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
90. Since angels are spiritual they can live in no other than spiritual
heat and light, while men can live in no other than natural heat and
light; for what is spiritual accords with what is spiritual, and what is
natural with what is natural. If an angel were to derive the least
particle from natural heat and light he would perish; for it is totally
discordant with his life. As to the interiors of the mind every man is
a spirit. When he dies he withdraws entirely from the world of nature,
leaving behind him all its belongings, and enters a world where there
is nothing of nature. In that world he lives so separated from nature
that there is no communication whatever by continuity, that is, as
between what is purer and grosser, but only like that between what is
prior and posterior; and between such no communication is possible except
by correspondences. From this it can be seen that spiritual heat is not
a purer natural heat, or spiritual light a purer natural light, but that
they are altogether of a different essence; for spiritual heat and light
derive their essence from a sun which is pure Love, and this is Life
itself; while natural heat and light derive their essence from a sun
which is pure fire, in which (as said above) there is absolutely nothing
of life.
91. Such being the difference between the heat and light of the two
worlds, it is very evident why those who are in the one world cannot
see those who are in the other world. For the eyes of man, who sees
from natural light, are of the substance of his world, and the eyes
of an angel are of the substance of his world; thus in both cases they
are formed for the proper reception of their own light. From all this
it can be seen from how much ignorance those think who, because they
cannot see angels and spirits with their eyes, are unwilling to believe
them to be men.
92. Hitherto it has not been known that angels and spirits are in a
totally different light and different heat from men. It has not been known
even that another light and another heat are possible. For man in his
thought has not penetrated beyond the interior or purer things of nature.
And for this reason many have placed the abodes of angels and spirits in
the ether, and some in the stars - thus within nature, and not above or
outside of it. But, in truth, angels and spirits are entirely above or
outside of nature, and are in their own world, which is under another sun.
And since in that world spaces are appearances (as was shown above),
angels and spirits cannot be said to be in the ether or in the stars; in
fact, they are present with man, conjoined to the affection and thought of
his spirit; since man is a spirit, and because of that thinks and wills;
consequently the spiritual world is wherever man is, and in no wise away
from him. In a word, every man as regards the interiors of his mind is in
that world, in the midst of spirits and angels there; and he thinks from
its light, and loves from its heat.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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