Swedenborg on heavenly and earthly (i.e. human) correspondences

Having come across the following excerpt 6 days ago in a special issue presenting a selection of important esoteric texts (which was published by a French magazine a few years ago, in Le point, Les textes fondamentaux de l'ésotérisme, March-April 2005), I decided to look up the original wording. Penned in Latin by the Swedish scientist, theosophist and Christian mystic Emanuel Swedenborg, the work in which my excerpt first appeared was published under the following title: ‘De Coelo et ejus mirabilibus, et de inferno, ex auditis et visis’ [Heaven and its Wonders and Hell From Things Heard and Seen, usually shortened as ‘Heaven and Hell’] (London, 1758; https://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb31423483z).

As I could not find the 1758 Latin edition online, I decided that I would quote the excerpt from the second edition of the English translation, which was published in 1784 (apparently, a translator’s work was held then – and also before and after the so-called age of enlightenment for quite some time – in so little esteem that a translator’s name would not be mentioned anywhere in the work they had translated). I decided to opt for an eighteenth-century English translation (rather than for any of the more recent ones available in that language) because I believe that a text written in the English Swedenborg would have written or read will not only allow the reader to come closer to this author’s way of thinking, but also provide them with the insightful comment the translator added to this excerpt and which he or she humbly signalled by the inconspicuous abbreviation ‘Tr.’.

Having not read anything written by Emanuel Swedenborg, save for a few excerpts here and there, I cannot offer any informed comments on the following passage. However, it is clear to me that Swedenborg is here merely transposing (even though it must have been coloured by the visions and the experiences he had had as a Christian mystic) the esoteric ‘wisdom’ that goes as far back as pre-Hellenic Egypt and which resurfaced in Europe in the Middle Ages with the so-called Emerald Tablet and its famous principle ‘as above, so below’ – in Latin: ‘Verum sine mendacio, certum et verissimum: quod est inferius est sicut quod est superius; et quod est superius est sicut quod est inferius, ad perpetranda miracula rei unius’.

[The excerpt is taken from pages 48 to 50 of Heaven and its Wonders and Hell From Things Heard and Seen, London, 1784; I have not made any changes to the spellings, the punctuation or even to the odd typo; however, the chunks in green are mine.]

That there is a Correspondence between all Things in Heaven, and all Things in Man.

87. WHAT is meant by Correspondence between heavenly and earthly things is scarcely known at this time, and that through various causes; but principally, because Man has so far alienated himself from Heaven by the love of Self and the World; and they who give themselves up to these, direct all their views and pursuits to worldly things, as more agreeable to Nature and their External Senses, without attending to those that are Spiritual, and suited to the entertainment of the mind and inward senses; wherefore they reject these, calling them abstruse, and too high for them: but the ancients were otherwise minded, for they accounted the knowledge of Correspondences as the most exalted of all Sciences, as the Fountain from whence they drew their understanding and wisdom: and as to those who were of the Church of God, it was by means hereof that they held Communication with Heaven; for the knowledge of Correspondences is the knowledge of Angels. The most ancient formed their minds by the doctrine and laws of Correspondence, and thought according thereto, like the Angels, and conversed with them; and hence it was that the Lord often vouchsafed to appear to them, and give them divine instructions: but this kind of knowledge is so far lost amongst us at this day, that it is scarcely any longer known what is meant by the term Correspondence, as here used. (72)

88. Now forasmuch as without some knowledge of what is meant by Correspondence, nothing relating to the Spiritual World can clearly be understood; neither concerning it’s Influx into the Natural World; nor of the distinction betwixt what is Spiritual and what Natural; nor yet any thing with clearness of the Spirit of man called the Soul, and it’s operation on the Body; nor lastly, of the State of man after Death; we shall therefore here shew what is meant by Correspondence, by way of preparative to what follows.

89. And first, for what is meant by Correspondence: Now the whole Natural World corresponds to the Spiritual World, both in the whole, and likewise in it’s several parts; and what exists and subsists in the Natural from the Spiritual, is called Correspondence; now the whole Natural World exists and subsists from the Spiritual, as an effect from it’s efficient cause; therefore there is a correspondent relation betwixt them. By the Natural World is meant the whole expanse under the sun, and whatever therein receives light and heat from it belongs to that world: by the Spiritual World is meant Heaven, and all that is therein.

90. As man is an image both of heaven and of this world, in the least form, (see above, n. 57.) therefore he stands here both in the Spiritual and Natural World: the things within (those of the mind and spirit) which respect the Intellect and Will, constitute his Spiritual World; but those of the body, which respect his external senses and actions, constitute his Natural World: whatever therefore in his natural world (of body, senses, and actions) derives it’s existence from his Spiritual world, (or Mind, Intellect, and Will) that is called Correspondent. (*)

[…]

(72) That the science of Correspondences excels all other sciences, n. 4280. That herein consisted the principal wisdom of the ancients, but that it is now intirely lost, n. 3021, 3419, 4280—7729, 10252. That it flourished chiefly in the East, and in Egypt, n. 5702, 6092, 7097, 7779, 9391, 10407.   [PLEASE READ MY NOTE BELOW.]

(*) In this definition and distinction the intelligent reader will find a most admirable and important part of instruction, which will explain a man to himself, and point out to him all the good and evil in his life, without the help of that kind of sophistry commonly called Casuistical Divinity. It may be sufficient here, for a farther explanation of our Author’s meaning, to observe, that correspondence between things Spiritual and Natural, signifies the essence of a thing brought into form, or the principle manifested in act: thus benevolence shews itself in benefits, and malevolence in injuries: and thus throughout nature, the Heavenly World or good principle realizes itself in beautiful and good productions; and the hellish, or evil principle, in all the various forms of monstrosity and evil: and so the rage and horrors of the Dark World break forth in thunder and lightning, storm and tempest; but the meekness of Paradise refreshes all nature with the genial warmth and soft blandishments of Vernal Delights. It is here to be noted, that the Science of Physiognomy is grounded in that of Correspondences. Tr.

[The above list of paragraphs should be checked against the one proposed in a more recent translation, by running a search [Ctrl + F] for 10407 in the pdf of Heaven and Hell, available at https://swedenborg.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/NCE_HeavenandHell_portable.pdf.]