Week 2    Day 1

    Listen:

The Temple of Wisdom in Heaven

TCR 508. One day there appeared to me a magnificent temple, square in form, the roof of which was crown-shaped, arched above and raised round about. Its walls were continuous windows of crystal; its door was of a pearly substance. Within, on the south side, towards the west was a pulpit, on which lay the open Word on the right, enveloped in a sphere of light, the splendor of which surrounded and illuminated the whole pulpit. In the center of the temple was a sanctuary, before which there was a veil, at that time raised, and there a golden cherub stood with a sword turning here and there in his hand.

[2] While I looked at these things, the significance of each one of them flowed into my meditation. The temple signified the New Church; the door of pearly substance, entrance into it; the windows of crystal, the truths that enlighten it; the pulpit, the priesthood and preaching; the Word lying open upon the pulpit and illuminating the upper part of it, signified the revelation of the internal sense of the Word, which is spiritual; the sanctuary in the center of the temple signified the conjunction of that church with the angelic heaven; the golden cherub there, the Word in the sense of the letter; the sword waving in his hand signified that this sense can be turned in any direction, provided it is done in adaptation to some truth; the veil before the cherub being raised, signified that the Word is now laid open.

[3] Afterward, when I drew nearer, I saw this inscription above the door, Nunc licet—Now it is permitted—which signified that now it is permitted to enter with understanding into the mysteries of faith. From seeing this inscription it came into my thought that it is exceedingly dangerous to enter with the understanding into dogmas of faith that are concocted out of self-intelligence, and therefore out of falsities, and still more so to confirm them from the Word. By this means the understanding is closed above, and gradually below as well, to such a degree that theology is not only despised but also obliterated from the mind, as writing on paper is by worms, or the wool of a garment by moths. Then the understanding abides only in political matters, which have regard to man’s life under the government where he is, and in the civil matters pertaining to his employment, and in the domestic affairs of his own house. And in all these things he constantly kisses nature, and owing to the allurements of her pleasures, loves her as an idolater loves the golden image in his bosom.

[4] Now because the dogmas of the present Christian churches have not been formed from the Word, but from self-intelligence, and therefore from falsities, and also have been confirmed by certain passages from the Word, by the Lord’s Divine Providence the Word among the Roman Catholics has been taken from the laity, and among Protestants has been opened and yet has been closed by their common declaration that the understanding must be held in obedience to their faith.

[5] But in the New Church the contrary is the case. There it is permitted to enter with the understanding and penetrate into all her secrets, and to confirm them by the Word, because her doctrines are continuous truths laid open by the Lord by means of the Word, and confirmations of these truths by rational means cause the understanding to be opened above more and more, and thus to be raised into the light in which the angels of heaven are. That light in its essence is truth, and in that light acknowledgment of the Lord as the God of heaven and earth shines in its glory. This is what is meant by the inscription Nunc licet over the door of the temple, and also by the veil of the sanctuary before the cherub being raised. For it is a canon of the New Church that falsities close the understanding and that truths open it.

[6] After this I saw above my head something like an infant, holding in his hand a paper. As he drew near to me, he increased to the stature of a medium-sized man. He was an angel from the third heaven, where all at a distance look like infants. When he came to me, he handed me the paper. But as the writing was in rounded letters such as they have in that heaven, I returned the paper and asked him to explain to me the meaning of the words written there, in terms adapted to the ideas of my thought. He replied, “This is what is written here: From now on, enter into the mysteries of the Word, which until now has been closed up; for the particular truths in it are so many mirrors of the Lord.”

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