In the physical world, the places we inhabit and the distances between them are physical realities, and we have to get our physical bodies through the physical space between to get from one physical place to another physical place. In the spiritual world described in Swedenborg, however, the “places” we inhabit and the “distances” between them are spiritual realities, which means they are reflections of our thoughts and affections. “Going” from one place to another, then, is a change in spiritual state – exploring different thoughts and embracing different feelings.
Since the Bible is a spiritual book, “going” in the Bible also (according to Swedenborg) indicates a change or progression in spiritual state, from one mode of thinking and feeling to another mode of thinking and feeling.
Obviously, this makes the precise meaning of “go” in the Bible highly dependent on context: Who is going? Where are they going? Why are they going there? Are they following someone or something? Those questions are crucial to the precise meaning.
Used on its own, though, “going” represents the normal progression of life, moving through spiritual states as the Lord intends. This makes even more sense if you consider that when early parts of the Bible were written, most people were nomadic and moved from place to place in a regular progression of life.
Passages from Swedenborg
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 1293
1293. ‘And they dwelt there’ means the life that resulted. This becomes clear from the meaning in the Word of ‘dwelling’ as living. The expression to dwell occurs many times in both the prophetical and the historical sections of the Word, and in the internal sense it as a rule means to live. The reason is that the most ancient people dwelt in tents and celebrated their most holy worship in them, and this also is why ‘tents’ in the Word means the holiness of worship, as shown in 414. And since ‘tents’ meant the holiness within worship, ‘dwelling’ in a good sense also means living, or life. In a similar way it is because the most ancient people travelled around with their tents that ‘travelling’ in the internal sense of the Word means the established patterns and order of life.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 2858
2858. ‘And went together to Beersheba’ means advancement in the doctrine of charity and faith, which doctrine is Divine and to which human rational ideas were allied. This is clear from the meaning of ‘Beersheba’ as the doctrine of charity and faith, which is Divine and to which human rational ideas were allied, dealt with in 2614, 2723.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 2684
2684. ‘She went and sat by herself some distance away’ means a state of thought. This becomes clear from the meaning of ‘going’ and also of ‘sitting by herself’ and of doing so ‘some distance away’ as these phrases are used in connection with what comes before and after. ‘Going’ – here going away from the boy – means a removal from spiritual truth, which removal is further expressed and defined by its being said that she withdrew ‘about a bowshot’. ‘Sitting by herself’ means a state of feeling alone, as the state of thought is during grief and despair. ‘Some distance away’ means so that she could not bear to look and yet could not bear not to look – for ‘looking’ means thinking, see 2245, which also is further expressed and defined by her saying, ‘Let me not see the death of the boy; and she sat some distance away’. Thus embodied in these words is the state of thought of those who experience desolation of truth and consequently experience despair.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 3335
3335. ‘And went’ means life. This is clear from the meaning of ‘going’ as advances into things that are matters of good, that is, of life, for all good is the good of life. The meaning is almost the same as travelling, sojourning, and advancing, dealt with in 1293, 1457.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 3685
3685. ‘And had gone to Paddan Aram’ means so as to be furnished with cognitions of that good and truth. This is clear from the meaning of ‘going’ or journeying as the order and established pattern of life dealt with in 1293, 3335. Here therefore it means so as to be furnished – according to order – with cognitions of that good and truth, which are meant by ‘Paddan Aram’, 3664, 3675.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 3976
3976. ‘And let me go’ means to be joined to everything Divine in the Rational. This is clear from the meaning of ‘going’, that is to say, to his own place and to his own land, as above in 3973, meaning a strong desire to be joined to everything Divine in the Rational.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 4882
4882. ‘And went’ means life. This is clear from the meaning of ‘going’ as living, dealt with in 3335, 3690. This meaning of ‘going’ in the internal sense as living does indeed seem quite remote from or unrelated to ideas man has which constitute his thought. The reason for this is that man dwells within space and time, and with these has formed the ideas comprising his thought, such as the idea of going, advancing, setting out, sojourning, or moving on. Now because these actions occur within both space and time, and as a consequence space and time have become embedded in ideas of those actions, man therefore finds it difficult to grasp that states of life are meant. But when his idea of those actions is relieved or divested of spatial and temporal elements the spiritual reality that is meant leaps out. For in the spiritual world or heaven nothing at all spatial or temporal enters the ideas they have, but instead aspects of a state of life, 1274, 1382, 2625, 2788, 2837, 3356, 3404, 3827, 4814. It does indeed appear to spirits and angels that they too move about, going from one place to another, and indeed exactly in the same way as it appears so to men. All the same, it is the changes taking place in their state of life that are responsible for this appearance. To them also, no less than to men, the appearance is that they live self-dependently, when in fact they do not live self-dependently but are dependent on the Lord’s Divine, the source of every spark of life. Among angels these appearances are called real ones, because they seem in all reality to exist.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 7105
7105. ‘Go to your burdens!’ means that they must lead lives involving conflict. This is clear from the meaning of ‘going’ as leading a life, dealt with in 3335, 4882, 5493, 5605; and from the meaning of ‘burdens’ as molestations by falsities, dealt with in 6757, thus conflicts against those falsities.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 8109
8109. ‘So as to go by day and by night’ means life in both states. This is clear from the meaning of ‘going’ and ‘travelling’ as life, dealt with in 3335, 3690, 4882, 5493, 5605; and from the meaning of ‘day’ as a state of enlightenment and ‘night’ as a state of dimness, dealt with immediately above in 8106, 8108, thus both states.
Heaven and Hell (Dole) n. 590
Angels in heaven can tell the kind of freedom people have by a communication of affections and consequent thoughts. It also becomes visible to angelic spirits from the paths people follow, with good spirits following paths that lead to heaven and evil spirits following paths that lead to hell. These paths are actually visible in that world, which is why paths in the Word mean truths that lead to what is good, or in an opposite sense, falsities that lead to what is evil. This is also why going, walking, and traveling in the Word mean processes of life.(a) I have often been allowed to see paths like these, with spirits walking along on them freely, in accord with their own affections and consequent thoughts.
a. Traveling in the Word means a process of life, as does going: 3335, 4375, 4554, 4585, 4882, 5493, 5606 [5605], 5996, 5181 [8181], 8345, 8397, 8417, 8420, 8557. Going and walking with the Lord is accepting spiritual life and living with him: 10567. Walking is living: 519, 1794, 8417, 8420.
Apocalypse Explained (Whitehead) n. 787
[2] In the Word mention is frequently made of “going” and “walking after God,” “after other gods,” “after a leader,” and “after many;” and these expressions signify to follow and acknowledge in heart, also to be and to live with them, and to be consociated, as in the following passages. In the first book of Kings:
David hath kept My commandments, and hath walked after Me with his whole heart, to do that which is right in Mine eyes (14:8).
In the first book of Samuel:
The sons of Jesse had gone after Saul to the war (17:13).
In Moses:
Thou shalt not follow after many to evils; thou shalt not answer respecting a cause of strife to turn aside after many (Exod. 23:2).
In Jeremiah:
Thou shalt not go after other gods whom thou hast not known (7:9).
In the same:
They went after other gods to serve them (Jer. 11:10; Deut. 8:19).
In Moses:
The man who shall go after Baal-peor, Jehovah thy God will destroy from the midst of thee (Deut. 4:3).
From this it is evident that “to go after” anyone signifies to follow him, obey him, act from him, and live from him; “to walk and live”* also signifies to live. From this it can be seen that “to wonder after the beast” signifies acceptance and reception from the persuasion that the disagreement with the Word is apparently cleared away.