Here is a Round 3 recording of a general overview of the transition from Genesis to Exodus, along with some definitions of terms like: church, charity and the ‘good of …’.

The Contents Summaries

Here also are two documents which contain the extracted portions of the text from the Arcana Coelesita titled “The Contents”.  This may be something that you find useful in offering a sense of the general movement of the processes that are described over the chapters of Genesis and Exodus.

Genesis AC – ‘The Contents’ Summaries PDF

Exodus AC – ‘The Contents’ Summaries PDF

The natural mind cannot come up with anything on its own 

Doctrine of Sacred Scripture115. But as there are those who maintain, and have confirmed themselves in the opinion, that without a Word it is possible for a man to know of the existence of God, and of heaven and hell, and of all the other things taught by the Word, and as they thereby weaken the authority and holiness of the Word, if not with the lips, yet in the heart, therefore it is not practicable to deal with them from the Word, but only from rational light, for they do not believe in the Word, but in themselves. Investigate the matter from rational light, and you will find that in man there are two faculties of life called the understanding and the will, and that the understanding is subject to the will, but not the will to the understanding, for the understanding merely teaches and shows the way. Make further investigation, and you will find that man’s will is what is his own [proprium], and that this, regarded in itself, is nothing but evil, and that from this springs what is false in the understanding.

[2] Having discovered these facts you will see that from himself a man does not desire to understand anything but that which comes from the own of his will, and also that it is not possible for him to do so unless there is some other source from which he may know it. From the own of his will a man does not desire to understand anything except that which relates to himself and to the world; everything above this is to him in thick darkness. So that when he sees the sun, the moon, the stars, and chances to think about their origin, how is it possible for him to think otherwise than that they exist of themselves? Can he raise his thoughts higher than do many of the learned in the world who acknowledge only nature, in spite of the fact that from the Word they know of the creation of all things by God? What then would these same have thought if they had known nothing from the Word?

[3] Do you believe that the wise men of old, Aristotle, Cicero, Seneca, and others, who wrote about God and the immortality of the soul, got this from themselves [proprio]? Not so, but from others who had it by tradition from those who first knew it from the [Ancient] Word. Neither do the writers on natural theology get any such matters from themselves. They merely confirm by rational arguments what they have already become acquainted with from the church in which is the Word; and there may be some among them who confirm without believing it.

116… If man had been able of himself to know that there is a God and a life after death, why has he not known that after death a man is still a man? Why does he believe that his soul or spirit is like a breath of air, or like the ether, and that it has no eyes with which to see, nor ears with which to hear, nor mouth with which to speak, until it shall have been conjoined and combined with its carcass and with its skeleton? Assume then the existence of a doctrine of worship that has been hatched solely from rational light, and will not that doctrine be that a man’s own self is to be worshiped? For ages this is what has been done, and is done at the present day by some who know from the Word that God alone ought to be worshiped. From what is man’s own, any other kind of worship, even that of the sun and moon, is impossible.

The Lord alone has Proprium

Arcana Coelestia 149 [2] Man’s proprium when viewed from heaven looks just like something bony, lifeless, and utterly misshapen, and so in itself something dead. But once it has received life from the Lord it appears as something having flesh. For man’s proprium is something altogether dead, though it has the appearance to him of being something; indeed it appears to be everything. Whatever is living within him comes from the Lord‘s life; and if this were to leave him, he would fall down dead as a stone. For he is purely an organ of life, though the nature of the organ determines that of the life-affection. The Lord alone possesses Proprium. By His Proprium He has redeemed man and by His Proprium saves him. The Lord‘s Proprium is Life, and from His Proprium man’s proprium, which in itself is dead, is given life.

The ‘chinks‘ that arise when we think from the senses

6564…The Lord continually flows in through man’s internal with good and truth, good giving life and its heat, which is love, and truth giving enlightenment and its light, which is faith. But when this influx advances further, namely, into the exteriors, with the evil it is resisted and rejected, or is perverted or stifled; and then according to the rejection, perversion, or stifling, the interiors are closed, an entrance only remaining open here and there as through chinks round about; and from this there remains to the man the capacity to think and will, but against truth and good. This closing penetrates toward the exteriors more and more, according to the life of evil, and the consequent persuasion of falsity, and this down to the sensuous degree, from which then comes the thought. Pleasures and cravings then carry everything off. In such a state are those who are in the hells; for all considerations of what is honorable and good for the sake of gain, honor, and reputation, are taken away from the evil who come into the other life, and then they are in what is sensuous.

It will feel like self compulsion

6567…So long as the mere truth which is of faith predominates with a man, and not the good which is of charity, so long the natural or external man has not been made submissive to the spiritual or internal man. But as soon as good has the dominion, the natural or external man submits himself, and then the man becomes a spiritual church. That such is the case is known from the fact that the man does from affection what the truth teaches, and that he does not act contrary to this affection, however the natural desires it. The very affection and consequent reason have the dominion, and subdue in the natural the delights of the love of self and of the world, as also the fallacies which had filled the memory-knowledges there; and at last so completely that this subjugation comes to be among the man’s pleasures; and then the natural is at rest, and afterward is in agreement; and when it is in agreement, it then partakes of the pleasantness of the internal. From all this it may be known what is meant by the submission of the things in the natural under the internal, which is signified by “his brethren went and fell down before him, and said, Behold we are thy servants.”

As a tree falls, there it lies – the hellish proprium cannot be changed

Spiritual Experiences 4645. HOW IT IS TO BE UNDERSTOOD THAT AS A TREE FALLS, IT REMAINS: MEMORY. So long as a man is alive [in the world], he is in the ultimate of order. He possesses a corporeal memory, which grows, and in which are to be rooted things which are of the interior memory; hence the more harmonies and correspondences of good and truth there are in them and among them, the more he has of life from the Lord, and the more he can be perfected in the other life. But that memory in which interior things are rooted, is exterior or corporeal. Man, after death, has, indeed, all his own exterior or corporeal memory, or the whole and every one of its belongings; but it can no longer grow; and, where it is not, new harmonies and correspondences cannot be formed. And, hence, all things of his interior memory are there, and they are terminated in his exterior memory, although it is not allowed to use this. From these things it may be manifest, what means [the statement] that as the tree falls it remains. Not that he who is in good cannot be perfected: he is perfected, immensely, even to angelic wisdom – but, according to the harmony and correspondence which existed between internals and externals, whilst he was alive in the world. After the life of the body, no one receives external things, but things interior and internal.

Divine Providence 277b. That man must be led away from evil in order to be reformed is evident without explanation; for he that is in evil in the world is in evil after he has left the world; consequently if evil is not removed in the world it cannot be removed afterwards. Where the tree falls there it lies. So, too, does a man’s life when he dies remain such as it has been. Every one is judged according to his deeds; not that these are enumerated, but because he returns to them and acts in the same way; for death is a continuation of life, with the difference that man cannot then be reformed. All reformation is effected in completeness, that is, simultaneously in first principles and in outmosts; and outmosts are reformed in agreement with first principles while man is in the world, and cannot be reformed afterwards, because the outmosts of life that man carries with him after death become quiescent, and are in agreement with his interiors, that is, they act as one.

Heaven and Hell 547. From this it is clear that it is from hell that man does evil, and from the Lord that he does good. But man believes that whatever he does he does from himself, and in consequence of this the evil that he does sticks to him as his own; and for this reason man is the cause of his own evil, and in no way the Lord. Evil in man is hell in him, for it is the same thing whether you say evil or hell. And since man is the cause of his own evil he is led into hell, not by the Lord but by himself. For so far is the Lord from leading man into hell that it is He who delivers man from hell, and this He does so far as man does not will and love to be in his own evil. All of man’s will and love continues with him after death (470-484). He who wills and loves evil in the world wills and loves the same evil in the other life, but he no longer suffers himself to be withdrawn from it. If, therefore, a man is in evil he is tied to hell, and in respect to his spirit is actually there, and after death desires nothing so much as to be where his evil is; consequently it is man who casts himself into hell after death, and not the Lord.

AC 6559…How the case is with returning evil, or with penalties, in the spiritual world, must be told, because from this the internal sense of these words is plain. If evil spirits do any evil in the world of spirits beyond what they have imbued themselves with by their life in the world, punishers are instantly at hand and chastise them in exact accordance with the degree in which they pass these limits; for it is a law in the other life that no one must become worse than he had been in this world. They who are being punished cannot tell how these chastisers know that the evil is beyond what they had imbued themselves with; but they are informed that there is such an order in the other life that the very evil is attended with its penalty, so that the evil of the deed is wholly conjoined with the evil of the penalty, that is to say, its penalty is in the evil itself; and therefore that it is according to order for the requiters to be instantly at hand.

[2] This is what happens when evil spirits do evil in the world of spirits; but in their own hell they chastise one another according to the evil which they had by act imbued themselves with in this world; for this evil they bring with them into the other life. From all this it is evident how it is to be understood that the penalty impends according to the desert, which is signified by the words, “returning he will return unto us all the evil that we requited to him.” But as regards good spirits, if perchance they speak or do evil, they are not punished, but pardoned, and also excused; for their end is not to speak or do evil, and they know that such things are excited in them by hell, so that they have not come to pass by their fault; and the same is also observed from their resistance, and afterward from their grief.

Third Round posts are short audio clips taken from Round 3 comments offered in the online Logopraxis Life Group meetings. The aim is to keep the focus on understanding the Text in terms of its application to the inner life along with reinforcing any key LP principles that have been highlighted in the exchanges.

Arcana Coelestia Genesis Chapter 50:13-22. And his sons carried him into the land of Canaan, and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, which Abraham bought with the field for a possession of a sepulcher, from Ephron the Hittite, upon the faces of Mamre. And Joseph returned into Egypt, he and his brethren, and all that went up with him to bury his father, after he had buried his father. And Joseph’s brethren saw that their father was dead, and they said, Peradventure Joseph will hate us, and returning will return unto us all the evil that we requited to him. And they commanded Joseph, saying, Thy father did command before he died, saying, Thus shall ye say unto Joseph, I pray forgive I pray the transgression of thy brethren, and their sin, because they requited evil to thee; and now forgive I pray the transgression of the servants of the God of thy father. And Joseph wept when they spake unto him. And his brethren also went and fell down before him; and they said, Behold we are thy servants. And Joseph said unto them, Fear ye not; for am I in God’s stead. And you thought evil against me, but God thought it for good, in order to do as it is this day, to keep alive a great people. And now fear ye not: I will sustain you, and your babes. And he comforted them, and spake upon their heart. And Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he and his father’s house; and Joseph lived a hundred and ten years.

6578. And spake upon their heart. That this signifies trust, is evident from the signification of “speaking upon the heart,” as being to impart trust, namely, that evil should not befall; for “to speak” denotes influx (see n. 2951, 5481, 5797), and the “heart” denotes the will (n. 2930, 3888); thus “to speak upon the heart” denotes influx into the will, and the resulting trust. From all this it is also evident that there is a marriage of truth which is of the understanding, and of good which is of the will, in every detail of the Word; for “comforting” is said of the understanding, and “speaking upon the heart,” of the will; therefore also his “comforting them” signifies hope, for this is of the understanding by means of truth; and his “speaking upon their heart” signifies trust, for this is of the will by means of good, because genuine trust is impossible with any but those who are in the good of charity; and genuine hope with any but those who are in the good of faith.

Third Round posts are short audio clips taken from Round 3 comments offered in the online Logopraxis Life Group meetings. The aim is to keep the focus on understanding the Text in terms of its application to the inner life along with reinforcing any key LP principles that have been highlighted in the exchanges.

Arcana Coelestia 6497.Genesis: CH 50 7-11. And Joseph went up to bury his father; and with him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his house, and all the elders of the land of Egypt, 8. And all the house of Joseph, and his brethren, and his father’s house: only their babes, and their flocks, and their herds, they left in the land of Goshen. 9. And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen; and the army was exceeding great. 10. And they came to the threshing-floor Atad, which is in the passage of the Jordan, and they wailed there a very great and grievous wailing; and he made a mourning for his father seven days. 11. And the inhabitant of the land, the Canaanite, saw the mourning in the threshing-floor Atad, and they said, This is a grievous mourning to the Egyptians; wherefore they called the name of it Abel-mizraim, which is in the passage of the Jordan.

Divine Love and Wisdom 69  There are two things proper to nature – space and time. From these man in the natural world forms the ideas of his thought, and thereby his understanding. If he remains in these ideas, and does not raise his mind above them, he is in no wise able to perceive things spiritual and Divine, for these he involves in ideas drawn from space and time; and so far as that is done the light [lumen] of his understanding becomes merely natural. To think from this lumen in reasoning about spiritual and Divine things, is like thinking from the thick darkness of night about those things that appear only in the light of day. From this comes naturalism. But he who knows how to raise his mind above ideas of thought drawn from space and time, passes from thick darkness into light, and has discernment in things spiritual and Divine, and finally sees the things which are in and from what is spiritual and Divine; and then from that light he dispels the thick darkness of the natural lumen, and banishes its fallacies from the middle to the sides. Every man who has understanding is able to transcend in thought these properties of nature, and actually does so.

Arcana Coelestia 3404 [2] In order that it may be still more evident what these appearances of truth are, take also the following example. It is known that the Divine is infinite as to being (Esse), and eternal as to manifestation (Existere), and that the finite is not capable of comprehending the infinite, nor indeed the eternal, for the eternal is the infinite as to manifestation (Existere); and as the Divine Itself is infinite and eternal, all things which are from the Divine are also infinite and eternal, and being infinite cannot possibly be comprehended by angels, because these are finite. For this reason the things which are infinite and eternal are presented before the angels in appearances which are finite; but still in such appearances as are very far above the sphere of man’s comprehension. For example, man cannot possibly have any idea of the eternal except from time; and this being the case, he cannot possibly comprehend what is from eternity, thus what the Divine was before time, or before the world was created. And so long as there is in his thought anything of an idea from time, if he thinks on the subject he must necessarily fall into errors from which he cannot be extricated. But to the angels, who are not in the idea of time, but in the idea of state (of mind), it is given to perceive this most clearly, for the eternal with them is not the eternal of time, but the eternal of state (of mind), without the idea of time. [3] Hence it is manifest in what appearances the angels are in comparison with man, and how much their appearances are above those with man; for man cannot have the smallest thought apart from time and space; whereas the angels derive nothing from these; but in their stead from state (of mind) as to being (Esse) and as to manifestation (Existere). From all this we can see what is the nature of the appearances of truth here treated of, and which are of a higher degree. In what follows, the appearances of truth of a lower degree are treated of in their order, even as they are adapted to mankind.

Spiritual Experiences – Minor ( Interium Diary) 4609. What a mental image of the infinite and eternal is like if the mental imagery is from space and time. I spoke with spirits also about a mental image of the infinite and eternal derived from space and time, saying that an image of them entirely perishes and becomes none, causing disbelief in the Divinity. It was suggested to think of the eternal before the creation of the world, and that if time is in the thought, there is no idea of it. If we think from time, that finite notion arises that there was some beginning to the existence of God, thus that He arose. It is not possible to think otherwise, from time. [2] The case is the same with regard to space outside of the universe, which also cannot exist to infinity, if we think from space. There would be no endpoint, and so forth – although one is never led away from that absurdity except when one’s notion of time and space perishes. The more interiorly anyone is elevated into heaven, the farther he or she is removed from the mental image of time and space; and the more deeply one is removed from heaven, the more one comes into the image of time and space – thus the farther away one is from a mental image of the infinite and eternal, thus from faith. Time and space are what fix human mental imagery and cause it to be entirely earthly and to relate to other imagery, of which the person is unaware. And they constitute the earthly person, who reasons. The same applies to the Divine Humanity of the Lord, whose finite image we conceive of from the bodily properties in ourselves and in others. Unless we are removed from this image, we cannot conceive otherwise than that the Lord is just as any other human being. Likewise, the image of Three in the one God: the numerical image of a trine is one of space and time. From the human, the finite image is conceived of as a separated trine, but according to the angelic mental image as one.

Third Round posts are short audio clips taken from Round 3 comments offered in the online Logopraxis Life Group meetings. The aim is to keep the focus on understanding the Text in terms of its application to the inner life along with reinforcing any key LP principles that have been highlighted in the exchanges.

Arcana Coelestia 6497.Genesis: CH 50 7-11. And Joseph went up to bury his father; and with him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his house, and all the elders of the land of Egypt, 8. And all the house of Joseph, and his brethren, and his father’s house: only their babes, and their flocks, and their herds, they left in the land of Goshen. 9. And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen; and the army was exceeding great. 10. And they came to the threshing-floor Atad, which is in the passage of the Jordan, and they wailed there a very great and grievous wailing; and he made a mourning for his father seven days. 11. And the inhabitant of the land, the Canaanite, saw the mourning in the threshing-floor Atad, and they said, This is a grievous mourning to the Egyptians; wherefore they called the name of it Abel-mizraim, which is in the passage of the Jordan.

They aren’t left but ordered in relation to the rest

6532. They left in the land of Goshen. That this signifies that these were in the inmost of the memory-knowledges of the church, is evident from the signification of the “land of Goshen,” as being the middle or inmost in the natural, where are the memory-knowledges of the church (see n. 5910, 6028, 6031, 6068). That the goods of innocence and charity, interior and exterior (n. 6529-6531), were in that inmost, is signified by their “leaving the little ones, the flocks, and the herds, in the land of Goshen;” for wherever things are left, there they are; thus by “they left” in the internal sense is not here signified leaving, but being there, namely, in the inmost of the memory-knowledges of the church, which is “the land of Goshen.”

The interior making an image of itself in what is more exterior

Heaven and Hell 558. [a] Furthermore, so far as anyone is in heavenly love, which is loving uses and goods and being moved by delight of heart when doing them for the sake of the Church, country, human society, and a fellow-citizen, he is so far led by the Lord, because that love is the love in which the Lord is, and which is from Him. But so far as anyone is in the love of self, which is performing uses and goods for the sake of himself; so far he is led by himself; and so far as anyone is led by himself he is not led by the Lord. And from this it also follows that so far as anyone loves himself he removes himself from the Divine, thus also from heaven. To be led by one’s self is to be led by one’s proprium; and man’s proprium is nothing but evil; for man’s inherited evil is loving self more than God, and the world more than heaven. 1 Whenever man looks to himself in the good that he does, he is let into his proprium, that is, into his inherited evils; for he then looks from goods to himself and not 2 from himself to goods, and therefore he presents an image of himself in his goods, and not an image of the Divine.

Conjugial Love 193 … woman was created out of man by the transcription of his proprial wisdom, which is wisdom from natural truth; and that the love of this wisdom was transferred from man into woman that it might become conjugial love; also that this was done, to the end that in the man there may be, not self love but love of his wife, and she from her innate disposition cannot do otherwise than convert the self love with the man into his love to her. Moreover, I have heard that this is effected by the wife’s love, neither the man nor the wife being conscious of it. Hence it is that no man can ever truly love his partner conjugially if he is in the pride of self- intelligence from love of self.

[3] When this arcanum of the creation of woman out of man is understood, it can be seen that in marriage woman is likewise created, as it were, that is, is formed from man; and that this is effected by the wife, or rather through the wife, by the Lord, it being the Lord who infuses into women the inclination so to act; for the wife receives the man’s image into herself by appropriating to herself his affections (see above, no. 183); also by conjoining the man’s internal will to her own will, of which hereafter; and, moreover, by appropriating to herself the propagations of his soul, of which likewise hereafter. From this it is evident, that in accordance with the description in the Book of Creation interiorly understood, a woman is formed into a wife by means of such things as she takes from her husband and from his breast and inscribes on herself.

CL 183. The angels replied: “Without use, love and wisdom are merely abstract ideas of thought, and after some tarrying in the mind, these pass away like the wind; but in use, the two are brought together and become a one which is called real. Love, being the activity of life, cannot rest unless it is doing something; nor can wisdom exist and subsist except when doing something from love and with it; and doing is use. Therefore we define use as the doing of good from love by means of wisdom. Use is good itself.

[4] Since these three, love, wisdom, and use, flow into the souls of men, it can be evident whence comes the saying that that all good is from God; for every deed done from love by means of wisdom is called good, and use is also a deed. What is love without wisdom but something fatuous? and, without use, what is love together with wisdom but a state of the mind? But with use, love and wisdom not only make the man, they are the man. Indeed, and this perhaps will astonish you, they propagate man; for in man’s seed is his soul in perfect human form, covered over with substances from the purest things of nature, from which, in the mother’s womb, is formed a body. This use is the supreme and ultimate use of Divine Love by means of Divine Wisdom.”

[5] Finally the angels said: “The conclusion then must be that in its origin all fructification, all propagation, and all prolification is from the influx of love, wisdom, and use from the Lord—from immediate influx from the Lord into the souls of men, from mediate influx into the souls of animals, and from influx yet more mediate into the inmost parts of plants; and all are effected in ultimates from firsts. That fructifications, propagations, and prolifications are continuations of creation is evident; for creation can come from no other source than Divine Love by means of Divine wisdom in Divine Use. Therefore, all things in the universe are procreated and formed from use, in use, and for use.”

[6] After this, those sitting on the grassy couches asked the angels, “Whence are the delights of conjugial love, which are innumerable and ineffable?” The angels answered: “They are from the uses of love and wisdom. This can be seen from the fact, that so far as one loves to be wise for the sake of genuine use he is in the vein and potency of conjugial love, and so far as he is in these two he is in its delights. It is use that does this; for when love acts by means of wisdom, 2 the two are in mutual delight, and they sport together like little children, as it were. Then, as they come to adolescence, they join together productively, this being done as though by betrothals, nuptials, marriages, and propagations, and this continually and with variety, to all eternity. This is what takes place between love and wisdom, inwardly present in use.

The grief that is experienced in the shift from a historical faith to a more interior, living faith

6538. Which is in the passage of the Jordan. That this signifies which is a state of initiation into the knowledges of good and truth, is evident from the signification of the “Jordan,” as being initiation into the knowledges of good and truth, thus that which is first of the Lord’s kingdom and church in respect to entrance, and last in respect to exit (see n. 4255); (that the rivers bounding the land of Canaan were representative of the ultimates in the Lord’s kingdom, may be seen above, n. 1585, 4116, 4240); hence by the “passage of Jordan” is signified initiation into the knowledges of good and truth, for the knowledges of good and truth are the first things whereby man is initiated into the things that belong to the church.

6539. And they wailed there a very great and grievous wailing. That this signifies grief, is evident from the signification of a “wailing,” as being grief. The grief here signified is the grief of initiation (see n. 6537); for before the knowledges of good and truth, which are the initiaments, can be planted in good, and thus become the good of the church, there is grief; because another state must be induced on the natural, and the memory-knowledges there must be set in a different order; thus those which the man had previously loved must be destroyed; and therefore he must undergo temptations. Hence comes the grief which is represented by the grievous wailing which they wailed.

Third Round posts are short audio clips taken from Round 3 comments offered in the online Logopraxis Life Group meetings. The aim is to keep the focus on understanding the Text in terms of its application to the inner life along with reinforcing any key LP principles that have been highlighted in the exchanges.

The Word allows the seeing that we are withheld from the evil of the proprium (of what is ‘own’).

Arcana Coelestia 1661.[3] Every man combats first of all from the goods and truths he has received through knowledges; and from them and by them he judges about evils and falsities. Every man also, when he first begins to combat, supposes that the goods and truths from which he combats are his own; that is, he attributes them to himself, and at the same time attributes to himself the power by which he resists. This also is permitted; for the man cannot then know otherwise. Until a man has been regenerated, he cannot possibly know, so as to be able to say that he knows, acknowledges, and believes, that nothing of good and truth is from himself, but that all good and truth are from the Lord; or that he cannot resist any evil and falsity from his own power; for he does not know that evil spirits excite and infuse the evils and falsities; still less that by means of evil spirits he is in communication with hell; and that hell presses upon him as the sea does upon every part of a dike, which pressure of hell no man can possibly resist by his own powers. But as until he has been regenerated a man cannot but suppose that he resists by his own powers, this also is permitted; and thus he is introduced into combats or temptations; but afterwards he is more and more enlightened.

[4] When a man is in such a state that he supposes good and truth to be from himself, and that the power of resisting is his own, then the goods and truths from which he combats against evils and falsities are not goods and truths, although they appear so; for there is what is his own in them, and he places self-merit in victory, and glories as if it were he who had overcome the evil and falsity, when yet it is the Lord alone who combats and overcomes. That this is really the case, none can know but they who are being regenerated by means of temptations.

AC 2406 [2] As regards this matter, few, if any, know that all men without exception are withheld from evils by the Lord, and this by a mightier force than man can ever believe. For the endeavor of every man is continually toward evil, and this both from what is hereditary, into which he is born, and from what is actual, which he has procured for himself; and this to such a degree that if he were not withheld by the Lord, he would rush headlong every moment toward the lowest hell. But the mercy of the Lord is so great that at every moment, even the least, the man is uplifted and held back, to prevent him from rushing thither. This is the case with the good also, but with a difference according to their life of charity and faith. Thus the Lord combats continually with man, and for man with hell, although it does not so appear to the man. That it is really so has been given me to know by much experience, which of the Lord’s Divine mercy will be related elsewhere. (See also n. 929, 1581)

AC 1581 With no one, except the Lord, can the evil that is in the external man be separated. Whatever a man has once acquired, remains; but it seems to be separated when it is quiescent, for thus it appears to be none. Neither does it become quiescent so as to appear as none, except from the Lord; and when it does thus become quiescent, then for the first time do goods flow in from the Lord, and affect the external man. Such is the state of the angels; nor do they know otherwise than that evil has been separated from them; whereas there is only a withholding from the evil, thus a quiescence, so that it appears as none; consequently this is an appearance, as also the angels know when they reflect.

The Word enables the opposite states of hell (of the proprium to be seen)

Heaven and Hell 541. That every good has an opposite evil, and every truth an opposite falsity, may be known from this, that there is not anything that has not reference to its opposite, and that its quality and degree is known from its opposite, and its degree; and this is the origin of all perception and sensation.

True Christian Religion 661. There I went to the head teachers who were giving instruction, and asked them whether they were acquainted with the universals concerning heaven and hell. They replied that they knew something of them, though not much; “But if we look,” said they, “towards the east, we shall receive both enlightenment and knowledge.” [3] They did so and then said: “There are three universals of hell, but they are diametrically opposite to those of heaven. The universals of hell are these three loves: the love of ruling from the love of self, the love of possessing the property of others from the love of the world, and scortatory love. The universals of heaven opposite to these are these three loves: the love of ruling from the love of use, the love of possessing worldly goods from the love of performing uses by means of them, and love truly conjugial.” … [4] Thereupon I examined the first universal love of hell, namely, the love of ruling from the love of self, and afterwards the universal love of heaven corresponding to it, namely, the love of ruling from the love of uses. I was not allowed to examine the one without the other, because the understanding has no perception of one love without the other, for they are opposites. In order, therefore, that both may be perceived they must be placed in contrast, one against the other; just as a beautiful and handsome face is seen to advantage when an ugly and deformed one is placed in contrast with it. When I was considering the love of ruling from the love of self, it was granted me to see that this love was in the highest degree infernal, and consequently prevails with those who are in the deepest hell; and that the love of ruling from the love of uses is in the highest degree celestial, and consequently prevails with those who are in the highest heaven.

Conjugial Love 424. I. THAT THE NATURE OF SCORTATORY LOVE CANNOT BE KNOWN UNLESS THE NATURE OF CONJUGIAL LOVE IS KNOWN. Here, as in no. 423, by scortatory love is meant the love of adultery which destroys conjugial love. That the nature of this scortatory love cannot be known unless the nature of conjugial love is known, has no need of demonstration; it needs only to be illustrated by comparisons. For instance, Who can know what evil and falsity are unless he knows what good and truth are? and who can know what the unchaste is, or the dishonorable, the indecorous, and the ugly, unless he knows what the chaste is, or the honorable, the decorous, and the beautiful? Who can discern insanities save one who is wise, that is, Who knows what Wisdom is? Who can rightly perceive inharmonious stridors save one who by learning and study has absorbed harmonious numbers? In like manner, who can see clearly the nature of adultery unless he has seen clearly the nature of marriage? or Who can set before his judgment the filthiness of the pleasures of scortatory love unless he has previously set before his judgment the cleanness of conjugial love? Because I have now finished The Delights of wisdom concerning Conjugial Love, therefore, from the intelligence thence acquired, I am able to describe the pleasures [of insanity] from scortatory love.

The Word Explained 4736. The cotton, and thus the background, was of a snow-white color. As to what is meant by a snow-white color, this also may be seen explained above [n. 4671], to wit, that which is shining white in spiritual things; thus that which is without blemish; consequently, that which corresponds to the light from which its brightness comes; thus intellectual life which consists in truths, and so, truths themselves, these being likened to rays of light. But the color white is taken, for the reason that in that color all colors are becomingly [presented]. Such is the case in the form of truth, wherein all colors must be becomingly interwoven, as it were, otherwise, truth cannot exist; for it must have a relation to all those things that give due testimony to its verity, and that come near it; and this, moreover, in order that something may be borrowed from opposites, to the end that the truth may be seen distinctly. It is this that is here represented in general, being represented in the interwoven colored threads, from the white to the scarlet red, the mediate colors being the hyacinth and the purple. This every one can comprehend from an intimate examination of colors.

Spiritual Experiences 398. CONCERNING PERMISSIONS. The Doctrine of Permissions is a complete doctrine. He who does not understand permissions, or conclude [rightly] concerning them, falls into doubt and negation concerning the power of God Messiah over the universe. But this should be known: that without permission no one would be able to be reformed; for opposites must be induced in order that forms of truth and of good may exist, which forms derive their existence thus perception, and the like, from opposites. Hence arise temptations, vastations, punishments, the persecutions of the faithful and of the faith, and many more things besides. In a word, without the permission of evils, which must be understood in a right sense, man could never be regenerated and led to the faculties by which he can be bent to good by God Messiah with some perception of it, consequently with some happiness. 1747, Dec. 25.

Third Round posts are short audio clips taken from Round 3 comments offered in the online Logopraxis Life Group meetings. The aim is to keep the focus on understanding the Text in terms of its application to the inner life along with reinforcing any key LP principles that have been highlighted in the exchanges.

On Enlightenment

Doctrine of Sacred Scripture 57. iii. The genuine truth which must be of doctrine appears in the sense of the letter to none but those who are in enlightenment from the Lord. Enlightenment is from the Lord alone, and exists with those who love truths because they are truths and make them of use for life. With others there is no enlightenment in the Word. The reason why enlightenment is from the Lord alone is that the Lord is in all things of the Word. The reason why enlightenment exists with those who love truths because they are truths and make them of use for life is that such are in the Lord and the Lord in them. For the Lord is His own Divine truth, and when this is loved because it is Divine truth (and it is loved when it is made of use), the Lord is in it with the man.

58. The reason why the Word shines and is translucent with such, is that there is a spiritual and celestial sense in every particular of the Word, and these senses are in the light of heaven, so that through these senses and by their light the Lord flows into the natural sense, and into the light of it with a man. This causes the man to acknowledge the truth from an interior perception, and afterwards to see it in his own thought, and this as often as he is in the affection of truth for the sake of truth. For perception comes from affection, and thought from perception, and thus is produced the acknowledgment which is called faith.

No one comes into the spiritual sense of the Word by means of correspondences unless…

56. It might be believed that the doctrine of genuine truth could be procured by means of the spiritual sense of the Word which is furnished through a knowledge of correspondences. But doctrine is not procured by means of that sense, but is only lighted up and corroborated. For as said before (n. 26), no one comes into the spiritual sense of the Word by means of correspondences unless he is first in genuine truths from doctrine. If a man is not first in genuine truths he may falsify the Word by means of some correspondences with which he is acquainted, by connecting them together and interpreting them so as to confirm that which cleaves to his mind from some principle previously received. Moreover the spiritual sense of the Word is not given anyone except by the Lord alone, and it is guarded by Him as heaven is guarded, for heaven is in it. It is better therefore for man to study the Word in the sense of the letter; from this alone is doctrine furnished.

Veiled truths

55. The doctrine of genuine truth can also be drawn in full from the sense of the letter of the Word, because in this sense the Word is like a man clothed whose face and hands are bare. All things that concern man’s life, and consequently his salvation, are bare; but the rest are clothed. In many places also where they are clothed they shine through their clothing, like a face through a thin veil of silk. The truths of the Word also appear and shine through their clothing more and more clearly in proportion as they are multiplied by a love for them, and are ranged in order by this love. But this also is by means of doctrine.

40. The truths of the sense of the letter of the Word are in part not naked truths, but appearances of truth …  But being correspondences they are receptacles and abodes of genuine truth; and are like enclosing and containing vessels, as a crystal cup encloses noble wine, and as a silver plate holds palatable food. They are also like garments which clothe, as swathings do an infant, and a pretty dress a maiden. They are also like the memory-knowledges [scientifica] of the natural man which contain within them perceptions and affections of truth of the spiritual man. The naked truths themselves which are enclosed, held, clothed, and contained, are in the spiritual sense of the Word; and the naked goods are in its celestial sense.

51. i. The Word cannot be understood without doctrine. This is because the Word in the sense of the letter consists exclusively of correspondences, to the end that things spiritual and celestial may be simultaneous or together therein, and that every word may be their container and support. For this reason, in some places in the sense of the letter the truths are not naked, but clothed, and are then called appearances of truth.

Doctrine of Sacred Scripture 50. V. The Doctrine of the church is to be drawn from the sense of the letter of he Word, and is to be confirmed thereby. It has been shown in the preceding chapter that the Word in the sense of the letter is in its fullness, in its holiness, and in its power; and as the Lord is the Word (for He is the all of the Word), it follows that He is most of all present in the sense of the letter, and that from it He teaches and enlightens man.

DSS 51. i. The Word cannot be understood without doctrine. This is because the Word in the sense of the letter consists exclusively of correspondences, to the end that things spiritual and celestial may be simultaneous or together therein, and that every word may be their container and support. For this reason, in some places in the sense of the letter the truths are not naked, but clothed, and are then called appearances of truth. Many truths also are accommodated to the capacity of simple folk, who do not uplift their thoughts above such things as they see before their eyes. There are also some things that appear like contradictions, although the Word when viewed in its own light contains no contradiction. And again in certain passages in the Prophets, names of persons and places are gathered together from which, in the letter, no sense can be elicited, as in those passages adduced above (n. 15). Such being the Word in the sense of the letter, it is evident that it cannot be understood without doctrine.

Third Round posts are short audio clips taken from Round 3 comments offered in the online Logopraxis Life Group meetings. The aim is to keep the focus on understanding the Text in terms of its application to the inner life along with reinforcing any key LP principles that have been highlighted in the exchanges.