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Memorable Occurrences in Swedenborg's Writings

This list of Memorable Occurrences in Swedenborg's Writings was originally compiled by W. C. Henderson in 1960 but has since been updated.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

True Christian Religion #508

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508. The sixth experience.

One day a magnificent church building appeared to me; it was square in plan with a roof like a crown, with arches above and a raised parapet running around. Its walls were all windows made of crystal, its door of a pearly substance. Inside on the south side towards the west there was a platform, on which the open Word lay at the right surrounded by a blaze of light, so bright as to spread round and light up the whole platform. In the middle of the church was a shrine with a curtain in front of it; but this was now raised and there stood a golden cherub with a sword which he brandished in all directions in his hand.

[2] When I caught sight of all this, as I meditated, the meaning of each of the details came flooding into my mind. The church meant the new church; the door of a pearly substance, entry into it; the windows of crystal the truths which enlighten it; the platform the priesthood and their preaching; the Word on it, open and lighting up the top of the platform, the revelation of its internal, or spiritual, sense; the shrine in the middle of the church the link of that church with the heaven of angels; the golden cherub there the Word in its literal sense; the sword brandished in his hand meant that this sense can be twisted in different ways, so long as it is made to refer to some truth. The lifting of the curtain in front of the cherub meant that now the Word was laid open.

[3] Later, when I got closer, I saw there was an inscription over the door: NOW IT IS PERMITTED. This meant that now it is permitted to enter with the understanding into the mysteries of faith. Seeing this inscription led me to think that it is extremely dangerous to enter with the understanding into the dogmas of faith which have been put together out of one's own intelligence and the falsities it produces, and even more so to seek to support them by quoting the Word. This has the effect of shutting off the understanding at the top and little by little also at the bottom, to such an extent that theology is not only disliked but actually wiped out, like the writing on a paper being destroyed by book-worms, or the wool of a piece of cloth by grubs. His understanding then concerns itself only with political affairs which affect his life in the country where he lives, and with civil affairs relating to his official duties, and with domestic affairs of his household; and in all of these he constantly embraces nature, being led by the enticement of its pleasures to love it, as an idolater does the golden image in his lap.

[4] Now since the dogmas of present-day Christian churches are put together not from the Word, but from people's own intelligence and the false ideas that come from that, and also by means of some ideas supported from the Word, for this reason the Lord's Divine providence has seen to it that among Roman Catholics the Word has been taken away from laymen, while among Protestants it remains open, though shut off by their frequent saying that the understanding must be kept in obedience to their faith.

[5] But in the new church the opposite happens; here it is permitted with the understanding to approach and penetrate all its secrets, and also to support them from the Word. The reason is that its doctrines are a series of truths revealed by the Lord through the Word; and proving them by rational argument causes the understanding to be opened up above more and more. This lifts it into the light enjoyed by the angels of heaven; and that light is in essence truth, and it makes the acknowledgment of the Lord as the God of heaven and earth shine out in all its glory. This is what the inscription 'NOW IT IS PERMITTED' over the door means; and the removal of the curtain of the shrine in front of the cherub has the same meaning. It is a rule in the new church that falsities shut off the understanding, and truths open it up.

[6] After this I saw what looked like a child overhead, holding a paper in his hand. As he approached me, he grew in size until he was a man of average height. He was an angel from the third heaven; all there look at a distance like children. When he reached me, he held the paper out to me. But since it was written in the rounded script customary in that heaven, I gave it back and asked them to expound the meaning of what was written on it in words I could comprehend in my thinking.

'What is written here,' he replied, 'is: FROM NOW ON ENTER INTO THE MYSTERIES OF THE WORD WHICH HAVE SO FAR BEEN HIDDEN: FOR EACH ONE OF ITS TRUTHS IS A MIRROR IN WHICH WE SEE THE LORD.'

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

From Swedenborg's Works

 

True Christian Religion #569

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569. The third experience.

Every love a person has emits a pleasing sensation which allows it to be felt. It is transmitted immediately into the spirit, from where it passes into the body. The pleasure of a person's love together with the beauty of his thought makes up his life. These pleasures and beauties are only dimly felt by a person, so long as he lives in this natural body, for this body absorbs and blunts them. But after death, when the material body is taken away, thus removing the covering or clothing of the spirit, then the pleasures of his love and the beauties of his thought are fully felt and perceived. It is remarkable that they are sometimes perceived as smells. This is the reason why the company all in the spiritual world keep depends upon their loves, those in heaven depending on their loves, and those in hell depending on theirs.

[2] All the smells, into which the pleasures of loves are turned in heaven, are experienced as the kind of sweet and fragrant smells, the lovely breaths and delightful sensations, which are experienced in gardens, flower-beds, fields and woods in the morning in springtime. The smells, into which the pleasures of the loves of the inhabitants of hell are turned, are experienced as rank, fetid and rotten stenches, such as arise from latrines, corpses and ponds full of garbage and excrement. It is remarkable that to the devils and satans there these smell like balsam, perfumes and incense, which refresh their nostrils and hearts. In the natural world too animals, birds and insects use smells to select their company, but this is not then allowed to human beings, until they have sloughed off their bodies.

[3] This is why heaven is arranged in the most elaborate order in keeping with all the varieties of love for good, and hell by contraries in keeping with all the varieties of love for evil. It is because of this opposition that there is between heaven and hell a gap that cannot be crossed. For the inhabitants of heaven cannot tolerate any smell from hell, since it causes them nausea and vomiting, and threatens to render them unconscious, if they sniff it. Much the same happens to the inhabitants of hell, if they pass beyond the mid-point of that gap.

[4] I once saw a devil, who looked from a distance like a leopard - I had seen him a few days before among the angels of the lowest heaven, since he knew how to disguise himself as an angel of light. He was crossing the mid-point and standing between two olive-trees without noticing any smell upsetting to his way of life. The reason was that no angels were present. As soon, however, as they came on the scene, he went into convulsions and fell to the ground with all his limbs contracted. He then appeared like a great snake writhing into coils, and finally rolling down through the gap. He was picked up by his companions and carried off to a cave where the foul smell of his own pleasure revived him.

[5] Another time too I saw a Satan punished by his companions. I asked the reason, and was told that he had blocked his nostrils and approached those who smelt of heaven, and on coming back brought that smell with him on his clothes. On a number of occasions it has happened that a stench as of a corpse rising from an open cave of hell has assailed my nostrils and made me feel like vomiting.

These facts can serve to establish why it is that smelling in the Word means perceiving. It is often stated that Jehovah smelt a welcome odour from burnt-offerings; and that the oil for anointing and incense were made from fragrant substances. On the other hand the Children of Israel were ordered to carry what was unclean in their camp outside the camp, and to bury and cover up their excrement (Deuteronomy 23:12-13). The reason was that the camp of Israel represented heaven, and the desert outside the camp represented hell.

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

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