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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

 

True Christian Religion #624

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624. 1 The fourth experience.

Awoken from sleep in the middle of the night I saw fairly high up towards the east an angel holding a paper in his right hand. It was brightly lit up by the sun, and in the middle there was writing in golden letters. I saw that the inscription was: The marriage of good and truth. A radiance sparkled from the writing, and spread into a broad ring around the paper. This radiance or halo looked like the dawn in springtime. Afterwards I saw the angel coming down with the paper in his hand, and as he came the paper shone less and less, and the inscription, The marriage of good and truth, changed from gold to silver colour, then to that of copper, later to that of iron and finally to the colour of rust and verdigris. At last the angel appeared to enter a dark cloud, and passing through the cloud appeared on earth. There the paper, though still held in the angel's hand, was invisible. This happened in the world of spirits, into which everyone comes at first after death.

[2] Then the angel spoke to me. 'Ask those,' he said, 'who are coming here whether they can see me or anything in my hand.' A great crowd came, one group from the east, one from the south, one from the west and one from the north. I asked those from the east and south, men who in the world had devoted themselves to study, whether they could see anyone here with me, or anything in his hand. They all said that they could see nothing at all. Then I put the question to those who came from the west and north. These were those who in the world had taken on trust what learned people said. They too said they could not see anything. However, the last of this group, those who in the world had had a simple faith based on charity, or in other words possessed some truth from good, said, after the first-comers had gone, that they could see a man with a piece of paper, the man in fine clothing and the paper with letters written on it. When they looked closely, they said they could read, The marriage of good and truth. So they addressed the angel, requesting him to tell them what this meant.

[3] He said that everything in the whole of heaven and everything in the whole of the world is from creation nothing but the marriage of good and truth. This is because every single thing, both those that live and breathe as well as those that do not, comes from the marriage of good and truth and was created for that purpose. Nothing exists created to be truth alone, nor to be good alone. Neither of these is anything taken by itself, but by marriage they come into existence and become such as is the nature of the marriage. In the Lord God the Creator Divine good and Divine truth are present in their very substance. The being of His substance is Divine good, the coming-into-being of this substance is Divine truth, and they are in a state of complete union, for in Him they make up one to an infinite degree. Since these two are one in God the Creator Himself, they are therefore also one in every single thing created by Him. By this too the Creator is linked with all things created by Him in an everlasting covenant as of marriage.

[4] The angel went on to say that the Sacred Scripture, which was dictated by the Lord, is in general and in its parts a marriage of good and truth (see above 248-253). Since the church, being formed by means of the truths of doctrine, and religion, being formed by good deeds in life in accordance with the truths of doctrine, are in the case of Christians solely derived from the Sacred Scripture, it can be established that the church too in general and in its parts is a marriage of good and truth. The same as has been said here about the marriage of good and truth applies also to the marriage of charity and faith, since good relates to charity, truth to faith.

After making this speech the angel left the earth and travelling through the cloud went up into heaven. Then as he went up the paper began to shine as before, changing at each stage of the ascent. Then the ring of radiance which previously looked like the dawn came down and dispersed the cloud which had darkened the earth, and the sun shone.

Footnotes:

1. This section is repeated with modifications from Conjugial Love 115.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

True Christian Religion #79

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79. The fourth experience.

Once when I was thinking about the creation of the universe, some people from the Christian part of the world approached me, who in their time had been among the most famous philosophers and had a reputation for surpassing wisdom. 'We notice,' they said, 'that you are thinking about creation; tell us what is your opinion on that subject.'

'Tell me first,' I replied, 'what is yours.' 'My opinion,' said one of them, 'is that creation is the work of nature, and that nature therefore created itself, having existed from eternity. A vacuum does not and cannot exist. Yet what is it that we see with our eyes, hear with our ears, smell with our noses and breathe with our lungs, if not nature? Because nature is outside us, it is also within us.'

[2] Another person who heard this said: 'You speak of nature and regard it as the creator of the universe, but you do not know how nature made the universe; so I will tell you. It twisted itself into vortices which clashed together as clouds do, or like houses collapsing in an earthquake.' He explained that this collision caused the denser material to come together to form the earth; the more fluid parts separated out and came together to form the seas; and the lighter parts also separated out to form the ether and the air, the lightest of all formed the sun. 'Have you not seen how when oil, water and dust are mixed together, they spontaneously separate out and arrange themselves in order one above the other?'

[3] Then another listener said: 'What you say is mere imagination. Everyone knows that the first source of all things was chaos, which in size filled a quarter of the universe. In its midst was fire, with ether around that, and matter around the ether. This chaos split open and the fire burst forth through the cracks, as it does from Etna or Vesuvius, to form the sun. Next the ether expanded and spread around, to form an atmosphere. Finally the remaining matter condensed into a ball, to form the earth. As for the stars, they are merely lights in the expanse of the universe, which arose from the sun and its fire and light. For the sun was at first like an ocean of fire, which to avoid setting fire to the earth threw off from itself shining sparks; these took up their positions in the surroundings and so completed the universe by forming the sky.'

[4] But there was one of the by-standers who said: 'You are wrong. You think yourselves wise, and I seem to you simple. Yet in my simplicity I have believed, and still do, that the universe was created by God; and because nature is part of the universe, He created it at the same time as the whole of nature. If nature had created itself, would it not have existed from eternity? That is a fine piece of nonsense.'

Then one of the so-called wise men rushed up nearer and nearer to the speaker, and put his left ear to the other's mouth - his right ear was blocked with what looked like cotton-wool - and asked what he had said. He repeated the same statement, whereupon the man who had come up looked around him to see if any priest was present; he caught sight of one beside the speaker, and then twisted around saying: 'I too admit that the whole of nature comes from God, but -.' And he went off, whispering to his companions and saying: 'I said that because there was a priest present. You and I know that nature comes from nature, and because nature is therefore God, I said that the whole of nature comes from God, but - .'

[5] But the priest, hearing what they were whispering, said: 'Your wisdom is nothing but philosophy, which has led you astray and shut off the interiors of your minds so completely that no light from God and His heaven can penetrate and bring you enlightenment. You have put the light out. Consider therefore,' he went on, 'and decide among yourselves what is the origin of your souls, which are immortal. Do they come from nature, or were they at the same time in that mighty chaos?'

On hearing this the first man went off to his colleagues, to ask their help in solving this knotty problem. They came to the conclusion that the human soul is nothing but ether, and thought is merely a modification of the ether caused by sunlight; and ether is a part of nature. 'Surely everyone knows,' they said, 'that we talk by means of the air? And what is thought but speech in a purer sort of air, which is called ether? That is why thought and speech act as one. Anyone can observe this in children; a child first learns to talk, and then afterwards to talk to himself, and that is thinking. What then can thought be but a modification of the ether? Or what is the sound of speech but a modulation of it? From these considerations we deduce that the thinking soul is part of nature.'

[6] But some of them, while not disagreeing, cast light on the state of the question by saying that souls arose when the ether formed itself into a ball out of that mighty chaos, and then in the highest region divided itself into innumerable individual forms. These are infused into people, when they begin to think by that purer sort of air, and they are then called souls.

Another on hearing this said: 'I admit that the individual forms made from the ether in its highest region may have been innumerable, but still the number of human beings born from the creation of the world has exceeded the number of forms, so how could those ethereal forms be enough? This has led me to think that the souls which issue from people's mouths when they die return to the same people again after some thousands of years, so that they embark on and complete a life, similar to their previous one. It is well known that many wise men believe in the transmigration of souls and similar ideas.' In addition to these there were other guesses flung around, which I pass over as being crazy.

[7] After a short while the priest returned, and the one who had previously spoken about the creation of the universe by God told him their decisions concerning the soul. On hearing these the priest told them: 'You have spoken exactly as you thought in the world, unaware that you are not any longer in that world but another, which is called the spiritual world. All those who, by convincing themselves of the nature theory, have become immersed in the bodily senses, are not aware that they are no longer in the same world as that in which they were born and brought up. The reason is that there they had a material body, but here a substantial body; and a substantial person sees himself and his companions around him exactly as a material person sees himself and his companions around him, for the substantial is the starting-point of the material. Because you think, see, smell, taste, and speak just as you did in the natural world, you believe that nature here is the same. Yet the nature of this world is as different and remote from that of the former world as the substantial is from the material, or the spiritual from the natural, or what is prior from what is posterior. Because the nature of the world in which you previously lived is comparatively speaking lifeless, so by convincing yourselves of your belief in nature you too have become virtually dead as regards matters which relate to God, heaven and the church, as well as what concerns your souls. Still every person, bad as well as good, can have his understanding raised into the light enjoyed by the angels in heaven; and then he can see that God exists, that there is a life after death, that the human soul is not ethereal and thus of the nature of the material world, but spiritual, and so destined to live for ever. The understanding can enjoy that angelic light, so long as the natural loves are banished which came from the world, favouring it and its nature, and from the body, favouring it and the self 1 .

[8] At once those loves were banished by the Lord, and they were permitted to talk with angels. From their conversation in that state they perceived the existence of God and that after dying they were living in another world. This made them blush with shame and cry: 'We were mad, we were mad!' But since this state was not their own and after a few minutes became tiresome and unwelcome, they turned their backs on the priest and were unwilling to go on listening to him. Thus they reverted to their former loves, which were entirely natural, worldly and bodily. They went off to the left, from one community to another, and eventually reached a road where they caught a whiff of the delights of their own loves, and said: 'Let us take this road.' So they went along it, going down until they came to people who delighted in similar loves, and further still. Since their delight consisted in doing evil, and they harmed many on the way, they were thrown into prison and became demons. Then their delight was turned into misery, because they were restrained and prevented from enjoying what had previously delighted them, the behaviour which had formed their nature, by punishment and the fear of punishment.

They asked their companions in that prison whether they were to live like that for ever. Some of those there replied: 'We have been here for several centuries, and we are to remain for ever and ever, because the nature we acquired in the world cannot be changed or driven out by punishment. When it is driven out by this, it still comes back after a short interval.'

Footnotes:

1. Latin proprium, the term often used for the unregenerate self.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.

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