Correspondence means that everything in the
natural world is the result of its counterpart in the spiritual world; the
object in the spiritual world being the first cause of what is in the natural
world. Everything in nature that is connected to its counterpart in the
spiritual world, yet separated by a discreet degree, is said to correspond. A
discreet degree can most readily be understood by our experience of the separation
between the earthly world and the spiritual world. For the most part we cannot
see, hear, or touch across this divide, but we can at times sense, feel, or
intuit across. A tree in the natural world is subject to the natural laws of
time and space, while the spiritual tree exists from the meaning it portrays
from the love in the soul of angels or spirits. It is more real than a tree
here because it is composed of spiritual substance and derived from love and
wisdom from the Lord. The very colors of flowers and homes, the plants and
animals that appear in a garden, are manifestations of what is in the soul of
the angel or angles present in that place. In heaven the objects are of a
beauty and light that surpasses what is on earth many times over. A tree there
is more real than a tree on earth because it is the internal of a tree. If one
grasps the implications of this one can see that all things that exist, exist
in relationship to human beings; the human form being the highest of all forms.
The same is true of things in nature on earth, but they are more remotely
reflected and less clear to our perception.
For instance, contemplate for a moment hiking
up a wild and rugged mountain. The mountain itself is a challenge, and an
experience of beauty and danger. To reach the top a person must persevere. The
higher one goes up the mountain the more one can see of the landscape around.
There is, in seeing an expansive view, a natural delight and exhilaration that
anyone who makes the effort feels. This natural delight corresponds to the
spiritual joy of gaining higher perception of life. Mountains correspond to
heaven. The delight of gaining an elevated view on a mountain is the reflection
(correspondence) of spiritually gaining wisdom in one’s soul. Correspondence is
an essential operation in the universe, and the above is an example of how it
operates in our immediate life and experience. The ground gained to reach a
view on a mountain is not given up easily, but when it is it becomes one’s own
achievement. Similarly, internal perception requires attention and effort and
it results in real effect or change in the soul, whereas mere knowledge does
not.
As another example, I will share an early
personal experience. I remember after graduating from high school and getting
ready to go to college, I reflected on all the friends I hung out with and came
to know well. I saw that in spite of all of our shortcomings, it was through my
interactions with them that I came to know myself. This thought was a beginning
of regeneration. It was a beginning of being able to accept others and myself
with all of our frailties, and there was a kind of beauty in this perception
because it was real, and there was not a stagnant feeling that this growth
could happen only with them. I had this epiphany as I looked at a rainbow in
the sky, and at the same time inwardly saw the comparison between my thought
and the rainbow. In a rainbow the beauty of light is revealed as it refracts
through little particles of water in the air, and thus the inner qualities of
light are made visible, and real to our perception. Swedenborg writes that
rainbows symbolize something very like this: “The reason that the appearance of
a rainbow is seen is that the natural things corresponding to their spiritual
present such an appearance. It is a modification of spiritual light from the
Lord in their natural things” (AC 1042). In a person this means that the
spiritual and natural must grow together, to grow at all. The spiritual becomes
one’s own when there is accord between the love we see and feel, and our
actions in life.
Correspondences happen in three realms of
life, the Word, the human form, and in nature. In each case a perception of
them is a sound way of gaining understanding. Perception is the moment when the
internal and external come into concordance in a person. It is very significant
to realize that perception involves the whole soul, and is a deeper way of
knowing. Perception is reception in the soul of truths from the Lord. In this
short article I will focus on providing an opportunity of perceiving
correspondences between the Sun, the earth, and the Lord.
The principle of correspondence is a
universal principle through which we can confidently gain knowledge about the
nature of the spiritual world and the earthly world. It is, if we apply it
thoughtfully, a readily accessible resource that can be read forward or
backward, that is, from heaven to earth, and visa versa. We can gain insight
into the dynamics of the spiritual world by the scientific processes we observe
in the natural world. This is the basic principle I am using in this essay. It
is at one and the same time, a spiritual and intellectual practice. By making
the effort to meditate into correspondence I have often felt light coming into
my heart and mind; it is a most comforting feeling anyone can feel.
The prime example of correspondence is
between the sun in the sky and the sun in the spiritual world. The heat and
light of the natural sun corresponds to love and wisdom from the spiritual sun.
We know the sun provides heat and light without which nothing could live. Suns
are the source of all energy and raw material for the entire natural world. All
the suns throughout the universe are the source of heat and light for their
respective solar systems, and beyond. In the spiritual world there is only one
sun and it is the one source of all life. It is the origin of life, and creates
the substance of life; the fundamental substance of life being love and wisdom
from the Lord in the midst of the spiritual sun.
The
natural suns are made of matter, are in time and space, and are innumerable,
whereas there is only one spiritual sun. This one sun is the one source of
everything. The reality that there is one spiritual sun and infinite natural
suns in the universe is a function of correspondence, in that the natural sun
cannot possibly reflect the infinite presence of the spiritual sun by size, so
it corresponds by infinity of numbers.
The reason for this is that in the natural world there is time and space, while
in the spiritual world everything is based on state of being, or quality of
love.
Science’s ability to penetrate some of the
secrets of physics that occur in the sun offers the opportunity to look deep
into potential correspondences. Science shows that everything that happens on
earth occurs by a process, and correspondingly Swedenborg demonstrates that
everything that occurs in the spiritual world occurs by a process. It is very
important to grasp this concept, and we can only do so by practicing on particular
examples. Humans have an ingrained habit of ‘magical thinking’ when it comes to
the spiritual world, meaning we tend to think that things just happen there,
that God makes them by the wave of the hand. But we know everything with humans
is a matter of gradual growth, and accomplished reciprocally; and that
everything in nature requires a process. It is the same in heaven: in heaven
people don’t just sit on a cloud and bask in God’s light, but experience
fulfillment through being useful in all the same type of occupations we have
here. Everything is relational in both worlds. Only in heaven people love each
other more than themselves.
Lets
look at the example of the sun again. Einstein discovered that the source of
the sun’s power is nuclear fusion. The sun’s mass is so enormous its gravity
causes unfathomable pressure and heat in its core. The pressure and heat cause
the atoms to accelerate to incredible speeds at close proximity. Hydrogen atoms
normally repel each other, but the heat and pressure at the core is so enormous
it causes the Hydrogen atoms to smash together and split, forming a new element
– helium. In the process they release heat, and light as photons, and the
massive power of the explosion seeks to expand to the surface of the sun. This
is nuclear fusion, the engine in the suns core. The sun is anything but static;
within the sun there is a constant tension, a raging battle between gravities
crushing inward force, and nuclear fusion’s immense expansive fire. But the two
forces settle into an equilibrium that lasts for billions of years, and
together provide all the elements in the universe, and the heat and light that
sustain life.
It is a universal principle that that which
is created by the source has in it the inclination to repeat the form of the
source. The master example of this is that humans are made in the image of God.
The equilibrium between the forces of gravity and nuclear fusion in the sun
defines the form of the sun, and because the sun is the source, the form of
equilibrium is repeated in everything that exists. For anything to exist it has
to have a form, and anything that has form has some kind of equilibrium that is
the cause for that form. Based on this principle Swedenborg writes that just as
there is an infinite largeness there is also an infinite minuteness. There is
nothing so minute that there is not something smaller that is the substance
within it. For instance an atom is a form that has within it electrons,
neutrons and protons spinning around. As science keeps discovering, even the
protons and neutrons have smaller things that compose them, and there are
smaller things yet which compose these, and so on. It is beyond our ability to
comprehend infinite minuteness, but based on the principle of form, substance and
equilibrium we can see it must be true.
Equilibrium is in everything we see. The
human body and every organ in it has a certain equilibrium between the inside
forces of blood pressure and muscle tension, and the outside forces of gravity
and atmospheric pressure. A leaf on a tree has equilibrium in a similar way.
Anything we might look at is in a state of equilibrium, a chair, a light bulb,
a cell, a fiber, anything, because they have a form, and substance inside it.
The equations of Newton and Einstein work within equilibrium. The state of
equilibrium can always change, for instance if a bottle is broken, but its
pieces settle into another state of equilibrium. Swedenborg writes:
For any thing to have existence
there must be an equilibrium of all things. Without equilibrium there is no
action and reaction; for equilibrium is between two forces, one acting and the
other reacting, and the state of rest resulting from like action and reaction
is called equilibrium. In the natural world there is an equilibrium in all
things and in each thing. It exists in a general way even in the atmosphere,
wherein the lower parts react and resist in proportion as the higher parts act
and press down. Again, in the natural world there is an equilibrium between
heat and cold, between light and shade, and between dryness and moisture, the
middle condition being the equilibrium. There is also an equilibrium in all the
subjects of the three kingdoms of nature, the mineral, the vegetable, and the
animal; for without equilibrium in them nothing can come forth and have
permanent existence (Heaven and Hell, 589).
Another correspondence we can see in the sun
has to do with the fact that the divine contains infinite variety, and is the
source of life. From the divine human in the spiritual sun manifests the
infinite variety and continual abundance of life, similarly, there is nothing
that exists in nature that is exactly the same as anything else. For instance,
science shows that snowflakes can be very similar, but never exactly the same.
It is the same with everything. There are no two human beings that are the
same, or ever will be.
To see how suns are the source of all things
in nature, and the cause of variety, lets look more deeply at what happens in
the sun. Scientists teach that the nuclear fusion taking place in the sun is
the cause of all the elements of the universe. A sun like ours is only big
enough to produce helium, but stars bigger produce such massive gravity that
they have enough heat and pressure to create heavier elements such as sulfur
and iron. These heavier elements are only created in supernovas. The elements
are made by the incredible heat and energy released when the supernova
explodes. Scientists report that the heaviest of elements, such as Gold, are
made by the even more enormous explosions that occur when two neutron stars
collide. This is why the heavier Elements are more rare. These incredible
explosions send the elements out into the universe. And from these elements and
their infinite combinations, all the things in the universe originate -
planets, galaxies, new stars, and all living things. Scientists describe
supernovas as the mother of all substances and objects in the universe. From
this information we get an idea of the essential correspondence between God as
the source of all things and their infinite variety, and the sun as the source
of the abundance and variety in nature.
In my experience correspondence never fails;
we simply have to dig into understanding them. Below is another interesting
correspondence. In this correspondence we can compare the dynamics between;
one, the divine in the spiritual sun and the reception of Him where angels
live; and, two, the natural sun and the dynamics of how humans on earth receive
light and heat from the sun. Swedenborg writes:
Divine
love in the spiritual world appears to the sight of angels like the sun, as far
distant from them as the sun of our world is from men. If therefore God, who is
in the midst of that sun, were to come close to angels, they would perish just
as men would if the sun of the world came close to them, for it is equally
burning. For this reason there are constant controls which modify and moderate
the burning heat of that love, so that its radiation should not reach heaven
undiluted, since this would consume the angels. When therefore the Lord makes
His presence more immediately felt in heaven, the irreligious beneath heaven
begin to complain, suffering torture and fainting, so that they take refuge in
caves and fissures in the mountains (TCR, 691).
This corresponds to the fact that where there
is life on a planet there must be the right distance from the sun, and also, a
certain delicate balance of characteristics on the planet that protect the life
there. Earth being at the perfect distance from the sun is a clear
correspondence, but there are many more subtle comparisons to be made. For
instance scientist have discovered how essential the magnetic field of the
earth is to protecting life against the power of solar flares and radiation. (When
solar flares are too big people on earth complain that they take out our
electrical systems.) The motion of molten magma inside the earth causes a
rather weak magnetic field around earth, but this magnetic field is strong
enough to form a barrier around the earth that deflects harmful solar
radiation. Also, just the right tilt of the earth’s axis creates the seasons
around the globe, which is important for many things, especially maintaining
moderate temperatures, a variety of climates for life, and especially a stable
atmosphere. These factors, plus just the right amount of water on earth,
produce a healthy atmosphere that provides essential protection from the sun’s
radiation. The moon provides essential protection for earth by stabilizing its
rotation on its axis; without this life would be thrown into dramatic cycles of
destruction, mostly due to sudden huge temperature changes, and loss of a
stable atmosphere. All of these factors, and many more, work together to
maintain a delicate balance; they correspond to the ‘constant controls which
modify and moderate’ the burning heat and light of the spiritual sun from
harming angels. I am not a physicist, but we can see these correspondences
readily enough on the level of principle. The more detailed one’s knowledge of
science the deeper the correspondences that can be seen.
Now we look to the ultimate source of
equilibrium that makes it a universal correspondence, and demonstrates the
connectedness of all things. Inside the spiritual sun there is also an infinite,
dynamic marriage that is the source of life. This is the Holy marriage between
the Lord’s divine essence and his divine human. This is the Holy of Holies.
From this marriage radiates Holy fire, which is the cause of the spiritual
sun’s light and heat (wisdom and love). The powerful forces we described inside
the natural sun give us a glimpse, by correspondences, of the unfathomably
powerful union inside the spiritual son. The equilibrium in the natural sun
corresponds to the Holy marriage in the spiritual sun; except, of course, the
forces inside the natural son are not alive; they are material and energy
based, but in the spiritual sun life comes from the source itself, the divine
human, Jesus Christ. This is the mother of all correspondences.
In the Sun there,
which is from Himself, is Divine fire, which is the Divine good of the Divine
love. From that Sun is Divine light, which is Divine truth from Divine good.
(AC 8644).
That the union in the spiritual sun is
holy, and in its interiors most holy, is very evident from the fact that in
every detail of it there is the heavenly marriage, that is, the marriage of
good and truth, thus heaven; and that in every detail of the inmost sense there
is the marriage of the Lord’s Divine Human with His kingdom and church; nay, in
the supreme sense there is the union of the Divine Itself and the Divine Human
in the Lord (AC 6343).
It is as if His body (Jesus)
is the candle and his essence (God) the wick, and the marriage of them produces
the Holy fire from which radiates infinite love and wisdom. This bond, or
marriage, and resulting Holy fire, causes the form of the spiritual sun. The
Holy bond between Jesus and God was forged (in all wonder, pain, joy, and
beauty) in the glorification process while Jesus was on earth. In the
resurrection the Lords body was made divine, and merged with the divine
essence. What radiates from the spiritual sun around the Lord is the universal
spiritual substance of life, - love and wisdom – just as heat and light radiate
from the natural sun. Love and wisdom are spiritual in nature; indeed they are
the indivisible spiritual substance of life, not abstractions.
This idea bears repeating in another way so that it
might penetrate our understanding.
The source of life and creation is the Holy marriage within the Lord, and this
core reality descends by correspondences from the divine to the physical. The
equilibrium that constitutes the form of all things in nature originates from the Lord in the form of the spiritual sun, and we get a glimpse of the mightiness of Him in the power power of the physical suns in the universe.
The implications of this are limitless, but we can begin by saying that
spiritually the divine of the Lord is intrinsic in our life and in nature, and
thus, if we are receptive to Him, can be seen or experienced through all things
such as a rainbow or climbing a mountain.
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