Logopraxis

True Christian Religion (Ager) 20{2}. This One God is Substance itself and Form itself and angels and men are substances and forms from Him, and so far as they are in Him and He in them are images and likenesses of Him. As God is Esse He is also Substance; for unless Esse is substance it is a figment of the reason; for substance has subsistent being. Moreover, one who is a substance is also a form; for unless a substance is a form it is a figment of the reason. Wherefore both substance and form may be predicated of God, but in the sense that He is the only, the very, and the primal Substance and Form… this Form is the verily Human Form, that is, God is verily Man, infinite in every respect … angels and men are substances and forms created and organised for receiving what is Divine flowing into them through heaven. For this reason they are called in the Book of Creation “images and likenesses of God” (Genesis 1:26, 27); and elsewhere “His sons,” and “born of Him.” … so far as man lives under Divine direction, that is, suffers himself to be led by God, so far he becomes an image of God more and more interiorly. Unless an idea is formed of God as the primal Substance and Form, and of His Form as the verily Human Form, the human mind may easily involve itself in spectral fancies about God Himself, the origin of man, and the creation of the world. It would then have no other conception of God than as the nature of the universe in its first principles, that is, as its expanse, or else as emptiness or nothingness; nor any other conception of man’s origin than as a flowing together of elements into that form by mere chance; nor of the creation of the world than that its substances and forms originated in points, and afterwards in geometrical lines, which are essentially nothing, because nothing can be predicated of them.  Heaven and Hell 60. People who do not have an appropriate concept of spiritual and heavenly realities cannot grasp the fact that heavenly and spiritual realities are arranged and connected in this form and image. They think that the earthly and material elements that make up their outmost form really make them what they are, and that without them they would not be human. Let them know, though, that they are not human beings because of these elements but because they are able to understand what is true and will what is good. These are the spiritual and heavenly realities that make them human. Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) 9503. So it is that the Lord is heaven, for Divine Truth which emanates from Him and is received by the angels makes heaven. Consequently the more perfect the manner in which angels receive Divine Truth that comes from the Lord and accordingly receive the Lord, the more perfect the human forms they possess. Eventually they become so perfect that their beauty surpasses belief; anyone who sees them, as I have done, will be dumbfounded. For in their outward form angels are manifestations of heavenly love and charity, and that is the truly human form. The reason why angels possess human forms is that the Divine in heaven is the Lord, and those who receive Divine Truth within good from Him are images of Him.   Arcana Coelestia (Potts) 8988 . The angels themselves appear in a human form in the heavens absolutely according to the truths which pertain to them in good, with a beauty and brightness according to the quality of the good from truths. Use is how it manifests Conjugial Love (Gladish) 16. Into our souls three things flow as one from the Lord, and these three as one, or this ‘trine,’ are love, wisdom, and use. But love and wisdom do not emerge except as an idea, because they only reside in affection and thoughts of the mind, but in use they become real, because then they are in the action and work of your body. And where they become real they also become substantial. And because love and wisdom emerge and become substantial in doing things, it is use that excites us, and use is doing the work of your calling faithfully, sincerely, and industriously. “A love of use, and the devotion it brings to usefulness, keep the mind from branching out and wandering around soaking up all the desires that seep in enticingly from your body and the world through the senses, and that scatter to all the winds true religion and true morality, and the benefits of them. But a devotion to use wraps up religion and morality, binds them together, and puts the mind in a state to receive wisdom and its truth. And then it puts aside the illusions and mockeries of both falsities and aimlessness. True Christian Religion 67.  Previous to creation God was love itself and wisdom itself and the union of these two in the effort to accomplish uses; for love and wisdom apart from use are only fleeting matters of reason, which fly away if not applied to use. The first two separated from the third are like birds flying above a great ocean, which are at length exhausted by flying, and fall down and are drowned. Evidently, therefore, the universe was created by God to give existence to uses; and for this reason the universe may be called a theater of uses. And as man is the chief end of creation, it follows that each and all things were created for the sake of man; and therefore each and all things belonging to order were brought together and concentrated in him, to the end that through him God might accomplish primary uses. Love and wisdom apart from their third, which is use, may be likened to the sun’s heat and light; which, if they did not operate upon men, animals, and vegetables, would be worthless things; but by influx into and operation upon these they become real.  For there are three things that follow each other in order, namely, end, cause, and effect; and it is known in the learned world that the end is nothing unless it regards the effecting cause, and that the end and this cause are nothing unless an effect is produced. The end and cause may indeed be contemplated abstractly in the mind, but still only on account of some effect which the end purposes and the cause secures.  It is the same with love, wisdom, and use; use is the end which love purposes, and through the cause accomplishes; and when use is accomplished love and wisdom have a real existence; and in the use they make for themselves a habitation and foundation where they rest as in their home.  It is the same with the man who has in him the love and wisdom of God when he is performing uses; and to enable him to perform Divine uses he was created an image and likeness of God, that is, a form of Divine order. We are not human Conjugial Love (Chadwick) 315{10,11}. Is there anyone who does not believe the soul to be the most intimate and subtle essence of a person? But what is essence without form but a figment of the imagination? The soul then is a form, but what sort of form, I will tell you. It is the form of all the parts of love and all the parts of wisdom. All the parts of love are called affections, and all the parts of wisdom are called perceptions. The perceptions as a result of and so together with the affections make up a single form containing countless parts, but arranged in such order and so coherent that they can be called a unity; and they can be called a unity, because nothing can be taken away from it or be added to it, if it is to remain a unity. What is the human soul but such a form? All the parts of love and all the parts of wisdom are the essentials of such a form, and in the case of a person these essentials are in his soul, and from his soul in his head and body. ‘You are called spirits and angels; and you believed in the world that spirits and angels were like puffs of wind or particles of ether, and so were minds and characters. Now you see clearly that you are truly, really and actually people, who in the world lived and thought in a material body; and you knew that it is not the material body that lives and thinks, but the spiritual substance in that body. This you called the soul, whose form you did not know; yet now you have seen it and go on seeing it. You are all souls, about whose immortality you have heard, thought, talked and written so much; and since you are forms of love and wisdom coming from God, you cannot ever die. The soul then is a human form, from which nothing can be taken away, and to which nothing can be added, and it is the inmost of all the forms throughout the body. Since the forms which are outside receive from the inmost both essence and form, you are therefore souls, just as you appear to be to your sight and to ours. In short, the soul is the real person because it is the inmost person; its form therefore is the human form in full perfection. But it is not life, but it is the nearest receiver of life from God, and so God’s dwelling.’  Fractal idea of the repeating pattern of the human form Heaven and Hell (Dole) 73 . Therefore Every Angel Is in Perfect Human Form…as a whole reflects a single individual and that the same holds true for each community in heaven. From the chain of causes presented there, it follows that each single angel reflects the same as well. As heaven is a person in greatest form and a community of heaven is a person in lesser form, so an angel is a person in least form; for in the most perfect form, like the form of heaven, there is a likeness of the whole in the part and of the part in the whole.  Conjugial Love (Searle) 92. V. FROM THE INFLUX OF THE MARRIAGE OF GOOD AND TRUTH That good and truth are the universals of creation, and thus are in all created subjects ; and that they are in created subjects according to the form of each; and that good and truth proceed from the Lord not as two but as one, was shewn above, nos. 84 to 87. From these considerations it follows, that the UNIVERSAL CONJUGIAL SPHERE proceeds from the Lord, and pervades the universe from its primes to its ultimates, thus from angels even to worms. The reason why such a sphere of the marriage of good and truth proceeds from the Lord, is, that it is also the sphere of propagation, that is, of prolification and fructification ; and this sphere is the same with the Divine providence for the preservation of the universe by means of successive generations. Now, since this universal sphere, which is that of the marriage of good and truth, flows in into subjects according to the form of each (see no. 86), it follows that the male receives it according to his form, thus in the intellect, because he is an intellectual form ; and that the female receives it according to her form, thus in the will, because she is a voluntary form from the intellectual of the man; and since that sphere is also the sphere of prolification, it follows that the love of the sex is thence. Conjugial Love (Chadwick) 132. For a person cannot help feeling that he loves and is wise of himself, that is, he wills good and understands truth of himself, when in fact it is not in the least from himself, but from God. It is only God who loves of Himself and is wise of Himself, because God is love itself and wisdom itself. The likeness or appearance that love and wisdom, or good and truth, are present in a person as if they belonged to him is what makes him human, and capable of being linked to God and so living forever.  Spiritual Experiences (Buss) 1710. But now [it is to be affirmed] that the life of the Lord flows in into all in the universe, for they constitute the Grand Body [corpus maximum] and heaven, with the heaven of spirits, which is His body, because it lives from Him, as a man lives from his soul; i.e. from the Lord through the soul, wherefore all the members, and the parts of the members, cannot but live from Him; just as in man the members and parts of members depend exclusively upon his soul; and according to the forms of the members and the forms of the parts, so they live, and so do they perform their functions, however diverse, in the universal body; and yet in such a way that they are led to uses and ends, like each single organ in the body, for there is a consent of all to uses and to one end, which is the Lord; whence life [flows] into all and each, from one mediately into another, through a society of forms. The Lord = the Word = the Divine Human Apocalypse Explained (Whitehead) 151… the Word is the Lord in respect to the Divine Human and Divine truth proceeding therefrom. True Christian Religion 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. Arcana Coelestia 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. Arcana Coelestia (Potts) 5321. [2] From the Divine Itself nothing of doctrine can possibly proceed except through the Divine Human, that is, through the  Word, which in the supreme sense is the Divine truth from the Lord’s Divine Human. Not even the angels in the inmost  heaven can apprehend that which proceeds immediately from the Divine Itself, because it is infinite, and therefore  transcends all apprehension, even that of angels. But that which proceeds from the Lord’s Divine Human they can  apprehend, because it treats of God as a Divine Man, concerning whom some idea can be formed from the Human; and  any idea whatever formed about the Human is accepted, provided it flows from the good of innocence, and is in the good  of charity. True Christian Religion 778. Every man is his own love and his own intelligence, and whatever proceeds from him derives its essence from those two essentials or properties of his life. Therefore the angels, from a brief intercourse with a man, recognize what he is essentially; they know his love from the tone of his voice, and his intelligence from his speech. This is because there are two universals of life belonging to every man, the will and the understanding. The will is the receptacle and abode of his love, and the understanding the receptacle and abode of his intelligence.  Therefore all things whatever, whether action or speech, that proceed from man, constitute the man and are the man himself. In like manner, but in a pre-eminent degree the Lord is Divine love and Divine wisdom, or what is the same thing, Divine good and Divine truth; for His will is of the Divine love and the Divine love is of His will, while His understanding is of the Divine wisdom and the Divine wisdom is of His understanding; the Human form is their containant. From this some idea may be formed of how the Lord is the Word.  But on the contrary, he who is antagonistic to the Word, that is, to the Divine truth therein, consequently, to the Lord and His church, is his own evil and his own falsity, both in reference to his mind and in reference to the effects thereof, relating to actions and words, which proceed from the body. Arcana Coelestia 8864. I am Jehovah thy God. That this signifies the Lord as to the Divine Human universally reigning in each and all things of good and truth, is evident from the fact that in the Word no other than the Lord is meant by “Jehovah” (see n. 1343, 1736, 2921, 3023, 3035, 3448, 5663, 6280, 6281, 6303, 8274), in like manner by “Jehovah Zebaoth,” by “the Lord Jehovih,” by “Jehovah God” (n. 2921, 3023, 3448, 6303); and that the Lord is called “Jehovah” from the Divine good, which is the Divine Being, but “God” from the Divine truth, which is the Divine Coming-forth (n. 6905, also n. 709, 732, 1096, 2586, 2769, 2807, 2822, 3921, 4402). That it is the Divine Human of the Lord which is here meant by “Jehovah God,” is because the Lord as to this is meant in the Word both by “Jehovah” and by “God” — the Divine good, which He is even as to the Human, by “Jehovah;” and the Divine truth, which He is because it proceeds from Him, by “God.” [2] That the Divine Human of the Lord is meant by “Jehovah God,” is because the Divine Itself which is in the Lord cannot be seen in heaven, and not even perceived, thus cannot be received in faith and love, but the Divine Human only. That the Divine Itself cannot be communicated to the angels in heaven, and still less to men on earth, except through the Divine Human, is known in the churches from the words of the Lord in the Evangelists, where He says that He is the “door,” that He is the “mediator,” that “no one can come to the Father but through Him,” that “no one knoweth the Father but He,” and that “no one hath seen the Father,” not even any “shape” of Him. From this it is plain that it is the Lord who is here meant by “Jehovah God.” That it is He also who redeemed the human race and liberated it from hell is likewise known. This is signified by the words which follow: “who brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of servants.” From all this it is now plain that Jehovah God who spoke from Mount Sinai denotes the Lord as to the Divine Human. [3] That this is the first thing which is said by the Lord from Mount Sinai, is because this ought to reign universally in each and all things that follow; for what is said first must be kept in the memory in the things that follow, and must be regarded as the universal thing that is in them. What is meant by “universally reigning” shall be seen in what follows. The things said by the Lord are all of this nature, namely, that the things said first are to reign in the things which follow, and are to involve them, and so successively the things that follow in the series. The things which follow in this chapter are the commandments of the Decalogue, which are internal truths, and then the statutes, which are external truths. In both of these the Lord must reign as to the Divine Human, for they are from Him, and are Himself, because all truths that are truths proceed from Him, and the things which proceed from Him are Himself. That the Lord as to the Divine Human must reign in each and all things of faith, is also known in the churches, for it is there taught that without the Lord there is no salvation, and that all the truth and good of faith are from Him. Thus as He is the source of faith, He is the faith with man, and if the faith, He is also every truth that is contained in the doctrine of faith, which is from the Word. From this also it is that the Lord is called “the Word.” Third Round posts are short audio clips taken from Round 3 comments in online Logopraxis Life Group meetings. The aim is to maintain a focus on understanding the Text’s application to the inner life while reinforcing key LP principles highlighted in the exchanges.

The sense of self is a finite form of reception of what is Infinite True Christian Religion (Chadwick) 25{3}. The Divine Being, which is in itself God, is the same; not the same in a simple way, but infinitely the same, that is, the same from eternity to eternity. He is the same everywhere, the same with each person and in each person; but all the changes and differences occur in the person who receives Him, and it is his state which causes this. Divine Love and Wisdom (Ager) 124. The Lord is not in a greater and lesser degree of love and wisdom, that is, as a sun He is not in a greater or lesser degree of heat and light with one than with another, for He is everywhere the same. But He is not received by one in the same degree as by another Arcana Coelestia (Potts) 4206. That such various things of the Lord are represented, is not because various things are in the Lord, but because His Divine is variously received by men. This is like the life in man, which flows in and acts upon the various sensory and motive organs of the body, and upon the various members and viscera, and everywhere presents variety. For the eye sees in one way, the ear hears in another, the tongue perceives in another; so the arms and hands move in one way, and the loins and the feet in a different way; the lungs act in one way and the heart in another; the liver in one way and the stomach in another, and so on; but nevertheless it is one life which actuates them all so variously, not because the life itself acts in different ways, but because it is differently received; for the form of each organ is that according to which the action is determined.  True Christian Religion (Ager) 366. What flows in from the Lord is received by man according to his form. Form means here man’s state in respect both to his love and to his wisdom, consequently in respect both to his affections for the goods of charity and to his perceptions of the truths of faith. That God is one, indivisible, and the same, from eternity to eternity, not the same simply but infinitely the same, and that all variableness is in the subject in which He dwells… That the recipient form or state induces variations, can be seen from the life of infants, children, youths, adults, and aged persons; in each there is the same life, because the same soul, from infancy to old age; but as one’s state is varied according to age and what is suitable thereto, in like manner is life perceived.  Misattribution is part of the process True Christian Religion (Dick) 330. It has been stated that so far as a man shuns evils he wills good, because evil and good are opposites; for evil is from hell, and good from heaven; therefore, so far as hell, that is, evil, is removed, heaven is approached, and man looks towards what is good. TCR 331. Evil and good cannot exist together; and so far as evil is removed, good is regarded and felt as good. For in the spiritual world there emanates from every one the sphere of his love, which diffuses itself around, causing itself to be felt, and gives rise to sympathies and antipathies; and by means of these spheres the good are separated from the evil. Many illustrations can be given from the affairs of the natural world to show that evil must be removed before good is known, perceived and loved. For example, no one can visit a man who keeps a leopard and a panther in his room, and who lives in safety with them because he feeds them, until those wild beasts are removed. Divine Love and Wisdom (Ager) 4​. The Lord, who is the God of the universe, is uncreate and infinite, whereas man and angel are created and finite. And because the Lord is uncreate and infinite, He is Being [Esse] itself, which is called “Jehovah,” and Life itself, or Life in itself. From the uncreate, the infinite, Being itself and Life itself, no one can be created immediately, because the Divine is one and indivisible; but their creation must be out of things created and finited, and so formed that the Divine can be in them. Because men and angels are such, they are recipients of life. Consequently, if any man suffers himself to be so far misled as to think that he is not a recipient of life but is Life, he cannot be withheld from the thought that he is God.  Love to the Lord from the Lord Heaven and Hell (Dole) 72. The reason each community appears in human likeness when it is seen all together as a unit is that heaven as a whole has this likeness, as may be seen in the preceding chapter; and in the most perfect form, like the form of heaven, there is a likeness of parts and whole, of lesser and greatest. The lesser elements and parts of heaven are the communities of which it consists, each of which is a heaven in lesser form, as may be seen above in 51-58. The reason for this constant likeness is that in the heavens all the qualities stem from a single love and therefore from a single source. The single love that is the origin of everything good in heaven is love for the Lord from the Lord. This is why all heaven is a likeness of him on the grand scale, every community a likeness on a less grand scale, and every angel in specific. See what has been said on this matter above in 58. Third Round posts are short audio clips taken from Round 3 comments in online Logopraxis Life Group meetings. The aim is to maintain a focus on understanding the Text’s application to the inner life while reinforcing key LP principles highlighted in the exchanges.

Heaven and Hell 306. I have been told from heaven that the earliest people had direct revelation because their inner natures were turned toward heaven, and that this was the source of the Lord’s union with the human race at that time. After those times, though, there was not the same kind of direct revelation, but an indirect revelation through correspondences. All their divine worship consisted of these; so the churches of those times were called symbolic churches. They knew what correspondences and representations were and that everything on earth answered to spiritual things in heaven and the church (or represented them, which amounts to the same thing). In this way, the natural elements that constituted their outward worship served them as means for thinking spiritually and therefore thinking with angels. Once all knowledge of correspondences and representations had been lost, then a Word was written in which all the words and the meanings of the words are correspondences and therefore contain that spiritual or inner meaning in which angels are engaged. So when we read the Word and grasp it in its literal or outward meaning, angels grasp it in its inner or spiritual meaning. In fact, all the thought of angels is spiritual, while ours is natural. These two kinds of thought do seem different, but they are one because they correspond. This is why, after we had moved away from heaven and broken the connection, the Lord provided that there should be a means of union of heaven with us through the Word. The Word is pedestrian 310. I have talked with angels about the Word on occasion, and have told them that it is looked down on by some people because of its pedestrian style. They know absolutely nothing about its deeper meaning and therefore do not believe that this kind of wisdom lies hidden within. The angels have told me that even though the style of the Word may appear pedestrian in its literal meaning, it is qualitatively incomparable because divine wisdom lies hidden not just in the overall meaning but in every word, and that this wisdom shines out in heaven. They have wanted to declare that because it is divine truth, it is heaven’s light, since divine truth in heaven is radiant (see above, 132). They have added that without this kind of Word there would be no light of heaven among the people of our earth and consequently no union with heaven for them; for the amount of heaven’s light there is among us determines the union and therefore the extent to which we have any revelation of divine truth through the Word. The reason people do not know this union exists (through the spiritual meaning of the Word corresponding to its natural meaning) is that the people of our earth do not know anything about angels’ spiritual thinking and conversation. They do not know that this is different from our natural thinking and conversation; and anyone who does not know this cannot possibly know what the inner meaning is and therefore cannot know that it can make this kind of union possible. They have also said that if we knew that this kind of meaning existed and when we read the Word did our thinking with any knowledge of it, we would come into a deeper wisdom and be more closely united to heaven, because in this way we would have access to concepts like those of angels. Third Round posts are short audio clips taken from Round 3 comments in online Logopraxis Life Group meetings. The aim is to maintain a focus on understanding the Text’s application to the inner life while reinforcing key LP principles highlighted in the exchanges.

The Human form is love and wisdom in use 60. People who do not have an appropriate concept of spiritual and heavenly realities cannot grasp the fact that heavenly and spiritual realities are arranged and connected in this form and image. They think that the earthly and material elements that make up their outmost form really make them what they are, and that without them they would not be human. Let them know, though, that they are not human beings because of these elements but because they are able to understand what is true and will what is good. These are the spiritual and heavenly realities that make them human. The arrangement of the parts into a whole through the common good – the Lord 62. Actually, angels do not see heaven in a single overview in this kind of form, since the entire heaven does not lie within the scope of any angel’s sight. However, they do consistently see particular communities that are made up of many thousands of angels as single units in this kind of form; and from the community as a sample they draw their inference about the totality that is heaven. This is because in the most perfect form the greater elements are arranged like the parts, and the parts like the greater elements. The only distinction is between what is greater and what is lesser. Therefore they say that the entire heaven looks like this in the Lord’s sight, because the Divine sees everything from the very center and summit. 63. Since heaven is of this nature, it is also governed by the Lord as though it were a single individual and therefore a single unit. We ourselves consist of countless different things, both overall and in our parts. We are made up overall of our limbs, organs, and viscera, and in our parts of series of nerves, fibers, and blood vessels — made up of members within members, then, and parts within parts. Still, we do of course recognize that when we do anything, we do it as whole individuals. This is what heaven is like, too, under the Lord’s guardianship and guidance. 64. The reason so many varied elements act as one in an individual is that there is nothing whatever there that does not contribute something to the common good and do something useful. The inclusive body serves its parts and the parts serve the inclusive body because the inclusive body is made up of parts and the parts make up the inclusive body. So they provide for each other respectively, they focus on each other mutually, and they are united in the kind of form that gives every single component a relationship to the inclusive entity and its well-being. This is what enables them to act as a unit. [2] It is the same with assemblies in the heavens. People there unite in this kind of form in pursuit of any worthwhile activity. As a result any individuals who do not serve some use for the larger body are cast out of heaven because they are misfits. To “serve some use” is to intend well to others for the sake of the common good, while “not to serve some use” is to intend well to others not for the sake of the common good but for the sake of oneself. People who act in this latter fashion are people who love themselves above all, while people who act in the former fashion are the ones who love the Lord above all. This is why people in heaven act in unison not from themselves but from the Lord. Variety and Diversity and Perfection HH 71. It is worth noting that the more members there are in a single community and the more united they are in action, the more perfect is their human form. This is because variety arranged in a heavenly form makes perfection, as explained above in 56; and variety occurs where there are many individuals. Every community in heaven is growing in numbers daily, and the more it grows, the more perfect it becomes. In this way, not only is the community perfected, but heaven in general is perfected as well, since the communities constitute heaven. Since heaven is perfected by its numerical growth, we can see how mistaken people are who believe that heaven will be closed to prevent overcrowding. Actually, it is just the reverse. It will never be closed, and its ever increasing fullness makes it more perfect. So angels long for nothing more than to have new angel guests arrive there. Third Round posts are short audio clips taken from Round 3 comments in online Logopraxis Life Group meetings. The aim is to maintain a focus on understanding the Text’s application to the inner life while reinforcing key LP principles highlighted in the exchanges.

Heaven and Hell 18. The reason the Lord’s divine nature in heaven is love is that love is what is receptive of every heavenly quality — that is, of peace, intelligence, wisdom, and happiness. Love is receptive of everything that is in harmony with it. It longs for such things, it seeks them out, it absorbs them spontaneously because it has the constant purpose of uniting itself with them and being enriched by them. 1 People actually recognize this fact, since the love within them surveys memory, so to speak, and draws out from it the items that agree with it. It gathers these together and arranges them within and beneath itself — within itself so that it may possess them and beneath itself so that they may serve it. It discards and eradicates, though, the items that do not agree with it. I have been able to see very clearly that love has a full, intrinsic ability to accept elements of truth that suit it and has also a desire of uniting them to itself. This has become clear from observing people who have been transported into heaven. Even people who were simple folk in this world have arrived at angelic wisdom and heavenly happiness in the company of angels. This was because they loved what is good and true for the sake of what is good and true. They had grafted these qualities into their lives and had thereby become capable of accepting heaven and all its indescribable riches. People caught up in love for themselves and for the world, however, have no such receptive ability. They turn away from such things, discard them, and at their first touch or inflow try to escape them. They ally themselves with people in hell who are caught up in loves like their own. There were some spirits who doubted that love was so full and wanted to know whether this was really true. In order that they might find out, they were let into a state of heavenly love with all obstacles removed and were brought forward a considerable distance to an angelic heaven. They talked with me from there and told me that they felt deeper happiness than words could express, sorrowing that they would have to return to their former state. Other people as well have been raised into heaven, and the deeper or higher they have been taken, the deeper and higher they have penetrated into intelligence and wisdom, becoming able to grasp things that were incomprehensible to them before. We can see from this that the love that emanates from the Lord is open to heaven and all its riches. 19. We can conclude that love for the Lord and love for our neighbor embrace within themselves everything that is true from the Divine because this follows from what the Lord himself said about these two loves: “You shall love your God with all your heart and with all your soul: this is the greatest and first commandment. The second, which is like it, is that you should love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend the Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 22:37-40). The Law and the Prophets are the whole Word, which means all divine truth. Third Round posts are short audio clips taken from Round 3 comments in online Logopraxis Life Group meetings. The aim is to maintain a focus on understanding the Text’s application to the inner life while reinforcing key LP principles highlighted in the exchanges.

Article to accompany the audio: Removing Person — A Deeper Way of Loving One of the things that can arise when we first encounter the practice of removing person, place, time, and space and matter (PPTSM) from the centre of our thought is a sense of unease. It can feel as though we are being asked to become less human in our relating, colder, more distant, as though the particular person in front of us no longer matters. That unease is worth taking seriously, because it points to something genuine: a care for others, a desire not to reduce them to an abstraction. But the teachings for Spiritual Christianity invites us to look more closely at what we are actually doing when we hold tightly to “person” in our thinking and listening. When we stay fixed on the surface personality of someone, their history, their manner, the particular things they’ve said or done, we don’t necessarily see them more clearly. We see them through the accumulated filter of our own associations, our own proprium, our own familiar ways of relating. The heavenly teaching is that this kind of fixed thinking limits love rather than deepening it. Perception concentrates onto something finite, and the channel through which a fuller sense of divine love is able to be received begins to close.¹ What the practice offers instead is something closer to what the Text describes as angelic perception: in the heavens, it is not the person but the use or function they embody that is perceived. To see the “use” of a person is to begin to perceive the specific role they fulfil within the Divine order, their unique contribution to the whole. The teaching puts it this way: “persons limit the idea, and concentrate it upon something finite; whereas things do not limit and concentrate it, but extend it to the infinite, thus to the Lord.”² Far from reducing the person, this is the discovery of what is most real and most essential about them. There is a striking image in the doctrinal writings for what abstract thought actually does: it is like “the sight of the eye when it looks up into the sky without intervening objects.”³ Thought fixed on person, by contrast, “is fixed and stays”: it cannot move, cannot expand, cannot receive. The moment we release person from the centre, the mind opens in every direction. This reframes what it means to love the neighbour. When we love someone as person, as the particular, familiar self we have constructed from our history with them, we are in some measure loving our idea of them, the image the proprium has formed. But when we attend to the good and truth the Lord is working in them, we are loving something infinitely more real: the divine life seeking to be born through their struggles, their growth, their unique use in the Grand Man. A profound and simple definition of heaven is that it is the state of loving what is other. To genuinely perceive the ‘other’ requires the loves of heaven to be active in us. This is not merely a humanistic focus on the person, but the spiritual capacity to see and love the Lord in another. In practice, removing person is less an act of subtraction than an act of clearing, like cleaning a window. The glass is still there. The person is still there. But the distorting layers of accumulated association, judgment, and self-reference begin to fall away, and something truer comes into view. The angels, we are told, are unwilling to speak of persons precisely because to do so “would avert the ideas from a universal view of things, thus from the comprehension of innumerable things together.”4 The question the practice quietly poses is not whether we love others, but whether the love we are extending is as free, as rich, and as genuinely for them as it could be. Or whether it is still, in some measure, shaped by what is ours: our comfort, our familiar patterns, our sense of connection as we experience it. Removing person doesn’t ask us to love less. It points toward a love that, no longer fixed on the finite, extends, as the heavenly doctrine says, to the infinite and to the Lord. References for Contemplation ¹ Arcana Coelestia 6040[2] — On how spiritual language draws thought away from persons and fixes it on spiritual realities, enabling a broader and more universal perception; and how thought fixed on persons “diminishes the light of truth.” The reason why the expression ‘a perception by the truths in the natural’ is used and not a perception by people in possession of those truths is that spiritual language employs that kind of expression. For such a usage draws the ideas composing one’s thought away from persons and fixes them on spiritual realities; and those realities, which are truths and forms of good, are what possess life in a person and cause him to have life. For those realities are derived from the Lord, the Source of life in its entirety. That kind of usage also leads one’s mind away from ascribing truths and forms of good to a person. Such spiritual language also enables one to form an overall idea that extends further and wider than when the idea of a person is tied up with it. If for example one speaks of perception by people in possession of truths in the natural one’s ideas become fixed at the same time on people like that – a common occurrence – and so one’s ideas are drawn away from the overall idea, with the result that the light of truth is diminished. Furthermore, in the next life thought about persons disturbs such persons, for in that life all thought is communicated. These are the reasons why impersonal expressions like the one here – ‘a perception by the truths in the natural’ are used. ² Arcana Coelestia 5225 — On how in the spiritual world, persons limit and concentrate an idea onto something finite, while things extend it to the infinite and to the Lord; and why no person named in the Word is perceived in heaven, only the reality they represent. …in the spiritual world, or in heaven, not persons but things come into view, for persons limit the idea, and concentrate it upon something finite; whereas things do not limit and concentrate it, but extend it to the infinite, thus to the Lord. For this reason also, no person named in the Word is perceived in heaven, but in his stead the thing that is represented by that person; so also no people or nation is perceived, but only its quality. Nay, not even is any historic statement of the Word about a person, nation, or people, known in heaven; and consequently it is not known who Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the Israelitish people, and the Jewish nation were, but it is there perceived what Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the Israelitish people, and the Jewish nation denote; and the same in all other cases. Thus the angelic speech is without limitation, and is also relatively universal. ³ Apocalypse Explained 405 — On how the idea abstracted from persons and places “extends itself into heaven in every direction,” compared to the sight of the eye looking into an open sky; and how the idea tied to persons is proper to the natural mind. [2] The good of love to the Lord is meant in an abstract sense by “mountain,” because all things in the internal sense of the Word are spiritual, and spiritual things must be understood in a sense abstracted from persons and places; consequently, because angels are spiritual they think and speak abstractedly from these, and thereby have intelligence and wisdom; for the idea of persons and places limits the thought, since it confines it to persons and places, and thus limits it. This idea of thought is proper to the natural, while the idea abstracted from persons and places extends itself into heaven in every direction, and is no otherwise limited than the sight of the eye is limited when it looks up into the sky without intervening objects; such an idea is proper to the spiritual. 4 Arcana Coelestia 7002 — On why angels are unwilling to speak of persons — because to do so averts ideas from a universal view and from the comprehension of innumerable things together. Angels… are unwilling to speak of persons, because speech about persons would avert the ideas from a universal view of things, thus from the comprehension of innumerable things together. See also: AC 8985 (abstract thought diffuses through the whole of heaven; thought fixed on person or place is fixed and stays); AE 625 (the idea of person limits and confines thought, rendering it natural; abstraction from persons gives angels their ineffable intelligence and wisdom). AC (Elliott) n. 8985 The reason for saying that ‘the slave’ means truth and not a person imbued with such truth is that when angels speak they do so in the abstract, that is, without envisaging actual persons. For in heaven they think about matters without envisaging persons, because when their thought involves persons it brings to mind a community associated with the matter they are thinking about; and when this happens their thought is narrowed down to and becomes fixed on that community. [2] In heaven thinking about a place leads to being present in that place, and their presence in that community would attract towards itself the thoughts of those within the community, and so would disrupt the inflow from the Divine there. It is quite different when they speak in the abstract about some matter; their thought then spreads out in every direction in accord with the heavenly form which the influx emanating from the Divine produces, without causing disruption in any community. For it reaches into communities’ general spheres, yet without having an effect on or unsettling anyone within the community, and so without impairing anyone’s freedom to think in accord with the inflow from the Divine. In short, abstract thought can pass through the whole of heaven without hindrance anywhere; but thought narrowed down to persons or places becomes fixed and static. AE n. 625 …angels who are in the spiritual sense of the Word have no idea of person or of place in any particular of what they think or speak, for the idea of person or of place limits and confines the thoughts, and thereby renders them natural; it is otherwise when the idea is abstracted from persons and places. It is from this that angels have intelligence and wisdom, and that thence angelic intelligence and wisdom are ineffable. While man lives in the world he is in natural thought, and natural thought derives its ideas from persons, places, times, and material things, and if these should be taken away from man, his thought which comes to perception would perish, for without these he comprehends nothing; but angelic thought is apart from ideas drawn from persons, places, times, and material things; and this is why angelic thought and speech are ineffable, and to man also incomprehensible. Third Round posts are short audio clips taken from Round 3 comments in online Logopraxis Life Group meetings. The aim is to maintain a focus on understanding the Text’s application to the inner life while reinforcing key LP principles highlighted in the exchanges.

Heaven and Hell 13. In heaven, the divine nature that emanates from the Lord is called divine truth, for reasons that will be given below. This divine truth flows into heaven from the Lord, out of his divine love. Divine love and the divine truth that derives from it are like the sun’s fire and the light that comes from it in our world. The love is like the sun’s fire, and the derivative truth is like the light from the sun. By reason of correspondence, fire means love and light means the truth that flows from it. This enables us to determine the character of the divine truth that emanates from divine love: in its essence, it is divine good united to divine truth, and because it is united, it gives life to everything in heaven the way the warmth of the sun, united to its light, makes everything fruitful on earth in spring and summer. It is different when the warmth is not united to light, when the light is therefore cold. Then everything slows down and lies there, snuffed out. The divine good we have compared to warmth is the good of love within and among angels, and the divine truth we have compared to light is the means and the source of this good of love. Third Round posts are short audio clips taken from Round 3 comments in online Logopraxis Life Group meetings. The aim is to maintain a focus on understanding the Text’s application to the inner life while reinforcing key LP principles highlighted in the exchanges.

Heaven and Hell 59. The Whole Heaven, Grasped as a Single Entity, Reflects a Single Individual. It is a secret not yet known in this world that heaven, taken in a single all-inclusive grasp, reflects a single individual. In heaven, though, nothing is better known. Knowing this, knowing particulars and details about it, is the hallmark of angelic intelligence there. In fact, many other things follow from it and do not come clearly and distinctly to mind without this as their general principle. Since angels do know that all the heavens, like their communities, reflect a single individual, they refer to heaven as the universal and divine human 1 -“divine” because the Lord’s divine nature constitutes heaven (see above, 7-12). HH 67. We have presented these statements about heaven as the universal human because without them as preface there can be no comprehension whatever of the things about heaven that are to follow. No clear concept of heaven can be gained, either, no clear concept of the union of the Lord with heaven, of the union of heaven with us on earth, of the inflow of the spiritual world into the natural world, and none whatever of correspondence, all of which must be discussed in sequence in the pages that now follow. This material has been presented first, then, to shed light on these matters. HH 72…The reason for this constant likeness is that in the heavens all the qualities stem from a single love and therefore from a single source. The single love that is the origin of everything good in heaven is love for the Lord from the Lord. This is why all heaven is a likeness of him on the grand scale, every community a likeness on a less grand scale, and every angel in specific. See what has been said on this matter above in 58. Third Round posts are short audio clips taken from Round 3 comments in online Logopraxis Life Group meetings. The aim is to maintain a focus on understanding the Text’s application to the inner life while reinforcing key LP principles highlighted in the exchanges.

Heaven and Hell 491 (Dole). There are three states that we pass through after death before we arrive in either heaven or hell. The first state is one of more outward concerns, the second is one of more inward concerns, and the third is one of preparation. We go through these states in the world of spirits. HH 491 (Harley). There are three states that man passes through after death before he comes into either heaven or hell. The first state is the state of his exteriors, the second state the state of his interiors, and the third his state of preparation. These states man passes through in the world of spirits.  Third Round posts are short audio clips taken from Round 3 comments in online Logopraxis Life Group meetings. The aim is to maintain a focus on understanding the Text’s application to the inner life while reinforcing key LP principles highlighted in the exchanges.

Heaven and Hell 557. Heavenly love is loving constructive activity for its own sake, or loving for their own sake the worthwhile things we do for our church, our country, the human community, and our fellow citizens. This is really loving God and loving our neighbour, since all constructive activities and all worthwhile actions come from God and are the neighbour whom we are to love.  HH 558(b) A spiritual love of their neighbour, though, begins with the Lord, and spreads out from him as its center to all who are united to him by love and faith. Its spread depends on the quality of their love and faith.  Third Round posts are short audio clips taken from Round 3 comments in online Logopraxis Life Group meetings. The aim is to maintain a focus on understanding the Text’s application to the inner life while reinforcing key LP principles highlighted in the exchanges.

Divine Providence 86…in the wicked, evils with falsities are as it were in the center, while goods with truths are in the circumferences; but in the good, goods with truths are in the center and evils with falsities are in the circumferences; and in both cases that which is at the center flows out even to the circumferences, as heat from a central fire, or as cold from a central frigidity. Thus in the evil the goods in the circumferences are defiled by the evils at the center; while in the good, the evils in the circumferences are moderated by the goods at the center. This is why evils do not damn the regenerate man, and goods do not save the unregenerate man. DP 79. We say that whatever we do freely and in keeping with our thought is permanent because nothing we make part of ourselves can be eliminated. It has become part of both our love and our reasoning, part of both our volition and our discernment, that is, and therefore part of our life. Actually, it can be displaced, but it still cannot be ousted. When it is displaced, it is moved from the center to the periphery, and there it dwells. This is what “being permanent” means. [2] For example, suppose that in youth and early maturity we have taken into ourselves a pattern of doing something wrong because of the pleasure it gives to our love — cheating, perhaps, or blasphemy, or revenge, or promiscuity. Since we have done so freely, in keeping with our thought, we have made this part of ourselves. Later, though, if we repent, turn away from this behavior, and regard it as sin that is to be rejected, and therefore refrain from it freely and rationally, then we make part of ourselves the good behavior that is opposite to the evil. This good behavior then takes its place in the center and moves the evil toward the periphery, farther and farther out depending on our distaste for and rejection of it. The evil still cannot be ousted to the point of being uprooted, even though it may seem to be so. What is happening is that the Lord is restraining us from the evil behavior and keeping us in the good. This is what happens with all the evil we inherit and with all the evil we act out. [3] I have seen things that bore witness to this in some people in heaven, people who thought they were free of evils because the Lord was keeping them involved in what is good. To prevent them from thinking that they actually owned the good qualities they were enjoying, they were let down from heaven and back into their evils until finally they recognized that on their own, they were immersed in evils, but were being held in what is good by the Lord. Once they recognized this, they were brought back into heaven. [4] It is important to know also that these good qualities are made part of us only as long as they are the Lord’s within us. To the extent that we recognize this, the Lord allows us to experience the goodness as our own, so that it seems to us as though we ourselves love our neighbor or are truly considerate, as though we ourselves have faith, and do what is good and understand what is true, as though we ourselves are therefore wise. Such examples help us see the nature and the strength of the appearance the Lord wants us to enjoy for the sake of our salvation; for without this appearance, none of us could be saved. Third Round posts are short audio clips taken from Round 3 comments in online Logopraxis Life Group meetings. The aim is to maintain a focus on understanding the Text’s application to the inner life while reinforcing key LP principles highlighted in the exchanges.

As of self Heaven and Hell 302. If man only believed, as is really true, that all good is from the Lord and all evil from hell, he would neither make the good in him a matter of merit nor would evil be imputed to him; for he would then look to the Lord in all the good he thinks and does, and all the evil that flows in would be cast down to hell from which it comes. But because man does not believe that anything flows into him either from heaven or from hell, and therefore supposes that all things that he thinks and wills are in himself and therefore from himself, he appropriates the evil to himself, and the good that flows in he defiles with merit. Arcana Coelestia 4320. That the life which is from the Lord alone appears with everyone as if it were in himself, is from the Lord’s love or mercy toward the universal human race, in that He wills to appropriate to each one what is His own, and to give to everyone eternal happiness. It is known that love appropriates to another what is its own; for it presents itself within the other, and makes itself present in him. How much more the Divine love! That the evil also receive the life which is from the Lord, is as with objects in the world, all of which receive light from the sun, and thereby colors, but according to their forms. Objects which suffocate and pervert the light appear of a black or foul color, but yet have their blackness and foulness from the sun’s light. So is it with the light or life from the Lord with the evil; but this life is not life, but is (as it is called) spiritual death. Apocalypse Revealed 56. One’s own life is to look to the Lord from oneself, while life from the Lord is to look to the Lord from the Lord, and yet doing so as though of oneself. When a person is seized by this life, he sees that he is nothing, and that only the Lord is anything. The ‘self’ arises from the moment to moment reception of Life 308. Divine Providence. Does Not Charge Us with Anything Evil or Credit Us with Anything Good; Rather, Our Own Prudence Claims Both. Almost everyone believes that we think and intend autonomously and therefore talk and act autonomously. Can we on our own believe anything else when the appearance is so convincing that it scarcely differs at all from really thinking, intending, speaking, and acting autonomously? Yet this is impossible. In Angelic Wisdom about Divine Love and Wisdom, I explained that there is only one life and that we are life-receivers. I also explained that our volition is a receiver of love and our discernment is a receiver of wisdom, and that these and nothing else are the life that we receive. Further, I explained that by creation, and under divine providence constantly since then, life seems to be within us exactly as though it belonged to us, as though it were ours, but that this is only the way it seems in order that we may be receivers. In 288-294 above I have explained that the source of our thinking is not in ourselves but in others, whose source is again not in themselves. It all comes from the Lord, whether we are evil or good. Further, this is recognized in the Christian world, especially by people who not only say but even believe that everything good and true comes from the Lord, which includes all wisdom and therefore faith and charity. They also believe that everything evil comes from the devil or from hell. [2] The only conclusion we can draw from all this is that everything we think and intend is flowing into us, and since all speech flows from thought like an effect from its cause, and all action similarly flows from volition, everything we say and do is flowing in as well, albeit secondarily or indirectly. No one can deny that everything we see, hear, smell, taste, and feel is flowing in. What about the things we think and intend, then? Can there be any difference except that what flows in from the physical world flows in through our outer or physical sensory organs, while what flows in from the spiritual world flows in through the organic substances of our inner senses or our minds? In other words, just as the organs of our outer or physical senses are attuned to material objects, the organic substances of our inner senses or our minds are receptive of spiritual objects. Since this is our actual state, what is our “self”? Our “self” is not really one or another kind of receiver, since it is nothing but the quality of its own receptivity. It is not some aspect of life that is actually ours. When we say “the self,” no one hears anything but a being that lives on its own and therefore thinks and intends on its own. Yet it follows from what has just been said that there is no such self in us and that there cannot be. The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine 82. Of the proprium of man, spoken of above (n. 70), that it is the love of self and of the world. The proprium of man is nothing but dense evil (n. 210, 215, 731, 874-876, 987, 1047, 2307-2308, 3518, 3701, 3812, 8480, 8550, 10283-10284, 10286, 10731). The proprium of man is his will (n. 4328). The proprium of man consists in loving himself more than God, and the world more than heaven, and in making his neighbor of no account respectively to himself, thus it is the love of self and of the world (n. 694, 731, 4317, 5660). Not only every evil, but also every falsity, springs from the proprium of man, and this falsity is the falsity of evil (n. 1047, 10283-10284, 10286). The proprium of man is hell with him (n. 694, 8480). Therefore he who is led by his proprium cannot be saved (n. 10731). The good which man does from the proprium is not good, but in itself is evil, because done for the sake of self and the world (n. 8478). The proprium of man must be separated, in order that the Lord may be present with him (n. 1023, 1044). And it is actually separated when man is reformed (n. 9334-9336, 9452-9454, 9938). This is done by the Lord alone (n. 9445). Man by regeneration receives a heavenly proprium (n. 1937, 1947, 2881, 2883, 2891). This appears to man as his own proprium, but it is not his, but the Lord’s with him (n. 8497). They who are in this proprium are in liberty itself, because liberty consists in being led by the Lord, and by His proprium (n. 892, 905, 2872, 2886, 2890-2892, 4096, 9586-9587, 9589-9591). All liberty is from the proprium, and its quality according thereto (n. 2880). What is the quality of the heavenly proprium (n. 164, 5660, 8480). How the heavenly proprium is implanted (n. 1712, 1937, 1947). Third Round posts are short audio clips taken from Round 3 comments in online Logopraxis Life Group meetings. The aim is to maintain a focus on understanding the Text’s application to the inner life while reinforcing key LP principles highlighted in the exchanges.

An excerpt from The Logopraxis Workbook: The ‘In Me’ Tool  The Heavenly Doctrines often state the need to remove the concepts of space and time from our thinking as far as possible, when thinking about spiritual and celestial realities. The ‘In Me’ tool is a useful device that can help to do that, so that rather than taking the meaning as relating to realities external to ourselves, we can at least keep some level of attention on the potential meaning the Text might have in connection with our own internal personal life. We achieve this by placing the words ‘in me’ into the Text. There are no hard and fast rules about where the phrase is to be placed, so it’s left to the reader to play with it to see what works. Just keep in mind that the objective is to keep the focus on applying what we are reading ‘in me’. Everything described in the Heavenly Doctrines apply to the life of our mind, because the spiritual world does not exist outside the human mind – in fact, it is the human mind. In the work of Logopraxis we operate from a principle that all revelation is given to teach us about what exists within ourselves, and we accept that revelation is not to give us information about other people. This tool carries us from natural based thinking to more spiritual based thinking, and greatly assists in setting our task. So, the ‘In-Me’ tool is a technique to shift our thinking from a natural mode to a spiritual mode of thought, which is focused on applying what we’re reading in the Text to our mental states, to our thoughts and affectional life; to where spiritual work really needs to be focused, ‘in me’. Examples are shown below. From Heaven and Hell 595 we read: “It should be known that the hells are continually assaulting heaven and endeavouring to destroy it, and that the Lord continually protects the heavens by withholding those who are there from the evils derived from their proprium, and by holding them in the good that is from Himself.” And this can be adjusted in the following manner: It should be known that the hells (In Me) are continually assaulting heaven (what is good and true from the Word – In Me) and endeavouring to destroy it, and that the Lord (the Word – In Me) continually protects the heavens (what is good and true In Me) by withholding those (states of evil and falsity In Me) who are there from the evils derived from their (My) proprium, and by holding them (Me) in the good that is from Himself.  Key Principle: Evils and falsities (the hells/states of self-centredness) are continually assaulting goods and truths (the heavens/states of good will) in order to destroy them, and the Lord (as the Word) protects what is good and true by holding the mind in what is good from Himself (the Word). Sample Tasks Observe and take note of experiences where evils and falsities (states of self-centredness) arise seeking to destroy goods and truths (states of good will).  When this is seen try to remember this principle and note any shifts in the quality of my mental state. From Heaven and Hell 155 we read: “Angels are not constantly in the same state as to love, and consequently not in the same state as to wisdom for all their wisdom is from, and according to love. Sometimes they are in a state of intense love, sometimes in a state of love not intense. The state decreases by degrees from its greatest to its least intensity …. From this last state they return again to the first, and so on, these alternations following one after another with variety.”  Key Principles  The state of love and wisdom is never constant in an angel. The state of love and wisdom in an angel ebbs and flows, from highest to least intensity. The alternate states of love and wisdom in an angel follow on from each other with constant variety. The Principles Applied with the ‘In Me’ Tool The angel (In Me) is not constantly in the same state of love and wisdom. The angel (In Me) is sometimes in a state of intense love and sometimes this state is not so intense, decreasing by degrees to the point of least intensity. The angel (In Me) experiences an alternation of states of love and wisdom, with the phases of least and then greatest intensity following one from the other with constant variety. Sample Tasks To observe the lack of constancy in my state of love to the Lord or remember to use the Word in my life. I shall observe and record the role of the proprium in attempting to hold me fast in the glue of love of self and the ways of the world. To observe what thoughts and feelings are present when I am experiencing conflict, unhappiness, or an absence of the Lord (love and wisdom). And then to note how remembering the fact that the angel in me experiences alternations, changes my thoughts or experience of the difficult state. Third Round posts are short audio clips taken from Round 3 comments in online Logopraxis Life Group meetings. The aim is to maintain a focus on understanding the Text’s application to the inner life while reinforcing key LP principles highlighted in the exchanges.

Angelic consciousness thinks in terms of states of mind Heaven and Hell (Dole) 169. A natural person may believe that we would have no thought if concepts of time, space, and matter were taken away from us, that all our thought is based on these foundations. 1 Let such people know, though, that thoughts are limited and constrained to the extent that they derive from time, space, and matter, and that they are freed and expanded to the extent that they do not derive from such things, because to that same extent the mind is raised above bodily and worldly considerations. This is the source of angels’ wisdom, which is so great that we must call it incomprehensible, since it does not fit into ideas that are formed merely from these [lower] concerns. HH (Ager) 266{1-3} What the wisdom of the angels is can be inferred from the fact that they are in the light of heaven, and the light of heaven in its essence is Divine truth or Divine wisdom; and this light enlightens at the same time their inner sight, or sight of the mind, and their outer sight, or sight of the eyes. (That the light of heaven is Divine truth or Divine wisdom may be seen above, n. 126-133.) The angels are also in heavenly heat, which in its essence is Divine good or Divine love, and from that they have an affection and longing to become wise. (That the heat of heaven is Divine good or Divine love may be seen above, n. 133-140.) That the angels are in wisdom, even to the extent that they may be called wisdoms, follows from the fact that their thoughts and affections all flow in accordance with the heavenly form, and this form is the form of Divine wisdom; also that their interiors, which are recipients of wisdom, are arranged in that form. (That the thoughts and affections of angels flow in accordance with the form of heaven, and consequently their intelligence and wisdom, may he seen above, n. 201-212.) [2] That the angels have supereminent wisdom is shown also by the fact that their speech is the speech of wisdom, for it flows directly and spontaneously from thought, and their thought from their affection, thus their speech is thought from affection in outward form; consequently there is nothing to withdraw them from the Divine influx, and nothing from without such as enters into the speech of man from other thoughts. (That the speech of angels is the speech of their thought and affection may be seen above, n. 234-235.) That the angels have such wisdom is in accord with the fact that all things that they behold with their eyes and perceive by their senses agree with their wisdom, since they are correspondences of it, and thus the objects perceived are representative forms of the things that constitute their wisdom. (That all things seen in the heavens are correspondences with the interiors of angels and representations of their wisdom may be seen above, n. 170-182.) [3] Furthermore, the thoughts of angels are not limited and contracted by ideas from space and time, as human thoughts are, for spaces and times belong to nature, and the things that belong to nature withdraw the mind from spiritual things, and deprive intellectual sight of its proper range. (That the ideas of angels are apart from time and space, and thus less limited than human ideas, may be seen above, n. 162-169 and 191-199.) Again, the thoughts of angels are neither brought down to earthly and material things, nor interrupted by anxieties about the necessities of life; thus they are not withdrawn by such things from the delights of wisdom, as the thoughts of men in the world are; for all things come to them gratuitously from the Lord; they are clothed gratuitously, are fed gratuitously, are housed gratuitously (n. 181-190), and besides this they receive delights and pleasures in the degree of their reception of wisdom from the Lord. Confusing natural things for spiritual things Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) 8325(2) The following experience alone enables one to infer how difficult it is for a natural man to apprehend spiritual things, consequently things that belong to heaven. Can anyone like him see that space and time do not exist in heaven, but states instead? Or to be more precise, that states of good or states of being (esse) exist there, presenting themselves as extents of space, and states of truth or states of coming-into-being (existere), presenting themselves as periods of time? Will not a merely natural man suppose that where time and space do not exist there is complete emptiness and nothingness? From this it is evident that if a natural man makes up his mind to believe nothing apart from what he can apprehend he lays himself open to grossly mistaken ideas. The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrines (Whitehead) 48. All things of the natural world are from the Divine through the spiritual world (n. 5013). Consequently the spiritual is in every natural thing, just as the efficient cause is in the effect (n. 3562, 5711); or as effort is in motion (n. 5173), and as the internal is in the external (n. 3562, 5326, 5711). And since the cause is the very essential in the effect, as effort is in motion, and the internal in the external; hence it follows, that the spiritual, and consequently the Divine, is the very essential in the natural (n. 2987-3002, 9701-9709). Spiritual things are presented to view in the natural, and the things manifested are representatives and correspondences (n. 1632, 2987-3002). Hence all nature is a theater representative of the spiritual world, that is, of heaven (n. 2758, 2999-3000, 4939, 8848, 9280). All things in nature are disposed in order and series according to ends (n. 4104). This is from the spiritual world, that is, from heaven, because ends, which are uses, reign there (n. 454, 696, 1103, 3645, 4054, 7038). Man is so created that Divine things descending according to order into nature, may be perceived in him (n. 3702).  Third Round posts are short audio clips taken from Round 3 comments in online Logopraxis Life Group meetings. The aim is to maintain a focus on understanding the Text’s application to the inner life while reinforcing key LP principles highlighted in the exchanges.

On infinity and eternity  Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) 1382. People inevitably confuse Divine Infinity with infinity of space. And because they do not conceive of infinity of space as anything other than nothingness, as indeed it is, neither do they believe in Divine Infinity. The same applies to Eternity. They cannot conceive of it except as an eternity of time, but it is manifested continually by means of time to those who dwell within [space and] time.  Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) 8325. A natural man inevitably falls into a nonsensical way of thinking about God when with notions involving the passage of time he contemplates what God was doing before the creation of the world, that is, what He was engaged in from eternity up to then. Nor can he be extricated from that tangled knot until notions of time and space are banished. When angels contemplate that eternity they never do so with notions of time but with ideas of state.  Divine Love and Wisdom (Rogers) 76. Anyone who does not know this, and who cannot from any perception think of God independently of time, is utterly incapable of conceiving of eternity other than as an eternity of time. In that case he also cannot help but think irrationally of God’s being from eternity, for he thinks in terms of a beginning, and a beginning is characteristic solely of time. His irrational thinking continues to the point of judging that God originated from Himself, and from that it slips headlong into supposing the origin of nature to be from itself. From this idea he can be extricated only by a spiritual or angelic concept of eternity, which is one independent of time; and when thought of independently of time, eternity and Divinity are one and the same, the Divine being Divine in itself, and not from itself. Angels say that they can indeed conceive of God’s being from eternity, but not in any way of nature’s being from eternity, still less of nature’s originating from itself, and not at all of nature’s being nature in itself. For what exists in itself is being itself, the origin of all else, and being in itself is life itself, which is the Divine love belonging to Divine wisdom and the Divine wisdom belonging to Divine love. This to angels is eternity, being thus independent of time, as the uncreated is independent of the created, or the infinite independent of the finite, which do not have even a mathematical relation (ratio).\ Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) 3404{3&4} [2] To make it clearer still what appearances of truth are, let the following example be added: It is well known that the Divine is infinite as regards Being (Esse) and eternal as regards Manifestation (Existere), and that what is finite is incapable of comprehending what is infinite, or indeed of comprehending what is eternal, since what is eternal is the Manifestation (Existere) of what is infinite. And because the Divine itself is infinite and eternal, so are all things which proceed from the Divine infinite and also eternal. And as those things are infinite angels are quite incapable of grasping them, for they too are finite beings. That being so, things that are infinite and eternal present themselves to angels within appearances that are finite, though within appearances such as are very far above the range of what man can comprehend. For example, man is quite incapable of possessing any idea of what is eternal except from what is temporal. And being incapable of having any idea other than this he is incapable of comprehending what ‘from eternity’ is and so what the Divine prior to the existence of time or creation of the world is. And as long as his thinking contains any idea at all that is formed from what is temporal, he slips inevitably, if he thinks about what is eternal, into errors from which he cannot be rescued. But the angels, whose ideas are not formed from anything temporal but from timeless state, are enabled to perceive it supremely well, for to them eternity is not eternity of time but eternity of state devoid of any idea of that which is temporal.  [3] From this one may see what the appearances existing with angels are like compared with man’s, and how superior their appearances are to man’s. For man cannot have one shred of thought, not even the least shred, that is not in some way temporal and spatial in origin, whereas angels’ thought has no such origin at all. Instead their thought has its origin in timeless state, in which the being (esse) and the manifestation (existere) of things is the only consideration.  True Christian Religion (Chadwick) 31(2&3}. The reason why the infinity of God predicated of space is called immensity, is that the term ‘immense’ is used of what is great and large, and also what is extensive and in this respect spacious. But the reason why the infinity of God predicated of time is called eternity is that ‘for eternity’ is used of progressive stages, which are measured by time, without end. For example: the globe with its land and sea surfaces is in itself what enables objects to be regarded as spatial; and its rotation and motion in orbit is what enables them to be regarded as temporal. These movements create periods of time and the surface of the globe creates distances, and they are so perceived through the senses in the minds of those that reflect on them. But as shown above, there is no space or time in God, yet space and time begin from Him. Hence it follows that immensity means His infinity predicated of space, and eternity His infinity predicated of time.  [2] The angels in heaven understand by the immensity of God the Divinity as to Its Being (Esse), and by His eternity the Divinity as to Its Coming-into-Being (Existere); also by immensity they understand the Divinity as to Love and by eternity the Divinity as to Wisdom. This is because the angels banish space and time from their ideas of the Divinity, and this is the result. But because human beings are incapable of thinking except by means of ideas formed from spatial and temporal concepts, they cannot form any idea of the immensity of God before space existed or His eternity before time existed. In fact, when the human mind wishes to form such an idea, it is as if it lapsed into unconsciousness, almost like a shipwrecked mariner who has fallen into the water, or someone swallowed up by the earth in an earthquake. Indeed, if the mind persists in the attempt to penetrate these mysteries, it can easily become deranged, and thus be led to deny the existence of God.  [3] I too was once in a state like this, when I was thinking what God did from eternity, or before the world was made: did He deliberate about creation and work out the order to be followed? was deliberative thought possible in a total vacuum? and other useless speculations. But to prevent me becoming deranged by such speculations, I was lifted up by the Lord into the sphere and light enjoyed by the interior angels; and when the idea of space and time which had previously restricted my thinking was there to a small extent removed, I was allowed to grasp that the eternity of God is not an eternity of time, and that because time did not exist before the creation of the world it was quite useless to engage in such speculations about God.  The change is in us not the Lord Divine Love and Wisdom (Ager) 124 The Lord is not in a greater and lesser degree of love and wisdom, that is, as a sun He is not in a greater or lesser degree of heat and light with one than with another, for He is everywhere the same. But He is not received by one in the same degree as by another True Christian Religion (Chadwick) 25{3} The Divine Being, which is in itself God, is the same; not the same in a simple way, but infinitely the same, that is, the same from eternity to eternity. He is the same everywhere, the same with each person and in each person; but all the changes and differences occur in the person who receives Him, and it is his state which causes this. Heaven and Hell (Dole) 156. As the states of the inner levels of angels’ love and wisdom change, so too do the states of the various things that surround them and are visible to their eyes; for the things that surround angels are given their appearance according to the things that are within them. Third Round posts are short audio clips taken from Round 3 comments in online Logopraxis Life Group meetings. The aim is to maintain a focus on understanding the Text’s application to the inner life while reinforcing key LP principles highlighted in the exchanges.

Why changes of state occur Heaven and Hell 158. I have been told from heaven why changes of state like this occur. Angels have said that there are many reasons. First, the delight of life and of heaven that angels enjoy because of the love and wisdom given them by the Lord would gradually pall if they were constantly engaged in it, the way it happens for people who are involved in pleasures and enjoyments without variety. A second reason is that angels have a sense of self or self-image just as we do, and this involves loving themselves. All the people in heaven are kept free of their sense of self, and to the extent that the Lord does keep them free, they enjoy love and wisdom. To the extent that they are not kept free, however, they are caught up in love for themselves; and since all of them do love that sense of self and carry it with them, 1 these changes of state or successive alternations do occur. A third reason is that they are made more perfect in this way, since they become accustomed to being kept in love for the Lord and kept free from love for themselves. Further, by these alternations of delight and discomfort, their perception of and sensitivity to what is good become more and more delicate. 2 They have gone on to say that the Lord does not produce these changes of their states, since the Lord as the sun is always flowing in with warmth and light, that is, with love and wisdom. Rather, they themselves are the cause, since they love their sense of self and this is constantly misleading them. They illustrate this by comparison with our world’s sun, which is not the cause of the changes of warmth and cold and of light and darkness, of distinct years and distinct days, because it stays motionless. The reason can be traced to our earth. Footnotes:1. [Swedenborg’s footnote] Our self-image is loving ourselves: 694, 731, 4317, 5660. This self-image must be detached from us in order for the Lord to be present: 1023, 1044. It is actually detached when we are being kept in what is good by the Lord: 9334-9336, 9445 [9447?], 9452-9454, 9938. 2. [Swedenborg’s footnote] Angels are being made more perfect to eternity: 4803, 6648. In heaven, there is never any state exactly like any other, which results in a perpetual process of perfecting: 10200. States of light and heat HH 155. Angels are not constantly in the same state as to love, and consequently they are not in the same state as to wisdom, for all the wisdom they have is from their love and in proportion to it. Sometimes they are in a state of intense love, sometimes in a state of love that is not intense. It decreases gradually from its most to its least intense. When they are in the highest level of love, they are in the light and warmth of their lives, or in their greatest clarity and delight. Conversely, when they are in the lowest level they are in shadow and coolness, or in what is dim and unpleasant. From this latter state they return to the first, and so on. The phases follow each other with constant variety. These states follow each other like variations of light and shade, warmth and cold, or like the morning, noon, evening, and night of individual days in our world, varying constantly throughout the year. Not only that, they correspond — morning to the state of their love in clarity, noon to the state of their wisdom in clarity, evening to the state of their wisdom in dimness, and night to a state of no love or wisdom. It should be known, though, that there is no correspondence of night with the states of life of people in heaven, but rather a correspondence of the half-light that comes before dawn. The correspondence of night is with people who are in hell. 1 Because of this correspondence, “day” and “year” in the Word mean states of life in general, warmth and light mean love and wisdom, morning the first and highest level of love, noon wisdom in its light, evening wisdom in its shade, and the half-light the dimness that comes just before the morning. Night, though, means the loss of love and wisdom. 2 HH 160. When angels are in this last state, which is when they are involved in their sense of self, they begin to feel depressed. I have talked with them when they were in this state and witnessed their depression. They kept saying, though, that they lived in hope that they would soon return to their earlier state and be in heaven again, so to speak, since heaven for them is being kept free from their sense of self. Third Round posts are short audio clips taken from Round 3 comments in online Logopraxis Life Group meetings. The aim is to maintain a focus on understanding the Text’s application to the inner life while reinforcing key LP principles highlighted in the exchanges.

Heaven and Hell 555. At first I wondered why love for oneself and love of the world are so diabolic, why people who are absorbed in them look so frightful. After all, in the world we scarcely give love for ourselves a second thought. We focus only on that outward inflation of spirit called pride, which we believe is the only self-love because it is so visible. Not only that, if love for oneself does not express itself in pride, then we in the world think it is the vital fire that rouses us to work for high position and to do constructive things. We believe that if we saw no prospect of esteem and glory in these efforts, our spirits would become sluggish. People ask, “Who would do anything decent or useful or remarkable except to be praised and respected by others, [openly] or in their thoughts; and where does this come from except from the fire of a love for glory and esteem — that is, for the sake of self?” This is why people in the world do not realize that in its own right love for oneself is the love that rules in hell and that makes hell within us. Since this is in fact the case, I should like first to describe what love for oneself is, and then explain that everything evil and false wells up from this love. Self absorption and obessesion vs examination of the self from the Word (The Divine) HH 558a. We are completely absorbed in our self-image and therefore in our hereditary evil whenever we focus on ourselves in anything worthwhile we are doing, for we are focusing on ourselves and away from what is good and not on what is good and away from ourselves. So in the worthwhile activities we set up an image of ourselves and not an image of the Divine. I have been assured of this by experience as well. There are evil spirits who live halfway between the north and the west, underneath the heavens, who are particularly skilled at getting upright spirits involved in their self-image and therefore focused on various kinds of evil. They do this by getting them absorbed in thinking about themselves, either openly by words of praise and esteem or covertly by focusing their feelings exclusively on themselves. To the extent that they succeed, they turn the faces of the upright people away from heaven and also becloud their understanding, calling up evils from their self-concern. Apocalypse Revealed 56. One’s own life is to look to the Lord from oneself, while life from the Lord is to look to the Lord from the Lord, and yet doing so as though of oneself. When a person is seized by this life, he sees that he is nothing, and that only the Lord is anything. Arcana Coelestia 1712 …if men confirm themselves in the belief that they can do good and resist evil by their own powers, and that they thus merit salvation, in this case this idea remains attached, and causes the good to be evil, and the truth to be falsity. But still it is according to order for a man to do good as of himself; and therefore he ought not to slacken his hand, with the thought, “If I can do nothing of good from myself, I ought to wait for immediate influx,” and thus remain in a passive state, for this would be contrary to order; but he must do good as of himself; yet, when he reflects upon the good which he does or has done, let him think, acknowledge, and believe that the Lord has done the work in him. [3] If he slackens his effort, thinking as has been said, he is then not a subject into which the Lord can operate. The Lord cannot flow into anyone who deprives himself of everything into which power can be infused. It is as if one were not willing to learn anything without a revelation to himself; or as if one would teach nothing unless the words were put into him; or as if one would attempt nothing unless he were put into action as one without will. But if these things were done, he would be still more indignant at being like an inanimate thing; when yet that which is animated by the Lord in a man is that which appears as if it were from himself. It is thus an eternal truth that a man does not live from himself, but that if he did not appear to live from himself he could not live at all. Third Round posts are short audio clips taken from Round 3 comments in online Logopraxis Life Group meetings. The aim is to maintain a focus on understanding the Text’s application to the inner life while reinforcing key LP principles highlighted in the exchanges.

Arcana Coelestia 4850…I keep mentioning states and changes in state, but few know what either is, so I need to define them. Neither time and the passage of time nor space and extension in space can be used to describe our inner depths, or our feelings and the thoughts they produce. They do not exist in time or in a place, even though they seem to do so, as far as our worldly senses can tell. Rather they exist in inner dimensions corresponding to time and place. These corresponding dimensions can only be called states; there is no other word for them. It is called a change of state in our inner depths when we have a change of mind or heart, or a change in our feelings and the thoughts they produce, from sad to happy, from happy back to sad, from godless to godly or devout, and so on. These changes are called changes in state. They have to do with our feelings, and to the extent that our feelings control our thoughts, with our thoughts as well. Changes in the state of our thoughts lie within our feelings, as specific parts lie within a general whole, and are variations on our feelings, more or less. AC 4882… Admittedly, the idea that “going” in an inner sense means living seems rather far-fetched, or distant from our usual way of thinking. This is because we inhabit space and time, from which we have formed the ideas composing our thoughts, such as our idea of going, advancing, traveling, journeying, moving. These cover space and take time, so space and time permeate our idea of them, with the result that we have difficulty grasping that they mean states of life. However, when we put aside or shed our image of them, the spiritual phenomenon being symbolized springs forth. In the spiritual world, or heaven, no hint of space or time goes into the inhabitants’ thinking, but something having to do with a state of life instead (§§1274, 1382, 2625, 2788, 2837, 3356, 3404, 3827, 4814). Spirits and angels do feel as though they are advancing and moving from place to place, exactly as people on earth feel it, but changes in their state of life are what produce the impression. It is like the appearance that we live on our own — an appearance that is just as strong for them as it is for us — when in reality life is not inherent in us but comes from the Lord’s divinity, the source of all life. These appearances as they exist with angels are called real appearances, because they appear as they really are. [2] Sometimes I have talked with spirits about these appearances. The ones who lack goodness and therefore truth do not want to hear that they only appear to live on their own; they like the idea that they truly do live on their own. They have been shown by personal experience that life is not inherent in them and that progress from place to place is a change and progression in the condition of their life, but I have also said this to them: The fully convincing appearance that the life they have originates in themselves can satisfy them; they could not gain any greater benefit if it actually were the case. But it is even better for them to know what the real situation is, because then they have the truth, and if they have the truth, they also have heaven’s light — heaven’s light being the truth itself that comes from the Lord’s divinity. With the benefit of heaven’s light they would not claim goodness as their own, and evil would not cling to them either. Angels possess this truth not only by knowledge but also by perception. [3] The following experience shows that time and space in the spiritual world are states of life and that all life comes from the Lord: Spirits and angels each see those who are good on their right and those who are evil on their left, no matter what direction they turn. If they face east, that is where the good and the evil appear to them; the same if they face west, and if they face south or north too. This is true for every spirit or angel individually. If there are two of them, say, and one looks east while the other looks west, they both still see the good on their right and the evil on their left. It looks the same way to distant observers too, even if they stand behind the ones they are observing. The plain conclusion is that all life comes from the Lord, or that the Lord is within everyone’s life. The Lord appears in the spiritual world as the sun, on his right being the good, or the sheep, and on his left the evil, or the goats. It is the same for everyone else too, since the Lord is the whole of life, as I said. This notion cannot help baffling people, because as long as they are in the world they take their thinking from worldly cues and consequently from space and time. In the spiritual world, though, as noted above, ideas do not start with space and time but with the state of a person’s feelings and consequent thoughts. It is because of this that extents of space and periods of time in the Word symbolize states. Third Round posts are short audio clips taken from Round 3 comments in online Logopraxis Life Group meetings. The aim is to maintain a focus on understanding the Text’s application to the inner life while reinforcing key LP principles highlighted in the exchanges.

Divine Providence 4… However, because people do not know how two things distinct from each other can operate as a unit, I would like to show here that a unit is impossible without a form, and that it is its very form that makes it a unit; and afterward, that the form makes something the more perfectly a unit as the constituents which enter into the form are distinctly different and yet united. [2] That a unit is impossible without a form, the very form being that which makes it a unit: Everyone who focuses his mind’s thinking on it can clearly see that a unit is impossible without a form, and that if it exists, it has a form. For whatever has existence takes from its form that which we call its character, and also what we call its attributes, and what we call its changes of state, as also what we call its relativeness, and other like things. Whatever does not have a form is consequently incapable of affecting anything, and what is incapable of affecting anything has no reality. Its very form is what gives it all these qualities. Moreover, because all the constituents that exist in a form are — if the form is complete — interconnected, like the links in a chain, it follows therefore that it is the very form that makes them a unit, and so a subject of which can be predicated quality, state, and the power to affect, thus reality, according to the perfection of the form. [3] Such a unit is everything that we see with our eyes in the world, and such a unit is everything also that we do not see with our eyes, whether within the inner world of nature or in the spiritual world. Such a unit is the human being, and such a unit is human society. Such a unit, too, is the church, and in the Lord’s sight the entire angelic heaven. In short, such a unit is the created universe, not only in general, but also in every particular. For each and all things to have forms, it is necessary that He who created all things be the essential form, and that it be from that essential form that all created things exist in forms. HH 405. Almost all the people who arrive in the other life think that hell is the same for everyone and that heaven is the same for everyone, when in fact there are infinite variations and differences in each. Hell is never the same for any two people, nor is heaven. In the same way, no one of us, no spirit, and no angel is ever exactly like any other, even facially. When I even thought about two identical or equal beings, the angels were aghast. They said that every unity is formed by a harmonious agreement of many constituents and that the nature of the unity depends on the nature of the agreement. This is how every community of heaven forms a unity and how all the communities form a single heaven, which is accomplished solely by the Lord, by means of love. 1 Useful activities in the heavens occur in similar variety and diversity. The function of one individual is never exactly the same as that of any other, so the delight of one is never the same as another’s. Not only that, the delights of each function are countless, and these countless delights are equally varied, yet they are united in a design that enables them to focus on each other as do the functions of the individual members and organs and viscera in the human body; or even more, like the functions of every vessel and fiber in those members and organs and viscera. These are all interconnected in such a way that they focus on what they can contribute to the other and therefore to all, with all mindful of the individual members. They act as one because of this regard for the whole and for the individual. AC 2556 …In general it should be kept in mind that all things which exist with a truly rational, that is, regenerate, person — all that constitutes his affections, his perceptions, and his thoughts — are interconnected as in blood-relationships and relationships by marriage; for those things have been arranged in such a way that they mutually regard one another as families do which make up one house, and this in a most clear and distinct manner. Consequently when they reappear they do so in accordance with the relationships in which they exist. This ordered relationship with one another they receive from heaven — that is, from the Lord by way of heaven — flowing into them.  The Parable of the Talents 14 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them. 15 And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability; and immediately he went on a journey. 16 Then he who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and made another five talents. 17 And likewise he who had received two gained two more also. 18 But he who had received one went and dug in the ground, and hid his lord’s money. 19 After a long time the lord of those servants came and settled accounts with them. 20 “So he who had received five talents came and brought five other talents, saying, ‘Lord, you delivered to me five talents; look, I have gained five more talents besides them.’ 21 His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’ 22 He also who had received two talents came and said, ‘Lord, you delivered to me two talents; look, I have gained two more talents besides them.’ 23 His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’ 24 “Then he who had received the one talent came and said, ‘Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed. 25 And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours.’ 26 “But his lord answered and said to him, ‘You wicked and lazy servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered seed. 27 So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have received back my own with interest. 28 So take the talent from him, and give it to him who has ten talents. 29 ‘For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away. 30 And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ Third Round posts are short audio clips taken from Round 3 comments in online Logopraxis Life Group meetings. The aim is to maintain a focus on understanding the Text’s application to the inner life while reinforcing key LP principles highlighted in the exchanges.

​Believing the self is God Divine Love and Wisdom (Ager) 4​. The Lord, who is the God of the universe, is uncreate and infinite, whereas man and angel are created and finite. And because the Lord is uncreate and infinite, He is Being [Esse] itself, which is called “Jehovah,” and Life itself, or Life in itself. From the uncreate, the infinite, Being itself and Life itself, no one can be created immediately, because the Divine is one and indivisible; but their creation must be out of things created and finited, and so formed that the Divine can be in them. Because men and angels are such, they are recipients of life. Consequently, if any man suffers himself to be so far misled as to think that he is not a recipient of life but is Life, he cannot be withheld from the thought that he is God.  Arcana Coelestia 123. By virtue of his perception the celestial man acknowledges that every single thing is the Lord’s. The spiritual man acknowledges this too, but in his case it is something oral, because he has learned it from the Word. The worldly and bodily-minded man neither acknowledges nor admits it. Instead he says that everything residing with him is his own, and imagines that if he were to lose it, he would perish completely. Attributing cause to effect Arcana Coelestia (Elliot) 6322. To all outward appearance the external senses, such as sight and hearing, flow into thought and initiate mental images there. For the appearance is that external objects activate the senses, first the external senses, then the internal ones, and speech too. But no matter how convincing that appearance may be, it is nevertheless a misconception. For what is external, being gross and material, cannot flow in and activate what is internal, which is pure and spiritual; that would be contrary to the nature of things. It is the power of the inward senses, a power belonging to the spirit itself, that perceives things, and it does so by means of the power of the outward senses. It is also the power of the inward senses that disposes an outward sensory organ to receive impressions of objects at its bidding. So it is that outward sensory organs – such as that of sight, which is the eye – instantly adapt themselves to all the objects of the senses. Nothing of this could happen in sensory organs without the inflow they receive from within; for all the fibres and small appendages, which are very many around each sensory organ, are instantly attuned to the nature of the object. Indeed the organ itself is also immediately conditioned to conform.  Arcana Coelestia (Elliot) 5084{3-4}) . It is an illusion of the senses, a purely natural one, that the power which seeds have to grow into trees and flowers and to reproduce themselves was conferred on them when creation first began, and that that initial conferment is what causes everything to come into being and remain in being. People may be told that nothing can remain in being unless it is constantly being brought into being, in keeping with the law that continuance in being involves a constant coming into being, and with another law that anything that has no connection with something prior to itself ceases to have any existence. But though they are told all this, their bodily senses and their thought that is reliant on their senses, cannot take it in. Nor can they see that every single thing is kept in being, even as it was brought into being, through an influx from the spiritual world, that is, from the Divine coming through the spiritual world. This gives rise to another illusion of the senses, a purely natural one, that single entities exist called monads and atoms. For the natural man believes that anything comprehended by his external senses is a single entity or else nothing at all. It is an illusion of the senses, a purely natural one, that everything is part of and begins in the natural creation, though there are indeed purer and more inward aspects of the natural creation that are beyond the range of human understanding. But if anyone says that a spiritual or celestial dimension exists within or above the natural creation, this idea is rejected; for the belief is that unless a thing is natural it has no existence.  Interaction of the Soul and Body (Whitehead) 17{15}. Ends are in the first degree, causes in the second, and effects in the third. Who does not see that the end is not the cause, but that it produces the cause, and that the cause is not the effect, but that it produces the effect; consequently that they are three distinct things which follow in order? The end with man is the love of his will, for what a man loves, this he proposes to himself and intends; the cause with him is the reason of his understanding, for by means of it the end seeks for mediate or efficient causes; and the effect is the operation of the body from them and according to them. Thus there are three things in man, which follow each other in order, in like manner as the degrees of altitude follow each other. When these three things appear in act, then the end is inwardly in the cause, and the end through the cause is in the effect, wherefore the three coexist in the effect. On this account it is said in the Word, that everyone shall be judged according to his works; for the end, or the love of his will, and the cause, or the reason of his understanding, are together in the effects, which are the works of his body; thus the quality of the whole man is in them. They who do not know these things, and do not thus distinguish the objects of reason, cannot avoid terminating the ideas of their thought in the atoms of Epicurus, the monads of Leibniz, or in the simple substances of Wolff, and thus they close up their understandings as with a bolt, so that they cannot even think from reason concerning spiritual influx, because they cannot think concerning any progression; for the author says concerning his simple substance, that if it is divided it falls into nothing. Thus the understanding stands still in its first light, which is merely from the senses of the body, and does not advance a step further. Hence it is not known but that the spiritual is a subtle natural, and that beasts have a rational as well as men, and that the soul is a breath of wind such as is breathed forth from the breast when a person dies; besides many things which are not of light but of thick darkness.  Third Round posts are short audio clips taken from Round 3 comments in online Logopraxis Life Group meetings. The aim is to maintain a focus on understanding the Text’s application to the inner life while reinforcing key LP principles highlighted in the exchanges.

Heaven and Hell 158. I have been told from heaven why changes of state like this occur. Angels have said that there are many reasons. First, the delight of life and of heaven that angels enjoy because of the love and wisdom given them by the Lord would gradually pall if they were constantly engaged in it, the way it happens for people who are involved in pleasures and enjoyments without variety. A second reason is that angels have a sense of self or self-image just as we do, and this involves loving themselves. All the people in heaven are kept free of their sense of self, and to the extent that the Lord does keep them free, they enjoy love and wisdom. To the extent that they are not kept free, however, they are caught up in love for themselves; and since all of them do love that sense of self and carry it with them, 1 these changes of state or successive alternations do occur. A third reason is that they are made more perfect in this way, since they become accustomed to being kept in love for the Lord and kept free from love for themselves. Further, by these alternations of delight and discomfort, their perception of and sensitivity to what is good become more and more delicate. 2 They have gone on to say that the Lord does not produce these changes of their states, since the Lord as the sun is always flowing in with warmth and light, that is, with love and wisdom. Rather, they themselves are the cause, since they love their sense of self and this is constantly misleading them. They illustrate this by comparison with our world’s sun, which is not the cause of the changes of warmth and cold and of light and darkness, of distinct years and distinct days, because it stays motionless. The reason can be traced to our earth. Footnotes: 1. [Swedenborg’s footnote] Our self-image is loving ourselves: 694, 731, 4317, 5660. This self-image must be detached from us in order for the Lord to be present: 1023, 1044. It is actually detached when we are being kept in what is good by the Lord: 9334-9336, 9445 [9447?], 9452-9454, 9938. 2. [Swedenborg’s footnote] Angels are being made more perfect to eternity: 4803, 6648. In heaven, there is never any state exactly like any other, which results in a perpetual process of perfecting: 10200. Times of the day HH 155. Angels are not constantly in the same state as to love, and consequently they are not in the same state as to wisdom, for all the wisdom they have is from their love and in proportion to it. Sometimes they are in a state of intense love, sometimes in a state of love that is not intense. It decreases gradually from its most to its least intense. When they are in the highest level of love, they are in the light and warmth of their lives, or in their greatest clarity and delight. Conversely, when they are in the lowest level they are in shadow and coolness, or in what is dim and unpleasant. From this latter state they return to the first, and so on. The phases follow each other with constant variety. These states follow each other like variations of light and shade, warmth and cold, or like the morning, noon, evening, and night of individual days in our world, varying constantly throughout the year. Not only that, they correspond — morning to the state of their love in clarity, noon to the state of their wisdom in clarity, evening to the state of their wisdom in dimness, and night to a state of no love or wisdom. It should be known, though, that there is no correspondence of night with the states of life of people in heaven, but rather a correspondence of the half-light that comes before dawn. The correspondence of night is with people who are in hell. 1 Because of this correspondence, “day” and “year” in the Word mean states of life in general, warmth and light mean love and wisdom, morning the first and highest level of love, noon wisdom in its light, evening wisdom in its shade, and the half-light the dimness that comes just before the morning. Night, though, means the loss of love and wisdom. 2 Seasons HH 166. It is much the same for all the things that occur as a result of time, such as the four seasons of the year called spring, summer, autumn, and winter; the four times of day called morning, noon, evening, and night; our own four ages called infancy, youth, maturity, and old age; and with the other things that either occur as a result of time or happen in temporal sequence. When we think about them, it is from a temporal standpoint; but an angel thinks about them from the standpoint of state. Consequently, anything in them that is temporal for us changes into an idea of state for the angel. Spring and morning change into an idea of love and wisdom the way they are for angels in their first state; summer and noon change into an idea of love and wisdom as they are in the second state; autumn and evening, as they are in the third state; and night and winter into a concept of the kind of state that is characteristic in hell. This is why similar things are meant by these times in the Word (see above, 155). We can see from this how the natural concepts that occur in our thought become spiritual for the angels who are with us. Third Round posts are short audio clips taken from Round 3 comments in online Logopraxis Life Group meetings. The aim is to maintain a focus on understanding the Text’s application to the inner life while reinforcing key LP principles highlighted in the exchanges.

Heaven and Hell 99. Even though we completely correspond physically to all of heaven, we are still not images of heaven in outward form, but only in inward form. Our deeper reaches are receptive of heaven, while our more outward ones are receptive of this world. To the extent, then, that those deeper reaches do accept heaven we are heavens in least form, in the image of the greatest; but to the extent that our deeper reaches are not receptive, we are not heavens or images of the greatest. Nevertheless, our more outward aspects, which are receptive of the world, may be in some form that is determined by the world, and therefore in more or less beauty. Outward, physical beauty has its origins in our parents and from our formation in the womb, and thereafter is maintained by a general inflow from the world. This is why our natural form differs markedly from our spiritual form. I have been shown at times what a spiritual person is like in form, and I have seen that in some people who were lovely and attractive in physical appearance that inner form was misshapen, black, and grotesque — what you would call an image of hell rather than of heaven; while in some who were not beautiful, the inner form was graceful, radiant, and angelic. After death, our spirit looks the way it actually did within the body while we were living in it in this world. Luke 12: 1 -3. Beware principally of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. And there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed, neither secret that shall not be known. Therefore whatever things you have said in darkness shall be heard in the light; and that which you have spoken in the ear in bedrooms shall be preached on the housetops. Third Round posts are short audio clips taken from Round 3 comments in online Logopraxis Life Group meetings. The aim is to maintain a focus on understanding the Text’s application to the inner life while reinforcing key LP principles highlighted in the exchanges.

Heaven and Hell 89. First, I need to state what correspondence is. The whole natural world is responsive to the spiritual world — the natural world not just in general, but in detail. So whatever arises in the natural world out of the spiritual one is called “something that corresponds.” It needs to be realized that the natural world arises from and is sustained in being by the spiritual world, exactly the way an effect relates to its efficient cause. By “the natural world,” I mean all that extended reality that is under our sun and that receives its light and warmth from it. All the things that are sustained in being from that source belong to that world. The spiritual world, in contrast, is heaven, and to that world belong all the things that are in the heavens. HH 90. Since a human being is a heaven and a world in least form in the image of the greatest (see 57 above), there is a spiritual world and a natural world within each of us. The deeper elements, which belong to our minds and relate to our intelligence and volition, constitute our spiritual world, while the outer elements, which belong to our bodies and relate to our senses and actions, constitute our natural world. Anything that occurs in our natural world (that is, in our bodies and their senses and actions) because of our spiritual world (that is, because of our minds and their intelligence and volition) is called something that corresponds. HH 95. The differentiation of heaven into two kingdoms, one called the heavenly kingdom and the other the spiritual kingdom, has been presented in its proper chapter above. The heavenly kingdom in general corresponds to the heart and to all the extensions of the heart throughout the body. The spiritual kingdom corresponds to the lungs and to all their extension throughout the body. Further, the heart and the lungs form two kingdoms in us, the heart governing through the arteries and veins and the lungs through the nerve and motor fibers, each involved in every effort and action. Within each one of us, in the spiritual world of ours that is called our spiritual person, there are also two kingdoms. One is volitional and the other is cognitive, the volitional governing through affections for what is good and the cognitive through affections for what is true. These kingdoms also correspond to the kingdoms of the heart and lungs in the body. The same holds true in the heavens. The heavenly kingdom is heaven’s volitional side, where the good that flows from love rules. The spiritual kingdom is heaven’s cognitive side, where truth rules. These are what correspond to the functions of the heart and the lungs in us. It is because of this correspondence that “the heart” in the Word means volition and the good of love, while “the breath of the spirit” means understanding and the truth of faith. This is also why we ascribe feelings to the heart, even though they do not reside or originate there. 1 Third Round posts are short audio clips taken from Round 3 comments in online Logopraxis Life Group meetings. The aim is to maintain a focus on understanding the Text’s application to the inner life while reinforcing key LP principles highlighted in the exchanges.

Jehovah Zebaoth will visit His flock, the house of Judah, and will place them as His glorious horse in battle. From Him comes the corner-stone, from Him the tent-peg, from Him the battle-bow. Zechariah 10:3-4. Make ye ready the shield and buckler, and draw near to battle. Harness the horses, and go up, ye horsemen, and stand forth in helmets, furbish the lances, put on the coats of mail (Jeremiah 46:3-4). Arcana Coelestia 3448 [4]. In John: I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse, and he that sat upon him was called faithful and true. He was clothed in a garment dipped in blood. And his armies in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen white and clean. And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to make war against him that sat upon the horse, and against his army (Revelation 19:11, 13-14, 19); “he that sat upon the white horse” denotes the Lord’s Word, or the Lord as to the Word (n. 2760-2762); “his armies in heaven that followed him” denote the truths therefrom, consequently those in heaven who are in truths; the “beast” denotes the evils of the love of self; the “kings of the earth and their armies” denote falsities. The combats of falsity with truth are what are here described. AC 6657. ‘That they also will join themselves to our enemies and fight against us’ means that in that way allied forces who inflict harm will be made stronger. This is clear from the meaning of ‘joining themselves to’ as being made stronger, for when enemies are joined by a very large number they are made stronger; from the meaning of ‘enemies’ as allied forces who fight alongside one another; and from the meaning of ‘fighting against us’ as inflicting harm, for when a battle is fought against someone, harm is done to him to the extent that he cannot counteract it. The implications of all this are that surrounding every person in the world and also surrounding every good spirit there is a general sphere of endeavours from hell and a general sphere of endeavours from heaven. The sphere from hell is a sphere of endeavours to do harm and destroy, that from heaven is a sphere of endeavours to do good and to save, see 6477. These spheres are general ones, and there are likewise particular spheres surrounding every person, for there are spirits from hell present with him and there are angels from heaven, who are dealt with in 5846-5866, 5976-5993. By these spheres a person is kept in a state of equilibrium and has the freedom to think and will what is evil or to think and will what is good. AC 1695…In the combats of temptations the evil spirits are permitted to draw forth all the evil and falsity that are in the man, and to battle from the evil and falsity of the man; but when they have been overcome, they are no longer permitted to do so, for they instantly perceive in the man that good and truth have been confirmed. Spirits, more than men, are gifted with such perception; from the very sphere of a man who has been confirmed in truth and good, they know at once how the case is, what answer they will get, and more besides. This is plainly evident with the spiritual regenerate man, with whom there are evil spirits equally as well as with the non-regenerate, but they are subjugated and serve. This is what is meant by their being deprived of the power of doing evil and of thinking falsity. [2] When therefore a member of the Church enters into temptation, which happens when he is let into his own evil, conflict takes place around him between the spirits from hell and the angels from heaven, 3927, 4249, 5036; and the conflict lasts for as long as the person is kept in his own evil. Sometimes in that conflict it seems to the spirits from hell that they are going to win, in which case they surge up. At other times it seems to them that they are going to be beaten, in which case they fall back, fearing that more angels from heaven will join up against them and so they themselves will be cast down into hell, never to emerge again, which is exactly what happens when they have been beaten. These are the things that are meant by superior strength if they increase and by the statement that allied forces who inflict harm will be made stronger. [3] Spirits from hell, when they fight against angels, are in the world of spirits, where they are in a state of freedom, 5852. From all this one may now see what is meant in the internal sense when it says that the children of Israel were molested and oppressed in such ways by the Egyptians, but that the more they were molested, the more they multiplied, and that Jehovah, who is the Lord, fought for them, kept the Egyptians in check by means of plagues, and at length drowned all the Egyptians in the Sea Suph. AC 5036. Scarcely anyone in the Christian world at this day knows whence temptations come. He who undergoes them has no other belief than that they are torments arising from the evils which are within man, and which at first make him uneasy, then anxious, and finally torment him; but he is altogether ignorant that they are effected by the evil spirits who are with him. The reason why he is ignorant of this, is that he does not believe that he is in company with spirits while he lives in the world, and scarcely believes that there is any spirit with him; when yet as to his interiors man is continually in the society of spirits and angels. [2] As regards temptations, they take place when the man is in the act of regeneration; for no one can be regenerated unless he undergoes temptations, and they then arise from evil spirits who are about him. For the man is then let into the state of evil in which he is, that is, in which is that very [life] which is his own; and when he comes into this state, evil or infernal spirits encompass him, and when they perceive that he is inwardly protected by angels, the evil spirits excite the falsities which he has thought, and the evils which he has done, but the angels defend him from within. It is this combat which is perceived in the man as temptation, but so obscurely that he scarcely knows otherwise than that it is merely an anxiety; for man-especially if he believes nothing about influx-is in a state that is wholly obscure, and he perceives scarcely a thousandth part of the things about which the evil spirits and angels are contending. And yet the battle is then being fought for the man and his eternal salvation, and it is fought from the man himself; for they fight from those things which are in man, and concerning them. That this is the case has been given me to know with the utmost certainty. I have heard the combat, I have perceived the influx, I have seen the spirits and angels, and at the time and afterward have conversed with them on the subject. [3] As before said, temptations take place chiefly at the time when the man is becoming spiritual; for he then apprehends spiritually the truths of doctrine. The man is often unaware of this, but still the angels with him see in his natural things the spiritual; for his interiors are then open toward heaven. For this reason also the man who has been regenerated is among angels after his life in the world, and there both sees and perceives the spiritual things which before appeared to him as natural. When therefore a man has come into such a state, then in temptation, when assaulted by evil spirits, he can be defended by angels, who then have a plane into which they can operate; for they flow into what is spiritual with him, and through this into what is natural. [4] But when ultimate truth has been withdrawn, and therefore the man has nothing by which to defend himself against those who are natural (see n. 5006, 5008, 5009, 5022, 5028), he then comes into temptations, and by evil spirits-who are all merely natural-he is accused especially of speaking falsely against good; as for example of having thought and said that the neighbor ought to be benefited, and having also approved this in act, and yet now meaning by the neighbor only those who are in good and truth, and not those who are in evil and falsity and cannot be amended; and consequently, because he is no longer willing to benefit the evil, or if he will benefit them, he desires them to be punished for the sake of their amendment, and for the purpose of averting evil from his neighbor, they charge him with thinking and speaking what is false, and with not thinking as he speaks. [5] Take another example. Because when a man becomes spiritual, he no longer believes it holy and for pious use to give to monasteries, or even to churches which abound in wealth; and because before he became spiritual he had thought that such giving was holy and pious, they charge him with falsehood, and stir up all his thoughts which he had before cherished as to its being holy and pious, and also the works which he had done from such thought. And so they do in numberless other cases, but let these few examples serve by way of illustration. These spirits enter principally into the affections which the man had before, and excite them, and also the false and evil things which he had thought and done; and thus they bring him into anxiety, and often into doubt even to despair. [6] Such then is the source of spiritual anxieties, and of the torments which are called torments of conscience. By influx and communication these things appear to the man as if they were in himself. One who knows and believes this may be compared to a man who sees himself in a mirror, and knows that it is not himself that appears in it, or on the other side of it, but only his image; whereas one who does not know and believe this, may be compared to a person who sees himself in a mirror, and supposes it is himself that appears there, and not his image. Third Round posts are short audio clips taken from Round 3 comments in online Logopraxis Life Group meetings. The aim is to maintain a focus on understanding the Text’s application to the inner life while reinforcing key LP principles highlighted in the exchanges.

Transcipt The theme for this particular session was correspondences. So you’ve done the reading and what you see there is that there is what presents on the surface, and there is what sits behind. And so in this spiritual practice (of LP) we look to try to remove personal details in our own work but also when we’re listening to others. So where personal details are concerned that is a useful external to convey what’s happening internally. And so what we try to do is remove ideas related to personality, so person, place, time and space, and just listen for what the principle being expressed is and how that’s being illustrated. That’s the idea here – and it takes practice. It’s not something we easily pick up on and over time we can get a better sense of this but it’s good to be aware of what we’re trying to do. So in presenting what we have as a submission, the idea is to remove personal details as much as possible but that’s not fully possible (so it’s acknowledged in that sense), and also when listening to try and remove personal details. So if somebody is saying something where I try to sit is that this is not something to do with this individual, but rather what they are bringing forth or maybe clothed in their experience, underneath sits what is of the Lord. So if I become too focused on the person then I don’t hear what the Lord is saying. I’m hearing it as this particular individual’s experience whereas in Logopraxis the idea is that the experience is given by the Lord for the group to reinforce and illustrate spiritual realities not people’s personal lives. So that’s the distinction that we seek to draw. Your work is personal of course, you are engaged in doing your work and your reflection and all of that. So it’s not about removing that because that has to be done but when we come to share, we don’t have to spill all the detail of what we’ve experienced. We can frame that in terms of ‘this is the principle I worked with and this is how that played out so far as my inner life is concerned’, the life of my thoughts and affections. Example: So when I heard that, for me the principle is – it is the Lord that provides, into states of innocence, nowledge of himself. Now that was through your father playing with you in that kind of father daughter sort of fun way but the importance of getting to the principle is that if I reflect back now in Round 2 – that principle that I’ve heard is applicable to us all. So this is the idea that we’re trying to think spiritually in the midst of our natural experiences. And I think that captures the function and use of what presents in our sensory world. What’s happening as I listen to the experience is that it’s grounding what is within. So the feeling state is being grounded in the sensory state. So this is correspondence. There’s a multitude of different external garments or possible garments but the principle is consistent. If it’s a spiritual principle its consistent. Regardless, you know of the eight billion people on the surface of the planet, the underlying principles that direct and guide things are the same but the external expressions are different. And then within the Word itself, that is, the letter of the text of the Word, they are perfectly correspondential. So they hold what is of the Lord much closer to the surface than our lives do. Third Round posts are short audio clips taken from Round 3 comments in online Logopraxis Life Group meetings. The aim is to maintain a focus on understanding the Text’s application to the inner life while reinforcing key LP principles highlighted in the exchanges.

Heaven and Hell (Dole) 89. First, I need to state what correspondence is. The whole natural world is responsive to the spiritual world — the natural world not just in general, but in detail. So whatever arises in the natural world out of the spiritual one is called “something that corresponds.” It needs to be realized that the natural world arises from and is sustained in being by the spiritual world, exactly the way an effect relates to its efficient cause. By “the natural world,” I mean all that extended reality that is under our sun and that receives its light and warmth from it. All the things that are sustained in being from that source belong to that world. The spiritual world, in contrast, is heaven, and to that world belong all the things that are in the heavens. HH 90. Since a human being is a heaven and a world in least form in the image of the greatest (see 57 above), there is a spiritual world and a natural world within each of us. The deeper elements, which belong to our minds and relate to our intelligence and volition, constitute our spiritual world, while the outer elements, which belong to our bodies and relate to our senses and actions, constitute our natural world. Anything that occurs in our natural world (that is, in our bodies and their senses and actions) because of our spiritual world (that is, because of our minds and their intelligence and volition) is called something that corresponds. Mental Objects True Christian Religion (Dick) 420 VII. The mind itself, however, is divided into two regions, namely, the spiritual region, which is higher and interior, and the natural region, which is lower and exterior. The spiritual mind looks principally to the spiritual world, and has for its objects the things of that world, whether they are in heaven or in hell; for both these are in the spiritual world. The natural mind, however, looks principally to the natural world, and has for its objects the things of that world, whether good or evil. All man’s action and speech proceed directly from the lower region of the mind, and indirectly from the higher region, since the lower region of the mind is nearer to the bodily senses, and the higher region more remote from them. Man’s mind is thus divided, because he was created to be both spiritual and natural, and thus a man and not a beast. Divine Love and Wisdom (Harley and Harley) 70. The objects of their thought, which as just noted are truths, are not at all dependent on space and time. While the objects of their sight do seem to be in space and in time, angels do not use them as the basis for their thinking. The reason is that in the spiritual world intervals of space and time are not fixed the way they are in our physical world, but are changeable in response to their states of life. This means that states of life take the place of space and time in the concepts of their thinking. Issues related to states of love are in place of spatial intervals and issues related to states of wisdom are in place of temporal intervals.  Arcana Coelestia (Elliot) 2275. The internal sense of the Word consists of two distinct elements – the spiritual and the celestial. The spiritual involves a discernment – abstractedly, apart from the letter – of subject matter or real things, the literal sense serving these as an object, in the same way as things seen with the eye may serve as objects of thought regarding more exalted matters. The celestial involves pure perception of the affection present within the real things which belong to the internal sense. That discernment of real things exists with spiritual angels, whereas this pure perception of that affection exists with celestial angels. The latter, that is, those who are percipients of the affection, perceive immediately, purely from the affection there, what the letter embodies within itself when this is being read by man. And from this they form celestial ideas for themselves, doing so with unending variety and in an indescribable fashion in accordance with the sequence and harmony of the celestial things of love comprising the affection.  Third Round posts are short audio clips taken from Round 3 comments in the online Logopraxis Life Group meetings. The aim is to maintain focus on understanding the Text’s application to the inner life while reinforcing key LP principles highlighted in the exchanges.

Heaven and Hell 276. What innocence is and its nature, few in the world know, and those who are in evil know nothing at all about it. It is, indeed, visible to the eyes, as seen in the face, speech and movements, particularly of little children. Yet it is not known what innocence is, and still less that it is that in which heaven is stored up in man.  Arcana Ceolestia 7210… in the spiritual sense “sleep” is nothing else, just as “wakefulness” is nothing else than a clear state; for there is spiritual sleep when truths are in obscurity, and spiritual wakefulness when truths are in clearness. Conjugial Love 194. We read in the Book of Creation that Jehovah God made a deep sleep to fall upon Adam so that he slept; and then took one of his ribs and built it into a woman (Genesis 2:21-22). By the man’s profound slumber is signified his entire ignorance that the wife is formed and as it were created from him. … Therefore, in order that this shall be rightly done it is enjoined upon the man that he shall leave father and mother and cleave unto his wife (Genesis 2:24; Matthew 19:4-5). …That by sleeping is signified being in ignorance or unconcern; that by father and mother are signified the two propriums of man(homo), that of his will and that of his understanding; and that by cleaving is signified devoting one’s self to the love of some one, can be abundantly confirmed by passages from other parts of the Word, but this is not the place. Third Round posts are short audio clips taken from Round 3 comments in the online Logopraxis Life Group meetings. The aim is to maintain focus on understanding the Text’s application to the inner life while reinforcing key LP principles highlighted in the exchanges.

The Word is what opens the spiritual mind/ sense of being Apocalypse Explained (Whitehead) 790 {3-4}. Every man has two minds, one natural and the other spiritual; and as it is the mind that wills and thinks, every man has also natural will and thought and spiritual will and thought. The natural mind wills and thinks like a man in the world, and the spiritual mind wills and thinks like an angel in heaven. From this it follows that as faith is in man, it, too, is natural or spiritual; and that natural faith is according to man’s will and thought in the world, and spiritual faith is according to his will and thought in heaven. It is said the will and thought, because all things from which man is a man have relation to these two, for from the will he acts, and from the thought he speaks. And as a man acts and speaks either from self or from God, so he wills and thinks either from self or from God. From this it is clear, in the first place, that there is natural faith and spiritual faith; and that natural faith apart from spiritual faith is to think such things as are in the Word from self, while natural faith from spiritual faith is to think such things as are in the Word from God; although this also seems to the man to be from himself. As every man has two minds, a natural and a spiritual, and the natural mind is opened and formed by such things as are in the world, while the spiritual mind is opened and formed by such things as are in heaven, and as the things that are in heaven are all spiritual, so a man’s spiritual mind must needs be opened and formed by such things as are in the Word, in which all things are spiritual because they are Divine. In the Word there are truths that are to be known and thought, and goods that must be willed and done; therefore it is by these goods and these truths that man’s spiritual mind is opened and formed. From this it follows, that unless the spiritual mind is opened and formed by truths and goods from the Word it remains closed; and when this is closed the natural mind only is opened and formed by such things as are in the world, from which man, indeed, derives a natural lumen, but such as has in it no wisdom from heaven. From this it is clear, in the second place, that faith is not faith so long as the natural mind only is opened, but that if the thought that a thing is so is called faith it is historical faith, which is nothing but knowledge from which the natural man thinks.  The illusions of the senses/natural mind – the mind that thinks from the senses Arcana Coelestia (Potts) 3483​… From this it is evident how gross, nay, how earthly and also inverted is that human intelligence which ascribes everything to nature separate or exempt from an influx prior to itself, or from an efficient cause. Moreover they who so think and speak seem to themselves to be wiser than others; that is, in attributing all things to nature, when yet on the contrary angelic intelligence consists in ascribing nothing to nature, but all and everything to the Divine of the Lord, thus to life, and not to anything dead. The learned know that subsistence is a perpetual coming forth; but still it is contrary to the affection of falsity and thence to a reputation for learning to say that nature continually subsists, as it originally came into existence, from the Divine of the Lord. Inasmuch therefore as each and all things subsist, that is, continually come forth, from the Divine, and as each and all things thence derived must needs be representative of those things whereby they came into existence, it follows that the visible universe is nothing else than a theater representative of the Lord’s kingdom; and that this kingdom is a theater representative of the Lord Himself.  Arcana Coelestia (Elliot) 5084{1-2}. Sensory impressions are said to be cast aside when the things that are first and foremost in explanations place no reliance on them; for they are indeed sensory impressions, and impressions received by the mind directly through the senses are illusions. The senses are the source of all the illusions that reign in a person, and they are the reason why few have any belief in the truths of faith and why the natural man is opposed to the spiritual man, that is, the external man to the internal. Consequently if the natural or external man starts to have dominion over the spiritual or internal man, no belief at all in matters of faith exists any longer, for illusions cast a shadow over them and evil desires smother them. Few know what the illusions of the senses are and few believe that these cast a shadow over rational insights and most of all over spiritual matters of faith – a shadow so dark that it blots them out. This happens especially when at the same time what a person delights in is the result of desires bred by a selfish and worldly love. But let examples be used to shed some light on this matter, first some examples of illusions of the senses which are purely natural ones, that is, illusions about things within the natural creation, then some examples of such illusions in spiritual things. It is an illusion of the senses – a purely natural one, or an illusion about the natural creation – to believe that the sun is borne round this globe once a day, and that the sky too and all the stars are borne round at the same time. People may be told that it is impossible and therefore inconceivable that so vast an ocean of fire as the sun, and not only the sun but also the countless stars, should revolve once a day without undergoing any changes of position in relation to one another. They may be told in addition that one can see from the planetary system that our own globe performs a daily movement and an annual one, by rotations on its axis and by revolutions. This can be recognized from the fact that the planets are globes like ours, some of which have moons around them and all of which, as observation shows, perform daily and annual movements like ours. But for all that they are told, the illusion the senses prevails with very many people – that things really are as the eye sees them. Arcana Coelestia (Elliot) 6322. To all outward appearance the external senses, such as sight and hearing, flow into thought and initiate mental images there. For the appearance is that external objects activate the senses, first the external senses, then the internal ones, and speech too. But no matter how convincing that appearance may be, it is nevertheless a misconception. For what is external, being gross and material, cannot flow in and activate what is internal, which is pure and spiritual; that would be contrary to the nature of things. It is the power of the inward senses, a power belonging to the spirit itself, that perceives things, and it does so by means of the power of the outward senses. It is also the power of the inward senses that disposes an outward sensory organ to receive impressions of objects at its bidding. So it is that outward sensory organs – such as that of sight, which is the eye – instantly adapt themselves to all the objects of the senses. Nothing of this could happen in sensory organs without the inflow they receive from within; for all the fibres and small appendages, which are very many around each sensory organ, are instantly attuned to the nature of the object. Indeed the organ itself is also immediately conditioned to conform.  Third Round posts are short audio clips taken from Round 3 comments in the online Logopraxis Life Group meetings. The aim is to maintain focus on understanding the Text’s application to the inner life while reinforcing key LP principles highlighted in the exchanges.

AC 561. To explain what a remnant is: It is not just the good and true things that we learn out of the Lord’s Word from the time we are small and that become stamped on our memory. It is also all the states that rise out of those things, such as a state of innocence from babyhood, a state of love for our parents, siblings, teachers, and friends, a state of charity toward our neighbor and compassion toward the poverty-stricken and needy. In short, it is all states of goodness or truth. These states, along with the good and true things imprinted on our memory, are called a remnant. The Lord preserves them in us, hiding them away in our inner being without our slightest awareness and carefully separating them from the things that are our own — in other words, from evil and falsity. The Lord preserves all these states in us in such a way that not even the least significant of them is lost. This I learned from the fact that every one of our states from infancy to extreme old age not only remains in the other life but even returns. When we relive them, they are identical to the experience we first lived through in the world. This happens not only with the good and true things etched on our memory but also with any state of innocence or charity we have experienced. In addition, each and every one of our states of evil and falsity (or malice and delusion) remains and returns as well, in all its minutest detail. And when the latter states come back to us, the Lord tempers them by means of the former. All of which shows that if we had no remnant, we could not help being damned for eternity (see above at §468). Arcana Coelestia 1738. For what remnants are however, see 468, 530, 560, 561, 661, 1050, where it is shown that they are all the states of love and charity, and all the states of innocence and peace, with which a person is endowed. He is endowed with these states from earliest childhood, though that endowment gradually diminishes as he advances into adult life. But while a person is being regenerated he receives, in addition to those he has already, new remnants, and thus new life; for it is from, or by means of, remnants that a person is enabled to be human. In fact, if devoid of the state of love and charity, and if devoid of the state of innocence — states that instill themselves into all the other states of his life-a person is no longer human, but worse than any wild animal.  AC 560… a remnant, as noted earlier [§530], is what lifts human life above animal life. A remnant, or rather the Lord working by means of a remnant, is what allows a person to seem human, to learn what is good and true, to reflect on particular instances of it, and so to think and reason. This remnant alone has spiritual and heavenly life in it. AC 1050. The symbolism of and every living soul within all flesh as the entire human race can be seen from the symbolism of the living soul within all flesh. Each of us is called a living soul from a living quality in us. Not one of us can live — still less live as a human being — if we do not have something living inside us. In other words, we need to have a measure of innocence, charity, and mercy, or at least something that resembles or approximates it. This measure of innocence, charity, and mercy is something we receive from the Lord in childhood and adolescence, as can be seen from the state of children and the state of adolescents. What we receive at those ages is preserved in us. What is preserved in us is what the Word calls a remnant, or survivors, and it is the Lord’s alone in us. These preserved traces are what makes it possible for us to be human when we arrive at adulthood. For more on the remnant, or remaining traces, see §§468, 530, 560, 561, 562, 563, 576. [2] The fact that the states of innocence, charity, and mercy that we experienced in early childhood and in the years when we were growing up make it possible for us to be human is plainly evident from this: We are not born into any life skills, the way brute animals are, but must learn each and every one of them, and what we learn is then turned into habit and second nature by our practicing it. Unless we learn how, we cannot even walk, or talk, or do anything else. When we practice these activities, they become almost instinctive to us. The case is the same with a state of innocence, charity, and mercy — virtues that we likewise absorb from early childhood on; if those states were not present inside us, we would be much lower than animals. But they are not acquired by education. We receive them as gifts from the Lord, who preserves them in us. These states, along with religious truth, are what are called a remnant, and are the Lord’s alone. To the extent that we suffocate them during adulthood, we become dead. When we are being reborn, these states are the starting points of the process, and we are led into them, because the Lord works through the remnant, as noted before [§§635, 711, 737:1, 857, 977:2]. Third Round posts are short audio clips taken from Round 3 comments in the online Logopraxis Life Group meetings. The aim is to maintain focus on understanding the Text’s application to the inner life while reinforcing key LP principles highlighted in the exchanges.

Excerpts from The Logopraxis Workbook… The Structure of a Logopraxis Life Group Meeting A Logopraxis meeting is minimalist in its form, offering a basic structure that consists of three rounds that are marked by some form of contemplative exercise. This structure serves as a framework for the practise of spiritual literacy skills. A brief description of each of the rounds follows. In Round One participants are invited to bring a summary of their experience of the work with the Text for the session. This is called a Logopraxis submission. (Aim for no more than 5-7 minutes when you share in this round). In Round Two there is an opportunity for participants to share their reflections on what they heard in the first round.  In Round Three participants can bring to the group anything else they are carrying related to the reading for the session or the Logopraxis process more generally. Meetings begin with a short time of contemplation, and whatever the group decides to do in this space, it is done with the intention of providing an environment where we can centre ourselves, steady the inner activity of our minds, and lift our awareness out of external life concerns so as to be present to what’s asked of us as a member of a Logopraxis Life Group. It is a reminder that in coming together as a group to share our experience of the Word, we are approaching the Lord. In this effort we are seeking to hold a space within which holiness resides so that a sphere of worship is created. Transitions between rounds are also marked by some form of contemplative exercise, which could be a reading, a song, a prayer, or something else. The object of the exercise is to remind practitioners to maintain a contemplative, worshipful focus.  Spiritual Literacy Logopraxis Life Groups are an opportunity to practise spiritual literacy as we speak and listen when we meet. They are a hermetically sealed container within which the material gathered from each individual’s practice can serve as the basis for creating a unique environment. It is where we may learn to be with others in a new way, and where the practise of the Word is what is central. To that end, participants are asked to be consciously present to what arises as they take part in group life through the practise of what are termed spiritual literacy ‘skills’. These skills are designed to assist us in engaging in group life consciously, and be present so as to bear witness to what’s arising within our minds as we speak and listen. It is the call to a different way of being with ourselves, with others, and with the Word as the Lord.  So, in order to hear the Lord, which really is about hearing the spiritual principles that are being illustrated in each other’s experience, we need to be able to divide our attention between what’s going on externally in the group, and what is arising inwardly so far as our responses are concerned. It’s not so much about listening to the words that a person is speaking, but listening to what arises within us in response to what’s being shared. So, it’s a state of divided attention, where we are working to be conscious of the fact that we are seeing our own states reflected back to us in what is being presented through our interactions with the Word and with others.  Third Round posts are short audio clips taken from Round 3 comments in the online Logopraxis Life Group meetings. The aim is to maintain focus on understanding the Text’s application to the inner life while reinforcing key LP principles highlighted in the exchanges.

Innocence is a willingness to be led by the Lord Heaven and Hell (Dole) 280. Since innocence is being led by the Lord and not by ourselves, all the people who are in heaven are in innocence, since all the people who are there love to be led by the Lord. They know that to be led by oneself is to be led by one’s self-centeredness, and self-centeredness is loving oneself. People who are in love with themselves are not willing to be led by anyone else. This is why angels are in heaven to the extent that they are in innocence; that is, to that extent they are absorbed in divine good and divine truth, for being absorbed in these is being in heaven.  A ‘manual ‘ on spiritual practice HH 278. The innocence of wisdom is real innocence because it is internal, being a property of the mind itself and therefore of our volition itself and our consequent understanding. When there is innocence in these, then there is wisdom as well, because wisdom is a property of volition and understanding. That is why they say in heaven that innocence dwells in wisdom and why angels have as much wisdom as they do innocence. They support the truth of this by observing that people in a state of innocence do not take credit for anything good, but ascribe and attribute everything to the Lord. They want to be led by him and not by themselves, they love everything that is good and delight in everything that is true because they know and perceive that loving what is good — that is, intending and doing good — is loving the Lord, and loving what is true is loving their neighbor. They live content with what they have, whether it is little or much, because they know that they receive as much as is useful — little if little is good for them and much if much is good for them. They do not know what is best for themselves — only the Lord knows; and in his sight everything he supplies is eternal. [2] So they have no anxiety about the future, but refer to anxiety about the future as “care for the morrow,” which they say is pain at losing or not getting things that are not needed for their life’s useful activities. They never collaborate with friends from evil intent, but only from good, fair, and honest intent. To act from evil intent, they say, is guile, which they avoid like the poison of a snake because it is diametrically opposed to innocence. Since their greatest love is to be led by the Lord, and since they ascribe everything to him, they are kept away from their self-centeredness, and to the extent that they are kept away from their self-centeredness, the Lord flows in. This is why they do not store in their memory what they hear from him, whether through the Word or through preaching, but immediately heed it, that is, intend and do it. Their intention itself is their memory. They appear extraordinarily simple in outward form, but they are wise and provident inwardly. They are the ones the Lord was referring to when he said, “Be wise as serpents and simple as doves” (Matthew 10:16). This is the nature of the innocence called the innocence of wisdom. [3] Since innocence does not take credit for anything good but ascribes it all to the Lord, and since innocence loves to be led by the Lord, giving rise to that acceptance of everything good and true that leads to wisdom, we have been so created as to be in an outward innocence when we are little, but in an inward innocence in old age, to come to the latter through the former. So when we do get old, our bodies deteriorate and we become like little children again — but like wise little children or angels, for in the highest sense, a wise infant is an angel. This is why “infant” in the Word means one who is innocent, and “elderly one” means a wise person full of innocence. 1 Footnotes: 1. [Swedenborg’s footnote] Infants in the Word mean innocence: 5608; and so do nursing babies: 3183. An old person means a wise one, or abstractly, wisdom: 3183, 6523 [6524?]. We have been so created as to become like infants as we approach old age, but with wisdom in our innocence. This is so that we may cross over into heaven in this state and become angels: 3183, 5608. The Lord is the Lamb HH 282. Since innocence, for heaven’s angels, is the very essence of what is good, we can see that the divine good emanating from the Lord is innocence itself, inasmuch as it is this good that flows into angels, moves their deepest natures, and aligns and adapts them to accept all the blessings of heaven. Much the same happens with infants, whose deeper natures are not only formed by the passage of innocence from the Lord but are also constantly adapted and aligned to accept the good of heavenly love, because the good of innocence acts from deep within, being, as already noted, the very essence of all good. This shows that all innocence is from the Lord, which is why the Lord is called the Lamb in the Word, since a lamb means innocence. 1 Because innocence is the very heart of all the good of heaven, it also affects minds so strongly that people who feel it — which happens at the approach of an angel of the inmost heaven — feel as though they are not under their own control. They are moved by such a joy, so taken out of themselves, so to speak, that it seems as though all the pleasure of the world is nothing by comparison. I speak of this from having experienced it. Footnotes: 1. [Swedenborg’s footnote] A lamb in the Word means innocence and the good it does: 3994, 10132. Third Round posts are short audio clips taken from Round 3 comments in the online Logopraxis Life Group meetings. The aim is to maintain focus on understanding the Text’s application to the inner life while reinforcing key LP principles highlighted in the exchanges.

3927. And Rachel said, With the wrestlings of God have I wrestled with my sister, and I have prevailed. That this signifies in the supreme sense own power; in the internal sense, temptation in which there is victory; and in the external sense, resistance by the natural man, is evident from the signification of the “wrestlings of God” and of “wrestling,” as being temptations; for temptations are nothing else than wrestlings of the internal man with the external, or of the spiritual man with the natural; for each desires to rule, and when dominion is in question, combat arises, which is here called “wrestling.” That “to prevail” is to overcome, is evident without explication…. [3] That in the internal sense the “wrestlings of God” and “prevailing” denote the temptations in which man conquers, is evident from what has been said just above. But that in the external sense there is signified resistance by the natural man is because all temptation is nothing else; for as before said in spiritual temptations there is dispute about dominion, as to which shall have the supremacy, the internal man or the external; or what is the same, the spiritual man or the natural, for these are opposed to each other (n. 3913). For when man is in temptations, his internal or spiritual man is ruled by the Lord through angels; but his external or natural man through infernal spirits; and the combat between them is that which is perceived by the man as temptation. When a man is such in faith and life that he can be regenerated, he will conquer in temptations; but when he is such that he cannot be regenerated, he yields in temptations. That there is resistance by the natural man, is signified by its being said that she “wrestled with her sister;” for by “Leah,” who is here the “sister,” is signified the affection of the external man; but by “Rachel,” the affection of the internal man (n. 3793, 3819). AC 3928…The external man is indeed such that of itself it lusts for nothing else than corporeal and worldly things, these being the delights of its life. But the internal man, when it is opened toward heaven and desires the things of heaven, such as it is with those who can be regenerated, then finds heavenly delight in these things, and while the man is in temptations there is a combat between these two kinds of delight. This the man does not then know, because he does not know what heavenly delight is, and what infernal delight is; and still less that they are so entirely opposed to each other. But the celestial angels cannot possibly be with man in his corporeal and worldly delight until this delight has been reduced to subservience, so that the corporeal and worldly delight is no longer sought as the end; but for the sake of the use of serving the heavenly delight (as s hown above, n. 3913). When this has been effected, the angels can be with the man in both; but in this case his delight becomes bliss, and finally happiness in the other life. [2] He who believes that before regeneration the delight of his natural man is not infernal, and that it is not possessed by diabolical spirits, is much mistaken, and does not know how the case is with man, namely, that before regeneration he is possessed as to his natural man by genii and infernal spirits, however much he may appear to himself to be like any other man; and even though he may be with others in what is holy, and may reason about the truths and goods of faith, and may indeed believe himself to be confirmed in them; yet if he does not perceive in himself anything of the affection of what is just and equitable in his employment, and of truth and good in company and in life, let him know that his delight is that of the infernals, for there is no other love in it than that of self and the world; and when this love makes his delight, there is in it no charity and no faith. After this delight has become dominant, it is deadened and dissipated by no other means than the affirmation and acknowledgment of the holy of faith and of the good of life… When things move to the periphery Divine Providence 79. We say that what a person does in freedom in accordance with his thought also remains. For nothing whatever that a person has attached to himself can be eradicated, as it has been made part of his love and at the same time of his reason, or of his will and at the same time of his intellect, and so part of his life. This can indeed be moved aside, but still it cannot be cast out. And when it is moved aside, it is transferred as though from the center to the peripheries, and there stays. This is what we mean by its remaining. [2] So, for example, if a person in his childhood and youth attached to himself some evil by doing it out of a delight of his love — if, for instance, he defrauded, blasphemed, took revenge, or behaved licentiously — then because he did these things in freedom in accordance with his thought, he also attached them to him. But if he afterward repents, refrains from them, and views them as sins to be shunned, and so in freedom in accordance with his reason desists from them, then he has attached to him the goods of which those evils were the opposite. These goods then form the center, and they move the evils toward the peripheries, moving them further and further according to the person’s aversion to and rejection of them. But still they cannot be so cast out as to be said to be eradicated. Nevertheless, by their being moved aside they can appear as though eradicated. This is achieved by the person’s being withheld from evils by the Lord and kept engaged in goods. Such is the case with all hereditary evil and likewise with all a person’s actual evil. [3] I have also seen this attested by my experience with some people in heaven who, because they were kept by the Lord in a state of good, thought themselves to be without any evils. But to prevent them from believing that the state of good in which they were was their own, they were sent down from heaven and conveyed back into their evils, until they acknowledged that they were of themselves impelled by evils, but by the Lord were impelled by goods. And after that acknowledgment they were taken back into heaven. [4] Be it known, therefore, that these goods become attached to a person only in such a way as to be constantly the Lord’s in the person, and that to the extent a person acknowledges this, the Lord grants that the good appear to the person to be his, that is to say, that it appear to the person that he loves his neighbor or has charity as though of himself, that he believes or has faith as though of himself, and that he does good and understands truth, thus is wise, as though of himself. An enlightened person can see from this the nature and force of the appearance in which the Lord wills a person to be. And the Lord wills it for the sake of the person’s salvation, as no one can be saved without this appearance. Third Round posts are short audio clips taken from Round 3 comments in the online Logopraxis Life Group meetings. The aim is to maintain focus on understanding the Text’s application to the inner life while reinforcing key LP principles highlighted in the exchanges.

Arcana Coelestia 3218. When angels are stirred by affections and at the same time are discussing these, such things manifest themselves among spirits in the lower sphere as representative types of animals. When the discussion concerns good affections, beautiful, gentle, and useful animals emerge such as those used in sacrifices in the Divine representative worship within the Jewish Church — such as lambs, sheep, kids, she-goats, rams, he-goats, calves, young bulls, and oxen. And whatever is seen at any time on the animal represents some mental image in the angels’ thought, which upright spirits are also allowed to perceive. From this one may see what was meant by the animals in the religious observances of the Jewish Church, and what by the same animals when mentioned in the Word, namely affections, 1823, 2179, 2180. But when angels’ discussion is about evil affections it is represented by offensive, vicious creatures serving no use, such as tigers, bears, wolves, scorpions, serpents, rats, and so on, even as such affections are also meant by these in the Word. Spiritual Experiences 716. Moreover, they who even attempt to gain entry into heaven under a shining white, angelic appearance, are turned at once into animal shapes befitting the disposition of each one. These were likewise shown to me. For the lower mind, or attitudes, or the passions, are pictured in the heaven of spirits by animals, even though they are nothing but passions and their varieties, thus shaped. So some vaguely appeared to me as birds, some as animals — but I was surprised that they were white. This happened to show that they wanted to counterfeit a shining white angel. 1748, 10 February. AC 1379… when spirits walk or are removed and advance from one place to another — occurrences witnessed very frequently — nothing else than changes of state are taking place. That is, such changes appear in the world of spirits as changes of place, but in heaven as changes of state. The same applies to many other things that are representative and present themselves visually there.  AC 5573. A certain spirit was once present, but was invisible over my head. I was led to perceive his presence from a stench of burnt horn or bone and from stinking teeth. After that a large crowd looking like a cloud appeared on the scene, coming up from below towards a higher position behind my back. These too were invisible; and they came to a halt above my head. I assumed that their invisibility was due to their own cleverness. I was told however that where the spiritual sphere obtained they were not visible, but where the natural sphere did so they were visible. They were therefore called ‘the invisible natural ones’. Regarding those spirits let me record first the disclosure that they endeavoured in a most zealous, cunning, and skillful manner to prevent any exposure at all of themselves. Having this end in view they also knew how to take away from other people the ideas they possessed and to replace these with different ones with which they prevented their own disclosure. Their endeavour to do this lasted for quite a long time. From all this I was led to see that during their lifetime those spirits had been the kind of people who did not want any of their actions or thought to be exposed, which they achieved by assuming a different countenance and a different manner of speaking. Nevertheless they had not employed any kind of pretence so as to lie and deceive. Third Round posts are short audio clips taken from Round 3 comments in the online Logopraxis Life Group meetings. The aim is to maintain focus on understanding the Text’s application to the inner life while reinforcing key LP principles highlighted in the exchanges.

Divine Truth versus our finite understanding of truth True Christian Religion 350. [a] The truths of faith can be multiplied to infinity. This is clear from the wisdom of the angels of heaven, which grows forever. In fact, the angels say that there is never an end to wisdom. Wisdom has no other source except divine truths that have been analytically divided into forms by means of light flowing in from the Lord. Human intelligence that is truly intelligent has the same source. Divine truth can be multiplied to infinity because the Lord is divine truth itself, or truth in its infinity. He attracts all people toward himself, but because they are finite, angels and people are unable to follow that current of attraction except to a limited extent. The force of attraction toward infinity persists all the same. Divine Providence 52. (2) The infinite and eternal in itself cannot but regard something infinite and eternal from itself in finite things. By the infinite and eternal in itself we mean the Divine itself, as we just showed in the preceding discussion. By finite things we means all things created by the Divine, and especially people, spirits, and angels. And to regard something infinite and eternal from itself is to regard something Divine, that is to say, itself, in them, as a person does an image of himself in a mirror.  The existence of such an image of the Divine is something we showed several times in the treatise Divine Love and Wisdom, especially where we demonstrated that the created universe has in it an image of the human being, and that the image is an image of the infinite and eternal, Divine Love and Wisdom 317-318, thus an image of God the Creator, which is to say, of the Lord from eternity.  One must know, however, that the Divine in itself exists in the Lord, while the Divine from itself is the Divinity present from the Lord in created things. DP 53. But for this to be more fully understood, we need to illustrate it:  The Divine cannot regard anything other than the Divine, and it cannot regard this anywhere else than in things created by it. The reality of this is plain from the fact that no one can regard another except from the standpoint of some quality that he has in himself. One who loves another regards him from the standpoint of the love that he has in himself. One who is wise regards another from the standpoint of the wisdom that he has in himself. He may indeed see that the other either does or does not love him, or that the other either is or is not wise, but this he sees from the love and wisdom in himself. Consequently he conjoins himself to the other in the measure that the other loves him as he loves the other, or in the measure that the other is wise as he himself is wise, for this is what unites them. [2] It is the same with the Divine in itself, for the Divine in itself cannot regard itself from the standpoint of another, as from the standpoint of a person, spirit, or angel. For these have in them nothing of the Divine in itself from which all else springs; and to regard the Divine from the standpoint of another who has in him nothing of the Divine would be to regard the Divine from an absence of the Divine, which is not possible.  It is because of this that the Lord is so conjoined with a person, spirit, and angel that everything relating to the Divine comes not from them but from the Lord. For people know that every good and every truth that a person possesses originates not from him but from the Lord — indeed, that one cannot even name the Lord, or speak His names “Jesus” and “Christ,” without doing so from Him.  [3] It follows now from this that the infinite and eternal, which is the same as the Divine, regards all things infinitely in things finite, and that it conjoins itself with them to the degree of their reception of love and wisdom.  In short, it is possible for the Lord to have an abode and dwell in a person or angel only in something His own, and not in something native to them; for their native character is evil, and even if it were good, still it would be finite, which in and of itself cannot encompass the infinite.  It is apparent from this that it is never possible for someone finite to regard the infinite, but that it is possible for the infinite being to regard something infinite from itself in finite beings. AC 7984 … Vastation is deprivation. That the evil who had been of the church were vastated as to all good and truth, has already been shown; for the successive degrees of vastation were signified by the plagues in Egypt. But the good are vastated as to evil and falsity; with them these are successively separated, that is, rejected to the sides, and goods and truth are brought together toward the midst. This collecting together of good and truth is meant by “remains;” and when they have a full state of remains, they are then raised into heaven. This state is that which is signified by “thirty,” and the vastation by “four hundred.” The vastation of evil and falsity, and the instilling of good and truth, with the good, are effected by means of infestations, and by means of temptations. By the one, falsities and evils are removed; and by the other, goods and truths, are put on; and this even until the state becomes full. [3] It must also be told briefly what a full state is. Everyone, whether damned or saved, has a certain measure which is capable of being filled. The evil, or they who are damned, have a certain measure of evil and falsity; and the good, or they who are saved, have a certain measure of good and truth. In the other life this measure is filled with everyone; but some have a greater measure, some a less. This measure is acquired in the world by means of the affections which are of the love. The more anyone has loved evil and the derivative falsity, the greater is the measure he has gained for himself; and the more anyone has loved good and the derivative truth, the greater is his measure. The limits and degrees of the extensions of this measure are clearly seen in the other life, and cannot there be surmounted, but they can be filled, and also actually are filled, namely, with goods and truths in the case of those who have been in the affection of good and truth, and with evils and falsities in the case of those who have been in the affection of evil and falsity. Hence it is evident that this measure is the faculty gained in the world for receiving either evil and falsity, or good and truth. Instruction through truths AC 7957… For the spiritual church is distinguished from the celestial church in this, that through truth which is of faith it is introduced into the good which is of charity, thus that it has truth for its essential. The initiation is effected through truth, for through truth they are instructed what must be done, and when they do this truth, it is called good. From this good, when they have been initiated, they afterward see truths, according to which they again act. From this it is evident that whether you say “those who are of the spiritual church,” or “those who are in truth through which is good, and in truth which is from good,” it is the same. AC 7990. They are said to be in spiritual captivity who as to their interiors are kept by the Lord in good and truth, but as to their exteriors are kept by hell in evil and falsity, whence there is a combat of the external man with the internal. In this state are those kept who are being infested; and then the Lord by influx through the interiors fights for them against the afflux of evil and falsity from the hells. They are then kept as it were captive, for through influx from the Lord they desire to be in good and truth, but through the afflux from the hells they seem to themselves not to be able. This combat takes place to the end that the external man may be reduced to obedience to the internal, and thus natural things be made subordinate to spiritual things. Third Round posts are short audio clips taken from Round 3 comments in the online Logopraxis Life Group meetings. The aim is to maintain focus on understanding the Text’s application to the inner life while reinforcing key LP principles highlighted in the exchanges.

AC 7977. With those who are of the spiritual church all good is acquired by means of truth, because without the truth which is of faith they do not know what spiritual truth is, nor what spiritual good is. They are indeed capable of knowing civil truth, also moral truth, and their goods, because they are concordant with things which are in the world, whence also they have a perception of these truths and goods. But spiritual truth and its good are not concordant with those things which are in the world, and in many cases are even quite at variance with them, and therefore those of the spiritual church have to be instructed about them. These things have been said to show that with those who are of the spiritual church all good must be acquired by means of truth.  AC 7975. For with those who are of the spiritual church the case is this. They have genuine goods and truths, and they have goods and truths not genuine; for the man of the spiritual church has no perception of good and truth, but acknowledges and believes as good and truth that which the doctrinal things of his church teach. For this reason he is in very many truths not genuine, consequently also in like goods, for goods have their quality from truths. That the spiritual are in very many truths not genuine, see n. 2708, 2715, 2718, 2831, 2849, 2935, 2937, 3240, 3241, 3246, 3833, 4402, 4788, 5113, 6289, 6500, 6639, 6865, 6945, 7233; and that consequently they have truths not pure (n. 6427). But still they are kept by the Lord in goods in the highest degree genuine, which is effected by means of an influx through the interiors (n. 6499), and then the truths and goods not genuine are separated thence and rejected to the sides. These are the things which are signified by “a very great mixed multitude.” AC 7966(2). These are the two states in which they who are of the spiritual church, when in good, are kept by the Lord-the first, that from the good which is of the will they see and think truth; the second, that from this marriage of good and truth they produce truths, which by willing them and doing them, again become goods, and so on continually. Such are the productions and derivations of truth with those who are of the spiritual church. In the spiritual world this is presented representatively as a tree with leaves and fruits; the leaves there are truths; the fruits are the goods of truth; the seeds are the goods themselves, from which are the rest. AC 7990. They are said to be in spiritual captivity who as to their interiors are kept by the Lord in good and truth, but as to their exteriors are kept by hell in evil and falsity, whence there is a combat of the external man with the internal. In this state are those kept who are being infested; and then the Lord by influx through the interiors fights for them against the afflux of evil and falsity from the hells. They are then kept as it were captive, for through influx from the Lord they desire to be in good and truth, but through the afflux from the hells they seem to themselves not to be able. This combat takes place to the end that the external man may be reduced to obedience to the internal, and thus natural things be made subordinate to spiritual things. Third Round posts are short audio clips taken from Round 3 comments in the online Logopraxis Life Group meetings. The aim is to maintain focus on understanding the Text’s application to the inner life while reinforcing key LP principles highlighted in the exchanges.

Arcana Coelestia 3394[2] Settling or dwelling means existing and living, so it means a state, and many passages in the Word clarify this. In David, for instance: I will dwell in Jehovah’s house to a great length of days. (Psalms 23:6) One thing have I asked of Jehovah; this I will seek: May I dwell in Jehovah’s house all the days of my life! (Psalms 27:4) Someone working deceit will not dwell in the middle of my house. (Psalms 101:7) Dwelling in Jehovah’s house stands for existing and living in the goodness that love inspires, because a loving goodness is Jehovah’s house. Arcana Colestia 7923. And no one of you shall go out of the door of his house. That this signifies that they shall abide steadfast in good, which must not be regarded from truth, is evident from the signification of “not going out,” as being to abide steadfast; and from the signification of “house,” as being good (n. 2233, 2234, 2559, 3652, 3720, 7833-7835, 7848). From this it is evident that by “no one of you shall go out of the door of his house” is signified that they shall abide steadfast in good. The reason why it signified that good must not be regarded from truth, is because to “abide in the house” denotes to abide in good; but to “go out of the door of the house” denotes to go from good to truth; for good is within, but truth without (n. 7910). (What it is to look from good to truths, see n. 5895, 5897, 7857.) From truth to look to good is to look from what is external to what is internal but from good to look to truth is to look from what is internal to what is external; for, as just said, good is interior, and truth exterior. From good to look to truth is according to order, for all Divine influx is through interiors to exteriors; whereas from truth to look to good is not according to order; and therefore when a man is being regenerated, the order is inverted, and good or charity is regarded in the first place, and truth or faith in the second. Removing what is leavened Seven days leaven shall not be found in your houses; for whosoever eateth that which is leavened, even that soul shall be cut off from the assemblage of Israel, in the sojourner, and in the native of the land. Ye shall eat nothing leavened; in all your dwellings ye shall eat things unleavened. And Moses called all the elders of Israel, and said unto them, Draw ye forth, and take you an animal of the flock according to your families, and kill ye the passover. Exodus 12: 19-21 Third Round posts are short audio clips taken from Round 3 comments in the online Logopraxis Life Group meetings. The aim is to maintain focus on understanding the Text’s application to the inner life while reinforcing key LP principles highlighted in the exchanges.

Arcana Coelestia 7914… the good of innocence, which is the good of love to the Lord, is not received by the man of the spiritual church unless he compels himself; because it can with difficulty be believed by him that the Lord is the only God, and also that His Human is Divine; and therefore as he is not in faith, neither can be in love to Him, consequently not in the good of innocence, unless he compels himself.  Divine Providence 150. 6. Our outer self has to be reformed by means of our inner self, and not the reverse. “The inner and outer self” means the same thing as “our inner and outer thought processes,” already discussed in a number of places [103-111, 120, 130, 139, 145]. The reason the outer has to be reformed by means of the inner is that the inner flows into the outer, and not the reverse. The scholarly world recognizes that there is a flow of spirit into matter, and not the reverse; and the church recognizes that the inner self needs to be cleansed and renewed first, and then the outer. This is recognized because the Lord and reason both say so. The Lord says it this way: Woe to you hypocrites, because you cleanse the outside of the cup and the platter while the insides are full of plunder and excess. Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and the platter, and then the outside will be clean as well. (Matthew 23:25-26) [2] In Divine Love and Wisdom I have presented ample evidence that reason teaches this. In fact, whatever the Lord teaches, he enables us to perceive rationally. This happens in two ways. One is by our seeing its truth within ourselves as soon as we hear it; the second is understanding it through rational analysis. Seeing it in ourselves happens in our inner self, and seeing it rationally happens in our outer self. Can anyone fail to see within, on first hearing, that the inner self needs to be cleansed first and the outer self cleansed by means of it? However, if we have not accepted some general image of this from the inflow from heaven, we can go wildly astray when we rely on our outer thought processes. They show us simply that outward actions, deeds of charity and piety, bring us salvation apart from deeper values. In the same vein, they tell us that sight and hearing flow into our thought, that smell and taste flow into our perception — that is, that the outside flows into the inside — when the opposite is true. It is an illusion that sight and hearing are flowing into our thought, because it is our intelligence that is seeing through our eyes and hearing through our ears, not the reverse. The same holds true for the other senses. Doctrine of Sacred Scripture 40. To a considerable extent, the truths of the literal meaning of the Word are not bare truths but are semblances of truth; like similes and comparisons, they are drawn from the kinds of things that are in the physical world and are therefore adapted and fitted to the comprehension of uneducated people and children. Since they are correspondences, though, they are receptacles and dwelling places for genuine truth, like containers that gather in and hold something the way a crystal goblet holds a fine wine, or a silver plate holds gourmet food. They are like garments that serve as clothing, whether swaddling clothes for babies or attractive dresses for young women. They are also like the information in the earthly mind that comprehends within itself the perceptions of the spiritual self and its affection for truth. The actual bare truths that are gathered in, contained, clothed, and comprehended are in the Word’s spiritual meaning; and the bare goodness is in its heavenly meaning. [2] However, this needs illustrations from the Word. Jesus said, Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, because you cleanse the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of extortion and excess. Blind Pharisee, cleanse the inside of the cup and the plate first, so that the outside of them may be clean as well. (Matthew 23:25-26) The Lord said this using terms from the outermost level, which serve as containers. He said “the cup and the plate”- the cup meaning wine and the wine meaning the truth contained in the Word, the plate meaning food and the food meaning the goodness contained in the Word. Cleansing the inside of the cup and the plate means purifying what lies within us, matters of our will and thought and therefore of our love and faith, by means of the Word. The outside becoming clean by cleansing the inside means the consequent purification of our outer selves — our actions and speech, that is, since these have their essence from what lies within. Third Round posts are short audio clips taken from Round 3 comments in the online Logopraxis Life Group meetings. The aim is to maintain focus on understanding the Text’s application to the inner life while reinforcing key LP principles highlighted in the exchanges.

Arcana Coelestia 7914. ‘Draw out’ means that they should compel themselves. This is clear from the meaning of ‘drawing out’, when used in reference to the good of innocence which those belonging to the spiritual Church are to receive, as compelling themselves. The good of innocence, which is the good of love to the Lord, is not received by one who belongs to the spiritual Church unless he exercises self-compulsion; for the belief that the Lord is the only God, and also that His Human is Divine, does not come easily to him. Therefore, since he is short of faith, no love to Him, or consequently any good of innocence, can be present in him unless he exercises self-compulsion. The fact that a person ought to exercise self-compulsion, and that when he does he is in freedom but not when subject to compulsion from without, see 1937, 1947. This is what is meant by ‘draw out’, that is to say, the Passover animal. Drawing out that animal, it is self-evident, holds an arcanum within it that is not perceptible in the sense of the letter. AC 7939. ‘because He passed by the houses of Israel’ means that damnation would stay away from the forms of good in which they were maintained by the Lord. This is clear from the meaning of ‘Jehovah will pass by’ as the fact that damnation will stay away from there, as above in 7878, 7928; from the meaning of ‘the houses’ as forms of good, dealt with in 3652, 3720, 4982, 7833-7835; and from the representation of ‘Israel’ as those who belong to the spiritual Church, dealt with often. The reason for saying that they were maintained in forms of good by the Lord is that when they passed through places of damnation or the hells, which happened when they were delivered, they were maintained in good by the Lord. To this end they were made ready, and the process by which they were made ready is described by the statutes regarding the blood, the Passover lamb, and the eating of it, which are the subject in verses 3-11, 15-20, 22, 43-48 of this chapter. The fact that when they were delivered they passed through places of damnation or the hells will be seen below. Third Round posts are short audio clips taken from Round 3 comments in the online Logopraxis Life Group meetings. The aim is to maintain focus on understanding the Text’s application to the inner life while reinforcing key LP principles highlighted in the exchanges.

And I will pass through the land of Egypt in that night, and I will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from man and even unto beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will do judgments; I am Jehovah.  Exodus 12:12 Arcana Coelestia 7873 And on all the gods of Egypt I will do judgments. That this signifies their falsities, which are to be damned, is evident from the signification of “gods,” as being falsities (of which presently); and from the signification of “doing judgments,” as being to be damned; for to judge, or do judgments, is either for life or for death; for life it denotes salvation, for death it denotes damnation. In the Word “gods” are often mentioned. When the angels are so called, truths are signified (see n. 4295, 4402, 7268); hence in the opposite sense by “the gods of the nations,” are signified falsities (n. 4402, 4544). That truths are called “gods” is because truth proceeds from the Divine Itself, and in itself is Divine; consequently they who receive it are called “gods”-not that they are gods, but that the truth which is with them is Divine. Hence it is that in the original tongue God is called “Elohim,” in the plural. The Divine Itself is the Divine good, but that which proceeds from it is the Divine truth, which fills the universal heaven. As then “god” denotes truth, therefore in the opposite sense it denotes falsity. Gods = Powers https://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Lexicon.show/ID/G1411/dunamis.htm Repentance = Metaniona https://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Lexicon.show/ID/G3341/metanoia.htm Third Round posts are short audio clips taken from Round 3 comments in the online Logopraxis Life Group meetings. The aim is to maintain focus on understanding the Text’s application to the inner life while reinforcing key LP principles highlighted in the exchanges.

And Jehovah said unto Moses and Aaron, This is the statute of the passover; no son of an alien shall eat of it. And every man’s servant that is bought with silver, when thou hast circumcised him, then shall he eat of it. A lodger and a hireling shall not eat of it. In one house shall it be eaten; thou shalt not bring out of the flesh abroad from the house; and ye shall not break a bone thereof. All the assemblage of Israel shall perform it. And when a sojourner shall sojourn with thee, and performeth the passover to Jehovah, every male of his shall be circumcised, and then let him come near to perform it; and he shall be as a native of the land; and no uncircumcised person shall eat of it. One law shall there be for the native, and for the sojourner that sojourneth in the midst of you. And all the sons of Israel did as Jehovah commanded Moses and Aaron, so did they. And it was in this same day that Jehovah led forth the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their armies. Exodus 12: 43-51 Arcana Coelestia 8028. From this it could be seen how the case is with the order in heaven, and from this in the world; namely that when angels are about to come, a spirit is sent before to prepare the way, and that he excites fear, and gives admonition to receive the angels courteously; and that he interrupts; also that at first he does not understand what the angels speak, but afterward when he has been reduced to a better state he understands; in a word, that he is continually at hand, and prepares the lower mind, and endeavors to avert things unworthy. In regard to this there occurred to me a thought about John the Baptist, that it was according to the order of heaven for him to be sent before and announce the coming of the Lord, and that he should prepare the way that He might be worthily received, according to what is written in Matt. 3:3; Luke 1:17; 3:4; John 1:23. AC 7822. The Contents. The subject treated of in this chapter in the internal sense is the liberation of those who are of the spiritual church, and the damnation of those who are in faith separate from charity. The damnation of these latter and the liberation of the former are represented by the passover, and the states in respect to charity and faith of those who are liberated, by the things to be observed on the days of the passover. 7823. In the supreme sense by the passover is represented the damnation of the unfaithful and the liberation of the faithful by the Lord, when He had been glorified. The quality of the state of the faithful at that time, and also what its quality would be afterward, both in the universal and in every particular, is described in this supreme sense by the statutes of the passover. Third Round posts are short audio clips taken from Round 3 comments in the online Logopraxis Life Group meetings. The aim is to maintain focus on understanding the Text’s application to the inner life while reinforcing key LP principles highlighted in the exchanges.

And Jehovah said unto Moses and Aaron, This is the statute of the passover; no son of an alien shall eat of it. And every man’s servant that is bought with silver, when thou hast circumcised him, then shall he eat of it. A lodger and a hireling shall not eat of it. In one house shall it be eaten; thou shalt not bring out of the flesh abroad from the house; and ye shall not break a bone thereof. All the assemblage of Israel shall perform it. And when a sojourner shall sojourn with thee, and performeth the passover to Jehovah, every male of his shall be circumcised, and then let him come near to perform it; and he shall be as a native of the land; and no uncircumcised person shall eat of it. One law shall there be for the native, and for the sojourner that sojourneth in the midst of you. And all the sons of Israel did as Jehovah commanded Moses and Aaron, so did they. And it was in this same day that Jehovah led forth the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their armies. Exodus 12: 43-51 Arcana Coelestia 8028. From this it could be seen how the case is with the order in heaven, and from this in the world; namely that when angels are about to come, a spirit is sent before to prepare the way, and that he excites fear, and gives admonition to receive the angels courteously; and that he interrupts; also that at first he does not understand what the angels speak, but afterward when he has been reduced to a better state he understands; in a word, that he is continually at hand, and prepares the lower mind, and endeavors to avert things unworthy. In regard to this there occurred to me a thought about John the Baptist, that it was according to the order of heaven for him to be sent before and announce the coming of the Lord, and that he should prepare the way that He might be worthily received, according to what is written in Matt. 3:3; Luke 1:17; 3:4; John 1:23. AC 7822. The Contents. The subject treated of in this chapter in the internal sense is the liberation of those who are of the spiritual church, and the damnation of those who are in faith separate from charity. The damnation of these latter and the liberation of the former are represented by the passover, and the states in respect to charity and faith of those who are liberated, by the things to be observed on the days of the passover. 7823. In the supreme sense by the passover is represented the damnation of the unfaithful and the liberation of the faithful by the Lord, when He had been glorified. The quality of the state of the faithful at that time, and also what its quality would be afterward, both in the universal and in every particular, is described in this supreme sense by the statutes of the passover. Third Round posts are short audio clips taken from Round 3 comments in the online Logopraxis Life Group meetings. The aim is to maintain focus on understanding the Text’s application to the inner life while reinforcing key LP principles highlighted in the exchanges.

Transcript So it’s about the liberation of the mind from the conclusions that the love of self and the love of the world have drawn from the appearance of the senses. Like you’ll see, whenever we engage in trying to control the process or look to rationalise things so that we don’t have to face what’s really arising within and those sorts of patterns of thought and what have you…. that’s really what we need to be liberated from. So truths like ‘the Lord is the only self, the only life’, that as a truth liberates us from the belief that we have life in ourselves, that we self generate our life. So truths bring about liberation, but they have to be practiced. You can know that, but if it’s not something you’re really applying to what’s arising moment to moment in your work when you remember, then the knowledge kind of just sits there like, well, yeah, I know that. Like I’ve got that down. That’s fine. But more is required! Everything in proprium will seek to diminish the need to work because working exposes it. And what are you dealing with? Well, proprium is a construct of many spiritual communities that have an investment in things staying the same. So whenever the Word is brought to bear on something within and that touches on our sense of selfhood, those spirits become agitated. And that’s what you might experience as anxiety or depression or a lot of sort of feeling state that you might not be able to put your finger on in terms of what the cause is. Like there’s nothing really happening that warrants this – but a lot is happening. A lot is happening below our conscious awareness. And it has to do with the reorganisation of spirits that we’re associated with because that is what forms the basis for our sense of self. And those are the hells we need to walk out of and we need truths in order to do that. Now, there’s difficulty in that and there’s challenges in that for sure. And it’s not what we would normally call joy. But when we have an understanding of the process and what’s going on and why what’s going on has to happen the way that it does, then that brings a deep sense of …. would I call it joy? maybe, but certainly a sense of peace that the Lord has got it in hand. So we can have these really difficult states happening on a more external level, but we are held on a more interior level and we get to see that. We know that. We know that that is actually happening. We just have to remind ourselves of it. And in that reminding is a sense of the presence of the Lord. It’s like we look at the wonder of it, that the Word, the Text, so accurately describes the states that I’m experiencing. Like there’s a wonder in that, right? And that none of it can touch what is genuinely of the Lord within. The Lord’s not affected by it. He affects the changes that are needed so that we can come into the experience of that, which is heaven’s presence in earth. It’s the will of the Lord being done – as in heaven so upon the earth. And so the reason that there are those states where we kind of feel like that’s just not what’s happening is because the structures of the mind have to be transformed in order to hold that as a lived reality. And it’s possible. Otherwise, what’s the point? For it is actually possible – and that’s the wonder of and the miraculous nature of the Text to bring about that transformation. Third Round posts are short audio clips taken from Round 3 comments in the online Logopraxis Life Group meetings. The aim is to maintain focus on understanding the Text’s application to the inner life while reinforcing key LP principles highlighted in the exchanges.

Arcana Coelestia 2661. The Lord did not come into the world to save the celestial, but the spiritual.  On Freedom The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine 148: All freedom belongs to the love or affection; for what a man loves, he does freely, Arcana Coelestia 2870, 3158, 8987, 8990, 9585, 9591. Since freedombelongs to the love, it is the life of every one, Arcana Coelestia 2873. There is heavenly freedom and there is infernal freedom, Arcana Coelestia 2870, 2873, 2874, 9589, 9590. Heavenly freedom belongs to the love of good and truth, Arcana Coelestia 1947, 2870, 2872. And since the love of good and truth is from the Lord, freedom itself consists in being led by the Lord, Arcana Coelestia 892, 905, 2872, 2886, 2890-2892, 9096, 9586-9591. Through regeneration a man is introduced by the Lord into heavenly freedom, Arcana Coelestia 2874, 2875, 2882, 2892. A man ought to be in freedom, in order that he may be regenerated, Arcana Coelestia 1937, 1947, 2876, 2881, 3145, 3158, 4031, 8700. Otherwise the love of good and truth cannot be implanted in a man, and appropriated to him, so as to appear his own, Arcana Coelestia 2877, 2879, 2880, 2888, 8700. Nothing is conjoined to a man which is done under compulsion, Arcana Coelestia 2875, 8700. If a man could be reformed by compulsion, all would be saved, Arcana Coelestia 2881. Compulsion is hurtful in reformation, Arcana Coelestia 4031. Worship from freedom is worship, but not worship from compulsion, Arcana Coelestia 1947, 2880, 7349, 10097. Repentance ought to be practised in a free state; what is done in a state of coercion is of no avail, Arcana Coelestia 8392. What states of coercion are, Arcana Coelestia 8392. A man is permitted to act from the freedom of reason, that good may be provided for him; and on that account he is in the freedom of thinking and willing, and even of doing evil, so far as the laws do not forbid it, Arcana Coelestia 10777. A man is kept by the Lord between heaven and hell, and thus in a state of equilibrium, that he may be in freedom for the sake of his reformation, Arcana Coelestia 5982, 6477, 8209, 8987. What is inseminated in freedom remains, but not what is inseminated under compulsion, Arcana Coelestia 9588, 10777. Wherefore freedom is never taken away from any one, Arcana Coelestia 2876, 2881. No one is compelled by the Lord, Arcana Coelestia 1937, 1948. How the Lord through freedom leads a man into good; namely, through freedom he turns the man away from evil, and inclines him to good, so gently and quietly that he does not know otherwise than that all proceeds from himself, Arcana Coelestia 9587. Compelling one’s self comes from freedom, but not being compelled, Arcana Coelestia 1937, 1947. A man ought to compel himself to resist evil, Arcana Coelestia 1937, 1947, 7914. He ought also to compel himself to do good as of himself, but still to acknowledge that it is from the Lord, Arcana Coelestia 2883, 2891, 2892, 7914. A man is in greater freedom in the temptation combats in which he conquers, because he then compels himself interiorly to resist evils, although it appears otherwise, Arcana Coelestia 1937, 1947, 2881. In every temptation there is freedom, but this freedom is with the man interiorly from the Lord; and therefore he struggles and desires to conquer, and not to be conquered, which he would not do unless he had freedom, Arcana Coelestia 1937, 1947, 2881. The Lord does this through the affection of truth and good, which is impressed on the internal man, the man himself being ignorant of it, Arcana Coelestia 5044 Arcana Coelestia 5044[1-13]. Infernal liberty consists in being led by the loves of self and of the world, and by their lusts, Arcana Coelestia 2870, 2873. Those who are in hell do not know any other freedom, Arcana Coelestia 2871. Heavenly freedom is as far removed from infernal liberty as heaven is removed from hell, Arcana Coelestia 2873, 2874. Infernal liberty in itself is bondage, Arcana Coelestia 2884, 2890. Because being led by hell is bondage, Arcana Coelestia 9586, 9589-9591. All freedom is like a man’s Self (proprium), and according to it, Arcana Coelestia 2880. Through regeneration a man receives from the Lord a heavenly Self (proprium), Arcana Coelestia 1937, 1947, 2882, 2883, 2891. The quality of the heavenly Self (proprium), Arcana Coelestia 164, 5660, 8480. This Self (proprium) appears to the man as his own Self (proprium); but it is not his, but the Lord’s with him, Arcana Coelestia 8497. Those who are in this Self (proprium), are in true freedom, because true freedom consists in being led by the Lord and by His Self (proprium), Arcana Coelestia 892, 905, 2872, 2886, 2890-2892, 4096, 9586, 9587-9591. The differences between spiritual and celestial states of mind Arcana Coelestia 10124. As has often been stated before, heaven is divided into two kingdoms, one of which is called the celestial kingdom and the other the spiritual kingdom. In both kingdoms good is implanted by means of truth; but with those who are in the spiritual kingdom good is implanted by means of truth in the understanding part of the mind, whereas with those who are in the celestial kingdom good is implanted by means of truth in the will part. The way in which the implantation of good by means of truth takes place in the spiritual kingdom is different from the way in which it does with those in the celestial kingdom. With those in the spiritual kingdom truth is implanted in the external or natural man, where at first it becomes knowledge. To the extent that the person has an affection for it, and lives in accord with it, it is then summoned into the understanding, where it becomes faith and at the same time charity towards the neighbour. This charity constitutes his new will and the faith a new understanding; and both constitute conscience. [2] But with those in the celestial kingdom truth becomes neither knowledge, nor faith, nor conscience. Instead it becomes a power to receive that is subject to the good of love; and to the extent that they live a life in accord with it, it becomes a power of perception which grows fuller and more perfect as their love does so. This goes on in them day by day without their awareness, almost as it does with young children. The reason why it goes on without their awareness is that truth does not become fixed as knowledge in the memory, nor does it linger as a concept within the power of thought; rather it passes without delay into the will and becomes part of their life. Consequently they do not see truth but perceive it; and the extent and manner of their perception is determined by how much and in what way the good of love received from and offered back to the Lord is present in them. These in the celestial kingdom therefore are very different from those in the spiritual kingdom. And since their perception of truth springs from good they never substantiate it by the use of reasons. Instead whenever truths are the subject they merely say either ‘Yes, yes’ or ‘No, no’. [3] These are the ones who are meant by the Lord in Matthew, Let your words be Yes, yes; No, no; anything beyond this is from evil  1 . Matthew 5:37. For reasoning about truths, about whether they are such or not, does not spring from good, because in that case truth is not seen with perception, only believed as a result of receiving it on authority and then corroborating it for oneself. What one believes on authority consists of other people’s ideas within one’s self and are not one’s own; and anything believed on these grounds alone and then corroborated appears after such corroboration to be the truth, even when it is false. This becomes perfectly clear from the beliefs of any religion and from the variety of religions throughout the world. From all this it is evident what the difference is between those who are in the Lord’s celestial kingdom and those who are in His spiritual kingdom. The reason for their difference is that those in His celestial kingdom by the way they live convert the Church’s truths immediately into forms of good, whereas those in the spiritual kingdom keep to truths, preferring faith to life. Those who by the way they live convert the Church’s truths immediately into good, that is, those who belong to the celestial kingdom, are described by the Lord in Mark 4:26-29, and many times elsewhere. Regarding the difference between the celestial kingdom and the spiritual kingdom, see the places referred to in 9277. AC 141. Countless things can be said about the proprium — about what the proprium is like in the case of the bodily-minded and worldly man, what it is like in the case of the spiritual man, and what in the case of the celestial man. With the bodily-minded and worldly man the proprium is his all. He is unaware of anything else but the proprium. And, as has been stated, if he were to lose his proprium he would think that he was dying. With the spiritual man the proprium takes on a similar appearance, for although he knows that the Lord is the life of all, and that He confers wisdom and intelligence, and consequently the ability to think and to act, it is more a matter of something he says and not so much something he believes. The celestial man however acknowledges that the Lord is the life of all, who confers the ability to think and act, because he perceives that this is so. Nor does he ever desire the proprium. Nevertheless even though he does not desire it the Lord grants him a proprium which is joined to him with a complete perception of what is good and true, and with complete happiness. Angels possess a proprium such as this, and at the same time utmost peace and tranquillity, for their proprium has within it things that are the Lord’s, who is governing their proprium, that is, governing them by means of their proprium. This proprium is utterly heavenly, whereas the proprium of the bodily-minded man is hellish. But more about the proprium further on. Third Round posts are short audio clips taken from Round 3 comments in the online Logopraxis Life Group meetings. The aim is to maintain focus on understanding the Text’s application to the inner life while reinforcing key LP principles highlighted in the exchanges.

Divine Love and Widsom 307. ALL USES WHICH ARE THE ENDS OF CREATION ARE IN FORMS, AND THEY TAKE FORMS FROM SUCH SUBSTANCES AND MATTERS AS ARE ON THE EARTH All the things treated of hitherto, such as the Sun, atmospheres and earths, are simply means to the ends. The ends of creation are those things which are produced by the Lord as a Sun through the atmospheres, out of the earth, and these ends are called uses. In their extent they include all things of the vegetable kingdom, all things of the animal kingdom, and finally the human race and from that, the angelic heaven. These are called uses because they are recipients of the Divine Love and Wisdom, also because they have regard to God the Creator from Whom they are, and thereby conjoin Him to His great work, and by the conjunction bring it about that, as they come into being from Him, so they continue in existence. It is said that they have regard to God the Creator from Whom they are and conjoin Him to His great work, but this is to speak according to the appearance. Indeed it is understood that God the Creator causes them to regard and conjoin themselves to Him as it were of themselves. But how they regard and thereby conjoin will be told in what follows. Something has been said before on these subjects in the appropriate places, as that the Divine Love and Wisdom must necessarily be and have existence in others created by it (47-51); that all things in the created universe are recipients of Divine Love and Wisdom (55-60); and that the uses of all created things ascend by degrees to man, and through man to God the Creator from Whom they are (65-68). DLW 410. (12) Love or the will conjoins itself to wisdom or the understanding, and causes wisdom or the understanding to be reciprocally conjoined to it. That love or the will conjoins itself to wisdom or the understanding is plain from their correspondence with the heart and lungs. Anatomical observation shows that the heart is in its life’s motion when the lungs are not yet in motion; this it shows by cases of swooning and of suffocation, also by the fetus in the womb and the chick in the egg. Anatomical observation shows also that the heart, while acting alone, forms the lungs and so adjusts them that it may carry on respiration in them; also that it so forms the other viscera and organs that it may carry on various uses in them, the organs of the face that it may have sensation, the organs of motion that it may act, and the remaining parts of the body that it may exhibit uses corresponding to the affections of love. From all this it can now for the first time be shown that as the heart produces such things for the sake of the various functions which it is afterwards to discharge in the body, so love, in its receptacle called the will, produces like things for the sake of the various affections that constitute its form, which is the human form (as was shown above). Now as the first and nearest of love’s affections are affection for knowing, affection for understanding, and affection for seeing what it knows and understands, it follows, that for these affections love forms the understanding and actually enters into them when it begins to feel and to act and to think. To this the understanding contributes nothing, as is evident from the analogy of the heart and lungs (of which above). From all this it can be seen, that love or the will conjoins itself to wisdom or the understanding, and not wisdom or the understanding to love or the will; also from this it is evident that knowledge, which love acquires to itself by the affection for knowing, and perception of truth, which it acquires by the affection for understanding, and thought which it acquires by the affection for seeing what it knows and understands, are not of the understanding but of love. Thoughts, perceptions, and knowledges therefrom, flow in, it is true, out of the spiritual world, yet they are received not by the understanding but by love, according to its affections in the understanding. It appears as if the understanding received them, and not love or the will, but this is an illusion. It appears also as if the understanding conjoined itself to love or the will, but this too, is an illusion; love or the will conjoins itself to the understanding, and causes the understanding to be reciprocally conjoined to it. This reciprocal conjunction is from love’s marriage with wisdom, wherefrom a conjunction seemingly reciprocal, from the life and consequent power of love, is effected. It is the same with the marriage of good and truth; for good is of love and truth is of the understanding. Good does everything and it receives truth into its house and conjoins itself with it so far as the truth is accordant. Good can also admit truths which are not accordant; but this it does from an affection for knowing, for understanding, and for thinking its own things, whilst it has not as yet determined itself to uses, which are its ends and are called its goods. Of reciprocal conjunction, that is, the conjunction of truth with good, there is none whatever. That truth is reciprocally conjoined is from the life belonging to good. From this it is that every man and every spirit and angel is regarded by the Lord according to his love or good, and no one according to his intellect, or his truth separate from love or good. For man’s life is his love (as was shown above), and his life is qualified according as he has exalted his affections by means of truth, that is, according as he has perfected his affections by wisdom. For the affections of love are exalted and perfected by means of truths, thus by means of wisdom. Then love acts conjointly with its wisdom, as though from it; but it acts from itself through wisdom, as through its own form, and this derives nothing whatever from the understanding, but everything from a kind of determination of love called affection.   Arcana Coelestia 7884. Ye shall keep it by an eternal statute. That this signifies the worship of the Lord according to the order of heaven on the part of those who are of the spiritual church, is evident from the signification of “an eternal statute,” as being the order of heaven (of which below); and from the signification of “keeping a feast,” as being the worship of the Lord (as just above, n. 7882); and because it is said to the sons of Israel that they should “keep it,” they are meant who are of the spiritual church. That “an eternal statute” denotes the order of heaven, is because all the statutes that were commanded to the sons of Israel were such as flowed from the order of heaven; consequently they also represented the things that are of heaven. By worship according to the order of heaven is meant all practicing of good according to the Lord’s precepts. By the worship of God at this day is chiefly meant the oral worship in a temple, both morning and evening. But the worship of God does not consist essentially in this, but in a life of uses; this latter worship is according to the order of heaven. Oral worship is also worship, but it is of no avail whatever unless there is the worship that belongs to the life; for this worship is of the heart; and oral worship, that it may be worship, must proceed from this. Third Round posts are short audio clips taken from Round 3 comments in the online Logopraxis Life Group meetings. The aim is to maintain focus on understanding the Text’s application to the inner life while reinforcing key LP principles highlighted in the exchanges.

And it came to pass at midnight, that Jehovah smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh about to sit upon his throne, even unto the firstborn of the captive that was in the house of the pit, and all the firstborn of beast. And Pharaoh rose up in that night, and all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt; because there was not a house where there was not one dead. And he called Moses and Aaron in the night, and said, Rise up, go ye out from the midst of my people, both ye and the sons of Israel; and go, serve Jehovah, according to your speaking. Also your flocks, also your herds, take ye, as ye spoke, and go, and bless me also. And Egypt was strong upon the people, hastening to send them out of the land; for they said, We are all dead. And the people carried their dough before it was leavened, their kneading troughs bound up in their clothes upon their shoulder. And the sons of Israel did according to the word of Moses; and they asked of the Egyptians vessels of silver, and vessels of gold, and garments. And Jehovah gave the people favor in the eyes of the Egyptians, and they lent to them; and they spoiled the Egyptians.  And the sons of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand on foot that were men, besides babe. And a great mixed multitude also went up with them; and flock, and herd, a very great acquisition. And they baked the dough which they brought forth out of Egypt into unleavened cakes, for it had not been leavened, because they were driven out of Egypt, and could not tarry, and moreover, they had not prepared for themselves any provision for the journey. And the dwelling of the sons of Israel which they dwelt in Egypt, was thirty years and four hundred years. And it was at the end of thirty years and four hundred years, it was even in this same day, all the armies of Jehovah went forth from the land of Egypt. A night of watches is this to Jehovah, for leading them forth from the land of Egypt; this is that night of watches to Jehovah for all the sons of Israel unto their generations.  Exodus 12: 29-42 Arcana Coelestia 7950 [2] That “the firstborn in the land of Egypt” denotes the falsified truth of faith, is because “the firstborn of Egypt” denotes faith separate from charity (n. 7948). They who are in this faith are in mere darkness and thick darkness with respect to the truths of faith; for they cannot be in any light, thus not in any perception of what truth is, and whether it is truth. For all spiritual light comes through good from the Lord, thus through charity, for the good of charity is like a flame from which is light; for good is of love, and love is spiritual fire, from which comes enlightenment. He who believes that they who are in evil can also be in enlightenment in respect to the truths of faith, is very much mistaken. They can be in a state of confirmation, that is, they may be able to confirm the doctrinal things of their church, and this sometimes with skill and ingenuity; but they cannot see whether what they confirm is true or not. (That falsity also can be confirmed even so as to appear like truth; and that it is not the part of a wise man to confirm, but to see whether the thing is so, see n. 4741, 5033, 6865, 7012, 7680) [3] He therefore who is in evil as to life is in the falsity of his evil, and does not believe the truth, however well he knows it. He sometimes supposes that he believes, but he is mistaken. That he does not believe will be granted him to know in the other life, when his perceiving is reduced into agreement with his willing. Then he will disown, hold in aversion, and reject the truth, and will acknowledge as truth that which is contrary, that is, falsity. Hence then it is that they who are in faith separate from charity cannot do otherwise than falsify the truths of faith. AC 7966. And the people carried their dough before it was leavened. That this signifies the first state of truth from good, in which there is nothing of falsity, is evident from the signification of “dough,” as being truth from good. For by “meal” and “fine flour” is signified truth; by the “dough” which is made therefrom, the good of truth; and by the “bread” which is made from the dough is signified the good of love; and when by “bread” is signified the good of love, by the other things, namely, by the “dough” and the “flour,” are signified in their order goods and truths (that “bread” denotes the good of love, see n. 276, 680, 2165, 2177, 3464, 3478, 3735, 3813, 4211, 4217, 4735, 4976, 5915); and from the signification of “before it was leavened,” as being in which there was nothing of falsity (that “leaven” denotes falsity see n. 7906). [2] That this is the first state, namely, when they are liberated, is plain, because it is said that “the people carried their dough,” that is, when they departed. But the second state is described in the following (Exodus 12:39) verse 39 (39), by “they baked the dough which they brought forth out of Egypt into unleavened cakes, for it was not leavened,” by which is signified that from the truth of good was again produced good in which there was nothing of falsity. These are the two states in which they who are of the spiritual church, when in good, are kept by the Lord-the first, that from the good which is of the will they see and think truth; the second, that from this marriage of good and truth they produce truths, which by willing them and doing them, again become goods, and so on continually. Such are the productions and derivations of truth with those who are of the spiritual church. In the spiritual world this is presented representatively as a tree with leaves and fruits; the leaves there are truths; the fruits are the goods of truth; the seeds are the goods themselves, from which are the rest. AC 7967. Their kneading troughs bound up in their clothes. That this signifies the delights of the affections, which delights adhere to the truths, is evident from the signification of “kneading troughs” as being the delights of the affections (n. 7356); from the signification of “to be bound up,” as being to adhere; and from the signification of “clothes,” as being truths (n. 1073, 2576, 4545, 4763, 5248, 5319, 5954, 6914, 6918). What the delights of the affections that adhere to truths are, must be told. All the truths that enter with man have been conjoined with some delight, for truths without delight are not of anyone’s life. From the delights that are conjoined with truths it is known how the case is in respect to the truths with a man; if they are delights of evil affections, then it is ill; but if they are delights of good affections, it is well. For the angels who are with man flow in continually with good affections, and then call forth the truths which have been conjoined with them; in like manner on the other hand, if the truths have not been conjoined with good affections, then the angels labor in vain to call forth what is of faith and charity. From all this it can be seen what is meant by the delights of the affections that adhere to truths, which is signified by the “kneading troughs being bound up in their clothes.” Third Round posts are short audio clips taken from Round 3 comments in the online Logopraxis Life Group meetings. The aim is to maintain focus on understanding the Text’s application to the inner life while reinforcing key LP principles highlighted in the exchanges.

Transcript: So the group task was to practice two-way attention and to listen to what is arising within as we listen to what is coming from without. And it’s more about, what are the thoughts and affectional states that are arising as I listen, and giving attention to what’s arising as primary, rather than to what’s being said, the words that are being spoken – the person we’re listening to. Because when someone is speaking and we are listening, we are filtering that through our own states. So we’re not really hearing them. We’re looking to hear what the Lord is saying through the contact. And that’s not necessarily the literal meaning of the words a person is speaking. So it can be, just as an example, things that people are speaking as I listen, that track back to what I’ve read in the reading in some way. That’s kind of an awareness I would hold. Like how does what I’m hearing fit with what the Lord has provided through the reading? And how is what is being expressed illustrating that? Because that’s what I see as important. I mean, people’s work is important, but it’s their work. It’s not my work. So what I have to be across is what is related to my work. And then when meeting in the group, it has to be what is for the group as a whole to hear. And it’s not like, you know for sure, that this is it, but you have to sort of cultivate a sensitivity and trust that what’s brought is what’s needed. That’s all you can do. So one way of thinking about it is like, we all really are a living question. We carry these questions deep in our hearts. When someone speaks, and I’m in a state of being attentive and wanting to hear from the Lord, it’s not about hearing them, it’s about hearing the Lord, then what is spoken enters into the questions I carry that leads my journey in this work. And then all I can share is what arises out of the questions I carry. Then there’s this remarkable thing called a dialogue that takes place. Now, proprium to proprium will never move in an agreed dialogue unless both are getting some sort of advantage from it. So the miracle is that really what’s happening is that we listen for the Lord and it is the Lord who speaks, it’s the Lord who listens and it’s the Lord who responds. And that happens when we are giving attention and willing to lay aside ourselves and allow what is rising to become manifest in the group. And that is a form of where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them. And it is also an example of holy supper because the goods and truths that are expressed are the Lord in the midst passing between people, feeding, nurturing, supporting, all of that. So that is charity in a living form. So yes, it’s Round two, but it’s come out of the work in Round one. So these elements come from Round one, from different places, different people’s work. And the process of listening in Round one provides what’s needed for Round two. And that is the, in terms of the reading, that is the lamb that is roasted and prepared for the feeding of the group. And there will be aspects of liberation that occur in that process and aspects of damnation. Because it is both – there is no innocence implanted without temptation. Third Round posts are short audio clips taken from Round 3 comments in the online Logopraxis Life Group meetings. The aim is to maintain focus on understanding the Text’s application to the inner life while reinforcing key LP principles highlighted in the exchanges.

Conjugial Love 132(5,6)… man is man from this, that man is able to will good and to understand truth wholly as if from oneself, and still to know and to believe that this knowing and believing are from God. For just as man knows and believes this, God establishes His Own image in man. It would be otherwise if man would believe that one’s knowing and believing were from oneself and not from God.” [6] With these words having been said, a Zeal from the love of truth came upon those from the Eastern seats, from which they spoke these words, “How is a man able to receive anything of love and wisdom and to retain it and to reproduce it, unless one feels it as one’s own? And how is a conjunction with God able to be given through love and wisdom unless there is given to man some reciprocal of conjunction? For without a reciprocal, no conjunction is possible, and the reciprocal of conjunction is that man loves God and is wise in those things which are of God, as if from oneself, and yet believes that this love and wisdom are from God. Divine Love and Wisdom  49. With respect to God: it is impossible for Him to love others and to be loved reciprocally by others in whom there is anything of infinity, that is, anything of the essence and life of love in itself, or anything of the Divine. For if there were beings having in them anything of infinity, that is, of the essence and life of love in itself, that is, of the Divine, it would not be God loved by others, but God loving Himself; since the Infinite, that is, the Divine, is one only, and if this were in others, Itself would be in them, and would be the love of self Itself; and of that love not the least trace can possibly be in God, since it is wholly opposed to the Divine Essence. Consequently, for this relation to be possible there must be others in whom there is nothing of the Divine in itself. Third Round posts are short audio clips taken from Round 3 comments in the online Logopraxis Life Group meetings. The aim is to maintain focus on understanding the Text’s application to the inner life while reinforcing key LP principles highlighted in the exchanges.

Arcana Coelestia 7902. Innocence consists in acknowledging that in oneself there is nothing but evil, and that all good is from the Lord; and also in believing that man does not know or perceive anything from himself, but from the Lord, thus also the truth which is of faith. When man is in this state, then falsity can be removed from him, and truth can be instilled by the Lord. This state is what is signified by the unleavened things, and also by the eating of the paschal lamb. AC 7854 Upon things bitter. That this signifies by means of the undelightful things of temptations, is evident from the signification of “bitter things” or “bitternesses” as being things undelightful, here those which belong to temptations. For the good of innocence, which is represented by the paschal lamb, cannot be appropriated to anyone except through temptations. By “unleavened bread” such good is signified, and because this is appropriated through temptations, the bread was ordered to be eaten upon bitter things; and moreover, that bread was to them bread of affliction, like the manna (Deut. 8:15, 16; 16:3), because it was devoid of leaven, that is, of any falsity from evil, for man cannot endure pure truth and pure good. That things undelightful are signified by “bitter things,” is plain in Isaiah: Woe to them that call evil good, and good evil; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! (Isa. 5:20).They shall not drink wine with a song; strong drink shall be bitter to them that drink it (Isa. 24:9).That the undelightful things of temptations are signified by “bitter things” is evident from these words in Exodus:At last they came unto Marah, but they could not drink of the waters, on account of their bitterness, because they were bitter. And the people murmured against Moses, who, when he cried unto Jehovah, Jehovah showed him wood which he cast into the waters, and the waters were made sweet. There He set for him a statute and a judgment, because there He tried him (Exod. 15:23-25).And also in John:There fell from heaven a great star, burning as a torch. The name of the star is called Wormwood, and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter (Rev. 8:10-11).In these passages “bitter waters” denote the undelightful things of temptations; the “men who died of the waters” denote those who succumbed in temptations. Third Round posts are short audio clips taken from Round 3 comments in the online Logopraxis Life Group meetings. The aim is to maintain focus on understanding the Text’s application to the inner life while reinforcing key LP principles highlighted in the exchanges.

CLICK TO PRINT READING CLICK TO GO TO COMMENTS 7993 Verses 43-49. And Jehovah said unto Moses and Aaron, This is the statute of the passover; no son of an alien shall eat of it. And every man’s servant that is bought with silver, when thou hast circumcised him, then shall he eat of it. A lodger and a hireling shall not eat of it. In one house shall it be eaten; thou shalt not bring out of the flesh abroad from the house; and ye shall not break a bone thereof. All the assemblage of Israel shall perform it. And when a sojourner shall sojourn with thee, and performeth the passover to Jehovah, every male of his shall be circumcised, and then let him come near to perform it; and he shall be as a native of the land; and no uncircumcised person shall eat of it. One law shall there be for the native, and for the sojourner that sojourneth in the midst of you. “And Jehovah said unto Moses and Aaron,” signifies information by means of truth Divine; “This is the statute of the passover,” signifies the laws of order for those who are liberated from damnation and infestations; “no son of an alien shall eat of it,” signifies that those who are not in truth and good are to be separated from them; “and every man’s servant,” signifies a man who is still natural; “that is bought with silver,” signifies who has any spiritual truth; “when thou hast circumcised him,” signifies purification from unclean loves; “then he shall eat of it,” signifies that he shall be with them; “a lodger and a hireling shall not eat of it,” signifies that they who do what is good from mere natural disposition, and those who do it for the sake of their own advantage, are not to be with them; “in one house shall it be eaten,” signifies consociations of accordant goods, that they may together make one good; “thou shalt not bring out of the flesh abroad from the house,” signifies that this good shall not be mixed together with the good of another; “and ye shall not break a bone in it,” signifies the truth of memory-knowledge, that this also must be sound; “all the assemblage of Israel shall perform it,” signifies that this law of order is for all who are in the good of truth and in the truth of good; “and when a sojourner shall sojourn with thee,” signifies those who have been instructed in the truth and good of the church, and have received them; “and performeth the passover to Jehovah,” signifies if he desires to be together with them; “every male of his shall be circumcised,” signifies that his truth must be cleansed from impure loves; “and then let him come near to perform it,” signifies that then he shall be with them; “and he shall be as a native of the land,” signifies that he shall be received as he who is in that truth and good, and has been purified from unclean loves; “and no uncircumcised person shall eat of it,” signifies that he who is in the loves of self and of the world cannot be together with them; “one law shall there be for the native, and for the sojourner that sojourneth in the midst of you,” signifies that he who on being instructed receives the truth and good of the church, and lives according to them, shall be as he who, being already instructed, is within the church, and lives a life in agreement with the precepts of faith and of charity. 7994 And Jehovah said unto Moses and Aaron. That this signifies information by means of truth Divine, is evident from the signification of “Jehovah said,” when the statutes of the church are treated of, as being information or instruction (see n. 7186, 7267, 7304, 7380, 7517, 7769, 7793, 7825); and from the representation of Moses and Aaron, as being truth Divine; Moses internal, and Aaron external (n. 7009, 7010, 7089, 7382). 7995 This is the statute of the passover. That this signifies the laws of order for those who are liberated from damnation and infestations, is evident from the signification of a “statute,” as being that which is from order (of which below); and from the signification of “the passover,” as being the presence of the Lord and liberation from damnation (see n. 7093e, 7867). As regards that which is of order, which is signified by “statute,” be it known that all the statutes commanded to the sons of Israel were laws of order in the external form, but those things which they represented and signified were laws of order in the internal form. Laws of order are truths which are from good; the complex of all the laws of order is the Divine truth proceeding from the Divine good of the Lord. From this it is evident that the Divine Itself of the Lord in heaven is order, the Divine good the essential of order, and the Divine truth its formal. 7996 No son of an alien shall eat of it. That this signifies that those who are not in truth and good are to be separated from them, is evident from the signification of “an alien,” as being those out of the church who do not acknowledge anything of the truth and good of faith, as was the case with the nations in the land of Canaan (see n. 2049, 2115), thus who are not in truth and good; and from the signification of “not eating of it,” as being to communicate and be conjoined with them, thus to be separated from them. In what now follows those are treated of who should eat the passover together, and those who should not. The supper of the passover represented the consociations of the good in heaven; and in the statutes which follow, it is declared who could be consociated and who could not. In general, feasts, both dinners and suppers, in ancient times were made within the church in order that they might be consociated and conjoined as to love, and that they might instruct one another in those things which are of love and faith, thus in the things of heaven (see n. 3596, 3832, 5161). Such at that time were the delights attending their banquets, and such was the end for the sake of which were their dinners and suppers. Thus the mind and the body also were nourished unanimously and correspondently; and from this they had health and long life, and from it they had intelligence and wisdom; and also from this they had communication with heaven, and some had open communication with angels. But as in course of time all internal things vanish away and pass into external ones, so also did the purposes of the feasts and banquets, which at this day are not for the sake of any spiritual conjunction, but for the sake of worldly conjunctions, namely, for the sake of gain, for the sake of the pursuit of honors, and for the sake of pleasures, from which there is nourishment of the body, but none of the mind. 7997 That the paschal supper represented the consociations of angels in the heavens in respect to goods and truths, see above (n. 7836, 7996); and because it represented these, it was ordained that not only every house by itself should then be together and eat, but also that no others should be consociated except those who represent the conjunction of love such as is that of the heavenly societies, and thus that the rest were to be separated. They who are to be separated were the aliens, for by them were signified those who are not in the good and truth of the church; also the lodgers and hirelings, because by these were represented those who from mere natural disposition, and those who for the sake of gain, did good and truth, and made a boast of them. Neither the latter nor the former can be consociated with the angels in the heavens; but when they are allowed to wander about, as is the case when they first come into the other life, before they undergo vastations of good and truth, then when they come toward any angelic society and feel the sphere of sanctity from the truth of the good of innocence which is signified by the blood of the paschal lamb (n. 7846, 7877), they cannot approach, but forthwith flee away because of fear and aversion. 7998 And every man’s servant. That this signifies a man who is still natural, is evident from the signification of “servant,” as being what is natural (see n. 3019, 3020, 3191, 3192, 3204, 3206, 3209, 5305), thus the natural man. The natural man is called a “servant” because it was made to minister to the spiritual man, and also to obey it, as a servant his lord. 7999 That is bought with silver. That this signifies who has any spiritual truth, is evident from the signification of “buying,” as being acquisition and appropriation (see n. 4397, 4487, 5374, 5397, 5406, 5410, 5426); and from the signification of “silver,” as being truth (n. 1551, 2954, 5658), here spiritual truth, because the servant that is bought is in the internal sense the natural man, and therefore the lord who buys is the spiritual man. How this is cannot be known unless it is known how the spiritual buys for itself-that is, acquires and appropriates-the natural. When man is being regenerated, his internal and external, that is, the spiritual and the natural, at first are at variance, for the spiritual wills what is of heaven, but the natural what is of the world. But the spiritual then continually inflows into the natural and brings it into agreement; this is effected by means of truth; and what the spiritual brings to itself in the natural is called “bought with silver,” that is, acquired and appropriated by means of truth. 8000 When thou hast circumcised him. That this signifies purification from unclean loves, is evident from the signification of “to be circumcised,” as being purification from the loves of self and of the world, thus from unclean loves (see n. 2039, 2056, 2632, 3412, 3413, 3462, 7045). 8001 Then shall he eat of it. That this signifies that he shall be with them, is evident from the signification of “eating,” that is, the paschal lamb, together with the rest, as being to communicate and be conjoined (see n. 2187, 5643). For as before said (n. 7836, 7850, 7996, 7997), the paschal supper represented the angelic consociations in respect to goods and truths; and by the statutes concerning aliens, servants, lodgers, hirelings, and sojourners, who are here treated of, is declared in the internal sense who could be consociated, and who could not. Hence it is that by “eating” is signified to be with them, or to be consociated; and by “not eating,” not to be with them, or to be separated. 8002 A lodger and a hired servant shall not eat of it. That this signifies that they who do what is good from mere natural disposition, and those who do it for the sake of their own advantage, are not to be with them, is evident from the signification of “a lodger,” as being those who do what is good from mere natural disposition (of which below); from the signification of “a hireling,” as being those who do what is good for the sake of their own advantage (of which also below); and from the signification of “not to eat of it,” as being not to be with them (of which just above, n. 8001). That a “lodger” denotes what is good from mere natural disposition, is because lodgers were those who came from other peoples, and were inhabitants, and dwelt with the Israelites and the Jews in one house; and “to dwell together” signifies to be together in good. But because, as before said, they were from peoples out of the church, the good which is signified is not the good of the church, but is a good not of the church. This good is called “natural good,” because it is hereditary from birth. Moreover, some have such good in consequence of ill health and feebleness. This good is meant by the good which they do who are signified by “lodgers.”[2] This good is utterly different from the good of the church, for by means of the good of the church conscience is formed in man, which is the plane into which the angels flow, and through which there is fellowship with them; whereas by natural good no plane for the angels can be formed. They who are in this good do good in the dark from blind instinct; not in the light of truth by virtue of influx from heaven; and therefore in the other life they are carried away, like chaff by the wind, by everyone, as much by an evil man as by a good one, and more by an evil one who knows how to join to reasonings something of affection and persuasion; nor can they then be withdrawn by the angels, for the angels operate through the truths and goods of faith, and flow into the plane which has been formed within the man from the truths and goods of faith. From all this it is evident that those who do what is good from mere natural disposition cannot be consociated with the angels (concerning them and their lot in the other life, see n. 3470, 3471, 3518, 4988, 4992, 5032, 6208, 7197).[3] That “lodgers” are those who do not stay in their own land or in their own house, but in a foreign land, is evident in the following passages:The land shall not be sold in perpetuity; for the land is Mine; but ye are sojourners and lodgers with Me (Lev. 25:23).Hear my prayer, O Jehovah, be not silent at my tear; for I am a sojourner with Thee, a lodger, as all my fathers were (Ps. 39:12).Abraham said unto the sons of Heth, I am a sojourner and a lodger with you; give me a possession of a sepulcher (Gen. 23:3-4).By a “sojourner” equally as by a “lodger,” is signified a comer and inhabitant from another land, but by a “sojourner” are signified those who were being instructed in the truths of the church and who received them; and by “lodgers” were signified those not instructed in the truths of the church, because they were not willing to receive them.[4] As regards “hirelings,” they were such as labored for hire, being servants, but not bought; that these were called “hirelings” see Lev. 19:13; 25:4-6; Deut. 24:14, 15. As “hirelings” were those who labored for hire, by them in the internal sense are meant those who do what is good for the sake of their own advantage in the world; and in a sense still more interior, those who do what is good for the sake of reward in the other life; thus who desire to merit by works.[5] They who do what is good merely for the sake of their own advantage in the world, cannot possibly be consociated with angels, because the end regarded by them is the world, that is, wealth and eminence; and not heaven, that is, the blessedness and happiness of souls. The end is what determines the actions, and gives them their quality. Concerning those who do what is good merely for the sake of their own advantage, the Lord thus speaks:I am the good Shepherd; the good Shepherd layeth down His life for the sheep. But he that is a hireling, and not a shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and deserteth the sheep, and fleeth, and the wolf seizeth them, and scattereth the sheep. But the hireling fleeth because he is a hireling (John 10:11-13).Egypt is a very beautiful heifer; destruction out of the north is come. Her hirelings are like calves of the fatting stall; for they also have turned back, they have fled away together, they did not stand, because the day of their destruction is come upon them (Jer. 46:20-21).[6] That lodgers and hirelings were not to be consociated in respect to holy things with those who were of the church, is evident from this:There shall no alien eat of the holy thing: a lodger of the priest, and a hireling, shall not eat of the holy thing (Lev. 22:10).And that from the sons of lodgers were to be bought servants who should serve forever, in the same:Of the nations that are round about you ye shall buy manservant and maidservant; and also of the sons of the lodgers that do sojourn with you, of these shall ye buy, and of their family that is with you, although they have brought forth in your land; and that they may be your possession, and that ye may hand them over for an inheritance to your sons after you, to inherit for a possession; ye shall rule over them forever (Lev. 25:44-46).By the “sons of the lodgers” are signified memory-knowledges which are from mere natural light; that spiritual truths shall rule over these is signified by “servants being bought of the sons of the lodgers for a perpetual possession.”[7] But they who do what is good for the sake of reward in the other life, who also are signified by “hirelings,” differ from those just now spoken of, in that they have as the end life and happiness in heaven. But as this end determines and converts their Divine worship from the Lord to themselves, and they consequently desire well to themselves alone, and to others only so far as these desire well to them, and accordingly the love of self is in every detail, and not the love of the neighbor, therefore they have no genuine charity. Neither can these be consociated with the angels, for the angels are utterly averse to both the name and the idea of reward or recompense. That benefits must be imparted without the end of reward, the Lord teaches in Luke:Love your enemies, and impart benefits, and lend, hoping for nothing again; then shall your reward be great, and ye shall be sons of the Most High (Luke 6:32-35; 14:12-14).(Concerning meritorious goods and their quality, see n. 1110, 1111, 1774, 1835, 1877, 2027, 2273, 2340, 2373, 2400, 3816, 4007, 4174, 4943, 6388-6390, 6392, 6393, 6478.)[8] That it is so often said by the Lord that they who do what is good shall “have their reward in heaven” (as in Matt. 5:11, 12; 6:1, 2, 16; 10:41, 42; 20:1-16; Mark 9:41; Luke 6:23, 35; 14:14; John 4:36) is because before he is regenerated a man cannot but think of reward; but it is otherwise when he has been regenerated; he is then indignant if anyone thinks that he benefits his neighbor for the sake of reward, for he feels delight and blessedness in imparting benefits, and not in recompense. (That in the internal sense “reward” denotes the delight of the affection of charity, see n. 3816, 3956, 6388, 6478.) 8003 In one house shall it be eaten. That this signifies the consociations of accordant goods that they may together make one good, is evident from the fact that the paschal supper represented the angelic consociations in heaven, and that each house of the sons of Israel represented a society in particular (see n. 7836, 7891, 7996, 7997). The angelic societies are all distinct from one another according to goods, and this generically, specifically, and particularly (see n. 3241, 4625). They are consociated who are in similar good. That these make one good, is because everyone arises not from one, but from many; for from many things that are various, but still accordant, there is produced a form which makes a one by harmony; in heaven by spiritual harmony, which is that of the goods of love (see n. 3241, 3267, 3744-3746, 3986, 4005, 4149, 5598, 7236, 7833, 7836). From all this it is evident that by “in one house shall it be eaten” are signified the consociations of accordant goods that they may together make one good. (That “to eat,” namely, the passover, denotes to be consociated, or to be with them, see above, n. 8001.) 8004 Thou shalt not bring out of the flesh abroad from the house. That this signifies that this good shall not be mixed together with the good of another, is evident from the signification of “to bring out abroad from the house” as being to give to another to eat, thus to mix with another good than that which belongs to the society; and from the signification of “flesh,” as being good (see n. 6968, 7850). For the societies in heaven are distinct according to the functions of all the members, viscera, and organs in the body (as has been shown at the close of many chapters). By means of correspondence, the function of each member, viscus, and organ bears relation to a peculiar good distinct from any other. From this it is evident that goods are manifold, and that in order that from them distinct forms may arise, which taken together may constitute the most perfect form of heaven, they are by no means to be mixed together; for if they were mixed together the distinction would be lost. This is signified by the command that they should not bring out of the flesh abroad from the house. 8005 And ye shall not break a bone in it. That this signifies the truth of memory-knowledge, that this must be sound, is evident from the signification of “bone,” as being the ultimate in which interior things terminate as in their base, that they may be supported and not spread asunder. Such an ultimate in spiritual things is memory-knowledge; for all spiritual truths and goods flow down according to order to lower things, and finally terminate in memory-knowledges, where they present themselves visibly to man. That “ye shall not break” denotes that it must be sound, is clear. Memory-knowledge is said to be sound when it admits into itself nothing but truths which agree with its good; for the memory-knowledge is the general receptacle. Moreover, memory-knowledges are like the bones in man; if these are not sound, or in their order, as when disjointed or distorted, the form of the body is thereby changed, and the actions in accordance therewith. The truths of memory-knowledge are doctrinal things. 8006 All the assemblage of Israel shall perform it. That this signifies that this law of order is for all who are in the good of truth and in the truth of good, is evident from the signification of “the assemblage of Israel,” as being all truths and goods in one complex (see n. 7830); thus those who are in the truth through which is good, and those who are in the good through which is truth (n. 7957), consequently those who are of the spiritual church. That all these were to perform the passover, was to represent the liberation of those of the spiritual church who had been detained in the lower earth until the Lord’s coming (n. 6854, 6914, 7091, 7849, 7932); their eating together in one house was to represent the angelic consociations in heaven (n. 7836, 7996, 7997); thus by the whole assemblage of Israel performing it was represented the whole heaven. At that time there was nowhere a church, but only the representative of a church, for which were taken the descendants of Abraham from Jacob. Communication with heaven, and through heaven with the Lord, was given by means of the representatives of the church. For this reason it was enjoined upon that nation to strictly observe all the statutes and all the laws, especially the statutes concerning the passover, insomuch that he who was clean and did not perform the passover was to be cut off (Num. 9:13). 8007 And when a sojourner shall sojourn with thee. That this signifies those who have been instructed in the truth and good of the church and have received them, is evident from the signification of a “sojourner,” as being those who were being instructed and were receiving the statutes and laws of the church (see n. 2025, 4444, 7908). It is said “when he shall sojourn with thee,” because by “sojourning” is signified to be instructed and to live (n. 1463, 3672). Thus by “sojourners sojourning with them” are signified not only those who were being instructed in the truth and good of the church and were receiving them, but also those who were living according to them. 8008 And performeth the passover to Jehovah. That this signifies if he desires to be together with them, is evident from the signification of “performing the passover to Jehovah,” that is, eating it, as being to be together with them (see n. 8001). 8009 Every male of his shall be circumcised. That this signifies that his truth must be cleansed from impure loves, is evident from the signification of “to be circumcised,” as being to be purified or cleansed from impure loves (see n. 2039, 2056, 2632, 3412, 3413, 4462, 7045); and from the signification of “male,” as being the truth of faith (n. 749, 2046, 4005, 7838). 8010 And then let him come near to perform it, signifies that then he shall be with them (as above, n. 8008). 8011 And he shall be as a native of the land. That this signifies that he shall be accepted just as is he who is in this truth and good, and has been purified from unclean loves, is evident from the signification of “a native of the land,” as being one who has been born within the church and is in its truth and good, consequently who has been purified from unclean loves. It is said “a native of the land,” because by “land” is signified the church (that “land” in the Word denotes the church, see n. 566, 662, 1066, 1067, 1262, 1413, 1607, 1733, 1850, 2117, 2118, 2571, 2928, 3355, 4447, 4535, 5577). That “land” denotes the church is because by “land” in the Word is meant the land of Canaan, and by “the land of Canaan” is signified the Lord’s kingdom and church (n. 1413, 1437, 1585, 1607, 1866, 3038, 3481, 3686, 3705, 4116, 4240, 4447, 4454, 4516, 4517, 5136, 5757, 6516). By every land named in the Word the angels do not understand the land, but the nation that was there, and along with the nation there is understood the quality of the nation in respect to its spirituality, that is, in respect to that which is of the church. That the idea of the quality of the nation occurs when its land is named, is known, for this is the case even with men, and more so with the angels, who think spiritually about every natural thing. 8012 And no uncircumcised person shall eat of it. That this signifies that he who is in the loves of self and of the world cannot be together with them, is evident from the signification of an “uncircumcised person,” as being one who is in the loves of self and of the world (see n. 2056, 3412, 3413, 7045); and from the signification of “eating of it,” namely, the passover, as being to be with them (of which above, n. 8001). 8013 One law shall there be for the native, and for the sojourner that sojourneth in the midst of you. That this signifies that he who on being instructed has received the truth and good of the church, and lives according to them, shall be as he who being already instructed is within the church, and lives a life in agreement with the precepts of faith and of charity, is evident from the signification of “one law shall there be,” as being a similar right, thus that the one shall be as the other; and from the signification of “the native,” as being one who has been born within the church, and is in its truth and good as to doctrine and as to life (as just above, n. 8011); and from the signification of “the sojourner that sojourneth in the midst of you,” as being one who is being instructed in the truth and good of the church and receives them and lives according to them (of which also above, n. 8007).[2] It is said “in agreement with the precepts of faith and of charity,” on account of the difference; for the life before regeneration is according to the precepts of faith, but after regeneration it is according to the precepts of charity. Before regeneration no one knows from affection what charity is, but only from doctrine; and the man then lives according to the precepts of doctrine, which are called precepts of faith; but after regeneration he knows from affection what charity is, for he then loves his neighbor, and from the heart wills good to him, and he then lives according to a law that is written on him, for he acts from the affection of charity. This state is utterly different from the former state. They who are in the first state are in obscurity in respect to the truths and goods of faith, but they who are in the latter state are relatively in clearness. These see truths and confirm them from enlightenment, while the former do not see truths and confirm them from enlightenment; but from persuasion that the teachings of the church are truths. And because they do not see them from enlightenment, they can confirm falsities equally with truths, and after these have been confirmed, they see them precisely as truths. From all this it can be seen what is meant by living according to the precepts of faith, and what by living according to the precepts of charity.[3] As regards sojourners, it is several times commanded in the Word that no distinction should be made between a native of the land and a sojourner sojourning with them, for the reason that the Gentiles, from whom the sojourners came, are received into heaven equally as well as they who are within the church, when after being instructed they have received the truths of faith. (Of the Gentiles in the other life, see n. 932, 1032, 1059, 2049, 2284, 2589-2604, 2861, 2863, 3263, 4190, 4197.) Hence it was commanded that “as with the native, so with the sojourner;” as in the following passages:And if a sojourner shall sojourn with you, who shall make a fire-offering of an odor of rest to Jehovah; as ye do, so shall he do. As regards the assembly, there is one statute for you, and for the sojourner that sojourneth, a statute of eternity for your generations; as ye are, so is the sojourner before Jehovah. One law and one judgment shall be for you, and for the sojourner that sojourneth with you (Num. 15:14-16).As is the native of you, shall be to you the sojourner that sojourneth with you (Lev. 19:34).One judgment shall be for you; as for the sojourner, so shall it be for the native (Lev. 24:22).When a sojourner shall sojourn with you he shall perform the passover to Jehovah; according to the statute of the passover, and according to the statutes thereof, so shall he do; one statute shall be for you; as for the sojourner, so for the native (Num. 9:14). 8014 Verses 50, 51. And all the sons of Israel did as Jehovah commanded Moses and Aaron, so did they. And it was in this same day that Jehovah led forth the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their armies. “And all the sons of Israel did as Jehovah commanded Moses and Aaron,” signifies the performing of obedience according to truth Divine; “so did they,” signifies performance from the will; “and it was in this same day,” signifies a state of the presence of the Lord; “that Jehovah led forth the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt,” signifies that the Lord liberated from damnation those who were in the good of truth and the truth of good; “by their armies,” signifies these distinct according to the quality of good from truth. 8015 And all the sons of Israel did as Jehovah commanded Moses and Aaron. That this signifies the performing of obedience according to truth Divine, is evident from what was said above (n. 7944), where similar words occur. 8016 So did they. That this signifies performance from the will, is evident from the signification of “doing,” when the word is repeated, as being performance from the will (as above, n. 7945). 8017 And it was in this same day. That this signifies a state of the presence of the Lord, is evident from the signification of “day,” as being time and state (see n. 23, 487, 488, 493, 893, 2788, 3462, 3785, 4850, 7680). That it is a state of the presence of the Lord, is because it was the day of the passover, and by the “passover” is signified the presence of the Lord, and the liberation of those who are of the spiritual church from spiritual captivity and from damnation (n. 7867). That there was liberation then, is signified by what follows in this verse, namely, that “on that day Jehovah led forth the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their armies.” That this was on the morrow after the passover, is evident from Moses:They journeyed from Egypt on the fifteenth day of the first month, on the morrow after the passover in the eyes of all the Egyptians, while the Egyptians were burying their firstborn that were slain (Num. 33:1-4).(That the presence of the Lord liberates from damnation those who are in good, and brings those who are in evil into damnation, see n. 7926, 7989.) 8018 That Jehovah led forth the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt. That this signifies that the Lord liberated from damnation those who were in the good of truth and in the truth of good, is evident from the signification of “to lead forth,” as being to liberate; and from the representation of the sons of Israel, as being those who are of the spiritual church, or what is the same, who are in the good of truth and the truth of good (of which above, see n. 7957, 8006); and from the signification of “the land of Egypt,” as being damnation. That “the land of Egypt” here denotes damnation, is because by the state of the Egyptians is now signified damnation (n. 7766, 7778). (That the Lord liberated from damnation those who were of the spiritual church, that is, who were in the good of truth and the truth of good, see n. 6854, 6914, 7091, 7828, 7932.)[2] Their liberation by the Lord when He rose again is signified by the descent of the Lord to the lower regions, and was clearly shown by the awakening of the dead out of the tombs, of which in Matthew:And the tombs were opened; and many bodies of the saints that were sleeping were raised; and going forth out of the tombs after His resurrection they entered into the holy city and appeared to many (Matt. 27:52-53);their going forth out of the tombs, and entering into the holy city, and also their appearing, were for a testification that they, who had hitherto been detained in spiritual captivity, had been liberated by the Lord, and would be introduced into heaven. In the internal sense heaven is signified by “the holy city;” and therefore it is called “the holy city,” when yet it was not holy but profane, seeing that its people had so cruelly treated the Lord Himself, who was represented in all the rituals of their church, and described in the Word that was among them; and thus who had been the God of their church.[3] The like is signified by this passage in Daniel:At that time thy people shall be delivered, everyone that shall be found written in the book. And then many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, these to eternal life, but the rest to shame and everlasting disgrace (Dan. 12:1-2).And also by this in Ezekiel:Prophesy and say, Thus said the Lord Jehovih, Behold I will open your sepulchers, and cause you to come up out of your sepulchers, O My people; and I will bring you upon the land of Israel, that ye may know that I am Jehovah, when I shall open your sepulchers, and shall cause you to come up out of your sepulchers, O My people, and I shall put My spirit in you, that ye may live, and I shall place you upon your land, that ye may know that I Jehovah have spoken it, and performed it, said Jehovah (Ezek. 37:12-14);where by “the land of Israel” or of Canaan is meant heaven (n. 8011). By these words in the prophet is described the new creation or generation of man, and also the vivification by the Lord of those who are of the spiritual church. 8019 By their armies. That this signifies these distinct according to the quality of good from truth, is evident from the signification of “armies,” as being goods and truths (of which above, n. 7988); “by their armies” signifies that they who are represented by the sons of Israel were made distinct according to the quality of good from truth. (That all in the other life are distinct and conjoined according to goods, see n. 7833, 7836, 8003.) It is said “according to the quality of good from truth,” because all good has its quality from truth, and is thereby varied (n. 3804, 4149, 5345, 5355, 6916). 8020 From the statutes and laws concerning the eating of the paschal lamb, which are treated of in this chapter, it is clearly evident that there are heavenly secrets contained and hidden in every detail, and that without knowledge from the internal sense nothing is known but a mere ritual in an external form, and nothing heavenly, still less Divine. As for instance, why the paschal animal was to be a lamb or a kid; why the animal was to be a male, and a son of a year; why it was to be killed on the fourteenth day of the month; why its blood was to be sprinkled upon the posts and the lintel; why it was to be eaten roasted with fire, with unleavened bread upon bitter herbs, and not raw or boiled in water; why it was to be roasted with its head upon its legs and upon its midst; why they were not to leave anything of it until the morning, and why that which was left was to be burned with fire; why they were to eat unleavened bread seven days, and why whosoever ate leavened bread was to be cut off; why an alien, a lodger, and a hireling were not to eat of it, but a man’s servant that is bought with silver, and a sojourner, if they were circumcised; why it was to be eaten in one house, and none of the flesh taken out of doors; why a bone was not to be broken in it. What these and very many other particulars involve, and why they were commanded, would be utterly unknown, unless the laws of order in the spiritual world to which they correspond, were known, and unless it were known from the internal sense what each detail signifies in that world, that is, in heaven; and especially unless it were believed that in all things there is something spiritual. If there were not something spiritual in the whole and in each detail, the angels who are with man when he reads the Word would comprehend but little, indeed scarcely anything, from the Word; for the angels comprehend spiritually all things that have been described in the Word in a natural manner. 8021ON THE SPIRITS AND INHABITANTS OF THE PLANET JUPITER, CONTINUED.One of those spirits of Jupiter who strike terror by their coming, as already described, applied himself to my left side beneath the elbow, and spoke from there; but his speech was harsh, nor were the words quite discrete and separate from one another, insomuch that I was obliged to wait long before I could gather the sense; and while he was speaking he also interjected something of terror. He said that so it is done on their earth, and that they are sent in advance to a man, before their angels come to him, and in this manner they prepare him. He admonished me also to receive them well when they came. But it was given me to answer that this is not my affair; but that with me all are received just as they themselves are. 8022 Afterward the angels of that earth came, and it was given me to perceive from their speech with me that they are utterly different from the angels of our earth; for their speech was not effected by means of words, but by means of ideas which diffused themselves through my interiors on all sides, and from there had also an influx into the face, so that the face concurred to every particular; beginning from the lips, and proceeding toward the circumference on all sides. The ideas which were in the stead of words were discrete, but in a slight degree. They said that so do they speak with their own people on their earth; and that there also the speech is of the face, beginning from the lips. 8023 Afterward they spoke with me by means of ideas still less discrete, insomuch that scarcely any interval was perceivable; it was in my perception like the meaning of words with those who attend only to the meaning abstractedly from the words. This speech was more intelligible to me than the former, and was also more full. It flowed into the face in like manner as the former, but the influx was more continuous, in accordance with the nature of the speech. It did not, however, begin from the lips, like the former, but from the eyes. They said that so also do they speak with their own people on their earth; but with those there who enjoy a more interior sense and discernment than the rest. 8024 Afterward they spoke in a manner still more continuous and full; and then the face could not concur by a suitable movement; but there was felt an influx into the brain, and this was then acted upon in a similar manner. 8025 Lastly they spoke in such a way that their discourse fell only into the interior understanding; its fluency was like that of a thin aura. I perceived the influx itself, but not distinctly the particulars. They said that there are men of their earth also with whom they speak in this manner, and that they are those who after death are immediately carried up into heaven. 8026 These kinds of speech are circumstanced like fluids; the first kind is like fluent water; the second is like water more attenuated; the third is relatively like the atmosphere; and the fourth is like a thin aura. 8027 The spirit above mentioned, who was on the left side, sometimes interrupted the conversation, admonishing me especially to deal discreetly with his angels; for there were spirits from our earth who occasioned such things as excited displeasure. He also said that he did not understand what the angels spoke; but that he did afterward when he removed to my left ear. His speech then was not harsh as before, but like that of other spirits. 8028 From this it could be seen how the case is with the order in heaven, and from this in the world; namely that when angels are about to come, a spirit is sent before to prepare the way, and that he excites fear, and gives admonition to receive the angels courteously; and that he interrupts; also that at first he does not understand what the angels speak, but afterward when he has been reduced to a better state he understands; in a word, that he is continually at hand, and prepares the lower mind, and endeavors to avert things unworthy. In regard to this there occurred to me a thought about John the Baptist, that it was according to the order of heaven for him to be sent before and announce the coming of the Lord, and that he should prepare the way that He might be worthily received, according to what is written in Matt. 3:3; Luke 1:17; 3:4; John 1:23. 8029 From what has already been occasionally related about the state of man after death, it is evident that there are few who at once enter heaven when they come into the other life; but that they stay for some time beneath heaven, in order that the things belonging to earthly and bodily loves, which they have brought with them from the world, may be removed, and they may thus be prepared to be capable of being in society with the angels. The case is similar with the men of all the earths, namely, that after their decease they are at first beneath heaven among spirits; and afterward, when they are prepared, they become angels. When the spirits of that earth were becoming angels it was given me to see that there appeared bright horses as of fire, by which they were carried up, like Elijah. Bright horses as of fire signify an enlightened understanding (that “horses” in the Word signify what is of the understanding, see n. 2760-2762, 3217, 5321, 6125, 6534); and the “horses of fire and chariots of fire” which carried away Elijah, signify the understanding of the Word as to its interiors (n. 2762). 8030 This angelic heaven to which they are carried away is the first heaven, or the last of the three. This heaven appears to the right from their earth, and is quite separate from the first or lowest heaven of the angels who are from our earth. They who are in this heaven appear clothed in azure dotted with little golden stars; for they believe this color to be the veriest heavenly color. When they are in the world, and contemplate the starry heaven, they call it the abode of the angels; and for this reason the azure color is loved by them. 8031 The spirits of that earth are utterly unwilling to be in fellowship with the spirits of our earth, because they differ in disposition and manners; for they say that the spirits of our earth are cunning, and are ingenious in plotting evils, and that they know and think little about what is good; also that they do not, as they do, acknowledge the one only Lord. Moreover, the spirits of the earth Jupiter are much wiser than the spirits of our earth, of whom they also say that they speak much and think little, and thus that they cannot interiorly perceive many things, and not even what good is. From this they conclude that the men of our earth are external men. 8032 The subject of the spirits and inhabitants of the planet Jupiter will be continued at the end of the following chapter.

And Moses called all the elders of Israel, and said unto them, Draw ye forth, and take you an animal of the flock according to your families, and kill ye the passover. And ye shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in, the blood that is in the basin, and ye shall touch the lintel and the two posts with the blood that is in the basin; and no one of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning. And Jehovah will pass through to inflict a plague on Egypt; and He shall see the blood upon the lintel, and upon the two posts, and Jehovah will pass over the door, and will not allow the destroyer to come unto your houses to inflict a plague. And ye shall keep this word for a statute to thee and to thy sons forever. And it shall be that when ye shall come unto the land which Jehovah will give you, as He hath spoken, that ye shall keep this service. And it shall be, when your sons shall say unto you, What is this service to you? that ye shall say, This is the sacrifice of the passover to Jehovah, in that He passed over the houses of the sons of Israel in Egypt, when He inflicted a plague on Egypt, and liberated our houses. And the people bent itself, and bowed itself. And the sons of Israel went and they did as Jehovah commanded Moses and Aaron, so did they.  Exodus 12:21-28 The Heavenly Marriage Arcana Coelestia 7945… it is common in the Word for a thing to be seemingly repeated; but the first mention relates to the truth which is of the understanding, and the second to the good which is of the will. The reason is that in every detail of the Word there is the heavenly marriage, which is that of good and truth (see n. 683, 793, 801, 2173, 2516, 2712, 4138, 5138, 5502, 6343); and, in the supreme sense, the Divine marriage, which is that of the Divine good in the Lord and of the Divine truth proceeding from Him (n. 3004, 5502, 6179). From this also it can be seen that the Word is most holy. To remain in the house AC 7923 And no one of you shall go out of the door of his house. That this signifies that they shall abide steadfast in good, which must not be regarded from truth, is evident from the signification of “not going out,” as being to abide steadfast; and from the signification of “house,” as being good (n. 2233, 2234, 2559, 3652, 3720, 7833-7835, 7848). From this it is evident that by “no one of you shall go out of the door of his house” is signified that they shall abide steadfast in good. The reason why it signified that good must not be regarded from truth, is because to “abide in the house” denotes to abide in good; but to “go out of the door of the house” denotes to go from good to truth; for good is within, but truth without (n. 7910). (What it is to look from good to truths, see n. 5895, 5897, 7857.) From truth to look to good is to look from what is external to what is internal but from good to look to truth is to look from what is internal to what is external; for, as just said, good is interior, and truth exterior. From good to look to truth is according to order, for all Divine influx is through interiors to exteriors; whereas from truth to look to good is not according to order; and therefore when a man is being regenerated, the order is inverted, and good or charity is regarded in the first place, and truth or faith in the second. The need for self compulsion AC 7914 … the good of innocence, which is the good of love to the Lord, is not received by the man of the spiritual church unless he compels himself; because it can with difficulty be believed by him that the Lord is the only God, and also that His Human is Divine; and therefore as he is not in faith, neither can be in love to Him, consequently not in the good of innocence, unless he compels himself. (That man ought to compel himself, and that when he compels himself it is from freedom, but not when he is compelled, see n. 1937, 1947.) This is signified by “drawing forth,” namely the paschal animal. That to draw it forth involves some secret thing which does not appear in the sense of the letter, is manifest. Third Round posts are short audio clips taken from Round 3 comments in the online Logopraxis Life Group meetings. The aim is to maintain focus on understanding the Text’s application to the inner life while reinforcing key LP principles highlighted in the exchanges.