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Worlds in Space #9

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9. II. THE WORLD OR PLANET MERCURY, AND ITS SPIRITS AND INHABITANTS

The whole heaven is in the form of a single human being, who is therefore called the Grand Man. Every detail, both outward and inward, in the human being answers to that Grand Man, that is, to heaven. This is a secret so far unknown in the world, but I have shown the truth of it at great length. 1 But those who reach heaven from our world are not enough to make up that Grand Man, being relatively few, so there will need to be people from many other worlds. The Lord's providence ensures that as soon as a deficiency in quality or quantity occurs at any point in the correspondence, people are instantly summoned from another world to fill up the numbers, so maintaining the proportion and keeping heaven stable.

Footnotes:

1. [Swedenborg’s Footnote] Heaven has a correspondence to the Lord, and a human being has in every detail a correspondence to heaven, so that in the Lord's eyes heaven is a man on the grand scale, and may be called the Grand Man (Arcana Caelestia 2996, 2998, 3624-3649 [original adds 3636-3643], 3741-3745, 4625). The whole subject of the correspondence of man and all his parts to the Grand Man who is heaven has been described from experience (3021, 3624-3649, 3741-3750 [3741 in original], Arcana Caelestia 3883-3896, 4039-4055 [4051 in original], Arcana Caelestia 4218-4228, 4318-4331, 4403-4421, 4523-4533 [from 4527 in original], Arcana Caelestia 4622-4633, 4652-4660, 4791-4805, 4931-4953, 5050-5061, 5171-5189, 5377-5396, 5552-5573, 5711-5727, 10030).

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

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Arcana Coelestia #4318

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4318. THE GRAND MAN AND CORRESPONDENCE - continued

IN THIS SECTION CORRESPONDENCE WITH THE SENSES IN GENERAL

The chief characteristic of angels' intelligence is their knowledge and perception that all life comes from the Lord, also that heaven in its entirety corresponds to His Divine Human and consequently that all angels, spirits, and men correspond to heaven. They also know and perceive in what way they correspond. These are the main characteristics of intelligence which are present in angels far more than in men. From them angels know and perceive countless things which exist in the heavens and consequently things in the world also, since the things which manifest themselves in the world and the natural order there are causes and effects that stem from those things in the heavens as their first beginnings. For the whole natural order is a theatre representative of the Lord's kingdom.

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