secrets of heaven (also titled Arcana Caelestia) by spiritual philosopher Emanuel Swedenborg, gives a verse-by-verse interpretation of the first two books of the Bible – Genesis and Exodus. Swedenborg argues that narratives such as the story of creation in six days and the image of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden are No about historical individuals or places, but nevertheless contain a deeper kind of truth.
Swedenborg and Biblical Symbolism
To the 21st century reader, the idea that evolution takes place in a week is ludicrous. Similarly, it is generally thought that the retelling of other stories such as Noah’s ark and the flood, the escape of the Hebrew people from slavery in Egypt, and their wanderings in the desert may not be historically accurate. However, many Bible readers have sensed in these stories something profound about the mystery of life.
You could say that the creation story is a big picture that we can relate to in human terms of the Creator’s work week, after which a day of rest is needed. Who among us doesn’t need a break from time to time? However, according to secrets of heaven there is much more to learn from biblical images that are said to contain rich symbolic meaning. For example, it is stated that the six days correspond to six different stages in personal growth.
Swedenborg and the Garden of Eden
According to secrets of heaven, the Garden of Eden represents an ordered state of mind where selfless love inspires intelligent perception. We found the idea that when people trust their sensory mind, they fall into all sorts of misconceptions and reckless behavior. This is said to be the meaning of eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge instead of the fruit of the tree of life. In other words, instead of taking the story of Eve in the Garden as a tale of woman as the root of all evil, Swedenborg perceives an ever-present tendency in both men and women, represented by Eve, to ‘fall’, Intelligence. perception when deceived by the senses.
Swedenborg and the Deluge
The story of the flood, which Noah’s ark survived, has generally been seen as God’s judgment on a corrupt society, but again we find in secrets of heaven a deeper analysis. He affirms that the inner conflicts and personal crises that many people experience throughout their lives are testing times after which personal growth can take place: bad habits and adopted illusions are gradually put aside while the good and sensible is preserved.
Swedenborg as psychospiritual teacher
In other words, what Swedenborg found in the Bible is an unsuspected psycho-spiritual textbook. Written between 1749 and 1756, secrets of heaven It consists of 12 volumes translated into English from Latin that total more than 5000 pages. From my point of view, it has rightly been considered one of the world’s masterpieces, being a vast storehouse of spiritual understanding.
The reader not only gets a detailed account of the symbolic meaning of each verse, but it is also usually followed by an elaboration of the related spiritual teaching. There seems to be no randomness in the sequence of ideas presented.
The theology of the traditional church is out of date and to many it is unpleasant. Any spiritual seeker whatever his religion – or no religion – would find secrets of heaven less of a barrier. This is because psychospiritual ideas appeal to a broader audience than just Christians, as they present spiritual concepts that transcend religious culture. For example, the narrative of the Hebrew people escaping from slavery in Egypt is presented as a reflection of our own inner wanderings to find true freedom of the soul.
Two examples of psycho-spiritual concepts used are property Y remnant states.
Property
Speaking of the rib taken from Adam to form Eve, Swedenborg introduces the concept of property that is, the self-awareness of human identity. This is said to mislead one into believing that one lives from oneself and not from the divine source of life.
“These are people who believe…in themselves and imagine that what they don’t grasp through sensory evidence or facts doesn’t exist at all. They…as a consequence…have a distorted view of everything “. (E. Swedenborg, Secrets of Heaven, Section 210)
In other words, people tend to rely on self-intelligence instead of trusting in Divine Providence and therefore assume that each of them is a separate and independent being from the others. Although it may seem that your thoughts are your own, there is really nothing that is your own: it just seems as if it were.
remnant states
As the story goes, despite the fall from a state of spiritual innocence by Adam and Eve and their descendants into wickedness, a blameless individual named Noah remained. This person is said to represent what Swedenborg called remnant states of good thoughts and impulses. He said that, in relation to each of us, these remain from childhood when the individual had an innocent understanding of what is heavenly.
“States of good are what are called remnants, which are… implanted in a person’s natural disposition, and this is done when a person is unaware of it. Other new states are conferred on him in later life; but these are not so much states of goodness as of truth, because as it grows it has the truth granted, and these in the same way are stored within it.” (E. Swedenborg, Arcana Caelestia section 1906)
Remnants of what is good and true allow us to develop a deeper kind of consciousness as we grow into adulthood. If we choose to listen to them, they can guide us towards what is loving and sensitive. Swedenborg held that without remnant spiritual states no one can inwardly transform into adulthood.
conclusion
One difficulty in reading Swedenborg is his calm assurance and sense of conviction. Consequently, it is easy to take the wrong end of the stick from blanket statements that give a misleading impression of dogmatism.
Speaking for myself, I found several passages that I couldn’t understand and had to put them aside. This shouldn’t be surprising given the deep nature of the content. However, I discovered a great deal to enlighten and uplift my mind. And what I understood made me realize that there are more depths to explore.