Swedenborg says that in the Bible, the wind represents the power of the Lord working on us through the heavens — something that is always happening, but something that can be more or less direct and which can push us in different directions, depending on our spiritual states.
It’s interesting to note that the sun corresponds to the Lord, that its heat corresponds to the Lord’s love and its light to the Lord’s wisdom. In the natural world, the sun’s heat causes wind by warming the air. In the spiritual world, the Lord’s love causes spiritual wind by acting through heaven.
The Bible also talks about four winds, an east wind and a “wind of the sea.” The four winds stand for the whole of the impact of the Lord’s love. The east wind is withering, devastating – it represents the Lord’s love as experienced by those in hell. The west wind represents stopping or turning aside the flow of the Lord’s love – in Israel the “wind of the sea” would come from the west, opposing the east wind.
Passages from Swedenborg
Apocalypse Explained (Tansley) n. 418
- Holding the four winds of the earth.- That this signifies the modification of its influx, is evident from the signification of the four winds of the earth, as denoting all the Divine in heaven, of which we shall speak presently; and from the signification of holding them as meaning to modify its influx. But what the modification of the influx of the Divine in heaven means, no one can know but him to whom it is revealed, and consequently in regard to the signification of holding the four winds of the earth. Without revelation, who would not suppose that by the winds are meant winds which the angels held back, for it is said, “that thewind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree.” But by the winds of the earth, here as elsewhere in the Word, is signified all the Divine from the Lord in heaven, specifically the Divine Truth, and for the reason that it flows from the Lord as the Sun into the whole heaven, and thence into the whole earth. Therefore, by holding the winds is signified to modify influx. But, in order that these things may be more clearly understood, the operation of that influx shall also be explained.
Apocalypse Explained (Tansley) n. 419
- That the wind should not blow.- That this signifies lest the good should be hurt, and the evil rejected before the day, is evident from the signification of wind as denoting the proceeding Divine, which is the Divine Good united with the Divine Truth; therefore, that “the wind should not blow,” signifies that it might flow in softly and gently. “That that windshould not blow upon the earth” signifies that the good should not be injured, and the evil rejected before the day, for the reason that separations of the good from the evil, and castings out of the evil, in the spiritual world, are effected by various degrees of modification and of intensity of the Divine which proceeds from the Lord as the Sun. When this flows in gently, then the good are separated from the evil; and when powerfully, the evil are rejected.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 7679
- ‘And Jehovah brought an east wind’ means an agent of destruction. This is clear from the meaning of ‘an east wind’ as an agent of destruction. ‘An east wind’ has this meaning because it was dry and turbulent, and because it therefore withered the produce of that land, and by its force shattered trees, and ships at sea. This is why that wind, acting as an agent [of destruction], describes the effect that Divine power can have. In addition ‘the east’ means the good of love and charity, for the Lord is meant by it in the highest sense, 101, 1250, 3708. Also, being Divine, the good of love and charity is in origin very gentle, and consequently is also such in its movements when it passes into heaven. But when it comes down into hell it becomes rough and fierce, because the inhabitants of hell make it so. Therefore the inflow and presence there of that Divine good not only torments them but also devastates them. This too explains why a windfrom the east or ‘an east wind’ means an agent of destruction.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 7702
- ‘And Jehovah turned an [extremely] strong wind of the sea means a stoppage of the Divine inflow through heaven. This is clear from the meaning of ‘a wind of the sea ,which is a west wind, as a stoppage of the Divine inflow through heaven. For ‘an eastwind’ has meant an agent of destruction by reason of the Divine inflow through heaven, see 7643, 7679, and therefore ‘a wind of the sea or west wind, blowing in the opposite direction to the eastwind, means a stoppage of that inflow.
AR 343
[2] Now for the exposition:
The four winds symbolize an influx of the heavens. The earth, the sea, and every tree symbolize all the lower regions and all that they contain�-�the earth and sea symbolizing all the lower regions, and every tree all that they contain.
That a wind symbolizes influx�-�properly speaking, the influx of truth into the intellect�-�can be seen from the following passages:
Thus says the Lord Jehovih, “Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.” (Ezekiel 37:9, 10)
(There appeared four chariots to which were harnessed four horses.) These are the four winds of the heavens…. (Zechariah 6:1-5)
You must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes, and…cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. (John 3:7, 8)
The Maker of the earth…prepares the world by His wisdom…. He brings the wind out of His treasuries. (Jeremiah 10:12, 13, 51:15, 16, cf. Psalm 135:7)
He causes His wind to blow, and the waters flow. He declares His Word…, His statutes and His judgments…. (Psalm 147:18, 19)
It praises Jehovah…, the stormy wind, doing His Word…. (Psalm 148:7, 8)
(Jehovah) makes His angels winds…. (Psalm 104:4)
(Jehovah) rode…upon the wings of the wind. (Psalm 18:10, cf. 104:3)
The wings of the wind are Divine truths that flow in. The Lord is therefore called “the breath of our nostrils” (Lamentations 4:20), and we are told that He “breathed into (Adam’s) nostrils the breath of life” (Genesis 2:7); moreover, that “He breathed on (the Disciples) and said…, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20:21, 22). The Holy Spirit is the Divine truth emanating from the Lord, the influx of which into the Disciples was represented and thus symbolized by the Lord’s breathing on them.
[3] A wind and breathing symbolize the influx of Divine truth into the intellect, owing to the correspondence of the lungs with the intellect, a treatment of which may be seen in Angelic Wisdom Regarding Divine Love and Wisdom, nos. 371�429.
Since a closer and stronger Divine influx through the heavens dispels truths in the case of evil people, therefore a windsymbolizes the dispersion of truth in them, and thus their conjunction with hell and perishing�-�as may be seen from the following passages:
I will bring upon Elam the four winds from the four ends of heaven and scatter him. (Jeremiah 49:36)
You shall scatter them, that the wind may carry them away and the storm disperse them. (Isaiah 41:16)
The breath of Jehovah, like a stream of brimstone, sets them on fire. (Isaiah 30:33)
The workers of iniquity…perish by the breathing of God, and by the breath of His nostrils they are consumed. (Job 4:8, 9)
…the foundations of the world were uncovered at the rebuke (of Jehovah), at the blast of the breath of Your nostrils. (Psalm 18:15)
I saw in my vision…, and behold, the four winds…were rushing upon the Great Sea. And four beasts came up…. (Daniel 7:2, 3ff.)
…from a storm of Jehovah has gone forth fury…. It will rush upon the head of the wicked. (Jeremiah 23:19, 30:23)
O my God…, …pursue them with Your storm, …frighten them with Your tempest. (Psalm 83:13, 15)
(Jehovah’s) way in the storm and in the tempest…. (Nahum 1:3)
And so also elsewhere, as in Jeremiah 25:32, Ezekiel 13:13, Hosea 8:7, Amos 1:14, Zechariah 9:14, Psalm 11:6, 50:3, 55:8, and Psalm 107, where we read:
…He commands the stormy wind to blow…. (God) causes the storm to subside, so that its waves are still. (Psalm 107:25, 29)
[4] It is apparent from this what is symbolically meant in the spiritual sense by the following:
(Jesus in the boat) rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “…be still!” And…there was a…calm. (Mark 4:39, cf. Luke 8:23, 24)
The sea here symbolizes hell, and the wind an influx from it.
A strong influx, too, is symbolically meant by the east wind in Ezekiel 17:10, Jeremiah 18:17, Ezekiel 19:12, Hosea 13:15, Psalm 48:7. And by that same wind which dried up the Red Sea (Exodus 14:21), regarding which Moses said:
At the blast of Your nostrils the waters were heaped up…. You blew with Your wind, the sea covered them. (Exodus 15:8, 10)
It can now be seen from this that holding back the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, symbolizes the holding back and restraining of a closer and thus stronger influx into the lower regions.