Correspondences

1. Overview

Welcome to this Course on Correspondences. It aims to familiarize you with this whole world of Correspondences, what they mean, how dynamic and living they are, and what is a crucial reality, that the Bible is written throughout in, and expressed by, correspondences.

Understanding correspondences is the key to understanding the dynamic relationship that exists between the spiritual and natural levels of existence in every domain of human life. Of particular interest is how knowledge of the science of correspondence is able to lead a person into the unfathomable depths of meaning contained in the Bible and bring this text to life as we learn to see in its stories the story of our own spiritual awakening and regeneration

Well before his introduction into the spiritual world and as a scientist and philosopher, Swedenborg was challenged by the question of the connection between the spiritual world and this natural or physical world. He never stumbled on the answer. It was revealed to him as being by means of Correspondences.

Even as you start this Course it is important for you to know just where you are at with respect to Correspondences; what you sense to be meant by Correspondences; even though you may presently feel vague and uncertain.

1.1 Introduction

Welcome to this pre-requisite Course on Correspondences. It is to consist of 10 Sessions and its aim is to familiarize you with this whole world of Correspondences, what they mean, how dynamic and living they are, and what is a crucial reality, that the Bible is written throughout in, and expressed by, correspondences.

Well before his introduction into the spiritual world and as a scientist and philosopher, Swedenborg was challenged by the question of the connection between the spiritual world and this natural or physical world. He never stumbled on the answer. It was revealed to him as being by means of Correspondences.

Texts required for this course are:

• A Bible
• “The Language of Parable” By William L. Worcester
• Either “NewSearch” (Swedenborg’s Writings on disk) or Potts Concordance
• A good Bible Atlas (or access to one)
• “A Dictionary of Correspondences” (entirely optional)
• “I Am” booklet by Ian Arnold
• A Bible Concordance

View the video by clicking on the link below and use the questions as a guide to reflecting on your own sense of things as you sit with them over a few days. Journal your insights, thoughts and feelings with a view to sharing your reflections with your tutor.

Read through numbers provided below the video (a copy of the same numbers can also be found below) and write two paragraphs (one for A and one for B) using the following questions as a guide for your response.

PARAGRAPH A: QUESTIONS

• What are the key ideas for you and how are they of special interest to you?
• Where was your energy the highest? What touched or excited you? Where was your energy the lowest?
• Was there anything that prompted resistance or push back?
• How did this call you to deeper thought?

PARAGRAPH B: QUESTIONS

• How do the ideas in these numbers support your spiritual life?
• how might they be used to support others in their spiritual lives?
• What if any unanswered questions do you have sitting with you?
• How do they call you to go deeper in particular areas?

REFERENCES FROM THE WRITINGS

Arcana Coelestia (Potts) 7270(4)

that there is only one substance which is substance, and that all other things are formations thence; and that in the formations that one only substance reigns, not only as form, but also as non-form, as in its origin. Unless this were so, a thing formed could not possibly subsist and act.

Divine Love and Wisdom(Ager) 77

that the Divine apart from space is in all space, and apart from time is in all time. Moreover, there are spaces greater and greatest, and lesser and least; and since spaces and times, as said above, make one, it is the same with times. In these the Divine is the same, because the Divine is not varying and changeable, as everything is which belongs to nature, but is unvarying and unchangeable, consequently the same everywhere and always.

Divine Love and Wisdom (Ager) 75

Now, because intervals of time-which are properties of nature in its own world-are nothing but states in the spiritual world, states which appear progressive there because angels and spirits are finite, it can be seen that in God states are not progressive, because He is infinite, and because the infinite elements in Him are one, in accordance with the points we demonstrated above in nos. 17-22. ​From this it follows that the Divine is present through all time independently of time.

Arcana Coelestia (Potts) 4206

That such various things of the Lord are represented, is not because various things are in the Lord, but because His Divine is variously received by men. This is like the life in man, which flows in and acts upon the various sensory and motive organs of the body, and upon the various members and viscera, and everywhere presents variety. For the eye sees in one way, the ear hears in another, the tongue perceives in another; so the arms and hands move in one way, and the loins and the feet in a different way; the lungs act in one way and the heart in another; the liver in one way and the stomach in another, and so on; but nevertheless it is one life which actuates them all so variously, not because the life itself acts in different ways, but because it is differently received; for the form of each organ is that according to which the action is determined.

Divine Love and Wisdom (Ager) 4 the Lord, who is the God of the universe, is uncreate and infinite, whereas man and angel are created and finite. And because the Lord is uncreate and infinite, He is Being [Esse] itself, which is called “Jehovah,” and Life itself, or Life in itself. From the uncreate, the infinite, Being itself and Life itself, no one can be created immediately, because the Divine is one and indivisible; but their creation must be out of things created and finited, and so formed that the Divine can be in them. Because men and angels are such, they are recipients of life. Consequently, if any man suffers himself to be so far misled as to think that he is not a recipient of life but is Life, he cannot be withheld from the thought that he is God. ​

True Christian Religion (Ager) 18

Let us first consider the Divine Esse, and afterwards the Divine essence. In appearance the two are one and the same; but esse is more universal than essence; for essence implies esse, and is derived from esse. The Esse of God (or the Divine Esse) it is impossible to define, because it transcends every idea of human thought, since this can take in only what is created and finite, and not what is uncreate and infinite, and therefore not the Divine Esse. The Divine Esse is Esse itself, from which all things are, and which must be in all things in order that they may have being. ​

Arcana Coelestia (Potts) 5110(3)

nevertheless, when we consider that everything in the Lord is Divine, and that the Divine is above all thought, and altogether incomprehensible even to the angels, consequently if we then abstract that which is comprehensible, there remains being and coming-forth itself, which is the celestial itself and the spiritual itself, that is, good itself and truth itself.

True Christian Religion (Ager) 25(3)

They said still further, that the Divine Esse, which is in itself God, is the Same; not the Same simply, but infinitely, that is, the Same from eternity to eternity; the Same every where and the Same with everyone and in everyone; and that all variableness and change are in the recipient, caused by the state of the recipient.

That the Divine Esse which is God in Himself is the Itself, they illustrated thus: God is the Itself because He is love itself and wisdom itself, that is, He is good itself and truth itself, and therefore life itself. Unless these in God were love and wisdom itself and were good and truth itself and therefore life itself, they would not be anything in heaven and in the world, because there would be nothing in them related to the Itself. Every quality is what it is from the fact that there is an Itself in which it originates, and to which it must be related in order to be what it is. This Itself, which is the Divine Esse, is not in place; but it is present with and in those who are in place in accordance with their reception of it, since place, or progress from place to place, cannot be predicated of love and wisdom nor of good and truth, nor of life therefrom, which are Itself in God, and are even God Himself. On this rests His omnipotence. So the Lord says that He is in the midst of them, and that He is in them and they in Him.

Arcana Coelestia (Potts) 6876(2)

The angels themselves, who so far excel men in wisdom, cannot think otherwise of the Divine, for they see the Lord in the Divine Human; they know that an angel, with whom all things are finite, can have no idea whatever of the Infinite, except by what is like the finite.

Introduction to the concept of Correspondences found in the Heavenly Doctrines, and the Word working with the “I AM” statements of the Lord found in John’s gospel.

Notes from Swedenborg

1.2 Assignment 1

1. What you are asked to do at the outset here is to write a short, around 250 word, essay summarizing what your sense of Correspondences is. Take this on board that this is not about correctness! It is not about right or wrong! It’s about what at the moment and without reference to any books, you understand Correspondences to be.

2. Either via Potts Concordance or NewSearch or using the New Christian Bible Study (NCBS) website trawl through references in the Writings to Correspondences. a. Note down anything new to you and, as well, whatever especially interests, even excites you. b. what, for you, is the best definition (or explanation) of Correspondences you have come across? Make a note of it.

3. Using links provided, research the differences between Correspondences, Representatives and Significatives.

4. You will need an English Dictionary for this, for looking up the differences between Correspondences, metaphors and symbols. Again, write down what these are.

5. Since correspondences identify and present to view to our consciousness inner spiritual or psycho spiritual, realities,

   a. Make a list of our common, everyday, use of Correspondences in how we express things (e.g. ‘she was on a high’ or ‘At that time I was in the pits’).

   b. Describe by way of Correspondences what your own state is right now.

6. Comment on how an increased awareness of Correspondences might contribute to you being more effective in your interpersonal communication.

1.3 Divine Consciousness

• Watch the video & use the questions as a guide to reflecting on your own sense of things as you sit with them over a few days.
• Journal your insights, thoughts and feelings.

Divine Consciousness

• Read through numbers provided below the video and write two paragraphs (one for A and one for B) using the following questions as a guide for your response.

Paragraph A: Questions

1. What are the key ideas for you and how are they of special interest to you?
2. Where was your energy the highest? What touched or excited you?
3. Where was your energy the lowest? Was there anything that prompted resistance or push back?
4. How did this call you to deeper thought?

Paragraph B: Questions

1. How do the ideas in these numbers support your spiritual life.
2. how might they be used to support others in their spiritual lives?
3. What if any unanswered questions do you have sitting with you?
4. How do they call you to go deeper in particular areas?

References From The Writings

Divine Providence (Ager)251 (4)

for all things that take place in the natural world correspond to spiritual things in the spiritual world, and every thing spiritual has relation to the church.

Arcana Coelestia (Potts) 3721(2)

It appears to man that the objects of the world enter through his bodily or external senses, and affect the interiors; and thus that there is an entrance from the ultimate of order into what is within. But that this is a mere appearance and fallacy is manifest from the general rule that posterior things cannot flow into prior.

Or what is the same, lower things into higher; or what is the same, exterior things into interior; or what is still the same, the things which are of the world and of nature into those which are of heaven and of spirit.

For the former are of a grosser nature, and the latter of a purer one; and those grosser things which are of the external or natural man come forth and subsist from those which are of the internal or rational man; and they cannot affect the purer things, but are affected by the purer things.

How the case is with this influx, inasmuch as the very appearance and fallacy persuade altogether contrary to it, will of the Lord’s Divine mercy be told hereafter when treating on the subject of influx. From this then it is said that through the ultimate in which order closes, there is apparently as it were an entrance from nature.

Arcana Coelestia (Potts) 3483

Whatever is seen anywhere in the universe is representative of the Lord’s kingdom, insomuch that there is not anything in the atmospheric and starry universe, or in the earth and its three kingdoms, which is not in its own manner representative. All things in nature, in both general and particular, are ultimate images, inasmuch as from the Divine are celestial things which are of good, from celestial things spiritual things which are of truth, and from both celestial and spiritual things are natural things.

From this it is evident how gross, nay, how earthly and also inverted is that human intelligence which ascribes everything to nature separate or exempt from an influx prior to itself, or from an efficient cause. Moreover they who so think and speak seem to themselves to be wiser than others; that is, in attributing all things to nature, when yet on the contrary angelic intelligence consists in ascribing nothing to nature, but all and everything to the Divine of the Lord, thus to life, and not to anything dead.

The learned know that subsistence is a perpetual coming forth; but still it is contrary to the affection of falsity and thence to a reputation for learning to say that nature continually subsists, as it originally came into existence, from the Divine of the Lord.

Inasmuch therefore as each and all things subsist, that is, continually come forth, from the Divine, and as each and all things thence derived must needs be representative of those things whereby they came into existence, it follows that the visible universe is nothing else than a theater representative of the Lord’s kingdom; and that this kingdom is a theater representative of the Lord Himself.

Arcana Coelestia 8211 (Potts) 8211(2)

For whatever exists in the natural world has its origin and cause from things which exist in the spiritual world, because universal nature is nothing else than a theater representative of the Lord’s kingdom (34 3483, 4939, 5173, 5962); whence come the correspondences.

The variations of light and shade and also of heat and cold on earth are indeed from the sun, that is, from the difference of its altitudes, every year and every day, in the several regions of the earth; but these causes, which are proximate, and in the natural world, were created according to the things in the spiritual world, as by their prior and efficient causes, which are the causes of the posterior causes that exist in the natural world.

For nothing which is in order ever exists in the natural world that does not derive its cause and origin from the spiritual world, that is, through the spiritual world from the Divine.

Heaven and Hell (Ager) 89

The whole natural world corresponds to the spiritual world, and not merely the natural world in general, but also every particular of it; and as a consequence everything in the natural world that springs from the spiritual world is called a correspondent. It must be understood that the natural world springs from and has permanent existence from the spiritual world, precisely like an effect from its effecting cause.

All that is spread out under the sun and that receives heat and light from the sun is what is called the natural world; and all things that derive their subsistence therefrom belong to that world. But the spiritual world is heaven; and all things in the heavens belong to that world.​

Arcana Coelestia (Potts) 2991

That natural things represent spiritual things, and that they correspond, may also be known from the fact that what is natural cannot possibly come forth except from a cause prior to itself. Its cause is from what is spiritual; and there is nothing natural which does not thence derive its cause.

Natural forms are effects; nor can they appear as causes, still less as causes of causes, or beginnings; but they receive their forms according to the use in the place where they are; and yet the forms of the effects represent the things which are of the causes; and indeed these latter things represent those which are of the beginnings.

Thus all natural things represent those which are of the spiritual things to which they correspond; and in fact the spiritual things also represent those which are of the celestial things from which they are.

Arcana Coelestia (Potts) 10199

For all things which are perceived by man through the organs of sense signify spiritual things, which bear relation to the good of love and to the truths of faith, as do smell, taste, sight, hearing, and touch; hence “smell” signifies the perceptivity of interior truth from the good of love; “taste” signifies the perception and affection of knowing and of being wise; “sight,” the understanding of the truths of faith; “hearing,” perceptivity from the good of faith, and from obedience; and “touch” in general, communication, transfer, and reception.

The reason of this is that all external sensations derive their origin from internal sensations which are of the understanding and will, thus in man from the truths of faith and from the good of love, for these constitute the understanding and the will of man.

But the internal sensations, which are proper to the understanding and will with man, have not that sense which the external sensations have, but are turned into such when they flow in; for all things made sensible to man by the external organs of sense, flow in from internal things, because all influx is from internal things into external, but not the reverse.

For there is no such thing as physical influx, that is, influx from the natural world into the spiritual, but only from the spiritual world into the natural. The interiors of man which belong to his understanding and will are in the spiritual world, and his externals which belong to the senses of the body are in the natural world. From this also it can be seen what correspondence is, and what is its nature.

Conjugial Love (Acton) 440

… it is not the flesh that sensates the things which happen in the flesh, but the spirit. It is the same with this sense as with the others. Thus it is not the eye that sees and distinguishes the varieties in objects, but the spirit. So neither is it the ear that hears and distinguishes the harmonies of melodies in song, and the fitness of the articulation of sounds in speech, but the spirit.

And the spirit sensates everything according to its own elevation into wisdom. The spirit which is not elevated above the sensual things of the body and so sticks in them, sensates no other delights than those which flow in from the flesh, and from the world through the senses of the body. These it seizes upon, with these it is delighted, and these it make its own. ​

Divine Love and Wisdom (Ager) 69

There are two things proper to nature – space and time. From these man in the natural world forms the ideas of his thought, and thereby his understanding. If he remains in these ideas, and does not raise his mind above them, he is in no wise able to perceive things spiritual and Divine, for these he involves in ideas drawn from space and time; and so far as that is done the light [lumen] of his understanding becomes merely natural.

To think from this lumen in reasoning about spiritual and Divine things, is like thinking from the thick darkness of night about those things that appear only in the light of day. From this comes naturalism.

But he who knows how to raise his mind above ideas of thought drawn from space and time, passes from thick darkness into light, and has discernment in things spiritual and Divine, and finally sees the things which are in and from what is spiritual and Divine; and then from that light he dispels the thick darkness of the natural lumen, and banishes its fallacies from the middle to the sides. Every man who has understanding is able to transcend in thought these properties of nature, and actually does so; and he then affirms and sees that the Divine, because omnipresent, is not in space.

He is also able to affirm and to see the things that have been adduced above. But if he denies the Divine Omnipresence, and ascribes all things to nature, then he has no wish to be elevated, though he can be.​

Apocalypse Explained (Whitehead) 527

For every man has a lower or exterior mind, and a higher or interior mind; the lower or exterior mind is the natural mind, which is called the natural man, while the higher or interior mind is the spiritual mind, and is called the spiritual man. The mind is called a man, for the reason that man is man because of his mind.

These two minds, the higher and the lower, are altogether distinct; by the lower mind man is in the natural world, together with the men there, but by the higher mind he is in the spiritual world with the angels there.

These two minds are so distinct that while man is living in the world he does not know what is going on in himself in his higher mind; and when he becomes a spirit, as he does immediately after death, he does not know what is going on in his lower mind; therefore it is said “God divided between the light and the darkness, and He called the light day, and the darkness night.” This makes evident that “day” signifies spiritual light, and “darkness” natural light. ​

Arcana Coelestia (Potts) 8918

the thoughts and their ideas with man are founded upon spaces and times, insomuch that man cannot think without them. Consequently if you abstract times and spaces from a man’s thought, he scarcely perceives anything. Nevertheless the angels in heaven think absolutely without any idea of time and space, and with such fullness that in intelligence and wisdom their thoughts surpass the thoughts of man thousands, nay, myriads of times; and, wonderful to say, if there occurs to them an idea derived from time and space, shade and thick darkness at once come to their minds, because they then fall from the light of heaven into the light of nature, which to them is thick darkness.

Arcana Coelestia (Potts) 4850

As state and change of state are so often mentioned, and as few know what is meant, it will be well to explain. Time and the succession of time, or space and the extension of space, cannot be predicated of man’s interiors, that is, of his affections and the thoughts therefrom; because these interiors are not in time nor in place-although to the senses in the world it appears as if they were-but are in interior things which correspond to time and place. These interior things which correspond we have to call states, because there is no other word by which these corresponding things can be expressed.​

Arcana Coelestia (Potts) 3887

These things will necessarily appear to man as paradoxical, from his having no other idea of the good of love and the truth of faith than that they are certain abstract things without the power of effecting anything, when yet the contrary is true, namely, that all perception and sensation, and all energy and action, even in man on earth, are from the good of love and the truth of faith.​

Arcana Coelestia (Potts) 5373(3)

During man’s regeneration as to the natural, goods and truths are one and all brought together into memory-knowledges. Those which are not in the memory-knowledges there, are not in the natural; for the natural mind, as regards that part of it which is subject to the understanding, consists solely of memory-knowledges.

The memory-knowledges that belong to the natural are the ultimates of order, and things prior must be in ultimates in order to come into existence and to appear in that sphere; and besides this all prior things tend to ultimates as to their boundaries or ends, and come into existence together therein as causes do in their effects, or as higher things do in lower as in their vessels.

The memory-knowledges of the natural are such ultimates. Hence it is that the spiritual world is terminated in man’s natural, in which the things of the spiritual world are representatively presented. Unless spiritual things were presented representatively in the natural, thus by such things as are in the world, they would not be apprehended at all.

From all this it is evident that during the regeneration of the natural all interior truths and goods, which are from the spiritual world, are brought into memory-knowledges, in order that they may appear.

2. The Natural & Spiritual World

2.1 Introduction

See Video Correspondences

2.2 Part A

The relationship which exists between things of the natural world with things of the world of the spirit.

If you are a regular listener to this programme you will perhaps recall a series of talks I gave under the heading “The Internal Sense of the Word”. Maybe; also, you recall, some of the Bible stories I dealt with in that series. There was the story of David and Goliath, for example. I also dealt with the stories of the healing of Naaman the leper; of Daniel in the lions’ den and of Jonah and the whale.

In dealing with each particular story, I spoke of the symbolism of the different things mentioned and what they mean so far as our own life and experience is concerned. In the story of the healing of Naaman I spoke of the symbolism of the waters of the river in which Elisha told him to go and wash himself. It represents, or symbolises the Lord’s truth and teaching which is what cures, cleans and heals us of the evils which cling to our thoughts, feelings and affections.

And in the Daniel story we saw how the lions represent the powerful forces of evil in whose midst we often find ourselves, but which do not have to overwhelm and destroy us if we hold fast to what we believe in and place all our confidence in the Lord.

This relationship between objects or animals and spiritual qualities, forces and realities, is referred to in Swedenborg’s theological writings as the relationship of Correspondences. It is one of the most important teachings found in those writings and, when understood, provides the key for unlocking the truth which the Word of God contains for us. This relationship of correspondences, things of the natural world corresponding to spiritual things, Swedenborg wrote, was understood and appreciated perfectly at one time. However, an understanding of the relationship was lost. Now it is being restored again.

One of the simplest ways to illustrate the relationship between things natural and things spiritual, or, one of the easiest correspondences to understand, is a smile. You might be waiting at an airport watching people greet friends arriving from a plane. A person breaks into a lovely smile at recognising a friend or relative. The smile corresponds to the happiness that person is feeling within. That is a very simple illustration of a correspondence. Something on the natural plane corresponding to something on the level of the spirit.

Correspondences are not just isolated things. The whole of the natural world and all that happens here is a mirror reflecting, or corresponding to, the spiritual world or the world of the spirit.

In his book, “Heaven and Hell” Swedenborg wrote “All things which come forth in nature, from the least to the greatest of it, are correspondences. The reason they are correspondences is that the natural world comes forth and subsists from the spiritual world, and both from the Divine.” (para. 106). There was a time long ago when people fully understood correspondences.

There was a time when people would look out on the world around them and whatever they saw would speak to them in some way of spiritual things. There was a time when people would look up at the sun, the source of heat and light in this natural world, and be immediately caught up in thoughts about the Lord, the source of all spiritual heat and light, and to whom our sun corresponds. The thing is that this knowledge or awareness became lost. People began to worship the natural objects themselves, forgetting that they merely corresponded to spiritual realities.

It is stunning that our natural world, our environment, and what goes on here, corresponds to things on the plane of the spirit. But it is not difficult to see how this is so. If you’re overseas and you come to a run down, terribly untidy, garbage strewn town, you cannot but conclude something of the state of mind and attitudes of the people who live there. You conclude that the people of the town are discouraged, dispirited, uncaring, perhaps slovenly.

On the other hand if you come to a town beautifully kept with trim gardens and parks and no sign of litter you take this to indicate, or to say something, about the people here, that they are proud, clean, industrious, tidy, and so on. In both cases we say the town is a reflection of what the people are like. More than that, here is something on the natural plane corresponding to the state of affairs existing on the spiritual or mental plane.

A lot is said about western man’s materialism and how materialistic life has become in the western, developed countries. Here again, the outward state of affairs which we identify and complain about simply corresponds to the inner spiritual state which prevails. Because man, within, is greedy and discontented, he is acquisitive and materialistic in the way he goes about life.

One of the truly interesting and perceptive things said at the 1982 Anzaas Conference held at Macquarie University was in relation to worker attitudes and wage demands. It might also have been said with regard to the push for profits. The speaker pointed out that we will have no end to this unless there can be a radical change of motivation for going to work or for operating a company. In other words we must get to the cause of things and not just deal with the effects. And the cause lies within, with people’s thoughts and attitudes. If change can be brought about there; if people could be led to look on their work in an entirely different way, as their opportunity to be of service and to contribute to the common good, there would not even be these industrial problems which so preoccupy us. But of course it is an imperfect world. We are, ourselves, imperfect people. And our negotiators and problem solvers have got to deal with human nature and attitudes as they find them.

To point to this relationship of correspondences, all things of the natural world corresponding to what is of the world of the spirit, and to suggest that in that relationship there is the means for solving our problems and difficulties, can seem altogether simplistic. And yet that relationship exists and so long as we ignore it we will continue to treat the effects and not the causes. Who of us isn’t aware of the troubled state the world is in, with wars and conflicts, death and destruction already written large over this year, 1982.

But the natural world, in all its troubled state, is but a mirror of the troubled spiritual state man is in. The one corresponds to the other. Picking up what Swedenborg wrote, again: “The whole natural world corresponds to the spiritual world, not only in general, but also in particular” (Heaven and Hell 89), And a very useful summary from another place: “Correspondence is the appearing of what is internal in what is external, and its representation there”. (Arcana Caelestia 5423).

Forgive what I know sounds like an oversimplification; but the fact that we have to contend with physical sicknesses and disease is because of the sick and unhealthy spiritual state man is in. And though illnesses have been and will continue to be conquered, cures being found for them, yet there will be no eradication of disease so long as the sick and diseased spiritual state of mankind remains unhealed and continues to act as a source from which bodily sicknesses are fed. “All things of the Earth, and, in general, all things of the world, are correspondences.” (Heaven and Hell 103).

Earlier in the talk we noted how ages ago people understood correspondences, seeing in all thinps of nature a reflection or mirror of spiritual things. They would look at the sun and straightaway their thoughts would centre on the Lord. Similarly they would look at trees or mountains or waterfalls or the animals and again, their thoughts would focus on spiritual things. Swedenborg tells us that the Word of God is written by corresporndences: that when mountains, trees, fields, animals, water, fire and so on are mentioned there, we are to understand that they correspond to spiritual things. I will speak about this in greater detail in my talk next week, but the healing miracles described in the Gospels are easily seen and easily remembered examples of the way in which correspondences exist in The Word.

The Lord healed the deaf, the dumb, the blind, the paralysed, the sick and the diseased. All of which is fair enough. All of the healing miracles are very impressive. But their point and purpose is to show how the Lord can heal us of the spiritual diseases which deafness, dumbness, blindness, paralysis, sickness and disease, correspond to. The Lord, if we so wish, opens our eyes to see things we haven’t seen or understood before. Whereas we were spiritually blind, now we see. Whereas we were spiritually paralysed, with the Lord’s help we can “walk”. And so we could go on. The Swedenborg Programme – Number 64. http://www.swedenborg.com.au

2.3 Part 2

The key to unlocking the meaning of the Scriptures.

the knowledge My talk tonight is a continuation of the talk I gave a week ago, the second of two, on the relationship which exists between the things of the natural world with things of the world of the spirit, the way in which one images, or is a mirror of the other. The technical term to describe this relationship is “correspondence”. “Correspondence”, wrote Swedenborg, “is the appearing of what is internal in what is external, and its representation there.” (Arcana Caelestia 5423). And as we also noted, “All things which come forth in nature, from the least to the greatest of it, are correspondences”. (Heaven and Hell 106).

Everything which appears in nature, its moods, its seasons, its weather, the vegetation and the animals, are an image or a mirror of the world of the human mind and the things of the spirit. I’ll illustrate the relationship by referring to a smile. A smile, if it is genuine, corresponds to the happy state of mind a person is in. A frown corresponds to the worried and anxious state of mind the person who is wearing it is in. A sorrowful face images, or corresponds to some sadness which at the time the person is going through. In each case, something on the natural, bodily level reflects, or mirrors something higher, internal or of the spirit.

Using Swedenborg’s own words, we have the appearing of what is internal in what is external. The one corresponds to the other. This relationship between internal things and external things, or correspondences, goes far beyond a smile, a frown, or a sorrowful face. It extends to all things of the body and to all things in nature. And though we don’t think of it in this way, yet we all have a common perception of such a relationship and, by the way we talk and in our use of certain expressions, give a tacit recognition to it.

For example, you may be watching someone at work and make the observation that his or her ‘heart’ is not in it. Or, as you see things, their ‘heart’ may be very much in it. You don’t, of course, mean the actual organ of the body, protected by the rib cage, which performs the vital function of pumping blood around the body. As everybody knows who hears you, you are talking about the person’s interest in what they are doing. You are talking about whether they are really liking or enjoying what they are doing. When someone really loves what they are doing their heart is fully in it. When they don’t, their heart is not in it. They would rather be elsewhere, doing something else.

This leads me back to our common perception where correspondences are concerned, or where these relationships between things external and natural with things internal and of the spirit are concerned. We don’t call them correspondences, yet we instinctively acknowledge that they are there.

Other examples help illustrate the point. A father tells his son to use his “head”. Physically, the boy is using it all the time. He hears and sees and smells and all the rest. But the boy knows that his father is telling him to think. Perhaps to think more carefully. Perhaps to make better use of his powers of understanding. How many times do we talk of people, or of a nation, or of a competitor, having “the upper hand”. Well, it’s a figure of speech, you say. Yes, it is. But more than that, we perceive it to be a way of expressing on the natural plane some inner reality.

When we say someone has got “the upper hand”, whether it is a nation, a competitor, a football or a cricket team, we mean that they are prevailing. We mean that the power is on their side. We mean that the action is becoming one sided.

Correspondences, however, go beyond the human body and into all things of nature. And, once again, many expressions in common use tacitly recognise this. We talk about “high” and “low”, for example. “He’s a low sort of fellow” or “That’s a low thing to do”. Or, “That person has very high principles”. The words “low” and “high” are taken straight from nature. We know of low valleys and high mountains. But what is “low” and “high” in nature seems to perfectly image or mirror certain human states or activities, and this is why we use the expressions.

Then again, we talk about ideas germinating, growing, and bearing fruit. That, as is only too obvious, is something also taken straight from nature. We have no difficulty whatever in relating the way ideas are received in the human mind to the processes of nature. The one is a mirror of the other. There is a correspondence between the two things. And when it comes to animals, think of all the different expressions we use. “Someone” we say, “is as sly as a fox”. A child as “innocent as a lamb”. We might, in a moment of exasperation or deep disappointment, call someone a “pig” because of their selfish and totally uncaring ways.

Where does this lead us? What are we getting at here? Why is it important for us to know, let alone learn, about these matters? The answer is that the Bible is itself written by correspondences. As we shall see, Jesus constantly used language which involved correspondences. And much of what is said in the Bible is no more meant to be taken literally than the expressions we use in everyday speech, involving correspondences, are meant to be taken literally.

“The Word (of God)” wrote Swedenborg, “is so written that every most minute thing in it corresponds to the things of heaven, hence the Word has divine force, and conjoins Heaven with the earth.” (Arcana Caelestia 9615-3).

If I take up one or two of the examples of correspondences already mentioned in this talk, and relate them to the Bible, we begin to see how this is so. One of the examples cited was “hands”. We use the expression, he or she or that country or that team has “the upper hand”. All the action lies with them. If we are in trouble over some matter, or need assistance with some legal problem, we usually decide to put it in the “hands” of a solicitor. He or she will take the necessary action and do what is necessary.

Although we don’t speak of it as such or refer to it in these words, hands correspond to actions and deeds. And it is this correspondence which is to be thought of where hands are mentioned in the Bible. Take, for example, Psalm 24, verses 3 and 4: “Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? and who shall stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart…” In other words, he whose deeds and actions are pure, being from the Lord working in his life.

In Deuteronomy Chapter 6, the Lord urges His followers to bind His laws upon their hands. The actual words are, “‘And You shall bind them as a sign upon your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.” What the Lord is saying to us is that His laws and commandments should be impressed on all our deeds and actions. Then we have the teaching, if your right hand causes you to sin cut it off and throw it away”. (Matthew 5, 29). Everyone knows the Lord didn’t mean that literally.

Here again, however, He was talking about our deeds and actions. If they offend then we are to get rid of them. We are to reject them from our lives. And this leads on to the miracles which Jesus performed involving hands. In Luke Chapter 6 there is the story of the man with the withered hand. “On another sabbath when Jesus entered the synagogue and taught, a man was there whose right hand was withered. And the scribes and the Pharisees watched Him, to see whether he would heal on the sabbath, so that they might find an accusation against Him.”

More than just tell us about the miracle, the Lord meant this story to be an assurance for all times that if our deeds and actions are lifeless they can be given new life and vitality when they are done from Him. Things that are dead and lifeless and useless, like the withered hand, can become full of new life and vitality. Whereas we did things once only for ourselves and to get on in the world and to be thought of in a good light by other people, now we do things from the Lord and because of genuine concern for the well being of others.

Another example of a correspondence which is commonly perceived and reflected in certain expressions we use, is the heart. We say of someone that ‘their heart rules their head’, or that ‘their heart is or is not in what they are doing’. What we are referring to, of course, is to their emotions, or their feelings, or their loves. When we talk of someone’s heart ruling their head we mean that their feelings, or their emotions, or their love for someone over rules their good sense.

In the prophecy through Ezekiel the Lord promises to replace a person’s heart, taking away the one and giving them another. Chapter 11, 19: “I will take away the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh.” And, in Chapter 18., “Cast away from you all the transgressions which you have committed against me, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit!” We know what the Lord means, don’t we?

He is calling upon us to get rid of the old loves, feelings, emotions, desires, inclinations and loves we have and to replace them with spiritual and heavenly ones from Himself. Let me remind you again of the teaching given. “The Word of God is so written that every most minute thing in it corresponds to the things of heaven.” Everything. When we approach the Bible with this realisation and understanding, its meaning unfolds in a way we never thought possible. The Swedenborg Program – Number 65. http://www.swedenborg.com.au

2.4 The Language of Parables

Correspondences.

The knowledge of correspondences is the key to the spiritual Chapters of the Bible. By its aid the parables and histories and strange prophecies of the Word are opened to disclose the heavenly and Divine truths which they contain. Surely nothing can be of greater importance than to gain ourselves, and to impart to our scholars, a clear, reasonable understanding of this science and a practical acquaintance with it which will enable us to see everywhere, as we read the Bible, Chapters of heavenly wisdom.

How easy this study would be, how living and delightful, if we lived in heaven! if the children walked with their teacher in heavenly fields and needed but a word from him to interpret to them the thousand beautiful truths which would seem almost to shine forth from the sunlight and flowers and birds and precious gems! They would feel the relation of all things around them to the thoughts and feelings within themselves. The objects would embody and interpret to them the things of inner wisdom.

Or, suppose that we were children of the ancient Golden or Silvern Age on earth. We should then walk amid the beauties of this world almost as angel children do in heaven, and should recognize them all as full almost to overflowing with spiritual life. We should see the message of the flower in the sparkling beauty almost bursting from its delicate folds. We should feel a heavenly affection echoed in the soft notes of the birds. All nature would seem to us but a veil concealing and at the same time revealing the presence of the Lord and heaven. We should delight to point out to one another what we saw and felt. We should, in our conversation with one another, delight to use the beautiful things around us as a language to convey thoughts of higher things which we all perceived them to contain. Then, when the Lord Himself spoke to us children of the ancient age a message of heavenly and Divine truth, it would delight us to receive it in the form of parables — the very language which we were so fond of speaking, and of reading in the objects of beauty and use around us. The study of correspondences would then be our highest pleasure; it would be a real and living experience.

Fortunately the perception of a relation between inward things and outward has not yet been wholly lost in the world, though it is dim and incomplete compared with the perception of the ancient days or of heaven. The perception still lingering in men’s minds of a relation between natural things and spiritual gives a living basis for the study of correspondences. This almost instinctive perception is what we must awaken in the children, and develop and make more definite. Then they too can read the message of nature and the spiritual Chapters of the Bible. If we begin here we strike at once a vein of interest, and one which leads on into increasing enjoyment — an interest which is wholly lacking if we begin in an arbitrary, dictionary way to say, This corresponds to truth and this to love — a mere matter of authority and memory.

To illustrate the kind of perception upon which we have to build, take the varying expressions of the face and the movements of the hands. Do children need to be told that these are natural things, and that they are manifestations, expressions, correspondences of feelings and thoughts which are spiritual things? A child knows at a glance the feeling of pleasure which finds expression in a smile, or the sorrow which causes tears. And the tones of the voice: is an interpreter needed to tell us that one cry is expressive of pain, and another of joy? that a word spoken in a gentle, soothing tone is inspired by kindness, and a harsh tone by anger? Does a child need to be told that one motion of the hand is an invitation to come, and another is a command to go? In a word, children perceive the correspondence of the expressions of the face, the gestures, and the tones of the voice with the feelings and thoughts of the mind.

There is a peculiar advantage in drawing our first illustrations of correspondence from the relations of the human body and mind, for here both the spiritual side and the natural are within ourselves, and it is distinctly perceived that they have relation to each other. Moreover, it is evident here that the spiritual is the cause of the natural, and not the reverse — a relation which always exists in correspondence, and which it is important to have from the first distinctly in mind. It is the feeling of sorrow which causes the tone of sadness in the voice, or the tearful eyes. It is the emotion of joy which finds expression in the cheerful voice and smile. Even if this is not stated in so many words, the children learn from such examples to regard correspondence as a relation of cause and effect.

We may now pass on to objects outside of ourselves, for the influence of a man’s character extends to all the objects which surround him, arranging and shaping them as far as it is able into accord with himself. Every one can read something of another’s character in his house and the order and decoration of his room. We perceive here a correspondence, not so perfect as exists between angels and their heavenly surroundings, where all outward objects are a manifestation and exact expression of the angels’ states of feeling and thought, but what we see is enough to enable us to conceive of that more perfect correspondence.

Nor does the common perception of relation between natural things and spiritual stop here with objects which bear directly the imprint of our hands. We look out upon a soft spring day, when everything is blossoming with beauty; and the sweet air and sunshine and bright colors and gay songs touch a chord of sympathy in our own hearts. They awaken a peaceful delight. There is some relation between this vernal beauty and human happiness. We express it by saying that the day, as well as we, is peaceful; that the colors and the songs are cheerful. Again, we look upon a storm and destructive torrents, and we call them fierce and cruel. In a word, we perceive a relation between these things of nature which we had no part in making, which in no direct way bear the imprint of our hand, and the feelings and thoughts of our own hearts.

This is a curious fact. How shall we account for it? We come into this natural world and find evidences of human presence before us. It is almost as if in a wild, untrodden wood we came upon signs of human habitation. It is very favorable to our comfort and happiness in this world that this is so, that we find all earthly objects adapted to our physical wants, and also of a quality to touch responsive chords in our hearts and minds. This human quality of nature is not an accident, but of purpose. It is nothing less than the imprint of the Creator’s Divine-human hand, modified into more and less perfect forms, and even perverted into evil forms, by the heavenly and the infernal channels through which spiritual forces reach this world of matter. Every object of nature, every phenomenon, is as a smile on nature’s face, or a tear, or a tone of nature’s voice which embodies to us feelings and thoughts within. Every one is an effect which invites us to trace it back to its cause in the world of human mind and originally in the Lord Himself.

The common perception of a relation between natural objects in the world about us and spiritual things within ourselves, the perception that they are indeed the same things on different planes of life, leads us every day to call natural and spiritual things by the same names, and to describe their qualities by the same terms. We speak, for example, of a lofty mountain, or a lofty ambition; a low place, or a low motive. So we use the wordhard — either a hard rock, or a hard saying; a tender leaf, or a tender feeling; a rough country, or rough people; a warm day, or a warm heart; a cold winter, or a cold reception. So we say that both plants and ideas grow; that both bear fruit.

It is to be noted in all such cases that the word is used first of natural things and natural qualities; that it gets its clear, definite meaning from what we see and hear and feel, and that it is afterwards borrowed to describe spiritual things and qualities which we perceive to be analogous to the natural. The fact is that all words used of mental things gained their definite meaning in application to natural objects, and were borrowed for the higher use. It amounts to saying that we gain from nature the impressions which give us our only distinct ideas of spiritual things. Could we not see and feel natural height and depth, we could not conceive of spiritual exaltation and depression. The idea of a spiritual quality is derived from nature, and the term used to describe it is borrowed from nature.

If we went far in this study of words we should find many which in their origin gained their meaning from nature, but are now losing, or have quite lost, that association, and are used only of spiritual and mental things. An example of a word in the state of transition is inspire. The Roman boy may have inspired his foot-ball, and even Pope and Shakespeare inspired their instruments of music; but we inspire chiefly things of feeling and thought. The word spirit has in common speech quite passed over from the thought of breath or wind to that of the inner world with its mental forces and phenomena. So also we would hardly speak of fundamental stones, though we do of fundamental principles. We do not to-daydespise the prospect from a mountain, though we do look down upon it. A word used apparently with a spiritual meaning only, is really no exception to the rule, but always, in its root, gained its meaning from nature, and was borrowed to describe what is spiritual.

The study of correspondences is of supreme importance, for as fast as we can learn to see in natural phenomena their spiritual cause and meaning we shall delight to turn to the parables of the Bible — for all its chapters are parables — and to read there, in this same language, of heaven and the Lord. Our guide and authority in the interpretation of the Word by the knowledge of correspondences is the revelation of its spiritual meaning given by the Lord through the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg. We find in these writings explicit instruction in regard to the spiritual meaning of certain books of the Word and of very many scattered passages, and a direct statement of the correspondence of many objects which is a guide to the spiritual meaning of all passages of the Word where those objects are named. It is however most desirable in the study of correspondences to avoid the mistake of thinking that correspondence is artificial and arbitrary, and to learn to see the living relation between the natural and the spiritual objects which correspond to each other. We therefore appeal first to the almost instinctive perception that the object or phenomenon which we are studying has relation to some state or activity of the rnind, a relation to which common speech often bears witness. This perception we seek to make more full and exact, using as our guide the statements of Swedenborg of the correspondence of the natural object in question. Then we turn to the Word for illustration of the use of our newly-discovered symbol, and by its help draw beautiful and helpful spiritual Chapters, as many as we are able.

(HH 89-91, 103-115; AE 1080-1082; TCR 201-208.)

2.5 Assignment 2

1. Read Chapter I in “The Language of Parable” (pages 7 to 15). Create a list as to what you see to be the main points being made.
2. “Heaven and Hell” paragraph 114 and say what your take is on what is said here that “communication with heaven is given to man through Correspondences.”
3. Without a doubt Correspondences are involved when it comes to the names of the Lord and the different ways He is described in the Bible or the ways He describes Himself.

Check out the “I AM” statements the lord made about Himself, these being:

• The Bread of life (John 6:48)
• The Light of the world) John 8:12; John 9:5)
• The Door of the Sheep (John 10:7
• The Good Shepherd (John 10:11)
• The resurrection and the life (John 11:25)
• The way, the truth and the life (John 14:6)
• The true vine (John 15:1)

(a) Choose 3 of above statements and describe the qualities and functions of the imagery used and expand on your sense of what they offer you in terms of your understanding of the Lord. (the “I AM” booklet as a resource to assist you)

(b) Identify states in your own experiences when the imagery found in one or other of these three names of the Lord is most applicable, or has been most applicable, for you and write up your reflections.

4. When you think of ‘heaven’ and ‘earth’ what other terminology comes to mind? If the ‘earth’s is lower, what is ‘heaven’? Okay, then, what are ‘heaven’ and ‘earth’ in us? And so what are your praying when in saying The Lord’s Prayer you say, “Thy will be done as in heaven, so upon the earth”.?

5. How has your work in this session given you a new appreciation for Correspondences?

3. Sickness & Disease

3.1 Reading

We have spiritual faculties corresponding to all our physical organs. In their structure and activities they are even more delicate and sensitive. (D. P. 181; see Chapter vi.) If the physical structures become disordered by irregular ways of life, causing pain and sickness, must not the still more delicate spiritual faculties become disordered by indulging feelings and thoughts which are not according to the Lord’s laws of life? We often speak of a “healthy” or an “unhealthy” state of mind, and of influences of companionship or reading as “wholesome” or “unwholesome.” We speak of “heart-aches” and “wounded feelings.” The most serious sicknesses are of the spiritual kind, those which the Lord most of all desires to heal. Diseases of the spirit are often directly mentioned in the Bible, so plainly that we see at once that the spirit and not the body is meant. Physical diseases too are named, and they are at the same time types of spiritual disorders to which they correspond. (A. C. 8364, 9031.)

Is the physical or the spiritual state of the world described by these words of the prophet? “The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises, and putrifying sores; they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.” (isa. i. 5, 6; A. E. 962; A. C. 431.) Is it physical or spiritual strength which is promised in the joyful words, “Strengthen ye the weak hands and confirm the feeble knees, say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not… . Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing”? (isa. xxxv. 3-6; A. E. 239; A. C. 2383, 6988, 6989.)

We remember how, as our Lord went about in Galilee, the sick were brought to Him for healing; how they were laid in the streets, that they might touch but the hem of His garment, “and as many as touched were made perfectly whole.” (matt. xiv. 36.) It was physical sickness for which the people asked healing — blindness, palsy, leprosy — and the Lord was moved with compassion towards them. (matt. xx. 34; mark. i. 41.) But there were also about the Lord those who were sick and suffering in spirit. Must He not have felt still deeper pity for these? for the spiritually “lame, blind, dumb, maimed, and many others”? Did He not heal the suffering bodies the more gladly as a sign of His power to give strength to men’s souls when they should desire it? “That ye may know that the Son of man hath power upon earth to forgive sins, he said unto the sick of the palsy, Arise, and take up thy couch, and go into thine house.” (Luke v. 24; A. C. 8364 end.)

He “healed all that were sick;” it is said, “that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses.” (matt. viii. 16, 17.) Both the prophecy and the miracles of healing point to the far greater work which the Lord did in taking upon Himself the weakness and evil tendencies of perverse human nature, and overcoming them. The Lord spoke of the healing which He cares most to give, when He ate and drank with publicans and sinners, and answered the objecting Pharisees, “They that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” (luke v. 31, 32; A. C. 6502.) “Bless the Lord … who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases.” (Ps. ciii. 2, 3; P. P.)

The Lord has told us to go and do like the good Samaritan, who went to the wounded man, and “bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine.” (luke x. 34, 37.) He means also that we should with kindness and wisdom heal the cruel wounds which false teaching and evil indulgence have inflicted on, our brother in the dangerous journey of life. (A. E. 962.)

What particular diseases do you remember as mentioned in the Bible? Let us see if we can recognize the spiritual disorders to which they correspond. We have thought already of blindness and deafness (Chapter v.), of dumbness (Chapter vii.), and of lameness and the withered hand. (Chapter viii.) Among other diseases you will remember fever, leprosy, and palsy.

Do we sometimes speak of being in a “fever,” not meaning a state of body, but of mind? “A fever of excitement” we often hear. A feverish state of mind is one heated and restless, or wholly prostrated, by the excitement of some disquiet feeling. A burning fever in the Bible is a type of the restless burning of evil desires. We read in Deuteronomy the curses which come upon those who do not keep the Lord’s commandments. They are the unhappy things which inevitably result from the indulgence of evil. Among them is the restless burning of spiritual fever. “The lord shall smite thee with a consumption, and with a fever, and with an inflammation, and with an extreme burning.” (deut. xxviii. 22; A. C. 8364.) “When Jesus was come into Peter’s house, he saw his wife’s mother laid, and sick of a fever. And he touched her hand, and the fever left her: and she arose and ministered unto them.” (matt. viii. 14, 15.) Peter in us is our out-spoken faith in the Lord.(See Chapter xliii.) When the Lord comes with this faith to its house — when he follows it back into the chambers of the heart — He finds the affection for living the literal truth disturbed and prostrated by the more spiritual teaching and unable to go forth in active service. The Lord’s coming gives new life to the literal truth and to the affection for it, making this affection a strong and useful servant to the spiritual life. “She arose and ministered unto them.”

Leprosy is often mentioned in the Bible. The name probably includes several diseases of the skin, common in hot, dry climates, but not the more dreadful forms of elephantiasis called leprosy to-day. The skin and hair of a leper, either in spots or over the whole body, were dead, and white or discolored, and sometimes ulcerated. Lepers, according to the Jewish law, were driven from home as most unclean. (lev. xiii. 46.) The skin, which is chiefly affected in leprosy, is given to be a living, sensitive covering for the body, clothing it becomingly and, by its delicate touch, adapting it nicely to varying circumstances. The skin plainly does not represent the deep and hidden motives of the heart, but rather the external ways and manners and little acts in which the inner life clothes itself. These should be a true, living expression of the heart. But we know that they are not always so; sometimes they are unmeaning and dead. Even religious professions and ceremonies may be utterly dead. Is not this a condition of spiritual leprosy? A state of mind in which forms of worship and of religious life are angrily rejected, and one is sensitive and angry at the mere mention of them, is represented by the more grievous forms of leprosy. (A. C. 6963; D. P. 231.)

There was a singular provision of the Jewish law, that if the leprosy extended over the whole body, the leper should be pronounced clean. (lev. xiii. 13.) Such a leper represents one who does not acknowledge and believe deep spiritual truths, and who is not aware of the inconsistency between his outward life and his heart. In his ignorance such a one is innocent, while one who accepts truth deeply and is in part sincere but in part consciously a hypocrite is unclean. (A. C. 6963.)

Recall the story of Naaman. (2 kings v.) A Syrian and captain of the host, but leprous in a part of his body (Ver. 11), Naaman represents a man of worldly wisdom who still feels that his life is not sincere. He was healed when he washed in Jordan seven times. To wash in Jordan is to make the life right in obedience to the Lord’s commandments. (See Chapter xxviii.) To bathe in the rivers of Damascus is to rule the conduct according to our own wisdom, from motives of worldly policy; this has no power to make the life sincere. But when we obey the Lord’s commandments, the love of evil is taken away and life does become sincere. Are little children hypocritical or genuine in their words and acts? Naaman’s “flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.” (Ver. 14; A. E. 475.) After Naaman’s healing, we read of the hypocrisy of Gehazi, Elisha’s servant, and his dishonest use of his holy office for selfish benefit; and the prophet said, “The leprosy therefore of Naaman shall cleave unto thee, and unto thy seed forever. And he went out from his presence a leper as white as snow.” (2 kings v. 27.) It was not an arbitrary punishment, but an outward manifestation of his inward state, and of others who do like him.

The Lord accepted the healing of Naaman by Elisha as a type of the spiritual work He Himself was doing and always desires to do, when He said, “Many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, but Naaman the Syrian.” (Luke iv. 27.) The Lord said it to His own townsmen, who were less ready to hear Him than others. They were the lepers who did not care to be healed. Does it not reveal the fault into which the Jews had fallen, and into which the Lord’s church too often falls, of being content with religious forms, caring even less than those without the church to make the life sincere? Are there not still many lepers in Israel? (A. C. 9198.)

By His miracles of healing also, the Lord showed His power and desire to help these spiritual lepers. “And it came to pass, when he was in a certain city, behold a man full of leprosy; who seeing Jesus fell on his face and besought him saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And he put forth his hand and touched him, saying, I will: be thou clean. And immediately the leprosy departed from him.” (luke v. 12, 13.) So the Lord’s loving power is extended to us however loathsome we may be in our hypocrisy and our mixing of holy things with what is false and evil. This healing of the leper should give us courage humbly to ask and to receive His help, who alone can make our lives really good. But let us not be of those who, when the Lord has helped us to live sincere, good lives, forget to give Him thanks. (luke xvii. 17.)

In Exodus we read that three signs were given to Moses by which he should convince the people that the Lord had really appeared unto him. The second sign: “And the lord said furthermore unto him, Put now thy hand into thy bosom. And he put his hand into his bosom: and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous as snow. And he said, Put thine hand into thy bosom again. And he put his hand into his bosom again; and plucked it out of his bosom, and behold, it was turned again as his other flesh.” (Exod. iv. 6, 7.) This, like all other Divine signs, is not arbitrary, but is an outward picture of a spiritual condition. It represents the state of a church which has its worship and its ceremonies, but has no sense of the presence of “the Lord God of their fathers” in them. Such were the Israelites if they accepted Moses only as a man, and not as the messenger of the Lord; such are Christians if they follow the Lord as a moral leader but do not recognize Him as God with us. Then the hand is leprous. What is the hand? The works, the acts of worship. How is it leprous? It is external only, dead and lifeless. The restoring of Moses’ hand is to show that with a recognition of duty to the Lord in all things, worship and all religious acts become genuine. (A. C. 6963, 6968.)

Another disease which the Lord healed was palsy. It means paralysis, which destroys control over the movements of the body, sometimes leaving one utterly helpless, unable to move hand or foot. Apparently it was such a helpless person of whom we read: “Behold, men brought in a bed a man which was taken with a palsy: … and they went upon the housetop, and let him down through the tiling with his couch into the midst before Jesus. And when he saw their faith, he said unto him, [Son, be of good cheer (matt. ix. 2);] thy sins are forgiven thee… . Whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Rise up and walk? But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (he said unto the sick of the palsy,) I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy couch, and go into thine house.” (luke v. 18-24.) The Lord’s words seem to be addressed to the palsied state of mind of which this helpless body was a type. They are spoken to all who despair on account of their sinfulness; who seem to themselves past hope, and in their discouragement are unable to take up life’s duties. The Lord assures us all, when we are thus spiritually paralyzed, that while we live on earth, He can forgive sins — can give us strength and courage to leave the sinful past, and to begin a new life.

We have seen that physical diseases correspond to spiritual diseases. They are pictures of them. More than that, spiritual disease tends to produce physical disease (A. C. 8364, 5726), and physical disease exposes one to influences from hell. (A. C. 5713, 5715.) It would however be a mistake to suppose that in this world the physical body is an exact expression of the spiritual state. (H. H. 99.) The body grows old and decrepit, not at all because the spirit is becoming feeble; the body may be deformed or shapely, and the spirit be quite otherwise. The reason is that the body is subject to many other influences besides that of a man’s own spirit; the forces which cause disease, and the Lord’s healing power, reach the body by many channels, through the spirit and through natural means. (A. C. 5713.)

3.2 Assignment 3

Text required: “The Language of Parable”, Chapter IX (pages 75 to 84)

1. From the Bible:

(a) Brainstorm and create from memory a list of the sicknesses and diseases that the Lord healed during his ministry in this world (as many as you can recall without looking them up)

(b) Now see how you go so far as the Old Testament is concerned. What cures, or restorations to life, can you remember from there?

2. As you ease into a greater familiarity with Correspondences and, again, without looking it up, suggest and give a reason for your suggestion what might be the correspondence of (a) a bent or crooked back (b) a limp ( c) deafness

3. Carefully read and reflect on John Chapter 9, the whole Chapter. Who were the really blind in this story? And why?

4. Turn to “The Language of Parable” Chapter IX, and give yourself plenty of time to read and absorb it.

See page 83, 2nd paragraph, for a discussion on paralysis. Note what is written there about the correspondence of paralysis and, either via NewSearch, Potts Concordance or the HeavenlyDoctrines.org web site research this further and, when you have done so, write down your insight into and understanding of what, spiritually, paralysis corresponds to.

5. Read Mark Chapter 5, verses 21 to 34, focusing on the woman who had been hemorrhaging 12 years. Check out (NewSearch or Potts or Heavenly Doctrines.org), the correspondence of:

• Blood
• Touching
• Pressing through the crowd
• And then summarize in a few sentences at most the meaning of this story to us, spiritually, as if you were replying in an email to someone who had asked you what the Lord is saying to us/teaching us here.

3.4 Journal Work

6. It would be dangerous self-righteousness if we believed ourselves to be spiritually whole and healthy in all respects.

Whilst this is an exercise you are asked to do, it is entirely up to you whether you share it with your tutor. The exercise is for you to check yourself over and diagnose a specific spiritual; illness you have had or have. If, by chance, you struggle doing this, how about going to someone you trust and who can help you? (See “Heaven and Hell” paragraph 487)

Thinking about it, what most encourages you, especially Scripture passages, as you reflect on this?

4. Animals

4.1 Reading

the subjects which we have last considered have been wholly within ourselves. We have studied some member or some condition of the physical body, and then have looked more deeply, to discover the corresponding spiritual faculty or condition. Now we look out into the world, and see it filled with objects which, though not a part of us, still have some relation to us, either useful or hurtful. The human quality of natural objects is so evident that we instinctively feel sympathy with them. In fact, they present in visible form affections and thoughts which exist within ourselves. Thus they interpret our hearts to us; they help us to know ourselves.

How could it be otherwise? for natural objects all are works of the Lord, and must therefore every one embody something of His love and wisdom, the same which He gives to men. The world around us is from the same source as the world within us; it shows the same forces brought down to a lower plane. (D. L. W. 319-326.)

Some one may ask how it is, if natural things are embodiments of the Lord’s love and wisdom, that there are cruel and evil things in nature. Where, as the forces of life descend from the Lord to the plane of nature — where do they become perverted? Men pervert them, indulging hatred instead of love, and false thoughts instead of truth. And the Lord permits these perverse feelings and thoughts also to appear in nature, producing evil animals and plants, and all vile and cruel things. When men were good and innocent, nature was all good, reflecting their innocent life; but when evil life increased on earth and in hell, then it was said, “Cursed is the ground for thy sake… . Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee.” (Gen. iii. 17, 18; T. C. R. 78; D. L. W. 336-342; A. E. 1201.)

And why does the Lord permit the creative power to flow into nature through the channels of human life, through heaven and through hell, producing many evil and un-heavenly forms to mar the world about us? He does it that nature may teach us truly of our own character; that nature may serve as a mirror showing us both the beauty of innocence and the hatefulness of evil passions. The world around us is both an inspiration and a warning. It is important to learn to read the book of nature, seeing to what thing in ourselves each object of nature corresponds.

As we study the correspondence between the objects of nature and the spiritual things within ourselves, we are helped much by common speech, which often uses the name of an animal to describe a human quality, or borrows a term descriptive of a plant or mineral to apply to some spiritual possession. Thus a man is called a “lion,” a “fox,” a “bear,” with the perception that his courag;, or cunning, or roughness is accurately pictured in the animal whose name is chosen to describe him. We say that an idea “grows” and “bears fruit,” recognizing that its development is like that of a plant. But with such a general use of natural terms to describe spiritual things, common speech is content. If we would learn more accurately to what thing in the world within us each object in the natural world corresponds, we must examine the natural object, note its qualities, and especially its use. Then we must turn to the inner world and see what fills the corresponding place.

In this study of the correspondence of natural objects, it is necessary at the outset to establish some general principles, some plan of classification and arrangement, so that each particular may find its place without confusion. For instance, if we could learn in general the great dividing lines which group the objects of our mental world into classes answering to the three kingdoms of nature, it would be one great step towards giving each thing its right place. As in a game of “twenty questions” we ask, Is it animal, vegetable, or mineral? and then leave out of consideration all but the one class concerned, so, if we know the three classes of spiritual things, when a certain natural object is given us to determine its correspondence, we assign it at once to its proper kingdom, and then gradually, by noting more special qualities, come as closely as may be to its exact spiritual meaning.

Let us compare the three kingdoms of nature, noting the distinguishing characteristics of each, and let us see whether the objects of the inner world fall into corresponding groups. Animals as a class are warm, active, sensitive. They feel both pleasure and pain. Plants, too, are living: they grow, but they are not conscious of suffering or of pleasure. The mineral kingdom is fixed and hard; it makes the basis from which plants grow and on which animals stand.

Is there in the mind a class of objects which is sensitive to pleasure or pain? Can I hurt you without touching your body? What do I hurt? Your feelings? Are these same feelings capable of enjoyment? Are they warm? Are they active? The feelings, or affections, are the animals of the mind. (H. H. 110; A. C. 3218, 5198; A. E. 650.)

Besides these feelings, are there still other things in the mind which are alive and grow, but which are not sensitive? How about knowledge or thought on one subject or another? It certainly grows from day to day. It is often most beautiful, and if it relates to some useful work, in time it bears fruit. Such plants of knowledge, growing in abundance, and filling the mind with beauty and fruitfulness, form the mind’s vegetable kingdom. (H. H. 111, 176, 489; A. C. 3220, 1443; A. E. 730.)

Animals, as a rule, move easily from place to place, but plants are rooted in the ground. There is a like difference between our affections and our knowledge. Suppose I have grown up among certain circumstances, and have enjoyed my use and become intelligent and skilful in doing it. I move to a new place and find the circumstances changed. My affection for being useful goes with me, like an animal it moves easily to new surroundings; but my knowledge of how to be useful was rooted in the old circumstances and conditions and is with difficulty transplanted to new.

The foundation from which our mental plants spring, is the ground of the mind. The facts which are accepted as fixed and unchanging are its rocks; the store of experience in thinking and doing, which deepens with each day we live, is its fertile mould. When we share with others the same knowledge and like experience we stand on “common ground.” (H. H. 488; A. C. 1940.)

The animals of the mind are its warm, sensitive affections; the plants are its growing intelligence on many subjects; the ground is the fixed basis of fact and experience.

Let us give a little closer thought to the animals and to the corresponding affections. How various the forms of animal life are! The elephant and the little humming insect! The fierce tiger and the gentle lamb! The soaring eagle and the serpent on the ground! The affections in our hearts are no less various. There are affections good and bad, gentle and cruel, useful and harmful, noble and base. Before we study particular animals and discover the affections to which they correspond, recall a few verses from the Bible to see how even this general thought — that animals correspond to human affections — will help us to understand the spiritual Chapters of the Word.

It is said of man, “Thou hast put all things under his feet; all sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; the fowl of the air and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.” (Ps. viii. 6-8.) It means that the Lord is king over all, and that He makes man king over the little world of his own heart. Especially it means that He has given him control over his affections; they are not to be his masters, but his servants. The beasts of the field, or of the earth, do not stand necessarily for evil affections, but for the more natural and external ones, including physical desires and appetites. If one lives only to indulge natural affections he is a “beast,” and he is truly a man as he exercises his human right by the Lord’s help to control them. (A. E. 650; A. C. 10610; see also gen. i. 25, 26; A. C. 52.) A life given merely to the indulgence of worldly affections is described in the forty-ninth Psalm, closing with the words, “Man that is in honor, and understandeth not, is like the beasts that perish.” These affections have no place in heaven. In Genesis we read: “The lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them… . And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field.” (gen. ii. 19, 20.) It means that the Lord permitted the early men on earth to know the quality of all the natural affections and appetites, that they might give them their right place and have dominion over them. (A. E. 650; A. C. 143, 146.) Later on in the story we read of the preservation of animals, clean and not clean, in the ark. “Of clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and of fowls, and of everything that creepeth upon the earth, there went in two and two unto Noah into the ark.” (Gen. vii. 8, 9.) It tells of the transmission of affections and appetites, both good and not good, from the people of the first church to their descendants who formed the second church. (A. E. 650; A. C. 714, 715, 719.) “And Noah builded an altar unto the lord, and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.” (Gen. viii. 20; lev. i.) The animals brought for sacrifice represent the pure and earnest affections which we should bring before the Lord, acknowledging that they are His, and asking Him to use and to bless them in us. “Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? Will the lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? … He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good, and what doth the lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?” (Micah vi. 7, 8.) “For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.” (Ps. li. 16, 17; A. C. 922.)

We can understand also why clean animals were permitted to the Israelites for food, and unclean beasts were forbidden. “Ye shall therefore put difference between clean beasts and unclean, and between unclean fowls and clean: and ye shall not make your souls abominable by beast, or by fowl, or by any manner of living thing that creepeth on the ground, which I have separated from you as unclean.” (Lev. xx. 25; xi.) Plainly the Lord desires our souls to grow strong with good, noble affections, but not to be defiled by evil ones. (A. E. 650.)

We see now the sad warning contained in the many passages which tell of destruction by wild beasts. “The boar out of the wood doth waste it, and the wild beast of the field doth devour it.” (Ps. lxxx. 13.) “The dead bodies of thy servants have they given to be meat unto the fowls of the heaven, the flesh of thy saints unto the beasts of the earth.” (Ps. lxxix. 2.) Such words are a warning that evil passions and appetites arising from selfish and worldly love, if indulged, destroy all spiritual life. (A. E. 650; A. C. 9335.) We see also the meaning of the joyful prediction: “No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon. It shall not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there.” (Isa. xxxv. 9; A. E. 650; A. C. 9335.)

Perhaps we can now see the spiritual reason why the Israelites were often commanded to destroy animals belonging to wicked nations. “Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.” (1 sam. xv. 3.) As the infant and suckling here mean the beginnings of evil, so the animals represent the evil affections which their owners indulged. These were not to be adopted, but destroyed. (A. E. 650.)

“I will not drive them [the nations of Canaan] out from before thee in one year; lest the land become desolate, and the beast of the field multiply against thee. By little and little I will drive them out.” (Exod. xxiii. 29, 30; deut. vii. 22.) This shows us that regeneration must be a gradual work, and that in mercy the Lord permits many imperfect motives — regard for appearance, hope of reward, external necessity — to restrain the animal nature till more worthy motives can grow strong. (A. E. 650; A. C. 9335.) What do we learn of the temptations which our Lord endured, from the statement that “He was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted of Satan; and was with the wild beasts”? (mark i. 13.) The wild beasts were the fierce evil passions inspired from hell, which the Lord resisted and overcame. (A. E. 650 end.)

Do not let us dwell too long on the passages which speak of evil beasts. Read in the Psalm: “He sendeth the springs into the valleys, which run among the hills. They give drink to every beast of the field: the wild asses quench their thirst. By them shall the fowls of the heaven have their habitation, which sing among the branches… . He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man… . Thou makest darkness and it is night; wherein all the beasts of the forest do creep forth,” etc. (Ps. civ. 10-30.) The Lord provides food for the beasts, He also satisfies good affections of every kind with instruction from His Word. (A. E. 650, 483, 278; A. C. 2702.)

Finally, as a remarkable and perhaps unexpected example of the meaning of animals in the Holy Word, read in the Revelation: “In the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts… . And they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty.” (Rev. iv. 6-9.) They are a symbol of the affection of the angels; especially of the celestial heaven, the heaven of affection, nearest to the Lord. (A. E. 322, 462.)

We postpone the study of passages which mention plants and minerals, to think first of individual members of the animal kingdom and to discover the special affections to which they correspond.

14. Horse and Ass For what are horses and asses useful? What do they do better than all other animals? They carry people and loads on their backs and in wagons. They are wonderfully adapted for this work, and when wisely and kindly cared for they enjoy doing it. A good horse enters into the spirit of a morning canter or even of a race quite as heartily as his rider does. The sheep and goats are valuable for what they are and for what they give us of themselves; oxen, both for what they are and what they do; but the horse and ass are useful chiefly for what they do. One class corresponds to our love of being innocent or being useful; the other corresponds to our enjoyment in doingmental work.

And what mental work can I do? Can I sit at the table without moving a finger and still be hard at work? Suppose I am working out a problem in geometry or reasoning out some question connected with business, or a question of right and wrong; am I not doing real work? The mental work is thinking or reasoning. If it goes well, there is a real enjoyment in it; it is quite exhilarating. In many ways we can see the likeness between the animals which do physical labor, and this enjoyment in thinking and reasoning. We speak of “advancing ” in our reasoning “step by step,” and of being “led” to such and such conclusions.

Have you noticed how ready a horse is to go in a familiar road, and to turn his head towards home? In passing over a road a second time, a horse knows the way perfectly, and wants to make each turn and stop for water and rest exactly as he did before. Do not our minds run over familiar lines of thought more easily than over new ones? Do we not find ourselves saying and, thinking the same things in the same old ways? going over the same line of reasoning and reaching the same conclusion?

The mental labor also has uses corresponding to those which the animals perform in carrying their riders, and in carrying burdens. Carrying a rider swiftly from place to place is like the service of the understanding in enabling one to see things comprehensively in their right relations and proportions. And as beasts of burden carry things from where they are produced to where they are wanted, so the thought picks up a fact ‘here and a. bit of experience there and brings them together into useful relations. These animals that enjoy work represent our affection for intellectual labor, for thinking, understanding, reasoning. (AC 2781, 2761, 2762)

So far the horse and ass are alike; let us now notice the differences between them, and between the kinds of thinking to which they correspond. The horse is larger than the ass and stronger. He is at the same time more delicate and sensitive, needing better food and better care. The ass is more surefooted on a rough-path, and more enduring. Perhaps the most important difference is that the horse gives all attention to his rider or driver, listening for the slightest sound of his voice, and easily trained to obey the least touch upon the neck. This quality of attention to the .master’s will is wonderfully shown in our crowded city streets. It is still more beautifully shown in countries where men almost live in the saddle, and the horse becomes almost a part of his master. The ass on the contrary pays little attention to his rider. His attention is given almost wholly to the road, and not a stone escapes his notice. He makes his own plan where he will step and if his master’s wish differs from his, he is very reluctant to change. In a word, the horse looks up to his master for guidance; the ass looks down to the ground.

Are there some kinds of thought and reasoning which are nobler than others? I may follow step by step the reasoning of a problem in geometry; I may carefully consider and decide in some matter of business. Or I may delight to think about the Lord, and to understand His message to us in His Word, and to think of all natural things in their relation to our spiritual life. The affection for this spiritual understanding or thought is represented by the noblest of all animals of work, the horse. (White Horse 1-5; AC 2761, 2762; AE 355, 364) The natural understanding, which is absorbed in things of this world, is represented by the ass. (AC 2781)

It will be remembered that many passages which mention the ox, join with him the ass. We now see more clearly that it is because the ass is a symbol of the natural understanding, which is the companion of the natural affection represented by the ox. For example: “If thou meet thine enemy’s ox or his ass going astray, thou shalt surely bring it back to him again. If thou see the ass of him that hateth thee lying under his burden, and wouldest forbear to help him, thou shalt surely help with him.” (Exod. xxiii. 4, 5; AC 2781) “Thou shalt not see thy brother’s ass or his ox fall down by the way, and hide thyself from them: thou shalt surely help him to lift them up again.” (Deut. xxii. 4; AC 2781) “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor’s.”

(Exod. xx. 17; AC 8912) “Which of you shall have an ass or an ox fallen into a pit, and will not straightway pull him out on the sabbath day? ” (Luke xiv. 5) The ass or the ox fallen into a pit represents the natural understanding or affection fallen into falsity or evil. They are to be drawn out especially by the instruction of the Sabbath day given by the Lord. (AC 9086; AE 537)

In the old time it was the custom for judges and their sons to ride on asses, and for kings and their sons to ride on mules. (Judges V. 10, x. 3, 4, xii. 14; I Kings i. 33 45; 2 Sam. xiii. 29) The custom came from very ancient days, when the correspondence of the ass was known. For it was a judge’s or a king’s duty to listen to the details of natural questions and to decide them wisely. We remember also the prophecy concerning the Lord: “Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.” (Matt. xxi. 5; Zech. ix. 9) And we remember how the prophecy was fulfilled when the disciples “brought the ass, and the colt, and put on them their clothes, and they set him thereon.” (Matt. xxi. 7) It was a sign that the Lord had come down to meet men on the plane of the natural understanding; to loose that faculty from its bondage to falsity, and to teach men true natural precepts. (AC 2781)

Read the story of Balaam’s ass. The angel said to Balaam, “And the ass saw me, and turned from me these three times: unless she had turned from me, surely now also I had slain thee, and saved her alive.” (Numb. xxii. 22-35) The story teaches us how the Lord enlightens our understanding, that we may know and acknowledge what is right, and so may be turned from evil. (AE 140) The Psalm says: “He sendeth the springs into the valleys, which run among the hills. They give drink to every beast of the field: the wild asses quench their thirst.” (Ps. civ. 10, 11) The springs represent the Lord’s gift of truth from His Word; and the wild asses quenching their thirst represent the instruction of those in the church who have an intellectual interest in truth. (AE 483; AC 1949)

The wild ass is a distinct species from the domestic ass, and cannot be tamed. It often stands in the Word for the first natural reason, which has no regard to use, but is critical and perverse. Of Ishmael, who represents this first-developed intellectual power, it is said: “He shall be a wild-ass man; his hand shall be against every man, and every man’s hand against him.” (Gen. xvi. 12; AC 1949)

The horse, we remember, corresponds to the spiritual understanding, or to the affection for thinking and reasoning clearly on spiritual subjects. It is the faculty which understands and enjoys the spiritual meaning of the Word. In the Revelation we read of horses: “And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True: . . and his name is called The Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses.” (Rev. xix. 11-14, vi. 2) It is the Lord, coming not now to teach natural truth, “meek and riding upon an ass,” but to open men’s spiritual understanding to the spiritual truth of the Word. Therefore He was seen riding upon a white horse, and His name was called the Word of God. (AE 355; AR 298; White Horse 1-5) As we read on in the sixth chapter, as successive seals were opened, there were seen horses of different colors “Behold a red horse”; “Behold a black horse,” and “a pale horse.” We can easily see that this tells of the exploration, in turn, of different classes of persons in the spiritual world, and the disclosure of the kind of understanding of the Word and spiritual truth which was found in each. (AE 355, 364, 372, 381; AR 298, 305, 312, 320; seeChapter 34)

“When the Lord would take up Elijah into heaven … there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. And Elisha saw it, and he cried, My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof.” (2 Kings ii. 11, 12) Again, when encompassed by the Syrians, “Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray thee open his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.” (2 Kings vi. 17) The prophets Elijah and Elisha spoke the Divine truth of right and wrong, they were representatives of the Word in its stern, literal form. If we could accompany this Word into heaven - or, indeed, if we take it with us when we die - as in the ascent of Elijah, its rude cloke drops from it, and it appears glorious in spiritual truth. Also it is this spiritual truth within the Word which gives the letter power, filling the mountain with unseen horses and chariots of fire round about us. (AC 2762, 5321)

In these and many other passages, chariots are mentioned with the horses. They make the horses more effective in fighting; and carriages and wagons serve a like use in traveling, and exchanging goods. As the horses correspond to the spiritual understanding, the carriages represent principles or “doctrines ” concerning the need of communication and the useful ways of effecting it, which facilitate the exchange of intellectual treasures, and help to bring the truth to bear where it is needed. (AC 82115; AE 355; AR 437)

Noble as the faculty of understanding is, should we ever trust to our intelligence and think that we do not need to depend upon the Lord? “A horse is a vain thing for safety, neither shall he deliver any by his great strength.” (Ps. xxxiii. 17) The Lord “delighteth not in the strength of the horse; he taketh not pleasure in the legs of a man.” (Ps. cxlvii. io) “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.” (Ps. xx. 7; AR 298; AE 355; AC 2826)

We see that while in the best sense the horse stands for a true spiritual understanding of the Word, horses and chariots in the armies of Israel’s enemies must stand for the false reasonings and doctrines with which evil of various kinds attempts to overpower good. So the horses of Egypt, and of Assyria, and of Babylon. (AC 8146, 5321; AE 355;see Chapter 38)

The ancients, who delighted to perceive the correspondence of natural objects with spiritual, accepted the horse as a symbol of intelligence. Many traces of this ancient wisdom are preserved in Greek mythology. They told of a winged horse, Pegasus, which struck the rock, and the fountain of the Muses broke forth. In this fable they pictured the birth of the sciences from the application of spiritual intelligence to the facts of nature. (AC 2762, 4966, 7729; White Horse 4; TCR 693) The story of the wooden horse by which Troy was taken, is also a fable, meaning that the Greeks prevailed by greater intelligence and craft. (AC 2762; White Horse 4)

4.2 Assignment 4

Text: “The Language of Parable”, Chapters XI and XIV

1. WORKING WITH THE BIBLE

• You need to get your bible out and have it open in front of you because you are asked here to work with passages from the Scriptures.
• Look up and read Daniel Chapter 6, verses 10 to 23.
• With out researching it,

a) What do you see to be the correspondence of the lions in this story? b) Are you able to tie this in with the second part of verse 6 in Isaiah Chapter 11?

Now read Luke Chapter 9, verses 51 to 62.

• What do you see, here, to be the possible correspondence of foxes?

• What do you see to be the possible correspondence of birds (in this context)?

• Go to Luke Chapter 13, verses 32, and the Lord’s description of Herod.

What is this saying about Herod?

Having done this exercise now check out your insights and understanding via Potts Concordance, NewSearch, Heavenly Doctrines.org or The Dictionary of Correspondences.

2. BUILDING UP YOUR UNDERSTANDING OF CORRESPONDENCES

Read carefully “The Language of Parable” Chapter XI.

i. What is the rationale given here for animals corresponding to affections?

ii. What, in your own words, is the correspondence of “clean” and of “unclean” animals (Genesis 7:8, 9)?

iii. In 2 columns list in one evil affections to which certain animals correspond and in the other good affections which other animals correspond to. See if you can slot in the names of animals appropriate to these different affections.

3. You are being asked here to think about and by all means research both the positive and negative traits of an ass (proverbial stubbornness, etc)

Read “The Language of Parable” Chapter XIV, focusing especially on pages 130-132,

• Does the suggested correspondence of an ass sit comfortably with you?

• Now turn to the story of the Lord’s Palm Sunday entrance into Jerusalem, Matthew 21:1-11. What are you getting from this story now that you know and have been working with the correspondence of an ass?

4. ANIMALS USED IN SACRIFICES

You read a lot about the offering of animal sacrifices in the Old Testament and there is a particular emphasis on those animals, so sacrificed, being not only clean but also unblemished. (See, for example, Numbers 19:2).

What does this correspond to and how might you put this to someone to make good, possible, sense to them?

4.3 Journal Work

Bring to mind the most recent negative state you were in and can recall (resentful, judgmental, annoyed, self-righteous, contemptuous, self-indulgent, patronizing, or whatever), describe what animal best corresponds to it and why. Think about the quality of the affections and thoughts involved.

Video 3

• Divine Consciousness

5. Birds

5.1 Reading

How are birds peculiar among animals? Their arms are wings, enabling them to rise above the ground and to fly quickly through the air. Birds also have very quick, sharp sight. An eagle or a hawk as he circles about, high in the air, is watching the little objects on the ground far below. How quick a little bird’s sight must be, to fly safely through the woods, in and out among the branches! And we must not forget the sweet songs of some birds and the bright colors of others, which are their means of sharing with us the delights of their happy life.

Being members of the animal kingdom, birds correspond to affections of some sort. Do you think they picture affections for passive enjoyment? No, evidently affections for intense mental activity of some kind. How quickly, almost nervously, birds move, hardly resting long enough to be distinctly seen! They suggest at once the thoughts which “flit” incessantly through the mind; the mental pictures and conceptions-ideas, we call them-which chase one another in rapid succession. The birds with their quick flight and their sharp eyes are much like the affections for forming and enjoying these mental pictures. (AC 3219, 5149; AE 282, 1100; TCR 42)

When we remember that the birds are the noblest of flying creatures, and that their sight is wonderfully penetrating, we must conclude that they correspond to our enjoyment in mental pictures of the noblest kind. The mental birds enjoy not mere natural scenes, but pictures of human life, which have a living, spiritual interest. (TCR 69; AC 8764)

Give a thought to the bird’s wonderful power of flight, which enables his bright eyes to enjoy such broad and such quickly changing views. To some people, and to some states of mind in us all, nothing seems real and sure but the things of the earth which we can see and feel. But we may learn the substantial reality of spiritual things; states of affection and thought and spiritual influences become as real to us as our natural surroundings, and much more important. We can think of them as of real things; the thought finds in them a substantial support, and delights to look at life from that spiritual point of view. So the mental bird rises from the ground into the air.

Thought which looks at life from the spiritual side, understanding something of spiritual causes and general principles, can take a broad and comprehensive view, seeing many things at a glance and in their true relations. Such thought also, not being tied to mere outward circumstances, can enter with sympathy into states of life quite unlike our own. So the mental bird flies quickly and gains distinct ideas of many different kinds of life. (AC 8764; AE 282, 759)

It seems strange to caution you not to mistake a bird for a horse; yet perhaps it is necessary, our sight of spiritual objects is so dim. The difference is that between gaining an idea of some state of life, and actually coming into it. The horse is the affection for carrying you step by step, by laborious reasoning, into a new state, or of bringing some new element into your life. The bird does not attempt this, but simply gives you a picture, an idea, of another state. You may gain an idea even of the life of heaven, where love to the Lord and the neighbor rule; but to bring your own mind into that heavenly state is another matter and much more laborious.

The sense of the reality of spiritual things, and the power to rest the thought upon them, is as various as the power of flight in different birds. (TCR 42) See a great eagle soaring without effort high in air, or circling with undazzled eyes towards the sun! A noble bird with such powers of flight and of sight pictures an affection for spiritual thought of the strongest, most searching kind, which rises highest above superficial appearances, and takes the most comprehensive views of life, the most in accord with the Divine wisdom.

In Isaiah we read, “They that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles.” (Isa. xl. 31) They shall become strong in will for what is good, and shall rise into spiritual intelligence. (AC 3901; AE 281; AR 244) We can now understand more completely the lament for Saul and Jonathan “They were swifter than eagles, they were stronger than lions.” (2 Sam. i. 23) It tells of the spiritual intelligence and the strength which come with the first principles of Divine truth which are adopted to rule the life. (AE 278, 281) Again, “Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself.” (Exod. xix. 4) Power to grasp intellectually spiritual truth, is the means of lifting us up from natural obscurity into heavenly light. (AC 8764; AE 281) Of the Lord’s care for His people it is said: “He led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye. As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings; so the LORD alone did lead him.” (Deut. xxxii. 10-12) It tells of the Lord’s effort to lift men up to understand spiritual truth in heavenly light, imparting to them of His own Divine intelligence. (AE 281, 283)

It is easy to see how the eagle, which represents the most spiritual and penetrating power of human thought, may in a supreme sense be a type of the Lord’s omniscience and His ever watchful care. What a beautiful symbol of Divine watchfulness - the stately bird soaring above the earth, observing all that goes on below! John saw four animals in the midst of and about the throne, “The fourth beast was like a flying eagle.” (Rev. iv. 7) In this way was expressed the Divine intelligence and guard and providence. (AE 281; AR 245; AC 3901)

When, in other places, “eagles ” are spoken of as evil birds - “Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together ” (Luke xvii. 37) - vultures are usually meant, representing affections for filthy and evil thoughts. Such thoughts abound when spiritual life is dead. (AC 3900, 3901; AE 281)

In contrast with the eagles, there are multitudes of birds which make comparatively short flights, resting often, and never rising high above the ground. They also correspond to affections for thinking about states of human life, but not profoundly, not abstractly, not rising far above the forms in which spiritual qualities manifest themselves in social and domestic life. In these concrete forms the little birds of the mind enjoy the quickly passing pictures of human life. (TCR 42)

Some of the little birds have bright plumage, and some delight our ears with song. So they express their gladness. And are happy thoughts content to remain unexpressed? The faculty which delights to see the happy things of human life in the world around us must surely express its delight to the minds and hearts of others. The sweet songs of birds and their bright colors, are but suggestions of the happy thoughts of home and friendship and use and recreation which should find expression in our conversation and our song. (AE 323)

The Lord’s care for the sparrows - and “sparrows ” in the Bible is usually a general name for all little birds - suggests His knowledge of all our passing thoughts and His care for them. “Not one of them shall fall to the ground without your Father.” (Matt. x. 2931) “Yea, the sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O LORD of hosts, my King and my God.” (Ps. lxxxiv. 3) It is the cry of exiles, perhaps in Babylon, whose thoughts have flown like birds to the beloved courts of the Lord. (AE 282 end) So our thoughts may delight to dwell upon the life of heaven, and may rise even to the Lord in worship, while still we are far away. (AE 391)

Instances will occur to every one where birds have a bad meaning. In the parable of the sower, for example: “Some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up… . When any one heareth the word and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart.” (Matt. xiii. 4, 19) The fowls here are plainly the enjoyments in untrue and distracting thoughts, which are inspired by evil and cause the Lord’s words to be forgotten and without fruit. (AC 778, 5149; AR 757)

One bird we must especially remember, the dove. We all know its gentle loving nature. It is among birds what the lamb is among animals. And to what affection does the lamb correspond? To innocent love for the Lord and for one another. The dove then corresponds to the affection for thinking innocent thoughts of trust in the Lord and of love for one another. (AE 282; AC 10132) The likeness of the dove and the lamb is shown in the permission of the Jewish law: “If she be not able to bring a lamb, then she shall bring two turtle-doves or two young pigeons.” (Lev. xii. 8; Luke ii. 24. See also Lev. v. 7 and xiv. 21, 22) It means that if we are not as yet able to bring to the Lord the innocent, trustful affection which He desires, we shall at least bring thoughts of trust and innocence, and these are acceptable to the Lord till we are stronger. (AE 314; AC 10132) “Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away and be at rest.” (Ps. Iv. 6) It is a prayer for that affectionate grasp of the truths in regard to innocent love for the Lord and for one another, which would free us from states of temptation and bring peace. . (AE 282) Remember in the story of the flood, that grand but awful picture of temptation, how Noah “sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground; but the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot… And again he sent forth the dove out of the ark; and the dove came in to him in the evening; and, lo, in her mouth was an olive-leaf pluckt off: so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth.” (Gen. viii. 8-11) It is the affection for perceiving in human life the signs of innocence and nearness to the Lord, rejoicing in their first return after a season of darkness and temptation. (AC 869-892)

“And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him.” (Matt. iii. 16) The baptism represented the laying aside from our Lord’s humanity what was from men. After each such effort there descended upon Him some new gift of Divine innocence, with the happy perception of new possibilities of innocent life among men. The dove seems especially to represent the delight of perceiving these innocent states of human life now made possible. (TCR 144; AC 870; D. Lord 51)

Another bird several times mentioned in the Bible is the raven. The name brings to mind no bright plumage and no sweet songs; it suggests blackness, for this is the raven’s color. He is also a clumsy bird, without music in his voice, and somewhat harmful through his habit of preying upon small and feeble animals. These qualities do not suggest an affection for wise, interior thought as the spiritual raven. His blackness suggests ignorance. He is a picture of the ignorant thought of those who have had no. opportunity to learn, or of those. who prefer ignorance. (AE 650; AC 4967)

You remember that Noah, before he sent the dove, “sent forth a raven, which went forth to and fro, until the waters were dried up from off the earth.” (Gen. viii. 7) It is a type of the false thoughts which still are active till the season of temptation is past. (AC 864-868) But remember how Elijah, when he fled from Ahab, “went and dwelt by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan. And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening.” (1 Kings xvii. 5, 6) Elijah, who spoke the Lord’s Word so boldly, stands as a type of that Word in its plain, literal form. When the precepts of the Word are rejected and hated by those in the church, the Lord provides that they shall be cherished in the thoughts of Gentiles and ignorant people. So it was at His coming, when “the common people heard him gladly.” (AC 4844) “He giveth to the beast his food, and to the’ young ravens which cry.” (Ps. cxlvii. 9) How beautifully this familiar verse teaches us the Lord’s care for those who are in ignorance but desire instruction! (AE 650) And again: “Consider the ravens: for they neither sow nor reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn, and God feedeth them how much more are ye better than the fowls? ” (Luke xii. 24) The Lord provides what knowledge we will receive .of heavenly life, and even if our affections for spiritual thought are very feeble and imperfect, they are objects of His tenderest care.

5.2 Assignment

Text: “The Language of Parable”, Chapter XVIII

WORKING IN THE BIBLE

Using a Bible Concordance research and note down where in the Bible birds, in general, are mentioned.

Still with the help of a bible concordance, look up and note down where the following birds, specific types, are mentioned:

• eagles
• sparrows
• doves
• turtledoves
• ravens
• vultures

BUILDING YOUR UNDERSTANDING OF CORRESPONDENCES

You need at this point to read, or to have read, The Language of Parable, Chapter XVIII.

What do birds correspond to? (See Arcana Caelestia 3901 for an excellent statement).

Here are some of the characteristics of birds. Think about them and note down how these different characteristics are able to fill out the correspondence:

They fly in the sky, some very high

Many are very restless, never staying in one place for long

Some are extremely timid

Others are bold and aggressive

Most sing, especially at dawn

They are warm blooded In “The Language of Parable” Chapter XVIII, pages 161 and 162 the contrast is noted between birds that are capable of long, soaring flight and those who make only short flights, resting often. State what you see to be the spiritual meaning here.

Imagine yourself in a Bible Study meeting. You are focusing on the Psalms and have come to Psalm 8 and someone asks you how they are to understand verses 6 to 8, about dominion over the beasts of the field and the birds of the air.” What would you say?

How can it be that a raven brought good to Elijah, so sustaining him (I Kings 17:5, 6)?

5.3 Journal Work

Think about and note down either in general terms or quite specifically instances when your thoughts have been,

• Eagle like
• Sparrow like
• Vulture like (Isaiah 34:15)

Video 4

• Divine Consciousness

6. Fruit

6.1 Reading

In an earlier Chapter (Chapter xi) we took a general view of the three kingdoms of nature, and we found three classes of mental objects to which they correspond. The animals - warm, sensitive, active - correspond, as we saw, to the warm, sensitive feelings or affections of the heart. And what is there in the mind, alive and growing, but not sensitive like the feelings? Our intelligence or knowledge on many subjects. This is the mind’s vegetable kingdom; and the fixed facts and principles on which all things rest are the solid rocks. Ever since we took this general view we have been studying the animals, and in every case, when we asked, To what does this animal correspond? we could answer at once, To some affection.

Now we come to the plants, which all correspond to our knowledge or intelligence or wisdom upon various subjects. (HH 111; AC 3220) Can we recall a few passages from the Bible where plants in general are mentioned?

Remember what is said of the offerings brought by Cain and Abel - for the animal and vegetable kingdoms are there brought into contrast. “Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And in process of time it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD. And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel and unto his offering; but unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect.” (Gen. iv. 3-5) The firstlings of the flock with the fat thereof represent innocent, loving affections, which we know are acceptable to the Lord. And it is easy to see that Cain’s offering of fruits here represents mere intelligence, for the Lord said to Cain, “If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted?” (AC 341-355)

“The LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden… . And out of the ground, made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food.” (Gen. ii. 8, 9) The whole picture is descriptive of the spiritual state of those early people. And what in particular do the trees of Eden represent? Their knowledge of many kinds. And with those innocent people knowledge was not laboriously acquired; but they enjoyed perceptions of truth from the Lord. This is suggested by what is said of the trees, that the Lord God planted the garden and made the trees to grow. Trees “good for food,” or fruit-trees, evidently correspond to knowledge of how to do useful works. Trees “pleasant to the sight “mean perceptions delightful to the thought. (AE 739; AC 98-106) We read of Solomon’s wisdom: “And he spake of trees, from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall: he spake also of beasts, and of fowl, and of creeping things, and of fishes.” (I Kings Iv. 33) Wisdom includes the whole range of human intelligence, from the most spiritual and interior to the most natural; it deals also with human affections of every kind and degree. (AC 7918) . Recall also the destruction of every green thing by the locusts in Egypt. (Exod. x. 15; AC 7647, 7671; AE 543; see Chapter xx) Before we study particular kinds of plants, suppose we take a typical plant and observe its steps of development from seed through stem and leaf to flower and fruit. Let us choose a fruit-tree as the most complete plant for our study. And the mental fruit-tree is our knowledge in regard to some kind of good use. (AE 739; AC 102)

The Seed and Root. Where does the natural tree come from? It grows from a seed. And the seed is from some older tree. How does a tree of knowledge of some good use begin? From a suggestion from some one who already has knowledge of this use. This suggestion is the seed.

The natural seed must settle into the ground and must send out little roots which take firm hold, and which also draw in food for the plant. We do the same spiritually when we take home a suggestion of some use, and look about among our circumstances and the facts we know, to learn how the use can be done in our case. It is hard to transplant a tree after it has taken root, and so when our knowledge is based on and adapted to one set of circumstances it is hard to change and adjust it to other circumstances. (TCR 350; AC 880, 5115)

The Stem and Leaf. When a seed has taken root, what is the next step towards bearing fruit? It must send up a stem, perhaps with many branches, and clothe them with green leaves. These leaves are like lungs to the plant. (AC 10185) They receive the air through little mouths, and in the sunlight take from it food which the plant needs. With this they enrich the sap, and move it around and around in the sunshine till it is ready to become a part of the organic structure of the plant.

Our tree of knowledge sends up its stem and reaches out branches as it makes a plan for doing use. If the use is one which applies in many ways to various relations of life, the plant has many and spreading branches.

Next, we must do a work like that of the leaves. We must consider carefully the information we have gathered; must ponder it well in the best light we have, till it takes its right place as an organic part of our tree of knowledge. At this stage of our growth, the use is still rather remote, but we have an intellectual delight in the knowledge for its own sake, thinking only distantly of the use for which it is preparing. Our tree of knowledge is now in leaf. (AR 936; AE 1339)

The Flower and Fruit. The fruit is what the tree lives and grows for, and it corresponds to the use to which our tree of knowledge leads.

But between the leaves and the fruit come the flowers. The parts of a flower; the bright petals and even the stamens and pistils, are modified leaves. They do a work not wholly unlike the leaves, but more delicate; they distil the finer juices for the fruit; and while the leaves were working in a general way for the whole plant and the whole crop of fruit, each flower is working for its own particular fruit. Are there also special thoughts preparing for each useful work as the opportunity draws near? There are; and they are the blossoms of the tree of knowledge. These are happy thoughts, not from mere intellectual delight, but from the more heavenly delight of doing the good use. The bright colors of flowers and their fragrance and honey, picture the happiness of these thoughts made glad by the immediate prospect of accomplishing the use. (AC 5116, 1519)

Then the fruit, which, as we saw, is the use at last accomplished. Fruit is food for men; and the doing of good uses is real satisfaction to the spiritual life. In the fruit are many seeds; and each use we do shows us many more to do, and gives the suggestion to others to do like uses. (AE 1339; AR 936; AC 10185; TCR 106)

You will notice that the steps of progress of the tree from the seed to the fruit are in reality the steps of a man’s regeneration first the reception of instruction; next, the intellectual enjoyment in knowledge; and finally the heavenly enjoyment and satisfaction in the good use to which knowledge leads. In the Bible passages which now come to mind, telling of the growth of plants from seed to fruit, the growth of knowledge is described, and, in a broader sense, a man’s regeneration. (TCR 106; AC 5115, 5116)

What spiritual planting is, is very plain in the parable of the sower. “Behold, there went out a sower to sow: and it came to pass, as he sowed, some fell by the wayside, some fell on stony ground, … some fell among thorns, … and other fell on good ground, and did yield fruit that sprang up and increased… . The sower. soweth the word.” (Mark iv. 3-20) The Lord’s words are so many suggestions of duties and good uses which He wishes men to cultivate in their lives. Some now, as of old, do not take His words at all to heart, and they are soon forgotten; some hear with joy but have no patience when trials come; some suffer their good plans to be crowded out by schemes that are not good; some in an honest and good heart hear the word, and understand it, and bring forth fruit with patience. Notice the three steps: hearing, understanding, doing. (Matt. xiii. 23; D. Life go; AC 3310; AE 401) The first Psalm says of the man who shuns evil “He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.” (Ps. i. 3) He shall abound in the heavenly satisfaction of good uses, and he shall have abundant intelligent thoughts in regard to uses. (AE 109; AC 885; AR 400) We read in the Gospel of a tree which bore leaves but no fruit. “And when he saw a fig-tree in the way, he came to it, and found nothing thereon, but leaves only, and said unto it, Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward forever. And presently the fig-tree withered away.” (Matt. xxi. 19) Do we ever get so far as to think about doing good, and still, even when we have opportunity, not do it? Do we sometimes enjoy knowledge intellectually, but have none of the heavenly satisfaction in doing? Was this true of the Jewish Church when the Lord came to it seeking fruit? (AC 9337; AE 403; TCR 106)

Can we all see what is meant by fruits in these passages? John the Baptist said “Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance… . And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: every tree therefore which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.” (Luke iii. 8, 9) The fruits are evidently good works; and it is surely true that knowledge which does not come to works is taken from us, in the other world if not in this. (AC 7690) Our Lord said of false prophets: “Ye shall know them by their fruits… . Every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit… . Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.” (Matt. vii. 15-20) Does it mean more than that people are to be judged by their works? A prophet of the Lord was a mouth-piece of the Lord’s truth. Impersonally, the truth itself was the prophet. A false teaching is a false prophet. How are we to distinguish between true teachings and false? (TCR 435; AC 5117; AE 403, 212) “I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit; for without me ye can do nothing.” (John xv. 5; AC 9258)

There are beautiful passages which show how unconsciously to us the change goes on from the reception of instruction, through the stage of intellectual interest, to the delight and heavenly satisfaction of doing good. They show how tenderly the Lord cares for this spiritual growth in us, which is in fact our regeneration. “So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground; and should sleep and rise, night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up he knoweth not how. For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear.” (Mark iv. 26-28; AE 911; AC 5212, 10124) “Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not; they spin not… . If then God so clothe the grass, which is today in the field, and to-morrow is cast into the oven; how much more will he clothe you, O ye of little faith?” (Luke xii. 27, 28; AE 507; AC 8480)

26. Grains The trees we have studied bear their fruit year after year, at the same time adding to their strength and the spread of their branches. The grains are very different. They are small, slight plants which must grow together in great numbers to thrive or to be of use. They also are short-lived, growing quickly to their full size, bearing their fruit, and dying; needing to be sown again for another crop. There is a similar difference between the kinds of useful knowledge to which the fruit-trees and the grains correspond. The good works which fruits represent are done from time to time as there is opportunity, the knowledge in regard to them growing stronger and more far-reaching year by year. The grains correspond to no such long-lived and comprehensive knowledge, but to little plans for use which would be trifling if they stood alone, but which coming together in great numbers make up a day. The grain itself in comparison with the fruits, is hard and dry and less attractive, but still is more important than the fruits as food. The fruits are delicious and refreshing, but the grains are the main support of life. And is it on the larger, occasional works that life depends for its chief satisfaction, or on the little duties of every day? They are small; they are comparatively hard and dry and unattractive, but after all they are what make up the chief satisfaction of life. (John iv. 34; AC 5576, 5293)

It matters little what the work is that falls to us to do; the satisfaction we find in it, the support to our spiritual life, depends upon the motive in which we do it. Duties may be done from a great variety of motives. They may be done from necessity, or for the money they bring, or because it is right to do them, or from real enjoyment in being useful to others, or, best of all, they may be done for the Lord, in the effort to serve Him, following His example and His commandments. Duties done from lower motives may serve as well in supplying external needs; only the nobler motives are strengthening to the spiritual life, the real man. So the coarser grains are food for animals, but the noblest grains are more nourishing to human beings.

Name some of the different grains. What is the noblest of them all? Wheat is the grain best suited for food for men. It bears generously, but is more tender than some other grains, and needs good, rich soil. Another grain often mentioned in the Bible together with wheat, is barley. It is much like wheat, but is a smaller plant, more hardy, the heads protected by long, conspicuous beard. As food, it is coarser than wheat and less nourishing. Many other grains come to mind, rye, oats, rice, and maize; but they are less important for our present study.

What is the noble motive of duty to which wheat corresponds, which thrives only in the soil of “an honest and good heart,” but which makes the daily uses the greatest possible strength and satisfaction to the spiritual life? Wheat surely corresponds to duty done for the Lord. And to what does the humbler companion, barley, correspond? To the doing of duties as of ourselves, yet with pleasure in increasing the comfort of others. This principle of duty grows more easily than the nobler motive, and although good, is not so nourishing to the spiritual life. (AC 7602-7605; AE 374; AR 315)

To what do the stalk and blade of the grain correspond? To the plan and thought preparatory to the doing of duties. “First the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear.” (Mark iv. 28; AC 3518, 10669) Grasses belong to the same family with grains, but they are useful only for their sterns and blades, producing no edible seed. What do they represent? Knowledge and thought about duties with no immediate intention of doing them; for example, children’s interest in learning about, and imitating in their play, things which are serious duties to older people. Such thoughts add much to the beauty and cheerfulness of the mind, and are helpful in strengthening the affections for usefulness, as grass is food for gentle animals. “He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the ser vice of man.” (Ps. civ. 14; AE 507; AC 29)

We have thought of grains nobler and humbler, and of grass which bears no edible seed; what shall we say of tares? They are a troublesome weed among the grain, the blade hardly distinguishable from the blade of wheat. The head is thin, but the seeds are heavy and with difficulty separated from the good grain; they are also somewhat poisonous. This evil plant, so like the good grain, suggests duties done to all appearance from the best of motives, but really with a selfish purpose which is hurtful to the spiritual life. In this world duties done in this spirit are not surely to be distinguished from those done for the Lord and the neighbor, but in the other world the real character of the work is plain. “Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them; but gather the wheat into my barn… . The tares are the children of the wicked one; the enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels.” (Matt. xiii. 30, 38, 39; AE 911, 374, 426; CLJ 1; TCR 784)

Many passages from the Bible come to mind; in some, wheat and barley are mentioned; many times bread is named; “corn,” we must remember, is used in the general sense of grain, especially wheat.

Recall the description of the promised land: “A land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig-trees, and pomegranates; a land of oil olive, and honey.” (Deut. Viii. 8) We have now studied all but one of these promised blessings. (For pomegranates see AC 9552) The wheat and barley are the genuine satisfaction, in the heavenly state of life, in doing the little duties in the service of the Lord and of one another. (AC 3941, 7602; AE 374) Why was the blessing of abundant harvests with the Israelites so dependent on their strict obedience to the Lord? Because the harvests represented the spiritual satisfactions which are found only in serving Him. “And it shall come to pass, if ye shall hearken diligently unto my commandments which I command thee this day, to love the LORD your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, that I will give you the rain of your land … that thou mayest gather in thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil. And I will send grass in thy fields for thy cattle, that thou mayest eat and be full.” (Deut. xi. 13-15) This is the motive of life which gives genuine satisfaction in the round of duty, and which year by year, increases our knowledge of the goodness and wisdom of the Lord. (AE 376; AC 9780) “Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways! … He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat: and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee.” (Ps. lxxxi. 13, 16) The Lord desires that we shall find the richest and best satisfaction in our work; and He would have us do it in His service, because done in that motive it is most truly satisfying. (AE 619, 374)

Remember the years of plenty and of famine in the land of Egypt. “And he gathered up all the food of the seven years, which were in the land of Egypt, and laid up the food in the cities… . And Joseph gathered corn as the sand of the sea. And all countries came into Egypt to buy corn; because that the famine was so sore in all lands.” (Gen. xli. 48-57) The years of famine picture a time when plans for usefulness do not flourish and there is little satisfaction felt in doing good. At such times we must rely upon our memory of what we have learned is right and good in happier times. And we all have such a store laid up from the days when as children we learned the satisfaction of doing our duty well. (AC 5342)

We have seen how earnestly the Lord desires to teach men the right ways of doing life’s duties, that they may find in them the fullest satisfaction. How many passages in the Gospel story show that the Lord was constantly doing this as He walked with men on earth! He likened Himself to a sower, and His words to seeds of grain. “A sower went out to sow his seed: and as he sowed, some fell by the way side; … some fell upon a rock; … some fell among thorns; … and other fell on good ground. The seed is the word of God… . That on the good ground are they which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience.” (Luke viii. 5-15) The Lord’s words are grains of wheat, because they teach us how to do our duties in a heavenly spirit. They should spring up in our minds into intelligent plans for usefulness, and should result in duties done with heavenly satisfaction. (D. Life 90; AE 401; AC 3310)

On two occasions the Lord not only compared His instruction to grain, but He actually gave bread from His hand and fed the multitude. “Jesus said, Make the men sit down. Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand. And Jesus took the [barley] loaves; and when he had given thanks, he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to them that were set down; and likewise of the fishes as much as they would.” (John vi. 10, 11) Why did He feed them with barley loaves and not with “the finest of the wheat”? He gave as they were able to receive. Even today Christian people know little of the blessedness of doing their duties for the Lord, though many are sustained by the satisfaction of helping one another. The barley loaves represent the natural satisfaction, and the fishes the natural understanding, which people have been able to receive from the Lord. (AE 617, 430) “And it came to pass … that he went through the corn fields; and his disciples plucked the ears of corn, and did eat, rubbing them in their hands.” (Luke vi. i) As the Lord’s disciples listen to His words and see the example of His works, they are strengthened in the purpose to do their duty faithfully, not from any store of stale traditional learning, but from the living example of the Lord’s own life. They pluck the growing grain and eat. (TCR 301)

This same purpose in His coming into the world - to teach us to do life’s duties from heavenly motives, and to find in them strength and satisfaction for our souls - the Lord emphasizes when He says, “I am the living bread which came down from heaven if any man eat of this bread he shall live forever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” (John vi. 51; AC 3813, 9412; TCR 707; AE 617) The Lord still is with us in His Holy Supper to give us this same help. This is the meaning of the bread used in that sacred service. ’° As they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body.” (Matt. xxvi. 26) “This do in remembrance of me.” (Luke xxii. 19; NJHD 210-2 14; TCR 702-710; AC 5405, 9412; AE 146) What spiritual blessing shall we especially desire when we say, “Give us this day our daily bread “? (Matt. vi. 11; AC 680, 2838, 2493)

6.2 Assignment 6

Text: “The Language of Parable”, Chapters XXI and XXVI

TEST YOUR BIBLE KNOWLEDGE

Jot down those references to, or stories about, gardens, trees, seeds, seed-sowing, crops, harvesting and fruitfulness that come to mind and without looking them up.

BUILDING YOUR UNDERSTANDING OF CORRESPONDENCES

With the help of either Potts Concordance, NewSearch or Heavenly Doctrines.org look up and make a note of the correspondence of,

• Seeds
• Seed sowing
• Good ground
• Tares
• Harvesting
• Fruit
• Fruitfulness
• Wheat
• Barley
• Thorns
• Stones

Now turn to Matthew Chapter 13, and to the parable there of the Sower. Summarize the spiritual meaning here. (Be careful of what you make of “wayside”, in verse 4. It’s important.)

Having read “The Language of Parable”, Chapters XXI and XXVI, comment on how it is that a man whose “delight is in the law of the Lord”…”shall be like a tree planted by rivers of water, etc.” Psalm 1. (By all means make use of “Divine Providence” paragraph 332:3 in this regard.)

William Worcester, the author, states in “The Language of Parable”, page 187, “It is hard t transplant a tree after it has taken root, and so when our knowledge is based on and adapted to one set of circumstances it is hard to change and adjust to other circumstances.”

What is the point he is making here?

6.3 Journal Work

In Luke Chapter 19 is the story of Zachaeus who climbed a sycamore tree in order to see the Lord passing by (verses 1 to 10).

Pin point a time when you have been aware of a need to climb a sycamore tree in order to see the Lord and summarise it drawing from your understanding of the Correspondences in the story of Zachaeus?

Video 5

• Divine Consciousness

7. Water

• The Spiritual Meaning of Water

7.1 Reading

In what two ways is water useful to us personally? It is useful for washing and for drinking. Water cleanses because it has the power of penetrating between the body and dirt which stains it, and so loosens it and carries it away. Water which we drink, besides being cleansing, has also the use of softening and dissolving food which will be nourishing to the body, and circulating it through the currents of the body to the parts which need it.

Water circulates through the great world around us much as it does through the little world of our own body. It falls as rain and snow, runs through the springs into the brooks, and so into the rivers and at length to the sea. There it still sweeps on in great ocean currents, and ebbs and flows with the tide, till it is drawn up into the clouds, and by and by falls again as rain. And wherever it comes it cleanses the air and the earth. Also it sets useful things in motion. Gradually it wears away the rocks and forms fertile meadows; it dissolves from the earth nourishment for the plants and carries it up by their roots and branches into the leaves and fruit. It sets in motion mills and factories; it carries ships and cargoes to and fro, on a grand scale circulating the food of the earth to the parts that are hungry for it. The uses of water in the world are similar to its uses to ourselves. Let us try to learn what spiritual thing does corresponding uses for our minds.

First, the use for washing. Suppose we find a child who has been playing in the city street, and is stained with dust and dirt. Suppose the child has also met bad company and come in contact with bad influences, and has become spiritually unclean and stained. What shall we do for this child? To clean his body, we shall take water and wash away the dirt. To help him spiritually, we shall begin kindly to teach him that some things are wrong, and to show him the difference between wrong and right. And this does for him spiritually just what the washing did for him naturally; it distinguishes and so separates between the child’s real life and the unclean things which cling to him, and helps him to throw them aside. What is the spiritual water which has done this cleansing for his character? It is the plain instruction, or truth, to use a shorter word, in regard to right and wrong. (AR 378; AE 475)

Second, the use for drinking. Have you ever tried to listen to a Chapter or to learn one from a book, and given up in despair because it was so dry that you could not relish it? Perhaps it was a Chapter in geography or in French. Can you think what would make these same Chapters interesting and easy to learn? Would they not cease to be dry if the teacher should agree to take you a journey through the country whose geography and language you were learning? or in some other way should show you the application and practical usefulness of the subject to yourselves? The knowledge or truth, to use the short word, which shows the relation of things to you and how you can make them useful in your own life, is the water which gives spiritual food a relish and sets it moving in the currents of the mind. (See Chapter 6) In this case the spiritual water is the truth which shows how we can appropriate and use good things; in the other case it showed how to separate useless things from us. The same truth does both.

Again, suppose we are in a fever of excitement. We are in danger, are dreading some misfortune, are anxious, and feel utterly help less. If now some one comes to us who is perfectly cool, and in a calm, practical way points out to us what of the dangers can be avoided, and what can and should be done, the advice cools our excitement and anxiety and sets the currents of our paralyzed thought in motion. Here also it is the plain, practical advice, or truth, showing what can be done under the circumstances, which comes to us with the refreshment of cooling water. (AC 8568; AE 71 )

We have sometimes, when enthusiastic in some enterprise, had our ardor “dampened ” by practical advice - too cruelly practical, perhaps. We say that “cold water” is thrown upon our project.

Water falls from the sky as rain. Does practical truth of life ever come into the world in a corresponding way? It comes as rain when it comes from the Lord in His Holy Word, or as a gentle perception from within, showing what is right and wise. (AC 3579; AE 644)

Water runs through the streams into the salt sea. What becomes of practical truth which we learn? It is active for a time in our minds, or in the public mind, and is perhaps the moving power of “current events.” Then is it lost and forgotten? No, but it is laid away in the storehouse of memory and history, colored and flavored by the applications which have been made of it. (AE 275; AC 28, 9755)

Water sometimes falls as snow, or takes the forth of ice. It is the same water but takes these forms when the weather is cold. Are we spiritually sometimes in warm and sometimes in cooler states? (Chapter 4) The cool states are when our affections are not active. If we then hear truth from the Lord’s Word or elsewhere, we receive it with intellectual enjoyment in its beauty, but with no desire to put it into immediate use. It lies in idle drifts, or as hard facts. But if something wakens our interest in doing some good work, quickly all this idle truth melts and becomes warm and active in the mind. (AE 644, 411)

So many beautiful passages from the Bible come to mind, that you can easily find them for yourselves. We will suggest just a few which will help to make clear the correspondence of water with plain truth of right and wrong, and of what is practicable to do.

“Wash you, make you clean,” the Lord commands by the prophet Isaiah. We know it is a command to remove from our lives what is not good, even before we read the words which follow: “Put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do well.” (Isa. i. 16, 17; TCR 670-673) Frequent washings were required of the Jews (Lev. xxii. 6, etc), especially of the priests, at the laver in the tabernacle or temple court. (Exod. xxx. 17-21) The Pharisees kept these laws in a literal way. “For the Pharisees and all the Jews, except they wash their hands oft, eat not.” (Mark vii. 2-4) But the laws had an inner meaning which they did not keep. The external washings were representative of cleansing of the heart from “evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: these are the things which defile a man.” (Matt. xv. 19, 20) The water itself by which the spiritual washing is done, is the Lord’s plain teaching of right and wrong, especially His ten commandments. (AR 378; AE 475; AC 3147, 10243, 10244)

Why did John the Baptist baptize those who listened to his message? Was that natural washing a picture of some spiritual work which he was doing at the same time? Read Luke iii. 3-17, and show me the spiritual water which John was applying to those who came to hear him. (AE 475, 724; TCR 690) We still use water in the sacrament of Baptism to represent the cleansing of our lives from evil, by the guidance and power of the Lord’s commandments. The sacrament gives real help in doing this spiritual work. (TCR 670-673; AC 10386-10392; AE 475; NJH D 202)

When the Lord sent two disciples to prepare the passover, He said, “Behold, when ye are entered into the city, there shall a man meet you, bearing a pitcher of water; follow him into the house where he entereth in.” (Luke xxii. 10) What does this teach us must be our guide, if we would prepare for union with the Lord? (TCR 722)

“Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord: . . they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it.” (Amos. viii. 11, 12) The passage explains itself. It describes a state in which there is no satisfaction in heavenly uses and no knowledge of the right ways of life. (AC 8568; AE 71) “As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.” (Ps. xlii. i) The hart is a gentle creature related to the cattle and the goats, but wild. It must correspond to some gentle, innocent but natural affection. And its panting after the water brooks, means the longing of such an affection for true instruction from the Lord. (AC 6413; AR 956)

“Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distill as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass.” (Deut. xxxii. 1, 2) These beautiful verses say distinctly that the Lord’s teaching and speech are the rain and dew of the soul. As the rain falls with gentle, cooling refreshment to the tender plants, so the Lord’s teaching encourages and quickens our growing knowledge even of humble and simple kinds. (AC 3579; AE 644) “As the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater: so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.” (Isa. iv. 10, 11) The verses distinctly tell us that the rain and snow from heaven are a picture of the Lord’s refreshing truth falling gently into the mind. It comes as rain when the affections are warm and ready to make immediate use of the Lord’s instruction; as snow when it is received with cool, intellectual interest and allowed to lie idle till affection for some good work calls it into use. (AE 644; AR 496)

Your Father in heaven “maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.” (Matt. v. 45) The shining sun pictures His love, and the rain His truth, which He sends continually to all, even to the unthankful and the evil. (AE 644; D P 173, 292; AE 401)

Remember what is said of the promised land; that it is “a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills.” (Deut. viii. 7) “For the land whither ye go to possess it is not as the land of Egypt, from whence ye came out, where thou sowest thy seed, and waterest it with thy foot, as a garden of herbs: but the land whither ye go to possess it is a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water of the rain of heaven.” (Deut. xi. 10, 11) The verses bring to mind the rainless land of Egypt, where water is laboriously lifted from the river and led by the gardener’s foot from the irrigating canals into his field; and in contrast, they bring to mind the bountiful springs and refreshing showers of Palestine. What does it tell of the difference between the natural state which Egypt represents and the spiritual state represented by Canaan, in their reception of truth for daily needs? In the natural state we look down to the stream of current opinion and the reservoirs of memory. In the spiritual state we receive living instruction from the Lord; for our minds are open to heaven and to truth from His Word. (AE 5118, 644; AC 2702, 8278, Chapter 38i)

What is meant spiritually by these words of the Lord: “Whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward “? (Matt. x. 42) We give a cup of water when we give some true instruction, encouraging to innocent, childlike affection; or when we embody something of the truth we know in a good act, however small. We do it in the name of a disciple when we give not as if the truth were our own, but acknowledging that it is received by us from the Lord. (DP 230; AE 624, 695)

As we are lifting our thoughts from natural water to the spiritual water of plain truth of life, with its corresponding uses, remember the Lord at Jacob’s well, and His words to the woman of Samaria: “Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” (John iv.13, 14; SS 2; AC 2702, 3424, 8568) Remember also the river of water of life described in the Revelation. “And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.” (Rev. xxii. 1; AR 932; AE 11335, 2702) “The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” (Isa. xi. 9; AE 275; AC 28, 9755)

Through many such passages we become accustomed to water as the symbol of truth in regard to what is right and wise; in its best sense, truth received from the Lord in His Word, but in its plain, natural form, applicable to practical daily life. What does water mean in the Psalm where we read: “If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, when men rose up against us: … then the waters had overwhelmed us, the stream had gone over our soul; then the proud waters had gone over our soul “? (Ps. cxxiv. 2-5) Plainly it means teaching that is false and thoughts that are not true, against which we need the Lord’s protection. (AE 5118; AR 409) Quite similar is the meaning where we read, “the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon ” the house built on the rock or on the sand. (Matt. vii. 24—27; AE 518, 419; AR 409) We see what spiritual condition of the world is representatively described in Genesis: “And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights… . And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth… . And all flesh died that moved upon the earth.” (Gen. Vii. 12-24) It was a time when deadly falsities prevailed, and shutting men off from the light of heaven nearly destroyed all spiritual life. (AC 660, 661, 705; AE 633, 763)

What two dangers into which evil leads us and from which the Lord saves us, are suggested by fire and water in passages like these? “Lord, have mercy on my son: for he is lunatic, and sore vexed: and ofttimes he falleth into the fire, and oft into the water.” (Matt. xvii. 15) “When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee; when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.” (Isa. xliii. 2; AC 739; AE 504, 518)

7.2 Assignment

The Correspondence of water

Text: “The Language of Parable”, Chapter XXVIII

BUILDING YOUR UNDERSTANDING OF CORRESPONDENCES

In this Session you are asked to read the text, as above, right at the outset here. It is a compelling, masterly, overview of the correspondence of water.

i. What struck you most on reading this Chapter?

ii.What particular passage of Scripture referred to and its meaning, given, impressed you most?

iii.On pages 233 and 234 William Worcester gives the correspondence of snow. Reflect on this and identify at least one occasion when truth has been snow-like with you.

WORKING IN THE BIBLE

Read John Chapter 5, the verses 1 to 9. The water here, you notice, is described as a “pool”.

Now turn to 1 Samuel 17, verse 40, the water here being a brook, or running water.

i. By all means research it, but what do you think a (still) pool of water corresponds to? And what do you see to be the correspondence of running water?

ii. Again, you are welcome to look it up, but what do you understand to be the spiritual meaning of the angel periodically stirring up the water (verse 4)?

Carefully read Ezekiel Chapter 47, the verses 1 to 12:

i. What does water flowing forth from under the threshold of the Temple toward the east correspond to?

iii.What is the correspondence of water reaching deeper levels at 1000 cubit intervals?

iv. What is the correspondence of the aliveness, fertility and fruitfulness of everything “wherever the river goes”?

Read Genesis 7: verses 1 to 12; Exodus 14: verses 21 to 23; Psalm 69: verses 1 & 2; and Matthew 7: verses 24 to 29.

What do you understand the waters in each of these places to correspond to? Give 5 examples.

Water has many forms. Try to give what you think the spiritual correspondence might be for each of the following :

• Water flows
• Water surges
• Water agitates
• Water swirls
• Water stagnates

Video 6

• Divine Consciousness

8. The Holy Land

8.1 Reading

If I speak of our journeying to the heavenly Canaan, every one understands me to mean our progress towards a spiritual, heavenly state of life; for we all accept the Holy Land as a type of that life. (AR 285; AC 1413, 1585, 3686, 4447) We have already seen how the idea of heavenly life became associated with the land of Canaan. It was the home of heavenly people of the Golden and Silver Ages.

Even the physical features of the land were formed to be representative of spiritual states, and were so understood by the wise people of those innocent ages, and by the angels. Palestine afterwards became the home of the children of Israel; for their story was to be a grand parable of spiritual life, and it was necessary that every name of mountain, or river, or town, which entered into that story should be full of heavenly meaning. This also was a reason why the land became the Lord’s own home, that all names in the Gospels might be representative of heavenly things. (AC 5136, 6516, 10559)

The holiness of the land centers about one place, Jerusalem; the place which the Lord chose out of all the tribes, to put His name there; the place where the temple was built and towards which all the people looked in prayer. Jerusalem with the stronghold of Zion, and the temple, and the Mount of Olives standing guard above it, represents a state of peculiar nearness to the Lord. (AC 2534 end) “They that trust in the LORD shall be as Mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abideth forever. As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the LORD is round about his people from henceforth even forever.” (Ps. cxxv. 1, 2; AE 405, 449, 629; AC 1585)

The Bible often speaks of going up to Jerusalem and going down from Jerusalem. The words remind us that Jerusalem is one of the mountain towns upon the crest of land which forms the central mass of Palestine; but is there some deeper reason of this phrase,“going up to Jerusalem”? (AC 3084 4539)

From Jerusalem the ground slopes westward to the sea-shore plain of Philistia, and eastward breaks abruptly down into the deep valley of the Jordan, sunk far below the level of the sea. Should we expect to find that these low-lying districts bordering the sea and river represent states of life as interior as Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives?

We read, “A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves.” (Luke x. 30). We go down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when we turn from a Sunday state to a week-day state; from an interior state of worship, to practice what we have learned in external, natural affairs. Do we not fall among thieves, who make us forget the truths we have learned and nearly destroy our spiritual life? (AE 458, 444, 584)

In this plain of Jordan, at the very lowest point in the land, the children of Israel entered when they came from Egypt, and from that low level climbed up into the hills which were to be their home. (Josh. iii. 16) It shows that our conquest must begin by making right the external things which are within our reach; these open the way to more interior victories. (AE 700; AC 1585, 9325) In this same region John the Baptist called the people to reform their outward life in preparation for the Lord who should lead them into interior things of heaven. (Matt. iii; TCR 677; AC 4255)

The sea-coast of Palestine was occupied by the Phoenicians whose home was Tyre and Sidon, and the Philistines who were a branch of the same people. The Phoenicians were sailors and traders. They brought home treasures from distant countries, and they served a good use in extending learning and other influences of civilization. (Ezek. xxvii) Here is another low-lying region on the extreme border of Canaan, one which was never really conquered. Must it represent an interior state of life, or an external one, in contact with the world? Do the situation on the sea-shore and the seafaring tastes of the people tell us anything of the state which the district represents? These are indications of a natural state, content with natural, worldly life, devoted especially to matters of natural knowledge.

The activity of the Phoenicians as traders is representative of an active interest in becoming acquainted with people of all states, loving both to gather in and to impart all kinds of knowledge of life. Egypt represents the memory of knowledge; Assyria, the rational arrangement of knowledge; Phoenicia, the delight in acquiring and imparting knowledge. (AC 1201, 9340; AE 275, 576)

We read of Tyre: “Behold thou art wiser than Daniel; there is no secret that they can hide from thee; with thy wisdom and with thine understanding thou hast gotten thee riches, and hast gotten gold and silver into thy treasures; by thy great wisdom and by thy traffick hast thou increased thy riches.” (Ezek. xxviii. 3-5; AC 2967; AR 759; AE 236, 840) We think of this faculty of gathering knowledge in its right place as a servant of the spiritual life, when we read of the friendly treatment of Abraham by the Philistines (Gen. xx.; AC 9340, 2504), and of Hiram’s help to Solomon, in bringing treasure from distant countries, and in furnishing stones and cedars for the temple of the Lord. (1 Kings v., ix. 26-28; AE 514)

But Tyre and Sidon afterward used their gains to enrich the temples of their idols, and the Philistines were among the most persistent enemies. of the Israelites. This reminds us how easily we are made proud by learning, and forget to value it only as a help in good life. Read on in the passage from Ezekiel which we were quoting. “By thy great wisdom and by thy traffick hast thou increased thy riches, and thine heart is lifted up because of thy riches” (Ezek. xxviii. 5), and much more in the same chapter. This self-confident intellectual power opposing the spiritual life and defying the Lord, is typified by Goliath. (I Sam. xvii.; AE 242, 817; AC 2967)

We have looked from Jerusalem to the eastern and western borders of the Holy Land. We must think a little about the heart of the land and its divisions. Take a map which shows you the allotment of the land to the tribes, and consider the tribes in the order of the birth of Jacob’s sons. (Gen. xxix. 32, to xxx. 24, xxxv. I6-I8) The twelve sons, considered in the order of their birth, represent the successive developments of heavenly life. (AC 3860-3862, 3939; AE 431; AR 349) First come childlike states, then states of maturer strength, and last of all the truly spiritual states. The first group of sons are Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah. These represent the childlike steps in regeneration; Reuben (which relates to sight), the first understanding of heavenly things; Simeon (hearing), obedience; Levi (adhering), love; Judah (confession), loving service of the Lord. All these of a simple, childlike kind. (AC 7231, 3875-3881; AE 434)

The map shows you the allotments of Simeon and Judah together in the southern part of the land, with Reuben by their side, just across the border. Reuben’s place outside suggests that the knowledge of heavenly things, which Reuben represents, is not in itself heavenly, but is introductory to obedience and loving service which are heavenly. In the lot of Reuben is Mount Nebo, from which Moses saw the promised land, but was told, “I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not go over thither.” (Deut. xxxiv. 1-4) Remember that the tribes were permitted to dwell beyond Jordan only on condition that they would first help their brethren to gain possession of their inheritance. (Num. xxxii. 20-23; Josh. xxii. 1-6).

The more natural states which they represent are good only as they take a secondary place, helpful to the spiritual life. (AE 440; AC 4117) What part of the land seems to have relation to innocent states of childlike affection? The southern part, where Simeon and Judah found their homes. You do not find an allotment marked with the name of Levi, for the Levites were scattered as priests through all the tribes (Josh. xxi); a suggestion that innocent love from the first heavenly states endures through all which follow, serving as a bond of union between them and the Lord. (AE 444)

After the first group of sons which represent the first, childlike steps in heavenly life, follow others which represent maturer states - states of rational development, of conflict, of victory, of joyful usefulness. There is Dan (the judge), a knowledge of the letter of the law. You find this tribe’s final home in the extreme north of the land. Naphtali (strife), is next in order, suggesting states of spiritual strife, temptation. Then Gad (a troop), suggesting the youthful sense of power in our first labors; a self-confident and not very humble sense, as is suggested by the allotment to Gad beyond the border of the land.

Next come Asher (happiness), and Issachar (reward); and as you trace the allotment of the tribes on the map you notice that Issachar received the rich plain of Esdraelon, the garden of the land. Then Zebulon (union), which suggests fullness of character resulting from the union of truth with good in faithful life. All these tribes which represent the maturer rational states of life have their homes together in the north. We must associate this part of the land with these states, as we associated the southern part with the innocent, childlike affection. (AC 3920-3961, 3971; AE 432-450; AR 349-359)

Two more sons remain, Joseph and Benjamin, the sons of Jacob’s old age and his favorite children. They represent the truly spiritual state which is last attained-Joseph the love for the Lord which makes that state wise, and Benjamin the wisdom which gives that love expression. (AC 3969, 5469; AE 448, 449; AR 360, 361).

We look on the map to find the homes of these tribes. Joseph is represented by his two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, the latter with a double inheritance on both sides of Jordan. Ephraim and Manasseh represent the two elements of practical intelligence and practical goodness, to which spiritual love for the Lord gives rise as it descends into life. (AC 6275, 6295) Manasseh on both sides of the river suggests that external goodness is pleasing to the Lord when it comes from a spiritual origin and is the companion of goodness within. (AE 440) But notice where the lots of Joseph and Benjamin fall.

They fill the space between the northern group and the southern, till Benjamin comes back to the very border of Judah. Does it not remind us how a regenerating life after its strife and victory returns again to the innocent love of childhood, now made wise by experience? (AC 5411, 4585, 4592; AE 449)

And here in the lot of Benjamin, which means the wisdom and expression of spiritual love, is Jerusalem, where from the assembled people the united voice of prayer and praise ascended to the Lord. But as this state is not reached except through conflict, so Jerusalem did not become the center of government and worship till the victories of David were won. (AC 4592, 2909; AE 449; AR 361.)

Now, with the map still before you, let me ask two questions. After the days of Solomon the land was divided into two kingdoms, Israel and Judah. If we draw a line across the map just above Jerusalem, we have Israel to the north and Judah to the south. Remembering the spiritual states associated with the different parts of the land, what spiritual separation does this division of the kingdoms seem to represent?

On the one side are the states of innocent childlike affection, together with that wise innocence which has become again as a little child; on the other side are the maturer states of rational power, of conflict and victory, and finally, practical intelligence and goodness from a spiritual origin. The line across the map perhaps suggests disagreement between childhood’s innocence and the life of mature years. It suggests also the distinctness and the frequent conflict between the faculties of love and understanding in ourselves. In a broad sense the two kingdoms Israel and Judah represent the spiritual and celestial kingdoms of heaven. (AC 4292, 4750; AE 433; AR 96.)

Still with the map before you, recall the places where the Lord made His earthly home. Where was the Lord born? “In Bethlehem of Judaea.” (Matt. ii. 5, 6.) We have already learned to associate this part of the land with childhood’s innocent love. Does the place of the Lord’s birth tell us of the state in which He was born? (AC 4592, 4594; AE 449.) We have thought of the journey into Egypt, as teaching us that the Lord as a child must learn in external ways, especially from the letter of the Word. (Chapter 38) Afterward, for nearly thirty years, His home was Nazareth, in the tribe of Zebulon.

This tribe tells of the union of truth with good in, life. Does not the Lord’s home in Nazareth through these quiet years, tell us that He was faithfully living the commandments and in so doing was bringing down into the world the Divine love of good? “By Zebulon in the highest sense is signified the union of the Divine itself and the Divine Humanity in the Lord.” (AE 447; AR 359.) “And leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the sea coast, in the borders of Zebulon and Nephthalim.” (Matt. iv. 13, 14.) The coming down from the retired mountain home to the busy seashore, fitly expresses the change from silent, interior labor to outward manifestation of Divine power in miracles and in teaching.

And what are we told about the states through which the Lord now was passing, by the fact that He made His home “in the borders of Zebulon and Nephthalim”? Naphtali means the strife by which evil was subdued, and Zebulon represents the heavenly marriage which was thus completed. (AE 439, 447; AR 354, 359) “And it came to pass. when the time was come that he should be received up, he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem.” (Luke ix. 51) We traced the circle of regeneration in a finite life, from childlike affection, through temptation and victory to the wisdom of spiritual love. So the Lord passed from the Divine innocence of Bethlehem, through the temptations and victories of Galilee to the glorification at Jerusalem, when His Humanity became the perfect revelation of Divine love. (AC 2534, 1585, 3084; AE 449)

8.2 Assignment 8

Text: “The Language of Parable” Chapter XXXIX

Access a bible Atlas and spend maybe 45 minutes just taking in various maps, features of the land, place names, surrounding nations, etc.

In particular, look up the following 3 maps:

1. The division of the land of Canaan amongst the 12 tribes of ancient Israel (Reuben, Simeon, Levi, etc.)

2. A map showing the division of the land into 2 kingdoms following the death of King Solomon and the revolt of the 10 northern tribes leading to the establishment of not 1 but henceforth 2 kingdoms.

3. The Holy Land as in the time of our Lord.

As you are looking at 3, the Holy Land in the time of our Lord, make sure

• You are familiar with the areas of Galilee, Samaria, Judah, Idumea and Decapolis

• Find the following: Tyre, Sidon, Caesarea Philippi, Capernaum,Bethsaida, Gergesa, Cana, Nazareth, Nain, Sychar, Arimethea, Jericho, Bethany, Jerusalem and Bethlehem.

• Research and find out what the Lord did at:

1. Nain
2. Cana
3. Sychar

Do you know how big a drop or descent it was from Jerusalem to Jericho? Find out if you don’t.

• So what spiritually, or in terms of correspondences, was involved in the story of the man who journeyed from Jerusalem to Jericho? (Luke 10:30)
• Conversely, and having in mind the Lord’s last journey to Jerusalem was via Jericho (see Luke 19:1), what do you understand to be the spiritual meaning here?

ALLOCATION OF OLD TESTAMENT TRIBAL BOUNDARIES

• Why do you think Jerusalem, the seat of government and the focus for the presence of the Lord with the people should have been located in Judah’s territory?

• What is the rationale, spiritually, for the tribe of Reuben being given its territory outside of the Holy Land proper?

Working With Correspondences

In relation to the principal locations in the Lord’s life, give your own summary of the spiritual meaning of Him having been born in Bethlehem, growing up in Nazareth and achieving His final victory of the over of evil from hell at Jerusalem.

8.3 Journal Work

The Lord healed a blind man at Bethsaida (see Mark 8: 22-26). The word “Bethsaida” means ‘place of nets’. In modern terminology you could say that it carries the idea, spiritually, of a mind set (ideas, even prejudices, closely woven together).

Reflect for a few minutes on a mind set you have (about yourself, people’s attitudes to your life generally, refugees, politicians, capitalism Muslims, or whatever) from which you need to be led out of and healed from; your blindness on that issue cured. What is it?

Video 7

• Divine Consciousness

9. Garments

9.1 Reading

“A wolf in sheep’s clothing.” He is a cruel, selfish person disguised by kind and gentle words and manners such as are the true expression of innocent affection. (Chapter 12) The affection is the man, and that which expresses the affection truly (or disguises it, if one is a hypocrite) is the clothing. Words and manners are a part of this clothing; but in a broad sense it includes the whole department of intelligence which forms the affection into words and actions. This all is as a garment clothing the affection. Sometimes it clothes the affection becomingly, and sometimes, influenced by fashion, presents it in conventional and formal guise. (AC 1073, 9212; AE 195; AR 166)

Does natural clothing serve another use? It protects us from hurt, especially from cold. Does the intelligence which shows the fitting ways of expressing our affections serve such a use? Think how it is with little children; do they clothe their affections elaborately, or do their feelings come forth in nakedness, exposed sometimes to hurt and ridicule? We protect their tender affections from hurt, when we teach the children appropriate and useful ways of expressing them in words and actions. And so with us all, especially when we go out from the shelter of home, we need to know the wise ways of expressing our good and kind affections, or they will be hurt by the hardness and chilled by the coldness of the world. As wool, the clothing of sheep, protects our bodies from cold, so kind and gentle words and acts and manners keep warm our innocent affections.

Little children are naked in their innocence and are clothed as their intelligence develops and they learn to express their affection in fitting ways and perhaps to disguise feelings which are not good; and so it was with the race in its childhood in Eden. (Gen. ii. 25, iii. 7, 21; AC 165, 216, 292-295, 9960)

This is a good place to think of garments in the spiritual world. Should we expect to find pure and beautiful garments among angels or evil spirits? Should we expect to learn that the loving celestial angels or the intelligent spiritual angels are more elaborately and magnificently clothed? Be careful how you answer.

The elaborate clothing belongs to the intellectual character, while the celestial angels, who impart immediately their pure affection, like little children are simply clothed, and those of the inmost heaven in their perfect innocence appear naked. We are prepared to learn further that the flaming brightness, or the shining light, or the simple whiteness of angels’ garments is expressive of the degree of their intelligence. Garments of various lovely colors express the qualities of intelligence; heavenly garments also are changed in accord with changing states of intelligence. (HH 177, 182; AE 395, 828; AC 10536)

Do you remember places where the Bible tells us of angels and angels’ garments? As the women stood sad and perplexed at the sepulcher of the Lord, “Behold two men stood by them in shining garments; … and they said, … He is not here, but he is risen.” (Luke xxiv. 4-6) The shining garments are emblems of the angels’ bright thoughts and of the message of truth they brought. (AR 166; AE 195, 196).

In the Revelation, John saw a great multitude clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands.” And he was told, “These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” (Rev. vii. 9-14) The Lamb is the Lord; the blood is the current of His Divine thought; our robes are washed in it when by His truth we become intelligent and our speech and conduct are made right and true. (AE 457, 475, 476; AR 378, 379) So in another chapter: “Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy. He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment.” (Rev. iii. 4, 5) The church in Sardis stands for those who are in dead expressions and forms of worship and charity, these garments being with most of them defiled by evil life.

Those who have not so defiled the outward forms of goodness, will enjoy in heaven a life whose outward expressions are genuinely pure and living. (AR 154, 166, 167; AE 182, 195, 196; HH 180) And again: “The marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.” (Rev. xix. 7, 8) The bride is the Lord’s church, which appeared also as the New Jerusalem. The promise is that the church shall be instructed in genuine truths from the Lord’s Word, which shall lead to genuine righteousness or goodness of life. (AR 814, 815; AE 1222, 1223; AC 5319) In a parable the Lord likened the kingdom of heaven to a marriage feast. “And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment: and he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless. Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness.” (Matt. xxii. 11-13).

What we have learned of the garments of heaven shows us that the man without a wedding garment means those who have claimed heaven by mere outward pretence of goodness; and when this is lost, as it soon is after death, they find themselves without spiritual intelligence or any appearance of goodness; that they are bound hand and foot and are cast into outer darkness means that they are powerless to do heavenly deeds or to see in heavenly light. (AE 195; HH 48; AC 2132)

Remember the rich garments made for Aaron according to Divine instructions. They were among the sacred things of the Jewish worship which were all representative of spiritual life. “And these are the garments which they shall make; a breastplate, and an ephod, and a robe, and a broidered coat, a mitre, and a girdle: and they shall make holy garments for Aaron thy brother, and his sons, that he may minister unto me in the priest’s office.” (Exod. xxviii) Aaron as the priest, was the representative of the Lord in His Divine goodness.

The precious garments are representative of all the lovely forms of Divine truth in which the Lord’s love is clothed to men. (AC 9805-9966; AE 195 end, 717) Put with this the familiar words of the Psalm: “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron’s beard: that went down to the skirts of his garments.” (Ps. cxxxiii. 1, 2) So the oil of the Lord’s Divine kindness descends from His inmost love into the most external forms of truth in which His love speaks to us. And so the oil of kindness from Him in our inmost heart descends into our thought and speech and conduct. (AC 9806; AE 375; PP)

Now let us think of other passages about garments, as they come to mind, reserving till the last those which speak of the Lord’s own garments. “There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day.” (Luke xvi. 19) The rich man in the parable is the Jewish Church, and the garments of purple and fine linen are the abundant knowledges of good and truth which the Jews had from the Word, which gave them the appearance of possessing “the righteousness of saints.” (AC 9467; AE 118, 717, 1143; TCR 215) Again, the Lord said of the scribes and Pharisees, “But all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments.” (Matt. xxiii. 5) “These things the scribes and Pharisees literally did, but still, by their doing so, was represented and signified that they spoke many things from the ultimates of the Word, and applied them to life, and to their traditions, in order that they might appear holy and learned.” The phylacteries on the head and hands suggest outward display of goodness.

“To enlarge the borders of robes denotes to speak truths magnificently, only to be heard and seen by men.” (AE 395; AC 9825) “No man putteth a piece of new cloth unto an old garment, for that which is put in to fill it up taketh from the garment, and the rent is made worse.” (Matt. ix. 16) The Lord compared the new spiritual truths which He was teaching, and the manner of life which they required, with the external truths and representative rites of the Jewish Church. The new were not in agreement with the old - as in the avoidance of sinners, the observance of the Sabbath and of fasts. (AE 195) Remember the Lord’s charge to clothe the naked: “Is not this the fast that I have chosen? … Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him? ” (Isa. lviii. 6, 7) We clothe the naked when we teach those who desire instruction the useful and becoming ways of expressing good affections, and repressing evil ones. (AE 295, 240; AC 5433)

We read in the Gospel, of our Lord’s birth on earth: “And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger: because there was no room for them in the inn.” (Luke ii. 7) This was also a sign to the shepherds, by which they should know the Lord. (Ver. 12) The whole account shows the great mercy of the Lord in coming in such a humble way that men could receive and know Him. The swaddling clothes represent the first, simple forms of natural truth in which He clothed His love and began to make it known to men. (AE 706) Years after, a poor woman “when she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind and touched his garment. For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole.” (Mark V. 27, 28) “And whithersoever he entered, into villages, or cities, or country, they laid the sick in the streets, and besought him that they might touch if it were but the border of his garment: and as many as touched him were made whole.” (Mark vi. 56) The Lord’s garments are the Divine truths in which He clothes His love and makes it comprehensible to us. What is the garment’s hem, which is its lowest, outmost border, and at the same time that which gives it fixity and permanence? It is the literal precepts of the Lord’s Word. And in these is healing power. Though we may not be wise in its spirit, in temptation when we feel our weakness, we must hold to the ten commandments and other simple, literal Divine words.

We touch the garment’s hem, and we feel in ourselves that we are healed. The Lord too feels that His healing power is received. (AE 195; AC 10023) When we remember the blessing imparted by the Lord’s garments, and especially when we know that they represent the Lord’s Word with its saving power, it is more than ever sad to read: “Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments, and made four parts, to every soldier a part; and also his coat: now the coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout. They said therefore among themselves, Let us not rend it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be: that the scripture might be fulfilled, which saith, They parted my raiment among them, and for my vesture did they cast lots. These things therefore the soldiers did.” (John xix. 23, 24).

The Lord’s garments here as elsewhere represent the truth in which He clothes His love to us. The soldiers rending His garments are a picture of the church at that day and many times since, rending the Lord’s Word in her disputes, till its truth is destroyed. But the coat, or inner garment, woven without seam, represents the inner, spiritual truth of the Word, which is one connected Chapter of life throughout. It is safe from harm from those who rend the letter. (AC 4677, 9093, 9942; AE 64, 195)

When the three disciples in the mountain saw the Lord transfigured, “His face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light.” (Matt. xvii. 2) “His raiment became shining, exceeding white as snow; so as no fuller on earth can white them.” (Mark ix. 3) The disciples’ eyes were opened to see something of the glory in which the Lord appears to angels. What Divine quality was expressed by His face shining as the sun? The Lord’s Divine love. And what was represented by His shining garments? The Divine truth which reveals Him to angels and men, filling their minds with brightness, and shining even outwardly to the eyes of angels. (AC 5319, 9212; AE 412; HH 129) As we learn to know the Lord’s presence clothed in the truths of His Word, and to value the power and light which they impart to our souls, we can join with angels in the song: “Bless the Lord, O my soul. O Lord, my God, thou art very great; thou art clothed with honor and majesty. Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment.” (Ps. civ. 1, 2; AC 9433, 9595; AE 283)

9.2 Assignment

Text: “The Language of Parable” Chapter XLII

WORKING IN THE BIBLE

Open your Bible and check the following references to clothes or sandals. What is happening or what is the clothing mentioned?

• Genesis 3:7
• Genesis 9:23
• Genesis 37:3
• Genesis 39:12
• Exodus 3:5
• Exodus 28
• 1 Samuel 2:19
• 1 Samuel 17:38, 39
• 1 Samuel 18:3-4
• 2 Kings 2:8
• Psalm 133
• Isaiah 37:1
• Matthew 22:11-13
• Mark 5:27, 28
• Mark 6:9
• Mark 10:50
• Mark 14: 51-52
• Luke 2:7
• Luke 16:19
• Luke 24: 4 to 6
• John 19: 23-24
• Revelation 7:13-14
• Revelation 19:7, 8

Are there any other places in the Bible you know of where garments are mentioned?

What about sandals?

BUILDING YOUR UNDERSTANDING OF CORRESPONDENCES

You should expect to spend 20 minutes or so reading and digesting (perhaps, also jotting down notes from) “The Language of Parable”, Chapter XLII.

1. Summarize what the correspondence of garments or clothing is. (In this regard, check out Arcana Caelestia 9212:2)
2. What is the correspondence of the man not wearing the appropriate garment at the wedding feast (Matthew 22:11-13)?
3. If we are to enter the marriage covenant with the Lord how, spiritually, are we to be clothed (Revelation 19:7,8)?

Describe what you understand the swaddling cloths with which the new-born Jesus was wrapped. to be within us i.e. their spiritual application.

Turn to Mark Chapter 10, verses 46 to 52, the healing of blind Bartimaeus.

Be brave and state what you believe to be the correspondence of Bartimaeus throwing aside his garment when he jumped up and ran to the Lord.

9.3 Journal Work

The Lord healed a blind man at Bethsaida (see Mark 8: 22-26). The word “Bethsaida” means ‘place of nets’. In modern terminology you could say that it carries the idea, spiritually, of a mind set (ideas, even prejudices, closely woven together).

Reflect for a few minutes on a mind set you have (about yourself, people’s attitudes to your life generally, refugees, politicians, capitalism Muslims, or whatever) from which you need to be led out of and healed from; your blindness on that issue cured. What is it?

10. The Temple

10.1 Reading

A house with its furnishings is an expression of the use which is done in it. Is there a special use expressed by a church with its kneeling cushions, its pulpit, its baptismal font, and communion table? Does not the church suggest worship with its humble prayer, its instruction, its repentance, and reception of strength from the Lord? Which, in the Lord’s sight, is the church, the material building, or the holy states of worship which it expresses and promotes? “Will God, indeed, dwell on the earth? Behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have builded?” (1 Kings viii. 2 7; AC 9457)

In the spiritual world every house and building much more fully and perfectly. expresses the use that is done in it, than buildings do on earth. Suppose there should be seen in that world an unlovely church, weakly built and vile. Would it not express worship from untrue thoughts and impure affections? (AR 926) And what could be meant by a magnificent temple, with walls of crystal and gates of pearl? Would it not mean a church full of light and resting secure on eternal truths? (TCR 508) We read of angels of the Golden Age, living in heaven in innocent love for the Lord and one another. With them was seen a sacred tent of worship, “without and within altogether according to the description of the tabernacle, which was built for the sons of Israel in the desert, the form whereof was shown to Moses upon Mount Sinai.” (CL 75) The heavenly tabernacle was an expression of the innocent worship of those angels. Was not the same represented by the buildings made on earth after the heavenly pattern?

The tabernacle of the desert, the temple afterwards built by Solomon at Jerusalem, and the still later temple of Herod, both on the same general plan as the tabernacle, were all representative of heavenly worship, including in a broad sense all holy states of life, which form a dwelling for the Lord, whether in an individual, or in the church, or in heaven. (Exod. xxv. 8, 9, 40; AC 9457, 9481, 9577; AE 799; AR 585)

What a holy interest attaches to the building of the tabernacle and temple, according to the plan revealed from heaven, when we see in it the history of the formation of holy states of worship! (Exod. xl. 34; 1 Kings viii. 10) What pathos there is in the lament: “Our holy and beautiful house, where our fathers praised thee, is burned up with fire”! (Isa. lxiv. 11) It tells of the loss of the innocent states of worship of the Lord enjoyed by the people of ancient days. (PP; AE 504; AC 6075) And the Lord’s sad words: “Seest thou these great buildings? there shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down!” (Mark xiii. 2; AR 191; AE 220) Was not the prophecy even then almost fulfilled spiritually in the Jewish Church?

Already, in other Chapters, we have learned the meaning of some of the materials of which the sacred buildings were made. The shittim-wood, and the gold and silver and copper of the tabernacle; the gold and copper, the olive, cedar, and fir of the temple, and the stones made ready before they were brought thither. Let us also notice in general the plan of the buildings and its meaning.

There was an inmost chamber, the most holy place within the dividing veil, where in the tabernacle and in Solomon’s temple the ark with the commandments stood, covered by the golden lid, the mercy-seat, with its protecting cherubim. The most holy chamber was rarely entered, but from between the cherubim of the mercy-seat came the Divine voice of answer to Moses or the priest standing by the altar of incense without the veil. Here was a larger chamber, the holy place. The golden altar of incense stood before the veil; on the north was the table of show-bread, and on the south was the branching lamp shining with the flame of its beaten olive oil. About the building was a court, in Solomon’s temple a double court, where stood the altar of burnt-offering with its perpetual fire, and the brazen laver.

The plan is three-fold: an inmost chamber, most holy with the immediate Divine presence, a second chamber bright with cheerful light, and an open court. Is the temple of a heavenly life correspondingly three-fold? We answer by a quotation.

“The inmost, most holy place - where the Ark of the Covenant dwells, and the golden cherubim, and the voice of the Lord - is in an individual his inmost consciousness, where if he were in the order of heaven the law of God would be written in his heart. There would be the springs of his life from the Lord, rising in the golden forms of love to the Lord and love to the neighbor; and from thence would be heard the voice of conscience, or better, of perception of agreement or disagreement with the love of the Lord in the heart, by which the spiritual life might be instructed and guided.

“The region of the mind without the veil, distinct from this inmost chamber, is the domain of thought, reason, and determination. The golden lamps here, burning always with the warm light of pure oil of olives, are in an orderly mind the light of love in which the mind looks upon human life - seeing its possibilities of good, putting kindly interpretation upon its weaknesses and failures, but seeing clearly and separating every evil. The table of show-bread, or Presence-bread, as it is called - meaning the bread of the Lord’s Presence - is the good-will and determination to do good which comes from a sense of the Lord’s love in the heart. And the altar burning with sweet incense is the prayer and praise that ascend from the heart and mind to the Giver of heavenly life.

“The court of this spiritual tabernacle is the domain of practical life. The altar of burnt-offering there is the desire for the love of the Lord in the life; and the laver is purification from worldly thoughts and feelings.” (Lectures on Genesis and Exodus, John Worcester, pp. 175, 176; AC 9455-10249) The offerings upon the altar we have seen are innocent, useful affections which receive a new and holier life by consecration to the Lord. (Chapters 12. and 13) The plan of the sacred buildings in all detail is descriptive of an individual life which is in true order. Does it also reveal to us something of the divisions and the arrangement of heaven? There is an inmost, celestial heaven where the Lord’s laws are written on angels’ hearts, and appear in forms of love for the Lord and for one another. This is the most holy place. There is a middle, spiritual heaven, where the clear light of heavenly intelligence guides the angels in worship and in life. And there is a lower, natural heaven where less loving and less intelligent angels shun evil and do good in obedience to the Lord; and these lowest, most natural planes in heavenly life, are the courts of the Lord’s tabernacle and temple. (HH 29-40; AC 9594; AE 630; AR 487) “How amiable are thy tabernacles, O LORD of hosts! My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the LORD… . Blessed are they that dwell in thy house… . For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.” (Ps. lxxxiv.; AC 9549, 9741; AR 487; AE 630) And again “The righteous shall flourish like the palm-tree; he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Those that be planted in the house of the LORD shall flourish in the courts of our God.” (Ps. xcii. 12, 13; AE 458, 630; AR 487)

The meaning of the tabernacle and temple is so nearly the same that we have considered them together, but there is a difference between them which it is interesting to notice and remember. The tabernacle is associated with primitive tent life, the temple with city life. This suggests that the tabernacle represents relatively simple, childlike states; and the temple, states of greater intellectual development. The tabernacle was built of wood with curtains of linen covered with goat’s-hair and skins, while the temple’s walls were of cedar and stone. It is the difference between the knowledge of a child’s intelligence and experience, and truth rationally seen, tested, and confirmed. The tabernacle was moved from place to place, where the presence of the Lord led; the temple stood on its foundation rock. The states represented by the one keep near to the Lord in love, those represented by the other rest on His unchanging truth. The tabernacle therefore becomes a type especially of states of innocent love for the Lord; and the temple, of states of heavenly intelligence; the tabernacle represents the celestial element in the church and heaven; the temple, the spiritual element. (AC 3720; AE 1291; AR 585, 882; TCR 221) We have read of the sacred tent, “altogether according to the description of the tabernacle,” seen among loving angels of the Golden Age (CL 75); while with the wise angels of the Silver Age were seen “temples of a precious stone of the color of sapphire and lapis lazuli.” (CL 76) We are taught elsewhere that the temples appear as of wood in the celestial kingdom, and are without magnificence, but in the spiritual kingdom they appear as of stone, and of greater or less magnificence. (HH 223) This further illustrates the different shades of meaning of the tabernacle and the temple. While both represent a heavenly mind, the church, heaven, the tabernacle makes prominent in each case the element of love, and the temple the element of wisdom. “I will abide in thy tabernacle forever; I will trust in the covert of thy wings” (Ps. lxi. 4) , is an expression of security in the protecting power of goodness and truth from the Lord. “One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to inquire in his temple. For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock.” (Ps. xxvii. 4, 5) To be hid in the secret of His tabernacle, is to be kept in good and protected from evil; and to inquire in His temple, is to learn heavenly truths. (AE 799; AC 414)

The holy states of affection, thought, and life which the tabernacle and temple represent have been perfectly realized, not in any man, nor in the church, nor even in heaven, but only in the Divine human life of our Lord; in their supreme sense the tabernacle and temple represent the Lord’s Divine Humanity; the tabernacle especially His Divine love, and the temple His Divine wisdom. (AE 629, 1291; AR 585; AC 414, 3207) The Lord Himself said to the Jews, “In this place is one greater than the temple.” (Matt. xii. 6) Greater, because He was what the temple only represented. (TCR 301) Again: “Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days? But he spake of the temple of his body. When, therefore, he was risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this unto them.” (John ii. 19-22; AE 220; AR 191; TCR 221)

Do you now see new meaning in the familiar words: “The LORD is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him “? (Hab. ii. 20) They are an acknowledgement of the Lord’s presence in His Divine Humanity. (PP; AE 220) Remember how the Lord at twelve years old tarried in the temple, and said, “Wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?” (Luke ii. 46, 49) His action and His words both show that He was advancing into the heavenly and Divine states which the temple represented. (AE 430) Again: “Jesus went up to Jerusalem, and found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting; and when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers’ money, and overthrew the tables; and said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my Father’s house an house of merchandise; and his disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.” (John ii. 13-17) This and another like cleansing of the temple (Matt. xxi. 12, 13) are object Chapters, showing us that the Lord was cleansing His human nature from all selfish desire to make gain of holy things, and that we must do the same if we would become in our degree temples of the Lord. (AE 220, 325, 840)

“Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God Himself shall be with them, their God.” (Rev. xxi. 3) The words declare the full presence of the Lord in His Divine Humanity. (AE 1291; AR 882) The holy city was shown to John, and he “saw no temple therein; for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.” (Rev. xxi. 22; AE 1327; AR 918)

10.2 Assignment

Text: “The Language of Parable” Chapter XIL, (pages 362 and following)

As well, familiarize yourself with the lay out and floor plan of the Temple.

Set aside sufficient time to carefully read 1 Kings Chapter 6. It will help if you have a diagram of the Temple close by you as you do so.

1. Does the fact that so much was overlaid with gold bring to mind/suggest a spiritual meaning?
2. And what do you make of it, so far as the spiritual sense is concerned, of it being said at the end of the Chapter, “So he was seven years in building it.”

The Temple consisted of 3 main areas. What were these and what does each correspond to in an individual person?

1 Kings 6:7 reads, “And the temple, when it was being built, was built with stone finished at the quarry so that no hammer or chisel or any iron tool was heard in the temple, while it was being built.”

Research this verse in the Writings for the reason why, spiritually, it was so important that unhewn stones were used in the building of the temple.

Right at the heart of the temple, in the holy of holies, was the Ark of the Covenant containing the two tablets of stone on which were inscribed the Ten Commandments. What is the spiritual meaning of this?

Differentiate between the spiritual meaning of the tabernacle and the temple and note your sense of the differences.

10.3 Journal Work

Psalm 132 is attributed to David and is taken to be an expression of his longing to build the temple (which in fact fell to his son and successor, Solomon, to do).

Reflect on verses 4 and 5 and say, on a scale of 1 to 10, how ardent is your longing to build, within, a temple fit for the Lord to dwell in. Be honest and think through what this is saying to you. Comment on your level of desire, and what you see as some of the obstacles you face in this work.

10.4 Tabanancle Model