The simplest way to understand what 'conjugial' is is that it means a conjoining and, so, sometimes it can be called a 'marriage'. The problem with this is though is that when a person thinks on 'marriage' it is usually only in the natural sense and our natural understanding of marriage falls woefully short of its true meaning. For this natural conjunction or natural marriage, there is the word 'conjugal'. This is what comes into the person's mind when they hear someone and who is unaware of the Latin Word or Swedenborg's religious works and they think the person is just mispronouncing or has misspelled the word conjugal, when in fact the word that is said or written is 'conjugial'.
Now, there is this desire to be conjoined with another person when there is an affection for another. Perhaps all of us know and have such experience of affection or love in more than just the sensuous level or degree with its thoughts and affections? We do have more than merely natural thoughts of marriage, such as the joining together of the thoughts of a wife with her husband's. Isn't there a desire to share what we have with the one we love? Don't we receive pleasure from sharing with another, especially with the one we love - sharing what we call 'good'? And, isn't it our life and its delights and pleasures that we want most of all to share with another whom we love? This, then, is something of the love that is 'truly conjugial'. It is that 'good' with its truth that needs to reside within us, not only in our natural mind - our natural understanding and will - but within the higher regions as well - the spiritual and the celestial regions.
If life and its delights and pleasures are the love that we want to share, then that love in us must take on form. In other words, how can love be realized? Well, in God and from God love is united with wisdom; they are one. It is a marriage, so to speak, of love and wisdom or of good and truth, and when these are joined together in a man's mind - in his will and understanding - they constitute his faith and life from the Lord within the man. This is that good and truth coming from the Lord residing in us.
Now, if man does not accept the two qualities - good and truth - from the Lord, then he will remain in the natural state and knows only sensual and corporeal things. Where, then, does good and truth resides in a man if it is not in the natural region of his mind? The answer is that these qualities do not and cannot reside with man at all, unless, like Swedenborg, the man's qualities are that of a servant and he becomes, as it were, a use of the Lord, which is that he desires to know truth and lives accordingly, for then truth can be conjoined together as in a marriage with good in him.
Now with this as a basis or ground on which to build and to support what is taught, such as the truths that are taught in this beautiful story and that they are for a divine purpose, and not just for delight of the ear, we can proceed.
We read, "While in deep thought concerning this (In what region of the human mind does love truly conjugial reside?) lo, I saw two swans flying towards the north, and presently two birds of paradise flying towards the south, and also two turtle-doves flying in the east. As I followed their flight with my sight, I saw that the two swans bent their northerly course to the east, as likewise did the two birds of paradise on their southerly course; and that, joining the two turtle-doves in the east, they flew with them to a lofty palace there, around which were olive trees, palms, and beeches. The palace had three tiers of windows, one above the other; and, directing my attention to them, I saw the swans fly into the palace through open windows in the lowest tier, the birds of paradise through open windows in the middle tier, and the turtle-doves through open windows in the highest tier."
Thoughts come from God. There are thoughts - truths - and their affections - goods - that proceed from God. Yet, we are aware that some thoughts that we experience may not appear to be from God in that they turn us away from and not toward God. We are also aware that thoughts that enter us may not become a part of us. They just seem to fly right by us. We, only fleetingly, know things - in one ear and out the other.
Swedenborg's thoughts became more inward, more internal, and were centered on spiritual things, such as love and wisdom, good and truth, they could be only understood through natural things that signify Divine or spiritual and celestial things. One might think, What has birds - swans, birds of paradise, and the turtledoves - in this case got to do with Divine and spiritual things, such as, love and wisdom or good and truth?
Let me ask what does creating "the fowls of the air and the beasts of the field, or even the grass, and the herb yielding seeds and fruit tree yielding fruit" (Genesis 1: 11) have to do with Divine celestial and spiritual things? Aren't all these mentioned in man's generation or his regeneration? They must mean something else then that God created them for our natural use only. Why not for our spiritual use as well? Isn't there a deeper or more internal truth meant here? Do these things have a significance that can teach us things about the Lord and about Heaven, and about us - how we are to live from Him?
Birds are like thoughts that fly, as it were, where we can watch, and consider, and can direct our attention to. They are spiritual things that become with us knowledge, and intelligence and form our spiritual, our rational, and our intellectual degree of understanding. They come into view, so to speak, and, if we concentrate upon them, they become of use and we begin to put them together and to form cognitions, ideas, and eventually doctrines that determine our very life and faith. They can be either good or evil depending upon the quality of the thoughts that we entertain.
If we, like Swedenborg, keep our thoughts directed on the Lord and in how His love and wisdom wants to come to and remain within us, then these thoughts appear in the qualities of the Lord, which are both love and wisdom. And, within us we see genuine truth and know good. In other words, they constitute both our essence and existence and there is a unity of love and wisdom, of good and truth within us as in a marriage. This is the only way the Lord's love and His wisdom proceeds from Him, - as one - for these qualities are married and are not independent one from another. Put in another way, truth is not truth unless good is within, nor is good good unless it is revealed or manifested by truth.
Now, there is this desire to be conjoined with another person when there is an affection for another. Perhaps all of us know and have such experience of affection or love in more than just the sensuous level or degree with its thoughts and affections? We do have more than merely natural thoughts of marriage, such as the joining together of the thoughts of a wife with her husband's. Isn't there a desire to share what we have with the one we love? Don't we receive pleasure from sharing with another, especially with the one we love - sharing what we call 'good'? And, isn't it our life and its delights and pleasures that we want most of all to share with another whom we love? This, then, is something of the love that is 'truly conjugial'. It is that 'good' with its truth that needs to reside within us, not only in our natural mind - our natural understanding and will - but within the higher regions as well - the spiritual and the celestial regions.
If life and its delights and pleasures are the love that we want to share, then that love in us must take on form. In other words, how can love be realized? Well, in God and from God love is united with wisdom; they are one. It is a marriage, so to speak, of love and wisdom or of good and truth, and when these are joined together in a man's mind - in his will and understanding - they constitute his faith and life from the Lord within the man. This is that good and truth coming from the Lord residing in us.
Now, if man does not accept the two qualities - good and truth - from the Lord, then he will remain in the natural state and knows only sensual and corporeal things. Where, then, does good and truth resides in a man if it is not in the natural region of his mind? The answer is that these qualities do not and cannot reside with man at all, unless, like Swedenborg, the man's qualities are that of a servant and he becomes, as it were, a use of the Lord, which is that he desires to know truth and lives accordingly, for then truth can be conjoined together as in a marriage with good in him.
Now with this as a basis or ground on which to build and to support what is taught, such as the truths that are taught in this beautiful story and that they are for a divine purpose, and not just for delight of the ear, we can proceed.
We read, "While in deep thought concerning this (In what region of the human mind does love truly conjugial reside?) lo, I saw two swans flying towards the north, and presently two birds of paradise flying towards the south, and also two turtle-doves flying in the east. As I followed their flight with my sight, I saw that the two swans bent their northerly course to the east, as likewise did the two birds of paradise on their southerly course; and that, joining the two turtle-doves in the east, they flew with them to a lofty palace there, around which were olive trees, palms, and beeches. The palace had three tiers of windows, one above the other; and, directing my attention to them, I saw the swans fly into the palace through open windows in the lowest tier, the birds of paradise through open windows in the middle tier, and the turtle-doves through open windows in the highest tier."
Thoughts come from God. There are thoughts - truths - and their affections - goods - that proceed from God. Yet, we are aware that some thoughts that we experience may not appear to be from God in that they turn us away from and not toward God. We are also aware that thoughts that enter us may not become a part of us. They just seem to fly right by us. We, only fleetingly, know things - in one ear and out the other.
Swedenborg's thoughts became more inward, more internal, and were centered on spiritual things, such as love and wisdom, good and truth, they could be only understood through natural things that signify Divine or spiritual and celestial things. One might think, What has birds - swans, birds of paradise, and the turtledoves - in this case got to do with Divine and spiritual things, such as, love and wisdom or good and truth?
Let me ask what does creating "the fowls of the air and the beasts of the field, or even the grass, and the herb yielding seeds and fruit tree yielding fruit" (Genesis 1: 11) have to do with Divine celestial and spiritual things? Aren't all these mentioned in man's generation or his regeneration? They must mean something else then that God created them for our natural use only. Why not for our spiritual use as well? Isn't there a deeper or more internal truth meant here? Do these things have a significance that can teach us things about the Lord and about Heaven, and about us - how we are to live from Him?
Birds are like thoughts that fly, as it were, where we can watch, and consider, and can direct our attention to. They are spiritual things that become with us knowledge, and intelligence and form our spiritual, our rational, and our intellectual degree of understanding. They come into view, so to speak, and, if we concentrate upon them, they become of use and we begin to put them together and to form cognitions, ideas, and eventually doctrines that determine our very life and faith. They can be either good or evil depending upon the quality of the thoughts that we entertain.
If we, like Swedenborg, keep our thoughts directed on the Lord and in how His love and wisdom wants to come to and remain within us, then these thoughts appear in the qualities of the Lord, which are both love and wisdom. And, within us we see genuine truth and know good. In other words, they constitute both our essence and existence and there is a unity of love and wisdom, of good and truth within us as in a marriage. This is the only way the Lord's love and His wisdom proceeds from Him, - as one - for these qualities are married and are not independent one from another. Put in another way, truth is not truth unless good is within, nor is good good unless it is revealed or manifested by truth.