AC 9272 - The First State of Regeneration: Being Instructed

AC 9272 [1, 2]

Six years you shall sow your land.
(Exodus 23:10)

That this means the first state,
when the person of the church
is being instructed in the truths and goods of faith,
is evident from the meaning of "six years,"
as being the first state of the person
who is being regenerated;
and from the signification of "sowing the land,"
as being when the truths and goods of faith
are being implanted.
That this is meant by "sowing the land"
is because all things of the field,
of seeding, and of its produce,
mean such things as are of the church in general,
and as are of the person of the church in particular,
who is a person that has been regenerated
through the truth of faith
and the good of charity from the Lord.

He who does not know
how the case is with the state of heaven,
believes no otherwise than
that these expressions in the Word
are mere metaphors and comparisons.
But they are real correspondences.
For when the angels discourse
about the regeneration of a person by the Lord
through the truths of faith and the goods of charity,
then below in the world of spirits
there appear fields, crops, fallow lands, and also harvests;
and this by reason of their correspondence.
He who knows this can also know
that such things in the world
have been created according to correspondences;
for universal nature
(that is, the sky with the sun, moon, and stars,
and the earth with the objects of its three kingdoms)
corresponds to such things as are in the spiritual world.
From all this it is evident why
the things belonging to a field,
that is, which are sown in a field,
and are reaped from a field,
mean such things as are of the church
in general and in particular.