Stage Two: A Need to Examine More Deeply

A pressing need to examine what is being unveiled before us is what drives this stage, and so with it comes more difficult states of struggle but also greater depths of connection and clarity.  There is often a feeling of being swung back and forth on the pendulum from one extreme state to another. Or to put it another way, from one state of delight and soul satisfying connection with the Lord and all that He stands for, to states of loss, grief, anxiety, unworthiness and anguish.

I  slept  this  night  about  eleven  hours,  and  during  the whole  of  the  morning  was  in  my  usual  state  of  internal  gladness, which  was,  nevertheless,  attended  with  a  pang:  this,  I  thought, arose  from  the  power  of  the  Spirit  and  my  own  unworthiness. At  last,  with  God’s  help,  I  came  into  these  thoughts,  that we  ought  to  be  contented  with  everything  which  pleases  the Lord,  because  it  is  for  the  Lord  [and  not  for  us]  to  say; and,  further,  that  the  Spirit  is  not  resisted,  when  we  receive from  God  the  assurance  that  it  is  God’s  grace  which  does  all tilings   for  our   welfare: for   if  we    are   God’s,   we  must   be delighted  with  whatever  He  pleases  to  do  with  His  own;  still we  must  ask  the  Lord  for  this,  because  not  even  the  least thing  is  in  our  own  power.  For  this  the  Lord  gave  me  His grace.  I reflected upon  this,  desiring  to  understand  the  reason why  all  this  happens.  Yet  this  was  sinful;  for  my  thoughts ought  not  to  have  gone  in  that  direction,  but  I  ought  to  have prayed  to  the  Lord  for  power  to  control  them.  It  ought  to be  enough  for  us  [to  know]  that  it  so  pleases  the  Lord.  In everything  we  ought  only  to  call  upon  Him,  pray  to  and  thank Him,  and  with  humility  recognise  our  own  unworthiness. (Document 209:59)

April  9-10th.  The  whole  day  of  the  9th  I  spent  in prayer,  in  songs  of  praise,  in  reading  God’s  Word,  and  fasting ; except  in  the  morning  when  I  was  otherwise  occupied,  until the  same  kind  of  temptation  came,  and  I  was  compelled  to think  on  subjects  contrary  to  my  own  will. (Document 209:51)

Afterwards  several  days  in  succession  I  was  generally for  a  few  hours  in  spiritual  anxiety,  without  being  able to  tell  the  cause;  although  I  seemed  to  be  assured  of  God’s grace.  In  the  afternoons,  however,  I  was  in  a  state  of  great happiness  and  spiritual  peace. (Document 209:131)

While  I  had  the  most  damnable  thoughts,  the  worst  that possibly  could  be,  Jesus  Christ  was  presented  vividly  before my  internal  sight;  and  the  operation  of  the  Holy  Spirit  came over  me,  from  which  I  knew  that  the  devil  was  gone.  On the  following  day  also  I  was  in  a  state  of  infestation,  in  conflicting thoughts,  and  in  strife.  In  the  afternoon  I  was  mostly in  a  tranquil  state,  and  thought  of  God,  though  engaged  in worldly  things. (Document 209:112)

With these wild fluctuations of inner states, from one end of the pendulum to the other, comes the alarming and often fear-inducing feeling of a loss of control over what is happening, and over our very life.

I  was  also  in  a  temptation,  where  thoughts  invaded me  which  I  could  not  control;  nay  they  poured  in  so  powerfully, that  all  my  other  thoughts  were  kept  under,  and  full liberty  was  given  them  to  resist  the  power  of  the  Spirit, which  leads  in  a  different  direction;  the  infestation  was,  indeed, so  strong  that  unless  God’s  grace  had  been  stronger,  I must  either  have  succumbed  or  become  mad.  During  that time  I  could  not  direct  my  thoughts  to  the  contemplation  of  Christ,  whom  I  had  seen  for  that  brief  moment  (see  no.  27). The  action  of  the  Spirit  and  its  power  affected  me  so,  that  I almost  lost  my  senses…. I  can  only  compare  this  to  a  pair  of  scales, in  one  of  which  is  our  own  will  and  our  sinful  nature,  and  in the  other  God’s  power. These  our  Lord  disposes  in  temptation,   so  that  they  are  in    a  state  of  equilibrium;   as  soon then  as  it  is  borne  down  on  this  side,  He  helps  it  up  again. Such  have  I  found  to  be  the  case,  speaking  in  a  natural manner;  from  which  it  follows  that  this  is  far  from  being  our own  power,  for  that  draws  the  scale  down,  and  is  rather opposed  to,  than  cooperating  with  the  Spirit’s  power;  and, consequently,  it  is  entirely  our  Lord’s  work,  which  is  thus disposed  by  Him. (Document 209:34)

The  same  day  I  was  somewhat  disturbed  in  mind,  as I  could  not  control  the  thoughts,  which  flowed  in  against  my will  both  in  a  negative  and  an  affirmative  form.  I  was  at Divine  service,  where  I  noticed  that  thoughts  on  matters  of faith,  respecting  Christ,  His  merit  and  the  like,  even  though  they be  entirely  favourable  and  confirmatory,  still  cause  a  certain disquietude,   and  give  rise  to   opposing  thoughts  which  cannot be  resisted,  whenever  man  tries  to  believe  from  his  own understanding,  and  not  from  the  Lord’s  grace.  (Document 209:98)

Often this is the time where memories of past and present transgressions resurface and are brought into view so that the Word may offer new light to them, a new way of seeing them and eventually of being in relationship to them. Whilst again these experiences can be very difficult, the Lord’s end for them is that whatever can be integrated into a life of use will remain, and what cannot integrate will be seen as such, and effectively cast off in the very act of seeing and acknowledging. These states carry a sense of healing because the submission of our own understanding and love to that healing is offered up to the Lord; as is also the need to be in control, because the meaning of our life is instead given over to His meaning for our life.  Painful memories may not necessarily, in and of themselves, find a place of peace as we would typically hope for, but the healing is contained in the new relationship we can have with those states of pain and the struggle that was or is in the experiences and memories.

I  then  found  that  things  were  reproduced  in  my  thoughts, which  had  entered  into  them  long  before;  and  I  saw  confirmed thereby  the  truth  of  God’s  Word  that  there  is  not  the  least  word  or  the  least  thought  which  God  does  not  know,  and  for which  we  ourselves  should  not  be  responsible,  were  it  not  for  God’s  grace. (Document 209:35)

Afterwards,  when  various  things  occurred  to  me,  of which  I  had  thought  long  ago,  and  which  had  become  fixed in  my  mind,  it  was  just  as  if  I  had  been  told  that  I  had found  reasons  for  excusing  myself — this  also  was  a  great temptation  for  me — or  again  reasons  for  attributing  to  myself the  good  that  I  had  done,  or  rather  that  was  done  through me:  but  God’s  Spirit  prevented  even  this,  and  caused  me  to find  it  otherwise. (Document 209:38)

October  20-21th.  It  was  most  gracious  and  wonderful that  on  the  previous  day  I  had  felt  myself  unworthy  of  all the  grace  God  had  been  pleased  to  exhibit  towards  me;  for love  of  my  own  self  and  pride  were  so  deeply  rooted  in me ;  I  therefore  prayed  to  God  that  He  would  remove  them from  me,  since  this  is  not  in  my  own  power.  In  the  evening I  found  myself  in  a  most  curious  state  of  mind,  such  as  I had  never  experienced  before :  for  I  despaired  of  God’s  grace, although  I  knew  that  God  is  so  gracious,  and  that  He  has shown  greater  grace  towards  me  than  towards  anyone  else. There was  an  anxiety  in  the  soul,  but  not  in  the  mind,  though I  became  conscious  of  it  only  in  the  mind  itself,  without  feeling any  pain  in  the  body. (Document 209:200)

This last  [temptation]  was  severer  than  the  first,  as it  went  to  the  innermost,  and  to  resist  it  I  received  a  stronger evidence  of  the  Spirit;  for  at  times  I  broke  into  a  perspiration.     What    then    arose   in   my   mind    had    no    longer   the effect of  condemning  me;  for  I  had  a  strong  assurance that  I  had  been  forgiven;  but  the  desire  came  to  excuse  myself, and  make  myself  free.  Very  often  I  burst  into  tears, not  of  sorrow,  but  of  inmost  joy  at  our  Lord’s  deigning  to  be so  gracious  to  so  unworthy  a  sinner ;  for  the  sum  of  all  I found  to  be  this,  that  the  only  thing  needful  is  to  cast  oneself in  all  humility  on  our  Lord’s  grace,  to  recognize  one’s own  unworthiness,  and  to  thank  God  in  humility  for  His grace:  for  if  there  is  a  feeling  of  glorification  contained  in  it, the  tendency  of  which  is  towards  our  own  honour — whether  it is  a  glorification  of  God’s  grace  or  of  anything  else — such  a feeling  is  impure. (Document 209:38)

And so, the work in this stage leads the self into an increasing awareness that the Lord’s way is the only way that saves. That His truth is only what can offer real freedom and peace.  And therefore, this stage leads the sense of self into greater depths of submission in giving up its ownership of life; in letting go of all that it has known; in letting go of the need to control its direction; and instead, listening more instead to what the Lord as the Word is asking of it.

By  some  rays  of  light  in  me  I  found  that  it  would  be the  greatest  happiness  to  become  a  martyr ;  for  on  beholding inexpressible  grace  combined  with  love  to  God,  a  desire was  kindled  in  me  to  undergo  this  torture,  which  is  nothing compared  with  eternal  torment;  and  [a  conviction  then] that  the  least  of  the  things  that  one  can  offer  is  his  life. (Document 209:24)

Afterwards  I  seemed  to  say  to  myself  that  the  Lord Himself  will  instruct  me. For,  as  I  discovered,  I  am  in  such a  state  that  I  know  nothing  on  this  subject  except  that  Christ  must  be  all  in  all,  or  God through  Christ,  so  that  we  of  ourselves  cannot  contribute  the least  towards  it,  and  still  less  strive  for  it:  wherefore  it  is best  to  surrender  at  discretion,  and  were  it  possible  to  be altogether  passive  in  this  matter,  it  would  be  a  state  of perfection. (Document 209:194)

I  saw  also  in  a  vision  how  some  beautiful  bread  was presented  to  me  on  a  plate. This  was  a  prediction  that the  Lord  Himself  will  instruct  me,  as  soon  as  I  have  attained that  state  in  which  I  shall  know  nothing,  and  in  which  all my  preconceived  notions  will  be  removed  from  me;  which  is the  first    state  of  learning:   or,   in  other  words,  that  I  must first  become   a   child,    and  that   then   I   shall    be   able   to   be nurtured  in  knowledge,  as  is  being  the  case  with  me  now. (Document 209:195)

In  the  morning,  on  awaking,  I  fell  into  a  swoon  or fainting  fit,  similar  to  that  which  I  experienced  about  six or  seven  years  ago  at  Amsterdam,  when  I  entered  upon  the Economia  Regni  Animalis;  but  it  was  much  more  subtle,  so that  I  was  almost  dead.  It  came  upon  me  as  soon  as  I  saw the  light.  I  threw  myself  upon  my  face,  when  it  gradually passed  off.  In  the  mean  time  short  interrupted  slumbers took  possession  of  me.     So  that  this  swoon  or  deliquium  was more  interior  and  deeper;  but  I  soon  got  over  it. — This signifies  that  my  head  is  being  cleared,  and  is  really  being cleansed  of  all  that  would  obstruct  these  thoughts. (Document 209:207)

All of this is leading into the third stage of awakening of instruction, and finding a way forward.

Summary of Experiences in Stage Two – A Need to Examine More Deeply

• Swinging back and forth between delight and connection to anguish, unworthiness and despair
• Feeling a loss of control
• Past and present memories and relationships resurfacing to be reframed in the light of the new ways of thinking that the Text offers.
• A sense of healing and peace in this – but not in the typical way we think of healing and peace, more of being in a new relationship with them
• A seeing that what the truth of the Text offers is real freedom
• Feeling a call to a greater depth of submission to the Lord and the authority to the Text
• Leading to an acknowledgement that we are being asked to let go of the need to be in control and to submit our life to His ways and directions.

Questions for Reflection

• What resonates for you from this second stage?
• Write down and explain why, and describe experiences that connect to this feeling of resonance?
• What has helped in supporting you through these experiences?
• What questions are you still carrying from these experiences?
• What ideas will you take away from this stage to ponder on?

The Third Stage: The Instruction in Finding a Way Forward

There is ongoing work on submission in this stage and acceptance of our life being the Lord’s and not ours, and that we are in fact nothing but a receiver of it. With this comes a willingness of the heart to be led by the Word, as Divine Truth, because It reveals the Lord to us. There is a new sense of willingness, a sense of being led into and through the processes the Word as the Lord is taking us. We see what belongs to our will or sense of self when it is separated from the love and wisdom that is the Lord, and this clearer distinction brings a new clarity in our thinking and an opening into what it means to be in spiritual freedom. This freedom is experienced in knowing that we are actively choosing His ways but that even this choosing is a gift of His life flowing into us.

This  much  have  I  learned  thus  far  in  spiritual  things, that  there  is  nothing  for  it  but  to  humble  oneself,  and  with all  humility  to  desire  nothing  but  the  grace  of  Christ.  I strove  from  my  own  self  to  obtain  love;  but  this  is  presumptuous: for  when  any  one  has  God’s  grace,  he  leaves  himself to  Christ’s  pleasure,  and  acts  according  to  His  pleasure;  a person  is  happiest  when  he  is  in  God’s  grace.  With  the humblest  prayer  I  had  to  ask  forgiveness  before  my  conscience could  be  appeased;  for  before  doing  so,  I  was  still  in  temptation. The  Holy  Spirit  taught  me  all  this,  but  I  in  my weak  understanding  passed  over  humility,  which  yet  is  the foundation  of  all. (Document 209:30)

The  most  singular  thing  is,  that  I  now  represent  the  inner man,  and,  as  it  were,  another  than  myself;  that  I  visit  my  own thoughts,  frighten  them,  i.  e.  the  things  of  my  memory;  that I  accuse  another. — This  shows  that  matters  are  changed  now; and  that  I  represent  the  inner  man,  who  is  opposed  to  another [i.  e.  the  external  man].     For  I  prayed  to  God  that  I  might not  be  my  own,  but  that  God  might  please  to  let  me  be  His. (Document 209:84)

Afterwards,  because  it  seemed  to  me  I  was  so  far separated  from  God  that  I  could  not  yet  think  of  Him  in  a sufficiently  vivid  manner, I    came  into  a  state  of doubt  whether  I  should  not  direct  my  journey  homewards;  a crowd  of  involved  reasons  then  came,  and  my  body  was  seized with  a  tremor.  Yet  I  gathered  courage  and  perceived  that I  had  come  [to  Holland]  to  do  that  which  was  best  of  all, and  that  I  had  received  a  talent  for  the  promotion  of  God’s glory ;  I  saw  that  all  had  helped  together  to  this  end ;  that the  Spirit  had  been  with  me  from  my  youth  for  this  very  purpose; wherefore  I  considered  myself  unworthy  of  life,  unless, I  followed  the  straight  direction.  I  then  smiled  at  the  other seducing  thoughts ;  and  thus  at  luxury,  riches,  and  distinction, which  I  had  pursued.  All  these  I  saw  to  be  vain ;  and  I  discovered that  he  who  is  without  them,  and  is  contented,  is happier  than  he  who  possesses  them.  I  therefore  smiled  at all  arguments  by  which  I  might  be  confirmed ;  and  with  God’s help  made  a  resolution. May  God  grant  His  help. (Document 209:110)

Once an acceptance of our life being the Lord’s is what leads us, then the sense of self comes more into alignment with the Lord’s purpose for all – for the salvation of all; and brings with it an enlightened understanding that the sense of self is the Lord’s vehicle for this. A shift then occurs with less focus on the struggles of the self and more on what these struggles can offer to our work for His purpose – for us and the greater common good for the whole.  Whether that be the whole of all those we have contact with in our life, the whole of the spiritual associations and communities that we are in contact with, or with the whole of all that is in His creation.

What  the  acts  of  my  life  involved,  I  could  not  distinguish at  the  time  they  happened,  but  by  the  Divine  mercy  of  God- Messiah  I  was  afterwards  informed  with  regard  to  some,  even many,  particulars.  From  these  I  was  at  last  able  to  see  that the  Divine  Providence   governed  the   acts   of  my  life  uninterruptedly  from  my  very  youth,  and  directed  them  in  such  a manner,  that  by  means  of  the  knowledge  of  natural  things  I was  enabled  to  reach  a  state  of  intelligence,  and  thus  by  the Divine  mercy  of  God-Messiah,  to  serve  as  an  instrument  for opening  those  things  which  are  hidden  interiorly  in  the  Word of  God-Messiah.  Those  things,  therefore,  are  now  made  manifest, which  hitherto  were  not  manifest.”  (Document 208: Introduction- quote from Adversaria,  Part  II, no.  839).

All  this,  it  seems  to  me,  represents  that  I  must  employ my  remaining  time  in  writing  upon  that  which  is  higher, and  not  upon  worldly  things  which  are  far  below ;  and,  indeed, that  I  must  write  about  that  which  concerns  the  very  centre of  all,  and  that  which  concerns  Christ.  May  God  be  so gracious  as  to  enlighten  me  respecting  my  duty ;  for  I  am  still in  some  obscurity  as  to  the  direction whither  I  am  to  turn. (Document 209:126)

Our conscious thoughts start to get framed around what we are being taught by the Word, and what it speaks to us in more universal terms, with less sense of what it means for the self, but more about what it teaches about the nature of spiritual life and spiritual principles in general. So, there is a shift away from the specifics of “I” towards the general of “all that is”.

In  short,  if  a  person is  in  such  a  state  that  he  is  not  influenced  by  a  love  which centres  in  himself,  but  by  one  which  centres  in  the  common good,  such  as  on  earth  or  in  the  moral  world  represents  love in  the  spiritual  world;  and  if  he  is  not  in  that  love  for  the sake  of  himself  or  of  society,  but  for  the  sake  of  Christ,  whose love  constitutes  also  the  centre — if  a  person  is  in  such  a  state, then  he  is  in  a  right  state;  Christ  is  then  the  ultimate  end, and  the  rest  are  mediate  ends  leading  directly  towards  the ultimate  end. (Document 209:92)

While the specific sense of calling in our life is unique to each individual, and is perpetually evolving and coming into being, there are elements within the experience that are universal to all.  This stage is where the intensities of the swinging pendulum begins to settle. Disruptions still occur but they don’t disorientate our sense of being as much as they once did. There is now a growing acceptance of their presence, and they are seen to be just as much part of the process of spiritual life, as are the states of delight and connection. And the sense of their extremes, from one end of the pendulum to the other, is what settles, because we see that the pendulum must always be in motion. We see, in fact, that it is the motion itself that gives rise to the experience that we call life, that allows us to sense the life that flows in from the Lord who is the source of all. And it is our unique resistance to that influx that creates the experience of swinging, like the motion of our limbs as we walk forward along the path.  Sometimes we walk, sometimes we dawdle and sometimes we run. Sometimes there is an obvious rhythm and sometimes there is a labour to establish one. But always, there is movement and motion.

It was remarkable, that Swedenborg never endeavored to persuade any person to receive his opinions ; he was once asked, whether it might be possible for any one, but himself, to arrive at the same degree of spiritualty; he replied, ‘Take good care, for the natural man lays himself open to temptations, when, by his own speculations, he tries to find out celestial things that transcend his understanding.’ He then declared, how the Lord has taught us in the Lord’s Prayer to pray, Lead us not into temptation,- which means, that we ought not, from our own power and knowledge, to doubt of the divine truths revealed to us  ‘I never thought,’ added he,’ I should have come into the spiritual state in which I am; but the Lord had prepared me for it, in order to reveal the Spiritual Sense of the Word, which he had promised in the Prophets and the Revelations.’ (Document 10 Anecdotes Collected by Mr. Robsahm)

Summary of Stage Three – The Instruction in Finding a Way Forward

• An increase in willingness of heart to be led by the Word
• An ability to be in clearer distinctions
• A shift in focus from our individual struggles to what these can offer to support our work for His purposes for all, for the greater good, and for His use for us in that
• The intensities of the back and forth swinging or fluctuations start to settle
• Disruptions and struggles still occur but they aren’t as debilitating as they once were
• A growing acceptance of being in a process rather than focused on an outcome
• Seeing that the motion and movement of the fluctuations is what gives rise to the experience of being alive

Questions for Reflection

• New thoughts are needed for a change of mind and a consequent change of heart. The Word as Divine revelation is what provides these new thoughts and thus a new mind and heart begins to form when we think from what It teaches. What does this statement bring up for you?
• Can you identify the difference in the quality of an experience in a situation where you have been process-focused rather than outcome-focused?  Or have been initially outcome-focused but switched to being present in the process instead of worrying about how it would unfold? Can you compare and contrast these two modes of being from your own experiences?
• We awaken for the service of others. What does this mean to you now after having worked through this module?
• What else resonates for you from this third stage?
• What will you take away to examine more deeply from the three-stage process as a whole?

Overall Summary

These three stages aren’t perfectly linear of course, and are cyclic on a day-to-day, state-to-state scale, but overall this is a process that we see illustrated, not just in Swedenborg’s experiences but others who have also had spiritual awakenings. There is no time that can be attributed to these stages, and each takes as long or as little as is needed.  Stage three in particular may take a lifetime to arrive at in this plane of life, but we will catch glimpses of it along the way. The Word, as Divine revelation that reveals the Lord to us, is given to support our spiritual awakening. If we trust in It, let ourselves be led by It and apply our self to the work of this – then although what unfolds will be of both heaven and hell, heaven is what will prevail in the end because it is what the process leads into. It is the creation of a new form of mind, of a heavenly image and likeness, of a human.

The spiritual angels seemed, as it were, to unroll the coat of the left eye towards the septum of the nose, that the eye might be opened, and the sight restored. This is an appearance, but the spirit perceives it to be really done; and when the coat of the eye seems to have been unrolled, some light is seen, but very dimly, like that which a man sees through the eyelids on first awakening. This dim light seemed to me of a heavenly hue, but I was afterwards told that the colour varies with different persons. Next followed a sensation as though something were being gently unrolled from the face, and when this is done, spiritual thought is induced. This unrolling from the face is also an appearance, which represents the transition from natural thought to spiritual thought. The angels are extremely careful lest any idea should come from the person who is being raised which does not spring from love. They now tell him that he is a spirit. After they have given light, the spiritual angles render all the services which he can ever desire in that state, and instruct him concerning things of another life, so far as he is able to comprehend them.  (Heaven and Hell 450)

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 and Exploration

That “cold and heat” signifies the state of man when he is being regenerated, which is like this in regard to the reception of faith and charity, and that “cold” signifies no faith and charity, and “heat” charity, is evident from the signification of “cold” and “heat” in the Word, where they are predicated of a man about to be regenerated, or being regenerated, or of the church. The same is also evident from the connection, that is, from what precedes and what follows; for the subject is the church (in the preceding verse that man would not again be able so to destroy himself, in this verse that some church will always come into existence), which is first described as to the way it comes into existence, that is, when the man is being regenerated so as to become a church, and then the quality of the regenerated man is treated of; so that the treatment of the subject covers every state of the man of the church. That his state when regenerated is as described, namely, a state of cold and heat, or of no faith and charity, and again of faith and charity, may not be so evident to anyone except from experience, and indeed from reflection in regard to the experience. And because there are few who are being regenerated, and among those who are being regenerated few if any who reflect, or who are able to reflect on the state of their regeneration, we may say a few words on the subject. When man is being regenerated, he receives life from the Lord; for before this he cannot be said to have lived, the life of the world and of the body not being life, but only that which is heavenly and spiritual. Through regeneration man receives real life from the Lord; and because he had no life before, there is an alternation of no life and of real life, that is, of no faith and charity, and of some faith and charity; no charity and faith being here signified by “cold” and some faith and charity by “heat.” As regards this subject the case is this: Whenever man is in his corporeal and worldly things, there is then no faith and charity, that is, there is “cold” for then corporeal and worldly things, consequently those which are his own, are at work, and so long as the man is in these, he is absent or remote from faith and charity, so that he does not even think about heavenly and spiritual things. The reason of this is that heavenly and corporeal things can never be together in a man, for man’s will has been utterly ruined. But when the things of man’s body and will are not at work, but are quiescent, then the Lord works through his internal man, and then he is in faith and charity, which is here called “heat.” When he again returns into the body he is again in cold; and when the body, or what is of the body, is quiescent, and as nothing, he is then in heat, and so on in alternation. For such is the condition of man that heavenly and spiritual things cannot be in him along with his corporeal and worldly things, but there are alternations. This is what takes place with everyone who is to be regenerated, and it goes on as long as he is in a state of regeneration; for in no other way is it possible for man to be regenerated, that is, from being dead to be made alive, for the reason, as already said, that his will has been utterly ruined, and is therefore completely separated from the new will, which he receives from the Lord and which is the Lord’s and not the man’s. Hence now it is evident what is here signified by “cold and heat.” That such is the case every regenerated man may know from experience, that is to say, that when he is in corporeal and worldly things, he is absent and remote from internal things, so that he not only takes no thought about them, but feels in himself cold at the thought of them; but that when corporeal and worldly things are quiescent, he is in faith and charity. He may also know from experience that these states alternate, and that therefore when corporeal and worldly things begin to be in excess and to want to rule, he comes into straits and temptations, until he is reduced into such a state that the external man becomes compliant to the internal, a compliance it can never render until it is quiescent and as it were nothing. The last posterity of the Most Ancient Church could not be regenerated, because, as before said, with them the things of the understanding and of the will constituted one mind; and therefore the things of their understanding could not be separated from those of their will, so that they might in this manner be by turns in heavenly and spiritual things, and in corporeal and worldly things; but they had continual cold in regard to heavenly things and continual heat in regard to cupidities, so that they could have no alternation. (Arcana Coelestia 933{1-4})

That “summer and winter” signify the state of the regenerate man as to his new will, the alternations of which are as summer and winter, is evident from what has been said about cold and heat. The alternations with those who are to be regenerated are likened to cold and heat, but the alternations with those who have been regenerated are likened to summer and winter. That in the former case the man who is to be regenerated is treated of, and in the present case the man who has been regenerated, is evident from this, that in the one case cold is named first, and heat second; whereas in the other case summer is first named, and winter second. The reason is that a man who is being regenerated begins from cold, that is, from no faith and charity; but when he has been regenerated, he begins from charity. That there are alternations with the regenerate man—now no charity, and now some charity—is clearly evident for the reason that in everyone, even when regenerated, there is nothing but evil, and everything good is the Lord’s alone. And since there is nothing but evil in him, he cannot but undergo alternations and now be as it were in summer, that is, in charity, and now in winter, that is, in no charity. Such alternations exist in order that man may be perfected more and more, and thus be rendered more and more happy, and they take place with the regenerate man not only while he lives in the body, but also when he comes into the other life, for without alternations as of summer and winter as to what is of his will, and as of day and night as to what is of his understanding, he cannot possibly be perfected and rendered more happy; but in the other life these alternations are like those of summer and winter in the temperate zones, and those of day and night in springtime. These states are also described in the Prophets by “summer and winter” and by “day and night;” as in Zechariah: And it shall come to pass in that day that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the eastern sea, and half of them toward the western sea; in summer and in winter shall it be (Zechariah 14:8),where the New Jerusalem is treated of, or the kingdom of the Lord in heaven and on earth, that is, its state of both kinds, which is called “summer and winter.” In David: The day is Thine, the night also is Thine; Thou hast prepared the light and the sun, Thou hast set all the borders of the earth, Thou hast made summer and winter (Psalms 74:16-17), where like things are involved. So in Jeremiah: That the covenant of the day, and the covenant of the night be not made vain, that there may be day and night in their season (Jeremiah 33:20 (Arcana Coelestia 935{1-3})

Before anything is reduced into a state of order, it is most usual that things should be reduced into a confused mass, or chaos as it were, so that those which do not well cohere together may be separated, and when they are separated, then the Lord disposes them into order. This process may be compared with what takes place in nature, where all things in general and singly are first reduced to a confused mass, before being disposed into order. Thus, for instance, unless there were storms in the atmosphere, to dissipate whatever is heterogeneous, the air could never become serene, but would become deadly by pestiferous accumulations. So in like manner in the human body, unless all things in the blood, both heterogeneous and homogeneous, did continuously and successively flow together into one heart, to be there commingled, there would be deadly conglutinations of the liquids, and they could in no way be distinctly disposed to their respective uses. Thus also it is with man in the course of his regeneration. (Arcana Coelestia 842{3})

While he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent to him, saying, “Have nothing to do with that just Man, for I have suffered many things today in a dream because of Him.” (Matthew 27:19)

And here we have the sixth and final dream in the Gospel of Matthew where we find Pilate, whose name means close pressed, is being approached by his wife who is appealing to him with her affections, asking him not to be part of the persecution and condemnation of Jesus. She explains that she has had an experience of this man through a dream, and that it brought up feelings of suffering or struggle. In fact, the root word in the Greek that is used here is pas’-kho’which means to experience a sensation of impression – to feel passion, suffer or vex.  So essentially, this is another warning which serves as an instruction about the direction in which the state of things should move. And because that which is close pressed, Pilate is sitting up on a judgment seat, which can also be translated as an elevated public place or throne, it is in a position from which it can see that which is lower. This dream is different from the others in Matthew, because the one receiving the instruction is not the one sleeping and dreaming and is instead offered the instruction from the dream of another. This seems to reflect a state in which there is an increased wakefulness or consciousness, and an increased ability to be able to observe the instruction with less reference to self, because Pilate, as the one who is active in the state, is sitting and seeing from a higher place. A higher place spiritually speaking, is one in which the Word is ruling over what is lower in the mind. We know of course, that even though Pilate is able to acknowledge Jesus, he is unable to go against the pressings of the crowd and washes his hands to let them decide His fate.

So, we can see in this gradual, gentle progression over the six dreams in Matthew, a state of the self that is waking up and becoming more conscious of the Word in its life, and thus also becoming more able to discern and make distinctions between what is flowing into its landscape. But we also see just how great this struggle is; because with this increased ability to observe the quality of things also comes the need for separation from that which is not conducive to the Lord’s love and use in His purpose for us.  In these separations we are slowly but surely being asked to give up the old ways and modes of thinking about life, and all that this entails, and to instead submit to the life the Lord is offering us.

Swedenborg himself documented his awakening process as he engaged with the Word. What starts out as a travel diary in 1743, documenting his visit to various places in Europe, suddenly changes into a journal of awakening experiences and dreams. He kept this journal during the years of 1743-1744, around the same time that he was exploring the life of the spirit through the many knowledges in which his life was immersed – the world of science and philosophy.  We can see him attempting to make connections between the life of the spirit and the world in the two works: ‘The Soul or Rational Psychology’ (1742) and ‘The Animal Kingdom’ (1744-1745). But slowly he was being moved away from the world of science and philosophy towards a more theological and heart-based exploration of his affections and an understanding of the Divine, which was being opened up through the text of Sacred Scriptures. We can see this illustrated in his play titled The Worship and Love of God (1745) which he began but never finished. He turned back instead to a detailed look at the Text Itself, of which he made three attempts of working with the early parts of the Bible – The History Creation (1745), Adversaria(The Word Explained (1745-47) and Fragments on Genesis and Exodus (1747). In The History Creation(9) he says of The Worship and Love of God:

That work, however,  was  written  under  the leadership  of  the  understanding,  or  according  to  the  thread  of  reason. As  human  intelligence,  however,  cannot  be  trusted  in  any  respect, unless  it  is  inspired  by  God,  therefore  it  becomes  necessary  in  the interest  of  truth  to  compare  what  has  been  laid  down  in  the  above- named  work  with  the  revelation  in  the  sacred Volume  and  in  the present  case  with  the  history  of  creation  revealed  by  God  to  Moses, and  thus  to  examine  carefully  how  far  they  agree:  for  whatever  does not  harmonise  thoroughly  with  revelation,  must  be  declared  to  be altogether  false,  or  the  insane  product  of  our  rational  mind. With this end in view, I have deemed it well to premise a very brief commentary on the first chapters of Genesis.

He finally started writing Arcana Coelestia in 1748, which marks the beginning of what we now refer to as the the doctrines for Spiritual Christianity in 1749. 

If we look at this early awakening period in his life and the content he was producing, we can see two movements. One from a focus on learning and writing about things of the world to learning and writing about things of the spirit. And then also in parallel, a shift from the focus of his personal feelings and what he was going through and trying to make sense of, to eventually coming to write about them more as an objective observer. The states of struggle and delight in them are still the same, but his focus shifts from concentrating on what it means for him personally, to what it says about his own universal experiences, which can speak to any reader who is going through the same processes. So, there is a transition from the focus on his own spiritual observations for the sake of his own inner work, to the observations being for the sake of what it might offer others about their process.

As with any experience, a spiritual awakening is unique to each of us in terms of the details and conditions that are specific to our day-to-day life, relationships, and to our personal identification with what and who we are; but the process is universal in terms of the shifts of consciousness each is moved through and into. In this module we are going to look at Swedenborg’s experiences of awakening as a three-stage process, as a process that can inform us about the universal struggles, delights, and shifts in our sense of self and its relationship to the Word as we become conscious to It being the manifestation of the Lord in our life.

Stage 1: The Shock of Duality

The first beginnings of a spiritual awakening can be a shock to the system, to the system that has been sustaining us for so long. An experience of having our eyes opened translates psychologically to having our understanding opened into seeing things that haven’t been seen before -and that we weren’t able to see before. This, of course leads to a state of disparity between what was before and what is after. There is now an alternative way of seeing or rather understanding, and these noticeable contrasts are often experienced as:

• Before and after
• Old and new
• What was in darkness and now light
• Being asleep and now awake
• What is outside and within

This last one interestingly is what arises from the other dualities. The old ways of seeing things may be experienced more like something that feels outside of our self now, like we are watching and observing the old ideas and the self that related to them.  In contrast, the new ideas feel like they are coming from within, and speaking more interiorly to where things are connecting deeply, closer to the heart of things, with more meaning and resonance to the essence of our soul or spirit. Here are some examples of dreams and visions that Swedenborg recorded early on in his spiritual awakening when his sense of reality is starting to warp, and where he is starting to feel dissociated with his reality and the established way of being.

In the evening I came into another kind  of  temptation.  Between eight and nine o’clock in  the  evening,  while  I  was  reading  God’s  miracles wrought  through  Moses,  it  seemed  to  me  as  if  something  of my  own  understanding  was  mixed  up  with  it,  so  that I  was not  able  to  have  so  strong  a  faith  as  I  ought.  I believed, and yet did not  believe. … I looked  upon the  fire,  and  said  to  myself,  “In  this  case  neither  ought  I  to believe  that  the  fire  is,  since  the  external  senses  are  more fallacious  than  what  God  says,  which  is  the  Truth  itself;  I ought  rather  to  believe  this  than  myself.”  With these and other  similar  thoughts  I  passed  an  hour,  or  an  hour  and  a half,  and  in  my  mind  was  engaged  with  the  Tempter. (Taken from ‘Documents Concerning the Life and Character of Emanuel Swedenborg’, collected, translated, and annotated by Tafel, Rudolf Leonhard. Document 209:26.)

What also commonly arises in the duality of seeing, is an experience of seeing two sets of thoughts, each vying for the central place in the mind.

It was wonderful that I could have at one and the same time two  thoughts,  which  were  quite  distinct:  one  for myself  who  was  occupied  entirely  by  different  thoughts,  and at  the  same  time  the  thoughts  of  the  temptation,  in  such  wise that  nothing  was  able  to  drive  them  away.  This kept me in such a state of  captivity  that  I  was  at  a  loss  whither  to  fly, for  I  carried  them  with  me. (Document 209:37)

I  was  continually  in  a  state  of  combat  between thoughts  which  were  antagonistic  to  one  another.  I  pray  Thee, O  Almighty  God,  that  Thou  wouldst  grant  me  the  grace  of being  Thine  and  not  mine.  Pardon  my  saying that  I  am Thine  and  not  mine;  it  is  God’s  and  not  my  privilege  to say  so.  I  pray  for the  grace  of  being  Thine,  and  of  not  being left  to  myself. (Document 209:70)

During  the  whole  day  I  was  in  conflicting  thought, which  tried  to  destroy  that  which  was  of  the  Spirit  by  abusive language.  I  found  therefore  that  the  temptation  was  very strong. (Document 209:73)

April  24-25th,  During  the  whole  night, for  about  eleven  hours,  I  lay  in  a  strange  trance;  I  know  not whether  I  was  asleep  or  awake.  I  knew  all  that  I  dreamt, but  my  thoughts  were  kept  bound,  which  at  times  produced perspiration.  I  cannot  describe  the  nature  of  the  sleep,  during which  my  double  [conflicting]  thoughts  were  as  it  were  severed, or  rent  apart. (Document 209:116)

The conflict in this duality of thoughts can lead to feeling like we are being split in two. And indeed, while all this is going on internally, it is also common to start feeling distance, separation and disconnect with our normal or usual relationship to life and with other people.

All  the  while  I  was  in  society  constantly  as  before, and  no  one  could  observe  the  least  change  in  me;  this  was of  God’s  grace ….  I  was  not  allowed  to  mention  the  large measure  of  grace  which  had  fallen  to  my  lot;  for  I  perceived that  on  the  one  hand  it  could  serve  no  other  purpose  than  to set  people  thinking  about  me  either  favourably  or  unfavourably, according  to  their  disposition  towards  me;  and,  on  the  other hand,  it  would  not  be  productive  of  any  use,  if  the  glorification of  God’s  grace  served  to  encourage my  own  self-love. (Document 209:46)

He used, at first, freely to speak of his visions and spiritual explications of the Scriptures; but as this displeased the clergy, who proclaimed him a heretic and madman, he resolved to be less communicative of his knowledge in company, or, at least, more cautious, lest the censorious should have room to blame what they could not comprehend like himself. (Document 10: Anecdotes on Swedenborg collected by Mr. Robsahm)

The  internal  state  of  delight,  however,  continued  so strong  in  the  mornings,  evenings,  and  during  the  day,  especially when  I  was  by  myself  alone,  without  company,  that  it  may be  compared  to  heavenly joy on  earth.  In  this  state  I  hope to  continue,  so  long  as  by  our  Lord’s  grace  alone  I  walk  in pure  paths  and  have  right  intentions;  for  as  soon  as  I  turn aside,  and  try  to  find  my  joy  in  worldly  things,  this  state  of delight  ceases. (Document 209:141)

I  found  that  I  was  more  unworthy  than  others  and  the greatest  sinner,  for  this  reason,  that  our  Lord  has  granted  me to  penetrate  by  thought  into  certain  things  more  deeply  than many  others;  and  the  very  source  of  sin  lies  in  the  thoughts I  am  carrying  out;  so  that  my  sins  have  on  that  account  a deeper  foundation  than   those   of  many  others;  and  in  this found  my  unworthiness  and  my  sins  greater  than  those  of  other men. (Document 209:41)

As things are destabilised in our belief structures, concepts, and relationship with the Lord and with others, experiences of doubt and questioning start to present, as do fear, anxiety or even depression.

April   5-6th.     Easter  was  on   the    5th  of  April,  when  I  went to  the  Lord’s  table.  Temptation  still  continued, mostly in  the  afternoon  till  six  o’clock:  but  it  assumed  no  definite form.  It  was  an  anxiety  felt  at  being  condemned  and  in hell;  but  in  this  feeling  the  hope  given  by  the  Holy  Spirit, according  to  Paul’s  epistle  to  the  Romans  v,  5,  remained strong. 1. Romans 5:5 “And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given to us.” 2. The  Evil  One  had  power  given  to him  to  disturb  my  inmost mind  by  various  thoughts.  On  Easter  day  after  the  Holy Supper,  I  was  inwardly  glad,  although  outwardly  sad.  The temptation  came  on  in  the  afternoon,  in  an  entirely  different manner,  but  strongly;  for  I  was  assured  that  my  sins  were forgiven,  and  still  I  could  not  govern  my  fugitive  thoughts  so as  to  restrain  some  expressions  opposed  to  my  better  understanding; I  was,  by  permission,  under  the  influence  of  the Evil  One. The  temptation  was  assuaged  by  prayer  and God’s  Word;  faith  was  there  in  its  entirety,  but  confidence and  love  seemed  to  be  gone. (Document 209:19)

I am  still  weary  in  my  body  and  mind;  for  I  know nothing  except  my  own  unworthiness,  and  am  in  pain  on account  of  being  a  wretched  creature.  I  see  by  this  knowledge that  I  am  unworthy  of  the  grace  I  have  received. (Document 209:60)

I learned  that  a  person  may  be  in  spiritual  anguish; even  though  he  be  assured  by  the  Spirit  that  his  sins  are  forgiven, and  although  he  have  the  hope  and  confidence  that  he is  in  God’s  grace. (Document 209:62)

I  was  this  day  at  intervals  in  interior  anxiety,  and at  times  in  a  state  of  despair;  still  I  was  assured  of  the forgiveness  of  my  sins.  In  consequence  of  this  a  cold  sweat  sometimes  broke  out  on  me  until  10  o’clock, when  with  God’s  help  I  fell  asleep.  A  voice  then  seemed to  say  to  me  that  some  command  would  be  given  me  from within.  I  slept  for  an  hour  and  a  half;  although  in  the  night I  had  slept  for  more  than  ten  hours.  With  God’s  grace  I had  a  preternatural  sleep;  and  this  has  been  the  case  now for  an  entire  half  year. (Document 209:91)

Sleep disturbance and an explosion of dreams are also a common experience when the spiritual mind starts to awaken, where those who have rarely dreamed before find that now they are, and those who have previously dreamed find that they are remembering even more than ever before. The dreams often have a sense of instruction in them, yet at other times are felt to be inexpressible in words but grounding a sense of reassurance and resonance with what is being experienced in waking life, in their conscious work with the new ideas that they are taking in.

A  young   woman    dressed   in   black  then  came  in  and said  that  I  had  to  go  to .Whereupon  she  came  behind  me holding  me  so  firmly  along  the  whole  back  with  her  hands, that  I  could  not  move.  I  prayed  someone  standing  by  to help  me,  when  he  got  her  away ;  but  I  had  no  power  to  move my  arm  myself. This had  reference  to  the  temptation  on  the previous  day,  and  to  my  inability  to  do  any  good  from  myself. (Document 209:49)

April  11-12th.  I  dreamt  during  the  whole  night,  yet I  recollect  only  very  little.  It  seemed  to  me  as  if  I  were instructed  the  whole  night  in  many  things  which  I  do  not remember. (Document 209:63)

About  day-break  I  fell  asleep  again,  and  then  had continually  in  my  thought,  how  Christ  conjoins  Himself  to mankind;  holy  thoughts  came,  but  they  were  of  such  a  nature as  to  be  unfathomable;  for  I  cannot  express  with  my  pen  the least  part  of  those  things  which  happened.  I  only  know  that I  have  had  such  thoughts. (Document 209:28)

Afterwards  I  awoke  and  slept  again  many  times;  and all  I  dreamt  was  in  answer  to  my  thoughts ;  yet  so,  that  in everything  there  was  such  life  and  glory,  that  I  can  give  no description  of  it;  for  it  was  all  heavenly;   clear  to  me  at  the time,  but  afterwards  inexpressible.  In short,  I  was  in  heaven, and  heard  a  language, which  no  human  tongue  can  utter  with its  inherent  life,  nor  the  glory  and  inmost  delight  resulting from  it. (Document 209:21)

It is in the Lord’s mercy that whilst all of this unraveling of the self is going on, it is of course also accompanied by states of delight and wonderment in the profound and new ideas from the Word, which are in fact the catalyst for all of the disruption.

I  experienced  so  much  of  the  Lord’s  grace,  when  I resolved  to  keep  my  thoughts  in  a  state  of  purity,  as  to  feel an  inmost  joy; still  this  was  accompanied  by  pain  of  body, which  could  not  bear  the  heavenly  joy  of  my  soul,  wherefore I  commended  myself  most  humbly  to  God’s  grace,  that He  would  do  with  me  according  to  His  good  pleasure.  May God  grant  me  humility  to  see  my  frailty,  impurity,  and  unworthiness. (Document 209:46)

I  had  a  preternaturally  good  and  long  sleep  for  twelve hours.  On  awaking  I  had  the  crucifixion  of  Jesus  and  His cross  before  my  eyes.  The  Spirit  came  with  its  heavenly and  almost  ecstatic  life  in  so  high  a  degree,  and  permitted me,  as  it  were,  to  rise  higher  and  higher  in  it,  that  if  I  had ascended  still  higher,  I  should  have  been  dissolved  in  this  real life  of  joy. (Document 209:78)

This  night  I  slept  very  tranquilly.  At  three  or  four o’clock  I  awoke  and  lay  awake,  but  in  a  kind  of  vision.  I could  look  up  and  be  observant  whenever  I  chose,  so  that  I was  not  otherwise  than  awake,  and  yet  in  the  spirit  there  was an  inward  gladness  which  diffused  itself  over  the  whole  body. All  seemed  in  a  wonderful  and  transcendent  manner  to  approach  and  conspire ; to  rise  up  as  it  were  and  nestle  in  infinitude  as  a  centre, where  Love  itself  was;  thence  it  seemed  to  extend  itself around  and  thus  down  again.  In  this  manner  it  moved  in an  incomprehensible  circle  [spire?]  whose  centre  was  Love, around  and  thus  hither  again;  that  Love  moved  towards and  into  a  mortal  body,  so  that  I  became  filled  with  it. I  likened  that  inward  feeling  of  gladness  to  what  is  felt by  a  chaste  husband  who  is  in  an  actual  state  of  love, and  enjoys  its  supreme  delight  with  his  spouse.  Such  a supreme  feeling  of  bliss  was  shed  over  my  whole  body,  and indeed,  for  a  long  time,  even  during  the  whole  time  before  I fell  asleep,  and  after  I  awoke  for  a  half,  nay  for  a  whole  hour. Now,  when  I  was  in  the  spirit  and  yet  awake — for  I  could lift  up  my  eyes  and  be  awake — and  when  I  came  into  the same  state  again,  I  saw  and  perceived  that  that  supreme Love  was  the  source  of  that  inmost  and  real  feeling  of gladness;  and  that  in  proportion  as  I  could  be  in  that  Love, in  the  same  proportion  I  was  in  a  state  of  bliss ;  but  as  soon as  I  came  into  another  love  which  did  not  centre  in  it,  I was  beyond  its  influence.  When  there  was  thus  an  affection for  self,  or  some  other  affection,  which  did  not  centre  in  that supreme  Love,  I  was  no  longer  in  that  state  of  gladness;  a slight  chill  crept  over  me,  I  shivered  and  felt  a  pain,  whence I  found  that  that  was  the  source  of  my  pains  sometimes,  and also  of  that  great  pain  and  sorrow  when  the  spirit  is  troubled. (Document 209:5)

And so, we leave this first stage of dishevelment and unwrapping of the self as we are led into the inevitable need to examine the quality of all that is arising more deeply. Indeed, it is as if we are almost left with no choice because once awakened…. there is no going back. We cannot ‘unsee’ things once they have been shown. So, it is with a mixture of motives that we are urged forward into the second stage: with a sense of self-preservation in the desire to have what is in conflict resolved, and with the affection of delight and gratitude, inspired by the increasing depth and connection with the Lord.

This  have  I  learned,  that  the  only  thing  in  this  state — and  I  do  not  know  any  other — is,  in  all  humility  to  thank God  for  His  grace,  and  to  pray  for  it,  and  to  recognise  our own  unworthiness,  and  God’s  infinite  grace. (Document 209:36)

October  3rd-6th.  I  have  noticed  several  times  that there  are  various  kinds  of  spirits.  The  one  spirit,  which  is that  of  Christ,  is  the  only  one  that  has  all  blessedness  with it;   by   other   spirits   man  is    enticed    a    thousand    ways   to follow  them;  but  woe  to  those  who  do  so.  Another  time  Korah and  Dathan  occurred  to  me,  who  brought  strange  fire  to  the altar,  and  could  not  offer  it;  such  is  the  case  when  a  different fire  is  introduced  than  that  which  comes  from  Christ.  I  saw also  something  like  a  fire  coming  to  me. It  is  necessary therefore  that  a  distinction  should  be  made  between  spirits; which,  however,  cannot  be  done  except  through  Christ  Himself and  His  spirit. (Document 209:179)

Summary of Experiences in Stage One -The Shock of Duality

• The old thinking contrasted with the new gives rise to the experience of what is outside the self and what is more interior
• Two sets of thinking now in competition
• Feeling split in two
• Disturbances in relationships and how in we relate to life
• Doubt, fear, anxiety and depression
• Sleep disturbances and increase in dream activity
• Delight and wonderment of the insights and profound ideas that the Text is offering, and the deeper connections experienced with the Lord in this.
• All leading to an increasing awareness that the quality of what is arising needs further examination – for the sake of desiring to have things resolved and also with gratitude of what has already been offered.

Questions for Reflection

• Which one of these can you relate to in your own experiences? (it might be anywhere from one to all).
• Spend some time exploring each of these that you have identified.
• Write down and explain why it resonates and what the experience was like for you?
• Where are you now with it? What is your thinking around it, and how do you make sense of it? What has been helpful to support you in doing this?
• What questions are you still left with?
• What do you feel the need to examine deeper or keep working with?
• What ideas will you take away from this stage to ponder on?

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 and Exploration

The like is signified by the Lord’s calming the wind and the waves of the sea, as described in the Gospels: When Jesus had entered into a boat His disciples followed Him. And behold, there arose a great commotion in the sea, so that the boat was covered by the waves; but He was asleep. Therefore the disciples, coming to Him awoke Him, saying, Lord, save us; we perish. Then He arose and rebuked the wind; and there was a great calm (Matthew 8:23-26; Mark 4:36-40; Luke 8:23, 24). This represented the state of men of the church when they are in what is natural and not yet in what is spiritual, in which state the natural affections, which are various cupidities springing from the loves of self and the world, rise up and produce various commotions of the mind. In this state the Lord appears as it were absent; this apparent absence is signified by His being asleep; but when they come out of a natural into a spiritual state these commotions cease, and there comes tranquillity of mind; for the Lord calms the tempestuous commotions of the natural man when the spiritual mind is opened, and through it the Lord flows into the natural. Since the affections that are of the love of self and of the world, and the consequent thoughts and reasonings, are from hell, for they are lusts of every kind that rise up therefrom into the natural man, these, too, are signified by “the wind and the waves of the sea,” and hell itself is signified by the “sea” in the spiritual sense. (Apocalypse Explained 514{22})

So far as man is regenerated sins are removed, because regeneration is the restraining of the flesh that it may not rule, and the subjugating of the old man with its lusts, that it may not rise up and destroy the intellectual faculty, for that would render man incapable of reformation, reformation being impossible unless man’s spirit, which is above the flesh, is instructed and perfected. Who, if he still retains a sound understanding, can fail to see from all this that such a work cannot be effected in a moment but only gradually, just as man is conceived, carried in the womb, born, and educated, according to what has been shown above? For those things which pertain to the flesh or the old man are inherent in man from his birth, and build the first habitation of his mind, in which lusts have their abode like wild beasts in their caves, dwelling first in the outer courts, then by turns entering into the underground rooms, as it were, of the house, and finally ascending by steps and forming for themselves chambers. This takes place gradually, as an infant grows, becomes a boy, afterwards a youth, and then begins to think from his own understanding, and to act from his own will. Who cannot see that this house in the mind thus far built in which lusts dance with joined hands, like the ochim, tziim and satyrs, cannot be destroyed in a moment and a new house built in its place? Must not those lusts with clasped hands and so sporting themselves be first removed, and new desires, which belong to good and truth, be introduced in the place of the cupidities which belong to evil and falsity? That these things cannot be done in a moment every wise man sees from this alone, that every evil is composed of innumerable lusts, and is like a fruit which beneath the surface is full of worms with white bodies and black heads; also, that evils are numerous and joined together like the progeny of a spider when first hatched; wherefore unless one evil is brought out after another, and this until their connection is broken up, man cannot be made new. These things have been cited to make clear that so far as anyone is regenerated sins are removed. (True Christian Religion 611{10}).

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)

But when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, “Arise, take the young Child and His mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the young Child’s life are dead.” Then he arose, took the young Child and His mother, and came into the land of Israel. (2: 19-21)

In this fourth dream in the Gospel of Matthew we have the death of that which was threatening the life of the new Child. The father of that Child is then advised by the Lord to take Him and His mother into the land of Israel. Israel means he shall be prince of God, and so we have here a movement from the land of two straits (Egypt) in which the old hero was ruling, into a place where the new way of being becomes something to be acknowledged as a descendant of the Lord, and therefore as something that has come forth from Him. And, being a prince, it has the potential to one day be that which rules the land as king.

In the previous modules we have looked at applying the In Me tool to see how the Text might apply to us personally. We then also looked at examining the descriptions of space and time to see how they might be seen as describing different aspects and qualities of our thought and feeling life. These are movements away from our literal mode of reading the Text into a new way which instead teaches us about the nature of our spirit, of the thought and feeling life that we call our mind. We saw this illustrated in the dreams in Matthew in which first the wise men, and then Jospeh, are instructed to move away from the current hero ruler of the land so that the Child might be protected from the hero’s desire to kill it. But now that hero is dead, and a new man (the Child Jesus) is developing and growing to take its place.

Moving our thinking away from person is the final blow to the old mode of reading and viewing the Text. It is one thing to think representatively or figuratively about places, landscapes and movements in time but quite another to apply that idea to person, because our sense of self relates so strongly to the idea of being a person itself; that sense of being a person that is independent and defined, and therefore feels threatened when anything challenges the core of what its life is based upon, and of what it believes it is. As finite beings we relate to others through this sense of who we are and what we believe is real. This sense of self is the hero of its own story. But if we can engage with the Text from the life of the spirit – then it slowly will begin to offer us new ways to understand the self and its relation to the Divine, the Lord. It is an awakening to a new sense of self, and hence a new way to experience reality; a reality in which people in the stories we encounter are reflecting back the many different aspects of the self that we say “I” to, or ‘Yes this is me’.  We see that instead of being one single entity that is unchanging and fixed, we are in fact made up of many different changing senses of self – which then opens up the possibility to be in these more consciously, to examine their quality and to determine their use.

In this module we will be specifically looking at the descriptions of people and focusing on their nature with regards to how they think, feel and speak and interact with one another and their surroundings, all with the aim of seeing how these might relate to our inner person or personalities.

Read through the dream and highlight or mark up the descriptions of people and anything that relates to their behaviour, actions and motivations.

Here is an example with the above text from Matthew:

But when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, “Arise, take the young Child and His mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the young Child’s life are dead.” Then he arose, took the young Child and His mother, and came into the land of Israel. (2: 19-21)

Your turn now… we’ve done the first few to start you off.

Genesis 28:10-16

Now Jacob … he lay down in that place to sleep. Then he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.And behold, the Lord stood above it and said: “I am the Lord God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants. Also your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread abroad to the west and the east, to the north and the south; and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you.” Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said,  “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.”

Reflections

• Make a list of all that you’ve marked or highlighted, and your list will include all of the people in the dream and any descriptions that relate to them. e.g., Jacob, he dreamed, angels of God, were ascending and descending and so on.
• Next to each item on the list write down your responses to the following questions…
• What feelings and thoughts surround each of these for you? (You may also like to look up the meaning of the names of the people as part of this exercise using a simple Google search, but it is not essential).
• How do they differ from each other?
• How do they connect with each other?
• Look at each of the people you have listed, their actions and behaviors and your responses above to them. From these, make a short summary of the personality or persona of each, and of the current state they are in?
• How might these reflect states or functions of your own thought and feeling life?
• Read back through the dream now and see if anything new is offered in how it might be speaking to you about your inner life, as states in you. What might it be offering to teach you?
• Can you read through it again and also integrate the work you did with it on spaces, landscapes and movements in time? 
• What questions are you still left with?
• What insights will you take away with you?

Now do the same with the text from Arcana Coelestia and also your dream, using the reflection questions above to work through with each of them.

Arcana Coelestia 1977

I was put to sleep and dreamed that a ship laden with all kinds of delicious and savory things to eat had arrived. The cargo was not in sight but rather was hidden. On the deck stood two armed guards, and a third man besides, who was captain of the vessel. The ship was pulling into a kind of covered dock.

Your Dream

…

Final Reflections

• Now that you have worked with all three dreams, and added each subsequent layer of understanding from a space, time and then person perspective – what have you learnt?
• Can you see a pattern or connection between what each of the three dreams offered you?
• Is there a common thread or theme running through them?
• If so, what is it? What is being communicated to you?

Before Moving on to Module 5 …

You’re now halfway through this course.  You may be finding that there is a lot to digest, and a lot of questions are arising for you. As always, give yourself time between each module to sit with all that you have worked through so far.  And keep journaling your insights and thoughts.

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

There are with man two minds, one higher or interior, which is called the spiritual mind; and the other lower or exterior, which is called the natural mind. The natural mind is first opened and cultivated with men, because this most nearly stands forth in the world; and afterwards the spiritual mind is opened and cultivated, but only to the extent that man receives in the life the cognitions of truth from the Word, or from doctrine from the Word; consequently, with those who do not apply knowledges to the life it is not opened. But when the spiritual mind is opened the light of heaven flows in through that mind into the natural mind and enlightens it, whereby the natural mind becomes spiritual-natural; for the spiritual mind then sees in the natural almost as a man sees his face in a mirror and acknowledges the things that are in agreement with itself. But when the spiritual mind is not opened, as is the case with those who do not apply to their life the cognitions of truth and good that are in the Word, there is nevertheless formed in man a mind in the interior part of the natural; but this mind consists of mere falsities and evils; because the spiritual mind, by which the light of heaven is let into the natural by a direct way is not opened; but [light is let in] only through chinks round about; from this a man has the faculty to think, reason, and speak, and also the faculty to understand truths, but not the faculty to love them, or to do them from affection. For the faculty to love truths because they are truths is given only through an influx of the light of heaven through the spiritual mind; for the light of heaven through the spiritual mind is conjoined with the heat of heaven, which is love, which is comparatively like the light of the world in the time of spring; but the light of heaven flowing only through chinks into the natural is a light separated from the heat of heaven which is love, and this light is comparatively like the light of the world in the time of winter. This makes clear that a man in whom the spiritual mind is opened is like a garden and a paradise; but a man in whom the spiritual mind is not opened is like a wilderness, and like land covered with snow. Because the mind makes the man (the mind consisting of understanding and will) it is the same whether you say the mind or the man, thus whether you say the spiritual and natural mind or the spiritual and natural man. (Apocalypse Explained 406)

But when the spiritual mind is open the state of the natural mind is wholly different. Then the natural mind is arranged in compliance with the spiritual mind, and is subordinated to it. For the spiritual mind acts upon the natural mind from above or within, and removes the things therein that react, and adapts to itself those that act in harmony with itself, whereby the excessive reaction is gradually taken away. It is to be noted, that in things greatest and least of the universe, both living and dead, there is action and reaction, from which comes an equilibrium of all things; this is destroyed when action overcomes reaction, or the reverse. It is the same with the natural and with the spiritual mind. When the natural mind acts from the enjoyments of its love and the pleasures of its thought, which are in themselves evils and falsities, the reaction of the natural mind removes those things which are of the spiritual mind and blocks the doors lest they enter, and it makes action to come from such things as agree with its reaction. The result is an action and reaction of the natural mind opposite to the action and reaction of the spiritual mind, whereby there is a closing of the spiritual mind like the twisting back of a spiral. But when the spiritual mind is opened, the action and reaction of the natural mind are inverted; for the spiritual mind acts from above or within, and at the same time it acts from below or from without, through those things in the natural mind which are arranged in compliance with it; and it twists back the spiral in which the action and reaction of the natural mind lie. For the natural mind is by birth in opposition to the things belonging to the spiritual mind; an opposition derived, as is well known, from parents by heredity. Such is the change of state which is called reformation and regeneration. The state of the natural mind before reformation may be compared to a spiral twisting or bending itself downward; but after reformation it may be compared to a spiral twisting or bending itself upwards; therefore man before reformation looks downwards to hell, but after reformation looks upwards to heaven. (Divine Love and Wisdom 263)

Extra Exploration

Here are some extra passages that you might like to explore to try working with the aspects relating to person, space and time as well as using the In me Tool:

Zechariah 3: 1-10 (Vision of the high priest)

Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the Angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to oppose him. And the Lord said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, Satan! The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?” Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and was standing before the Angel. Then He answered and spoke to those who stood before Him, saying, “Take away the filthy garments from him.” And to him He said, “See, I have removed your iniquity from you, and I will clothe you with rich robes.” And I said, “Let them put a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean turban on his head, and they put the clothes on him. And the Angel of the Lord stood by. Then the Angel of the Lord admonished Joshua, saying, “Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘If you will walk in My ways, And if you will keep My command, Then you shall also judge My house, And likewise have charge of My courts; I will give you places to walk Among these who stand here. ‘Hear, O Joshua, the high priest, You and your companions who sit before you, For they are a wondrous sign; For behold, I am bringing forth My Servant the branch. For behold, the stone That I have laid before Joshua: Upon the stone are seven eyes. Behold, I will engrave its inscription,’ Says the Lord of hosts, ‘And I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day. In that day,’ says the Lord of hosts, ‘Everyone will invite his neighbor under his vine and under his fig tree.’ “

Daniel 7: 1-15 (The four beasts and Son of Man)

In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream and visions of his head while on his bed. Then he wrote down the dream, telling the main facts.  Daniel spoke, saying, “I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the Great Sea. And four great beasts came up from the sea, each different from the other. The first was like a lion, and had eagle’s wings. I watched till its wings were plucked off; and it was lifted up from the earth and made to stand on two feet like a man, and a man’s heart was given to it. And suddenly another beast, a second, like a bear. It was raised up on one side, and had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth. And they said thus to it: ‘Arise, devour much flesh!’ After this I looked, and there was another, like a leopard, which had on its back four wings of a bird. The beast also had four heads, and dominion was given to it.  After this I saw in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, exceedingly strong. It had huge iron teeth; it was devouring, breaking in pieces, and trampling the residue with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns. I was considering the horns, and there was another horn, a little one, coming up among them, before whom three of the first horns were plucked out by the roots. And there, in this horn, were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking pompous words. “I watched till thrones were put in place, And the Ancient of Days was seated; His garment was white as snow, And the hair of His head was like pure wool. His throne was a fiery flame, Its wheels a burning fire; A fiery stream issued And came forth from before Him. A thousand thousands ministered to Him; Ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him. The court was seated, And the books were opened. “I watched then because of the sound of the pompous words which the horn was speaking; I watched till the beast was slain, and its body destroyed and given to the burning flame. As for the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away, yet their lives were prolonged for a season and a time. “I was watching in the night visions, And behold, One like the Son of Man, Coming with the clouds of heaven! He came to the Ancient of Days, And they brought Him near before Him. Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, That all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, Which shall not pass away, And His kingdom the one Which shall not be destroyed. “I, Daniel, was grieved in my spirit within my body, and the visions of my head troubled me.

And when they had come into the house, they saw the young Child with Mary His mother, and fell down and worshiped Him. And when they had opened their treasures, they presented gifts to Him: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Then, being divinely warned in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed for their own country another way. (Matthew 2:11-12)

The first dream in the gospel of Matthew (Ch.1:18-25) reminds us that the Holy Spirit is present in this manifestation of the living Word that is about to be born through Mary. This second dream here reminds us that those wise men, that are devoted to the learning and worshipping of the Word, need to avoid Herod and return to their home country a different way than the way they arrived. 

We can see a parallel in these two dreams to our engagement with the Word. The very first thing, as with the first dream, is that we need to remind ourselves that as we approach the Text we are seeking to listen to the Holy Spirit that communicates the Lord to us. The second thing, as with the second dream, is that we need to remind ourselves that the Text is always describing the thinking and feeling patterns that exists within us.  We shall call these patterns states. Reading the Text in this way though is not the initial direction we arrive to it from because when first read, we see and hear a story that is about people in far off lands and distant times, describing their relationship with God, holy men and Jesus. So, to read the Text in terms of states that exists within us we must ask ourselves the question – How is this describing states IN ME?

So to be like the wise men that turn away from Herod and return a different way, to assist us with this change of direction, we are using a very simple but effective tool called the In Me tool. This works by placing the words in me next to people, places, objects and descriptions of time so that it reads as variations and changes of states, like different personalities, landscapes, objects and movements in time within our psychological experiences.

Using the In Me Tool

We have used the In Me tool with this passage from Matthew 2 so that you can get an idea of how it might work.

IN MY DREAM…

Then, being divinely warned in a dream that they THE WISE ME IN ME should not return to Herod IN ME, they departed for their own country IN ME another way. (2:11-12)

As you can see, there are no hard and fast rules on how to use this. Sometimes it is helpful to also add in phrases like MY when ‘your’ is used or ME when ‘you’ is used.

Here are two dreams for you to have an opportunity to work with this tool. One is from Sacred Scripture and the other from the doctrines for Spiritual Christianity. We have also offered examples of how to start with each of them.

Genesis 28:10-16

Now Jacob … he lay down in that place to sleep. Then he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. And behold, the Lord stood above it and said: “I am the Lord God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants. Also, your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread abroad to the west and the east, to the north and the south; and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you.” Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.”

Your turn now … finish working with the rest of the passage yourself.

Now Jacob IN ME … he lay down in that place to sleep. Then he dreamed, IN MY DREAM behold a ladder was set upon the earth IN ME … and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.  And behold, the Lord stood above it and said: “I am the Lord God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants. Also, your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread abroad to the west and the east, to the north and the south; and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you.” Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.”

Reflections

• How did you find working with the In Me tool for this dream?
• Was it easy to apply and why?
• How did adding In Me change the sense of the dream for you?
• What new insights did this offer?

Arcana Coelestia 1977

 I was put to sleep and dreamed that a ship laden with all kinds of delicious and savory things to eat had arrived. The cargo was not in sight but rather was hidden. On the deck stood two armed guards, and a third man besides, who was captain of the vessel. The ship was pulling into a kind of covered dock.

Your turn …Finish applying the In Me tool to this.

IN MY DREAM I was put to sleep and dreamed that a ship IN ME laden with all kinds of delicious and savory things to eat had arrived IN ME …The cargo was not in sight but rather was hidden. On the deck stood two armed guards, and a third man besides, who was captain of the vessel. The ship was pulling into a kind of covered dock.

Reflections

• How did you find working with the In Me tool for this dream?
• Was it easier to apply this tool with this dream compared to the dream of Jacob’s and why do you think this might be?
• How did adding In Me change the sense of the dream for you?
• What new insights did this offer?

Your Own Dream

Now it’s time to have a go at using this tool with one of your own dreams. Although one of your own dreams is of course not the Text, our dreams are still a wonderful opportunity to work with the idea that all material world images can be seen in the light of what the Word teaches us about spiritual realities that exists within our psychological experiences. It can be a recent dream or a dream you had a while ago. If you genuinely can’t recall any then you could ask someone else to share their dream for you to work with. However, this exercise is going to be more meaningful to your personal process if you can use one of you own so perhaps give it a few days to sit with this idea and see if one comes to memory or arrives during the night. You will be using this dream in the next two modules so take your time waiting for one if need be.

Write down the dream first and then write it again adding ‘in me’

IN MY DREAM …

Reflections

• How did you find working with the In Me tool for your own dream?
• What was your experience using the In Me tool with your dream compared to the other two?
• How did adding In Me change the sense of the dream for you?
• What new insights did this offer to you about your dream and its meaning?
• What questions are you left with?

Further Reading

I have been further informed that the men of the Most Ancient Church had most delightful dreams, and also visions, and that it was insinuated into them at the same time what they signified. Hence their paradisal representations, and many other things. The objects of the external senses therefore, which are earthly and worldly, were nothing to them; nor had they any perception of delight in them, but only in what they signified and represented; and therefore when they looked at earthly objects they did not think about them at all, but only about the things which they signified and represented, which were most delightful to them; for they were such things as are in heaven, from which they see the Lord Himself. (Arcana Coelestia 1122)

Moreover the dreams which flow in through heaven from the Lord, never appear otherwise than according to representatives. He therefore who does not know what this or that thing in nature represents, and especially he who is quite unaware that anything is representative, cannot but believe that these representatives are merely comparisons, such as everyone uses in common speech. They indeed are comparisons, but such as correspond, and are therefore actually presented to view in the world of spirits, when the angels in an interior heaven are conversing about the spiritual and celestial things of the Lord’s kingdom. (In regard to dreams, see above, n. 1122, 1975, 1977, 1979-1981) (Arcana Coelestia 5155 [3])

Except there be interior sight, no eye can ever see. The sight of the eye exists from interior sight, and for this reason after the death of the body man sees equally as well and even better than when he lived in the body-not indeed worldly and corporeal things, but those of the other life. Those who were blind in the life of the body, see in the other life as well as those who had keen vision. So too when man sleeps, he sees in his dreams as clearly as when awake. (Arcana Coelestia 994{4})

By genuine visions are meant visions or sights of such things in the other life as have real existence, and are nothing but actual things that can be seen by the eyes of the spirit and not by the eyes of the body, and that appear to a man when his interior sight is opened by the Lord (that is, the sight which his spirit has), and into which he comes when, separated from the body, he passes into the other life; for a man is a spirit clothed with a body. Such were the visions of the prophets. When this sight is opened, then those things which have actual existence with spirits are seen in clearer day than that of noon in this world, not only the representatives, but also the spirits themselves, together with a perception of who they are, also what they are, where they are, whence they come, whither they are going; also of what affection, what persuasion, nay of what faith they are (n. 1388, 1394), all confirmed by living speech, exactly as if it were human speech, and this free from all fallacy. (Arcana Coelestia 1970)

Extra Exploration

There are plenty of other places in the Word that are dream-like in nature in that they don’t obey the laws of time, space and matter. Some are dreams, and some are visions.  Here are two that you might like to have a go at using the In Me tool with also.

Judges 16: 27-30 (Samson bringing down the temple)

Now the temple was full of men and women. All the lords of the Philistines were there–about three thousand men and women on the roof watching while Samson performed. Then Samson called to the Lord, saying, “O Lord God, remember me, I pray! Strengthen me, I pray, just this once, O God, that I may with one blow take vengeance on the Philistines for my two eyes!” And Samson took hold of the two middle pillars which supported the temple, and he braced himself against them, one on his right and the other on his left. 

Then Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines!” And he pushed with all his might, and the temple fell on the lords and all the people who were in it. So the dead that he killed at his death were more than he had killed in his life.

2 Kings 2: 7-16 (Elijah being raised into heaven)

And fifty men of the sons of the prophets went and stood facing them at a distance, while the two of them stood by the Jordan. Now Elijah took his mantle, rolled it up, and struck the water; and it was divided this way and that, so that the two of them crossed over on dry ground. And so it was, when they had crossed over, that Elijah said to Elisha, “Ask! What may I do for you, before I am taken away from you?” Elisha said, “Please let a double portion of your spirit be upon me.” So he said, You have asked a hard thing. Nevertheless, if you see me when I am taken from you, it shall be so for you; but if not, it shall not be so.” Then it happened, as they continued on and talked, that suddenly a chariot of fire appeared with horses of fire, and separated the two of them; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. And Elisha saw it, and he cried out, “My father, my father, the chariot of Israel and its horsemen!” So he saw him no more. And he took hold of his own clothes and tore them into two pieces. He also took up the mantle of Elijah that had fallen from him, and went back and stood by the bank of the Jordan. Then he took the mantle of Elijah that had fallen from him, and struck the water, and said, “Where is the Lord God of Elijah?” And when he also had struck the water, it was divided this way and that; and Elisha crossed over. Now when the sons of the prophets who were from Jericho saw him, they said, “The spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha.” And they came to meet him, and bowed to the ground before him. Then they said to him, “Look now, there are fifty strong men with your servants. Please let them go and search for your master, lest perhaps the Spirit of the Lord has taken him up and cast him upon some mountain or into some valley.” And he said, “You shall not send anyone.”

Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit. Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly. But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.” Then Joseph, being aroused from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took to him his wife, and did not know her till she had brought forth her firstborn Son. And he called His name Jesus. (Matthew 1:18-25, New King James Version)

Spiritual life does not begin until we recognise that we have been roused from sleep.  This is because we can only see that we have been asleep when an alternative state of being, of wakefulness, is present. Just as we cannot understand what dark is until light arrives, or what self-love is before the Lord’s love is birthed in us.

The Gospel of Matthew illustrates these awakenings throughout its Text; awakenings to the fact that there are two alternative ways of seeing life that now exist, and not one. There is a way of seeing that what Jesus as the Word teaches is true, and then there are the many different versions of the self that present in the landscapes around Him. These are all the variations of the sense of self that believes that it does not need the Word to teach it what is true, but instead subscribes to the idea that it knows what is true from the experiences gathered in its interactions with the material world.

And so, throughout this Gospel we see Jesus as the living Word interacting with the multitudes – teaching, preaching and challenging the many different aspects of “I” that exist in the sense of self. It calls into question the “I’s” that believe they are real and substantial and do not need any form of outside truth to guide them. These multiplicities of self that exist for us as finite beings are very important to take note of. Why? Because,

As long as a person believes he is one, he cannot change.  (Maurice Nicoll from Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky, Volume 1)

People however in whom love to the Lord and love towards the neighbour are not present, nor consequently the life of good and truth, are incapable of acknowledging that but one life alone flows in, let alone that this life comes from the Lord. But all such persons are incensed, indeed they are repelled, when told that they do not live of themselves. Self-love is what causes this. And what is amazing, although those people are shown by actual experiences in the next life that they do not live of themselves and at those times say that they are convinced of the truth of it, they nevertheless subsequently cling to their same old opinion and imagine that if they did live from another and not from themselves every joy of their life would melt away – unaware that quite the contrary is the case. Consequently the evil make evil their own because they do not believe that evils originate in hell; and they are incapable of making good their own because they believe that good begins in themselves and not from the Lord. (Arcana Coelestia 3743)

While we believe we are one single entity then our response to every thought and feeling that flows in is, “Yes, this is me, it is myself, it is I”. And because we identify with all these as “I”, then change is not possible. We are fixed in the belief that these “I’s” are our final identity; and they lack distinctions because we lack the ability to observe them.  But with the new perspective the Word offers us through what it teaches about the nature of self and the nature of the Lord, we have a contrast from what the Word is pointing out and observing for us and alternatively, what is being observed.  We can see that we are not one, but are instead many different experiences of one, of “I”, and that each has its own sense of being and quality. The Word, as the one observing, is offering light on the multitude of ‘people in the land’ so that we can see them, observe them, examine their quality; and we can hear what it is the Word is teaching us about them, and how they sit in relationship to Itself, to the Word who is the Lord.

As this occurs, so too does the deepening journey and discovery into a new sense of self emerging from the perspective of that which observes. This is a self that is in acknowledgement of the Word as the Lord that is guiding and teaching it in every moment; a self that submits to the need and constant work to become conscious to the Word, to be awoken by It each time we are lulled into sleep. This self discovers a new meaning of freedom as the Word offers it a new relationship to what we call our self and our attachments to it.

But the processes of awakenings are gradual and slow. There may be an initial jolt of shock in the first awakening, like Joseph here being roused from sleep, and then in other smaller ones in our sojourns in spiritual life. But overall, the movements are incremental and often occur without us being conscious of them. Little by little new ways of seeing and being are offered, and old ways are consequently let go.

So, much of the first experiences of awakening are done in states of sleepiness, like the Lord rousing us tenderly.

When Jesus came into the ruler’s house, and saw the flute players and the noisy crowd wailing, He said to them, “Make room, for the girl is not dead, but sleeping.” And they ridiculed Him. But when the crowd was put outside, He went in and took her by the hand, and the girl arose. (Matthew 9: 23-25)

There is a sense of a haze of obscurity in the atmospheres, like that of veils being lifted layer by layer as new things are gradually revealed.

Then He came to the disciples and found them asleep, and said to Peter, “What? Could you not watch with Me one hour? … And He came and found them asleep again, for their eyes were heavy. So He left them, went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words. Then He came to His disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going. See, My betrayer is at hand.” (26: 40,43-46)

and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised (27:52)

Given that Matthew is the first of the four gospels to introduce us to the life of Christ, it should be no surprise that this gentle rousing from sleep, and the states of sleeping in general, are strong themes in this book. The word sleeping appears here10 times compared to only 6 in Mark, 4 in Luke and once in John.  Also, many of the teachings offered by Jesus in this Gospel are spoken through parables and in indirect, abstract and figurative terms like the Son of Man which again is used 32 times in this Gospel compared to 26 in Luke, 14 in Mark and 10 in John.  There is a veiled sense of secrecy throughout that is implied in the repeated requests from Jesus for things to stay hidden until they are ready to be revealed, and in instructions to tell no one of who He is or what He has done. Here are two such instances:

But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. (6:6)

Now as they came down from the mountain, Jesus commanded them, saying, “Tell the vision to no one until the Son of Man is risen from the dead.” (17:9)

Matthew is also the only Gospel in which the Lord communicates to people in dreams, with one opening the first chapter. The Gospel of Matthew is not speaking of a state of wakefulness but more of something in the subconscious that is starting to break through and promising to offer something new that will be radically life changing.

“Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” (1:20)

And the questions then that are asked of us are:

• Are we willing to listen?
• Are we willing to allow this birthing of the Word to grow?
• Are we willing to work to hear what is spoken from the light of the observation of the Word?
• Are we willing to be lead but this instruction?
• Are we willing to follow?

And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.

He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it. (10:38-39)

He who has ears to hear, let him hear! (11:15)

Once we’re awakened, what has been seen cannot be unseen. There is only now the way forward in working to integrate what has been illuminated, and for the process to unfold as it needs to. But it changes everything. We all know from experience that when anything new comes into our life, something that offers a new way of seeing and perceiving, that it also alters the ideas surrounding it, that are related to it; and that has a knock-on effect upon other things nearby, like a ripple wave in a pond.

An awakening to a new way of observing the self entirely is, of course, going to have a very large ripple effect. In fact, it’s going to affect everything that we call our life. It is disruptive because it calls into question things that we have understood about ourselves, about others, and about the nature of life in general. This new paradigm of perceiving the self – and consequently what reality is for us – challenges the very structure of our thinking and the patterns of thought that we have learnt to rely on. When we discover there is an alternative way of seeing the world and we find that we are not the self that we were led to believe, or what the external world has taught us that we are, then there is an organic process of reaction and response to this.

Let us use the analogy of a garden. The Word, when it awakens us, presents a whole new way of approaching the garden: in attending to it, in perceiving it, in examining the quality of the water and soil, of the phases it goes through, and what it needs from us … in mulching, fertilising, pruning, planting, preparing new ground, seeding, weeding, composting …  All of the processes that occur in the garden can be recast in the light of the new sun that has appeared, bringing with it a new source of heat and light and, consequently, of growth.

Of course, in using this allegory here we are still speaking in secret; like that of a dream state, like the language of dreams. And the Word is the same. It remains in a secret state of sleepiness and veiled over until it gently rouses us from slumber.

“So then, you men should not be made to fear them. You see, there is nothing being veiled or covered which will not proceed having its covering taken away and be revealed, and hidden which will not be habitually made known and familiar. “What I am now saying to you folks within the darkness you say within the light. And what you are now hearing whispered into the ear, you people, as heralds, publicly proclaim upon the housetops (10:26-27- Jonathan Mitchell Translation)

Questions for Reflection

Consider these questions regarding our relationship with the Word:

• Are we willing to listen?
• Are we willing to allow this birthing of the Word to grow?
• Are we willing to work to hear what has been spoken from the light of the observation of the Word?
• Are we willing to be led by this instruction?
• Are we willing to follow?

• What is your inner response to these questions regarding your relationship with the Word?
• What feelings and thoughts respond affirmatively?
• What resists?
• What else has come up for you as you read through the material? (i.e. thoughts, feelings, ideas, questions)

Before Moving on to Module 2 …

Remember….   Like anything new, these ideas may feel difficult to work with at first and may give rise to many questions. It is enough however to just have them. Not all of them need immediate resolution or answers.

Also, be mindful of allowing yourself enough time between each module to let the ideas and work percolate. One day might be enough for you, or a few days or longer.

You might like to keep a journal or a notebook – something in which you can write down your observations at the end of the day, or during a short time set aside for reflection. This is also a place where you can write down the questions you are carrying.

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.

Optional Further Reading and Exploration

This section is optional as it’s not part of the work that is in the module, but it offers an opportunity for further exploration around the subject and concepts. 

“And I knew it not”. That this signifies in an obscure state, is evident without explication; for “not to know,” or to be ignorant, signifies what is obscure as to the things which are of intellectual sight. From “not to know,” or to be ignorant, as signifying what is obscure; as also from “to awake out of sleep,” as signifying to be enlightened; it is evident what and of what nature is the internal sense of the Word; namely, that the things which are of the literal sense are such as appear before the external sight, or some other sense, and are also apprehended according to these senses; whereas the things which are of the internal sense are such as appear before the internal sight, or before some other sense of the internal man. The same things therefore that are contained in the literal sense, and that are apprehended by man according to the external senses, that is, according to things which are in the world, or according to an idea thence derived, are perceived by the angels according to the internal senses; that is, according to those things which are in heaven, or according to an idea thence derived. The former and the latter things stand related as do the things which are in the light of the world to those which are in the light of heaven; the things which are in the light of the world being dead in comparison with those which are in the light of heaven; for in the light of heaven there are wisdom and intelligence from the Lord (see n. 3636, 3643); and therefore when those things which are of the light of the world are obliterated or wiped away, there remain those which are of the light of heaven; thus instead of earthly there remain heavenly things, and instead of natural, spiritual; as in the case above, “not to know,” or to be ignorant, signifies to be in an obscure state concerning good and truth; and to “awake out of sleep” signifies to be enlightened; and so in all other cases. (Arcana Coelestia 3717)

Man possesses a natural mind and a spiritual mind. The natural mind is below, and the spiritual mind above. The natural mind is the mind of man’s world, and the spiritual mind is the mind of his heaven. The natural mind may be called the animal mind, and the spiritual mind the human mind. Man is discriminated from the animal by possessing a spiritual mind. By means of this mind he can be in heaven while still in the world; and it is by means of this mind also that man lives after death. In his understanding a man is able to be in the spiritual mind, and consequently in heaven, but unless he shuns evils as sins he cannot be in the spiritual mind and consequently in heaven, as to his will. And if he is not there as to his will, he is not in heaven, in spite of the fact that he is there in understanding, for the will drags the understanding down, and causes it to be just as natural and animal as it is itself. Man may be compared to a garden, his understanding to light, and his will to heat. In wintertime a garden is in light but not in accompanying heat, but in summertime it is in light accompanied by heat. Just so a man who is in the light of the understanding alone is like a garden in wintertime, whereas one who is in the light of the understanding and at the same time in the heat of the will is like a garden in summertime. Moreover the understanding is wise from spiritual light, and the will loves from spiritual heat, for spiritual light is Divine wisdom, and spiritual heat is Divine love. So long as a man does not shun evils as sins, the concupiscences of evils block up the interiors of the natural mind on the part of the will, being like a thick veil there, and like a black cloud beneath the spiritual mind, and they prevent its being opened. But in very deed the moment a man shuns evils as sins, the Lord inflows from heaven, takes away the veil, dispels the cloud, opens the spiritual mind, and so introduces the man into heaven. So long as the concupiscences of evils block up the interiors of the natural mind (in the way we have indicated), so long is the man in hell; the moment, however, that these concupiscences have been dispersed by the Lord, the man is in heaven. Furthermore: so long as the concupiscences of evils block up the interiors of the natural mind, so long is the man natural; but the moment they have been dispersed by the Lord, he is spiritual. Furthermore: so long as the concupiscences of evils block up the interiors of the natural mind, so long is the man animal, differing only in his ability to think and speak, even of such things as he does not see with his eyes, which ability he derives from his capacity of uplifting his understanding into the light of heaven. The moment however that these concupiscences have been dispersed by the Lord, the man is a man, because he then thinks what is true in the understanding from what is good in the will. And furthermore: so long as the concupiscences of evils block up the interiors of the natural mind, the man is like a garden in winter time, but the moment these concupiscences have been dispersed by the Lord, he is like a garden in summer time. The conjunction in a man of the will and the understanding is meant in the Word by “heart and soul,” and by “heart and spirit.” For example: that we must love God: With all the heart, and with all the soul (Matthew 22:37). And that God will give: A new heart, and a new spirit (Ezekiel 11:19; 36:26-27). The “heart” means the will and its love, and the “soul” and the “spirit,” the understanding and its wisdom.  (Doctrine of Life 86{1-6})

Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, “Arise, take the young Child and His mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I bring you word; for Herod will seek the young Child to destroy Him.” When he arose, he took the young Child and His mother by night and departed for Egypt. (Matthew 2:13-14)

The third dream here in the Gospel of Matthew is yet another warning. The name Herod means hero – a description which we would typically think of in a positive light; but in this story the sense of hero carried by the ruler is an unwanted one, for it seeks to destroy what contains the Holy Spirit. The hero is fearful of this Child because it has been predicted that one day He will grow up and become a king and destroy him. Joseph then is advised to move away from Herod and take the Child and His mother to Egypt. Now the word Egypt means double straits, a strait being a narrow passage of water connecting two other larger bodies of water together. Egypt then can be thought of as a place in which things can be connected to one another. And so, the Lord advises a move away from the sense of the hero that is fearful to a place instead where things can remain connected, and where the new king can flourish and develop.

Again, we see in this a lovely parallel with what we are seeking to engage with in the Text. We are looking and listening to hear the Holy Spirit in what we are reading, and this requires that we move away from the old ways we have applied when reading the Word. We are instead moving to a place in which connections can be made so that the Text speaks to our inner life and communicates the Lord to us. There may be a sense of unease or fear in this – perhaps because it’s new, and because the sense of self can be indignant in its own intelligence and may seek to dissuade us from engaging with the Text in a way that allows the Lord to be heard.

In Module 2 we looked at using the In Me tool to assist in making these connections; and in this module we will take that a step further and examine the quality of those In Me states, specifically those that relate to spaces, places, landscapes and time. *Note: We will not be looking at the people (or anything that relates to them i.e. what they are doing or wearing or saying or thinking) in the descriptions in this module- this will be dealt with in Module 4.

We will be working with the same three texts that we used in Module 2 but in this exercise now you will be asked to specifically highlight or mark up the descriptions and movements relating to spaces, places, landscapes and time. You would have likely placed IN ME next to most of them in the previous module but start again by marking them up in the text now.

Here is an example with the above text from Matthew:

Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, “Arise, take the young Child and His mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I bring you word; for Herod will seek the young Child to destroy Him.” When he arose, he took the young Child and His mother by night and departed for Egypt. (2:13-14)

Your turn… Mark up or highlight any references to spaces, landscapes and time … we’ve done the first few to start you off.

Genesis 28:10-16

Now Jacob … he lay down in that place to sleep. Then he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven …and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. And behold, the Lord stood above it and said: “I am the Lord God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants. Also, your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread abroad to the west and the east, to the north and the south; and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you.” Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.”

Reflections

• Write down what you’ve marked up in a list, and your list will include all of the spaces, places, landscapes and movements within these spaces, and then also descriptions of time that you identified. e.g., that place, set up on, earth, reached, heaven and so on …
• What feelings and thoughts surround each of these?
• How do they differ from each other?
• How do they connect with each other?
• How do the changes and movements from one to the other feel?
• How might these reflect states or functions of your thought and feeling life?
• Read back through the dream now and see if anything new is offered in how it might be speaking to you about your inner life, as states in you. What might it be offering to teach you?
• What questions are you left with?

Now do the same with the text from Arcana Coelestia and also your dream, using the reflection questions above to work through with each of them.

Arcana Coelestia 1977

I was put to sleep and dreamed that a ship laden with all kinds of delicious and savory things to eat had arrived. The cargo was not in sight but rather was hidden. On the deck stood two armed guards, and a third man besides, who was captain of the vessel. The ship was pulling into a kind of covered dock.

Your Dream

…

Before Moving on to Module 4 …

As always, give yourself time between each module to sit with all that you have worked through so far. Keep journaling your insights and thoughts.

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

As regards dreams, it is known that the Lord revealed the arcana of heaven to the prophets, not only by visions, but also by dreams, and that the dreams were as fully representative and significative as the visions, being almost of the same class; and that to others also as well as the prophets things to come were disclosed by dreams; as by the dreams of Joseph, and of those who were in prison with him, and by those of Pharaoh, of Nebuchadnezzar, and others, from which it may be seen that dreams of this kind, equally with visions, flow in from heaven; with this difference, that dreams occur when the corporeal is asleep, and visions when it is not asleep. (Arcana Coelestia 1975)

It is worthy of mention that when after waking I related what I had seen in a dream, and this in a long series, certain angelic spirits (not of those spoken of above) then said that what I related wholly coincided, and was identical, with the subjects they had been conversing about, and that there was absolutely no difference; but still that they were not the very things they had discoursed about, but were representatives of the same things, into which their ideas were thus turned and changed in the world of spirits; for in the world of spirits the ideas of the angels are turned into representatives; and therefore each and all things they had conversed about were so represented in the dream. They said, further, that the same discourse could be turned into other representatives, nay, into both similar and dissimilar ones, with unlimited variety. The reason they were turned into such as have been described, was that it took place in accordance with the state of the spirits around me, and thus in accordance with my own state at the time. In a word, very many dissimilar dreams might come down and be presented from the same discourse, and thus from one origin; because, as has been said, the things that are in a man’s memory and affection are recipient vessels, in which ideas are varied and received representatively in accordance with their variations of form and changes of state. (Arcana Coelestia 1980)

I may relate one more instance of a similar kind. I dreamed a dream, but a common one. When I awoke, I related it all from beginning to end. The angels said that it coincided exactly with what they had spoken of together; not that the things seen in the dream were the same, for they were wholly different, being things into which the thoughts of their conversation were turned, but in such a way that they were representative and correspondent; and this in every particular, so that nothing was wanting. I then spoke with them about influx, as to how such things flow in and are varied. There was a person of whom I had the idea that he was in natural truth, which idea I had gathered from the acts of his life. There was a conversation among the angels about natural truth, and on this account that person was represented to me; and the things he said to me, and did, in my dream, followed in order representatively and correspondently from the discourse of the angels with one another. But still there was nothing precisely alike, or the same. (Arcana Coelestia 1981)

Extra Exploration

Here are some extra passages in the Word that you might like to explore looking at spaces, landscapes and time. You might also like to consider incorporating the In Me tool as well:

Ezekiel 32: 2-8 (Ezekiel’s visions)

“Son of man, take up a lamentation for Pharaoh king of Egypt, and say to him: ‘You are like a young lion among the nations, And you are like a monster in the seas, Bursting forth in your rivers, Troubling the waters with your feet, And fouling their rivers.’ “Thus says the Lord God: ‘I will therefore spread My net over you with a company of many people, And they will draw you up in My net. Then I will leave you on the land; I will cast you out on the open fields, And cause to settle on you all the birds of the heavens. And with you I will fill the beasts of the whole earth. I will lay your flesh on the mountains,  And fill the valleys with your carcass. I will also water the land with the flow of your blood, Even to the mountains; And the riverbeds will be full of you. When I put out your light, I will cover the heavens, and make its stars dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, And the moon shall not give her light. All the bright lights of the heavens I will make dark over you, And bring darkness upon your land,’ says the Lord God.

Revelation 22: 1-5 (A scene from the holy city, New Jerusalem)

And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him. They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads. There shall be no night there: They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light. And they shall reign forever and ever.