But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea instead of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. And being warned by God in a dream, he turned aside into the region of Galilee. (Matthew 2:22)
This is the fifth dream in the Gospel of Matthew and in this we have yet another instruction to the dreamer, who is protecting and serving the new child. It is a warning to move away from those related to the hero, that seek dominion over the land. The dreamer is instructed yet again to wake up, rise and move so that it may live in the new place that the Lord has directed it to. So, we have the initial shock of that first awakening where Joseph is told that Mary carries a child within her that was conceived of the Holy Spirit and that it will need protecting. And then these further awakenings where the dreamers are instructed to continue protecting the Child by turning away from those who seek to destroy it. Each dream is a call by the Divine to wake up again, to move again, to listen and follow Him yet again.
This reflects our own spiritual journeys and awakenings. First, we must awaken to the fact that there is more than one reality in which we may live; that there are two choices, and therefore two alternative ways of thinking and feeling and being. This first awakening can be a shock when it arrives. A surprise to the system, like a tremor or a crack in the foundations of the earth that we have been standing on for so long. We may lose our footing; feel and see the image of the world before us warping – but this is just the beginning, and the first awakening of many. After this we must be continually woken up again and again, as each incremental unravelling of the fabric of our reality brings something which can replace it. In fact, it is ‘this something’ that causes the unravelling. For it is ‘this something’ that shows us and gives us a new way to live and experience life. And it is what only the Word – and our relationship with it as a text of Divine Revelation – can offer.
You are yourself here, working through this course because something has called you to it. Something has awoken in you. Something within you, present with you, has drawn you to it. There is an “I” within, that has said “I am missing something. I am dissatisfied with the way things are. I am seeking something.“ To seek something implies that there is a void that can be filled, that needs to be filled.
What is it you are seeking?
This module is an opportunity for you to reflect on your sense of the Lord, of your personal relationship to the Word as Divine revelation, and of your sense of what spiritual life is. It is an opportunity to reflect on your own journey of awakening.
Refection Questions
- What has led you to this course? How did you arrive here?
- What was your first experience of something higher, of something other than yourself, of a Divine quality? Can you describe how you felt? How did it shift your mind going forward after that?
- What role has Providence had in your life thus far?
- What would you say is of most value for you in bringing a sense of the Divine into your life?
- Have you ever had a spiritual crisis? What was it like? How did it progress? What was the process that it took you through?
- Have dreams played a role in your awakening journey? And if so, how?
- What other psychic phenomena have been significant in your awakening journey?
- What is your relationship to the Word?
- What is Its relationship to you?
Here is an early account of Swedenborg’s own awakening journey as his world was slowly but surely shaken and reconstructed. This is from the Journal of Dreams in which he recorded and analysed his dream life between 1743-44. After these years he turned away from focusing his writing on scientific things, and instead committed his life to the exploration and documentation of the spiritual realities and processes of the Divine that were unfolded to him as he engaged with the Word.
April 3-4th, the day before Easter. I experienced, nothing the whole night, although I repeatedly woke up; I thought that all was past and gone, and that I had been either forsaken or exiled. About morning it seemed to me as if I were riding and as if I had had the direction pointed out. It was, however, dark, and when I looked I found that I had gone astray on account of the darkness; but then it brightened up, and I saw how I had gone wrong, and noticed the way, and the forests and groves which I was to go through, and also heaven behind; when I awoke. My thoughts then, of their own accord, turned upon this, and afterwards on the other life, and it seemed to me as if everything was full of grace. I burst into tears at not having loved, but rather provoked, Him who had led me and pointed out the way to the kingdom of grace; and also at my being unworthy of acceptance by grace. (Taken from ‘Documents Concerning the Life and Character of Emanuel Swedenborg’, collected, translated, and annotated by Tafel, Rudolf Leonhard. Document 209: 17)
In the next module we will look more closely at the processes that Swedenborg encountered as his dream life awakened him to a deeper awareness of the need to examine the self and its relationship to the Lord. We will see how his processes reflect the general patterns that are universal to all spiritual awakening. And likewise, how they might reflect your own experiences of the callings to awaken.
Before Moving on to Module 6 …
It can be useful choosing a consistent time of day to dedicate to reflecting on your work, and valuable if this is something that can be built into your daily routine. It will allow you the space to sit with what comes up for you during the rest of the day, knowing that you will have the time later to give it the attention it needs. If you haven’t done so already, then this might be something you can consider before moving on to Module 6.
Support In Your Work
This type of inner reflective work can give rise to states of resistance or conflict, as well as opening up many questions. If you would like to talk with someone to explore this more, then you can Contact Us.
Further Reading
The Transfiguration – Perceiving The True Nature Of The Word (audio and text)
That it is possible for a man to be in evil and in truth at the same time, and that the Lord in view of the end, which is salvation, cannot prevent this, comes from man’s ability to have his understanding raised up into the light of wisdom, and to see truths or acknowledge them when he hears them, while his love remains below. For man is thus able to be in heaven with the understanding, while with the love he is in hell; and this cannot be denied to man, because the two capacities, rationality and liberty, cannot be taken from him; for these are what make him to be a man, and differentiate him from the beasts, and only by means of these can he be regenerated and thus saved. For by means of these a man is able to act according to wisdom, and is also able to act according to a love that is not of wisdom; by means of these he is able also from wisdom above to view the love below, and thus to view his thoughts, intentions, affections, and in consequence the evils and falsities and the goods and truths of his life and doctrine; and without a knowledge and recognition of these in himself he cannot be reformed. These two capacities have been treated of above, and more will be said about them in what follows. This is why man can be in good and also in truth, and in evil and also in falsity, and in alternations of these. (Divine Providence 16)
When the temptations are over, there is as it were a fluctuation, and if the temptation was spiritual, it is a fluctuation between what is true and what is false, which may be sufficiently evident from this, that temptation is the beginning of regeneration; and as all regeneration has for its end that man may receive new life, or rather that he may receive life, and from being no man may become man, or from dead be made living, therefore when his former life, which is merely animal, is destroyed by temptations, he cannot but fluctuate between what is true and what is false. Truth is of the new life, falsity of the old; and unless the former life is destroyed, and this fluctuation takes place, it is impossible for any spiritual seed to be sown, because there is no ground. When however the former life is destroyed and such fluctuation results, the man scarcely knows what is true and good, and indeed scarcely whether there is any such thing as truth. Thus, for example, when he reflects about the goods of charity, or, as they are called, good works, and considers whether or no he can do them from himself and have merit in himself, he is in such obscurity and darkness, that when informed that no one can do good from himself or from his Own, and that still less can anyone possess merit, but that all good is from the Lord, and all merit is His alone, he must be lost in wonder. And so it is in all other matters of faith; but still the obscurity and darkness of his mind become sensibly and gradually enlightened. It is with regeneration exactly as with man’s birth as an infant. His life is then very obscure; he knows almost nothing, and therefore at first receives only general impressions of things, which by degrees become more distinct as particular ideas are inserted in them, and in these again still more minute particulars. Thus are generals illustrated by particulars, so that the child may learn not only the existence of things, but also their nature and quality. So it is with everyone who emerges out of spiritual temptation; and the state of those in the other life who have been in falsities and are being vastated, is also similar. This state is called Fluctuation, and is here described by “the waters receding, going and returning.” (Arcana Coelestia 848{1-3})
Extra Exploration
Using the In Me tool and reading space, time and person as psychological illustrations can also be applied when working with the Text. Here are two you might like to try doing this with:
There came some spirits in front; and before their coming I noticed a sphere from evil spirits, from which I supposed that evil spirits were approaching; but they were their enemies, as I learned from the aggressive and hostile feeling which they inspired against them. When they arrived they placed themselves above my head, and spoke with me, saying that they were men. I answered that they were not men endowed with a body such as men in the world have, who are wont to call themselves men from the form of the body; but that nevertheless they are men, because the spirit of the man is truly the man. To this I perceived no dissent, for they confirmed it. They said further that they were men who are unlike; and because it seemed impossible to me that there could be a society in the other life of those who are unlike, I talked with them about it, and said that if a common cause impelled them to unity, they nevertheless could be associated, because they would thus all have one end. They said that their quality was such that each one speaks differently from the others, and yet they all think alike. This they also illustrated by examples, whereby it appeared that the perception of all was one, but that their speech was diverse. They then applied themselves to my left ear and said that they were good spirits, and it was their custom so to speak. It was said of them that they come in a body, and that no one knows where they come from. I perceived the sphere of evil spirits to be exceedingly hostile to them; for evil spirits are the subjects whom they agitate. Their society, which is a wandering one, was represented by a man and a woman in a chamber, clothed with a garment that was turned into a robe of an azure color. (Arcana Coelestia 5189{1,2})
I have seen the palaces of heaven which were so magnificent that they cannot be described. Above, they glittered as if made of pure gold, and below, as if made of precious stones. Some were more splendid than others. It was the same within. Neither words nor, knowledge are adequate to describe the decorations that adorned the rooms. On the side looking to the south there were parks where, too, everything shone, in some places the leaves glistening as if made of silver, and the fruit as if made of gold, while the flowers in their beds formed as it were rainbows with their colours. Beyond the boundaries where the view terminated were seen other palaces. Such is the architecture of heaven that you would say that there the art is in its very essence, and no wonder, because the art itself is from heaven. (Heaven and Hell 185)