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
322. That the universe of that world represents man in an image can be
clearly seen from this, that all things just mentioned (n. 321) appear
to the life, and take form about the angel, and about the angelic
societies, as if they were produced or created by them; they are about
them permanently, and do not pass away. That they are as if they were
produced or created by them is seen by their no longer appearing when
the angel goes away, or when the society passes to another place; also
when other angels come in place of these the appearance of all things
about them is changed - in the paradises the trees and fruits are changed,
in the flower gardens the flowers and seeds, in the fields the herbs and
grasses, also the kinds of animals and birds are changed. Such things
take form and are changed in this manner, because all these things take
form according to the affections and consequent thoughts of the angels,
for they are correspondences. And because things that correspond make one
with that to which they correspond they are an image representative of
it. The image itself is not seen when these things are viewed in their
forms, it is seen only when they are viewed in respect to uses. It has
been granted me to perceive that angels, when their eyes were opened by
the Lord, and they saw these things from the correspondence of uses,
recognized and saw themselves therein.
323. Inasmuch as these things which have existence about the angels,
corresponding to their affections and thoughts, represent a universe,
in that there are lands, plants, and animals, and these constitute an
image representative of the angel, it is evident why the ancients called
man a microcosm.
324. That this is so has been abundantly confirmed in the Arcana
Coelestia, also in the work Heaven and Hell, and occasionally in the
preceding pages where correspondence is treated of. It has been there
shown also that nothing is to be found in the created universe which has
not a correspondence with something in man, not only with his affections
and their thoughts, but also with his bodily organs and viscera; not with
these however as substances, but as uses. From this it is that in the
Word, where the church and the man of the church are treated of, such
frequent mention is made of trees, such as "olives," "vines," and
"cedars;" of "gardens," "groves" and "woods;" and of the "beasts of
the earth," "birds of the air," and "fish of the sea." They are there
mentioned because they correspond, and by correspondence make one, as
was said above; consequently, when such things are read in the Word by
man, these objects are not perceived by angels, but the church or the
men of the church in respect to their states are perceived instead.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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