From The Doctrines For Spiritual Christianity
By changes of state of angels their changes in respect to love and faith, and wisdom and intelligence therefrom, are meant, thus their changes in respect to states of life. (Heaven and Hell 154)
This can be very clearly seen from the representatives in the other life. Representatives are there presented according to the states of the interiors among spirits, for they are correspondences. Around the spirits who are in truths from good appear most beautiful representatives, namely, houses and palaces flashing with gold and precious stones, also gardens and paradises of unspeakable beauty; all these things being from the correspondence. But around those who are in truths, and not from good, there appear nothing but stony places, rocks, and bogs, and sometimes shrubberies, but unpleasant and barren; these also being from the correspondence. And around those who are in falsities from evil appear swamps, privies, and many monstrous objects. The cause of this being so is that all the representatives in the other life are outward things shaped according to the states of the interior ones; for in this way the spiritual world presents itself to view there. (Arcana Coelestia 10194)
That this is from correspondence is evident from the birds seen in the spiritual world, where all things that appear before the eyes and the other senses are correspondences. All sorts of animals of the earth, also flying things of heaven, both beautiful and unbeautiful, are seen there, and they appear from the affections and thoughts of angels or of spirits, the animals from affections, and the flying things from thoughts. It is known to everyone there that these are correspondences; and they know also to what affections and thoughts they correspond. That they are correspondences of affections and thoughts is made to appear most clearly; since they are instantly dissipated when the spirit or the angel goes away or stops thinking about the matter. (Apocalypse Explained 1100)
All spirits and angels are clothed according to their intelligence, or according to their reception of truth in the life, this constituting intelligence; for the light of their intelligence is formed into garments, and when these are thus formed they do not merely appear as garments, but they also are garments. For all things that exist in the spiritual world, and appear before the eyes of those there, exist from the light and heat that proceed from the Lord as a sun; from that origin have been created and formed not only all things in the spiritual world, but also all things in the natural world; for the natural world exists and subsists by means of the spiritual world from the Lord. (Apocalypse Explained 395)
That “garments” denote truths, originates from the representatives in the other life, where angels and spirits appear clothed in garments according to the states of faith or of truth in which they are; and their garments vary according to the changes of this state. Those who are in genuine truth appear clothed in white garments, and those who are in truths derived from good in shining garments; but those who are solely in good, as are the angels of the inmost heaven, who are called celestial, appear without clothing. (Arcana Coelestia 9212{3})
Key Points From The Video
Divine Light and Mental State: Because angels are in reception of Divine light they can see the things in their sensory field as symbols that reflect their mental and emotional states.
Reflected Images of the Lord’s Kingdom: Through Divine light, angels intuitively grasp the spiritual meaning of the objects they perceive, seeing them as representations of the Lord’s kingdom of love, wisdom, goodness, and truth.
Distinctness and Externality: Objects of the spiritual world possess all the characteristics of externality that belong to the objects of the natural world.
Sensuous Objects as Representation: For angels, sensory appearances are understood as representations of mental and spiritual truths, not physical objects in themselves, unlike how they are perceived in the natural world.
Sensory Perception: Angelic thought transcends the sensory experiences as it is in the immediate perception of the mental causes of which the sensations are effects.
Unnecessary Appendages: Unlike the natural world, angels understand that space and time are unnecessary constructs, serving no real purpose in their spiritual experience.
Spiritual Understanding: Angels are able to understand the meaning behind the appearances of the sensory world and so can perceive the deeper truths and uses of the objects of their world.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. What do angels intuitively perceive through sensory objects?
a) The material composition of the objects
b) The symbolic meaning reflecting their mental states
c) The future events that the objects represent
d) The physical laws governing the objects
Answer: b)
2. What allows angels to perceive the deeper spiritual meaning of objects?
a) Their advanced sensory perception
b) The knowledge acquired through study
c) Their ability to manipulate matter
d) Divine light flowing into their minds
Answer: d)
3. In the spiritual world, how do objects correspond to the perceiving angel?
a) They represent Divine intervention
b) They are projections of their sensory desires
c) They correspond to the angel’s active mental state
d) They symbolise the physical world’s laws
Answer: c)
4. What is unnecessary in the spiritual world, according to angels’ perception?
a) Space and time
b) External physical laws
c) Sensory objects
d) Mental states and emotions
Answer: a)
5. How do angels perceive sensory appearances in contrast to humans?
a) As material objects with no spiritual meaning
b) As physical phenomena with Divine influence
c) As symbols of deeper spiritual truths
d) As illusions created by their senses
Answer: c)
Reflective Questions
1. How does the symbolic nature of objects in the spiritual world change your perception of the sensory world in your daily life?
2. In what ways can you begin to view the sensory experiences in your life as reflections of your mental or emotional states?
3. How does the understanding that space and time are unnecessary in the spiritual world challenge your current understanding of reality?
Experiential Integration
Symbolic Reflection on Sensory Objects: Take 10 minutes to observe an object in your environment (such as a flower, rock, or tree) and reflect on what it might symbolise in relation to your current mental or emotional state. Journal your thoughts on how this object could represent something deeper about your inner life.