To call someone or summon someone in the Bible, according to Swedenborg, represents a desire for conjunction between higher and lower spiritual states. For instance, imagine someone in a relatively external intellectual state – someone who understands a lot about the world and how things work on an external level – getting intrigued by deeper, more spiritual ideas and seeking out a teacher or mentor with an understanding of spiritual things. That seeking out might be described in the Bible as a “call.”
A call can also be me made by someone in a higher state to someone in a lower one – certainly the case when the Lord calls people.
Passages from Swedenborg
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 3609
3609. ‘And she [sent and] summoned Jacob her younger son, and said to him’ means a state in which the affection for truth discerned from an influx coming by way of Divine Truth…. This is clear from the representation of Rebekah – the one who ‘summoned’ and ‘said’ – as the Divine Truth of the Lord’s Divine Rational joined to the Divine Good of that Divine Rational; from the representation of ‘Jacob’ as natural truth or the affection for truth there, dealt with already; and from the meaning of ‘summoning him’ and ‘saying to him’ as a state of perception, also dealt with already, here a state of discernment since the Natural is the subject.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 5244
5244. ‘And Pharaoh sent’ means the inclination of the new natural. This is clear from the representation of ‘Pharaoh’ as the new natural man, dealt with in 5079, 5080. An inclination to accept the celestial of the spiritual is the meaning of the words ‘sent and called Joseph’. Such an inclination is evident from what follows, in verses 40-43, where it is stated that Pharaoh set him over his house and over all the land of Egypt and said that all his people would kiss him on the mouth. The implications of this are that when the state is complete, that is, when everything has been made ready in the natural to accept an influx from what is interior or higher and to link itself to what flows into it, the natural too possesses that inclination, which is an affection disposed to accept [the celestial of the spiritual]. The one accordingly becomes compatible with the other when a person is being renewed by the Lord.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 6047
6047. ‘And it may be, that Pharaoh may call you’ means if the natural in which the Church’s factual knowledge resides wishes to be joined to you. This is clear from the meaning of ‘calling to oneself’ as wishing to be joined to, for the call to them, made with affection, to live in his land and become a single nation together with his subjects is the expression of a wish to be joined to them; and from the representation of ‘Pharaoh’ as the natural in which the Church’s factual knowledge resides, as above in 6042. Pharaoh’s call to them means the response made to the introduction and joining together, that is to say, the joining of the Church’s factual knowledge to truths and forms of good in the natural. For every joining together requires such a response and therefore agreement on both sides.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 6335
6335. ‘And Jacob called his sons’ means organizing the truths of faith and the forms of the good of love in the natural. This is clear from the meaning of ‘calling’ as arranging into order, for the reason why they were called together was so that the truths of faith and the forms of the good of charity might be set forth in that organized arrangement; and from the representation of ‘Jacob’ and ‘his sons’ as the truths of faith and the forms of the good of love in the natural…
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 6840
6840. ‘And Jehovah* called to him’ means an influx from the Divine. This is clear from the meaning of ‘calling’ as an influx; for what is meant in the internal sense is not a calling effected by spoken language, as in the external sense written as history, but a calling effected by influx into the will, which is an inner calling. For Jehovah or the Lord flows into the will, and in so doing impels a person to do what He pleases. When this inner experience comes to be portrayed by events on a historical level, a level on which everything is of an external nature, it comes to be expressed by the verbs ‘command’, ‘call’, or ‘speak to’, or others like them.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 7955
7955. ‘And he called Moses and Aaron by night’ means the afflux of truth from God in that state. This is clear from the meaning of ‘he called’ as presence and influx (or flowing into), dealt with in 6177, 6840, 7790, 7451, 7721, at this point an afflux (or flowing towards) since it is speaking about those in a state of damnation, that is, in a state of nothing but falsity arising from evil (these people are unable to receive into themselves inwardly any influx of truth and good; they receive it only outwardly, which is afflux); representation of ‘Moses and from the Aaron’ as the truth from God, dealt with in 6771, 6827 (the expression ‘the truth from God’ is used, not ‘God’s truth’, because it has reference to those lost in damnation); and from the meaning of ‘by night’ as a state of damnation, dealt with above in 7851, 7870.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 7390
7390. ‘And Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron’ means the presence of the law of God. This is clear from the meaning of ‘calling’ as presence, dealt with in 6177 (the reason why ‘calling’ means presence is that a person calls someone when he wishes to speak to him or to convey his thoughts, and in the next life it is in keeping with the law of order that the person to whom someone wishes to speak and desires to convey his thoughts comes to be present); from the representation of ‘Pharaoh’ as those who are steeped in falsities and engage in molestation, often dealt with already; and from the representation of ‘Moses’ as inward law, and the representation of ‘Aaron’ as outward law, both dealt with above in 7381.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 8761
8761. ‘And Jehovah called to him from the mountain’ means the union of Divine Good in heaven with Divine Truth there. This is clear from the meaning of ‘calling to him’, or calling someone to oneself, when said of the Divine, as a joining together, at this point a union, since it is said in reference to Divine Good and Divine Truth, which by being joined together are made one