Imagine having your mother touch your cheek. Then imagine having your spouse or someone you love romantically touch your cheek. Then imagine having a baby touch your cheek. Then imagine having someone you hate and fear touch your cheek. They’re very different feelings, aren’t they? They all involve the same nerve endings, stimulated in basically the same ways, but with emotional content that varies to every point of the compass.
Swedenborg says this is because the sense of touch communicates and actually conveys emotion, communicates and conveys love (or hatred) in all its varieties. That’s why the Lord so often touched people as a way of healing them; through touch he could convey his love, which is life itself, to the people he touched. In a more negative sense, it is also why the people of Israel were not allowed to touch the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark represented the Lord in all holiness, and the people were hard-hearted and external people; to have such base loves conveyed to the holiness represented by the Ark would be devastating.
Passages from Swedenborg
Arcana Coelestia 10130.
‘Everyone touching the altar will be sanctified’ means whoever receives what is Divine and the Lord’s. This is clear from the meaning of ‘touching’ as an imparting, conveying, and being received, dealt with below; from the meaning of ‘the altar’ as that which is representative of the Lord in respect of the good of love, at this point in heaven and in the Church, dealt with above in 10129; and from the meaning of ‘being sanctified’ as receiving what is Divine and the Lord’s, also dealt with above, in 10128. The reason why ‘touching’ means an imparting, conveying, and being received is that a person’s inner feelings are expressed by outward means, in particular by touch, and are thereby imparted and conveyed to another; and insofar as the will of the other is in tune and at one with his they are received. Whether you say the will or the love, it amounts to the same thing; for whatever a person loves he likewise wills. From this it also follows that the inner feelings a person has as a result of what he loves and therefore thinks are expressed through touch, and by means of it are imparted and conveyed to another. And insofar as the other loves the person expressing those feelings or loves the things which that person says and does, those feelings are received.
[2] This is especially apparent in the next life, for all people’s actions there flow from the heart, that is, from their will or love. They are not allowed to act with gestures separate from their will or love, nor to speak with fraudulent lips, that is, separately from the thoughts of the heart. There it is evident how inner feelings are imparted and conveyed to another by touch, and how the other’s reception of them is determined by his own love. Everyone’s will or love constitutes the entire person there, and the sphere of life from it flows out from him like breath or an exhalation, envelops him, and constitutes an extension of himself, so to speak, around himself, in a way scarcely different from the emission around plants in the world, which is also detected at a distance through their odours, and also that around animals, which is actually detected by a dog with its keen sense of smell. There is a like emission from every human being, as also a wealth of experience makes known. But when a person lays aside the body and becomes a spirit or an angel that emission or exhalation is not material, as it was in the world; instead it is something spiritual flowing from his love. This love produces a sphere around him, which enables other spirits to detect at a distance what he is like. See what has been shown regarding this sphere in the places referred to in 9606. [3] Since in their world this sphere is imparted and conveyed to another, and is received by him in accordance with his love, very many wonders occur there which are unknown to people in the world, such as,
1 People’s presence with one another is always due to the likeness of their loves, and their absence from one another is always due to unlikeness.
2 All are brought into association with one another on the basis of their loves. Those governed by love to the Lord received from the Lord live in association with one another in the inmost heaven; those governed by love towards the neighbour received from the Lord live in association with one another in the middle heaven; and those governed by the obedience of faith, that is, those who do the truth for its own sake, live in association with one another in the lowest heaven. But those ruled by self-love and love of the world, that is, those who do what they do with selfish and worldly ends in view, live in association with one another in hell.
[4] 3 All turn their eyes towards those they love. Those who love the Lord turn their eyes towards the Lord as the Sun; those who love the neighbour with love received from the Lord turn their eyes towards the Lord as the Moon; and those who do the truth for its own sake act in a similar way. (Regarding the Lord as the Sun and as the Moon, see what has been shown in 1521, 1529-1531, 3636, 3643, 4060, 4321 (end), 5097, 5377, 7078, 7083, 7171, 7173, 8644, 8812.) And what is astonishing, whichever way they face, that is, whichever of the four quarters they turn towards, they still behold the Lord in front of them. The opposite is so with those in hell; the more they are ruled there by self-love and by love of the world, the more they turn from the Lord and have Him behind their back. And again this is so whichever way they face or whichever quarter they turn towards.
[5] 4 When an angel of heaven focuses his attention on others his inner feelings are imparted and conveyed to them, according to the amount and the essential nature of his love; and it is received by them according to the essential nature and the amount of their love. If therefore attention is focused by an angel of heaven on those who are good, it gives rise to gladness and joy; but if it is focused on the evil, it gives rise to pain and torment.
[6] But an imparting, conveying, and being received is also meant by touching with the hand because the whole body’s capacity to act is concentrated in the arms and hands, and in the Word interior things are expressed by means of exterior ones. So it is that power is meant by ‘the arms’, by ‘the hands’, and especially by ‘the right hand’, see the places referred to in 10019, and what has been stated in 10023, 10076; and so it is that whatever resides with a person, thus the entire person in his capacity to act, is meant by ‘the hands’, see the places referred to in 10019. Furthermore all the outward senses of sight, hearing, taste, and smell are connected with touch, being varieties of touch, as is well known in the learned world.
[7] The meaning of ‘touching’ as an imparting, conveying, and being received is clear from a great number of places in the Word, of which let the following be brought to the fore: In Moses,
You shall anoint the tent of meeting, and the ark of the Testimony, and the table and all its vessels, and the lampstand and its vessels, and the altar of incense, and the altar of burnt offering and all its vessels, and the laver and its pedestal. Thus you shall sanctify them, that they may be the holy of holies. Everyone who touches them will be made holy. Exod. 30:26-29.
In the same author,
Everything that touches the remainder of the minchah and the remainder of the flesh from the sacrifices, which are for Aaron and his sons, will be made holy. Lev. 6:18, 27.
In Daniel,
The angel touched Daniel* and raised him onto his knees; and he touched his lips and opened his mouth; and again he touched him and strengthened him. Dan. 10:10, 16, 18.
In Isaiah,
One of the seraphim touched my mouth with the burning coal; he said, Behold, this has touched your lips, therefore your iniquity has departed and your sin is expiated. Isa. 6:7.
In Jeremiah,
Jehovah put out His hand and touched my mouth, and said, I am putting** My words into your mouth. Jer. 1:9.
In Matthew,
Jesus, stretching out a hand to the leper, touched him, saying, I am willing; be clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. Matt. 8:3.
In the same gospel,
Jesus saw Peter’s mother-in-law sick with a fever, and He touched her hand, and the fever left her. Matt. 8:14, 15.
In the same gospel,
Jesus touched the eyes of the blind, and their eyes were opened. Matt. 9:29, 30.
In the same gospel,
Jesus touched the eyes of the two blind men, and immediately they received sight. Matt. 20:34.
In Luke,
Jesus touched the servant’s*** ear and healed [him]. Luke 22:51.
In Mark,
They brought the sick to Jesus, that they might just touch the hem of His clothing; and as many as touched [Him] were made well. Mark 6:56; Matt. 14:36.
In Luke,
A woman suffering from a discharge of blood touched the hem of Jesus’ garment; and immediately the flow of blood stopped. Jesus said, Who is it who touched Me? Someone touched Me; I perceived that power had gone out from Me. Luke 8:44-48.
In Mark,
They brought young children to Jesus, that He might touch them. And He took them up in His arms, laid His hands on them, and blessed them. Mark 10:13, 16.
[8] From these quotations it is evident that ‘touching’ means an imparting, conveying, and being received.
[9] This is similarly evident in places where uncleannesses are the subject, by which evils and falsities that come from the hells are meant in the internal sense, as in Moses,
Whoever touches the dead body of any person**** will be unclean for seven days. Whoever touches a dead body, that of a person who has died*****, and has not expiated himself, defiles Jehovah’s dwelling-place; therefore this soul shall be cut off from Israel. Everyone who has touched on the surface of the field one slain with the sword, or one dead, or a human bone, or a sepulchre will be unclean for seven days. Whoever touches the water of separation will be unclean until the evening. Everything that the unclean person has touched will become unclean; and the soul who has touched it will be unclean until the evening. Num. 19:11, 13, 16, 21, 22.
In the same author,
He who touches unclean beasts, unclean creeping things, will be unclean until the evening. Everything onto which [any of them] falls will be unclean; whether it is a wooden vessel, a garment, water, an earthenware vessel, food, drink, an oven, a spring, a cistern, [or] a water-tank, it will be unclean. Lev. 11:31-36.
The like occurs at Lev. 5:2, 3; 7:21.
In the same book,
[A person] who has a discharge is unclean. A man (vir) who touches that person’s bed …, if he sits on a vessel on which the person has sat …, whoever touches that person’s flesh [or] his garments …, if someone suffering from a discharge spits on one who is clean …, a seat****** on which he rides …, an earthenware vessel …, a wooden vessel …, he will be unclean. Lev. 15:1-end.
So too one who touches a leper, Lev. 22:4. In the same book,
If any of the carcass falls onto any sowing seed which is sown, it will be clean. But if water is put onto the seed, and the carcass falls onto it, it will be unclean. Lev. 11:37, 38.
[10] By these uncleannesses are meant various kinds of evils and consequent falsities coming from hell, which have been imparted, conveyed, and received. Each particular uncleanness means some specific evil; for evils are what render a person unclean, because they infect his soul. Also the evils in their hearts gush out of evil spirits and genii, and – depending on how convincing the false ideas accompanying evil are – they infect those who are present. This contagious influence is what is meant by touching uncleannesses.
[11] In Moses,
Of the fruit from the tree which is in the middle of the garden you shall not eat, nor shall you touch it, or else you will die. Gen. 3:3.
In the same book,
The angel who wrestled with Jacob, seeing that he did not prevail against him, touched the socket of his thigh, and the socket of the thigh was out of
joint. Gen. 32:25.
In the same author,
Moses said that they should not touch anything that belonged to Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, lest they be consumed on account of all their sins. Num. 16:26.
In Isaiah,
Depart, depart. Do not touch the unclean thing. Go out from the midst of her; be purified, bearers of Jehovah’s vessels. Isa. 52:11.
In Jeremiah,
They went astray blind in the streets, they are defiled with blood. Things which have no power they touch with their garments. Depart; he is unclean. They cry out to them, Depart, do not touch [us]. Lam. 4:14, 15.
In Haggai,
Behold, if a man carries******* holy flesh in the skirt of his garment, and his skirt touches bread, or wine, or oil, or any food whatever, still it will not be made holy. If one who is unclean from a dead body******** touches any of them whatever still he will be unclean. Hagg. 2:12-14.
In Hosea,
Perjuring, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery; they commit robbery, and blood touches blood*********. Therefore the land will mourn. Hosea 4:2, 3.
* Sw. adds five words here meaning literally and restored onto his station i.e. stood him on his feet again. They appear in Dan. 8:18 but are echoed in the angel’s command to Daniel in Dan. 10:11 to stand up, which comes after the words and raised him onto his knees.
** lit. I am giving
*** Reading servi (the servant’s) for surdi (the deaf man’s)
**** lit. the dead, as to every soul of man (homo)
***** lit. Whoever touches the dead, as to the soul of a man (homo) who dies
****** lit. chariot or carriage
******* lit. Behold, a man (vir) will carry
******** lit. from a soul
********* lit. bloods touch bloods i.e. bloodshed comes on top of bloodshed
Apocalypse Explained 79.
And He laid His right hand upon me, signifies life from Him. This is evident from the signification of “right hand,” as being, in reference to the Lord, life from Him (see above, n. 72). It signifies life from Him, because it immediately follows the words, “I fell at His feet as dead;” and moreover, “to touch with the hand” signifies to communicate and transfer to another what pertains to oneself, and also to receive from another. To communicate and transfer to another what pertains to oneself, in reference to the Lord, as here, is to communicate and transfer life such as those have who are in a state of illumination and who see and hear such things as are in heaven. This also took place with John, for he was in such illumination when he saw and heard the things that are described in Revelation “To touch with the hand” is to communicate and transfer to another, because the whole power of man is transferred from the body into the hands; consequently what the mind wills that the body should do, that the arms and hands do (from this it is that by “arms” and “hands” in the Word is signified power, see Arcana Coelestia, n. 878, 3091, 4931-4937, 6947, 7673, 10019).
But this power is natural power, and communication thereby is an exertion of the bodily forces; but spiritual power is to will the good of another, and to will to convey to another as far as possible what is with oneself. This power is what “hand” in the spiritual sense signifies, and its communication and transference are signified by “touching with the hand.”
From this it can be seen what is signified by this, that the Lord, who is here called the “Son of man,” laid His right hand upon John, when John lay as dead, namely, that He communicated and transferred to him life from Himself (see above). “To touch,” and “to touch with the hand,” has a similar signification in many passages in the Word, as in the following. In Daniel:
The Lord, who there appeared to him as a man clothed in linen, whose appearance was as the appearance of lightning, and His eyes as torches of fire, and His feet as the brightness of polished brass, touched him; and restored him to his standing; and lifted him upon his knees; and touched his lips, and opened his mouth; and still again touched him, and strengthened him (Dan. 10:4 to the end).
In Jeremiah:
Jehovah put forth His hand, and touched my mouth, and said, I put My words into thy mouth (Jer. 1:9).
And in Matthew:
Jesus stretching forth His hand to the leper, touched him, saying, I will; be thou made clean. And straightway his leprosy was cleansed (Matt. 8:3).
In the same:
Jesus saw Peter’s wife’s mother sick of a fever, and he touched her hand, and the fever left her (Matt. 8:14-15).
In the same:
Jesus touched the eyes of the two blind men, and their eyes were opened (Matt. 9:29-30).
In the same:
When Peter was yet speaking, behold a bright cloud overshadowed the disciples, and behold, a voice out of the cloud, saying, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him. And when the disciples heard these things they fell on their face, and were sore afraid. Then came Jesus and touched them, and said, Arise, be not afraid (Matt. 17:5-8).
In Luke:
Jesus came and touched the bier of the dead, and said, Young man, I say unto thee, Arise. Then he that was dead sat up, and began to speak (Luke 7:14-15).
In the same:
Jesus touched the ear of the deaf one,* and healed him (Luke 22:51).
In Mark:
And they brought [to Jesus] little children, that He should touch them; and He took them in His arms, put His hands upon them, and blessed them (Mark 10:13, 16).
In the same:
They brought unto Jesus those that were ill, that they might touch if it were but the border of His garment; and as many as touched were made whole (Mark 6:56; Matt. 14:35, 36).
In Luke:
A woman suffering from an issue of blood touched the border of His garment; and immediately the issue of her blood stanched. Jesus said, Who is it that touched Me? Some one did touch Me; I knew that power went forth from Me (Luke 8:43-46).
Because “touching” and “laying on of hands” signify communicating and transferring to another what pertains to oneself, therefore it has been customary in the churches from ancient times to lay hands upon the head of those who are inaugurated and blessed:
This Moses also was commanded to do to Joshua (Num. 27:18-23; Deut. 34:9).
As all things among the sons of Israel were representative and significative of spiritual things, so also was touch; wherefore those who touched what was holy were sanctified, and those who touched what was unclean were polluted; for “touch” signified communication and transference to another, and reception from another, as can be seen from the following passages in Moses:
Whosoever shall touch the tent of meeting; the ark of the Testimony; the table, and all the vessels thereof; the lampstand and the vessels thereof; the altar of incense; the altar of burnt-offering, and all the vessels thereof, and the laver and the base thereof, shall be holy (Exod. 30:26-29).
Whatsoever toucheth the altar shall be holy (Exod. 29:37).
Everything that toucheth the remainder of the meal-offering, and the remainder of the flesh from the sacrifice, shall be holy (Lev. 6:18, 27).
Whosoever toucheth the dead, and purifieth not himself, defileth the tabernacle of Jehovah; and that soul shall be cut off from Israel. And whosoever in the open field toucheth one that is slain with a sword, or the bone of a man, or a grave, shall be unclean seven days. He that toucheth the waters of separation shall be unclean until even. And whatsoever the unclean person toucheth shall become unclean, and the soul that toucheth it shall be unclean until even (Num. 19:11, 13, 16, 21-22).
He that toucheth unclean beasts and unclean reptiles shall be unclean. Everything upon which they shall fall shall be unclean, whether it be a vessel of wood, raiment, water, an earthen vessel, food, drink, an oven, (but not a fountain, pit, or receptacle of water) shall be unclean (Lev. 11:31-36, besides other places, as Lev. 5:2, 3; 7:21; 11:37, 38; 15:1 to the end; 22:4; Num. 16:26; Isa. 52:11; Lam. 4:14, 15; Hos. 4:2, 3; Hag. 2:12, 13, 14).
* In the Greek we have “servant”; but Arcana Coelestia, n. 10130 also has “deaf one.”
Conjugial Love 396.
(ix) It also influences the souls of the parents, and links itself with the same sphere in children. It is above all by touch that it is instilled.
The Lord’s innocence flows into the angels of the third heaven, where all enjoy the innocence of wisdom, and it passes through the lower heavens, but only through the innocence of angels there, and so directly and indirectly into children. Children are hardly different from carved forms, but for their ability to receive life from the Lord through the heavens. But if the parents too were not to receive that influence in their souls and in the inmost parts of their minds, the innocence of children would be unable to affect them. There must be something matching and similar in kind in the other for communication to be established, and to permit reception, affection and so linking. Without this it would be like a delicate seed falling on a rock, or like a lamb thrown to a wolf. That then is why the innocence flowing into the souls of parents makes a link with the innocence of children.
[2] Experience can show that this link is established among parents with the help of the bodily senses, but above all through touch. For instance, the sense of sight is intimately charmed by watching children, that of hearing by their talk, that of smell by smelling them. The fact that the chief mode of communication and linking is by touch is evident from the pleasantness of carrying them in one’s arms, of hugging and kissing them, especially by their mothers, for they take delight in having their mouths and faces pressed on their laps and at the same time by touching them there with their hands. Generally speaking, they enjoy having them suck their breasts and take milk, and touching their bare bodies, and they never tire of taking them on their knees to wrap them up and to clean them.
[3] It was shown in several places above that love and its delights are imparted between married couples by the sense of touch. This too serves to impart mental states, because the hands are the last part of a person, and his first is at the same time present in his last. By this means all the parts of the body and all the parts of the mind, which lie between, are held together in an indissoluble bond. This is why Jesus touched children (Matt. 19:13, 15; Mark 10:13, 16), and He healed the sick by touching them; and those who touched Him were cured. This too is why today the ordination of priests is by the laying on of hands. These facts make it plain that the innocence of parents and that of children meet in touching, especially by the hands, and so they become linked as if by kisses.
Arcana Coelestia 202.
The Most Ancient Church, which was celestial man, was not only forbidden to eat from the tree of knowledge, that is, to learn that which comprised faith from sensory evidence and from facts; it was not even allowed ‘to touch that tree’, that is, even to think from sensory evidence and from facts about anything that was a matter of faith. This was to prevent them slumping from celestial to spiritual life, and in this way going down further still. The life of celestial angels is also the same. Those of them who are more interiorly celestial do not even allow faith to be mentioned or anything whatever which has a spiritual origin. If others mention it they perceive love instead of faith, with a difference known only to themselves. Thus anything that is a matter of faith they derive from love and charity. Still less do they allow themselves to listen to anything of a rational nature concerning faith, and least of all to anything of a factual nature; for they possess from the Lord by way of love a perception of what good and truth are. From perception they know instantly whether something is so or not so. Consequently when any statement about faith is made their response is either That is so, or That is not so, for they are perceiving from the Lord. This is what the Lord’s words mean in Matthew,
Let your words be, YES, YES, NO, NO; anything beyond this is from evil.* Matt. 5:37.
The present verse in Genesis says that they were not allowed even to touch the fruit of the tree of knowledge, for if they did touch it, they would be subject to evil, that is, they would consequently die. All the same, celestial angels, like others, discuss various matters among themselves, but they do so in celestial language that is formed by, and derived from, love, a language that is more indescribable than the language of spiritual angels