Angelic Wisdom Concerning the Divine Love and the Divine WisdomSwedenborg, Emanuel
Religion
Angelic Wisdom Concerning the Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom
Swedenborg, Emanuel
God (Christianity) -- Love; God (Christianity) -- Wisdom
291. This also, among other things, is shown in Part Second:-that the
spiritual sun is not the Lord, but is a Proceeding from His Divine Love
and His Divine Wisdom. It is called a proceeding, because the sun was
brought forth out of Divine Love and Divine Wisdom which are in themselves
substance and form, and it is by means of this that the Divine proceeds.
But as human reason is such as to be unwilling to yield assent unless it
sees a thing from its cause, and therefore has some perception of how it
is, - thus in the present case, how the sun of the spiritual world, which
is not the Lord, but a proceeding from Him, was brought forth - something
shall be said on this subject. In regard to this matter I have conversed
much with the angels. They said that they have a clear perception of it
in their own spiritual light, but that they cannot easily present it to
man, in his natural light, owing to the difference between the two kinds
of light and the consequent difference of thought. The matter, however,
may be likened, they said, to the sphere of affections and of thoughts
therefrom which encompasses each angel, whereby his presence is made
evident to others near and far. But that encompassing sphere, they said,
is not the angel himself; it is from each and everything of his body,
wherefrom substances are constantly flowing out like a stream, and what
flows out surrounds him; also that these substances, contiguous to his
body, as they are constantly moved by his life's two fountains of motion,
the heart and the lungs, arouse the same activities in the atmospheres,
and thereby produce a perception as of his presence with others;
therefore that it is not a separate sphere of affections and of thoughts
therefrom that goes forth and is continuous from him, although it is so
called, since the affections are mere states of the mind's forms in the
angel. They said, moreover, that there is such a sphere about every
angel, because there is one about the Lord, and that the sphere about
the Lord is in like manner from Him, and that that sphere is their sun,
that is, the sun of the spiritual world.
292. A perception has often been granted me of such a sphere around each
angel and spirit, and also a general sphere around many in a society. I
have also been permitted to see it under various appearances, in heaven
sometimes appearing like a thin flame, in hell like gross fire, also
sometimes in heaven like a thin and shining white cloud, and in hell like
a thick and black cloud. It has also been granted me to perceive these
spheres as various kinds of odors and stenches. By these experiences I
was convinced that a sphere, consisting of substances set free and
separated from- their bodies, encompasses every one in heaven and every
one in hell.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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