PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES
BY
“THE states
of spirits and angels, with all their varieties, can in no wise be understood
without a knowledge of the human body; for the Lord’s kingdom is like a man.”
(S.D. 1145 1/2.)
“That heaven as a whole is like
one man is an Arcanum not yet known in the world; but in heaven it is mostly
certainly known. To know that, and the
specific and particular things concerning it, is the chief of the intelligence
of the angels there; very many things also depend upon it, which without that
as their general principle do not enter distinctly and clearly into their
minds.” (H.H. 59.)
“The chief of
the intelligence which angels have is to know and perceive that all of life is
from the Lord, and that the whole heaven corresponds to His Divine Human, and
consequently that all angels spirits, and men correspond to heaven; also to
know and perceive how they correspond.
These are the chief things of the intelligence in which angels are above
men; things which are in the heavens, and hence also those which are in the
world.” (A.C. 4318.)
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The
correspondence of the whole heaven with the Divine Human, and of individual men
with the heavens, is the subject of these studies.
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To the lips is
assigned the three-fold duty of expressing the thoughts and feelings to the
sight by means of their motions and changes of form; or modifying and
articulating the voice, and thus communicating the activities of the mind to
the ear; and of receiving and drawing in the food by which the body is
nourished. To the last use we will
attend first, leaving the others till we have studied the correspondence of the
lungs and of the face.
The use of the lips in receiving food is most evident in infancy, during the period in which nourishment is obtained by sucking. Afterwards, in drinking, they have a similar duty through the whole of life. In these operations the lips apply themselves to the mother’s breast, or to the cup, and in conjunction with the cheeks, tongue, and fauces, by alternate expansions and contractions,
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draw out the
pliant food, and introduce it into the mouth.
Such food needs not mastication ; the function of the lips is merely to
draw it in and introduce it, and then it is received by the soft parts of the
mouth, and is quickly conducted to its destination. The lips have a similar use in laying hold of
and drawing into the mouth solid food that is presented to them, and in caring
for this they have the further duty, in cooperation with cheeks and tongue, of
pressing it between the teeth, and compelling it to submit to the grinding
process by which its interior parts are opened and separated.
It is, perhaps, worthy of mention also that on the inner surfaces of
the lips are little glands, which begin the process of moistening and
lubricating the food, to aid in digestion and in its passage to the
stomach. Undoubtedly there are also
absorbents, by which a small amount of the purest part of the food is taken at
once into the circulation of the body, and introduced into its life and uses.
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To see the correspondence of these uses of the lips, on a grand scale
and in perfection, we must think of the great community from which men derive
their humanity, and which, because it receives the Divine Influence immediately
and the greatest measure, Swedenborg calls the “
This Greatest Man is the heavens.
It includes all good men, recipients of good life from the Lord, who
have lived upon any of the earths in the starry universe from the beginning of
time. [Of these, “the inhabitants of
this world are very few comparatively, and almost as a drop of water in
comparison with the ocean.” (A. C.
3631.)]
Of this Greatest Man the Lord is the Life. It is formed to receive His life, and to live
from Him; and it is Man because He is
The nourishment of the heavens is of two kinds; they receive an
influence of love and wisdom, or
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of warmth and
light, immediately from the Lord; and they receive additions of new members
from the earths.
These two kinds of nourishment are comparatively like the inflow of
life from the soul into the human body, from which every particle of the body
draws its gift of human life, and the additions of new particles from the
food. Both kinds of nourishment are
necessary to useful activity. Continual
inflow of truth, and new opportunities of use are also necessary, to those
whose happiness is by their very constitution made to depend upon eternal
progress.
New things, necessary to the growth and happiness of the heavens, are
as food supplied from the earths. Like
food the comers from the earth must be received by the heavens, examined,
sorted, instructed, and trained to heavenly states, as by a kind of digestion,
before they can be assimilated; and this is the function of the world of
spirits.
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“The life of man,” Swedenborg says, “when he dies, and enters into the other life, is like food, which is received softly by the lips, and afterwards is passed through the mouth, fauces, and œsophagus into the stomach; and this according to the nature derived from his works during the life of the body. Most are treated gently at first, for they are kept in the company of angels and good spirits; which is represented in food that it is first softly touched by the tongue.
“The food which is soft, in which
is sweetness, [essential] oil, and spirit, is immediately received by the
veins, and borne into the circulation; but food which is hard, in which is
bitterness and foulness, and little nutritiveness, is more hardly treated, and
is cast down through the œsophagus into the stomach, where it is corrected by
various methods and tortures. What is
still harder, more foul, and worthless, is thrust into the intestines, and at
length into the rectum, where first is hell, and at last is cast out,
and becomes excrement.[1][1]
“Resembling this is the life of man after
death. First man is kept in externals;
and because he had lived a moral and civil life in externals, he is with angels
and good spirits. But afterwards
externals are taken away from him, and then it appears what
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he
was within as to thoughts and affections, and at length as to ends; according
to these his life remains.
“As long as they are in this
state, in which they are like food in the stomach, they are not in the Greatest
Man, but are being introduced; but when they are representatively in the blood,
then they are in the Greatest Man.”
(A. C. 5175,5176.)
The angels, then, who softly receive man
at his entrance into the spiritual world, who cooperate with the Lord in
drawing him out of the world and introducing him into the spiritual world,
are in the province of the lips. Perhaps
we see some effect of their presence even before the moment of death, in those
whose feelings and thoughts are strongly drawn towards the other world as the
time of death comes near; and especially in those for whom open vision of
spiritual things, more or less distinct, produces an anticipation of the
peaceful gladness which we commonly see represented in the face after the
natural life ceases.
Swedenborg says that celestial angels, who belong to the kingdom of
the heart, come to per-
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son at the
time of death, and take charge of his affections and thoughts; and that at
their approach an aromatic odor is perceived, and then all spirits leave
the person exclusively to their care.
(H. H. 449.)
The office of the lips and tongue, and of
those in the corresponding provinces of the heavens, is twofold: they are organs
of speech and organs for receiving food.
As organs of speech their use is spiritual, and as organs for receiving
food it is celestial. As Swedenborg
writes, —
“The tongue affords entrance to
the lungs and also to the stomach; thus it presents a sort of court-yard to
spiritual things and to celestial things; to spiritual things because it
ministers to the lungs and thence to speech, and to celestial
things because it ministers to the stomach, which supplies aliment to
the blood and the heart.”
(A. C. 4791.)[2][2]
It is noteworthy that the angels who first receive man at death do not
speak; but sit silently looking into his face, communicating their own
affection. They apply themselves to him
from
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love of
introducing him into the joys of heaven, and of adding new members to heavenly
societies. From this love they hold his
thought fixed upon the future life, and lead it by various happy things
into as full sympathy with their own thought as is possible. Then the Lord separates him
from the body and he awakes in the world of spirits.
After he is raised up, if the new spirit belongs to the very few who by
instruction in heavenly truth and by training in heavenly love and usefulness
are already prepared to enjoy the life of heaven, these angels receive him
among themselves, and by ways in their own societies, like
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the absorbing vessels of the lips,
and especially of the tongue, they introduce him at once into heaven, and lead
him on the way to his permanent home.
In this work the angels of the tongue and the
cheeks cooperate with those of the lips.
If the new spirits be interiorly open, gentle, and good, they are most
kindly treated by the angels of these provinces. Those of the tongue, especially,
delight to perceive the new varieties of goodness and truth which are introduced
from the world, and are eager to convey the pleasing intelligence of
their arrival, and if possible the spirits themselves, to the societies which
will be enriched by them; for the tongue abounds in porous papillæ, which erect
themselves on the approach of food, to touch it, and to feel its quality; and
if there be in it that which is spirituous and aromatic, to absorb it for the
immediate benefit of the brain and the whole system.[3][3]
“The angels love every one,
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and desire nothing more than to
perform kind offices to all, to give them instruction, and to take them into
heaven, in which consist their supreme delight.” (H. H. 450.)
The angels of all the societies desire to receive new members; and being
informed by the tongue of the advent of those who are suitable for their
respective societies they prepare to welcome them. Their eagerness and desire excite appetite
in all the intermediate receiving societies, and all combine to invite and
guide the new spirits to their destination.[4][4]
With such
soft welcomes are good, open-minded spirits received, and especially is such
kindly embrace extended by angels to those who leave this
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world in infancy and
childhood. No harsher treatment do they
need than to be separated from evil spirits, and taken up at once into heavenly
societies, to be made wise with the wisdom of angels.
The work of
reception which we have been describing is done in the province of the mouth of
the Greatest Man, in what Swedenborg calls “the first state of man after death”
(H. H. 491). And spirits who are
interiorly open, and whose thoughts and feelings appear frankly, undergo no
treatment less gentle than this. But
with the greater part even of good men, at the present day, the interiors have
never been consciously opened. They have
done good works, perhaps from good principles; but they have attended, as
others have, only to the appearances of their lives before men; which, like the
hulls and skins of various grains and fruits, must be broken up with some
force, that their real life, their purposes and intentions as well as their
outwards acts, may be disclosed. This
disclosure is necessary both for a fair judgment of the characters of the new
spirits, and as the first step
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towards the separation
of good from evil, either in the same or in associated persons.
The love of introducing good spirits into heaven, and the love of
perceiving the interior quality of new goodness and conveying a knowledge of it
to the heavens, urge, therefore, the opening of the whole life of the new
comers. We see an image of their
operation in the action of the tongue and lips upon the food, which they press
gently, subdivide, and examine, and bring into contact with all the soft
absorbing surfaces of the mouth. And if
in this examination hard morsels are discovered which do not open to gentle
pressure, these are quickly conducted between the teeth, by the pressure of
which they are broken up, and all their contents disclosed for examination; or,
if they cannot be broken, they are rejected as worthless. So the angels who are in the love of
receiving good spirits, and conducting them to heaven, presently lead those
spirits whose interiors are closely concealed by externals into the province of
other angels whose function is to open the interior memory of life.[5][5]
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These angels whose use is in some respects similar to that of the gates
of pearl, in conjunction with the angels of the tongue, guard the way to the
greater part of the world of spirits, and of heaven and hell. They know that all new comers are now to
be judged,¾not according to their professions, but their lives. They say to them, therefore, “None are
received here whose quality is not known; and the quality of every one is known
from his life; now, [how have you lived?
What good have you done?
What evil have you resisted? And
what evil have you done and what did you love to do and think?” Thus they open the whole memory of the
life. (H. H. 462)]
No doubt many other simple truths or facts concerning the other life
they hold and press home in the same way.
They are not in themselves sensitive, except to the resistance of
spirits to this opening. They deal
simply with matters of fact. They do
not judge of the quality of the things they discover; this is the duty of the
tongue. Their work is, as warders,
to compel those who approach
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to show their
true colors, to warn the tongue and lips if any are present who will not do so,
and lips if any are present who will not do so, and to assist in shutting out
such, and any others whose quality is too repugnant to the life of the Greatest
Man. We are told by the Scriptures that
some who are admitted will be spewed out of the mouth. No doubt some will be ejected with disgust as
soon as their quality is perceived. Perhaps these are the lukewarm, who
can be received neither in heaven nor in hell[6][6], but are beneath the hells, in a
state almost without life.[7][7]
(A. R. 204 ; A. E. 1158.)
There are some other particulars in regard to the action of the teeth
which should be considered before we leave them. The teeth hold the food, and bite it off; in
which they correspond to the truth that all men must die, and that the purpose
of their life is to be prepared for heaven, and to be added to the
heavens. Compared to the gentle drawing
of all the thoughts and affections towards heaven, inspired by the angels of
the lips, this is stern teaching ; but it is neces
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sary for those
who cling to the world, and are unwilling to die. It is such truth as we apply to men to
separate them from their worldly pursuits and attachments, and to turn them
towards heaven. The angels of the
incisors must influence us to do this.[8][8]
This is the duty of the twice four front teeth, which have no part in
the grinding of food, but only in the breaking off. The next four teeth, called “canine,” or “eye
teeth,” are, in man, much like the incisors, and join in their work ; adding,
perhaps, a special duty of holding the food and in the carnivora, of penetrating
and rending it.
Then came the bicuspids (2X4), whose use it is to break or cut up the food into small pieces, ready for grinding ; and then the molars
(2X4 + 4+4), which separate all the particles.
As the incisors correspond to the truth that all must die and enter the
spiritual world, the grinding teeth, in their several degrees, represent the
further truth that there all are judged according to their works; and
all therefore the lives
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of all must
there be opened and explored, to show their real quality. Such truth, also, we apply in [the world
to bring out the fitness or unfitness of men for various uses and positions
in society.][9][9]
The teeth are in two sets, the upper and the lower. The upper are fixed in the head; the lower,
exactly similar in number and character, are fitted into the moveable jaw, and
press, each one against its correlative above.
The upper teeth correspond to truth founded in the nature of the
world they guard; the lower to similar truth applied to the individual
cases presented. The upper say to
those who approach, “All men are created for life in the spiritual world ;
there are none in heaven who have not once lived upon the earth, and there
died.” The lower add, “You also are born
for the same end; you too must die.” The
upper say, “Here all are judged by their life, by what they have done and what
they have loved to do and to think.” The
lower continue in turn, “You, too, are to be judged according to your lives;
now, what have you done, and
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what have you loved to do and to think?” And thus they compel the opening of all
the particulars of the life.[10][10]
They also have a delicate tact for hypocrisies and concealments
; just as the natural teeth have for even the smallest hard particles which
come between them, and they feel just where the pressure is necessary.
Swedenborg speaks of the teeth as corresponding to the “sensuals of the
understanding” (A. R. 435), or to truth held merely naturally and
obediently, without interior understanding.
And the work of those who are in the teeth of the Greatest Man is not
the work of intelligence, or of interior perception ; it consists in strong compulsion, and is
performed by those who hold Divine Truth firmly and uncompromisingly, but
not intelligently. They who are in
tender states cannot do this work ; but leave it to those whose life it is to
insist upon submission to the rules.
They are simple, honest doorkeepers, who admit all who present
themselves for admission, on the one con-
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dition that
there shall be no concealment of who they are, or what they have done ; but
their lives shall be open for judgment.
Swedenborg often speaks of the disputes of the evil as sounding like
gnashing of teeth ; because they hold literal truths or falsities in the
memory, and clash them together in a kind of clamorous argumentation (H. H.
575). The teeth in the hells seem to be
related especially to the cruel, tearing teeth of the carnivora ; and their
purpose is to injure others, and to claim all things that can minister to self-love
and love of the world. The gnashing
of the teeth is the angry clashing of assertions of fact, or of literal
statements, by which they urge such claims against one another and against the
Lord and the heavens.
Of some who cause pain in the teeth,[11][11] he says, “Hypocrites who have spoken
holily of Divine things, with affection of love concerning the public and the
neighbor, and testified what is just and right, and still have despised these
things in their heart, and also laughed at them, when it
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was allowed them
to flow into the parts of the body to which they corresponded from the
opposite, produced pains in the teeth, and on their near presence so
severe that I could not bear it” (A. C. 5720).
Which appears to have been because the truths which they held in the
memory and produced from the memory were like teeth, and their interior
contempt for them was like death to the life and support of the teeth.
Again he says that “ those who have been rich in the life of the body,
and have dwelt in magnificent palaces, placing their heaven in such things, and
have despoiled others of their goods under various pretences, without
conscience or charity, . . . exhaled a sphere of fetor of teeth” (A. C.
1631). Which, apparently, was because
with them a life of pleasures was substituted for a truly heavenly life, and
the principles which insist upon interior exploration of those pleasures before
they are received into the life were neglected and allowed to become foul and
to decay.
A similar consequence follows from the habit of
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thinking over
things that seem pleasant, in an indolent fashion, like food retained in the
mouth, and rolled with the tongue, without regard to its rightness or
usefulness ; from which our principles decay, as the teeth do when not kept
clean and bright.
The pains and dangers which children pass [through in cutting their
teeth, correspond to the natural reluctance and difficulty in forming
principles by which apparently pleasant things are thoroughly examined, and the
evil resolutely rejected.][12][12]
A child’s first principles are scarcely more than his parent’s words, held
without thought. These are succeeded by
natural principles better understood, as the first set of teeth, lightly
rooted, are replaced by those that are larger and firmer.
When old people pass from the state of parents to that of grandparents,
and leaving the disciplinary stage of life, pass again into a child-like state,
they become indulgent, and lose their teeth spiritually as they do
naturally.
In this view, soundness of the teeth would cor-
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respond with the
love of having enjoyments of life thoroughly good ; especially with the love of
thoroughly good work, and not of what merely appears well. And unsoundness of the teeth would correspond
to content with good appearances, and work that will pass.
The dentist’s work, spiritually, is to point out the
carelessness of such principles of love to the Lord and the neighbor to make
them sound. Such suggestions are like
fillings of gold and silver.[13][13]
Artificial teeth seem like the conventional standards which must
replace the natural when they are gone.
There is an influx from the heavens into man, and
from every province of the heavens into the corresponding organ of
his body. It is from this influx
that his mind lives and loves and acts, and that the
body also lives and performs its functions.
The desire of the angels to receive new
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members, and
introduce them into the uses and the happiness of the heavens, flows into our
minds as a desire for the elements of which angelic spirits can be formed in
us. It causes us to apply our minds to
any source from which we can drink wisdom, and to drink it in for
examination. It gives us an interest
also in good works, from which we can get instruction and encouragement in
regard to good life. It incites us to
attend to these things, to receive them, taste them, be affected by the
goodness of them, and to absorb this into our affections and lives. Therefore Swedenborg says that the use which
the tongue performs in tasting, absorbing, and preparing nutriment for the
body, “corresponds to the affection for knowing, understanding, and being wise
in truths.” (A. C. 4795.) [14][14]
That heavenly spirits are formed in us by thus receiving genuine wisdom
and the goodness of wisdom is plain to every one. And it is also evi-
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dent that the
influx of the angels’ love of receiving new angelic spirits must produce in us
individually a desire for the heavenly elements of which such spirits are
formed.
In this influx all angels who belong to the provinces of the digestive
organs combine ; and, indeed, in a general way, the whole heaven, since all
angels desire to receive new brothers ; and this hunger of flows into us,
and is felt as a hunger for wisdom. Specifically, those in the province of
the lips impart to us the power of application to new truths ; those in
the province of the tongue inspire the capacity for tasting and discerning
the quality of new ideas, before we finally adopt them ; and those in the
province of the gums and teeth, who coöperate so effectively with the tongue in
its explorations, inspire the desire to open the interior quality of
whatever is presented, and to receive nothing that we do not thus know,
and that does not agree with our life.[15][15]
We may hear thoughts which do not especially
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concern us, and
may look at them with much or little interest, perhaps merely because
others value them; but not until we think of them as relating to us, and desire
to receive them into our lives, and so apply our minds to grasp them and
understand them, - not till then do we do that which is represented by taking
food with our lips, masticating it with the teeth, and tasting it with the
tongue. And then, if we assent and
resolve to adopt it , we spiritually swallow it. Sometimes, also, people swallow what they do
not understand, or even what they do not like, with very little mastication.
Yet, as thorough mastication is essential to good digestion of food, so
the thorough understanding of the knowledge of life which we receive is
essential to its proper assimilation.
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The office of the salivary glands is to secrete a watery liquid which
mingles with the food, softens and moistens it, and reduces it almost to a
semi-fluid state, so that it passes easily through the fauces and the œsphagus
to the stomach. The saliva has other
subsidiary uses, which will be considered presently ; but this is the most
important.
Water is, throughout the three kingdoms of nature, the vehicle of
circulation ; it is the means of conveying into the veins of animals, the
fibres of plants, and the minute interstices of the rocks, the materials needed
for their nourishment and growth.
As to its cleansing properties, water corresponds to the truth which
distinguishes right from wrong. As to its nutritive and mobilizing properties,
it corresponds to the same truth teaching what it is
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right to do, and
thus giving the means of motion to those desires which, without such truth,
would lie helplessly inert.
The saliva, therefore, which is almost pure water, having only about
one per cent. of solid material, represents the instruction first given to new
spirits as to the world into which they have come, as to what it is allowable
and possible for them to do, and as to the state of their friends who have gone
before, — instruction which gives them freedom to go withersoever they desire.
The fluid is secreted by large glands
lying behind and under the lower jaw, and under the tongue, which summon, according
to their need, copious streams from the general circulation, which corresponds
to fresh information concerning the state and wants of the heavenly man and the
world of spirits.
The purer saliva, whose office is to
mingle intimately with the food, to dissolve such portions as admit of ready
solution, and convey them at once into the circulation, and to soften other portions
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to a semi-fluid
condition so that they may easily pass to the stomach, corresponds specifically
to instruction concerning heaven and heavenly life, the purpose of which is to
introduce immediately into heaven those who are fitted for it, and to assist
others on the way to heaven.
The viscid element of the sub-maxillary saliva, and still more
evidently the mucus discharged by the follicles of the mouth, has for its
specific office to lubricate the food, so that it may pass easily through the
œsophagus to the stomach ; and corresponds to instruction which serves to
introduce spirits to societies in the world of spirits, where they remain for
further preparation. The salivary glands
correspond to societies of spiritual angels who love to acquire and communicate
such instruction.
In regard to this instruction, which, it will be observer, is given
immediately after the spirit passes the province of the lips, we read as
follows :?
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“When the celestial angels are with a resuscitated person, they do not leave him, because they love every one ; but when the spirit is such that he can no longer be in company with the celestial angels, he desires to depart from them; and when this is the case, angels from the Lord’s spiritual kingdom come, by whom is given to him the use of light, for before he saw nothing, but only thought. . . . The angels are extremely cautious lest any idea should come from the resuscitated person but what savors of love ; they then tell him that he is a spirit. The spiritual angels, after the use of light has been given, perform for the new spirit all the offices which he can ever desire in that state, and instruct him concerning the things of the other life, but so far as he can comprehend them. But if he is not such as to be willing to be instructed, the resuscitated person then desires to depart from the company of those angels ; but still the angels do not leave him, but he dissociates himself from them ; for the angels love every one, and desire nothing more than to perform kind offices, to instruct, and to introduce into heaven ; their highest delight consists in that. When the spirit thus dissociates himself he is received by good spirits, and when he is in their company, also, all kind offices are performed for him ; but if his
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life in the world had been such that
he could not be in the company of the good, then also he wishes to remove from
them, and this even until he associates himself with such as agree altogether
with his life in the world, with whom he finds his life, and then, what is
wonderful, he leads a similar life to what he led in the world. This beginning of man’s life after death
continues only for a few days.” (H. H.
450, 451.)
In the posthumous treatise concerning
the “Last Judgment,” pp. 125-133, we have the following account of the
reception and instruction of new spirits : ?
“When a man after death comes into the spiritual world, which usually takes place on the third day after he has breathed his last, he appears to himself in a similar life to that in which he had been in the world, and in a similar house, room, and bed-chamber, in a similar dress and covering, and in similar companionship in the house ; if he was a king or prince, in a cottage ; rustic things surround the one, splendid the other. This takes place with every one after death, for the purpose that death may not seem to be death, but a contin-
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uation
of life, and that the last state of the natural life may become the first of the
spiritual life ; and that from this he may go on to his goal, which will be
either in heaven or in hell. . . . When new comers into the spiritual world are
in this first state, angels come to them for the sake of wishing them a happy
arrival, and at first are much amused in conversation with them, since they
know that they do not then think otherwise than that they are still living in
the former world. Therefore, they ask
them what they think about the life after death ; and the new comers answer
according to their former ideas ; some that they do not know ; some that they
are ghosts or a kind of ethereal beings ; some that they ate transparent,
aerial bodies ; some that they are flying specters, either in the ether and the
air, or in the waters, or in middle of the earth ; and some that souls like
angels are in the stars ; some of the new comers deny that any man lives after
death. After listening to these replies,
the angels say, ‘Welcome! we will show you something new which you have not
before known or believed, namely, that every man after death lives as man in a
body exactly as he lived before.’ To
this the new spirits rejoin, ‘ This is impossible! Whence has he a body ? Does it not lie with all there is of it dead
in the
+++++++++++++++ page 32 +++++++++++++++
grave
?’ The angels laughingly answer, ‘ We
will give you ocular proof of it.’ And
they say, ‘ Are you not men perfect form ?
Examine and feel yourselves ; and yet have left the natural world. That you have not known this till now is
because the first state of the life after death is exactly like the last state
of the life before death.’ Hearing this,
the new guests are astonished, and exclaim from joy of heart, ‘ Thanks be to
God that we are alive, and that death has not annihilated us.’ I have very often heard new comers instructed
thus as to their life after death, and gladdened by their resurrection.”
Then follow examples of instruction by the angels concerning the consummation
of the age, the destruction of the world, and the end of the Church ; and,
presently, leading the new spirits out, the angels showed them the Sun of
Heaven, and beautiful representatives of the instruction of angels and spirits
from the Lord in the Sun, and of the possible influx of Divine Truth also to
man on the earth. And then also they
showed how the evil spirits were multiplying in that time, before the Last
Judgment, and cutting off the light of heaven from the minds of men on the
earth.
+++++++++++++++ page 33 +++++++++++++++
All these things are of the instruction given by angels to introduce
new spirits into the life of the spiritual world.
Those soluble
portions of the food which are in a condition to be readily absorbed correspond
to spirits who readily receive instruction concerning heaven and are in a state
to conform to it at once. The portions
not readily dissolved or absorbed correspond to those who need more gradual
initiation.
The small amount of organic substance contained in the saliva has an
important subsidiary use in beginning the preparation of some elements of food
which are not yet ready for absorption.
The sweetness of fruits is in a form that can be absorbed at once, But the sweetness of sugarcane needs a
chemical combination with a little more water, to be reduced to the same
form. Starch and gum also, which are
chemically akin to cane-sugar, need the same addition to become food like the
sugar of fruit. And the organic
substance in the saliva, by its very presence, stim
+++++++++++++++ page 34 +++++++++++++++
ulates this chemical
change, some portions of the sugar and the starch undergoing the change almost
instantly upon coming in contact with it.
The chemical union of a little more water with these substances can
hardly correspond to anything else than the reception of a little necessary
truth into life. And the organic
substance from the glands, which stimulates this reception, seems to correspond
with the influence of angels who by encouragement or by warning immediately
open eyes of some who are already in good to purer truth, and perhaps to
humbler acknowledgment that self is nothing, and the Lord everything,
is this kingdom.
By no means the whole of the soluble portion of the food is absorbed in the mouth ; a large part, dissolved or dissolving in the saliva, is carried into the stomach ; much of it goes even further, into
+++++++++++++++ page 35 +++++++++++++++
the intestines,
before it is absorbed. And in
correspondence with this, no doubt many new comers who are open to spiritual
instruction, hasten first to the company of their former friends in the world
of spirits, and by a longer way, and
through various methods of preparation, are carried into heaven.
+++++++++++++++ page 36 +++++++++++++++
Through the œsophagus there is a straight road from the mouth to the
stomach. Its office is to conduct the
food gentle and properly from one province to the other. The food does not fall from the mouth into
the stomach by mere force of its weight, ¾ we can swallow
upward nearly as well as downward ; as we do in drinking from a brook, and as
the grazing animals constantly do. The
oesophagus takes it in charge, and conducts it to the stomach with uniform
motion, warning and lubricating it by the way, and thus preparing it somewhat
for digestion, and preventing its doing injury to the stomach by sudden blows
or chills. Perhaps it should be
mentioned, also, that in the oesophagus the food first receives the motion of
the heart and lungs, which afterwards is a necessity to its life, as long as it
is a part of the body.
+++++++++++++++ page 37 +++++++++++++++
The mouth is in the province of the head, which constitutes the third
heaven ; the stomach is in the domain of the first or natural heaven ; and the
heart and lungs belong to the second heaven (T. C. R. 119). By angels of the third heaven spirits are
first received, that, at their introduction into the spiritual world, they may
receive all the care that the kindest and wisest of the angels can give ; and,
further, that their quality may be carefully discriminated by the most
sagacious angels, through whom the whole heaven may be informed of their
presence and quality, and exactly such care may be provided for them as they
need.
Still another advantage arising from the
reception of spirits by these angels, is, that the spirits of infants, and of
others who have become innocent as infants, may be received by the shortest way
into heaven, being spared unnecessarily harsh treatment, and carrying at once
the treasures of their innocent lives to increase the happiness of the heavenly
societies to which they belong.
+++++++++++++++ page 38 +++++++++++++++
But it is
necessary for spirits in whom good is not yet freed evil or falsity, and those
in whom evil still assumes the cloak of piety and morality, to have these
elements of their natural character thoroughly made known, and to pass through
whatever discipline is necessary to make them homogeneous, before the good canj
be taken up into heaven or the evil cast down into hell ; and therefore such
spirits pass from the care of angels of the third heaven, under the kind and
wise direction of those of the natural plane.
They do not remain long in company with
angels of the second heaven. These serve
as friendly guides and introducers ; also they initiate the new comers into the
flow of thought and affection of the Greatest Man, which they themselves
receive with peculiar fullness by reason of their nearness to and close
connection with the heart and lungs of the heavens.
This heavenly rhythmical motion the same
angels, in conjunction with those of the dia
+++++++++++++++ page 40 +++++++++++++++
phragm, impress upon the whole
world of spirits ; for the oesophagus is continued into the stomach, upon which
the diaphragm also presses from above ; and all their motions they impart in
considerable degree to the stomach ; and this communication is an important
element in the training which spirits undergo to fit them for life in the kingdom of heaven, every
fibre of which responds to the throbs of the same heart and the respirations of
the same lungs. Not fully do the new
spirits receive the influence. This they
cannot do till the angelic plane of their minds is opened, and they pass once more through this heaven
in the circulation of the lungs and heart –where they become angels, and their
angelic faculties are opened
-on their way to
their own societies. As yet they
perceive only the general influence of it, so far as it can affect their
natural life.
+++++++++++++++ page 40 +++++++++++++++
“The world
of spirits is like a forum or place of resort, where all are at first
assembled, and is as a stomach in which the food is at first collected ; the
stomach, moreover, corresponds to that world,”
(A. R. 791.)
“ The world of
spirits, which midway between heaven and hell-into which every man first comes
after death, and is there prepared-corresponds to the stomach, in which all the
things that are put in are prepared, either to become blood and flesh, or to
become excrement and urine.” (A. R.
204.)
“ It is known that nourishment or food
is worked over in many ways in the stomach, that its interior things which are
good for use may be brought out; namely, which those which go into the chyle,
and afterwards into blood ; and that the process is continued in the
intestines. Such workings are
represented by the first discipline of spirits, which is according to their
life in the world, that evil things
+++++++++++++++
page 41 +++++++++++++++
may be separated, and good things, suited for use, may be
collected. Wherefore it may be said of
souls or spirits soon after decease, or separation from the body, that they
come as it were into the region of the stomach, and there are disciplined and
purified. They with whom evils have
obtained dominion, after they have been disciplined in vain, are borne through
the stomach into the intestines, and even to the last, namely, the colon and
the rectum, and thence are cast out into the draught, that is, into hell. But they with whom good things have dominion,
after some discipline and purification, become chyle, and go into the blood,
some are disciplined severely, some gently, and some scarcely at all : these
last are represented by the juices of food, which are immediately drunk in by
the veins, and so further.” (A. C.
5174.)
Some of
these good spirits, as we have already seen, are taken up into heaven before
they reach the stomach, by the way of the ducts of the mouth. But some, of equally tender and pure quality,
are more closely connected with wordly affairs and wordly people, and, like the
juices en-
+++++++++++++++ page 42 +++++++++++++++
tangled among
coarser materials, are carried into the general place of assembly for new
spirits, where they are soon made spiritually free and are conducted by a
little longer way into heaven.
In the world of spirits, strictly
speaking, to which the stomach corresponds (A. R. 791), spirits may remain from
a month to thirty years (A. R.
866) ; and here
are collected a vast multitude who live and work in societies, as in heaven or
in hell. The work done here is that of what Swedenborg calls “ the second state
after death,” that is, the state of the interiors ; and consists largely in the
opening of the interiors.
“ When the first state is
passed through, which is the state of the exteriors, . . . the man-spirit is
let into the state of his interiors, or into the state of his interior will and
consequent thought, in which he had been in the world when, being left to
himself, he thought freely and without restraint. Into this state he slides
without being aware of it, in like manner as in the world when he withdraws the
thought which is nearest the speech, or from which the speech is, towards
interior thought, and
+++++++++++++++
page 43 +++++++++++++++
abides in it ; wherefore when the man-spirit is in this
state, he is in himself, and in his own very life ; for to think freely from
his own proper affection is the very life of man, and is himself.” (H. H. 502.)
“ The spirit in this state thinks from his own very will, thus from his own very affection, or from his own very love, and in this case the thought makes one with the will, and one in this case the thought makes one with the will, and one in much a manner that it scarcely appears that the spirit thinks, but that he wills. The case is nearly similar when he speaks, yet with this difference, that he speaks with some degree of fear lest the thoughts of the will should go forth naked, since by civil life in the world his will had contracted this habit.” (H. H. 503.)
In this
state the habits of speech and action in which he has presented himself to
society are separated from him, as the hulls from wheat, and the cell walls
from the starch, sugar, or nutritive juices which they contain ; and his interior
affections act freely without any artificial cloak. And it is the dissolving of these cell walls
and setting free of the contents which is the principal work of the stomach.
+++++++++++++++ page 44 +++++++++++++++
The food in
the stomach is collected in considerable quantities, and is rolled in a spiral
course around the large end of the stomach, and thence to the neighborhood of
the pylorus, and back along the upper curve to the œsophagus. No doubt this takes place with great variety,
and portions may be delayed in their course, and even drawn apart into the
little chambers in the lining of the stomach for special treatment. All the while it is being mingled and worked
over with the acid gastric fluids, whose function it is to set the purer parts
of the food free and to separate them more completely from the gross and
worthless.
The gastric fluids are secreted
continually during the process of digestion and are continually absorbed again
by the coats of the stomach, carrying with them food which they have dissolved
and returning again for more. The
quantity required for digestion it would be impossible for the body to supply
except by this process of re-absorption and repeated secretion. And as in the saliva
+++++++++++++++ page 45 +++++++++++++++
there is an
organic element, the ptyalin, whose office it is to induce the change of starch
and sugar into a form which can be assimilated, so in the stomach there is its
peculiar organic substance, called pepsin, mingling with the gastic fluids, and
quickening the solution of the “ proteids,”
or muscle-making elements of the food.
The food
thus massed together is like societies of spirits in similar states ; the fluids are instruction concerning
good and evil, concerning things that
have life and those that are dead and useless, which is to good spirits the
means of increased and more joyous activity, and to the evil the means of
self-condemnation and rejection.
“ All who have lived in good in the
world, and have acted from conscience, as is the case with all those who have
acknowledged a Divine and have loved Divine truths, especially those who have
applied them to life, appear to themselves, when let into the state of their
interiors, like those who being awakened out of sleep come into the full use of
slight, and like those who from shade enter into light : they think also from
the light of heaven,
+++++++++++++++ page 46 +++++++++++++++
thus from interior wisdom, and they act from
good, thus from interior affection.
Heaven also flows in into their thoughts and affections with interior
blessedness and delight, of which before the knew nothing ; for they have
communication with the angels of heaven.
Then also they acknowledge the Lord and worship Him from their very life
; for they are in their own proper life when in the state of their interiors ;
and they likewise acknowledge and worship Him from freedom, for freedom is of
interior affection. They recede also
thus from external sanctity, and come into internal sanctity, in which
essential worship truly consists. Such
is the state of those who have lived a Christian life according to the precepts
delivered in the Word. But altogether contrary is the state of those who in the
world have lived in evil, and have had no conscience, and hence have denied a
Divine. . . . By reason of their evil lusts, they burst forth into all
abominations, into contempt of others, into ridicule and blasphemy, into hatred
and revenge.” (H. H. 506.)
Physiology says that the starchy elements of the food, and perhaps cane-sugar, are not absorbed in the stomach, but, being acted upon by the saliva, and afterwards by the pancreatic and intestinal
+++++++++++++++
page 47 +++++++++++++++
fluids, are
turned into the more readily absorbed sugar, usually called grape-sugar, or
glucose, in which form they are taken up by the veins and lacteals ; that fatty
materials pass unchanged into the intestine, where, soon after meeting with the
bile and the pancreatic fluid, they are reduced to the form of an emulsion, or
milky fluid ; the oil being divided into minute particles which are held as if
in solution, in a state to be absorbed ; and that the fluids of the stomach
dissolve only the muscle-making element of food, - the lean meat, the cheese of
milk, and the gluten of grains. A
portion of this, when dissolved, is taken up immediately by the veins and
lacteals of the stomach ; and a portion, needing further purification by the
bile and pancreatic fluid, is carried on for a short distance in the intestine.
And, correspondingly, we should expect to find only a small proportion
of spirits, and those the most willing and unselfish in their usefulness, taken
up directly from the province of the stomach to the places of instruction. The greater part
+++++++++++++++
page 48 +++++++++++++++
need some
further preparation. Most persons,
Swedenborg says, are in the lower earth before they are taken up into
heaven. (A. C. 4728.)
Of starch and fat we will speak hereafter, when we come to the
intestines and the pancreas.
Sugar
corresponds to spiritual sweetness and pleasantness, which is immediately
cheering and encouraging, and, in proper proportion to the more substantial
satisfactions of good work, is wholesome mental nourishment. And the nitrogenized elements of food, which
make muscle in the body, correspond to the love of useful work. It is to the
assimilation of this that the stomach in the spiritual world especially
addresses itself separating it carefully from routine forms and
conventionalities, and the many selfish considerations that mingle with every
one’s love of work, also from habits of indolence and self-indulgence, and rousing
in it the desire to do the use in the Lord’s kingdom for which it is fitted,
and to learn to do it wisely and well.
The great mass of the good that there is among
+++++++++++++++
page 49 +++++++++++++++
men consists of
various kinds of love of work. It may be
largely mixed with love of the world and of various selfish rewards, and widely
misdirected by mistaken notions of what is useful, and by foolish requirements
of society ; yet it exists in some form in every mind that prefers good work to
large returns : and all such minds are collected and trained and purified in
the world of spirits.
The chief acid of the solvent fluids of the stomach is hydrochloric
acid, which is the acid of common salt. Salt[16][16] is a representative of the principle
that good and truth need each other and belong together ; and the active
principle of the salt represents a stimulus to every good to seek its truth,
and to every truth to seek its good. The passive or alkaline principle may mean
that they can do nothing alone. Solution
by means of this active principle must mean the shaking off of all hindrances
to the diligent learning to do good or to live the truth. And the organic substance, by which this
solution is stimulated, must repre-
+++++++++++++++
page 50 +++++++++++++++
sent the personal encouragement or warning
of angels who themselves delight in assisting in the union of every good with
its truth. (Comp. H. H. 425.) The action of the gastric fluids in
immediately arresting decay has a correspondence in the fact that a descent
into worse evil or greater profanation of good than one was in in the world is
not permitted.
By such influence and instruction good spirits are brought into more
free and active life and are quickly separated from their wordly habits and
desires. And, on the other hand, evil persons, who love self and the world
supremely, reject the truth and when they come to those who accept it they
repel each other. Swedenborg says of
these :-
“ They are generally carried about
through a wide circle, and everywhere are shown to good spirits as they are in
themselves ; at the sight of them good then turn themselves away, so also the
evil spirits who are carried about turn themselves from them to the quarter
where their infernal society is, into which they are about to
come.” (H. H. 511.)
+++++++++++++++ page 51
+++++++++++++++
Spirits who are good, but have confirmed in themselves some falsity or
evil from which they must be freed, also turn away from those who accept the
truth, and pass first through another stage of purification.
The truth which is taught in this state, and which is represented by
the general digestive fluids of the stomach, has for its purpose to bring the
good into spiritual freedom and to separate evil from them. It is not interior spiritual truth ; it is
religious and moral truth, such as is drawn from the letter of the Scriptures
by those who are in the light of heaven and who love heavenly good. Interior truth, teaching more fully about the
Lord and heaven and the spiritual sense of the Scriptures, is given to good
spirits in their next places of sojourn, described in Swendenborg as the “
places of instruction” into which good spirits come in “ the third state after
death.”
How the Lord guides and controls all spirits, even
when they seem mixed and confused, is described as follows :¾
+++++++++++++++ page 52 +++++++++++++++
“There was a numerous crowd of spirits about me,
which was heard as something disorderly and flowing. They complained, saying that now a total
destruction was at hand ; for in that crowd nothing appeared consociated, and
this made them fear destruction. They
suppose also that it would be total, as is the case when such things happen.
But in the midst of them I perceived a soft sound, angelically sweet, in which
was nothing but what was orderly. The
angelic companies there were within, and the crowd of spirits to whom
appertained what was without order was without.
This angelic flowing stream continued a long time, and it was said that
hereby was represented how the Lord rules things confused and disorderly which
are without from what is pacific in the midst, whereby things disorderly in the
circumference are reduced into order, each being restored from the error of its
nature.” (A. C. 5396.)
The salivary fluids in the Greatest Man
are such knowledge of heaven and of the world of spirits as serves to introduce
new spirits into societies in the spiritual world. In the minds of men the correspondence of
these fluids is with a knowledge of their own states and wants, which is the
means
+++++++++++++++
page 53 +++++++++++++++
of bringing new
truth into relation with themselves. If
sugar or salt or any other dry solid food be placed upon the dry tongue it is
perfectly tasteless ; but as soon as the saliva or other watery fluids
dissolves a portion of it its quality is perceived. So we may hear new truth without any
knowledge or thought of its relation to our own states, or to any human
states, and it cannot be otherwise than insipid ; but as soon as such
knowledge or thought comes into contact with it instantly its agreement or
disagreement with the life is felt, and it is received or rejected. Spitting upon anything is therefore a
correspondential mode of expressing its utter disagreement with one’s states of
life.[17][17]
On the other hand, the spittle of which the Lord made clay, and
anointed the eyes of the blind man, represented the simplest truth of His life
which, adapted to the states of men, shows the relation between their lives
and His and opens their eyes to spiritual things.[18][18]
+++++++++++++++
page 54 +++++++++++++++
knowledge of
what is good and true, which is food for the mind(part of footnote 19), we may meditate further upon it or we may simply take it home with
the determination to live it (part of footnote 19). The desire to live it, and to incorporate
it in our life,[19][19] will separate the essential goodness
from the special forms in which it comes to us and do the work of assimilation
as silently as the solvents of the stomach do their work ; and we may know
nothing of the process but only feel that we are encouraged and strengthened
for our duties.
There is a likeness of indigestion when we cram knowledge or terms
which we do not understand, and which we long revolve in the memory, vainly
trying to get some good out of it. We
become weary and disgusted with it and, for a time, with all knowledge.
There was
also a likeness of indigestion in the heavens when there long remained and
accumulated in the world of spirits those who were good externally and evil
internally, and whose internals could not be opened until the time of the Judg-
+++++++++++++++
page 55 +++++++++++++++
ment. Then by the solvents of the new truth
taught, the externals were broken through, the good internals were gathered
into heaven, and the evil were cast down.[20][20]
+++++++++++++++ page 56 +++++++++++++++
[1][1] Homosexuality
[2][2] Natural Organs: Sensori-motor
Spiritual Organs: Lungs and speech
Celestial Organs: Heart, blood, stomach, circulation and digest.
[3][3] The tongue “as an organ of taste signifies the natural perception of good and truth; whereas the smell corresponds to spiritual perception; for the tongue tastes and relishes meats and drinks, and by meats and drinks are signified good and truth which nourish the natural mind.” (A. E. 990.)
Tongue=C1
Smell=C2
[4][4] “Men, after death, as soon as they come into the world of spirits, are carefully distinguished by the Lord; the evil are immediately bound to the infernal society in which they were in the world as to their ruling love, and the good are bound immediately to the heavenly society in which they also were as to love, charity, and faith” (H. H 427). “This is the case with all as to internals; but not yet as to externals.” (497.)
[5][5] The person: in the middle of the circle is interior memory, the middle of the circle is exterior memory and outside of the circle is the body
[6][6] Neither: because they have loved both; both are theirs & both make up their interior libers (mind), means those who see the truth but live contrary to it.
[7][7] Also those who love both the good and evil (which annihilate each other, leaving emptiness, nothingness
[8][8] Pain and sickness have this use
[9][9] E.G. interviewing someone
[10][10] Know thyself
[11][11] Where toothache comes from
[12][12] Teething sees exam tn.
[13][13] Dentist = sees examint. (Religious)
[14][14] “Quapropter etiam sapientia, seu sapere, dicta est a sapore.”
[15][15] Cognitive consistency law
[16][16] A/C
[17][17] Re-evangelizing efforts with Swedenborginism cl P 11/93 TT
[18][18] Self exam in the light of the TT
[19][19] Daily study of the TT
[20][20] PCC 11/93 TT
Ø Ø The {function purpose of truths is to reveal our evil connections
Ø Ø Truths come from study of the word with the intent of altering one’s character
Ø Ø Truths are cast with the age of doctrine (Science & Theology) (Art)
Ø Ø Truths within doctrines perceived clearly or obscurely depending on one’s level of progress in regeu erotion of one’s character.