December 31st
Heaven’s union with us and our union with it are of such
a nature that each relies on the other.
July 23rd
To speak generally, wind instruments express various emotional responses to goodness, and stringed instruments, responses to truth.
July 22nd
The east corresponds to a state of dawning goodness; the west, to a state of goodness in decline; the south corresponds to a state of truth well lit; but the north, to a state of truth in shadow.
July 21st
The symbolism of length is goodness and of width is truth.
—Secrets of Heaven 10179
Corners symbolize strength and firmness.
—Secrets of Heaven 9494
July 20th
Three in the Word has the spiritual meaning “being complete and perfect” and also “containing all aspects at once.”
July 19th
Clothes symbolize truth, because truth acts as a garment for goodness.
July 18th
Arms symbolize strength and hands symbolize power.
—Secrets of Heaven 4934
The feet and the parts adjoining them represent physical
elements and everything connected with them. The
foot itself and the heel, then, symbolizes the very lowest
physical elements.
—Secrets of Heaven 2162:2
July 17th
A neck symbolizes union and communication between higher and lower planes, so it symbolizes spiritual influence.
July 16th
Inner attributes are each allotted their own region of
the face. Those having to do with love belong to the area
of the forehead; those having to do with wisdom and
understanding, to the area of the eyes; those having to do
with perception, to the area of the nostrils; those having
to do with verbalization, to the area of the mouth.
July 15th
The sense of touch in general corresponds with a desire for good; the sense of taste, with a desire to know; the sense of smell, with a desire to perceive; the sense of hearing, with a desire to learn, and with obedience; while the sense of sight corresponds with a desire to have understanding and wisdom.
July 14th
On a physical level, spirit means the life imparted by human breath. The breathing of the lungs corresponds to the vital energy of truth, which is the vital energy of faith and so of the intellect, while the beating of the heart corresponds to the vital energy of the will and so of love.
July 13th
The reason a head stands for the whole of a person’s humanity, or the whole person, is that everything in a person descends from the head. It is from the head that the body originally develops, so when we form a thought or intention (which happens in our head), the effect of the thought or intention likewise manifests itself in the body.
July 12th
The angels of the deepest heaven correspond to that activity of our body that is governed by the heart and cerebellum.
July 11th
The workings of the organic substances of the body are physical and the workings of the organic substances of the mind are spiritual. The two act as a unity by means of responsiveness to each other.
July 10th
Our individual viscera and parts—the motor and sensory organs—correspond to communities in heaven, each virtually a separate heaven. From these communities (or rather through them) come heavenly and spiritual influences on us, which act on the forms adapted and fitted to them, bringing about effects that we are able to see. The effects seem completely earthly to us, though; they appear under a shape and guise so entirely different that we do not realize they come from heaven.
July 9th
Our body is a microcosm, since every secret in the physical world is stored in it. Every secret regarding the ether or modified forms of the ether is stored in the eye, and every secret regarding the air is stored in the ear. Whatever invisible elements float and stir in the air are taken into account and sensed in the organ of smell, and those in water or any other liquid, in the organ of taste. Changes of state are actually stored throughout by the sense of touch. Entities that lie still more deeply hidden would be perceived by our inner organs if our lives were in order.
