Creation From A Spiritual Perspective

Today I want to offer some reflections from a Logopraxis perspective on the concept of creation and what the Word has to say about the activity of Divine Love and Wisdom in bringing creation into being. But before we explore the spiritual idea of creation, I want you to take a moment to think about what love and wisdom are, and where they reside. The reason for this is so that we can pull back from thinking about creation in material or natural terms and begin to think about it in a way that is consistent with spiritual laws and how these govern the regeneration of the human mind. It is Divine revelation alone that offers a firm foundation for thinking coherently about the spiritual idea of creation. The truths of Divine revelation are essential to warding off the tendency in us all to think, and draw conclusions about spiritual realities, from the appearances of our senses.

All natural theories about creation based on sensual appearances that place causal power in nature are simply false. This is because creation isn’t a natural process, it’s a spiritual process and where the Lord and spiritual realities aren’t acknowledged then all that’s left is human reasoning and speculation that sees end, cause and effect as purely natural forces existing on a single plane of operation.

Spiritual revelation teaches that what manifests on the natural plane are the effects of causes that exist in a different dimension altogether called the spiritual world. Now it is important to understand that the spiritual world is a vast world consisting of every human psychological state taken collectively and that we each experience that world directly as the thoughts and affections that make up our sense of existing as an individual self. This inner cosmos consisting of every state of human and angelic consciousness is constantly being reformed, rearranged, and reordered, in a word, recreated, into an ever more perfect human form. This is the Grand Human, the macro-cosmos of which every individual human form representatively points to as the micro-cosmos.  All participate in this great collective network of psychological states from which every thought and affection pours forth and is organised into a form that gives rise to, and maintains our sense of self. Take a moment to think about that, because if this is not grasped as our starting point then it will be virtually impossible to grasp what Divine revelation has to say about creation.

So back to that question; Where is love and wisdom to be found, where does it reside?

Well it is clear that love and wisdom don’t exist apart from a heart and mind to contain them. There is no such thing as love that is not expressed through the affections of the heart or any form of wisdom that is not expressed through a mind with its faculties of intelligence and understanding. The thing to get hold of here is that the things belonging to love and wisdom are spiritual or mental realities that exist as psychological states or states of consciousness. This is what the spiritual world or the world of causation consists of. Despite how things appear there are no causes in the natural world. The natural world merely offers a series of effects which present as correlated events so that one event appears to cause another and this provides a natural representation of the relationship of unseen spiritual causes to their effects on the natural plane of life.

…all things without exception in the natural world have a correspondence with those in the spiritual world; and the reason for this is that what is natural comes into existence through what is spiritual. The whole natural system is therefore a theatre representative of the spiritual world, 2758, 3487, 4939. (Arcana Coelestia 7384)

So, when the Text addresses questions concerning the nature of God, we find that the Lord is said to be Divine Love and Wisdom Itself from which all that exists comes into being.

Now, as the Word is the Divine Wisdom of the Divine Love, it follows that it is Jehovah Himself, and thus the Lord, by whom all things were made that are made; for all things were created from the Divine Love by means of the Divine Wisdom. (Doctrine of the Lord 1)

This idea is also captured in the opening chapter of John’s Gospel where the process of creation is described. There we find that it is the Logos or Word that brings all into being and that its,

“…light is the life of humanity… [this being] the real light, coming into the world (kosmos), which is enlightening every human.” (John 1:4&9)

In its essence the Logos or the Word refers to the Divine Wisdom coming forth from the Divine love into the “world” or kosmos. Again, love and wisdom can have no existence independent from states of consciousness. The use of the English word “world” to translate the Greek word “kosmos” is problematic in that it triggers associations in the mind of the natural external world. But Divine revelation does not concern itself with the external world of material things, its focus is on the interior world of human consciousness. The Greek word “kosmos” means “an orderly arrangement” or “system” so the “world” referred to here in the Gospel is the world existing within human consciousness and not a world outside of this.

It is the transformation of the world of the human mind from a natural to a spiritual form that brings about the salvation of the human race. Therefore the “world” or “system” into which this light of the Logos is continuously and progressively (the Greek carries this meaning) coming into is the “system” or arrangement of beliefs and affections about life that keep the mind bound up in sensual appearances, blinding it to spiritual realities. To read the Word spiritually is to read it in terms of states of mind. So, the use of the term “world” in the works of Divine revelation can’t primarily refer to a “world” of material things independent of consciousness. It must refer to a psychological system within consciousness. As the ancients understood, it is… “In Him [who is Divine love and wisdom] we live and move and have our being.”

The “real light” or, that light that is the life of what is described as “human” [Greek anthropos], spoken of here in the Gospel is spiritual light. Spiritual light is what enlightens the understanding to more interior things and these “interior things” are what belongs to the psychological life of the mind. So, this light that becomes our life is nothing other than the truths of Divine revelation, for these illuminate the human mind and awaken it to spiritual realities.

This is evident from the meaning of the Greek word Logos. From antiquity this word, to the Greek mind, has described the organising power behind existence. The reason or meaning for what is. Again, when we speak of the Logos in terms of reason, or meaning, or purpose we speak of what belongs in the realm of consciousness. Meaning, reason, and purpose are not found in the external natural world of the senses but are things that arises from deeper within the human mind. The use of the term “Word” to translate the Greek word “Logos” into English points to the interior nature of what is being expressed. Words in themselves have no meaning, no existence, apart from the thoughts and affections they give expression to. They give external form to interior psychological states so that how we are thinking and feeling can be communicated to others. This same principle is enacted in the incarnation where interior Divine things, called the Logos, are brought representatively before the external sensory faculties of the human mind in the words and actions expressed through the life of Jesus Christ in the Gospel record.

The Gospel of John links the Logos with Jesus Christ by declaring that Jesus Christ is the Word made flesh. In the idea of Jesus Christ as the Word made flesh, the interior things of the Word are then represented in the sensory plane of human consciousness in a way that conforms to the sensory-material idea of what it means to be human. Once it is recognised that Jesus Christ can be seen as a sensory manifestation of the form of the Divine Human, this then opens up possibilities for a more interior application of the Word.

The Word Itself as sacred Text can then be elevated so that it becomes the light that enlightens every human mind that is open to receiving it. In this way the Divine Truth, the Logos, the Word, representatively accommodates itself to the laws of a natural existence thereby creating the conditions for transforming people’s lives from a natural to a spiritual mode of being. The physical incarnation opens the way as a door into the spiritual realities of the interior level of life. This is the meaning of the incarnation, and without it, none could be saved from the belief that a material existence is the whole story of creation.

For those who receive the Word as the Lord that sensory manifestation of a human form becomes Divine and the possibility of an interior application of truths opens. In recognising the Lord in His Divine Human [as the Texts of Divine revelation] and knowing that this is the form the Word or Logos takes on the sensory plane of existence, the Word Itself as sacred Text can then be elevated so that it becomes the light that enlightens every human mind that is open to receiving it. It is the interior plane of the human mind that needs to be addressed in us all. The incarnation of the Logos as Sacred Text becomes the door to being recreated through the regeneration of the human mind…

…to create” does not signify natural existence and life, but spiritual existence and life; and this is what is everywhere signified in the Word by “creating;” and for the reason that the existence of heaven and earth is not the end of creation, but a means to the end; the end of creation is that the human race may exist so that from it there may be an angelic heaven; and as this is the end, “to create” signifies to reform, which is to give heaven to those who receive. In the spiritual sense of the Word ends are meant, but in the sense of the letter only the means that involve the ends are spoken of; in this way the spiritual lies hid in the letter of the Word. (Apocalypse Explained 294)

The Word” means here the Lord in respect to Divine truth; that all things were created by Divine truth is meant by “All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that hath been made;” also by “the world was made by Him.” Since “the Word” means the Lord in respect to Divine truth it is said, “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men; that it was the true light,” “light” signifying Divine truth, and “life” all intelligence and wisdom from Divine truth; for this constitutes man’s very life, and eternal life also is in accordance therewith. The Lord’s presence with everyone with His Divine truth, from which are life and light, is meant by “the light shineth in the darkness, and lighteth every man coming into the world; (Apocalypse Explained 294.16 {John 1:1-5, 9-10, 14})

In the work, Divine Love and Wisdom we are instructed that Divine love is substance itself and Divine wisdom is form itself (Divine Love and Wisdom 44). It says that creation is brought into being from the Divine love by means of the Divine wisdom. But please, don’t think in terms of the creation of material things here. The term creation in the Text describes the process by which human minds are regenerated and brought into form in which the Lord can dwell. Love and wisdom cannot dwell anywhere else other than in minds created in its own image and likeness. When the Word uses the term creation it is speaking about the transformation of human consciousness from a natural form of mind that is opposed to spiritual realities into spiritual or heavenly form of mind that consciously receives what is of the Lord as its life.

The work Divine Love and Wisdom also speaks of the objects of creation as finite vessels within which love, and wisdom can be received to which the Lord can be conjoined. Such vessels, the Text reveals, are human and angelic minds (Divine Love and Wisdom 4). In general terms, the teaching is that the human mind consists of a will part that processes the things belonging to love and an understanding part that processes the things related to wisdom and intellectual functioning. The will and understanding tend to be presented as containers that hold the things of love and wisdom. This can be a useful way of conceiving of them, but it also tends to present a somewhat static idea of a container that exists separately from its contents. A little reflection shows that the human will, and understanding are not separate from what they “contain”.

Strictly speaking a human will only exists when it is composed of goods and a human understanding only exists when it is composed of truths united to those goods. Where there are no goods and truths to form a will and understanding then, what appears as will, is nothing more than lusts or evils and what appears as an understanding are falsities that favour those lusts [The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine 33]. Such a mind has no real existence as something genuinely human for the term ‘human-being’ is only applicable as spiritually speaking to a form of mind that wills what is good and thinks what is true from the Lord or the Word.

The end of the creation or regeneration process is to become truly human which is to be in the conscious reception of love on the being or willing side of things and of wisdom, on the expression or understanding side of things. So, a human being only exists where the Lord is acknowledged through a life built on the practice of the Word. The Word itself is the Divine Human and it is only through being conjoined with the Lord, through the Word, that the quality of humanness can be conveyed to another. This is how the term creation, when used in the Text, is to be understood.

To live a spiritual life then is to place one’s self in front of Divine truths with a view to having these bring about the reformation and regeneration of the mind so that one’s sense of self is elevated out of what is opposed to the loves of heaven to find its dwelling place in willing what is good and thinking what is true. In Logopraxis, we work with the Word, the Logos, to open opportunities for the Word to create in us a new heart and mind.

To sum up, without the Divine Truth of the Word, which in its own essence is the Lord’s Divine Good of Divine Love and Divine Truth of Divine Wisdom, a man cannot have life. By means of the Word there is a conjunction of the Lord with the man, and of the man with the Lord, and by means of that conjunction there is life. There has to be something from the Lord which can be received by the man, through which there is a conjunction and eternal life therefrom. From these considerations it can be established that by ‘the Beginning of the work of God’ is understood the Word; and, if you are willing to believe it, the Word such as it is in the sense of the letter, for this sense is the complex of its interior sanctities, as has been shown frequently in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem concerning the Sacred Scripture. And what is wonderful, the Word has been so written that it has communication with the entire heaven, and separately with each single society there, which has been granted me to know through living experience, of which elsewhere. That the Word is such in its own essence is still more plain from these words of the Lord:-

The words that I speak unto you, they are Spirit, and they are life {John vi 63}.

(Apocalypse Revealed 200{2&})