Index of Memorable RelationsNews from
the Angels |
TCR 277. To this I will add the following Memorable Relations First:-
One day I was wandering in the spirit through various places in the spiritual world, for the purpose of observing the representations of heavenly things that are there exhibited in many places; and in a certain house where there were angels, I saw large purses containing a great quantity of silver; and as the purses were open, it seemed as if anyone might draw forth the silver there stored, and even purloin it; but near the purses sat two youths, who were guards. The place where the purses were stored looked like the manger in a stable. In the next room modest virgins with a chaste wife were seen; and near that room stood two little children, and it was said that they were not to be played with in a childish way, but treated wisely. Afterwards a harlot appeared, and then a horse lying dead.
Having seen these things, I was taught that they represented the natural sense of the Word, within which is the spiritual sense. The large purses filled with silver signified knowledges of truth in great abundance; their being open and yet guarded by youths, signified that anyone may obtain knowledges of truth therefrom, and yet care must be taken that the spiritual sense, which contains pure truths, be not violated. The manger like that in a stable, signified spiritual nourishment for the understanding, a manger having this significance, because a horse, which eats from it, signifies the understanding. The modest virgins who were seen in the next room signified affections for truth, and the chaste wife, the conjunction of good and truth. The little children signified the innocence of wisdom, for the angels of the highest heaven, who are the wisest of angels, appear at a distance like little children because of their innocence. The harlot with the dead horse, signified the falsification of truth by many at the present day, whereby all understanding of truth perishes; a harlot signifying falsification, and a dead horse no understanding of truth.
TCR 278. Second Memorable Relation:-
There was once sent down to me from heaven a little paper with Hebrew letters inscribed on it, but written as with the ancients, with whom those letters which at the present are formed in part of straight lines were curved, with little horns turned upward; and the angels who were with me said that they recognized complete meanings in the very letters, perceiving them especially from the curves of the lines and apexes of the letters. They also explained what the letters signified both separately and conjointly, saying that the letter H, which was added to the names of Abram and Sarai, signified the infinite and eternal. They also explained to me the meaning of the Word in (Ps. 32:2), from the letters or syllables alone, saying that their meaning in brief is, That the Lord is merciful even to those who do evil. They told me that the writings in the third heaven consist of letters bent and variously curved, each one of which contains a certain meaning; and that the vowels there stand for the tone of the voice, which corresponds to affection; also that they are unable in that heaven to pronounce the vowels i and e, but use in their place y and eu; and that the vowels a, o, and u were in use among them, because they have a full sound. They also said that they pronounce none of the consonants roughly, but only softly, and that this is why some Hebrew letters have points within them as a sign that they are to be pronounced softly; adding that the rough sounds of letters are in use in the spiritual heaven, because there the angels are in truths; and truth admits roughness, but the good in which the angels of the Lord‘s celestial kingdom or of the third heaven are, does not. They said, moreover, that they have a Word among themselves written with curved letters with little horns and apexes that are significative. This makes clear what these words of the Lord signify:--
One jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass away from the law, till all things be accomplished (Matt. 5:18)
also of these:--
It is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tittle of the law to fall (Luke 16:17).
TCR 279. Third Memorable Relation:-
Seven years ago, when I was collecting what Moses wrote in the twenty-first chapter of Numbers from the two books called The Wars of Jehovah and Enunciations, some angels were present who told me that those books were the Ancient Word, the historical parts of which were called The Wars of Jehovah, and the prophetic, Enunciations; and they said that this Word is still preserved in heaven, and in use among the ancient people there who had this Word when they were in the world. These ancient people, among whom that Word is still in use in heaven, were in part from the land of Canaan and the neighboring countries, as Syria, Mesopotamia, Arabia, Chaldea, Assyria, Egypt, Sidon, Tyre, and Nineveh; the inhabitants of all of which kingdoms had representative worship and consequently a knowledge of correspondences. The wisdom of that time was from that knowledge, and by it men had interior perception, and communication with the heavens. Those who knew the correspondences of that Word were called wise and intelligent, and afterward diviners and Magi.
[2] But because that Word was full of such correspondences as remotely signified things celestial and spiritual, and consequently began to be falsified by many, in course of time by the Lord’s Divine Providence it disappeared, and another Word was given, written by correspondences not so remote, and this through the prophets among the sons of Israel. In this Word many names of the places, both in the land of Canaan and round about in Asia, are retained, all of which signified things and states of the church; but the significations were from the ancient Word. For this reason Abram was commanded to go into that land, and his posterity through Jacob were led into it.
[3] Of that ancient Word which existed in Asia before the Israelitish Word, I am permitted to state this new thing, namely, that it is still preserved there among the people who dwell in Great Tartary. In the spiritual world I have talked with spirits and angels from that country, who said that they have a Word, and have had it from ancient times; and that they conduct their Divine worship according to this Word, and that it consists solely of correspondences. They said, that in it also is the Book of Jasher, which is mentioned in (Joshua 10:12, 13), and in (2 Samuel 1:17, 18); and that they have also among them the books called The Wars of Jehovah and Enunciations, which are mentioned by Moses (Num. 21:14, 15, 27-30); and when I read to them the words that Moses had quoted therefrom, they searched to see if they were there, and found them; from which it was evident to me that the ancient Word is still among that people. While talking with them they said that they worshiped Jehovah, some as an invisible God, and some as visible.
[4] They also told me that they do not permit foreigners to come among them, except the Chinese, with whom they cultivate peaceful relations, because the Chinese Emperor is from their country; also that the population is so great that they do not believe that any region in the whole world is more populous, which is indeed credible from the wall so many miles in length which the Chinese formerly built as a protection against invasion from these people. I have further heard from the angels, that the first chapters of Genesis which treat of creation, of Adam and Eve, the garden of Eden, their sons and their posterity down to the flood, and of Noah and his sons, are also contained in that Word, and thus were transcribed from it by Moses. The angels and spirits from Great Tartary are seen in the southern quarter on its eastern side, and are separated from others by dwelling in a higher expanse, and by their not permitting anyone to come to them from the Christian world, or, if any ascend, by guarding them to prevent their return. Their possessing a different Word is the cause of this separation.
TCR 280. Fourth Memorable Relation:-
I once saw at a distance walks between rows of trees, and groups of youths assembled there, forming as many companies discussing matters of wisdom. This was in the spiritual world. I went towards them, and as I drew near I saw one whom the rest venerated as their primate, because he excelled them in wisdom.
When he saw me he said, “I wondered when I saw you approaching, that at one time you came in sight and at another you dropped out of sight, or I could see you and then suddenly I could not. You are certainly not in the same state of life as we are.”
Smiling at this I said, “I am not a stage-player, nor a Vertumnus, but I am alternately in your light and in your shade; thus here I am both a foreigner and a native.”
At this the wise man gazed at me and said, “Your Words are strange and marvelous; tell me who you are.”
And I said, “I am in the world in which you once were and from which you came, which is called the natural world; and I am also in the world in which you now are, which is called the spiritual world; consequently, I am at the same time in a natural state and in a spiritual state, in a natural state with men on earth, and in a spiritual state with you; and when I am in a natural state I am not seen by you, but when in a spiritual state, I am seen. That I am such is granted me by the Lord. To you who are enlightened it is known that a man of the natural world does not see a man of the spiritual world, nor the reverse; therefore when I had let my spirit down into my body I was not visible to you, but when I raised it out of the body I was visible. This comes from the distinction between the spiritual and the natural.”
[2] When he heard the words, “the distinction between the spiritual and the natural,” he said, “What is the distinction? Is it not like that between the purer and the less pure, that is, that the spiritual is simply a purer natural?”
I answered, “Such is not the distinction. By no subtilization can the natural so approximate the spiritual as to become the spiritual; for the distinction is like that between the prior and the posterior, between which there is no finite ratio. For the prior is in the posterior as a cause in its effect; and the posterior is from the prior as an effect is from its cause. Therefore the one is not visible to the other.”
At this the wise man said, “I have meditated on this distinction, but thus far in vain; I wish I could perceive it.” I replied, “You shall both perceive and see the distinction between the spiritual and the natural.” And I then said, “You are in a spiritual state when you are with your associates, but in a natural state when with me; for with your associates you speak in a spiritual language, which is common to every spirit and angel; but with me you speak in my native tongue, for every spirit and angel when speaking to a man uses the man‘s own language; thus, French to a Frenchman, Greek to a Greek, Arabic to an Arabian, and so on.
[3] If therefore you would know the difference between the spiritual and the natural in regard to language, do this: go to your companions and there say something; retain the words, return with them in your memory, and utter them to me.”
This he did, and returned to me with the words in his mouth, and uttered them; and they were words wholly strange and foreign, such as are not found in any language in the natural world. By this experiment several times repeated, it became clearly manifest that all in the spiritual world have a spiritual language that has nothing in common with any natural language, and that every man comes of himself into that language after death. I also found on one occasion that the very sound of spiritual language differs so much from the sound of natural language, that even a loud spiritual sound could not be heard at all by a natural man, nor a natural sound by a spiritual man.
[4] After this I asked the spirit and those standing about to go among their companions, and write some sentence upon paper, and then come out to me with the paper and read it. This they did, and returned with the paper in their hands; but when they came to read it, they could not, because the writing consisted solely of some alphabetical letters, with curves over them, each one of which meant something pertaining to the subject. Inasmuch as each letter of the alphabet there stands for some meaning, it is plain why the Lord is called “the Alpha and the Omega.” When they had gone in again and again and had written and returned, they found that the writing involved and comprehended innumerable things which no natural writing could possibly express; and they were told that this is so because the spiritual man’s thoughts are incomprehensible and ineffable to the natural man, and that they can be put into no other writing or language.
[5] Then as the bystanders had no wish to understand that spiritual thought so far exceeds natural thought as to be comparatively ineffable, I said to them, “Make an experiment; enter your spiritual society and think of some subject, retain it, and return and express it in my presence.”
They entered, thought of a subject, retained it, and came out; and when they tried to give expression to it they could not; for they could find no idea of natural thought adequate to any idea of purely spiritual thought, and thus no words to express it; for the ideas of thought become words in speech. Afterwards they entered again, and returned; and became convinced that spiritual ideas are supernatural, inexpressible, ineffable and incomprehensible to a natural man; and they said that being so supereminent, spiritual ideas or thoughts in comparison with natural are ideas of ideas and thoughts of thoughts, and therefore by them the qualities of qualities and the affections of affections are expressed; consequently that spiritual thoughts are the beginnings and origins of natural thoughts; and from this it is evident that spiritual wisdom is the wisdom of wisdom, and is therefore inexpressible to any wise man in the natural world.
[6] Then it was said from the higher heaven that there is a still more interior or higher wisdom which is called celestial, the relation of which to spiritual wisdom is like the relation of this to natural wisdom, and that these inflow in order according to the heavens from the Lord‘s Divine wisdom, which is infinite.
Thereupon, the man speaking with me said, “This I see, because I perceive it, that one natural idea is the containant of many spiritual ideas; also that one spiritual idea is the containant of many celestial ideas. From this it follows as a consequence, that what is divided does not become more and more simple, but more and more manifold, because it approaches nearer and nearer to the infinite, which contains all things infinitely.”
[7] After all this had taken place, I said to the bystanders, “From these three experimental proofs you see what kind of distinction there is between the spiritual and the natural, and also the reason why a natural man is not visible to a spiritual man, or a spiritual man to a natural man, although both are in a complete human form, and from that form it seems to each as though he might see the other. But the interiors which belong to the mind are what constitute that form; and the minds of spirits and angels are formed out of spiritual things, while the minds of men so long as they live in the world, are formed out of natural things.”
After this a voice was heard from the higher heaven, saying to one who stood by, “Come up hither.” He went up, and returned and said that the angels had not before known the differences between the spiritual and the natural, because the means of comparison had not previously been furnished in a man who was in both worlds at once, and without comparison and relation those differences are unknowable.
[8] Before we separated we talked again about this matter, and I said, “These distinctions come solely from this, that you in the spiritual world are substantial but not material, and substantial things are the beginnings of material things. What is matter but an aggregation of substances? You therefore are in principles and thus in the least particles, while we are in derivatives and compounds; you are in particulars, while we are in generals; and as generals cannot enter into particulars, so neither can natural things, which are material, enter into spiritual things, which are substantial; just as a ship’s cable cannot enter or be drawn through the eye of a sewing needle, or a nerve cannot be drawn into one of the fibers of which it is composed. This then is why the natural man cannot think the thoughts of the spiritual man, and therefore cannot utter them. So what Paul heard from the third heaven he called ineffable.
[9] Add to this, that to think spiritually is to think apart from time and space, while to think naturally is to think in accord with time and space; for to every idea of natural thought there adheres something from time and space; but it is not so with any spiritual idea, and for the reason that the spiritual world is not in space and time, as the natural world is, but is in the appearance of these two. In the same way do the thoughts and perceptions of the two worlds differ. For this reason you are able to think of the essence and omnipotence of God from eternity, that is, to think of God before the creation of the world, because you think of the essence of God apart from time and of His omnipotence apart from space; and thus you can comprehend such things as transcend man‘s natural ideas.”
[10] I then told them that I had once thought about the essence and omnipresence of God from eternity, that is, about God before the creation of the world; and because I was not then able to separate spaces and times from the ideas of my thought I became anxious, since the idea of nature in place of God pressed in. But it was said to me, “Separate the ideas of space and time and you will see;” and I was permitted to separate them, and I saw; and since then I have been able to think of God from eternity, but by no means of nature from eternity, because God is in all time apart from time, and in all space apart from space; but nature in all time is in time, and in all space is in space; and nature with its time and space must needs have beginning; but not God who is apart from time and space. Wherefore nature is not God from eternity, but is from God in time, in connection with its own time and space.
TCR 281. Fifth Memorable Relation:-
As it has been granted me by the Lord to be in the spiritual world and in the natural world at the same time, and thus to talk with angels the same as with men, and thereby to become acquainted with the states of those who after death pass into that hitherto unknown world (for I have spoken with all of my relatives and friends, and with kings and nobles and with learned men who have met their fate, and this now continually for twenty-seven years), I am able from living experience to describe the states of men after death, what the states are of those who have lived well and of those who have lived wickedly. But here I will only mention some things respecting the state of those who have confirmed themselves in falsities of doctrine from the Word, and especially those who have done this in support of justification by faith alone. The successive states of such are as follows:
(i.) After death and when they are reviving in spirit, which usually takes place on the third day after the heart has ceased to beat, they seem to themselves to be in a body so like that which they had in the world that they do not know but that they are still living in the former world, yet not in a material body, but in a body that is substantial and that appears to their senses to be material; but it is not.
[2] (ii.) After some days, they see that they are in a world where various societies are formed, which world is called the world of spirits, and is intermediate between heaven and hell. All the societies there, and they are innumerable, are wonderfully arranged in accordance with good and evil natural affections; the societies arranged in accordance with good natural affections communicating with heaven, and those arranged in accordance with evil affections communicating with hell.
[3] (iii.) The novitiate spirit or spiritual man is conducted and transferred into various societies, both good and evil, and is examined as to whether he is affected by what is good and true, and how, or by what is evil and false, and how.
[4] (iv.) If he is affected by what is good and true, he is led away from evil societies and is led into good societies, and into different ones until he comes into a society that is in correspondence with his natural affection, and there he enjoys the good that corresponds to that affection, and this until he has put off his natural affection and put on a spiritual affection, and then he is raised into heaven. This takes place with those who in the world had lived a life of charity, and thus a life of faith also, which is believing in the Lord and shunning evils as sins.
[5] (v.) But those who have confirmed themselves in falsities by means of reasonings, especially by means of the Word, and so have lived a merely natural and thus an evil life (for evils accompany falsities and adhere to falsities), inasmuch as they are not affected by what is good and true, but by what is evil and false, are led away from good societies and into evil societies and into different ones, until they come into some society corresponding to the lusts of their love.
[6] (vi.) But because these in the world had feigned good affections in externals, although in their internals there were only evil affections or lusts, they are kept by turns in their (good) externals. Those who in the world had presided over communities, are appointed over societies here and there in the world of spirits, either over a whole society or a part according to the extent of the offices they had filled in their former life. But as they have no love for what is true or what is just, and cannot be so far enlightened as to know what is true and just, after a few days they are deposed. I have seen such transferred from one society to another, and official authority everywhere given them, but always taken away after a short time.
[7] (vii.) After frequent dismissions some from weariness do not wish, and some from fear of losing their reputation do not dare, to seek office any more; and therefore they withdraw and sit in sadness and afterwards are led away into a desert, where there are huts into which they enter, and there some work is given them to do, and as they do it they receive food. If they do not do it, when they become hungry they receive no food and are thus compelled by necessity. The food there is similar to the food in our world, but is from a spiritual origin, and is given from heaven by the Lord to all according to the uses they perform. To the idle none is given because they are useless.
[8] (viii.) After a while they become disgusted with work and leave their huts. If they had been priests they wish to build; and immediately heaps of cut stone, bricks, beams, and boards appear, also piles of reeds and rushes, of clay, lime, and bitumen. When they see these a strong desire to build is kindled in them, and they begin to construct a house, taking now a stone, and then a stick, then a reed and then some mud, and placing one upon the other without order, but to their sight in regular order. But what they build during the day falls down at night; and the next day they gather up the material from the rubbish and build again; and this goes on until they grow tired of building. This takes place from correspondence. The correspondence is that they have heaped up texts from the Word to prove what is false in faith, and their falsities do not otherwise build the church.
[9] (ix.) Afterward from weariness they go away and sit solitary and idle; and as no food is given from heaven to the idle, as before said, they begin to grow hungry, and to think of nothing but how to get food and satisfy their hunger. While they are in this state persons come to them from whom they ask alms; but these say, “Why do you sit here idle? Come home with us, and we will give you work to do and will feed you.” Then they rise up gladly and go home with them, and each one is there given his own task, and for doing it he receives food. But since none of those who have confirmed themselves in the falsities of faith are able to do works that have a good use, but are able to do only such works as have an evil use, and are unable to do these faithfully, but only fraudulently and also unwillingly, they abandon their work, caring only to visit, talk, walk about, and sleep. And as they can no longer be induced by their masters to work they are dismissed as useless.
[10] (x.) When they have been dismissed their eyes are opened and they see a road leading to a certain cavern. When they come to it a door is opened and they enter and ask if there is food there; and when told that there is they beg permission to remain there, and they are told that they may, and are introduced and the door is closed behind them. The overseer of the cavern then comes and says to them, “You can go out no more; you see your companions; they all labor, and according to their labor food is given them from heaven; I tell you this, that you may know.” Their companions also say to them, “Our overseer knows for what work each one is fitted, and assigns such work to each one daily. The days you do this work, food is given you, and if you do not do it, neither food nor clothing is given. If anyone does harm to another, he is thrown into a corner of the cavern upon a bed made of accursed dust, where he is sorely tortured, and this until the overseer sees in him some sign of repentance, and then he is released and is ordered to do his work.”
[11] He is also told that everyone, after his task is done, is permitted to walk about, to talk, and afterward to sleep. And he is conducted further into the cavern where there are harlots, and each one is allowed to select one of these, and to call her his woman; but promiscuous harlotry is forbidden with penalties. Of such caverns, which are nothing but eternal work-houses, hell consists. I was permitted to enter into and see some of them, in order that I might make the facts known. All who were there seemed degraded; not one of them knew who he had been or what his employment had been in the world. But the angel who was with me said to me, “This man was in the world a servant, this a soldier, this a general; this was a priest; this a man of rank, and this a man of wealth, and yet not one of them knows but that they had been, then as now, slaves and boon companions. This is because they had been inwardly alike, although outwardly unlike, and all in the spiritual world are affiliated according to their interiors.”
[12] In regard to the hells in general, they consist solely of such caverns and work-houses; but those where satans are differ from those where devils are. Those are called satans who had been in falsities and consequently in evils; and they are called devils who had been in evils and consequently in falsities. Satans in the light of heaven appear livid like corpses, and some black like mummies; but devils in the light of heaven appear dusky and fiery, and some black like soot; while in features and bodily form they are all monstrous. But in their own light, which is like the light of burning charcoal, they do not look like monsters but like men. This is granted to render them capable of association.
True Christian Religion - Containing the Universal Theology of the New Heaven
and New Church #277-281
- E. Swedenborg 1688-1772
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