From The Doctrines For Spiritual Christianity
Yet although the heavens are so distinct that the angels of one heaven cannot have association in their affairs with the angels of another, still the Lord conjoins all the heavens by immediate and mediate influx-by immediate influx from Himself into all the heavens, and by mediate influx from one heaven into another. He thus makes the three heavens to be one, and all to be in such connection from the First to the last so that there is nothing that is not connected. Whatever is not connected through intermediates with the First does not continue in existence, but is dissipated and becomes nothing. (Heaven and Hell 37)
But influx is of such a nature that there is an influx from the Divine of the Lord into every angel, into every spirit, and into every man, and that in this way the Lord rules everyone, not only in the universal, but also in the veriest singulars, and this immediately from Himself, and also mediately through the spiritual world. In order to make known the existence of this influx, much has already been said about the correspondence of man’s parts with the Grand Man, that is, with heaven; and at the same time about the representation of spiritual things in natural. (Arcana Coelestia 6058)
The self-love and love of the world within a person start to reign when he comes to make his own decisions and to be responsible for his own actions; for then he starts to think from himself or what is his own, and starts to make those [evils] his own, which he does increasingly the more firmly he embraces evil in his life. To the extent that a person makes evils his own the Lord sets apart the good of innocence and of charity which he has received in infancy and childhood and receives from time to time after that, and He stores them away interiorly within the person. For the good of innocence and the good of charity cannot by any means exist together with the evils that are products of those loves, and the Lord is unwilling to let them be destroyed. (Arcana Coelestia 7493)
Since man is both a heaven and a world in least form after the image of the greatest (see above, n. 57), there is in him both a spiritual and a natural world. The interior things that belong to his mind, and that have relation to understanding and will, constitute his spiritual world; while the exterior things that belong to his body, and that have relation to its senses and activities, constitute his natural world. Consequently, everything in his natural world (that is, in his body and its senses and activities), that has its existence from his spiritual world (that is, from his mind and its understanding and will) is called a correspondent. (Heaven and Hell 90)
The representatives and correspondences which exist in his external man are such that they have a different appearance from the things to which they correspond in the internal man and which they represent. Consequently they cannot enter his awareness until he has become rid of those externals. Blessed at that time is the person with whom correspondence exists, that is, whose external man corresponds to the internal man. (Arcana Coelestia 2994)
When a person’s natural is being regenerated every single form of good and truth is gathered into the known facts there. Any that are not present within these facts are not in the natural. This is because that part of the natural mind which is subject to the understanding part is made up solely of factual knowledge; and this knowledge present in the natural is the last and lowest degree of order. To come forth and manifest themselves in that sphere things that are prior must exist within ones that are last and lowest. More than this, prior things all extend into their last and lowest forms which serve them as their boundaries or final limits. Prior things come into being simultaneously on that lowest level, in the same way as causes do within their effects, or as higher objects do within lower ones that serve as vessels to contain them. The known facts present in the natural are such last and lowest things. This being so, the final limit that holds the spiritual world within it is man’s natural, in which things existing in the spiritual world reveal themselves in the form of representations. If spiritual things did not reveal themselves within the natural in the form of representations, thus with the help of such things as exist in the world, no one could have any awareness of them at all. From these considerations one may see that when the natural is being regenerated every form of interior truth and good which has its origin in the spiritual world is gathered into known facts to enable it to manifest itself. (Arcana Coelestia 5373)
Key Points From The Video
The Descent of Mediatory Influx: This influx of the passage of good and truth from the highest levels to the lowest is received by every finite mind, even those in the infant and preparatory stages before regeneration.
Development and Influx: As the intellect develops, representative innocence fades, and selfish loves emerge. The mind becomes susceptible to negative influences from hell, shaping it into a hellish form.
Degrees of Life and Their Sensuous Worlds: Every degree has its sensuous world as Divine Life flows into interior forms to produce affections and thoughts, creating the objects of the senses.
Community of State and Representation: The community of state of those in the same societies creates a general resemblance in the landscapes they behold.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. What is mediatory influx?
a. the process of physical evolution
b. the scientific explanation of sensory perception
c. the random occurrence of events in the natural world
d. the communication of thoughts and affections across different degrees of heavenly life
Answer d )
2. During infancy, through which heaven does the influx of Divine Life come?
a. the lowest heaven
b. the middle heaven
c. the highest or celestial heaven
d. the outermost heaven
Answer c )
3. What happens to a person as their intellect develops?
a. they become more innocent and pure
b. their initial state of representative innocence fades
c. they become immune to negative influences
d. they automatically achieve enlightenment
Answer b )
4. What is formed by shared thoughts and affections within a society in the afterlife?
a. a common, representative place that signifies a shared state of being
b. a physical city or community
c. a hierarchical structure of power and authority
d. a state of constant conflict and competition
Answer a )
5. What shapes the reality we perceive ?
a. physical laws and scientific principles
b. random chance and unpredictable events
c. our personal experiences and memories
d. the continual influence of Divine life at every level
Answer d )
Reflective Questions
1. How do you perceive the presence and influence of mediatory influx in your own life? Can you identify instances where you have been influenced by higher or lower degrees of heavenly life?
2. In what ways do you see the effects of negative influences from hell shaping the natural mind? How can you actively resist these influences and cultivate a more spiritual state of mind?
3. How does the understanding that every distinct object is an effect of Divine life change your appreciation for the beauty and wonder of the natural world? How can you use this awareness to deepen your connection with the Divine and foster a greater sense of interconnectedness with all of creation?
Experiential Integration
Daily Perception Shift Practice: Throughout the day, pay attention to the thoughts and feelings that arise within you. As you become aware of these thoughts and feelings, ask yourself: Where are they coming from? Are they aligned with Divine love and wisdom, or are they influenced by selfish desires and negative emotions?
If you identify thoughts and feelings that are not aligned with the Divine, consciously choose to redirect your attention towards more positive and uplifting thoughts. Visualise yourself surrounded by the light of heaven, and allow this light to cleanse and purify your mind.
Further Exploration
Nobody up to now has known of the existence of such correspondences, and I realize that people will marvel when they hear of them. They will do so because they do not know what the internal man is and what the external man is, or that the internal man exists in the spiritual world and the external in the natural, or that it is the internal man which lives within the external, flowing into it and governing it. From these considerations, as well as from those introduced above in 4044, it is nevertheless possible to know of the existence of influx, and also of correspondence. Their existence is very well known in the next life, as is the fact that the natural is nothing else than the representation of spiritual things from which it comes into being and is kept in being, and that as is the correspondence of natural with spiritual so is its representation of it. (Arcana Coelestia (4053)
Each and all things in the universe represent the Lord’s kingdom, so much so that the universe with all its constellations, its various atmospheres, and its three kingdoms is nothing else than a kind of stage on which the Lord’s glory as it exists in heaven is represented. (Arcana Coelestia 3000)
The representation of spiritual things by natural, and the correspondence of natural things with spiritual, may also be known from the consideration that what is natural cannot in any sense come into being without a cause prior to itself. Its cause exists in that which is spiritual. Nothing natural exists which does not have its cause there. Natural forms are effects and cannot appear as causes, let alone as the causes of causes, or first origins. Instead they take the forms they do from the use they perform in the place where they belong. Nevertheless the forms taken by effects represent the things that exist among causes, and these causes in turn represent those that exist among first origins. Thus all natural things represent those that exist among the spiritual things to which they correspond, and those spiritual things in turn represent those that exist among the celestial things in which they have their origin. (Arcana Coelestia 2991)
First, it will be stated what correspondence is. The whole natural world corresponds to the spiritual world, not only the natural world in general but also in every particular. Therefore, whatever in the natural world comes into existence from the spiritual world is said to be in correspondence with it. It must be known that the natural world comes into existence and continues in existence from the spiritual world, precisely like an effect from its effecting cause. By the natural world is meant everything in its whole extent that is under the sun, receiving heat and light from it; and all things that continue in existence therefrom belong to that world. But the spiritual world is heaven, and all things in the heavens belong to that world. (Heaven and Hell 89)
Because members of the Most Ancient Church, who were spoken of in 1114-1125, saw in every thing belonging to the natural order something spiritual and celestial, so much so that natural things served them simply as objects for thinking about spiritual and celestial things, they were for that reason able to talk to angels and so be present with them in the Lord’s kingdom in the heavens at the same time as they were in His kingdom on earth, which is the Church. Thus with them natural things were joined to spiritual and wholly corresponded. It was different however after those times, when evil and falsity began to reign, that is, after the golden age, when the iron age began. Because at that time correspondence did not exist any longer, heaven was closed. It ceased to exist so completely that men scarcely wished to know whether there was anything spiritual; indeed they did not wish at length to know that there was a heaven or a hell, or a life after death. (Arcana Coelestia 2995)
For nothing at all comes into being in the natural creation that does not have a correspondence with the spiritual world; it has no cause from which it may be brought into being and from which it may be kept in being. Things existing in the natural world are nothing else than effects; their causes exist in the spiritual world, while the causes behind those causes, which are the ends, exist more internally in heaven. No effect can remain in being unless its cause is present within it constantly; for the instant a cause ceases to exist, so does its effect. Essentially an effect is nothing else than its cause; but a cause so clothes itself outwardly with an effect that it is enabled to act as a cause in a lower sphere than its own. And similar to the relationship between an effect and its cause is the relationship between a cause and its end. Unless a cause likewise comes into being from its own cause, which is the end, it is not a cause; for without an end a cause is devoid of order, and where there is no order nothing is brought into being. From this it is now evident that the essence of an effect is its cause, while the essence of a cause is its end, and that an end which has good in view exists in heaven and comes forth from the Lord. Consequently an effect is not an effect unless there is a cause within it, constantly there, and a cause is not a cause unless there is an end within it, constantly so. Nor is an end an end that has good in view unless the Divine which goes forth from the Lord is present within it. From this it is also evident that even as every single thing in the world has been brought into being from the Divine, so it is kept in being from the Divine. (Arcana Coelestia 5711)