Water
Water is the basis of life, the essential ingredient in all drinks, and in the form of rivers, lakes and oceans supports life in myriad ways. The spiritual meaning of water is similarly basic: It represents truth in general, the ideas and concepts that guide us to do good things in our lives. In a more specific sense, it represents truth at its simplest level: the ideas we learn from the Bible and simply believe. Swedenborg refers to this as “natural” truth or “truths of faith.” They are not things we have explored, figured out or confirmed through life; rather they are things that we accept to be true because we’ve been told they are true. Like water, these ideas flow to us from other sources. And like water, they are ever-changing; to build something permanent we might look to the more permanent ideas represented by stones. But water is crucial to life, and so are these accepted ideas. Water can also, of course, be threatening. Rivers, lakes and oceans are inherently dangerous, and flooding was an ever greater threat in Biblical times than it is now. These aspects represent the opposite meaning – water as falsity, twisted ideas which support evil and can overwhelm and destroy us if we’re not careful.
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Coronis (An Appendix to True Christian Religion) #24
24. This Church, like the rest, is to be treated of in the following order:
I. Its Rise, or Morning, which is its first state.
II. Its Progression into light, or Day, which is its second state.
III. Its Decline, or Evening, which is its third state, and is called Vastation.
IV. Its End, or Night, which is its fourth state, and is called Consummation.
V. The Separation of the Evil from the Good, which is the Last Judgment upon all who were from that Church.
VI. The Elevation to God of the Good, of whom a new Heaven is formed; and the removal from God of the Evil, of whom is formed a new Hell.
That the four Churches of this earth-spoken of above-have undergone these changes of state, will be shown in what follows; and lastly, that the Church truly Christian, which succeeds those four at the present day, will never undergo consummation.
