Correspondence
Selection from Arcana Coelestia
... an idea of the nature of
correspondences can with difficulty be formed by those who have never
thought about them before, it may be well to say a few words on the subject.
It is known from philosophy that the end is the first of the cause, and that
the cause is the first of the effect. That the end, the cause, and the
effect may follow in order, and act as a one, it is needful that the effect
should correspond to the cause, and the cause to the end. But still the end
does not appear as the cause, nor the cause as the effect; for in order that
the end may produce the cause, it must take to itself administrant means
from the region where the cause is, by which means the end may produce the
cause; and in order that the cause may produce the effect, it also must take
to itself administrant means from the region where the effect is, by which
means the cause may produce the effect. These administrant means are what
correspond; and because they correspond, the end can be in the cause and can
actuate the cause, and the cause can be in the effect and can actuate the
effect; consequently the end through the cause can actuate the effect. It is
otherwise when there is no correspondence; for then the end has no cause in
which it may be, still less an effect in which it may be, but is changed and
varied in the cause, and finally in the effect, according to the form made
by the administrant means.
All things in general and in particular in
man, nay, all things in general and in particular in nature, succeed one
another as end, cause, and effect; and when they thus correspond to one
another, they act as a one; for then the end is the all in all things of the
cause, and through the cause is the all in all things of the effect. As for
example, when heavenly love is the end, the will the cause, and action the
effect, if there is correspondence, then heavenly love flows into the will,
and the will into the action, and they so act as a one that by means of the
correspondence the action is as it were the love; or as when the faith of
charity is the end, thought the cause, and speech the effect, then if there
is correspondence, faith from charity flows into the thought, and this into
the speech, and they so act as a one, that by means of the correspondence
the speech is as it were the end. In order however that the end, which is
love and faith, may produce the cause, which is will and thought, it must
take to itself administrant means in the rational mind that will correspond;
for without administrant means that correspond, the end, which is love or
faith, cannot be received, however much it may flow in from the Lord through
heaven. From this it is plain that the interiors and the exteriors of man,
that is, what is rational, natural, and sensuous in him must be brought into
correspondence, in order that he may receive the Divine influx, and
consequently that he may be born again; and that it is not well with him
till then.
(from
Arcana Coelestia 5131 – Emanuel Swedenborg)
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