, yet was she more corrupt in her doting than she, and in her prostitution which were more than the prostitution of her sister.
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She doted on the Assyrians, governors and rulers, [her] neighbors, clothed most gorgeously, horsemen riding on horses, all of them desirable young men.
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I saw that she was defiled; they both took one way.
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She increased her prostitution; for she saw men portrayed on the wall, the images of the Chaldeans portrayed with vermilion,
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dressed with girdles on their waists, with flowing turbans on their heads, all of them princes to look on, after the likeness of the Babylonians in Chaldea, the land of their birth.
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As soon as she saw them she doted on them, and sent messengers to them into Chaldea.
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The Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their prostitution, and she was polluted with them, and her soul was alienated from them.
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So she uncovered her prostitution, and uncovered her nakedness: then my soul was alienated from her, like as my soul was alienated from her sister.
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Yet she multiplied her prostitution, remembering the days of her youth, in which she had played the prostitute in the land of Egypt.
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She doted on their paramours, whose flesh is as the flesh of donkeys, and whose issue is like the issue of horses.
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Thus you called to memory the lewdness of your youth, in the handling of your bosom by the Egyptians for the breasts of your youth.
