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by
the Rev. Dave Sonmor
I
have long been intrigued by the
Biblical correspondence of heat
and light in the natural world
with the Divine Love and the
Divine Wisdom of God in the
spiritual world. Here we receive
heat and light from our sun. The
Spiritual world receives its heat
and light from the Lord the
creator of all things, who appears
as a sun in the spiritual world. I
shall look at these
correspondences as they can be
seen in their relationships with
the seasons in a year, with day
and night, with variations between
opposites such as light and
darkness and the degrees of
differences in things such as love
and understanding. But first I
would like to show in diagram form
the things that are associated
with the Divine Love and Divine
Wisdom of the Lord and how they
descend in form and quality as
they pass down from the Divine
through the heavens and world of
spirits to the world of nature.
We
can see from the diagram the
descent of love as the Divine
Proceeding from itself moves
downward in quality from Divine
Love to Spiritual Love, and then
from Angelic love to Natural Love
where it is manifested in human
beings in various forms of good.
We can also see the Divine Wisdom
descending to Spiritual wisdom
manifested and adapted to the
understanding of angels and
spirits and then on down to
natural knowledge which is
manifested in and through humans
as forms of truth, knowledge and
understanding with respect to both
physical and spiritual matters. We
can also begin to comprehend the
idea that there is a
correspondence or direct link
between the degree of love and
wisdom at the Divine level to the
spiritual level and then to the
natural level. These changes in
the substance and quality of love
and wisdom manifest themselves in
different ways at the lower levels
because at the spiritual and
natural levels they are dependant
on the abilities of mankind to
recognize and utilize them. We can
also see that there are both
discrete degrees and continuous
degrees of difference in which the
love and wisdom are manifested at
the lower levels, but more on this
later.
In
order to fully comprehend the
meaning of the correspondence of
heat and light to good and truth,
as it is represented in Holy
Scripture, we must first be humble
in respect to our own intellect
and ability to accept that our
capacity to comprehend is limited
to what is spiritual and natural,
but does not include or extend to
what is Divine. Therefore it is
only through faith that we can
accept the whole concept of the
Divine creating everything we are
aware of, and that the Divine
itself is incomprehensible to us.
Once we accept this limitation we
are free to move forward and
examine and understand the whole
structure and operation of our
human life and the correspondences
that exist between what is
spiritual and what is natural and
their connection to the Divine.
When
we accept that God is essentially
Divine Love and Divine Wisdom we
can see that by proceeding out
from Himself He could create from
His Divine Realm a living
Spiritual Universe and a living
Natural Universe in descending
order, all of which are lesser
forms of His love. This was done
by means of His Divine Wisdom. We
can also see the important role
that the human race plays in
returning, the love it receives,
back up through the system. Love
accepted, used and shared goes
back up from the natural realm
through the spiritual realm to the
Divine realm thus completing the
circle. In this concept we can
also see why there is orderliness
in all natural things which we can
now examine scientifically and
with great precision, by means of
microscopic technology. We can see
both the physical vastness of the
universe and the minute detail of
atomic particles. We seem to be
much slower at understanding the
human psyche, and limit our
understanding of love basically to
physical sensation, or a feeling
we cannot understand. Poets and
song writers try time and again to
express what it is in verse and
song but few people ever really
understand it as they approach it
intellectually. I recall one time,
in an English Literature class at
University, that the Professor
read a lengthy poem and when he
was finished reading he asked the
class if anyone knew what the
theme of the poem was. No one
answered so he asked again and
after a brief time I raised my
hand and said that the theme was
"love". He asked me how
I knew and I said that it was
because "love" and words
associated with it were the most
frequently used words in the poem.
He said that was exactly correct.
But sadly that was all we could do
to explain what the poet was
talking about. Thinking about this
now, in retrospect. I can see that
the "beautiful flowing
tresses", "sweet
innocent smiles" and
"tender looks" expressed
in the poem were all
correspondences of love.
"Love", in the
dictionary love is said to be a
noun or an adjective, that is a
"thing". Yet Jesus told
His followers that they should
love God and love the neighbor,
which is an action not just a
description. His whole act of
creation was an act of love and we
can only experience true love
ourselves through actions, which
include; kindness, compassion,
benevolence, friendliness, respect
and considerateness in our
relations with Him and with one
another.
God
also provided for us the
experience of true marriage love
and the love we have for our
children and parents. These are
examples of the essence of love
that we get to enjoy even though
we may not understand it. It is
the experience of loving other
persons more than we love our-self
and are therefore willing to put
their safety and wellbeing ahead
of our own. This purest form of
love then extends to include
friends, neighbors, our community,
church, country, natural
environment and the world at
large. Ultimately it extends to
the Lord God who has made this
life possible.
The
story of creation in the Bible
indicates that at various stages
of development, God saw what He
had created and saw that it was
good. When creation was completed
He saw it as "very good"
because His creation was complete
with the development of a being
with spiritual/natural qualities
and characteristics who could
think with reason about the
creator and creation, and who
could experience and return the
love from which it had been
created. This human being also has
the intelligence and ability to
understand and relate to the
wisdom that is inherent in his
creation.
We
are told in the writings of the
New Church that the most ancient
people knew, intrinsically, the
correspondences between what is
natural and what is spiritual. We
can see signs of this
characteristic even today among
some aboriginal peoples. Anders
Hallengren, in his book, Gallery
of Mirrors Reflections On
Swedenborgian Thought, indicates,
for example, that the Ten
Commandments can be found in
ancient Tibetan-Mongolian canon.
However, because the vast majority
of the human race lost the
intrinsic ability of seeing the
correspondence between their
natural world and the spiritual
world, due to their increasing
store of knowledge and the
evolution of our ability to think
and reason, it was necessary for
the Lord God to reveal Himself in
human form and life. Later on He
revealed the correspondences of
Divine and spiritual things with
natural things, which exists in
The Word which is our Bible.
Before
creation began there was nothing
except the Divine. We can imagine
that this Divine Being had an idea
that He would like to share His
love and His wisdom with another
being who could receive His love
through the ability to think and
reason and could thus return the
love by sharing it with others and
by adoration of its source, while
at the same time opening itself to
receive even more love. And this
for eternity.
The
beginning state is described in
the Book of Genesis as "void
and darkness." This is a
state of nothingness which we will
see is related to the opposites of
what really has existence or life.
Then God created the heavens and
the earth, and said "Let
there be light," and He saw
that the light was good. As the
heavens or Spiritual Universe was
established first we can see that
it was an atmosphere in which
spiritual beings would be able to
exist in close relationship to the
Lord.
The
spiritual beings would come from
the human race. They would begin
their existence in the natural
world on earth. In order for human
beings to exist and propagate
there had to be a natural/physical
world which could facilitate and
support their development. This
"human being" had to be
capable of both natural and
spiritual life and had to develop
in a state of freedom in which it
was free to choose to love the
Lord or not as it is the very
nature of love to not force itself
on anyone. Love must be
reciprocal; freely accepted and
freely given. This is learned and
developed in us in the natural
world prior to our ascension into
the Spiritual Universe.
In
the twelve volumes of the Arcana
Coelestia (Heavenly Secrets)
Swedenborg reveals the
correspondences of all words,
which we can see is a massive
undertaking. For our purposes here
I intend to concentrate primarily
on the correspondences of love and
wisdom with heat and light and
associated words. Our diagram
shows Divine Love becoming
Spiritual love and descending to
natural love . At the spiritual
level it manifests itself as heat
in forms of: love, will, goodness,
charity and warmth. These are real
spiritual qualities and entities
which are found in the heavens of
the Spiritual Universe. In the
Natural Universe they are
manifested in material things that
serve a positive use in sustaining
life in our world. Things that are
of the mineral kingdom contribute
to the life of the vegetable
kingdom which in turn supports the
animal kingdom and ultimately
mankind.
Swedenborg
explained this very well in his
book Divine love and Wisdom n.52.
The
universe in greatest and least
things, and in first and last
things is so filled with Divine
Love and Wisdom that it may be
said to be Divine Love and Wisdom
in an image. That this is so is
clearly evident from the
correspondence of all things of
the universe with all things of
man. Each and every thing which
exists in the created universe has
such a correspondence with each
and every thing of man, that it
may be said that man (both
collectively and individually) is
also is a kind of universe. There
is a correspondence of his
affections and hence of his
thoughts with all things of the
animal kingdom; of his will and
hence of his understanding with
all things of the vegetable
kingdom; and of his ultimate life
with all things of the mineral
kingdom.
It
is not apparent to anyone in the
natural world that there is such a
correspondence; but it is apparent
to everyone who gives heed to it
in the spiritual world. In that
world there are all the things
which exist in the three kingdoms
in the natural world, and they are
correspondences of affections and
thoughts, of affections derived
from the will and of thoughts
derived from the understanding, as
well as of the ultimate things of
the life of those who are there;
and both the former and the latter
appear around them in such an
aspect as in the created universe,
with the difference that it is a
lesser effigy. From these things
it is manifestly clear to the
angels that the created universe
is an image representative of
God-Man, and that it is His Love
and Wisdom which are presented in
an image in the universe. Not that
the created universe is God-Man,
but that it is from Him. For
nothing whatever in the created
universe is substance and form in
itself, nor love and wisdom in
itself, indeed neither is man a
man in himself, but all is from
God, Who is Man, Wisdom and Love,
and Form and Substance in Himself.
These
ideas are also reflected in the
words of the Psalmist in Psalm 33
verses 4-9:
For
the word of the Lord is right; And
all His work is done in
faithfulness. He loves
righteousness and justice: The
earth is full of the loving
kindness of the Lord. By the word
of the Lord were the heavens made,
And all the host of them by the
breath of His mouth. He gathered
the waters of the sea together as
a heap: He laid up the deeps in
store-houses. Let all the earth
fear the Lord: Let all the
inhabitants of the world stand in
awe of Him. For He spoke, and it
was done; He commanded, and it
stood fast.
At
this point it is necessary to go
back to our diagram once again and
look at the devolution of Divine
Wisdom to spiritual truth,
knowledge, discernment and light
and then to natural light, truth
and understanding. The tree of the
knowledge of good and evil
introduces an element of something
that is the opposite of what God's
creation was made from. When
mankind developed to a certain
point because it had been given
the ability to think and reason,
it then had the ability to develop
ideas that were contrary to the
truth, or were false. Along with
that came the tendency to act
according to false ideas and
principles and consequently to do
evil. Thus in the language of
correspondences we find words and
things of good and truth along
with their opposites which we call
things of evil and falsity. As
there is variety and degrees of
goodness and truth so too there
are corresponding varieties and
degrees of evil and falsity. Every
good has its opposite and every
truth has its opposite.
The
Sun of the Spiritual Universe
corresponds to the sun of the
Natural Universe. It contains the
manifestation of the Divine Love
of the Lord God by means of His
Divine Wisdom. We can see in the
action of our natural world that
the source of all light and heat
does not vary but it is our earth
that revolves around our sun and
by this action causes periods of
warmth and periods of cold,
periods of light and periods of
darkness. These changes are
manifested in changes from daytime
to night time and in the various
seasons of the year. When the
earth turns toward the sun we have
heat and light and when it turns
away from the sun we have cold and
darkness. In our life we have
times when we turn away from the
Lord and look toward our-self and
the world, which is love of self,
a state that lacks real love for
others and real truth . Then we
will turn again toward the Lord
and feel the change in our life
move from this selfishness toward
charity for others and love for
the Lord. We are not static, but
constantly fluctuating from one
state to the other and also
experiencing many variations and
degrees of love and truth. It is
not only our physical mind and
body that experiences these
changes but our spiritual body as
well which we hope that, over
time, will be looking more and
more to the Lord and less and less
toward our self and the world.
Let
us now take a closer look at this
matter of opposites. If we accept
the idea that Love and Wisdom and
their derivatives are the basic
realities of life we can conclude
that they are the things that are
real and their opposites, with
their associated words, are really
nothing. For example Heat is a
reality, it exists from the sun.
Cold is nothing. It is nothing but
the absence of heat and we
experience it only when we are
deprived of heat. We experience
this in endless degrees from our
earth turning away from the sun in
winter to our backs becoming cold
when we only face toward a
campfire on a fall evening. As the
heat generated from the Lord's
Divine Love manifests itself in
spiritual love and natural love,
it is expressed in what is good
and charitable and useful. We can
accept that those things are real.
Whereas their opposites which
include such things as hatred,
selfishness, greed and avarice,
exist only because the love is not
present. When we turn our back to
the love of the Lord and of others
and seek only satisfaction for our
self, we lose the warmth of love
and become cold and useless to
society and to the Lord because we
have, in effect rejected Him. He
is constant and always available
to us, but we must turn to Him out
of freedom and love for Him and
reject our love of self and the
world.
We
can view light in the same way.
Because light has its origin in
the wisdom of God it is a real
substantial thing. Darkness on the
other hand, is merely the absence
of light. Light, because it is
derived from Divine Wisdom,
corresponds to truth and is
manifested in things associated
with truth, which includes,
knowledge, the opposite of which
is the lack of enlightenment,
understanding, the opposite of
which is ignorance, and
discernment, the opposite of which
is a lack of judgement. When we
turn away from God we are turning
away from wisdom, truth,
knowledge, intelligence,
enlightenment and judgement in
both the natural and spiritual
sense. We believe and claim that
we have these attributes from
within our-selves and see all
other people and things as being
subservient to us. We know that
the light of the moon is merely a
reflection of the light from the
sun. So to the truth of the Lord
is reflected among us by acts of
sharing with one another the
knowledge we gain from the Lord.
When
we consider the combination of
light and heat being the
combination of love and wisdom we
see an extremely powerful force
working in our midst. If we align
ourselves with what is good and
true then we become a part of that
force and in so doing serve the
Lord our God and all mankind. To
speak comparatively, truth is then
like the light of the sun in the
springtime, which has heat in its
bosom, from which all things on
the earth are made to vegetate,
and are as it were animated. This
celestial truth is the beautiful
itself, or beauty itself. This is
the truth which is here (Genesis
12.11) called "a woman
beautiful to look upon." Arcana
Coelestia 1470
It
is difficult to comprehend that
evil and falsity are basically
"nothing" when we know
that we encounter them every day.
But we can see that if we do not
have them in our own life then
they cannot touch us. There is no
room for them in us. We still know
however that others may be
involved in things that are
considered to be evil and false
and we see the results and
destructiveness of their actions.
It is impossible to not encounter
them. What is important though is
how we deal with them. We must
ever seek the Lords assistance and
protection. We can also make it
our constant practice to choose
that which is good and true over
that which is evil and false. I
would like to end with this
Prayer:
Dear
Lord: I am so sorry that we are
such course unfeeling beings, that
we cannot recognize you when you
come into our presence. We are so
blind in so many ways and yet you
offer us your unconditional love
and truth even though it pains you
to see our wretched condition. We
ask that you help us to gain
respect for your Divine Love and
Divine Wisdom as it manifests
itself in our lives; in the lives
of unborn babes and in the poor
and the weak, and the sick and the
oppressed. Help us to pay more
attention to your Divine Word,
which is so beautiful in the way
it can guide us and support us and
teach us to live with one another
in harmony and peace. Lord, we
pray that your love will reach the
hard hearts of mankind and soften
them so we will dream of peace and
not of war.
Lord
Jesus, help us to understand that
evil is nothing but the absence of
good and falsity is naught but the
absence of truth, and where love
and truth reigns in the hearts of
men, then evil and falsity, with
its pain and sorrow cannot abide
and soon departs; and what is
false and foolish cannot affect
the mind that rests in you.
Oh
Lord. Reach out to me and take me
in your arms, enfold me with your
love, and clothe me in your truth.
I love you Lord. I am so thankful
for every act of love that I can
share, and I feel so blessed with
all I have. Be with me God, for
now and evermore. Amen
Home
Music:
Dream of Angels, Live in Love
© Bruce De Boer - Used with
Permission
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