Divine Love and Wisdom

Part 3

Degrees

Radiant belts

Heavens

The natural world

2

3

4

5

6

7

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Continuous degrees – Degrees of breadth

• on same level of existence• Increments or gradations of same

“stuff”

• coarser to finer• denser to rarer• light to dark • heat to cold• hard to soft• thick to thin

Discrete degrees – Degrees of Height

• Form a single entity (functioning unit)• Yet “parts” exist on distinct levels and take

distinct forms• One level arises from another

– i.e. the “deeper” level has a causitive effect on the level “exterior” to it

• Prior → subsequent → last• end → cause → effect• Composite formed of successive elements:• simple unit (A) → aggregate of A (B) →

aggregate of B (C)

Examples of discrete degrees

• Levels of heaven– Distinct levels (like different dimensions)– Communicate by influx/correspondence– Person on lower levels can’t function on

higher

• Levels of the mind

• Atmospheres

• Love and wisdom

What are the implications of this teaching about discrete levels

for reformation and regeneration, i.e. for attaining

heaven/salvation?

Degrees of height are homogeneous, with one following after another in succession, like end,

cause and effect (189-194)

189. • “Degrees of height are homogeneous…” (Rogers)• “Vertical levels are matched in kind…” (Dole)192. • “…homogeneous, that is, of the same character and

nature” (Rogers)• “… consistent, of the same character and nature”

(Dole)• “…are homogeneous” (Rogers)• “…have the same basic nature” (Dole)• “are homogeneous” (Rogers)• “match” (Dole)

The first degree is the all in all things of the

subsequent degrees (195-204)

In sequential order the first degree constitutes the highest element, and the third the lowest;

but in concurrent order the first degree constitutes the inmost element, and the third

the outmost (205-208)

Sequential Order

(Successive Order)

highest

lowest

(ultimate)

(first)

(last)

Concurrent Order

(Simultaneous Order)

outmost

inmost

We are not conscious of the spiritual levels of our minds while in our natural state

252.

The natural person who has the spiritual degree in him opened does not know that he thinks and acts from his spiritual self…. [2] Neither does the natural person whose spiritual degree has been opened know that through his spiritual self he is in heaven.…The natural person in whom the spiritual degree has been opened also does not know that his spiritual mind is filled by the Lord with a thousand secrets of wisdom and with a thousand delights of love, and that he comes into them after death when he becomes an angel.

The reason the natural person does not know these things is that the communication between his natural self and his spiritual self occurs by means of correspondences, and communication by means of correspondences is not perceived in the intellect other than by his seeing truths in a state of light, and in the will other than by his performing useful services with affection.

Regarded in itself, the natural degree of the human mind is continuous, but by correspondence with the two higher degrees, it appears, when elevated, as though it were distinguished into levels (256-259)

• Continuous: sensations & facts → ideas → imagining → concepts → reasoning

• Appears as though distinguished into levels (as though discrete?) from opening of higher degrees

256.

• …the natural person cannot think of this wisdom in the same way as angels, he can still comprehend it intellectually when his intellect is elevated to the degree of light in which angels dwell. For the intellect can be elevated even to that point and be enlightened to the extent that it is elevated. But even so, the enlightenment of the natural mind does not ascend by discrete degrees, but increases by a continuous progression. As it increases, then, the mind is accordingly enlightened from within by the light of the two higher degrees.

256.

It is apparent from this that as long as a person lives in the world and is as a result in the natural degree, he cannot be elevated into wisdom itself such as it exists in angels, but can be elevated only into a higher light extending up to that of angels and so receive enlightenment from their light, a light which flows in from within and illumines him.

258.

It can be seen from this that a person's rationality is in appearance as though of three degrees—a rationality from the heavenly degree, a rationality from the spiritual degree, and a rationality from the natural degree.

257.

1. The natural mind can be elevated up to the light of heaven in which angels dwell, and can perceive naturally, thus not so fully, what angels perceive spiritually. But the mind of the natural person still cannot be elevated into angelic light itself.

257.

2. By elevating his natural mind to the light of heaven a person can think, even speak, with angels, but the angels' thought and speech then flow into the person's natural thought and speech, and not the reverse. Consequently angels speak with a person in the natural language which is the person's native tongue.

257.

3. This takes place by a spiritual influx into natural light, and not by any natural influx into spiritual light.

257.

4. Human wisdom, which is natural so long as a person lives in the natural world, can in no measure be elevated into angelic wisdom, but can be elevated only into a kind of image of it. … But still the person in whom the spiritual degree has been opened comes into that wisdom when he dies, and he may also come into it as the result of a suspension of his bodily sensations and an influx then from above into the spiritual elements of his mind.

Our actual consciousness

perception

Light and Heat flowing in through

faculties

Interior thought – immaterial ideas

Higher objects (material ideas)

where the light strikes and is seenLower objects (words)

Heat affecting our will, affection for truth & good

source of conscious

enlightenment

Light affecting our understanding Our world

ly

consciousness

Our spirit

in

heaven

257.

5. A person's natural mind consists of spiritual substances and at the same time of natural substances. It is owing to its spiritual substances that thought occurs, and not because of the natural substances. These latter substances are left behind when a person dies, but not the spiritual substances.

257.

6. The natural substances of that mind—which, as we said, are by death left behind—form an epidermal envelope encompassing the spiritual body that spirits and angels have. It is in consequence of such an envelope, taken from the natural world, that their spiritual bodies have permanent existence, for the natural element is the outmost containing vessel. That is why there is no spirit or angel who was not first born a person in the world.

Injury to ultimate organic, in womb, etc.

259.

We said that every person is born into this faculty, or into rationality, but we mean every person in whom the external elements have not been injured by incidental conditions, whether in the womb, or after birth as a result of disease, or owing to the infliction of a head wound, or to some insane love bursting forth and loosening restraints. Rationality in these cases cannot be elevated. For the life which belongs to the will and intellect does not have in such people terminal vessels in which to rest, vessels so disposed that it can perform orderly outward acts. For life operates in accordance with outmost terminations, though not as a result of them.On the impossibility of rationality in little children and preadolescents, see below at the end of no. 266.

The natural mind, being the integument and containing vessel of the higher degrees of the

human mind, is reactive, and if the higher degrees are not opened, it acts in opposition to them,

whereas if they are opened, it acts in harmony with them (260-263)

• Is the natural inherently evil?

• Or is evil inherent (built-in) in the way the Lord created things?

• Left to right vs. right to left?

5. All evils, and the falsities arising from them, both those inborn and those additionally acquired, have their seat in the natural mind.

3. The three degrees of the natural mind which is a form of and image of hell are opposed to the three degrees of the spiritual mind, which is a form of and image of heaven.

275.Celestial

Perverted celestial

Perverted spiritual

Perverted natural

Natural

Spiritual

۸ ۸۸ ۸ ۸ ۸

240.

• Lord dwells with us in these faculties

• His abode in the human race

• Humans vs. animals

247, 255.

• Animals vs. humans