From Swedenborg's Works

 

Heaven and Hell #260

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260. Another time I was sent a small page from heaven with only a few words written on it in Hebrew letters. I was told that each letter enfolded treasures of wisdom, and that these were contained in the bends and curves of the letters and therefore in the sounds as well. I could see from this the meaning of the Lord's words, "I tell you in truth, until heaven and earth pass away, not one jot or one tittle shall pass away from the Law" (Matthew 5:18). It is acknowledged in the church that the Word is divine right down to the smallest point, but where in each point the Divine lies hidden - that is not known as yet, so it needs to be explained. In the inmost heaven, the writing consists of various curving and bending forms, and these curves and bends are in keeping with the form of heaven. Through them, angels express the treasures of their wisdom, including many things that they cannot say in words. Believe it or not, the angels know this writing without practice or teachers. They are inwardly gifted with it as they are with the language itself (236), so this writing is heavenly writing. The reason they are inwardly gifted with it is that all the outreach of angels' thoughts and affections and therefore all communication of their intelligence and wisdom takes place in keeping with heaven's form (201). This is why their writing flows into that same form.

I have been told that before letters were invented, the earliest humans on our planet had this kind of writing, and that it was transferred into the Hebrew letters, which in early times were all curved, with none marked off by straight lines the way they are now. This is why there are divine things and treasures of heaven in the Word even in its jots and points and little horns.

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

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Heaven and Hell #201

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201. We need to know what heaven's form is like because it determines not only how angels associate with each other but also how all their communication takes place; and since all their communication is also an outreach of their thoughts and affections, this means all their intelligence and wisdom. This is why the extent to which we are in heaven's form (are forms of heaven) determines how wise we are. It amounts to the same thing whether you say "in heaven's form" or "in heaven's design," since the form of any entity comes from its design and is determined by it. 1

Footnotes:

1. [Swedenborg's footnote] Heaven's form is a form that follows from the divine design: 4040-4043, 6607, 9877.

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

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Heaven and Hell #236

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236. All people in heaven have the same language. They all understand each other, no matter what community they come from, whether nearby or remote. This language is not learned but is innate; it flows from their very affection and thought. The sound of the language corresponds to their affection and the articulations of the sound - the words, that is - correspond to the mental constructs that arise from their affections. Since their language corresponds to these [inner events], it too is spiritual, for it is audible affection and vocal thinking.

[2] Anyone who reflects may realize that all thought comes from affection, which is a function of love, and that mental constructs are various forms into which the general affection is apportioned; for no thoughts or concepts whatever occur apart from affection. This is the source of their soul and life. This is why angels know simply from speech what kind of person someone is - they know the quality of the affection from the sound and the quality of the mind from the articulations of the sound, or words. Wiser angels know from a single series of statements what someone's ruling affection is, since this is what they are primarily attentive to.

[3] It is recognized that all people have various affections or moods - one in times of happiness, another in times of sorrow, another in times of tenderness and compassion, another in times of honesty and truth, another in times of love and thoughtfulness, another in times of zeal or anger, another in times of pretense and guile, another in times of ambition for respect and adulation, and so on; but there is a dominant affection or love within all of these, so since the wiser angels perceive this, they know from conversation the whole state of another person.

[4] I have been granted knowledge of this through an abundance of experience. I have heard angels discover a person's life simply by listening. They have told me that they know everything about another person's life from a few individual ideas because these enable them to know the person's ruling love, which contains everything in a pattern. This is all that our "book of life" is.

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