According to Swedenborg, “air” in the Bible represents thought, but in a very general way – more like our capacity to perceive ideas and the way we tend to think, rather than our specific ideas about specific things.
This makes sense, if you think about it. We see the world around us through the air, and seeing corresponds to understanding. We hear through the air, and hearing corresponds to being taught and obeying. Birds fly in the air, and they represent specific thoughts and ideas. And breathing itself – taking in air and passing oxygen to the blood – represents our understanding of true spiritual ideas.
Passages from Swedenborg
Apocalypse Revealed (Rogers) n. 423
- And the sun and the air were darkened because of the smoke of the pit. This symbolically means that therefore the light of truth became thick darkness.
The sun and the air here symbolize the light of truth, for the sun symbolizes love, and the light from it, Divine truth. Consequently, when we are told that the sun was darkened, and with it the air, it symbolically means that Divine truth became thick darkness. That this resulted from falsities accompanying lusts is symbolically meant by its being because of the smoke of the pit.
Apocalypse Explained (Tansley) n. 1012
- (v. 17) And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air. That this signifies the state of the church manifested as to all things of thought, is evident from the signification of the angel pouring out the vial, as denoting the state of the church manifested, as above; and from the signification of the air, as denoting thought, in this case everything of thought, because it is the last state of the church that is here described; therefore on the manifestation of that state, it is said, “It is done, that is, consummated.”
The reason why the air signifies thought is, that respiration, which takes place by means of the air, corresponds to the thought of the understanding, as the motion of the heart corresponds to the affection of the will. That the respiration of the lungs corresponds to thought is quite clear from the fact that their operation is simultaneous and synchronous. For as a man thinks so he breathes. If he thinks tacitly he also breathes tacitly, and, on the contrary, if he thinks forcibly. If he thinks intensely and interiorly in himself, he then by degrees checks respiration, and also suspends it. Thus a man varies the state of his respiration in accommodation to every state of his thought. The reason is, that a man has two lives – the life of the understanding and the life of the will; and all the things of the body correspond to those two lives of the mind. Thus, in general, the life of the respiration corresponds to the life of the understanding and of the thought therefrom; and the life of the motion of the heart corresponds to the life of the will and of the love therefrom. These two lives are also meant by soul and heart in the Word, where it is said, with the whole soul and the whole heart, which signifies with the whole understanding and the whole will; or, with every thought of faith, and every affection of love. These things are said, in order that it may be known, that by the air is signified thought, because breathing takes place by its means.
Apocalypse Revealed (Rogers) n. 708
- 16:17 Then the seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air. This symbolizes influx from the Lord into all of these things at the same time in people of the Protestant Reformed Church.
The seventh angel’s pouring out his bowl symbolizes, here as before, influx. The airsymbolizes the whole scope of their perception and thought, thus of their faith, and consequently also the character generally of all those people in that church caught up in a faith divorced from charity. For air symbolizes their respiration, and respiration corresponds to the intellect, thus to perception and thought, and also faith, because faith is a matter of thought in accordance with the intellect’s perception.