Sarah’s Handout

Angel

A truth and its good

HH 7 … And as the Divine that goes forth from the Lord is the good of love and the truth of faith, the angels are angels and are heaven in the measure in which they receive good and truth from the Lord.

AC 10217(9) for “an angel” in the Word signifies truths from good, because he is a recipient of Divine truth from the Lord (see n. 8192). 

AC 3402(2) Good and truth, or the angels, are said to be removed from man when he is not affected by them, that is, when he is no longer delighted with them, but on the contrary is affected by the things that are of the love of self and the love of the world, that is, when these alone delight him.

HH 372. Good and truth conjoined in an angel or a man are not two but one, since good is then good of truth and truth is truth of good. This conjunction may be likened to a man’s thinking what he wills and willing what he thinks, when the thought and will make one, that is, one mind; for thought forms, that is, presents in form that which the will wills, and the will gives delight to it; and this is why a married pair in heaven are not called two, but one angel. This also is what is meant by the Lord’s words:

Have ye not read that He who made them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother and shall cleave to his wife, and they twain shall become one flesh? Therefore, they are no more twain, but one flesh. What, therefore, God hath joined together let not man put asunder. Not all can receive this word but they to whom it is given (Matthew 19:4-6, 11; Mark 10:6-9; Genesis 2:24).

This is a description both of the heavenly marriage in which the angels are and of the marriage of good and truth, “man’s not putting asunder what God has joined together” meaning that good is not to be separated from truth.

Heaven 

The spiritual or internal man/mind, the truths and the goods as a collective

HH 7 It is the Divine of the Lord that makes Heaven. The angels taken collectively are called heaven, for they constitute heaven; and yet that which makes heaven in general and in particular is the Divine that goes forth from the Lord and flows into the angels and is received by them.

AC 16 That “heaven” signifies the internal man; and “earth” the external man before regeneration, may be seen from what follows.

Earth

The natural mind or the external mind/man

TLJ 3. That by “the new earth” is meant a New Church on earth, has hitherto been unknown, for every one by “earth” in the Word has understood the earth, when yet by it is meant the church; in the natural sense, earth is the earth, but in the spiritual sense it is the church, because they who are in the spiritual sense, that is, who are spiritual, as the angels are, when “the earth” is named in the Word, do not understand the earth itself, but the nation which is there, and its Divine worship; hence it is that by “earth” is signified the church.that it is so, may be seen in the Arcana Caelestia, as quoted below.

I will here adduce one or two passages from the Word, by which in some measure it may be comprehended, that “earth” [land] signifies the church:

The cataracts from on high were opened, and the foundations of the earth were shaken; in breaking, the earth is broken; in agitating, the earth is agitated; in reeling, the earth reels like a drunkard; it moves to and fro like a cottage; and heavy upon it is the transgression thereof (Isaiah 24:18-20).

I will cause a man to be more rare than pure gold; therefore I will remove the heaven, and the earth shall be removed out of her place, in the day of the fierce anger of Jehovah (Isaiah 13:12, 13).

The earth was agitated before Him, the heavens have trembled, the sun and the moon are become black, and the stars have withdrawn their splendor (Joel 2:10).

The land was shaken and agitated, and the foundations of the mountains trembled and were shaken (Psalm 18:7, 8, and in many other places).

AC 5362. ‘And the famine was in all lands’ means a desolation everywhere in the natural. This is clear from the meaning of ‘famine’ as a desolation, dealt with above in 5360, and from the meaning of ‘all lands’ as everywhere in the natural. For ‘land’ or ‘earth’ is the natural mind, and so the natural itself, see 5276, 5278, 5280, 5288, 5301.

AC 5301. That shall be in the land of Egypt. That this signifies that shall be in the natural, is evident from the signification of the “land of Egypt,” as being the natural mind (see n. 5276, 5278, 5279, 5288). It is here and elsewhere said “the natural,” and thereby is meant the natural mind; for man has two minds, a rational mind and a natural mind; the rational mind is of the internal man, and the natural mind is of the external man. This mind or this man is what is meant by “the natural” simply so called. That the mind is the man himself, will be seen in what now follows.

A Church 

The Lord’s heaven on earth – the marriage of faith and charity – the Lord’s truths and goods as a collective in the natural/external mind

HH 57. What has been said of heaven may be said also of the church, for the church is the Lord’s heaven on earth…. that the church is within man and not outside of him; and that every man is a church in whom the Lord is present in the good of love and of faith. 2 Again, the same may be said of a man that has the church in him as of an angel that has heaven in him, namely, that he is a church in the smallest form, as an angel is a heaven in the smallest form; and furthermore that a man that has the church in him, equally with an angel, is a heaven.

NJHD 5 …(Whitehead) For it is provided by the Lord that there should always be a church on earth, since by means of the church there is a conjunction of the Lord with the human race, and of heaven with the world; for there the Lord is known, and there are the Divine truths by which man is conjoined to Him.

NJHD 246 (Whitehead)… The church exists specifically where the Word is, and where the Lord is thereby known, and thus where Divine truths are revealed

BE 68 (Whitehead) But what is a church without faith, and what is faith without charity, consequently what is a church without the marriage of faith and charity (n. 48)? This marriage is the church itself, and is the New Church which is now being established by the Lord.

Death

Awakening of the natural mind to the spiritual life

AC 3523 (Elliot). ‘Before his death’ means awakening in the natural. This is clear from the meaning of ‘death’ as awakening, also dealt with above in 3498, 3505 – an awakening, it is evident, in the natural. NB: Potts uses the word ‘resuscitation’ instead of ‘awakening’.

AC 3498 (E). ‘I do not know the day of my death’ means the life within the natural. This is clear from the meaning of ‘day’ as state, dealt with in 23, 487, 488, 493, 893, 2788, and from the meaning of ‘death’ as rising again or awakening into life, dealt with in 3326. ‘The day of death’ accordingly means a state of awakening to life, or what amounts to the same, it means life – the life within the natural, it is evident, being meant in particular here, because that life is the subject here. What is implied in all this does not become clear unless one knows about the life of the rational, and the life of the natural, or what amounts to the same, about the life of the internal man and the life of the external man. The life of the rational or internal man is distinct and separate from that of the natural or external man, so distinct indeed that the life of the rational or internal man may exist quite independently of the life of the natural or external man; but the life of the natural or external man cannot exist apart from that of the rational or internal man. For the external man lives from the internal man, so much so that if the life of the internal man ceased to be, the life of the external man would instantly be no more. Exterior things are accordingly dependent on interior in the way that things which are posterior exist from those that are prior, or as an effect exists from its efficient cause. For if the efficient cause ceased to be, the effect would instantly be no more. The same is also so with the life of the external man in relation to the life of the internal man.

AC 3505(E). ‘Before I die’ means the first state of awakening in the natural. This is clear from the meaning of ‘dying’ as rising again or awakening into life, dealt with in 3326, 3498. That this is the first state is evident from the consideration that it is the good of early childhood and therefore the good of life which comes first in regeneration

Man/human (Latin is ‘homo’)

The form of the mind – it’s love, wisdom and use…. 

DLW 260 … It is the same thing whether the terms “natural and spiritual man” or “natural and spiritual mind” are used. 

AC 10298 (2)… Man is not man from his face, nor even from his speech, but from understanding and will; such as are his understanding and his will, such is the man.

CL 18[4] Since these three, love, wisdom, and use, flow into the souls of men, it can be evident whence comes the saying that all good is from God; for every deed done from love by means of wisdom is called good, and use is also a deed. What is love without wisdom but something fatuous? and, without use, what is love together with wisdom but a state of the mind? But with use, love and wisdom not only make the man, they are the man. Indeed, and this perhaps will astonish you, they propagate man; for in man’s seed is his soul in perfect human form, covered over with substances from the purest things of nature, from which, in the mother’s womb, is formed a body. This use is the supreme and ultimate use of Divine Love by means of Divine Wisdom.”

HH 57 Again, the same may be said of a man that has the church in him as of an angel that has heaven in him, namely, that he is a church in the smallest form, as an angel is a heaven in the smallest form; and furthermore that a man that has the church in him, equally with an angel, is a heaven. For man was created that he might come into heaven and become an angel; consequently he that has good from the Lord is a man-angel. 3 What man has in common with an angel and what he has in contrast with angels may be mentioned. It is granted to man, equally with the angel, to have his interiors conformed to the image of heaven, and to become, so far as he is in the good of love and faith, an image of heaven. But it is granted to man and not to angels to have his exteriors conform to the image of the world; and so far as he is in good to have the world in him subordinated to heaven and made to serve heaven. 4 And then the Lord is present in him both in the world and in heaven just as if he were in his heaven. For the Lord is in His Divine order in both worlds, since God is order. 

Spiritual World and Natural World

The internal man/mind and the external man/mind

AC 2990. It is also known, or may be known, that there is a spiritual world, and also a natural world. In the universal sense the spiritual world is where spirits and angels dwell; and the natural world is where men dwell. 

In particular, there is a spiritual world and a natural world with every man: 

his internal man being to him a spiritual world, and his external man being to him a natural world. 

The things that flow in from the spiritual world and are presented in the natural world, are in general representations; and insofar as they agree they are correspondences.

HH 90- 92 (Harley). Since man is both a heaven and a world in least form after the image of the greatest (see above 57), there is, therefore, with him both a spiritual and a natural world. Interior things which belong to his mind and relate to the understanding and the will, make his spiritual world, while exterior things which belong to his body and relate to its senses and actions make his natural world. Consequently, whatever in his natural world, that is, in his body and its senses and actions, comes into existence from his spiritual world, that is, from his mind and its understanding and will, is said to be a correspondence thereof.

91. What correspondence is, may be seen from the human face. In a face which has not been taught to dissemble, all the affections of the mind come to view in a natural form as in their image. This is why the face is said to be the index of the mind; that is, it is man’s spiritual world presented in his natural world. In the same way, the things pertaining to the understanding present themselves in speech, and those pertaining to the will present themselves in the movements of the body. All things, therefore, that are done in the body, whether in the face, in speech or in bodily movements, are called correspondences.

92. From these observations may also be seen what the internal man is and what the external man. Namely, the internal is what is called the spiritual man, and the external, what is called the natural man; also that the one is distinct from the other as heaven is from the world; and further, that all things that take place and come into existence in the external or natural man, take place and come into existence from the internal or spiritual.

The Lord

The Word – these two terms can be substituted for one another 

TCR 263.  Few understand how the Lord is the Word; for they think that although the Lord can enlighten and teach men through the Word, He cannot on this account be called the Word. But let it be understood that every man is his own will and his own understanding, each man being thus distinct from every other; and as the will is the receptacle of love, and thus of all the goods of that love, and the understanding is the receptacle of wisdom, and thus of all things of truth belonging to that wisdom, it follows, that each man is his own love and his own wisdom, or what is the same thing, his own good and his own truth. For no other reason is man a man, and nothing else than this in man is man. In respect to the Lord, He is love itself and wisdom itself, thus good itself and truth itself; and this He became by fulfilling all the good and all the truth in the Word. For he who thinks and speaks nothing but truth becomes that truth; and he who wills and does only what is good becomes that good; and as the Lord fulfilled all the Divine truth and Divine good contained in the Word, both in its natural sense and in its spiritual sense, He became good itself and truth itself, that is, the Word.

AC 2859  That the Lord is the Word is known, and therefore the Lord is doctrine (n. 2531), for all doctrine is from the Word.  The all of doctrine in the Word is from the Lord, and is concerning the Lord.  In the internal sense of the Word nothing but the Lord and His kingdom is treated of, as has been shown many times.  It is the Lord’s Divine Human of which the internal sense of the Word especially treats; and the all of doctrine in the Word as regards man is to worship Him and love Him.

AR 739  That the Word is the Divine good itself and the Divine truth is because there is in each and everything of it the marriage of the Lord and the church, and thence the marriage of good and truth; also because there is in everything of it a celestial sense and a spiritual sense; and in the celestial sense it is the Divine good, and in the spiritual sense it is the Divine truth; and these are in the Word, because the Lord is the Word; which things are all demonstrated in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem concerning the Sacred Scripture,

TCR 154  Again, the Word of the Lord is like an ocean or a flower bed or a garden, in that when it has place in man’s internal in any degree of fullness it does not act through man, but man speaks and acts of himself from the Word.  The same is true of the Lord, because He is the Word, that is, the Divine truth and Divine good that are in it.  The Lord acts from Himself or from the Word in and into man, and not through him, since man acts and speaks from the Lord freely when he acts and speaks from the Word.

Conjugial Love

The love that proceeds from the union of truth from good and good from truth, from the marriage of good and truth

CL 61 Conjugial love proceeds from the marriage of good and truth …   

… there is a conjunction of good and truth in each and every created thing, and conjunction is not possible unless it be reciprocal … 

… the truth of good or truth from good is in the male and is the masculine itself, and that the good of truth or good from truth is in the female and is the feminine itself, and there is a conjugial union between these two 

CL 457… That it is the precious jewel of human life is because the nature of man’s life is such as is the conjugial love with him. This makes the inmost of his life, being the life of wisdom cohabiting with its love, and of love cohabiting with its wisdom. Hence it is the life of the delights of both. In a word, by this love man is a living soul. It is from this that the conjugial of one man with one wife is called the precious jewel of human life.

CL 335. II. THUS, THAT EXCEPT WITH ONE WIFE, THERE CAN BE NO CELESTIAL BLESSINGS, SPIRITUAL HAPPINESS, AND NATURAL DELIGHTS SUCH AS HAVE BEEN PROVIDED FROM THE BEGINNING FOR THOSE WHO ARE IN LOVE TRULY CONJUGIAL. They are called celestial blessings, spiritual happiness, and natural delights, because the human mind is distinguished into three regions, the highest of which is called celestial, the second spiritual, and the third natural. With those who are in love truly conjugial, these three regions stand open, and influx follows in order according to the openings.

Gardens

Intelligence or the understanding of truth

HH 111. There is a like correspondence with the things in the vegetable kingdom. In general, a garden corresponds to heaven as to intelligence and wisdom, so that heaven is called the garden of God and paradise, ¹ and by man the heavenly paradise.

AC 305… for a “garden” signifies intelligence, or the understanding of truth

Neighbour

What is true, sincere and just, goods from the Lord

AE 204 (2) … For no man thinks, wills, and does any good thing that is good in itself, but it is all from the Lord; and what is true, sincere, and just are good things that are good in themselves when they are from the Lord. 

These things, then, are the neighbor in the spiritual sense; from which it is clear what is meant in that sense by loving the neighbor, or by charity

Key 

AE = Apocalypse Explained – Whitehead

AR = Apocalypse Revealed – Whitehead

AC = Arcana Coelestia – Potts unless stated 

BE = A Brief Exposition of New Church Doctrine – Whitehead

CL= Conjugial Love – Acton 

DLW= Divine Love and Wisdom – Ager

HH = Heaven and Hell – Ager

NJHD = The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine – Whitehead

TLJ = The Last Judgement – Whitehead

TCR = True Christian Religion – Ager