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Memorable Occurrences in Swedenborg's Writings

This list of Memorable Occurrences in Swedenborg's Writings was originally compiled by W. C. Henderson in 1960 but has since been updated.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Apocalypse Revealed #611

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611. To this I will append the following account:

People are prepared for heaven in the world of spirits, which is midway between heaven and hell, and at the end of that time they all to some degree or other long for heaven. Presently then their eyes are opened and they see a path leading to some society in heaven. They set out on the path and ascend, and as they ascend they come upon a gate, with a guard there. The guard opens the gate, and so they enter.

An inspector then comes to meet them, who tells them from the governor that they may go on in and look to see whether there are any houses there that they recognize as their own, for every new angel has a new house awaiting him. If newcomers find one then, they report this and remain there. But if they do not find one, they return and say that they did not find one.

At that some wise person then examines them there, to see whether the light that they possess accords with the light found in the society, and especially with the warmth in it. For the light in heaven is, in its essence, Divine truth, and the warmth in heaven is, in its essence, Divine good, both emanating from the Lord as the sun there. If the newcomers possess another light and another warmth than the light and warmth in that society, that is, a different truth and a different goodness, they are not admitted.

Therefore they leave that place and travel along paths that open between societies in heaven, and this until they find a society in complete harmony with their affections. And there they find their abode to eternity. For they are then among people like themselves, as though among relatives and friends, whom they love with a heartfelt love, because they share the same affection; and there they experience their life's bliss and a delight that fills their whole breast, because their soul is at peace. For in the warmth and light of heaven there is an indescribable delight, in which they share.

[2] Such is the case with people who become angels. But not with people caught up in evils and falsities. They are given permission to ascend into heaven, but when they enter, they begin to draw breath or breathe with difficulty, and soon their vision dims, their intellect darkens so that they can no longer think, and death hovers before their eyes. And so they stand like wooden posts. Their heart then also begins to pound, their breast to be constricted, and their mind to be seized with anguish and to be more and more tortured; and in that state they writhe like a snake placed near a fire. Consequently they roll away from there and throw themselves over a cliff that then appears to them. Nor do they rest until they are in hell with people like themselves, where they can breathe and where their heart beats freely.

After that they hate heaven and reject truth, and at heart blaspheme the Lord, believing that the torture and torment they experienced in heaven came from Him.

[3] From these few particulars it can be seen what the lot is like of people who place little value in truths, even though truths constitute the light which angels have in heaven, and who place little value in goodness, even though goodness constitutes the warmth which angels have in heaven.

It can also be seen from this how wrong those people are who believe that everyone can enjoy the bliss of heaven just by being admitted into heaven. For it is today's faith that to be received into heaven is to be received out of pure mercy, and that acceptance into heaven is like people's entrance into a wedding reception and at the same time into the joys and delights there. Let them know, however, that there is a communication of affections in the spiritual world, since a person is then a spirit, and the life of the spirit is affection, and his thinking springs from it and accords with it. Let them also know that a homogeneous affection unites, and a heterogeneous one drives apart, and that something heterogeneous causes torment, such as to a devil in heaven, and to an angel in hell. People are therefore justly separated in accordance with the diversities, varieties, and differences in the affections of their love.

[4] I was given to see more than three hundred clergy from the Protestant Reformed world, all of them learned men, because they knew how to defend faith alone to the point of its being the means of justification, and some on beyond that. And because they also shared the belief that heaven is simply a matter of admittance by grace, they were given permission to ascend into a society of heaven, though not one of the higher ones. And as they ascended together, they looked from a distance like calves, and when they entered heaven, the angels received them politely. But as they were talking together, they were seized with a trembling, then a shuddering, and finally a torment as though of impending death; and at that they cast themselves down headlong, and in their descent they looked like dead horses.

They looked like calves as they ascended because the natural affection for seeing and knowing appears, by correspondence, as frolicking about like a calf. And in their descent they looked like dead horses because an understanding of the truth in the Word appears, by correspondence, as a horse, and an understanding devoid of any truth in the Word as a dead horse.

[5] There were some boys below who saw the clergymen descending, who in their descent looked like dead horses. And at that the boys turned their faces away and said to their teacher, who was with them, "What portent is this? We saw men, and now dead horses instead. And because we could not bear to look at them, we turned our faces away. Master, let us not tarry in this place, but depart."

So they departed. And their teacher then taught them on the way what a dead horse means, saying, "A horse symbolizes an understanding of the Word. All the horses that you saw had this symbolic meaning. For when a person goes meditating on the Word, his meditation then appears from a distance like a horse - a thoroughbred and live horse as long as he ponders the Word spiritually, but a wretched and dead horse as long as he does so materially."

[6] At that the boys asked, "What does it mean to meditate on the Word spiritually or materially?"

And the teacher replied, "I will illustrate the difference by examples. Who, when he reads the Word, does not think about God, the neighbor, and heaven? Everyone who thinks about God solely in terms of His person and not in terms of His essence, thinks materially. Everyone who thinks about the neighbor in terms of his appearance and not in terms of his character, thinks materially. And everyone who thinks about heaven solely in terms of a place, and not in terms of the love and wisdom of which heaven consists, also thinks materially."

But the boys said, "We think about God in terms of His person, about the neighbor in terms of his appearance, that he is a human being, and about heaven in terms of a place. When we would read the Word, did we then look to anyone like dead horses?"

Their teacher said, "No. You are still boys and could not think otherwise. But I have perceived in you an affection for knowing and understanding, and because that is a spiritual affection, you thought at the same time spiritually.

[7] "However, I will go back to what I said earlier, that anyone who thinks materially when he reads the Word or meditates on the Word, looks from a distance like a dead horse, but that someone who does so spiritually, looks like a live horse. Moreover, that anyone who thinks about God and about the trinity in God solely in terms of His person and not in terms of His essence, thinks about them materially. For the Divine essence has many attributes, like omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, mercy, grace, eternity, and others. And the Divine essence has attributes emanating from it, namely, creation and preservation, salvation and redemption, enlightenment and guidance. Everyone who thinks about God solely in terms of His person supposes three gods, saying that one god is the creator and preserver, another the savior and redeemer, and a third the enlightener and guide. But everyone who thinks about God in terms of His essence supposes one God, saying that God created us and preserves us, redeems us and saves us, and enlightens and guides us.

"That is why people who think about the trinity in God in terms of His person, and thus materially, cannot help but be drawn by the ideas in their thinking, which is material in nature, to make three gods out of one. But still the same people are bound, contrary to their thought, to say that in each there is a communion of all their attributes, and this only because they have thought dimly about God in terms of His essence, as though through a screen.

"Therefore, my pupils, think about God in terms of His essence and from that about His person, and do not think in terms of His person and from that about His essence. For to think about His essence in terms of His person is to think materially also about His essence, whereas to think about His person in terms of His essence is to think spiritually also about His person.

"Because gentiles of old thought materially about God and also about the attributes of God, they imagined not only three gods, but even more, as many as a hundred.

"Know then that something material does not flow into something spiritual, but that something spiritual flows into something material.

"The same is the case with thought about the neighbor in terms of his appearance and not in terms of his character, and also with thought about heaven in terms of a place and not in terms of the love and wisdom of which heaven consists.

"The same is the case with each and every particular in the Word. Consequently it is impossible for someone who entertains a material idea of God, and also of the neighbor and heaven, to understand anything in it. For him the Word is a dead letter, and when he reads it or meditates on it, he looks at a distance like a dead horse.

[8] "Those people you saw descending from heaven, who became in your eyes as though dead horses, were people who had closed the rational sight in themselves and in others by the peculiar dogma that the intellect must be held captive in obedience to their faith. They did so not thinking that an intellect closed by religion is as blind as a mole, and has in it nothing but darkness - such darkness as repels from itself any spiritual light, obstructs any influx of it from the Lord and heaven, and in matters of faith sets a barrier to it in the carnally sensual mind, far below the rational one. In other words, they put a barrier alongside the nose and fix it in its cartilage, so that afterward they cannot even catch a scent of spiritual matters. Some of those people are therefore of such a character that when they catch a whiff of spiritual matters, they fall into a swoon. By a whiff I mean a perception.

"These are the people who make God into three gods. They say, indeed, that in terms of His essence there is one God, but still, when they pray in accordance with their faith, namely, that God the Father may have mercy for the sake of the Son and send the Holy Spirit, they clearly suppose three gods. They cannot do otherwise, for they pray to one god to have mercy for the sake of another, and to send a third."

And the teacher then taught his pupils about the Lord, that He is one God, in whom is the Divine trinity.

  
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Many thanks to the General Church of the New Jerusalem, and to Rev. N.B. Rogers, translator, for the permission to use this translation.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Conjugial Love #233

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233. The third account:

After this, one of the angels said, "Follow me to the place where they are crying out, 'Oh, how wise!'" And he added, "You will see human monstrosities. The faces and bodies you see will be like those of a human being, and yet they are not human."

So I said, "Are they animals, then?"

The angel replied, "No, they are not animals, but animal-like. For they are people who cannot see at all whether truth is true or not, and yet whatever they wish they can make to be true. Among us, people like that are called confirmers."

We then followed the clamor and came to the place. And lo, we found a group of men surrounded by a crowd of people, and in the crowd some people of noble lineage. The men were confirming whatever the latter said and agreeing with them with such manifest accord that when they heard it, they turned to each other and said, "Oh, how wise!"

[2] However, the angel said to me, "Let us not go over to them but instead call one of them out of the group."

So we called one of them to us, and going aside with him, we talked about various matters. And he confirmed each point so thoroughly that they all appeared entirely as true.

We then asked him whether he could also confirm the converse of these. He said that he could, just as well as he did the previous ones. At which point he said openly and from the heart, "What is truth? Is there any truth in the nature of things other than what a person makes true? Say to me anything you please and I will make it to be true."

So I said, "Make this true, that faith is everything in the church." And he did so, so cleverly and skillfully that some learned bystanders looked on in admiration and applauded. I asked him next to make it true that charity is everything in the church, which he did, and afterwards that charity is nothing in the church. And he dressed up both propositions and arrayed them in such verisimilitudes that the bystanders looked at each other and said, "Isn't he wise!"

But I said, "Do you not know that to live rightly is charity, and to believe rightly is faith? If anyone lives rightly, does he not also believe rightly? Thus showing that faith is connected with charity, and charity with faith? Do you not see that this is true?"

He replied, "I will make it true and then I will see." And having done it he said, "Now I see." But shortly he made the converse of it to be true, and then he said, "I see as well that this is true."

We chuckled at this and said, "But are these not contradictory conclusions? How can you see two contrary conclusions as true?"

Nettled by our response, he replied, "You are wrong. Both conclusions are true, since truth is only what a person makes true."

[3] Standing nearby was someone who in the world had been an ambassador of the highest rank. He marveled at this and said, "I recognize that something of this sort goes on in the world, but still you are insane. Make it to be true, if you can, that light is darkness, and darkness light."

To which he replied, "I will do it easily. What are light and darkness but conditions of the eye? Does light not turn to darkness when the eye comes in out of bright sunshine? Or when it gazes intently at the sun? Who does not know that the state of the eye then changes and that light consequently appears as darkness? And conversely, that when the condition of the eye recovers, the darkness appears as light?

"Does an owl not see the darkness of night as the light of day, and the light of day as the darkness of night? Does it not see the sun itself as a dark and shadowy orb? If a person had eyes like an owl's, what would he call light and what would he call darkness?

"What then is light but a condition of the eye? And if it is a condition of the eye, is not light darkness and darkness light? Consequently the one proposition is true and the other is true."

[4] After that the ambassador asked him to make it to be true that a raven is white and not black.

To which he replied, "I will do this easily, too. Take a needle or razor," he said, "and open up the feathers or quills of a raven. Are they not white inside? Then remove the feathers and quills and look at the raven's skin. Is it not white? What is the blackness surrounding it but an opaqueness to light, which is hardly a basis on which to judge the raven's color? If you do not know that blackness is only an absence of light, ask experts in the science of optics and they will tell you. Or grind a piece of black stone or black glass into a fine powder, and you will see that the powder is white."

"But," said the ambassador, "does a raven look black to the eye?"

"Perhaps," replied this confirmer of ours, "but as a human being, are you willing to base what you think on an appearance? You may indeed speak in accordance with the appearance and say that a raven is black, but you cannot think it. As for example, you may speak in accordance with the appearance and say that the sun rises, travels and sets, but as a human being you cannot think it, because the sun stands still and it is the earth that moves. It is the same with the raven. An appearance is only an appearance. Say what you will, a raven is totally and utterly white. It even turns white when it grows old, as I have observed."

[5] We then asked him to tell us honestly whether he was joking or whether he really believed that there is no truth but what a person makes true. And he answered, "I swear that I believe it."

After that the ambassador asked him whether he could make it true that he was insane. To which he said, "I could, but I do not want to. Who is not insane?"

This total confirmer was afterwards sent to some angels for them to examine and determine what sort of person he was. And having examined him, they said he possessed not even a grain of understanding, because everything that exists above the level of reason in him was closed up, and only that which is below the level of reason was open.

"Above the level of reason," they said, "is the light of heaven, and below the level of reason is the light of nature. And the light of nature is such that it can confirm whatever it pleases. However, if the light of heaven does not flow into the light of nature, a person does not see whether any truth is true, and so neither whether any falsity is false. An ability to see both what is true and what is false results from the presence of light from heaven in the light of nature, and the light of heaven comes from the God of heaven, who is the Lord.

"This total confirmer is therefore neither human nor animal, but animal-like."

[6] I asked the angel with me about the fate of people like that and whether it was possible for them to be among the living, since a person has life from the light of heaven, and from it comes his intellect. And the angel said that when people of this sort are by themselves, they are incapable of thought and so have nothing to say, but stand as mute as machines, as though in a deep sleep; but as soon as something catches their ears, they awaken. He added also that people become like that who are inmostly evil. "The light of heaven cannot flow into them from above," he said, "but only some spiritual element through the world, from which they have an ability to confirm."

[7] After he said this, I heard the voice of one of the angels who had examined the man, calling to me and saying, "From what you have heard draw an overall conclusion."

So I drew the following conclusion: An ability to confirm whatever one pleases is not the mark of an intelligent person; rather, the mark of an intelligent person is to be able to see that truth is true and falsity false, and to confirm that.

I afterwards looked over at the gathering where the confirmers stood and where the crowd surrounding them was beginning to cry out, "Oh, how wise!" And suddenly a dusky cloud enveloped them, with screech owls and bats flitting about in the cloud.

It was then explained to me, "The owls and bats flitting about in the dusky cloud are correspondent forms and thus manifestations of their thoughts. For in this world, confirmations of falsities to the point that they appear as truths are represented under the forms of birds of the night, whose eyes are lit up with an illusory light from within by which they see objects in darkness as though in light. This is the kind of illusory spiritual light had by those who confirm falsities to the point that they appear as truths, and who afterwards say and believe they are truths. They all possess a kind of after-sight and not any prior sight."

  
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Many thanks to the General Church of the New Jerusalem, and to Rev. N.B. Rogers, translator, for the permission to use this translation.

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