From The Doctrines For Spiritual Christianity
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 for ever. (Conjugial Love 132)
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. (Spiritual Experiences 1710)
Whatever exists in the human being, both in the external man and in the internal man, has a correspondence with the Grand Man. Without that correspondence with the Grand Man – that is, with heaven, or what amounts to the same, with the spiritual world – nothing can ever come into being and remain in being. This is because it does not have a connection with anything prior to itself or consequently with Him who is the First, that is, with the Lord. Nothing that lacks such a connection, thus that is independent, can remain in being for even a single instant. For everything that remains in being does so entirely by virtue of its connection with and dependence on what brings it into being; for remaining in being consists in a constant coming into being. [2] From this it follows that not only all the individual parts of the human being correspond to the Grand Man but also every single thing in the universe. (Arcana Coelestia 5377)
The Lord alone is Man, and it is owing to Him that angels, spirits, and inhabitants of the world are called men. By His own flowing into heaven He causes the whole of heaven to represent and resemble one human being; and through an influx both by way of heaven and directly from Himself into each individual there He causes all to be seen as men, and angels to be seen in a form more beautiful and dazzling than anyone can possibly describe. (Arcana Coelestia 6626 )
Heaven is the Grand Man corresponding to every single part of the human being… For whatever passes from the Infinite Being by way of heaven as the Grand Man presents an image of that Being in every single thing. (Arcana Coelestia 4687{2}).
But we must briefly say how the Lord leads and teaches every person from the angelic heaven. In our treatise Divine Love and Wisdom, and above in the present treatise Divine Providence, as also in the book Heaven and Hell, published in 1758 in London, we have reported from things we have seen and heard that the entire angelic heaven appears in the Lord’s sight as a single person, and so, too, every society of heaven, and that for this reason every angel or spirit is a human being in perfect form. In the aforementioned treatises we have also shown as well that heaven is not heaven owing to anything of the angels’ own, but because of the angels’ reception of Divine love and wisdom from the Lord. It can be seen from this that the Lord governs the entire angelic heaven as though it were a single person; that that heaven, being in itself human, is the very image and very likeness of the Lord; and that the Lord Himself governs that heaven as the soul governs its body. So, because the entire human race is governed by the Lord, it can be seen that it is governed by the Lord not through heaven, but from heaven, consequently from Himself, because He is heaven, as we have said. (Divine Providence 163)
Our whole spirit is desire and its consequent thought; and since all desire is a matter of love and all thought a matter of discernment, our whole spirit is its love and its consequent discernment. This is why our thinking flows from the desires of our love when we are thinking solely from our own spirit, as we do when we are in reflective moods at home. We may conclude, then, that when we become spirits (which happens after death), we are the desire of our love, and not our thought except to the extent that it comes from that desire. We are drawn to what is evil (which amounts to a compulsion) if our love has been a love for what is evil, and we are drawn to what is good if our love has been a love for what is good. We are drawn to what is good to the extent that we have abstained from evils as sins; and we are drawn to what is evil to the extent that we have not abstained from evils. Since all spirits and angels are desires, then, we can see that the whole angelic heaven is nothing but a love that embraces all desires for what is good and therefore a wisdom that embraces all perceptions of what is true. Further, since everything good and true comes from the Lord and the Lord is love itself and wisdom itself, it follows that the angelic heaven is an image of Him; and since divine love and wisdom are human in form, it also follows that this is the only possible form the angelic heaven can have. But I will have more to say about this in the next section. (Divine Providence 61)
Key Points From The Video
The Source of Life and Consciousness: Every person derives their sense of autonomous existence from the continual influx of life from God.
The Role of Divine Life: Divine life creates each mind differently to fulfil specific uses. Spiritual relationships are based on associated functions of use, performed for the good of the whole.
The Grand Man and Spiritual Affinities: In heaven, distinct spiritual uses are represented by functional uses of the body (Grand Human).
Divine Organisation of Minds: Divine life passes into regenerate minds, organising them into affinities of use and function, which are also affinities of affection and thought.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. What are the formation of the natural and spiritual worlds rooted in?
a. random chance
b. the interplay of two contrary states of mind
c. physical laws
d. human imagination
Answer b )
2. What is the purpose of the shift of the objects of sensation brought on by the process of death?
a. to punish the wicked
b. to reward the righteous
c. to shift to a necessary consequence of the interior change in the state of the mind
d. to erase all memory of earthly existence
Answer c )
3. What does every person derive their sense of existence as a distinctive conscious being from?
a. their own inherent power
b. the continual influx of life from God
c. the love and support of their family and friends
d. the pursuit of material wealth and success
Answer b )
4. What does heaven facilitate for angels?
a. continual increases in their happiness
b. the accumulation of worldly possessions
c. the exercise of power and control over others
d. a life of ease and luxury
Answer a )
5. How are regenerate minds organised by Divine life?
a. into hierarchies of power and authority
b. into competition with one another for resources
c. into affinities of use and function, which are also affinities of affection and thought
d. into isolation from the rest of creation
Answer c )
Reflective Questions
1. How does the concept of correspondences between the natural and spiritual worlds influence your understanding of everyday events and experiences? Can you identify specific examples of these correspondences in your own life?
2. In what ways do you see the Divine organisation of minds reflected in the structure and function of your own community or social network? Are there any areas where this organisation could be improved or strengthened?
3. How can you actively contribute to the promotion of good and happiness for others in your daily interactions and relationships? What specific actions can you take to align your personal actions with the Divine purpose of fostering harmony and interconnectedness?
Experiential Integration
Daily Perception Shift Practice: Choose one specific part of your body (e.g., your hands, your eyes, your heart). For 5 minutes, focus your attention on this part of your body, becoming aware of its sensations, its movements, and its functions. As you focus, consciously remind yourself that this part of your body is a representative image of a specific mental function belonging to heavenly life.
Reflect on the qualities and virtues associated with this function and how you can cultivate them in your own thoughts, feelings, and actions. Keep a record of your observations and reflections in a journal.
Further Exploration
Since the Lord wills to be conjoined with a person, for the sake of his salvation, He also provides that a person have in him something reciprocal. The reciprocal condition in a person consists in this, that the good that he wills and does in freedom, and the truth that he thinks and speaks in consequence of that will in accordance with his reason, appear to issue from him; and that this good in his will, and this truth in his intellect, appear to be his. Indeed, they appear to the person to issue from him and be his altogether as though they were his, without any difference. Observe whether anyone perceives with any of his senses anything else. Concerning this appearance to a person that he does what he does as though of himself, see nos. 74-77 above; and concerning its attachment to him as his, nos. 78-81. The only difference is that a person ought to acknowledge that he does good and thinks truth not of himself but from the Lord; and therefore that the good that he does and the truth that he thinks are not his. To think in this way, impelled by some love of the will, because it is the truth, occasions conjunction. For a person then turns his face to the Lord, and the Lord turns His face to the person.(Divine Providence 92{3})
How the Word of the Lord appears before the angels cannot be described, but some idea can be formed by those who have seen in museums the optical cylinders in which beautiful images are represented from things roughly projected. Although the things which are round about in the projection appear to have no form, series, or order, and to be merely confused projections, still when they are concentrated toward the cylinder, they there present a lovely image. So it is with the Word of the Lord, especially with the prophetic Word of the Old Testament. In the literal sense there is scarcely anything that does not appear destitute of order, but when it is being read by a man, and especially by a little boy or girl, it becomes more beautiful and delightful by degrees as it ascends, and at last it is presented before the Lord as the image of a human being, in which and by which heaven is represented in its whole complex, not as it is, but as the Lord wills it to be, namely, a likeness of Himself. (Arcana Coelestia 1871)
In this world it is a great secret, although in the other life nothing is better known to every spirit, that all things in the human body have a correspondence to those in heaven; insomuch that there is not the smallest particle in the body, to which something spiritual and celestial does not correspond; or what is the same, to which heavenly societies do not correspond, for these exist according to all the genera and species of spiritual and celestial things; and this in such an order that together they represent one man, even as to all his parts, in general and in particular, both the interior and the exterior. Hence it is that the universal heaven is also called the Grand Man; and hence it is that it has been so often said that one society belongs to one province of the body, another to another, and so on. The reason is that the Lord is the Only Man, and heaven represents Him; and the Divine good and truth that are from Him are what make heaven; and because the angels are therein, they are said to be in the Lord. But they who are in hell are outside this Grand Man, and correspond to things unclean, and also to bodily corruptions. (Arcana Coelestia 2996)