Arcana Coelestia #670
670. That 'living creature' 1 means things of the understanding, and 'all flesh' those of the will, becomes clear from what has been stated already, and also from what follows. In the Word 'living creature' means all animal life in general, as in Genesis 1:10, 21, 24; 2:19. Here however, because the phrase 'all flesh' is added immediately after, it means things which belong to the understanding, for the reason given already, that the regeneration of the member of this Church had to begin in the things of the understanding. This also is why in the next verse 'birds' are mentioned first, which mean things of the understanding or the rational, and 'beasts', which are those of the will, second. 'Flesh' in particular means bodily-mindedness which is a feature of the will.
Footnotes:
1. literally, living soul
Heaven and Hell #87
87. There Is a Correspondence of Everything in Heaven with Everything in the Human Being
People today do not know what "correspondence" is. There are many reasons for this ignorance, the primary one being that we have moved away from heaven because of our love for ourselves and for the world. You see, people who love themselves and the world above all focus on nothing but earthly matters because these provide gratification to their more outward senses and pleasure to their moods. They do not attend to spiritual matters because these offer gratification to their deeper senses and pleasure to their minds. So they set such matters aside, saying that they are too lofty to think about.
The early people behaved differently. For them, knowledge about correspondences was the pearl of all knowledge. By means of it, they gained intelligence and wisdom, and by means of it those who were of the church had a communication with heaven. Knowledge about correspondences is in fact angelic knowledge.
The earliest ones, who were heavenly people, did their thinking from correspondence like angels, so they could even talk with angels. Further, the Lord was quite often visible to them, and taught them. Nowadays, though, this knowledge has been so completely lost that people do not know what correspondence is. 1
Footnotes:
1. [Swedenborg's footnote] How superior a knowledge of correspondences is to other knowledge: 4280. The primary knowledge of the ancients was the knowledge of correspondences, but today this has been blotted out: 3021, 3419, 4280, 6749 [4749?], 4844, 4964-4965 [4966?], 6004, 7729, 10252. The knowledge of correspondences flourished among those in the Near East and Egypt: 5702, 6692, 7097, 7779, 9391, 10407.
