CL 269 - head, body, feet

CL 269 [2-3]

Every human being is from creation

a combination of three universal loves: 

love of the neighbor,

which is also a love of performing useful services;

love of the world,

which is also a love of possessing riches;

and love of self,

which is also a love of exercising command over others.

Love of the neighbor,

or a love of performing useful services,

is a love of the spirit. 

Love of the world, on the other hand,

or a love of possessing riches,

is a love of material things. 

And love of self,

or a love of exercising command over others,

is a love of one's own person.

A person is a human being as long as

love of the neighbor

or a love of performing useful services

forms the head,

with love of the world forming the body,

and love of self forming the feet. 

Detestable Practices

When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you,

do not learn to imitate the detestable ways

of the nations there.

Let no one be found among you

who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire,

who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens,

engages in witchcraft, or casts spells,

or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead.

Anyone who does these things

is detestable to the Lord . . ..

You must be blameless before the Lord your God.

(Deuteronomy 18:9-13)

CL 266 - useful services

CL 266 [5]

Devils perform useful services

for the sake of themselves and their reputation,

in order to be promoted to positions of honor

or gain wealth. 

Angels, on the other hand,

do not perform useful services on that account,

but for the sake of the services,

from a love of them. 

A person cannot distinguish

the one and the other kinds of service,

but the Lord sees the difference. 

Everyone who believes in the Lord

and refrains from evils as sins

performs useful services from the Lord. 

But everyone who does not believe in the Lord

and does not refrain from evils as sins

performs the services he does

from himself and for the sake of himself.

What Does the Lord Ask?

And now, O Israel,

what does the Lord your God ask of you

but to fear the Lord your God,

to walk in all His ways,

to love Him,

to serve the Lord your God

with all your heart

and with all your soul,

and to observe

the Lord's commandments and decrees

that I am giving you today

for your own good.

(Deuteronomy 10:12-13)

CL 260 - soul, mind and body

CL 260

. . . both soul and mind

are not only in the head

but also in the body;

for the soul and mind are the person,

it being these two that constitute the spirit

which lives after death.

. . . So it is that as soon as a person has a thought,

he can in an instant express it with the body's mouth

and represent it simultaneously in gesture;

and as soon as he wills something,

he can in an instant do it

and accomplish it

by means of the body's appendages.

None of this would be possible

if the soul and mind

were not at the same time

in the body,

constituting the person's spiritual self.

Remember and Know

Be careful to follow every command

I am giving you today,

so that you may live and increase

and may enter and possess

the land that the Lord promised

on oath to your forefathers.

Remember how the Lord your God led you

all the way in the desert these forty years,

to humble you 

and to test you

in order to know what was in your heart,

whether or not you would keep His commands.

He humbled you,

causing you to hunger

and then feeding you with manna,

which neither you nor your fathers had known,

to teach you that man does not live on bread alone

but on every word

that comes from the mouth of the Lord.

Your clothes did not wear out

and your feet did not swell

during these forty years.

Know then in your heart

that as a man disciplines his son,

so the Lord your God disciplines you.

(Deuteronomy 8:1-5)

CL 249 - being useful vs. laziness & sloth

CL 249

Human beings were created to be useful,

because useful service

is the containing vessel of goodness and truth,

and a marriage of good and truth

is the origin both of creation and also of married love.

By pursuit or business

we mean any effort to be useful. 

When . . . a person is engaged in some pursuit

or business or other useful activity,

his mind is fenced around and circumscribed

as though with a circle,

within whose bounds it is progressively ordered

into truly human form. 

Then, from this vantage point,

as though looking out from its house,

it sees various impure passions lurking outside,

and from the sanity of its reason within, 

banishes them,

thus banishing as well

the wild insanities of licentious lust. 

Because of this,

conjugial warmth lasts better and longer in such people

than it does in others.

[2]    The contrary happens in the case of people

who surrender themselves to laziness and sloth. 

Their mind is not fenced around or set within bounds;

a person like that

consequently throws open the whole of it

and lets in every sort of nonsense and foolishness

which flows in from the world and the body

and draws him into a love of them. 

It is apparent that conjugial love is also then

cast out and banished. 

For laziness and sloth 

dull the mind and numb the body,

and the whole person becomes unresponsive

to any vitalizing love - especially conjugial love,

from which, as from a fountain,

spring active and energetic states of life.

Has Anything so Great?

Ask now about the former days,

long before your time,

from the day God created man on the earth;

ask from one end of the heavens to the other.

Has anything so great as this every been heard of?

Has any other people heard the voice of God

speaking out of fire, as you have, and lived?

Has any god ever tried to take for himself

one nation out of another nation,

by testings, by miraculous signs and wonders,

by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm,

or by great and awesome deeds,

like all the things the Lord your God

did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?

You were shown these things

so that you might know

that the Lord is God;

besides Him there is no other.

(Deuteronomy 4:32-35)

CL 246 - similarities and dissimilarities

CL 246

Some similarities and dissimilarities are internal,

and some are external.

Internal ones trace their origin solely from religion;

for religion is implanted in souls . . ..

[2]  In contrast, external similarities and dissimilarities

are qualities not of souls but of dispositions.

By dispositions we mean people's outward affections

and consequent inclinations

which are implanted after birth

chiefly through their upbringings, associations,

and resulting habits.

Deuteronomy - "Second Law"

These are the words Moses spoke to all Israel

in the desert east of the Jordan -

that is, in the Arabah -

opposite Suph,

between Paran and Tophel, Laban,

Hazeroth and Dizahab.

(It takes eleven days to go

from Horeb to Kadesh Barnea

by the Mount Seir road.)

In the fortieth year,

on the first day of the eleventh month,

Moses proclaimed to the Israelites

all that the Lord had commanded him

concerning them.

(Deuteronomy 1:1-3)

CL 235 - spiritual coldness

CL 235 [2]

The origin of spiritual coldness . . . originates from

the sun of the natural world and its heat and light.
The sun of the natural world was created

so that its heat and light might receive into them

spiritual heat and light

and by means of its atmospheres

convey them even to the lowest elements in the world.

Their purpose was to produce

the effects of those ends which,

being the Lord's,

exist in the spiritual sun,

and also to clothe spiritual things with coverings or materials

adequate to bring about final ends in nature.

This is what happens

when spiritual heat is joined to and contained in natural heat.

The contrary happens, however,

when natural heat is separated from spiritual heat,

as is the case in people who love natural things

and reject spiritual ones.

In them spiritual warmth becomes coldness.

These two kinds of heat,

by creation in harmony,

thus become opposed to each other,

and the reason is that the master heat

then becomes the servant heat,

and the servant heat the master.

So, to keep this from happening,

spiritual heat withdraws,

which by right of its origin is the master;

and spiritual warmth in these recipient vessels

then grows cold, because it becomes opposed.

It is apparent from this what spiritual coldness is -

that it is the absence and loss of spiritual heat.

(In what we have just said,

by heat we mean love,

because spiritual heat in animate recipients is felt as love.)

On the Plains of Moab

On the plains of Moab

by the Jordan across from Jericho

the Lord said to Moses,

"Speak to the Israelites and say to them:

'When you cross the Jordan into Canaan,

drive out all the inhabitants of the land before you.

Destroy all their carved images and cast idols,

and demolish all their high places.

Take possession of the land and settle in it,

for I have given you the land to possess.

Distribute the land by lot,

according to your clans.

To a larger group give a larger inheritance,

and to a smaller group a smaller one.

Whatever falls to them by lot will be theirs

Distribute it according to your ancestral tribes.

"'But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land,

those you allow to remain

will become barbs in your eyes

and thorns in your sides.

They will give you trouble in the land where you live.

And then I will do to you

what I plan to do to them.'"

(Numbers 33:50-56)

CL 233 - living and believing

CL 223 [2]

. . . to live rightly is charity,

and to believe rightly is faith . . ..

Vows

Moses said to the heads of the tribes of Israel:

"This is what the Lord commands:

When a man makes a vow to the Lord

or takes an oath to obligate himself by pledge,

he must not break his word

but must do everything he said."

(Numbers 30:1-2)

CL 222 - atmospheres from the Lord; CL 230 - the spirituality of married love

CL 222 [2-3]

There are several atmospheres

which emanate from the Lord.

For example, an atmosphere of conservation

for conserving the created universe;

an atmosphere of protection

for protecting good and truth against evil and falsity;

an atmosphere of reformation and regeneration;

at atmosphere of innocence and peace;

an atmosphere of mercy and grace;

besides others.

But the universal one of all is a conjugal atmosphere,

because it is at the same time

at atmosphere of propagation

and is thus the supreme atmosphere

in conserving the created universe

by successive generations.

The conjugal atmosphere fills the universe

and pervades it from the firsts to lasts of it.

CL 230

. . . the more a person is in a state of married love,

the more spiritual he is;

and the more spiritual he is,

the more human he is.

For human beings are born for life after death,

and they attain it

because of their having in them a spiritual soul,

to which they can be elevated

through the faculty of their intellect.

If, by the power likewise granted to it,

a person's will is then elevated at the same time,

after death the person lives the life of heaven.

Balaam's Fourth Oracle

"I see Him, but not now;

I behold Him, but not near.

A Star will come out of Jacob;

a Scepter will rise out of Israel."

(Numbers 24:17)

CL 220 - useful services

CL 220 [3]

. . . useful services are the good effects which truths produce.

Balaam's Donkey

Balaam got up in the morning, 

saddled his donkey

and went with the princes of Moab.

But God was very angry when he went,

and the angel of the Lord

stood in the road to oppose him.

Balaam was riding on his donkey,

and his two servants were with him.

When the donkey saw the angel of the Lord

standing in the road with a drawn sword in his hand,

she turned off the road into a field.

Balaam beat her to get her back on the road.

Then the angel of the Lord

stood in a narrow path between two vineyards,

with walls on both sides.

When the donkey saw the angel of the Lord,

she pressed close to the wall,

crushing Balaam's foot against it.

So he beat her again.

Then the angel of the Lord moved on ahead

and stood in a narrow place

where there was no room to turn,

either to the right or to the left.

When the donkey saw the angel of the Lord,

she lay down under Balaam,

and he was angry and beat here with his staff.

Then the Lord opened the donkey's mouth,

and she said to Balaam,

"What have I done to you

to make you beat me these three times?"

Balaam answered the donkey,

"You have made a fool of me!

If I had a sword in my hand,

I would kill you right now."

The donkey said to Balaam,

"Am I not your own donkey,

which you have always ridden, to this day?

Have I been in the habit of doing this to you?"

"No," he said.

Then the Lord opened Balaam's eyes,

and he saw the angel of the Lord

standing in the road with his sword drawn.

So he bowed low and fell face down.

(Numbers 22:21-31)

CL 215 - effort

CL 215

. . . effort is the very essence of motion,

and will in the human being 
is living effort.

Tassels on Garments

The Lord said to Moses,

"Speak to the Israelites and say to them:

'Throughout the generations to come

you are to make tassels

on the corners of your garments,

with a blue cord on each tassel.

You will have these tassels to look at

and so you will remember

all the commands of the Lord,

that you may obey them

and not prostitute yourselves

by going after the lusts of your own hearts and eyes.

That you will remember to obey all My commands

and will be consecrated to your God.

I am the Lord your God,

who brought you out of Egypt to be your God.

I am the Lord your God."

(Numbers 16:37-41)

CL 207 - eternal rest

CL 207 [7]

Eternal rest does not mean idleness . . .

because idleness affects the mind

and consequently the whole body

with listlessness, lethargy, insensibility and slumber,

and these are conditions of deadness,

not life,

much less the eternal life

experienced by angels of heaven.

Eternal rest, therefore, is rest

that dispels these states and vitalizes a person,

and this must be something which rouses the mind.

Thus it is some pursuit or employment

by which the mind is awakened,

animated, and afforded delight,

which in turn depends on some useful service

for the sake of which,

in which,

and toward which

it is working.

So it is that the whole of heaven is viewed by the Lord

as a world of useful service,

and each angel is an angel

according to the service he renders.

The pleasure in being useful

carries him along like a boat in a favoring current,

bringing him into a state of eternal peace

and the rest that comes with peace.

This is what is meant by eternal rest from labors.

Griping and Complaining

The rabble with them began to crave other food,

and again the Israelites started wailing and said,

"If only we had meat to eat!

We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost -

also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic.

But now we have lost our appetite;

we never see anything but this manna!"

(Numbers 11:4-6)

CL 202 - mending habits

CL 202

. . . it is Divinely provided

that corrupt inclinations may be rectified,

and that a capacity for this is also implanted.

Resulting from this capacity

are an ability and power in people

to mend their habits . . ..

The Silver Trumpets

The Lord said t Moses,

"Make two trumpets of hammered silver,

and use them for calling the community together

and for having the camps set out.

When both are sounded,

the whole community is to assemble before you

at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.

If only one is sounded,

the leaders - the heads of the clans of Israel -

are to assemble before you.

When a trumpet blast is sounded,

the tribes camping on the east are to set out.

At the sounding of a second blast,

the camps on the south are to set out.

The blast will be the signal for setting out.

To gather the assembly,

blow the trumpets,

but not with the same signal.

(Numbers 10:1-7)

CL 192 - conceit

CL 192 [2]

. . . no one is ever able

to love his partner with true married love

so long as he is possessed

of a conceit in his own intelligence

from a love of self.

In the Tent of Meeting

When Moses entered the Tent of Meeting

to speak with the Lord,

he heard the Voice speaking to him

from between the two cherubim

above the atonement cover

on the ark of the Testimony.

And he spoke with Him.

(Numbers 7:89)

CL 185 - thousands higher to one lower

CL 185

From infancy to the end of life,

and afterward to eternity,

a person's state of life is continually changing.

[2]  Changes that take place in a person's inner qualities

are more perfectly continuous

than those that take place

in his outward ones.

The reason is that a person's inner qualities -

by which we mean those that belong to his mind or spirit -

are raised up on a higher level

than the outward ones;

and in things that are on a higher level,

thousands of changes occur

in the same moment

that only one does in the outer elements.

The changes that take place in the inner qualities

are changes in the state of the will

in respect to its affections,

and changes in the state of the intellect

in respect to its thoughts.

[3]  . . . the reason is

that there is no limit to knowledge,

even less to intelligence,

and still less to wisdom.

For there is an infinity and eternity in the range of these,

arising from the Infinite and Eternal

who is their source.

The Counting

The Lord spoke to Moses

in the tent of Meeting

in the Desert of Sinai

on the first day of the second month

of the second year 

after the Israelites came out of Egypt. 

He said:

"Take a census of the whole Israelite community

by their clans and families,

listing every man by name,

one by one.

You and Aaron are to number by their divisions

all the men in Israel twenty years old or more

who are able to serve in the army."

The number of the tribe of Reuben was 46,500.
The number from the tribe of Simeon was 59,300.

The number from the tribe of Gad was 45,650.

The number from the tribe of Judah was 74,600.

The number from the tribe of Issachar was 54,400.

The number from the tribe of Zebulun was 57,400.

The number from the tribe of Ephraim was 40,500.

The number from the tribe of Manasseh was 32,200.

The number from the tribe of Benjamin was 35,400.

The number from the tribe of Dan was 62,700.

The number from the tribe of Asher was 41,500.

The number from the tribe of Naphtali was 53,400.

These were the men counted by Moses and Aaron

and the twelve leaders of Israel . . ..

The total number was 603,550.

The families of the tribe of Levi, however,

were not counted along with the others.

The Lord had said to Moses:

"You must not count the tribe of Levi

or include them in the census of the other Israelites.

Instead, appoint the Levites

to be in charge of the tabernacle of the Testimony -

over all its furnishings and everything belonging to it.

(Numbers 1:1-3,21,23,25,27,29,31,33,35,37,39,41,43-44,46-50)

CL 184 - character

CL 184

The state of a person's life is its character.

Further, because every person has in him

two faculties which form his life,

faculties which are called intellect and will,

the state of a person's life is its character

in relation to his intellect and will.

It is apparent from this

that changes in one's state of life

mean changes in its character

in respect to elements having to do with the intellect

and in respect to element having to do with the will.

Do Not

"'Do not take advantage of each other,

but fear your God.

I am the Lord your God.'"

(Leviticus 25:17)

CL 183 - questions and answers

CL 183 [2]

"Let the interchange in our discussion

be by questions and answers,

because although a perception of something

does indeed flow in

when gained solely from listening,

still it does not remain

unless the listener also thinks about it for himself

and asks questions regarding it."

Appointed Feasts, Sacred Assemblies

The Lord said to Moses,

"Speak to the Israelites and say to them:

'These are My appointed feasts,

the appointed feasts of the Lord,

which you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies.

* The Sabbath
"'There are six days when you may work,

but the seventh day is a Sabbath of rest,

a day of sacred assembly.

You are not to do any work;

wherever you live,

it is a Sabbath to the Lord.

* The Passover and Unleavened Bread
"'These are the Lord's appointed feasts,

the sacred assemblies

you are to proclaim at their appointed times:

The Lord's Passover begins at twilight

on the fourteenth day of the first month.

On the Fifteenth day of that month

the Lord's Feast of Unleavened Bread begins . . ..

* Firstfruits

"' When you enter the land I am going to give you

and you reap its harvest,

bring to the priest a sheaf 

of the first grain you harvest.

* Feast of Weeks
"'From the day after the Sabbath,

the day you brought the sheaf of the wave offering,

count off seven full weeks.

Count off fifty days

up to the day after the seventh Sabbath,

and then present an offering 

of new grain to the Lord.

. . . "'When you reap the harvest of your land,

do not reap to the very edges of your field

or gather the gleanings of your harvest.

Leave them for the poor and the alien.

I am the Lord your God.'"

* Feast of Trumpets

The Lord said to Moses, "Say to the Israelites:

'On the first day of the seventh month,

you are to have a day of rest,

a sacred assembly commemorated with trumpet blasts.

Do no regular work,

but present an offering made to the Lord by fire.'"

* Day of Atonement
The Lord said to Moses,

"The tenth day of this seventh month

is the Day of Atonement.

Hold a sacred assembly and deny yourselves,

and present an offering made to the Lord by fire.

Do no work on that day,

because it is the Day of Atonement,

when atonement is made for you

before the Lord your God.

* Feast of Tabernacles

The Lord said to Moses, "Say to the Israelites:

'On the fifteenth day of the seventh month

the Lord's Feast of Tabernacles begins,

and it lasts for seven days.'"

So Moses announced to the Israelites

the appointed feasts of the Lord.

(Leviticus 23: 1-6;11,15-16,22-28,33-34,44)

CL 177, 180 - states of married love

CL 177

Married partners become proportionately one person

in the measure that their marriage love grows.

And because in heaven this love is genuine,

owing to the celestial and spiritual life of the angels,

therefore two married partners there

are called two

when they are referred to as husband and wife,

but one

when they are referred to as angels.

CL 180

The states produced by this love are

innocence, peace, tranquillity,

inmost friendship, complete trust,

a mutual desire of the mind and heart

to do the other every good;

also, as a result of all these,

bliss, felicity, delight, pleasure, and,

owing to an eternal enjoyment of states like this,

the happiness of heaven. 

All of these states are inherent in married love

and consequently spring from it,

and the reason is

that married love originates from

the marriage between goodness and truth,

and this marriage comes from the Lord. 

Moreover, it is the nature of love

to will to share with another,

indeed, to confer joys upon another

whom it loves from the heart,

and to seek its own joys in return from doing so;

and this being the case,

infinitely more, therefore,

does the Divine love in the Lord

will to confer joys upon mankind,

whom He created to be recipients

of both the love and the wisdom emanating from Him. 

Because He created them to receive these attributes -

men to receive wisdom,

women to receive love for the wisdom of men -

therefore on the deepest levels

He infused into people married love,

to which he could impart all kinds of

bliss, felicity, delight and pleasure,

states which, together with life,

emanate and flow in solely from

the Lord's Divine love

through His Divine wisdom. 

Consequently they flow into people

who are in a state of true married love,

because they alone are receptive of them.
We list these states as

innocence, peace, tranquillity, inmost friendship,

complete trust, and a mutual desire

of the mind and heart

to do the other every good,

since innocence and peace have to do with the soul,

tranquillity has to do with the mind,

inmost friendship has to do with the breast,

complete trust has to do with the heart,

and a mutual desire of the mind and heart

to do the other every good

has to do with the body as a result of these.

Don't Do As They Do

The Lord said to Moses,

"Speak to the Israelites and say to them:

'I am the Lord your God.

You must not do

as they do in Egypt,

where you used to live,

and you must not do

as they do in the land of Canaan,

where I am bringing you.

Do not follow their practices.

You must obey My laws

and be careful to follow My decrees.

I am the Lord your God.

Keep My decrees and laws,

for the man who obeys them

will live by them.

I am the Lord.'"

(Leviticus 18:1-5)

CL 162 - friendship and mutual trust

CL 162

The first heat in marriage

does not join two people together,

because it draws its character

from a love for the opposite sex,

which is a love belonging to the body

and on that account to the spirit. 

And whatever is in the spirit

as a result of the body

does not last long. 

But love that is in the body

as a result of the spirit

does last. 

Love belonging to the spirit,

and to the body as a result of the spirit,

is insinuated into

the souls and minds of married partners

together with friendship and mutual trust. 

When friendship and mutual trust

join together with the first love in marriage,

married love results,

which opens the partners' hearts

and inspires in them the sweet enjoyments of love,

and this more and more deeply

as friendship and trust are added

to the original love,

and as that original love

enters into this friendship and trust

and they into it.

Day of Atonement

"This is to be a lasting ordinance for you:

On the tenth day of the seventh month

you must deny yourselves and not do any work -

whether native-born or an alien living among you -

because on this day

atonement will be made for you,

to cleanse you.

Then, before the Lord,

you will be clean from all your sins.

It is a sabbath of rest,

and you must deny yourselves;

it is a lasting ordinance."

(Leviticus 16:29-31)

CL 154 [repeated] - being human

CL 154 [repeated]

. . . (people) are human 

to the extent that they attribute

every good of charity and truth of faith

to the Lord

and not to themselves . . ..

Be Holy

"I am the Lord your God;

consecrate yourselves and be holy,

because I am holy."

(Leviticus 11:44)

CL 147 - a universal rule

CL 147

It is a universal rule

that to the extent anyone removes evil,

to the same extent

an opportunity is given for goodness to succeed it.

And furthermore,

to the extent anyone hates evil,

to the same extent he loves goodness.

The Close of the Ordination of Aaron & His Sons

Then Aaron lifted his hands toward the people

and blessed them.

And having sacrificed the sin offering,

the burnt offering

and the fellowship offering,

he stepped down.

Moses and Aaron then went into the Tent of Meeting.

When they came out,

they blessed the people;

and the glory of the Lord

appeared to all the people.

Fire came out from the presence of the Lord

and consumed the burnt offering

and the fat portions on the altar.

And when all the people saw it,

they shouted for joy

and fell facedown.

(Leviticus 9:22-24)

CL 146 - a door provided by the Lord

CL 146

It should be known, however,

that married love does not become

entirely chaste or pure in people,

not even in angels. 

There is still something not chaste or not pure,

which attaches and appends itself to the love. 

Nevertheless, this element is different in nature

from unchasteness. 

For in the kind of people referred to here

[who are becoming spiritual from the Lord],

chastity exists above and a lack of chastity below,

and between the two qualities

the Lord puts a door, so to speak, with a hinge. 

This door is opened by conscious decision,

but the Lord provides that it not stand open

so as to allow the one quality to pass through to the other

and become mixed together with it. 

For the natural character of a person is, from birth,

contaminated and filled with evil qualities,

while his spiritual character is not so,

since his spiritual character has its birth from the Lord,

this birth being regeneration. 

And regeneration is a gradual separation

from the evil qualities which attach by birth

to his inclinations.

. . . the Lord regards primarily

the objective, purpose or intention of the will,

and therefore to the extent that a person has

the objective, purpose or intention

and perseveres in them,

to that extent he is introduced into purity

and progressively draws nearer to it.

Offering for Unintentional Sin

"'If a member of the community sins unintentionally

and does what is forbidden

in any of the Lord's commands,

he is guilty.

When he is made aware of the sin he committed,

he must bring as his offering

for the sin he committed

a female goat without defect.

He is to lay his hand on the head of the sin offering

and slaughter it at the place of the burnt offering.

Then the priest

is to take some of the blood with his finger

and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering

and pour out the rest of the blood

at the base of the altar.

He shall remove all the fat,

just as the fat is removed from the fellowship offering,

and the priest shall burn it on the altar

as an aroma pleasing to the Lord.

In this way the priest will make atonement for him,

and he will be forgiven.

(Leviticus 4:27-31)

CL 141 - chastity and monogamy

CL 141

Chastity is ascribed only to monogamous marriages,

or to marriages of one man with one wife. 

Chastity is ascribed only to such marriages

because married love in these marriages

does not lie in the natural self,

but enters into the spiritual self

and gradually opens its way

to the real spiritual marriage,

which is a marriage of good and truth. 

This marriage is the origin of the love,

and it forms a bond with it. 

For such a love enters as wisdom increases,

and this takes place

as the church is implanted by the Lord . . ..

The Tabernacle of the Lord

Then the Lord said to Moses:

"Set up the tabernacle, the Tent of Meeting,

on the first day of the first month.

Place the ark of the Testimony in it

and shield the ark with the curtain.

Bring in the table

and set out what belongs on it.

Then bring in the lampstand

and set up its lamps.

Place the gold altar of incense

in front of the ark of the Testimony

and put the curtain

at the entrance to the tabernacle.

"Place the altar of burnt offering

in front of the entrance to the tabernacle,

the Tent of Meeting;

place the basin

between the Tent of Meeting and the altar

and put water in it.

Set up the courtyard around it

and put the curtain

at the entrance to the courtyard."

Then the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting,

and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.

Moses could not enter the Tent of Meeting

because the cloud had settled upon it,

and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.

In all the travels of the Israelites,

whenever the cloud lifted

from above the tabernacle,

they would set out;

but if the cloud did not lift,

they did not set out -

until the day it lifted.

So the cloud of the Lord

was over the tabernacle by day,

and fire was in the cloud by night,

in the sight of all the house of Israel

during all their travels.

(Exodus 40:1-8,34-38)

CL 135 - the tree of life & the tree of the knowledge of good and evil

CL 135

"A tree symbolizes a person;

and its fruit, goodness of life. 

The tree of life therefore symbolizes

a person living from God,

or God living in the person. 

And because love and wisdom

and charity and faith

or good and truth

constitute the life of God in a person,

the tree of life symbolizes these qualities,

from which a person has eternal life. 

[2]    "The tree of the knowledge of good and evil

symbolizes a person believing

that he lives on his own and not from God,

thus that the love and wisdom,

charity and faith,

or good and truth in the person

are his and not God's -

believing this because he thinks and wills,

and speaks and acts,

in all likeness and appearance as if on his own. 

Because a person with this belief

comes into the persuasion

that God has introduced Himself

or infused His Divinity into him,

therefore the serpent said:

. . . God knows that in the day you eat

(of the fruit of the tree)

your eyes will be opened,

and you will be like God,

knowing good and evil. 

(Genesis 3:5)

[3]    "Eating from the two trees

symbolizes acquisition and assimilation. 

Eating from the tree of life

symbolizes acquisition of eternal life,

and eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil

symbolizes acquisition of damnation. 

Therefore Adam and his wife were both cursed

along with the serpent. 

The serpent means the devil in respect to

self-love and pride in its own intelligence. 

This love takes possession of the tree,

and people who are caught up in pride

as a result of that love

are the trees it possesses.

"People fall into an enormous error, therefore,

who believe that Adam was wise and did good

from his own nature,

and that this was his state of integrity,

when Adam himself

was cursed for precisely that belief. 

For this is what is symbolized by his eating

from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 

That was why he then fell from his state of integrity,

which he had had as a result of his believing

that he was wise and did good from God

and not from himself,

for that is what is meant by his eating

from the tree of life.

"The Lord alone, when He was in the world,

was wise of Himself and did good of Himself,

because the Divine itself was in Him

and was His from birth. 

Consequently He also became

Redeemer and Savior by His own power."