Trees in the Bible often represent people, according to Swedenborg, especially in regards to their perception of what is true. Trees produce two things: leaves and fruit. People produce two things: ideas and actions. It makes sense that the fruits represent the actions: They are full of energy and nutrition, making it possible for us to put our bodies to use. It also makes sense that the leaves represent ideas: Leaves collect light (which corresponds to a state of understanding flowing from the Lord) and use its energy to help the tree grow.
That’s kind of amazing to think about if you look at a tree, with thousands of leaves all reaching for the sunlight. According to Swedenborg, each of those leaves represents one idea, one small concept, all seeking enlightenment from the Lord to help us grow and produce fruit.
Passages from Swedenborg
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 885
- That ‘a leaf’ means truth is clear from various places in the Word, where man is compared to or actually called a tree. ‘Fruit’ in those contexts means the good that stems from charity, and ‘leaf’ the truth deriving from this, for these are indeed like fruit and leaves, as in Ezekiel,
Beside the river there is rising up upon its bank, on this side and on that, every tree for food, whose leaf does not fall, nor its fruit fail, but is reborn monthly, for its waters flow out from the Sanctuary, and its fruit will be for food, and its leaf for medicine. Ezek. 47:11; Rev. 22:1.
Here ‘tree’ stands for the member of the Church who has the Lord’s kingdom within him, ‘fruit’ stands for the good that stems from love and charity, ‘leaf’ for truths deriving from that good which serve to instruct the human race and to regenerate it. And because truths do this the leaf is said to be ‘for medicine’. In the same prophet,
Will He not pull up its roots and cut off its fruit so that it withers? And all the plucked off (leaves) from its off-shoot will wither. Ezek. 17:9.
The subject here is the vine, which is the Church, when it has been vastated, whose good, which is ‘the fruit’, and its truth, which is that ‘plucked off from its off-shoot’, thus wither away.
[2] In Jeremiah,
Blessed is the man who trusts in Jehovah. He will be like a tree planted beside the waters. His leaf will be green, and in the year of scarcity he will not be anxious. Nor will he cease to bear fruit. Jer. 17:7, 8.
‘Green leaf’ stands for the truth of faith, and so for faith itself which derives from charity. The same applies in David, Ps. 1:3. In the same prophet,
There will be no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree, and itsleaf has fallen. Jer. 8:13.
‘Grapes on the vine’ stands for spiritual good, ‘figs on the fig tree’ for natural good, leaf’ for truth, which has accordingly fallen. Likewise in Isa. 74:4. Similar things were meant by ‘the fig tree’ that Jesus saw, which was made to wither away when He found nothing but leaves on it, Matt. 21:20; Mark 11:13, 14. The Jewish Church in particular was what ‘the fig tree’ was used to mean on that occasion. With this Church no natural good existed any longer, only that preserved with them which was meant by ‘a leaf’, namely doctrine, or truth, concerning faith. A Church that has been vastated is one that knows truth but has no wish to understand it. They are like people who say they know the truth, or matters of faith, but who possess no good at all that stems from charity. They are merely ‘fig leaves’, and they wither away.
Apocalypse Revealed (Rogers) n. 936
- The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. This symbolizes the resulting rational truths by which people caught up in evils and the accompanying falsities are brought to think sanely and to live decently.
The leaves of the tree symbolize rational truths, as will be seen below. Nations symbolize people governed by goods and the accompanying truths, and in an opposite sense people caught up in evils and the accompanying falsities (no. 483). Here they symbolize people caught up in evils and the accompanying falsities, because we are told that the leaves were for healing them, and people caught up in evils and the accompanying falsities cannot be healed by the Word, because they do not read it. However, if they have the judgment, they can be healed by rational truths.
The same symbolic meanings found in this verse are found in the following verses in Ezekiel:
Behold, there was water, flowing from under the threshold of the temple (which turned into a river), along (whose) bank…were very many trees (good for food) on one side and the other…, (whose)leaves do not fall, and whose fruit is not consumed. They bear fruit again every month…, (on which account) their fruit is good for food, and their leaves for healing. (Ezekiel 47:1, 7, 12)
The subject there is also a new church.
Leaves symbolize rational truths because a tree symbolizes a person (nos. 89, 400), and every part of the tree�-�its branches,leaves, flowers, fruits, and seeds�-�then symbolizes accordant elements in the person. The branches symbolizes a person’s sensory and natural truths, the leaves his rational truths, the flowers the first spiritual truths in his rational mind, the fruits the goods of love and charity, and seeds the final elements in the person and also the first.
[2] That leaves symbolize rational truths is clearly apparent from things seen in the spiritual world. For trees are also seen there, withleaves and fruits. Gardens and parks are found there that consist of trees. In the case of people possessing goods of love and at the same time truths of wisdom, fruit trees are seen with an abundance of beautiful leaves. But in the case of people who possess the truths of some wisdom, and who speak in accordance with reason, but lack goods of love, the trees appear full of leaves, but without any fruits. And in the case of people without any goods or truths of wisdom, the only trees seen are bare of any leaves, like trees in winter in the world. An irrational person is just such a tree.
[3] Rational truths are truths which most readily welcome spiritual truths, for a person’s rational mind is the first receptacle of spiritual truths. Indeed, seated in a person’s rational mind is his perception of truth in a form that the person does not himself see by deliberation, as he does the ideas that reside beneath his rational mind in a lower level of thought that is connected with his outer sight.
Leaves also symbolize rational truths in Genesis 3:7, 8:11; Isaiah 34:4; Jeremiah 8:13, 17:8; Ezekiel 47:12; Daniel 4:12, 14; Psalm 1:3; Leviticus 26:36; Matthew 21:19, 24:32; Mark 13:28. However, their symbolic meanings vary according to the kinds of trees. The leaves of the olive tree and grape vine symbolize rational truths seen as a result of celestial and spiritual light; the leaves of the fig tree symbolize rational truths seen as a result of a natural sight; and the leaves of the fir tree, poplar, oak, and pine symbolize rational truths seen as a result of a sensual sight. The leaves of the latter strike terror in the spiritual world when blown to and fro by a strong wind. These are the leaves meant in Leviticus 26:36 and Job 13:25. However, not so the leaves of the former.
AC 9031
[4] … And in Ezekiel,
Beside the river there is rising up upon its bank, on this side and on that, [every] tree for food, whose leaf does not fall, and whose fruit does not fail it is reborn monthly, for its waters flow out from the sanctuary, wherefore its fruit is for food, and its leaf for medicaments. Ezek. 47:12.
‘Fruit for food’ stands for the good of love and charity, which serves to nourish spiritual life, and ‘leaf for medicaments’ for the truths of faith which serve to refresh and restore that life. For the meaning of ‘fruit’ as the good of love and charity, see 3146, 7690; and for the meaning of ‘leaf’ as the truth of faith, 885.
AE 481
[2] That heat signifies falsity from lusts, or the lust for falsity, is evident from the following passages.
Thus in Jeremiah:
“Blessed is the man that trusteth in Jehovah, for he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, that spreadeth out his roots by the river; he shall not see when heat cometh, but his leaf shall be green; he shall not be anxious in the year of drought, neither shall he cease from yielding fruit” (xvii. 7, 8).
The man who suffers himself to be led by the Lord is compared to a tree, to its growth and fructification, because a tree in the Word signifies the knowledge and perception of truth and good, consequently the man in whom those things are. The tree planted by the waters, means the man in whom there are truths from the Lord, waters denoting truths. That spreadeth out his roots by the river, signifies the extension of intelligence from the spiritual man into the natural. This is said because a river signifies intelligence, and because roots are sent out from the spiritual into the natural man; he shall not see when heat cometh, signifies that he shall not be affected by the lust for falsity. But his leaf shall be green, signifies scientifics (scientifica) living from truths; for leaf signifies the scientific (scientificum), and green signifies what is living from truths. He shall not be anxious in the year of drought, neither shall he cease from yielding fruit, signifies, that in the state when there are no truth and good, he shall not be in fear for the loss and deprivation of them, but that even then truths united to good shall bear fruit. The year of drought signifies a state in which there are loss and deprivation of truth; this is said, because with spirits and angels there are alternations of state; see the Heaven and Hell (n. 154-161).
AE 109
[2] The reason why the tree of life signifies the good of love, and thence heavenly joy is, that trees signify those things that are internally in man, which pertain to his interior mind (mens), or his external mind (animus), the boughs and leaves those things which pertain to the knowledges (cognitiones) of truth and good, and the fruits the goods of life themselves. This signification of trees originates in the spiritual world; for in that world trees of all kinds are seen; and these trees correspond to the interiors of the minds of angels and spirits; beautiful and fruitful trees to the interiors of those who are in the good of love, and thence in wisdom; trees less beautiful and fruitful to those who are in the good of faith; but trees bearing leaves only, and without fruit, to those who are only in the knowledges (cognitiones) of truth; and trees of a dismal hue, with malignant fruits, to those who are in knowledges (cognitiones) and in evil of life; but by those who are not in knowledges, and are in evil of life, trees are not seen, but instead stones and sand.
These appearances in the spiritual world, actually flow from correspondence; for the interiors of the mind of the inhabitants of that world are by such forms actually presented before their eyes. (These things may be seen better from two articles in the work, Heaven and Hell; in the first, where the correspondence of heaven with all things of the earth is treated of, n. 103-115; and in the other, where representatives and appearances in heaven are treated of, n. 170-176, and n. 177-190.) [3] This then is why trees are so often mentioned in the Word, by which are signified those things which pertain to a man’s mind; and why it is, that in the first chapters of Genesis, two trees are said to have been placed in the garden of Eden, one of which was called the tree of life, and the other the tree of knowledge (scientia). By the tree of life mentioned there is signified the good of love to the Lord, and thence heavenly joy, which those possessed who at that time formed the church, and who are meant by the man and his wife; and by the tree of knowledge is signified the delight of knowledges (cognitiones) without any other use than to be accounted learned, and to acquire renown for erudition, solely for the sake of honour or gain. The reason why the tree of life also signifies heavenly joy is, because the good of love to the Lord, which is specifically signified by that tree, has heavenly joy in it. (See the work, Heaven and Hell, n. 395-414, and The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem, n. 230-239.)
[4] That trees, so often mentioned in the Word, signify the interiors of man’s internal and external minds, and the things produced by the trees, as the leaves and fruit, such things as are derived from them, is evident from the following passages:
“I will give in the desert the cedar, the schittah tree, and the myrtle, and the oil tree; I will set in the wilderness the fir tree, the pine and the box” (Isa. xli. 19).
The establishment of the church is there treated of;
“The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee, the fir tree, the pine tree, and the box together, to beautify the place of my sanctuary” (Isa. lx. 13).
“Let all the trees of the field know that I, Jehovah, humble the lofty tree, and exalt the humble tree, cause the green tree to become dry, and make the dry tree to bud” (Ezek. xvii. 24).
“Behold, I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall consume every green tree in thee, and every dry tree” (Ezek. xx. 47).
“The vine is dried up, and the fig tree languisheth; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, all the trees of the field are withered, because joy is withered away from the sons of men” (Joel i. 12).
“When the angel sounded, there followed hail and fire which fell upon the earth; and the third part of the trees was burnt up” (Apoc. viii. 7)
Nebuchadnezzar saw in a dream “a tree in the midst of the earth, and the height thereof was great, the leaf thereof fair, and the flower thereof much, and in it was food for all” (Dan. iv. 10-12).
Because trees in general signify such things as pertain to man, and constitute the interiors of his mind, and thus the spiritual things pertaining to the church, and both the latter and the former are various, therefore so many species of trees are mentioned, and every species signifies something different. (What the various species signify is shown in Arcana Coelestia, as what is signified by the oil tree, n. 9277, 10,261 what by the cedar, n. 9472, 9486, 9528, 9715, 10,178 what by the vine, n. 1069, 5113, 6375, 6378, 9277; what by the fig, n. 217, 4231, 5113, and so forth.) [5] Moreover, the things which are upon trees, as leaves and fruits, signify those things that pertain to man; leaves signify the truths pertaining to him, and fruits the goods, as in the following passages:
“He shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river; her leaf shall be green; neither shall it cease from yielding fruit” (Jer. xvii. 8).
By the river which went out from the house of God “upon the bank thereof, on this side and on that side, ascendeth the tree of food, whose leaf falleth not off, nor is its fruit consumed; it springeth again in its months, because its waters issue out of the sanctuary, whence its fruit is for food, and its leaf for medicine” (Ezek. xlvii. 12).
“In the midst of the street of it, and of the river (going out from the throne of God and the Lamb), on this side and on that side, was there the tree of life bearing twelve fruits, and yielding her fruit every month, and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations” (Apoc. xxii. 1, 2).
“Blessed is the man whose delight is in the law; he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season, his leaf also shall not wither” (Ps. i. 1-3).
“Be not afraid, for the tree shall bear her fruit, the fig tree and the vine shall yield their strength” (Joel ii. 22).
“The trees of Jehovah are full of sap, the cedars of Lebanon which he hath planted” (Ps. civ. 16).
“Praise Jehovah, ye fruitful trees, and all cedars” (Ps. cxlviii. 9).
AE 386
[29] That He hungered we read in Mark:
“When they were come from Bethany,” Jesus “hungered; and, seeing a fig-tree afar off having leaves, he came, if haply he might find anything thereon; but when he came to it he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the time of figs. Therefore he said unto it, Let no man eat fruit of thee for ever. And the disciples, in the morning, as they passed by, saw the fig-tree dried up from the roots” (xi. 12, 14-20; Matt. xxi. 19, 20).
He who does not know that all things of the Word contain a spiritual sense, may think that the Lord did this to the fig-tree from indignation because He hungered but by the fig-tree here is not meant a fig-tree, but the church as to natural good, and specifically the Jewish Church. That there was not any natural good therein, because nothing spiritual, but only some truths from the sense of the letter of the Word, is signified by, Jesus seeing a fig-tree afar off having leaves, came if haply He might find anything thereon; but when He had come to it He found nothing but leaves. Leaves signify the truths of the sense of the letter of the Word. That with that nation there would nowhere be any natural good of the church, because they are in dense falsities and in evil loves, is signified by Jesus saying, “Let no man eat fruit of thee for ever,” and by the fig-tree being dried up from the roots. It is also said, that it was not the time of figs, and thereby is meant that the church was not yet commenced. That the beginning of a new church is meant by the fig-tree, is evident from the Lord’s words (in Matt. xxiv. 32, 33; Mark xiii. 28, 219; and in Luke xxi. 28-31). From these considerations it is evident what is there signified by hungering. (That the fig-tree signifies the natural good of the church, see n. 217, 4231, 5113; and that the leaves signify the truths of the natural man, see above (n. 109).)