290. THE LORD FROM ETERNITY, THAT IS, JEHOVAH, BROUGHT FORTH FROM HIMSELF THE SUN OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD, AND FROM THAT CREATED THE UNIVERSE AND ALL THINGS THEREOF.
The sun of the spiritual world was treated of in Part Second of this work, and the following propositions were there established:-Divine Love and Divine Wisdom appear in the spiritual world as a sun (n. 83-88). Spiritual heat and spiritual light go forth from that sun (n. 89-92). That sun is not God, but is a Proceeding from the Divine Love and Divine Wisdom of God-Man; so also are the heat and light from that sun (n. 93-98). The sun of the spiritual world is at a middle altitude, and appears far off from the angels like the sun of the natural world from men (n. 103-107). In the spiritual world the east is where the Lord appears as a sun, and from that the other quarters are determined (n. 119-123, 125-128). Angels turn their faces constantly to the Lord as a sum (n. 129-134, 135-139). The Lord created the universe and all things thereof by means of the sun, which is the first proceeding of Divine Love and Divine Wisdom (n. 151-156). The sun of the natural world is mere fire, and nature, which derives its origin from that sun, is consequently dead; and the sun of the natural world was created in order that the work of creation might completed and finished (n. 157-162). Without a double sun, one living and the other dead, no creation is possible (n. 163-166).
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.
293. It was also perceived that a sphere flows forth, not only from angels and spirits but also from each and all things that appear in the spiritual world, - from trees and from their fruits, from shrubs and from their flowers, from herbs, and from grasses, even from the soils and from their very particles. From which it was patent that both in the case of things living and things dead this is a universal law, That each thing is encompassed by something like that which is within it, and that this is continually exhaled from it. It is known, from the observation of many learned men, that it is the same in the natural world - that is, that there is a wave of effluvia constantly flowing forth out of man, also out of every animal, likewise out of tree, fruit, shrub, flower, and even out of metal and stone. This the natural world derives from the spiritual, and the spiritual world from the Divine.
294. Because those things that constitute the sun of the spiritual world are from the Lord, but are not the Lord, they are not life in itself, but are devoid of life in itself; just as those things that flow forth from angel or man, and constitute spheres around him are not the angel or the man, but are from him, and devoid of his life. These spheres make one with the angel or man no otherwise than that they are concordant; and this they are because taken from the forms of their bodies, which in them were forms of their life. This is an arcanum which angels, with their spiritual ideas, are able to see in thought and also express in speech, but men with their natural ideas are not; because a thousand spiritual ideas make one natural idea, and one natural idea cannot be resolved by man into any spiritual idea, much less into so many. The reason is that these ideas differ according to degrees of height, which were treated of in Part Third.
295. That there is such a difference between the thoughts of angels and the thoughts of men was made known to me by this experience: The angels were asked to think spiritually on some subject, and afterwards to tell me what they had thought. This they did; but when they wished to tell me they could not, and said that these things could not be expressed in words. It was the same with their spiritual language and their spiritual writing; there was not a word of spiritual language that was like any word of natural language; nor was there anything of spiritual writing like natural writing, except the letters, each of which contained an entire meaning. But what is wonderful, they said that they seemed to themselves to think, speak, and write in the spiritual state in the same manner that man does in the natural state, when yet there is no similarity. From this it was plain that the natural and the spiritual differ according to degrees of height, and that they communicate with each other only by correspondences.
Emanuel Swedenborg: Angelic Wisdom Concerning The Divine Love And The Divine Wisdom
JEHOVAH CREATED THE UNIVERSE
THE DIVINE OF LOVE, THE DIVINE OF WISDOM, AND THE DIVINE OF USE
Table of Contents
Good angels of the Old Testament
Good angels in the New Testament
Appearance of good angels
Opinions concerning good angels
Apparitions of good genii
Bad angels
Of magic
Objections to the reality of magic
Reply to objections to the reality of magic
Examination of the affair of Hocque, magician
Magic of the Egyptians and Chaldeans
Magic among the Greeks and Romans
Examples which prove the reality of magic
