You see someone you love. You smile. Pretty simple, right?
It’s actually not: it’s a whole string of events, with simpler things relating to more complex ones, rising to the spiritual level and coming back down. First light bounces off that person’s face and enters your eyes. Your eyes send information to your brain. From there it passes into your mind – a spiritual organ, according to Swedenborg – and registers in your consciousness. You recognize the person and feel love for them! But that has to get translated back down through the brain, which generates signals to all the facial muscles, which then contract or relax according to orders, producing a smile.
As you can see, the real activity here is mental. You “see” that face in your mind; before then it’s just a string of impulses carrying information. And you “smile” in your mind, with the information translated back into more impulses carry more information leading to physical activity. Your eyes don’t “know” what they’re seeing; your cheeks don’t “know” that they are smiling. They are simply projections of an internal, spiritual thing – your mind – into a lower physical reality.
That’s an example of correspondences, on a very small scale. What you see on the natural plane of existence – a face – corresponds to your idea of that person. The smile you then share corresponds to the affection you feel for that person. The correspondence of one with the other is a way for the more important spiritual reality – the activity in your mind – to project itself into physical reality.
What Swedenborg tells us is that those correspondences are more sweeping than we could possibly imagine. In fact, Swedenborg says that everything in the physical world is in correspondence with the spiritual world -- everything is connected to a deeper and more important spiritual meaning. Mountains are not just mountains; they are the spiritual love of the Lord projected into physical reality in the form of mountains. Trees are not just trees; they are rooted, lasting spiritual principles projected into physical reality in the forms of trees. A river is not just a river; it is a flow of true spiritual ideas projected into physical reality. In a way, it’s like the spiritual world is one huge collective mind, expressing itself through physical reality the way our own minds express themselves through our bodies.
And then there’s another level: Swedenborg’s works say that the most perfect form of spiritual reality – heaven – is in a state of complete, all-encompassing correspondence with the Lord, with each aspect of heaven expressing some aspect of the deepest reality of all, which is the Lord’s love and wisdom themselves. This is way out at the raw edge of what we can grasp, but it’s really quite beautiful. Spiritual reality is not part of the Lord, but it is from the Lord and can express the Lord as it approaches perfection. Physical reality is not part of the Lord and is not part of spiritual reality, but it is from the Lord by way of spiritual reality, and it can express spiritual reality (and thus the Lord) as it approaches perfection.
Swedenborg says this is why the Lord had so many physical laws for the Children of Israel: The prescribed physical actions corresponded to spiritual meanings, which in turn corresponded to aspects of the Lord Himself. It explains why we see advanced astronomy and awareness of nature in the remnants of ancient religions worldwide: They came from the Ancient Church, which had a surpassing knowledge of correspondences and used that knowledge in worship and life. To some degree it explains why we still love mountaintops, beautiful gardens, natural beauties like waterfalls: We can still feel the spiritual reality close inside them, even if we don’t know it in its specifics.
Correspondences also explain the continuing power of the Bible even in this skeptical age. Swedenborg says that the Lord provided that it should be written – most of it, anyway – in correspondences, which actually give us access to his own whole infinite being. We may not understand them, but that does not limit their power to teach us, to form our minds; this is why it’s important for people to read the Bible with open minds, to let the Lord enter in.
One other fascinating and meaningful aspect of correspondences comes in the form of what Swedenborg’s works call the “Grand Man” or “Grand Human.” Because heaven is in complete correspondence with the Lord and the Lord is the ultimate, infinite, divine and archetypal human, this means that heaven is in human form. And this is quite literal and precise: parts of heaven correspond to the heart, others to the lungs, others to the brain, skin, ears, hair, digestive tract, everything.
What’s more, just as the body’s organs are broken down into tissues and the tissues into cells, so also is the Grand Human broken down. So as an individual angel you might serve a brain function for a cell that performs a protective function for an organ that plays a digestive role in the Grand Human. That sounds a bit strange, but if you consider the unique mix of ideas and affections in each of us you can see how we could, indeed, fill such precise roles calling for such precise degrees of precisely layered talents.
And since physical reality is in correspondence with spiritual reality, this means that our communities and societies in this world are also in the human form, though obviously not all to a very perfected degree. This also sounds strange, but it’s an interesting exercise to think about the functions of the brain (to think and judge), the skin (to protect and hold together), the lungs (to draw in new thoughts and ideas), the digestive tract (to create energy to do work), heart (to circulate energy and ideas) and muscles (to do the actual work) and relate them to the functions of human organizations. Most likely, effective human organizations will indeed have these elements, and will have them in the proper balance.
Finally, of course, correspondences are the primary reason for this website to exist. The purpose is to share the knowledge of correspondences offered through Swedenborg, so we can all understand the Bible, the Lord and ourselves a little bit better and find our own places in the Grand Human.
Passages from Swedenborg
De Verbo (Chadwick) n. 7
- VII
The spiritual sense of the Word; on correspondences.
Every single thing in nature has a correspondence with spiritual things. The same is true of every single part of the human body, as may be seen demonstrated in two chapters of my book on Heaven and Hell [87-115]. But today it is not known what correspondence is. However, in the most ancient times the knowledge of correspondences was the queen of sciences, and so universally known that the most ancient people wrote all their tablets and books by means of correspondences. The myths of the earliest peoples were the same, as were the hieroglyphs of the Egyptians. The Book of Job, which was a book of the ancient church, is full of correspondences.
[2] All ancient churches were intended to represent heavenly things; all their rituals, and also all the laws for the establishment of their worship, were composed entirely of correspondences. The same was true of the church of the sons of Jacob; the whole burnt offerings and the sacrifices in all their details were correspondences. The same was true of the tabernacle and everything in it; as also their festivals, such as the feast of unleavened bread, the feast of tabernacles and the feast of first-fruits; so also were their laws and judgments. Since they were correspondences, they are things of the kind which come into existence at the ultimate level of nature; and since everything in nature has a correspondence, and such things also have a meaning, it follows that the literal sense of the Word is composed entirely of correspondences. The Lord too, since he spoke from His Divinity, also spoke the Word; and it also follows that He spoke by means of correspondences. That which comes down from the Divinity and is in itself Divine at the ultimate level passes into such things as correspond to what is Divine, celestial and spiritual, that is, those which hold at their inmost level celestial and spiritual things, and have this meaning.
For a further demonstration of what correspondences are, see my Arcana Caelestia, in which the correspondences in Genesis and Exodus are explained, and in addition see what has been collected from that source on the subject in my Teaching of the New Jerusalem* and Heaven and Hell. The spiritual or internal sense of the Word is nothing but the literal sense unfolded by means ofcorrespondences, for it teaches the spiritual lesson which the angels in heaven perceive, when a person in the world thinks in a natural fashion about what he reads in the Word.
[3] I have heard and perceived from heaven that the people of the most ancient church, who are those meant in the spiritual sense in the first chapters of Genesis by Adam and Eve, were in such close contact with angels that they could speak with them by means of correspondences. Consequently their state of wisdom was such that whatever they saw on earth they perceived at the same time spiritually, that is, jointly with angels. I was told that Enoch, who is mentioned in Genesis [5:21-24], together with his companions made a collection of correspondencesfrom the angels' lips, and transmitted the knowledge of them to their descendants. As a result the knowledge of correspondences was not only widespread, but prized in many kingdoms of Asia, especially in Egypt, Assyria and Babel, Syria, Mesopotamia, Arabia, and also Canaan. From there it spread to Greece, but there it was converted into myths.
This can be established merely by considering Olympus, Helicon and Pindus near Athens,** and also from the winged horse named Pegasus using its hoof to make a spring burst forth, by which the nine maidens*** made their dwelling. For a mountain, such as Helicon, by correspondence means the higher heaven, the hill beneath the mountain of Pindus the heaven below that, the winged horse Pegasus means the intellect enlightened by the spiritual, a spring intelligence and learning, the nine maidens the knowledge of truth and sciences. The rest of the stories known as myths written by the earliest peoples in Greece are similar; these have been collected and described by Ovid in his Metamorphosis.****
[4] But when with the passage of time the representative practices of the church became idolatrous, the Lord's Divine Providence ensured that this knowledge was progressively blotted out, and with the Israelite and Jewish race it was completely destroyed and became extinct. Certainly the worship of this people was entirely representative, but still there was no knowledge of what any representation meant. For they were utterly natural people, so that they were neither able nor willing to know anything about the spiritual man, and his faith and love, and so nothing about correspondence.
[5] The reason why the idolatrous practices of peoples of antiquity originated from their knowledge of correspondences was that everything to be seen upon the earth has a correspondence; so not only trees, but also cattle and birds of every kind, as well as fishes and other things. The ancients, possessing the knowledge of correspondences, made themselves images corresponding to spiritual ideas, and took pleasure in them, because they meant things to do with heaven and the church. Thus they placed such images not only in their temples but in their homes, not for them to be worshipped, but as a reminder of their heavenly meaning. So in Egypt there were erected calves, oxen, snakes, boys, old men, girls and many more things; because a calf meant the innocence of the natural man, oxen his affections, snakes the prudence of the sensual man,***** a boy innocence, old men wisdom, girls affections for truth, and so on. After the knowledge of correspondences had been blotted out, their descendants in ignorance of their meanings began to worship as holy and finally as deities the images and likenesses set up by the ancients, because they were placed in or near temples.
Arcana Coelestia 5377 No. 2
...(N)ot only all the individual parts of the human being correspond to the Grand Man but also every single thing in the universe. The sun has a correspondence, and so does the moon; for in heaven the Lord is the Sun, and the Moon too. The fire and heat of the sun, as well as its light, have acorrespondence, for it is the Lord's love towards the whole human race that its fire and heat correspond to, and His Divine truth that its light corresponds to. The stars too have a correspondence, the communities of heaven and their dwelling-places being what the stars correspond to. Not that the heavenly communities dwell in the stars, but that they have been set in order in the same kind of way as the stars. Everything under the sun has a correspondence - every single thing beneath it in the animal kingdom and every single thing beneath it in the vegetable kingdom. And unless the spiritual world were flowing into them all, every one, they would instantly break down and fall to pieces.
[3] Considerable experience too has made me aware of all this, for I have been shown what very many things in the animal kingdom, and still more in the vegetable kingdom, correspond to in the spiritual world, as well as the fact that without the inflow of the spiritual world into them they cannot by any means at all remain in being. For once what is prior has been taken away what is posterior of necessity perishes, and likewise once what is prior has been severed from what is posterior. Since correspondence is primarily the correspondence of the human being with heaven, and through heaven with the Lord, the specific nature of each person's correspondence therefore determines what he looks like in the next life in the light of heaven. This explains why angels have an indescribably bright and beautiful appearance, whereas those in hell have an unspeakably dark and ugly one.
Divine Love and Wisdom (Dole) n. 377
I am about to discuss the correspondence of the heart and the lungs with volition and discernment. Upon this rests the correspondence of everything in the body, called the members of the body as a whole, the sensory organs, and the body's viscera. Further, the correspondence of physical things with spiritual ones has not been recognized even though it was fully demonstrated in two works, one of which is Heaven and Hell and the other of which is on the spiritual meaning of the Word in Genesis and Exodus, titled Secrets of Heaven. For all these reasons, I should like now to point out the sections of these two works where I have written explanations of correspondence.
In Heaven and Hell, there is material on the correspondence of everything in heaven with everything in us, 87-102; and on the correspondence of everything in heaven with everything on earth, 103-115.
In the work on the spiritual meaning of the Word in Genesis and Exodus, titled Secrets of Heaven, there is material on the correspondence of the face and its expressions with the feelings of the mind: 1568, 2988, 2989, 3631, 4796, 4797, 4880 [4800], 5195 [5165], 5168, 5695, 9306; on the correspondence of the body in its motions and actions with matters of discernment and volition: 2988, 3632, 4215; on the correspondence of the senses in general: 4318-4330; on thecorrespondence of the eyes and their sight: 4403-4420; on the correspondence of the nostrils and smell: 4624-4634; on the correspondence of the ears and hearing: 4652-4634 [4652-4659]; on the correspondence of the tongue and taste: 4791-4805; on the correspondence of the hands, arms, legs, and feet: 4931-4953; on the correspondence of the groin and the reproductive organs: 5050-5062; on thecorrespondence of the inner viscera of the body, particularly the stomach, thymus, the cisterna, the chyle and its ducts and the mesentery: 5171-5180, 5189 [5181]; on the correspondence of the spleen: 9698; on the correspondence of the peritoneum, kidneys, and bladder: 5377-5396 [5377-5391]; on thecorrespondence of the liver and the ducts of the liver, of the bladder, and of the pancreas: 5183-5185; on the correspondence of the intestines: 5392-5395, 5379; on the correspondence of the bones: 5560-5564; on the correspondence of the skin: 5552-5573; on the correspondence of heaven with a person: 911, 1900, 1982 [2162], 2996, 2998, 3624-3649, 3741-3745, 3884, 4091 [4041], 4279 [4280], 4423 [4323], 4524, 4525, 6013, 6057, 9279, 9632; on the fact that everything in the physical world and its three kingdoms corresponds to something you can see in the spiritual world: 1632, 1881, 2758, 2890-2893 [2990-2993], 2897-3043 [2987-3003], 3213-3227, 3483, 3624-3649, 4044, 4053, 4156, 4366 [4936], 4939, 5116, 5377, 5428, 4477 [5477], 8211, 9280; that everything you see in heaven is a correspondence: 1521, 1532, 1619-1625, 1807, 1808, 1971, 1974, 1977, 1980, 1981, 2299, 2601, 3213-3226, 3348, 3350, 3457 [3475], 3485, 3748 [3747], 9481, 9570, 9576, 9577. The correspondence of the literal meaning of the Word with its spiritual meaning is dealt with throughout, and is also treated in Teachings for the New Jerusalem on Sacred Scripture 5-26 and 27-69.
Arcana Coelestia 5131 No. 3
[3] All things without exception within the human being, indeed all things without exception in the natural creation, follow one another as end, cause, and effect. When these correspond to one another in this way they act as one, for in this case the end is the all in all of the cause, and through the cause is the all in all of the effect. Take for example heavenly love, when this is the end, the will is the cause, and action is the effect. If the three exist in correspondence with one another - that love flowing into the will, and the will into action - they then act as one, so much so through their correspondence with one another that the action is seen as the love. Or take for another example faith grounded in charity. When this is the end, thought is the cause, and conversation is the effect. If the three exist in correspondence with one another - if faith grounded in charity is flowing into a person's thought, and this into his conversation - they then act as one, so much so that through their correspondence with one another his conversation is seen as if it were the end. But to enable the cause to exist, which is will or thought, the end, which is love or faith, must call on assistant means within the rational mind which must correspond. For without the corresponding assistant means the end, which is love and faith, has nothing to receive it, even though it flows in from the Lord through heaven.
From this it is evident that both the interior and the exterior aspects of the human being, that is, his rational concepts, natural ideas, and sensory impressions, must be brought into a state ofcorrespondence so that the Divine can flow in and be received by a person, consequently so that he may be born again, prior to which all is not well with him. From all this one may see that 'when it is well with you' here means [when] a correspondence exists.
Divine Love and Wisdom (Dole) n. 374
2. There is a correspondence of volition and discernment with the heart and the lungs and a consequent correspondence of everything in our minds with everything in our bodies. This is something new, since it has not yet been recognized because people have not known what anything spiritual was or how it differed from what is physical. As a result, they have not known whatcorrespondence is, correspondence being a relationship between spiritual and physical things, and the means of their union.
While I am saying that people have not yet recognized what anything spiritual is or how it corresponds to what is physical, which has left them ignorant of whatcorrespondence is, still they could have known both of these facts. Is anyone unaware that feelings and thoughts are spiritual and that therefore everything that has to do with feelings and thoughts is spiritual? Is anyone unaware that action and speech are physical, and that therefore everything that has to do with action and speech is physical? Is anyone unaware that feelings and thoughts, which are spiritual, impel us to speak and act? Is there anyone who could not learn from this how spiritual and physical things correspond? Is it not thought that impels the tongue to speak and desire combined with thought that impels the body to act? These are two distinguishable activities. I can think and not speak, and I can intend and not act. Further, we know that the body does not think and intend, but that thinking flows into speech and intention into action.
Then too, do not feelings radiate from the face and show their impress there? Everyone recognizes this. Seen in its own right, is not feeling spiritual, while the changes of the face that we call expressions are physical? Can anyone fail to conclude, then, that there is a responsiveness, and therefore that there is acorrespondence of everything in the mind with everything in the body? Further, since everything in the mind goes back to feeling and thought (or to volition and discernment, which amounts to the same thing), while everything in the body goes back to the heart and the lungs, can anyone fail to conclude that there is acorrespondence of volition with the heart and of discernment with the lungs?
The reason things like this have gone unrecognized, even though they could have been recognized, is that we have become so superficial that we are unwilling to give credence to anything but what is physical. This gratifies our love and therefore gratifies our discernment; so we are uncomfortable raising our thoughts above the physical level toward anything spiritual separated from what is physical. As a result, our physical love and its gratification prevents us from thinking of the spiritual as anything but a purer version of the physical, and ofcorrespondence as anything but a flow along a continuum. In fact, strict materialists cannot conceive of anything separated from what is physical. To them, it is nothing.
Heaven and Hell (Dole) n. 101
It is absolutely necessary to realize, though, that all correspondence with heaven is correspondence with the Lord's divine human, because heaven is from him and because he is heaven, as has been explained in the preceding chapters. For unless the divine human flowed into every bit of heaven and, in accord withcorrespondences, into every bit of our world, there would be no angels and none of us.
Again then, we can see from this why the Lord became an individual on earth and clothed his divine nature with a human nature from first to last. This happened because the divine human on which heaven depended before the Coming of the Lord was no longer adequate to sustain everything, since we, the foundation of heaven, had undermined and destroyed the design.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 4652
- CORRESPONDENCE WITH THE GRAND MAN, WHICH IS HEAVEN - continued
IN THIS SECTION THE CORRESPONDENCE OF HEARING AND OF THE EARS WITH HEAVEN
The nature of the correspondence that exists between the soul and the body - that is, between the things constituting a person's inward spirit and those constituting his outward body - may be clearly recognized from thecorrespondence, influx, and communication of thought and discernment, which are functions of the spirit, with speech and hearing, which are functions of the body. When a person is speaking, his thought is nothing else than the power of speech which his spirit possesses, while his discernment of speech is nothing else than the power of hearing which his spirit possesses. When a person speaks, his thought does not, it is true, present itself to him as speech because it links itself to and is present within the power of speech that his body possesses. And when he hears something his discernment of it seems to him to be simply a hearing within his ear. For this reason the majority of people who have not stopped to reflect on the matter do not know that all five senses are located somewhere else than within organs belonging to the body; so they think that when these organs cease to function through death no sensory perception remains, when in actual fact a person, that is, his spirit, then passes into a life of perfect sensory perception.
Heaven and Hell (Dole) n. 114
We may now say something about the knowledge of correspondences and its use. We have just stated that the spiritual world, which is heaven, is united to the natural world by means of correspondences; so it is through correspondencesthat we are given communication with heaven. Heaven's angels do not think in terms of natural phenomena the way we do, so when we are absorbed in the knowledge of correspondences we can be in the company of angels in respect to the thoughts of our minds. So we can be united to them in regard to our spiritual or inner person.
In order that there might be a union of heaven with humanity, the Word was written in pure correspondences. Absolutely everything in it corresponds.(i) So if we were steeped in a knowledge of correspondences, we would understand the Word in its spiritual meaning and be enabled to know hidden treasures in it that we do not see at all in its literal meaning. The Word does in fact have a literal meaning and a spiritual meaning.(j) The literal meaning consists of the kind of things that are in our world, while the spiritual meaning consists of the kind of things that are in heaven; and since the union of heaven with our world is maintained by correspondences, we have been given a Word in which the details correspond, even down to the last jot.
Heaven and Hell (Dole) n. 87
There Is a Correspondence of Everything in Heaven with Everything in the Human Being
People today do not know what "correspondence" is. There are many reasons for this ignorance, the primary one being that we have moved away from heaven because of our love for ourselves and for the world. You see, people who love themselves and the world above all focus on nothing but earthly matters because these provide gratification to their more outward senses and pleasure to their moods. They do not attend to spiritual matters because these offer gratification to their deeper senses and pleasure to their minds. So they set such matters aside, saying that they are too lofty to think about.
The early people behaved differently. For them, knowledge aboutcorrespondences was the pearl of all knowledge. By means of it, they gained intelligence and wisdom, and by means of it those who were of the church had a communication with heaven. Knowledge about correspondences is in fact angelic knowledge.
The earliest ones, who were heavenly people, did their thinking fromcorrespondence like angels, so they could even talk with angels. Further, the Lord was quite often visible to them, and taught them. Nowadays, though, this knowledge has been so completely lost that people do not know whatcorrespondence is.
Arcana Coelestia (Potts) n. 5423
And spoke hard things with them. That this signifies hence also non-correspondence, is evident from the same explication that was given above of his "making himself strange" to them. To "make one's self strange" has regard to the affection of the will, and to "speak hardly" has regard to the thought of the understanding, for in the internal sense "to speak" is to think (see n. 2271, 2287, 2619); and the internal appears strange to the external when there is no affection, and the internal appears to speak hard things when there is no correspondence.Correspondence is the appearing of the internal in the external, and its representation therein; wherefore when there is no correspondence, there is no appearing of the internal in the external, and therefore no representation of it therein. Hence comes the hardness.
Heaven and Hell (Dole) n. 106
In a word, absolutely everything in nature, from the smallest to the greatest, is a correspondence.(a) The reason correspondences occur is that the natural world, including everything in it, arises and is sustained from the spiritual world, and both worlds come from the Divine. We say that it also is sustained because everything is sustained from that from which it arose, enduring being in fact a perpetual arising; and since nothing can endure independently, but needs something prior, it therefore needs a First, and if it were separated from that First, it would utterly perish and disappear.
AC 8778
[2] What correspondence and receptivity through correspondence are becomes clear from what has been shown at the ends of quite a number of chapters regarding the correspondence of all things present in the human being with the things that exist in heaven. It has also been shown in those places that all joining of natural things to spiritual ones, and in general of lower things to higher ones, is accomplished through correspondence. Such correspondence does not exist unless the lower things are placed in subordinate positions and made subject to the higher ones; and when the lower have been made subject, the higher ones act on them altogether as a cause does on its effect.
White Horse (Whitehead) n. 12
The Word is written by correspondences, and thus by representatives. The Word as to the sense of the letter is written by mere correspondences, that is, by such things as represent and signify the spiritual things of heaven and the church (n. 1404, 1408, 1409, 1540, 1619, 1659, 1709, 1783, 2179, 2763, 2899). This was done for the sake of the internal sense, which is there in every part (n. 2899). Consequently for the sake of heaven, since those who are in heaven do not understand the Word according to the sense of its letter, which is natural, but according to the internal sense, which is spiritual (n. 2899). The Lord spoke bycorrespondences, representatives, and significatives, because He spoke from the Divine (n. 9049, 9063, 9086, 10126, 10728). The Lord thus spoke before the world, and at the same time before heaven (n. 2533, 4807, 9049, 9063, 9086). The things spoken by the Lord went through the whole heaven (n. 4637). The historicals of the Word are representatives, and the words significative (n. 1540, 1659, 1709, 1783, 2687). The Word could not be written in any other style, so that through it there might be communication and conjunction with the heavens (n. 2899, 6943, 9481). They greatly err, who despise the Word on account of the apparent simplicity and rudeness of its style, and who think that they would receive the Word if it had been written in a different style (n. 8783). The method and style of writing which prevailed amongst the most ancient people, was bycorrespondences and representatives (n. 605, 1756, 9942). The ancient wise men were delighted with the Word, because of the representatives and significatives therein, from experience (n. 2592, 2593). If a man of the Most Ancient Church had read the Word, he would have seen clearly the things contained in the internal sense, and obscurely the things contained in the external sense (n. 449). The sons of Jacob were brought into the land of Canaan, because all the places in that land, from the most ancient times, were made representative (n. 1585, 3686, 4441, 5136, 6516). And thus the Word might be there written, wherein those places should be mentioned for the sake of the internal sense (n. 3686, 4447, 5136, 6416). But nevertheless the Word, as to the external sense was changed for the sake of that nation, but not as to the internal sense (n. 10453, 10461, 10603, 10604) Many passages adduced from the Word concerning that nation, which must be understood according to the internal sense, and not according to the letter (n. 7051). Inasmuch as that nation represented the church, and the Word was written with them and concerning them, therefore Divine celestial things were signified by their names, as by Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Ephraim, Joseph, and the rest: and by "Judah" in the internal sense is signified the Lord as to celestial love, and His celestial kingdom (n. 3654, 3881, 3882, 5583, 5782, 6362-6381).
That it may be known what correspondences are and their nature, and what is the nature of representatives in the Word, something shall be here said concerning them. All things which correspond likewise represent, and thereby signify, so that correspondences and representations are one (n. 2890, 2897, 2971, 2987, 2989, 2990, 3002, 3225). The nature of correspondences and representations shown from experience and examples (n. 2703, 2987, 3002, 3213-3226, 3337-3352, 3472-3485, 4218-4228, 9280). The science of correspondences and representations was the chief science with the ancients (n. 3021, 3419, 4280, 4749, 4844, 4964, 4965, 6004, 7729, 10252). Especially with the Orientals (n. 5702, 6692, 7097, 7779, 9391, 10252, 10407). And in Egypt more than in other countries (n. 5702, 6692, 7097, 7779, 9391, 10407). Also with the Gentiles, as in Greece, and in other places (n. 2762, 7729). But that at this day the science ofcorrespondences and representations is lost, particularly in Europe (n. 2894, 2895, 2994, 3630, 3632, 3747-3749, 4581, 4966, 10252). Nevertheless this science is more excellent than all other sciences, inasmuch as without it the Word cannot be understood, nor the signification of the rites of the Jewish Church which are recorded in the Word, nor can it be known what the nature of heaven is, nor what the spiritual is, nor in what manner a spiritual influx takes place into what is natural, nor how the case is with respect to the influx of the soul into the body, with many other matters (n. 4180), and in the places above cited. All things which appear before spirits and angels, are representative according to correspondences (n. 1971, 3213-3226, 3457, 3475, 3485, 9481, 9574, 9576, 9577). The heavens are full of representatives (n. 1521, 1532, 1619). Representatives are more beautiful, and more perfect, in proportion as they are more interior in the heavens (n. 3475). Representatives there are real appearances, because they are from the light of heaven which is Divine truth, and which is the very essential of the existence of all things (n. 3485).
The reason why each and all things in the spiritual world are represented in the natural world, is, because what is internal assumes to itself a suitable clothing in what is external, whereby it makes itself visible and apparent (n. 6275, 6284, 6299). Thus the end assumes a suitable clothing that it may exist as the cause in a lower sphere, and afterwards that it may exist as the effect in a sphere still lower; and when the end, by means of the cause, becomes the effect, it then becomes visible, or appears before the eyes (n. 5711). This may be illustrated by the influx of the soul into the body, whereby the soul assumes a clothing of such things in the body as enable it to express all its thoughts and affections in a visible form; wherefore thought, when it flows down into the body, is there represented by such gestures and actions as correspond to it (n. 2988). The affections of the mind are manifestly represented in the face, by the variations of the countenance, so as to be there seen (n. 4791-4805, 5695). Hence it is evident, that in each and all things in nature there lies hidden a cause and an end from the spiritual world (n. 3562, 5711). Since those things which are in nature are the ultimate effects, within which are the prior things (n. 4240, 4939, 5051, 6275, 6284, 6299, 9216). That internal things are the objects represented, and external things the objects representing (n. 4292). What is further meant by correspondences and representations may be seen in the work on Heaven and Hell, where it treats of the correspondence between all things of Heaven, and all things of Man (n. 87-102). Of the Correspondence of Heaven with all things on Earth (n. 103-115). And of Representatives and Appearances in Heaven (n. 170-176).
Since all things in nature are representative of spiritual and celestial things, therefore in the churches which existed in ancient times, all the externals, which were rituals, were representative, and therefore those churches were called representative churches (n. 519, 521, 2896). The church instituted with the sons of Israel was a representative church (n. 1003, 2179, 10149). All the rituals therein were externals, which represented internals, which are of heaven and the church (n. 4288, 4874). The representatives of the church and of worship ceased when the Lord came into the world and manifested Himself, because the Lord opened the internals of the church, and because all things of that church in the highest sense regarded Him (n. 4832).
True Christian Religion (Rose) n. 204
204
Over the course of time, the early church's symbolic rituals, which werecorrespondences, began to turn into idolatry and even magic. Therefore in the Lord's divine providence the study of correspondences was gradually lost.
For the Israelite and Jewish nation, the study of correspondences was completely wiped out. Their worship did indeed consist entirely of correspondences and therefore it portrayed heavenly things, but they had no idea what anything in their worship meant. They were completely earthly people who did not want to know and could not know anything about what is spiritual and heavenly, or anything about correspondences for that matter, since correspondences are earthly symbols of spiritual and heavenly things.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 4525
From all this it is evident that in man in particular everything has acorrespondence with the spiritual world, and that without this correspondence he cannot remain in being for a single moment; for without correspondence nothing continuous from the very Being of life, that is, from the Lord, could have any existence. Thus lack of connection would exist, leading so to speak to dissolution into nothingness. The reason why the correspondence with man is more immediate and consequently more exact is that he has been created so that he may take to himself life flowing from the Lord, and so has been created, as regards his thoughts and affections, with the capacity to be raised up by the Lord above the natural world, as a consequence to have thoughts about God, to be moved by an affection for the Divine, and thereby to be joined to Him, unlike other living creatures on earth. Beings who have this capacity to be joined to the Divine do not die when everything of the body belonging to this world is laid aside, for interiorly those beings remain joined to him.
True Christian Religion (Rose) n. 205
205
Among people outside the church in early times, the study of correspondencesled to forms of idolatry because all things that are visible on earth have acorrespondence - not only trees but also animals and birds of every kind, as well as fish, and everything else. Early people involved in the study ofcorrespondences made images that corresponded to things in heaven. They enjoyed these images because the images stood for things related to heaven and the church. They placed these images not only in their temples but also in their homes, not in order to worship them but to be reminded of the heavenly things they meant. In Egypt and elsewhere there were images of calves, oxen, and snakes, as well as children, old people, and young women, because calves and oxen meant the emotions and forces in the earthly self; snakes meant prudence but also the deceitfulness of the senses; children meant innocence and goodwill; old people meant wisdom; and young women meant types of love for the truth; and so on.
When the study of correspondences was wiped out, later generations began worshiping the images and statues erected by the early people. They worshiped them first as sacred objects and then as deities, since they found them in and around temples.
Because of the study of correspondences, the early people had also worshiped in gardens and groves, depending on which species of trees were there. They also worshiped on mountains and hills. Gardens and groves meant wisdom and intelligence; and every tree meant some aspect of wisdom and intelligence. For example, an olive tree meant good actions that come from love, while a grapevine meant the true insights that come from those good actions. A cedar tree meant rational goodness and truth. A mountain meant the highest heaven, and a hill, a heaven below it.
The study of correspondences continued among many in the Middle East even to the time of the Lord's coming, as you can see from the wise ones from the Middle East who came to the Lord when he was born. Therefore a star went before them and they brought gifts with them: gold, frankincense, and myrrh (Matthew 2:1, 2, 9, 10, 11). The star that went before them meant knowledge from heaven. Gold meant the heavenly goodness; frankincense, the spiritual goodness; and myrrh, the earthly goodness that together form the source of all worship.
There was absolutely no study of correspondences among the Israelite and Jewish nation, although all the aspects of their worship, all the statutes and judgments given to them through Moses, and all the details throughout their Word were correspondences. The reason for this lack was that at heart the people were idolatrous. They had no desire at all to know that any aspect of their worship meant something heavenly or spiritual. They believed that all their rituals were intrinsically holy. If the heavenly and spiritual underpinnings had been revealed to them, they would have not only rejected those underpinnings but also desecrated them. As a result, heaven was so tightly closed to them that they were scarcely aware that eternal life existed.
The truth of this is very clear from the fact that the people did not acknowledge the Lord even though their entire Sacred Scripture had prophesied about him and foretold his coming. They rejected him for one single reason: he taught them about a heavenly kingdom, not an earthly one. They wanted a Messiah who would lift them above all the nations in the whole world, not some Messiah who was concerned with their eternal salvation.
Doctrine of Sacred Scripture (Potts) n. 7
The distinction between these degrees cannot be known unless correspondenceis known. For these three degrees are altogether distinct from each other, like end, cause, and effect, or like prior, posterior, and postreme; yet they make one bycorrespondences, for the Natural corresponds to the Spiritual, and also to the Celestial. What correspondence is may be seen in Heaven and Hell, where the subject of the correspondence of all things of heaven with all things of man has been treated of (n. 87-102); and also the correspondence of heaven with all things of the earth (n. 103-115). The same will further appear below, from examples adduced from the Word.
Who (or What) is Swedenborg?
The ideas on this site are based on the works of Emanuel Swedenborg, an 18th-century Swedish scientist and theologian. Swedenborg claimed that his religious writings, the sole focus of the last three decades of his life, were done at the behest of the Lord himself, and constituted a revelation for a successor to the Christian Church.
In keeping with Swedenborg’s own statements, modern believers downplay his role as author, attributing the ideas to the Lord instead. For this reason they generally refer to Swedenborg’s theological works as “the Writings,” and some resist the label “Swedenborgian” as placing emphasis on the man rather than the message.
Since “the Writings” would be an unfamiliar term to new readers, we have elected to use the name “Swedenborg” as a label for those theological works, much as we might use “Isaiah” or “Matthew” to refer to books of the Bible. The intent, however, is not to attribute the ideas to Swedenborg, any more than we would attribute the divinity of the Bible to Isaiah the man or Matthew the man.
So when you read “according to Swedenborg” on this site, it’s really shorthand for “according to the theological works from the Lord through Swedenborg.” When you read “Swedenborg says,” it’s really shorthand for “the theological works of Swedenborg say.”