9371. THE INTERNAL SENSE.

Verses 1-2. And He said unto Moses, Come up unto Jehovah, thou and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel; and bow yourselves afar off; and Moses, he alone, shall come near unto Jehovah; and they shall not come near; and the people shall not come up with him. “And He said unto Moses,” signifies that which concerns the Word in general; “come up unto Jehovah,” signifies conjunction with the Lord; “thou and Aaron,” signifies the Word in the internal sense and the external sense; “Nadab and Abihu,” signifies doctrine from both senses; “and seventy of the elders of Israel,” signifies the chief truths of the church which are of the Word, or of doctrine, and which agree with good; “and bow yourselves afar off,” signifies humiliation and adoration from the heart, and then the influx of the Lord; “and Moses, he alone, shall come near unto Jehovah,” signifies the conjunction and presence of the Lord through the Word in general; “and they shall not come near,” signifies no separate conjunction and presence; “and the people shall not come up with him,” signifies no conjunction whatever with the external apart from the internal.

We tend to think of “truth” as something dry, cold, lifeless: information that is valid and important, but not something moving or inspiring. Yet Swedenborg’s works say repeatedly that divine truth - truth from the Lord - was the actual agent of creation, is the ongoing agent in sustaining life, and is, in fact, the Lord Himself. That is difficult to conceive: How can truth make something? How can truth sustain something? How can truth be a person?

But imagine if you could mix elements of dreaming and being awake. In this scenario, you would have the usual control over your thoughts and feelings, and your thoughts and feelings would be continuous, as they are when you’re awake. But the reality around you would be able to bend and shift the way reality does in dreams. If you wanted to climb a skyscraper, jump from it to fly over the Grand Canyon, then dive to the ocean floor, you could do so, with the full experience of reality you have in a deep dream. If you wanted to see your grandmother, who died five years ago, she would be there, to hug you and talk to you and share your tears. Other friends and loved ones would be just a thought away, and you’d be surrounded by beauty limited only by your own imagination. And while all this was happening, your physical body would lie there sleeping.

In such a state, your physical body and physical surroundings are not a factor - in fact, you could say they don’t actually exist in that internal world. The “body” you experience, the surroundings you see, the things you hear and see and taste, all are simply products of your thoughts. So your thoughts actually create the world you live in, and go on creating it every moment.

In a typical dream, of course, that world is a product of only your own thoughts. So imagine that such a world could be shared by many people, or even everyone. In such a world, when you talk to your grandmother, it really is your grandmother, and she is having a similar “dream” experience of talking to you. When you see your friends, they really are your friends, experiencing similar dream-like states.

A number of books and movies have been based on such a concept. In the books and movies, though, the goal typically is to get back to “reality,” meaning back to the physical world. Often, the death of the physical body would mean the death of the dream worlds, too.

But think about it. With all the power you can have in the dream world, the things you can do and people you can see, why would you want to go back to the stiff, limited world of physical reality? And what if the death of the physical body did not snip the thread to the alternative world, but instead freed you to enter it fully?

Such a world is actually close to spiritual reality, as described in Swedenborg’s works. The big difference is that ultimately the “dream” is the Lord’s, and His thoughts and His affections are the ones constantly forming and empowering it, like a great tapestry of potential experience. As humans we are like swirls in the fabric, patterns that can be more or less aligned with those divine thoughts and feelings. Each swirl is unique in the way it weaves together the threads of divine thought, and thus has a unique set of experiences. And the miracle of miracles is that we are free to swirl as we will; that’s what we were created to do. In fact, the whole reason for physical reality - which is a projection of spiritual reality into dead material - is to separate us from divine thought enough to actually experience that freedom.

That divine thought is what Swedenborg means by “divine truth.” It carries all the possibilities for all of our lives, and is by its nature exquisitely, infinitely loving, since it carries the Lord’s love to us and strives constantly to coax us into alignment.

It’s also incredibly powerful, because the more we align ourselves with the Lord’s thoughts, the more we can receive His love and the more truly alive we can be - we can be swirls following the grain of the fabric, and that much more a part of the whole. Also, the more we align ourselves, the more we can see the patterns of the fabric around us - we can see the Lord’s plans for us and everyone else in the world, and fit in to serve His goals. Mentally this is like being in light, and Swedenborg’s works say the divine truth is the actual light of heaven.

So why does “truth” sound so cold and dry? The problem is in us, of course. We’re born into the physical world and our senses are filled by physical things, so we tend to think of “truth” as the aspects of divine thought that can be projected into the physical world. And those aspects are the coldest and driest, with the love awaiting us on the spiritual level.

(References: Apocalypse Explained 219, 411 [4], 434, 594, 748, 948 [3], 950; Apocalypse Revealed 193; Arcana Coelestia 4687 [3], 4724, 5321 [2], 6880, 6996 [3], 7004 [2], 7056 [2-3], 7058 [2], 7270 [2-4], 8200, 8705 [3], 9407 [1-3], [13], 9410 [5], 9905, 10026, 10060; Canons of the New Church 15; Heaven and Hell 13, 127, 137 [2-4], 232, 347; On the Athanasian Creed 145; The Apocalypse Explained 130 [2], 412 [2], 700 [2], 768 [15], 997 [2-3]; The Doctrine of Life for the New Jerusalem 32 [1-6]; The White Horse 14; The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine 25; True Christian Religion 39, 85, 86-88, 142, 224)

9642. 'The boards for the south side, southwards' means even to the more internal and the inmost parts [of it], where truth dwells in light. This is clear from the meaning of 'the boards of the dwelling-place' as the good supporting heaven, dealt with in 9634; from the meaning of 'the side (or corner)', when the term is used in reference to the four quarters, as the specific state meant by that quarter, dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'the south, southwards' ¹ as the more internal and the inmost parts, where truth dwells in light. 'The south' or 'midday' means a state of light, which is a state of intelligence produced by truths, thus also an interior state; for in the heavens the light, and the intelligence and wisdom that accompany the light, increases towards the more internal parts. Further away from those parts truth dwells in shade; and this state of truth is meant by 'the north'. This then is why 'the south side, southwards' means even to the more internal and the inmost parts, where truth dwells in light.

[2] The same things are meant by 'the south' in Isaiah,

I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Do not withhold. Bring My sons from afar, and My daughters from the end of the earth. Isaiah 43:6.

This refers to a new Church. 'Saying to the north' means speaking to those who are in darkness or have no knowledge of the truths of faith, who are gentiles outside the Church. 'Saying to the south' means speaking to those who dwell in the light provided by cognitions or knowledge of goodness and truth, who are people within the Church. This explains why the latter are told not to 'withhold' [those sons and daughters], but the former 'to give them up'.

[3] In Ezekiel,

Set your face the way of the south, and drop [your words] towards the south, and prophesy against the forest of the field to the south, and say to the forest of the south, Behold, I am kindling in you a fire, which will devour in you every green tree; and all faces from south to north will be scorched. Set your face towards Jerusalem, and drop [your words] against the sanctuaries, and prophesy against the land of Israel. Ezekiel 20:46-21:2.

'The south' here stands for those who have the light of truth provided by the Word, thus those who belong to the Church, yet who are influenced by falsities which they substantiate from the sense of the letter of the Word wrongly explained. This is why the expressions 'the forest of the field towards the south' and 'the forest of the south' are used. 'A forest' is a state in which factual knowledge is predominant, whereas 'a garden' is one in which truth is predominant. From this it is evident what the meaning is of 'setting one's face the way of the south, and dropping [one's words] towards the south, and prophesying against the forest of the field to the south', and then of 'set your face towards Jerusalem, and drop [your words] against the sanctuaries, and prophesy against the land of Israel'. 'Jerusalem' and 'the land of Israel' mean the Church, and 'the sanctuaries' there things of the Church.

[4] In Isaiah,

If you bring out for the hungry your soul ² and satisfy the afflicted soul, your light will rise in the darkness, and your thick darkness will be as at midday. Isaiah 58:10.

'Darkness' and 'thick darkness' stand for lack of knowledge of truth and good, 'light' and 'midday' for an understanding of them. In the same prophet, Give counsel, execute judgement, set your shade like the night in the middle of the day; ³ hide the outcasts, do not reveal the wanderer. Isaiah 16:3.

'In the middle of the day' stands for in the midst of the light of truth. In Jeremiah,

Prepare for ⁴ battle against the daughter of Zion; arise, and let us go up into the south, ⁵ for the day goes away, for the shadows of evening are set at an angle. Jeremiah 6:4.

'Going up into the south' stands for going up against the Church, where truth dwells in light from the Word. In Amos,

I will make the sun go down in the south, ⁵ and I will darken the land in broad daylight. Amos 8:9.

This stands for blotting out all the light of truth which is provided by the Word.

[5] In David,

You will not be afraid of the terror of the night, of the arrow that flies by day, of the pestilence in thick darkness, of death that lays waste at noonday. Psalms 91:5-6.

'The terror of the night' stands for falsities arising from evil that come from hell; 'the arrow that flies by day' stands for falsity which is taught openly; 'death that lays waste at noonday' stands for evil that is openly present in people's lives, and that destroys truth wherever it is able to dwell in its own light from the Word.

[6] And in Isaiah,

The prophecy of the wilderness of the sea. As whirlwinds in the south sweep through, ⁶ it comes from the wilderness, from a terrible land. Isaiah 21:1.

In Daniel,

The he-goat of the she-goats made himself exceedingly great, and his horn grew exceedingly towards the south, and towards the east, and towards the glorious [land]. And it grew even towards the host of heaven, and cast down to the earth some of the host, and of the stars, and trampled on them. Daniel 8:8-10.

This refers to the state of the future Church. It foretells that the Church will be ruined by teachings about faith separated from the good of charity, 'the he-goat of the she-goats' being this kind of faith, 4169 (end), 4769. 'The horn's growing towards the south' stands for the power of falsity from this faith directed against truths, 'towards the east' for directing it against forms of good, and 'towards the glorious [land]' for directing it against the Church. 'Towards the host of heaven' stands for directing that power against all the forms of good and the truths belonging to heaven, and 'casting down to the earth some of the host, and of the stars' stands for destroying these, and also even the cognitions or knowledge of good and truth, 4697.

[7] The whole of Chapter 11 in the same prophet describes a war between the king of the south and the king of the north. 'The king of the south' means the light of truth derived from the Word, and 'the king of the north' reasoning about truths which is based on factual knowledge. The shifting fortunes which the Church will experience until it ceases to exist are described by the different phases in the course of that war.

[8] Because 'the south' meant truth dwelling in light it was decreed that the tribes of Reuben, Simeon, and Gad should camp towards the south, Numbers 2:10-15. Encampments represented the arrangement of all things in heaven as determined by the truths and forms of the good of faith and love, 4236, 8103 (end), 8193, 8196, and 'the twelve tribes' which formed the camp meant all the truths and forms of good in their entirety, 3858, 3862, 3926, 3939, 4060, 6335, 6337, 6397, 6640, 7836, 7891, 7996, 7997. 'The tribe of Reuben' meant the truth of faith present in doctrine, 3861, 3866, 5542, 'the tribe of Simeon' the truth of faith subsequently present in life, 3869-3872, 4497, 4502, 4503, 5482, and 'the tribe of Gad' works motivated by that truth in doctrine and life, 6404, 6405. From these meanings it is evident why these three camped towards the south; for all things on the side of truth or faith belong in the south because they are in light.

[9] From all this it is now clear what 'the south side' means, namely where the state of truth dwelling in light is to be found. For all states of the good of love and the truth of faith are meant by the four corners of the earth, states of the good of love being meant by the east and west sides, and states of the truth of faith by the south and north ones. Much the same is meant by 'the four winds', as in the Book of Revelation,

... angels standing over the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth, in order that the wind should not blow onto the earth. Revelation 7:1.

And elsewhere,

Satan will come out to deceive the nations which are at the four corners of the earth. Revelation 20:7-8.

In Matthew,

He will send angels, and gather the elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. ⁷ Matthew 24:31.

And in Ezekiel,

Come from the four winds, O spirit, and breathe into these killed, that they may live. Ezekiel 37:9.

[10] Because those winds, that is, those four quarters, meant all aspects of good and truth, thus all aspects of heaven and the Church, and 'a temple' meant heaven or the Church, it had been the custom since ancient times to site temples in an east-west direction. This was because the east meant the good of love on the rise, and the west the good of love on the decline. This custom had its origin in representative signs, which were well known to the ancients who belonged to the Church.

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