We now turn again to our story and read the remaining part.
"As I was looking at this, an angel stood by my side, and said, 'Do you understand these sights?' I replied, 'Partly.' He then said: 'that palace represents the abodes of conjugial love as they are in human minds'. Its highest part into which the doves betook themselves represents the highest region of the mind where conjugial love with its wisdom dwells in love of good; its middle into which the birds of paradise betook themselves represents the middle region where conjugial love with its intelligence dwells in the love of truth; and its lowest part into which the swans betook themselves represents the lowest region of the mind where conjugial love with its knowledge dwells in the love what is just and right. Moreover, the three pairs of birds signify these same things - the pair of turtledoves, the conjugial love of the highest region, the birds of paradise the conjugial love of the middle region, and the pair of swans the conjugial love of the lowest region. The like are signified by the three kinds of trees around the palace - the olive, the palm, and the beech. In Heaven, we call the highest region of the mind celestial, the middle spiritual, and the lowest natural; and we perceive them as abiding places in a house, one above the other, and the ascent from one to another by degrees, as being made by stairs. In each story are two rooms, as it were, one for love the other for wisdom. In front is a bedchamber, as it were, where love with its wisdom, or good with its truth, or, what is the same thing, the will with its understanding, consociate in bed. In that palace stand forth as in effigy all the arcana of conjugial love."
When one wants to understand those things that are not yet clear to him, the Lord will provide him with the Divine truth. In other words, when we, from the Lord, have 'good' thoughts or thoughts that are conjoined with truth, then the Lord teaches and leads us to understand those things which would normally be mysteries to us. If we have an affection to know the truth because it comes from the Lord and that we want to do that truth, we will, partly reason from that understanding, and then, if we truly desire, the will Lord provide that we may further understand.
This new understanding is explained as the opening of these discrete degrees, which cannot be learned by a continuous accumulation of natural sciences. A person's nearness or proximity to the Lord only opens these discrete degrees, that is, when one's thoughts and affections are on the Lord and on His qualities and attributes. Then the man's spiritual and celestial understanding and will, that is, his mind, is opened to understand spiritual and celestial things. In reality, the person has the Lord's love or His good and His truth or His wisdom dwelling, that is, living within him, within his will and understanding. His mind, and so, the human mind, becomes made into the image and likeness of the Lord. The results: the man's natural body performs or acts from the spiritual within. Conjugial love with its wisdom dwells in each region of the man's mind or in each state that a man comes into.
So, it is in the 'love of good', where one wills to do good from love. This is the celestial degree of one's mind and is of wisdom. Next, it is the 'love of truth' where one wills to do good or follow the truth. This is the spiritual degree of a man's mind and is of one's intelligence. Then there are the 'love of what is just and right', where one does what is just and right according to his natural understanding and is known as one's knowledge.
In our natural mind or in the will and the understanding we gain knowledge. In our spiritual mind we gain intelligence and in our celestial region of our mind we gain wisdom. By the fact that there are the pairs of birds or the good and truth, love and wisdom, and will and understanding, in each degree of the human mind signifies that the mind is full or complete from its beginning to its end. And, it is where faith and love to the Lord resides or lives within the man. Such a place is called the rational mind and is the Church in man. It is where conjugial love resides in man's mind.
Now, it is the angel who tells Swedenborg of the stairs that connect the lower with the middle and the middle with the highest region of one's mind. Here, you can understand how a person comes into a higher state, such as, from being natural into becoming spiritual and then celestial. The rooms in the palace or in a house signify these states in man. Love in its room and wisdom in its. It is in a man's interior where love and wisdom or good and truth are conjoined as one.
When interiors of man are mentioned it refers to where external thoughts communicate with internal thoughts and this is called the person's new rational. We learn that here in this story of a man's mind that the bedchamber refers to his interior or rational. Isn't that where a man is associated to God by love and that his faith or his love to the Lord is? There love is with its wisdom, good with its truth, or where the man's will with its understanding are conjoined, for there is where doctrine is developed and there in its bed, so to speak, good and truth, or love and wisdom, are married and is where the doctrine rests with man.
This is where 'conjugial love' resides in a human mind, and by which is meant a person's rational and natural will and understanding. So, it is from the Lord that we have and are human - the Lord being the only true Human, - the Divine Human - and we are human only from Him.
"As I was looking at this, an angel stood by my side, and said, 'Do you understand these sights?' I replied, 'Partly.' He then said: 'that palace represents the abodes of conjugial love as they are in human minds'. Its highest part into which the doves betook themselves represents the highest region of the mind where conjugial love with its wisdom dwells in love of good; its middle into which the birds of paradise betook themselves represents the middle region where conjugial love with its intelligence dwells in the love of truth; and its lowest part into which the swans betook themselves represents the lowest region of the mind where conjugial love with its knowledge dwells in the love what is just and right. Moreover, the three pairs of birds signify these same things - the pair of turtledoves, the conjugial love of the highest region, the birds of paradise the conjugial love of the middle region, and the pair of swans the conjugial love of the lowest region. The like are signified by the three kinds of trees around the palace - the olive, the palm, and the beech. In Heaven, we call the highest region of the mind celestial, the middle spiritual, and the lowest natural; and we perceive them as abiding places in a house, one above the other, and the ascent from one to another by degrees, as being made by stairs. In each story are two rooms, as it were, one for love the other for wisdom. In front is a bedchamber, as it were, where love with its wisdom, or good with its truth, or, what is the same thing, the will with its understanding, consociate in bed. In that palace stand forth as in effigy all the arcana of conjugial love."
When one wants to understand those things that are not yet clear to him, the Lord will provide him with the Divine truth. In other words, when we, from the Lord, have 'good' thoughts or thoughts that are conjoined with truth, then the Lord teaches and leads us to understand those things which would normally be mysteries to us. If we have an affection to know the truth because it comes from the Lord and that we want to do that truth, we will, partly reason from that understanding, and then, if we truly desire, the will Lord provide that we may further understand.
This new understanding is explained as the opening of these discrete degrees, which cannot be learned by a continuous accumulation of natural sciences. A person's nearness or proximity to the Lord only opens these discrete degrees, that is, when one's thoughts and affections are on the Lord and on His qualities and attributes. Then the man's spiritual and celestial understanding and will, that is, his mind, is opened to understand spiritual and celestial things. In reality, the person has the Lord's love or His good and His truth or His wisdom dwelling, that is, living within him, within his will and understanding. His mind, and so, the human mind, becomes made into the image and likeness of the Lord. The results: the man's natural body performs or acts from the spiritual within. Conjugial love with its wisdom dwells in each region of the man's mind or in each state that a man comes into.
So, it is in the 'love of good', where one wills to do good from love. This is the celestial degree of one's mind and is of wisdom. Next, it is the 'love of truth' where one wills to do good or follow the truth. This is the spiritual degree of a man's mind and is of one's intelligence. Then there are the 'love of what is just and right', where one does what is just and right according to his natural understanding and is known as one's knowledge.
In our natural mind or in the will and the understanding we gain knowledge. In our spiritual mind we gain intelligence and in our celestial region of our mind we gain wisdom. By the fact that there are the pairs of birds or the good and truth, love and wisdom, and will and understanding, in each degree of the human mind signifies that the mind is full or complete from its beginning to its end. And, it is where faith and love to the Lord resides or lives within the man. Such a place is called the rational mind and is the Church in man. It is where conjugial love resides in man's mind.
Now, it is the angel who tells Swedenborg of the stairs that connect the lower with the middle and the middle with the highest region of one's mind. Here, you can understand how a person comes into a higher state, such as, from being natural into becoming spiritual and then celestial. The rooms in the palace or in a house signify these states in man. Love in its room and wisdom in its. It is in a man's interior where love and wisdom or good and truth are conjoined as one.
When interiors of man are mentioned it refers to where external thoughts communicate with internal thoughts and this is called the person's new rational. We learn that here in this story of a man's mind that the bedchamber refers to his interior or rational. Isn't that where a man is associated to God by love and that his faith or his love to the Lord is? There love is with its wisdom, good with its truth, or where the man's will with its understanding are conjoined, for there is where doctrine is developed and there in its bed, so to speak, good and truth, or love and wisdom, are married and is where the doctrine rests with man.
This is where 'conjugial love' resides in a human mind, and by which is meant a person's rational and natural will and understanding. So, it is from the Lord that we have and are human - the Lord being the only true Human, - the Divine Human - and we are human only from Him.