ISSN 0969-1049 INCORPORATING THE SWEDENBORG MOVEMENT NEWSLETTER No.72 2014

Confessions of a BookwormConfessions of a BookwormConfessions of a BookwormConfessions of a Bookworm

I love books and I have thousands of them.They pile up in my study like mushroomsovernight: they are wedged between anyavailable heavy objects, and the walls ofthe living-room are overgrown with tightlyloaded bookshelves. They are not arrangedaccording to any system: they justmultiply, and I wallow in their richlyprinted pages.

Visitors sometimes marvel at theextent of my erudition. I don’ t like todisillusion them, but in actual fact I readvery slowly, and only a few of mytreasures have ever been absorbed fromcover to cover. Secretly I cling to thebelief that all this learning may seep intomy brain by a process of osmosis withouttoo much effort on my part.

Most enlightened people these days,of course, prefer to sit all day in front of acomputer screen. Thus there is no end tothe information at their disposal. At thetouch of a button they can flit from onething to another. They can even askspecific questions and be told auto-matically where to turn. If they don’ t likethe look of the type-face, or the page size,or the design of a title-page, it can easilybe changed in an instant. If they don’ tagree with what it says, the offendingwords can be banished and sent back intothe box, never to be seen again.

Readers will be glad to know thatSwedenborg’s many works are now beingmade available in this new super-efficientworldwide fashion. Never again will wehave to rummage about between clumsycovers or fiddle around with book-markers.

But it’ s nothing like having a libraryof your own.

Skriber

Happy FamiliesHappy FamiliesHappy FamiliesHappy Families

G Roland Smith

As I have said before, “Sex is such abrilliant idea that only God could havethought of it” . And from sex, of course,there arises the family. Even in pre-history,Swedenborg tells us, people lived in familygroups demonstrating different kinds ofspiritual goodness. In heaven, likewise, weare told, the family unit – or somethingsimilar – serves to cement the celestialfabric, though child-bearing may meansomething else altogether.

It is a very neat system, but no-oneever seems to have thought of its veryunfortunate side-effects. Families multiplyand turn into tribes and that’s when thetrouble starts for want of food and land.

Today the family is still basic to oursociety, I suppose, but the spiritual super-glue that once may have held it al l togetherappears to be coming unstuck – youngpeople move and work elsewhere, sexualpartners don’ t always feel a need for chil-dren, education and technology beckonelsewhere, and television and central-heating supersede the ancestral fireside.

Some of the more accessible religiouspaintings show the Holy Family – Mary,Joseph, and Jesus either travelling or athome modelling for us harmony andsimplicity. But some theological master-pieces give us quite a different picture,they present us with an impossible triumvi-rate of father, son and holy ghost – not a‘ family’ at all. Such a strangely naïve andunworkable trinity defies credibility andhas wisely been abandoned by moreenlightened thinkers like Swedenborg. Wewere previously expected to believe in aMr. God and a Master God whilstMrs .God was missing. A somewhat moresensible scenario suggests that God issomehow in partnership with ‘ the Church’ -not any particular church, you understand,but a sort of universal religious impulse.This has been called a husband and wiferelationship, so presumably that makes usall ‘children’ , so to speak, a holy family inwhich we are included.

Individual congregations sometimesstyle themselves as a church family –rather too cosy a notion for me, but it isprobably true that something like familylove is the essence of any healthycommunity – whether they be church-goersor not.

‘The Mystic Chords‘The Mystic Chords‘The Mystic Chords‘The Mystic Chordsof Memory’of Memory’of Memory’of Memory’(Abraham Lincoln, from the coda

to his first Inaugural Address, 1861)

Richard L ines

I want to begin by recalling an experienceI had while sitting in church one Sundayrecently. The theme of the service was‘The Wisdom of Solomon’ . During thereading of a passage from the First Bookof Kings there flashed into my mind astanza of a poem first learned in childhoodand remembered almost word for word. Inthe Authorized, or King James Version,the verse which sparked off my recollec-tion reads as follows. It is verse 22 ofchapter 10:

‘For the king [Solomon] had at seaa navy of Tarshish with the navy of Hiram;once in three years came the navy ofTarshish bringing gold, and silver, ivory,and apes, and peacocks’ .

The reading was actually from theNew International Version, which, lessromantically, substitutes ‘baboons’ for‘peacocks’ . The poem I remembered wasJohn Masefield’s ‘Cargoes’ , a poem I hadfirst learned when I was ten or elevenyears old and in the top year of primaryschool. It has been much anthologized andis well-known. The first verse reads:

Quinquireme of Nineveh from distant OphirRowing home to haven in sunny Palestine,With a cargo of ivory,And apes and peacocks,Sandalwood, cedarwood, and sweet whiteWine

Drawing byTheodora Smith

Continued on back page

From Neolithic times onwards,forest trees had been regarded as being ininexhaustible supply, but by the 16th cen-tury there was serious concern that continu-ous unchecked felling would threaten thesupply of oak trees for ship-building.Books of husbandry began to appear, urg-ing the planting of trees, and in 1662 JohnEvelyn published ‘Sylva, a Discourse onForest Trees’ . Similar concerns aroseagain during the Napoleonic Wars, andKing and Parliament took a hand in plant-ing and management of oak trees.

The great multitude of new plantsand trees brought in by travellers, explorersand plant hunters from the 16th centuryonwards, reaching a peak in the 19thcentury, for the most part enhanced gardenlandscapes. The exception is the SitkaSpruce, introduced from North America byDavid Douglas. This is now the common-est tree in Britain, a fast-growing majorsource of home-grown timber, widely usedby the Forestry Commission for forestationschemes. It was eventually realised that toplant deciduous trees and shrubs in withthe spruce trees was better for wildlife. Theexpression re-wilding is now being appliedin selected areas for conservation, for ex-ample Ennerdale in the Lake District, torestore vanished original habitat. Sprucetrees are being felled and replaced withbroad-leaved trees and juniper, and heath-land, grassland and peat bog are reappear-ing, with a renewed diversity of birds,butterflies and small animals, including redsquirrels.

Swedenborg describes heavenlyparadises of trees which correspond to theaffections and perceptions of angels. Per-haps sometimes we all need to do a bit ofre-wilding, cutting down worldly concernswhich have come to dominate our mentaland spiritual landscape.

At the end of the last ice-age, animals,followed by hunters, wandered across theland-bridge before the final separationfrom the mainland of the land-mass whichbecame Britain. They unknowingly carriedseeds caught in skin, fur, clothing and arti-facts. Seeds fell and took root in the debrisleft behind by the ice, and the formerlybarren landscape eventually became cov-ered with the deciduous trees of nativeancient woodland – such trees as oak, ash,elm, beech and birch.

Migrating tribes coming across byboat brought in other trees, useful orfamiliar – conifers and other evergreentrees. The new trees, mingling with theestablished trees, created a more variedwoodland scene.

The Romans brought fruit trees fortheir gardens – apples and pears, cherries,plums, mulberries and walnuts. With thecoming of the Anglo-Saxons, and thedeparture of the last Roman legions fromBritain, gardens were left to grow wild, andby natural dispersal of seeds, fruit treesappeared in the forest which still coveredmost of the land.

The forest, to the Anglo-Saxons,was mysterious and dangerous, inhabitedby malevolent supernatural beings andstrange beasts. But the fringes of the forestsupplied necessaries for life – wood forfuel, building material, and for makingfurniture, tools and weapons; forage forpigs, and food for humans in times offamine.

HORTICULTURAL HOMILIES No.54

Trees which have changed our landscapeTrees which have changed our landscapeTrees which have changed our landscapeTrees which have changed our landscape

Photo: GRS

CLB

Swedenborg’s JewelsSwedenborg’s JewelsSwedenborg’s JewelsSwedenborg’s Jewels

I am not concerned here with Sweden-borg’s personal jewellery. By mostaccounts, he was a modest fellow who didnot go in for flashy finery. In histheological writings, however, whendocumenting heavenly things and placeshe applauds their various splendours interms of precious stones and suchlike,using earthly values to describe spiritualphenomena.

In heaven, he says, they live inhouses where ‘everything glows as if fromprecious stones; and looking through thewindows is like looking through purecrystal.’ (H&H 489) ‘Precious stonessignify the truths of heaven.’ ‘The thingsseen within their houses are as if made ofdiamonds.’ (H&H 489). And in the Bookof Revelation ‘The foundations of the wallof the city, the new Jerusalem, wereadorned with every kind of preciousstone.’ (Rev.21,19). When dealing with thestones in Aaron’s breastplate, Swedenborgdeclares that ‘A ruby, a topaz, a carbunclemean the celestial love of goodness.’ (AC9865). Concerning heavenly architecture,he speaks of palaces so magnificent theycannot be described ‘Above, they glitteredas if made of pure gold, and below, as ifmade of precious stones.’ (H&H 185).There are plenty more such references. Soit would seem that if we want a foretaste ofheaven, we need only look in a jeweller’sshop window or visit the Crown Jewels atthe Tower of London.

I find this all rather odd. Jewellery,after all, is seldom inherently beautiful.Precious stones are only little lumps ofrock: their earthly value springs simplyfrom their scarcity and the skill with whichthey have been cut by human hands. Forpractical purposes, apart from glass-cuttingand watch-making, jewels are prettyuseless. The State Crown may be impres-sive but it must be fairly uncomfortableand offers little protection against theweather. If we were to see on the news thatBuckingham Palace had been encrustedwith gold-leaf and decked out with dia-monds I doubt we should be exactly de-lighted.

But Swedenborg was doing hisbest, though confronted by the ineffable.His heavenly topography is scarcely to betaken literally since it is full of words like‘signify’ and ‘as if’ . He uses the imageryof his day, just as we might use ours. Thepictures Swedenborg conjures up have notbeen taken with some super-digitalcelestial camera – they are merely codewords intended for the mind’s eye. They‘correspond’ but do not necessarily por-tray. Symbols, unfortunately, can bemisleading.

GRS

MINI REVIEW

The Lives of AngelsThe Lives of AngelsThe Lives of AngelsThe Lives of Angelsby Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772)Translated by George Doleand Lisa Hyatt CooperPublished by The Swedenborg Foundation2013 ISBN 978-0-87785-428-9[ For UK information contact The Swedenborg SocietyTelephone: 020 7405 7986Email: Richard@swedenborg.org.uk ]

This attractive 156-page paperback is aselection of extracts from three of Sweden-borg’s books, translated from Latin into afairly readable English. There are six mainsections – ‘Our Ideas of Angels’ ,’GettingAround in Heaven’ ,’Daily Life’ ,’Love andMarriage’ ,’Angelic Communication’ andan ‘Epilogue: Eternal Springtime’ .

Swedenborg states categorically atthe outset that his accounts of angelic lifeare “ things that actually happened, wereactually seen when I was completelyawake.” It is all very plausible and system-atic. The reader may find many of hisquestions rationally answered, but never-theless these works inevitably have be-come just a little dated over the last 200years. The cover design of an idyllic 18thcentury parkland is remarkably appropri-ate. There are however plenty of profoundquestions still remaining.

Swedenborg’s style is dogmatic: there arefew ifs and buts because his business is toinstruct rather that to engage the reader inmutual speculation, but his angels do comeacross as real people. There is frequentreference to ‘ the Lord’ as the source ofheavenly life, and the author does not hesi-tate to borrow worldly imagery of rank andregal splendour to describe the upper eche-lons of the angelic hierarchy. This never,however, impairs their capacity to leadactive and useful lives.

The ordinary reader will find thebook to be informative and entertaining.

GRS

could be said that the entire created world,as the macrocosm, relates to aspects of usall. What does the ‘serpent’ in us looklike? To go back to the ancient wisdom - Isurmise that it relates to both the lowestaspects of humanity but yet it seems toinclude elements of healing and being aharbinger of wisdom.

Human beings are comprised ofboth inner and outer dimensions, we havethe part of us that is conscious and dealswith ordinary life in the world and wehave a deeper, partly unconscious part thatis hidden away even from us. The‘serpent’ that slithers along the groundcould be an image of the outer aspect thattakes in all the impressions of our sensesand makes judgments accordingly. Weneed to live in the physical world and be-ware of dangers, but it is also a delight tofeel the warmth of the sun, smell the fra-grances of flowers and trees, feel the dewon the grass. This could be said to be the'serpent' aspect of our mind.

A positive aspect of this is theattribute of watchfulness or vigilance - thisaspect of the ‘serpent’ Swedenborg relatesto vigilance that avoids being harmed byevil - a protective and defensive spiritualneed - see Mt 10:16 “ therefore be asshrewd as snakes and as innocent asdoves.”

From a spiritual perspective mak-ing judgments from a purely superficialand sensory viewpoint brings limitations.Such a viewpoint discounts the reality ofany spiritual life and the existence of aperson’s inner aspect. This is the attractionof the serpent getting ‘Eve’ (which I be-lieve approximates to the psychologicalterm ego) to eat of the tree of the knowl-edge of good and evil. This is indicative ofdeciding for oneself what has value andwhat hasn’ t, rather than allowing the es-sence of what is good and true to be re-vealed to us by the Divine.

In our daily lives we make judg-ments every second; what temperature isit, does my body feel comfortable sitting inthis position, how is that person reacting to

Funerary MaskOf Tutankhamun

T H E S E RPE N TT H E S E RPE N TT H E S E RPE N TT H E S E RPE N THelen Brown

The serpent is described in the Oxforddictionary variously as: a large snake, abiblical name for Satan, a dragon or othermythical snake-like reptile or a sly ortreacherous person.

The snake or serpent has beendown the ages a strong symbol of both allthat is devious and slimy, as well as a sym-bol of healing. In our modern world therod of Asclepius (which is of a snake en-twined around a rod or staff) has come tobe associated with medicine and healing.This has its roots in Greek mythology.

Interestingly this symbol has be-come confused with the caduceus, whichin Greek mythology was connected withthe authority of imparting vital wisdom tohelp and enlighten.

The symbol of the serpent is onethat is found in the mythology of manycultures and religions. I could give manyexamples of this universal symbol. But onein particular I wish to mention and that isthe ancient Hindu concept of kundalini, aSanskrit word conveying the concept ofunion between one’s ego-self and one’sdeepest spiritual self. Kundalini meanseither ‘coiled up’ or ‘coiling like a snake’ .Unleashing the ‘ serpent power’ takes yearsof yoga discipline, opening up to allow thedivine energy to flow right down into theultimate level. If achieved, the yogi experi-ences the flow of the energy up to thehighest level within - elevating the lowestlevel to the highest consciousness. Perhapsthis is akin to the ecstatic experiences ofSwedenborg and other mystics. One mightcall it a ‘ raising up’ - a concept which wewill return to later in this article.

What has this got to do with thesymbolism of the serpent in the Bible? Aswe trace the occurrence of this universalsymbol through the Bible perhaps we shalldiscover echoes of what has been handeddown to us from ancient civilisations.

The symbol of the serpent and itsrelated derivatives occurs throughout theBible. In Genesis 3:1 we are first intro-duced to it as “Now the serpent was morecrafty than any of the wild animals theLord God had made.” So immediately thecharacter of ‘serpent’ is set out as craftyand wild yet being created by God!

If we believe that humankind ismade in the image and likeness of Godthen each person is a microcosm, and so it

me. It’s a constant, immediate and insis-tent bombardment of information that oursenses collect. It can get to a point wherewe believe that this is life - this is all thereis. This is I believe an illusion as we allhave an inner world which we also inhabit.The attraction of the serpent is to believethat there is only the world we live in andthat I am alive in myself - there is nocreative life that gives me life.

Humanity is so prone to makingdecisions and choices based purely onwhat we can see, feel and touch this seemsto be the only reality and we keep beingsucked into this mode of being and cometo depend upon it. Our challenge is to livein the material and physical world yet notbe seduced by it, thinking that this is allthere is, because in so doing this is the‘death’ of our inner world of spirit.

Strangely it seems that the lowest,most insidious aspect of our mind is thefinal harbinger of becoming whole, beinghealed. It is a paradox. And this wisdom is

held in the experience of Kundalini, theraising up of the lowest energy centre toenable the flow of energy from the highestto the lowest level.

Finally I come to the realisation that to beaware and experience the subtle attractionof what is serpent-like is me is something Icannot sidestep. It is a vital part of myspiritual journey and a harbinger of healing.

The Lost WayThe Lost WayThe Lost WayThe Lost Way

O sense the magic of this day,

the placid meadow by the way,

and breathe the perfume of the hay.

The track we are treading now turns

a sharp bend.

We might say,’Enough,’

‘tis now journey’s end.’

Here, where the path ahead

still bids us follow,

should we not rest in this tempting

green hollow?

The choice here is ours, what best

should we do?

Should we go forward,

new visions to view,

or with weary feet sit now,

and sleep in the sun,

regretting for ever what might have

been won.

D.J.L.B.

Peter Cunningham

Introduction

As mentioned in a previous article; duringEmanuel Swedenborg's lifetime, poets andtheir poetry flourished. Many expressedreligious themes, and, set to music, aresung as hymns today. Some names mightbe recognised by readers: John andCharles Wesley, Isaac Watts, Anne Stee leand William Cowper. There were writersfrom the continent of Europe and America.Space prevents me from quoting the fulltext of their hymns. How ever readers mayconsult the internet or some hymn books,where they appear today.

John Wesley (1703-1791)

John, born in Epworth, Lincolnshire was ason of Samuel Wesley, Epworth's rector.John studied at Charterhouse and ChristChurch College, Oxford; became a Deaconin 1725 and a priest in 1728: then diaristand hymn writer (much by translation ofothers' works). Published in 1741 wasPsalms and Hymns. Many items are stillfound in the Church of England's HymnsAncient and. Modern and the Methodist'sHymns and Psalms.

He also wrote on education, histories

of Rome and England and translationsfrom the classics. These earned him some£30,000 - a colossal sum in those days -most of which he spent on philanthropicand religious causes.

John Wesley laboured prolifically,and for 50 years travelled - perhaps250,000 miles, in Britain, Ireland and

Extracts fromExtracts fromExtracts fromExtracts from ‘True Christianity’‘True Christianity’‘True Christianity’‘True Christianity’ No.504 by Emanuel SwedenborgNo.504 by Emanuel SwedenborgNo.504 by Emanuel SwedenborgNo.504 by Emanuel Swedenborg

“ I saw two spirits,… I could tell that one of them loved goodness and truth and was

therefore connected to heaven, but the other loved evil and falsity and was therefore

connected to hell…When the one who loved evil and falsity was left to his own thoughts, a

kind of smoke from hell arose and extinguished the light…When the other person… who

loved goodness and truth, was left to himself, I saw a kind of gentle flame flowing down from

heaven…I then saw a flying serpent on a particular tree. It was offering a piece of fruit to

someone there. ”

EMANUEL SWEDENBORG AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES

Some Enlightenment Wr iters and Their Religious Poetry

John Wesley

Hark the Glad Sound, the SaviourComesO God of Bethel, by Whose Hand

Anne Steel (1714-1778)

Anne was born in Broughton in Hamp-shire. Her father was a timber merchantand also a Baptist lay-preacher. Hermother died when she was three years old,and tragically Anne's fiancé was drownedthe day before their intended wedding.Understandably certain morbid themes -suffering and doubts - appear in her com-positions. She wrote about 140 hymns and24 metnc psalms and 50 moral poems. Iquote the first verses of two of her hymns:

Father of mercies, in your WordWhat endless glory shinesFor ever be your name adoredFor these celestial lines.

I would resolve with all my heartWith all my powers to serve the LordNor ever from his law depart:His service yields a rich reward.

William Cowper (1731-1800)

William Cowper was son of a chaplain toGeorge II and grandson of a judge andrelated to 1st Earl Cowper, a Lord Chancel-lor. Early in life William was irrevocablywounded emotionally by the death of hismother and being bullied at WestminsterSchool. These caused periods of ill-healththroughout his life. Nonetheless he devel-oped a superb command of English; writ-ing poetry (much in blank verse), madetranslations of Homer and wrote letters inmuch-admired styles. I quote the firstverse of what is perhaps his best-lovedhymn:

God moves in a mysterious wayHis wonders to performHe plants his footsteps in the seaAnd rides upon the storm

Jupiter Hammon (c1711-1806)and Phyllis Wheatley (1753-1784)

These two writers; both slaves, were none-theless treated with dignity by their mas-ters and mistresses. They were among thefirst to publish in the African-Americangenre of literature. Jupiter Hammon wasborn in Lloyd Harbor, New York of par-ents who were both slaves of the Lloydfamily of Queens, Long Island. Jupiter'sfather, Obadiah, could read and write. TheLloyds encouraged Jupiter, who attendedschool, becoming literate like his father.No record exists of any of Jupiter's poemsuntil 1760, when he published in twentyparts An Evening 'Thought: and Salvationby Christ with Penitential Cries. I quotethe first stanza:

Salvation comes by Christ aloneThe only Son of GodRedemption now to everyoneThat love his Holy Word.

Europe and North America. He wasmarried to Mary Vazville; for 25 years;then they separated.

After good relations with the Churchof England and also the Moravianssoured, John founded Methodism, adominant Christian Church of today. Hetranslated several hymns written byNicolas Ludwig von Zinzendorf (1700-1760). John Wesley's Works waspublished in the 1770s and his Letters in1931.

Char les Wesley (1707-1788)

Charles, John's younger brother, was edu-cated at Westminster School and thenOxford. He was a staunch prop for John.Charles's most memorable legacy mustsurely be his hymns, some 6 ,500 of them!They include:

Jesus, Lover of my SoulLove Divine, all Loves ExcellingHark the Herald Angels Sing

His Journal was edited and published in1847.

Isaac Watts (1674-1748)

Isaac Watts was born in Southampton, sonof a clothier. Educated at SouthamptonGrammar School, at Stoke Newington,London, Isaac then worked as minister atan independent church at Mark Lane, offFleet Street. He wrote over 500 sacredpoems and hymns including:

O God our Help in Ages PastThere is a Land of Pure DelightWhen I Survey the Wondrous Cross

Isaac Watts also published in 1715 MoralSongs for Children and in 1719 MetricPsalms.

Philip Doddr idge (1702-1751)

Doddridge was born in London, the twen-tieth child of an oilman. Doddridge trainedfor the ministry at a theological college atKibworth, then to Market Harborough andNorthampton, where he also acted as headof a theological academy. Some ten of thehymns he wrote came to my attentionincluding:

Phyllis Wheatley, after being transportedfrom Africa to America, became a devotedChristian and a champion for her colouredpeers. She wrote:

'Twas mercy brought me from mypagan landTaught my benighted soul tounderstandThat there's a God, that there's aSaviour tooOnce I redemption neither sought norknew.Some view our sable race with scornfuleye"Their colour is a diabolic die."Remember Christians, Negroes, blackas CainMay be refined and join th'angelic train.

In conclusion

The spiritual stirrings during the 18th

century Enlightenment are illustrated bythese poets and hymn-writers. Their effortsstill remain recognised today.

Charles Wesley

simply swedenborg no.27

CreativityCreativityCreativityCreativityThis is part of No.351 of Swedenborg’sDivine Love and Wisdom as recently translatedby George F. Dole.

People who believe that divinity is at workin the details of nature can prove the roleof divinity for themselves by a host ofthings they observe in nature – just as fullyas and even more fully than people whodecide in favour of nature. People whodecide for divinity pay attention to themiracles they see in the way both plantsand animals reproduce. In the reproductionof plants, they see that a root goes forthfrom a tiny seed cast into the ground, witha stem from the root and then twigs,leaves, flowers, fruit, all the way to newseeds. It is exactly as though the seedknew the sequence or the process for itsown renovation. What rational personcould believe that the sun, which is noth-ing but fire, knows this, or that it can en-dow plants with the ability to accomplishthis with its warmth and light, that it canwork these miracles in plants with theintent to perform some useful function?Anyone whose rational abilities are liftedup, on seeing and pondering such things,can only think that they come from onewho has infinite wisdom, from God.

People who acknowledge divinity seethis and think this way. People who do notacknowledge divinity, though, do not seethis or think this way because they do notwant to. So they lower their rational abili-ties down to the sensory level that gets allits concepts from the light that envelopsour physical senses. They then ‘prove’their fallacies by saying, “Can’ t you seethe sun making this happen by its warmthand light? What is anything that you can-not see? Is it anything at all?”

John Masefield, who was born in 1878 anddied in 1967, was Poet Laureate when I firstlearned these lines and indeed he remainedin the post until his death. Masefield wasclearly inspired by the King James Bible.Nineveh features prominently in the Bible,although not in the First Book of Kings,while Ophir is mentioned in an earlier verseof chapter 10 of that book.

We often hear what is called ‘ rotelearning’ attacked by educationists becauseit is supposed to stifle children’s creativity.I would like to substitute another expressionfor learning by rote, ‘ learning by heart’ .Learning by rote suggests a boring chore,but learning something by heart, whether itis a poem or arithmetical tables, has verydifferent associations. To learn somethingby heart is to make it one’ s own, to make itsomething for which one forms and retainsan affection. As Swedenborg put it inArcana Caelestia 2474,

‘ It is one of the things which a person seesand hears, and for which he feels anaffection, [which] are implanted in hisinterior memory, and there they remainwithout anything being lost, even if they areerased from his exterior memory’ :

John Elliott’s translation. Of course, de-mentia may eventually destroy one’s abilityto remember a poem along with much else,although it is usually the short-termmemory, what one had for lunch or whatday of the week it is, which goes before thelong-term memory. It is reassuring to learnthat everything is stored in the interiormemory and is taken into the next life.

I remember a conversation I heard thattook place about twenty-five years agobetween a much-loved New Churchminister and an elderly member of hiscongregation. The minister asked the ladywhat was the most important thing in herlife. ‘ It’s my faith’ , said the lady. ‘No itisn’ t’ , replied the minister, ‘ it’ s your mem-ory. Where would your faith be withoutyour memory?’ .

I have recently been studying the historyand practice in different Christian churchesof the sacrament of Holy Communion, orthe Holy Supper, as it is usually called in theNew Church. I recalled that, brought up inthe Church of England, I was confirmed in1957 at the age of 15, an age which stillseems to me to be about right, at St Peter’sChurch, Burnham, Buckinghamshire. There

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were confirmation classes in church led bythe vicar which went on for several weeks.It was a mixed class of boys and girls, anenjoyable experience for me as I had only abrother and attended an all-boys’ school.We were confirmed by the suffragan Bishopof Buckingham in about May or June thatyear. I cannot remember the details of theinstruction we received, but we werecertainly not told there were ‘ three gods’ .At this point I am going to pray in aid thewords of John Clowes, Anglican clergymanin Manchester and the finest of the earlyEnglish translators of Swedenborg. Cloweswas opposed to separation from the Churchof England by the followers of what werethen the very new teachings to be found inSwedenborg’s religious writings, althoughhe was unable to persuade Robert Hind-marsh and his friends from establishingwhat later became the General Conferenceof the New Church. The one kind ofseparation that Clowes recommended was ‘aseparation from all evil and false principlesof heart and life’ . He believed that theliturgy of the Church of England was takenprimarily from the Scriptures and that thedifferences of doctrine were formal andverbal rather than real or essential. Theapparent tri-theism in the Creeds and insome prayers stemmed from an erroneousunderstanding of the term ‘person’ (theLatin word ‘persona’ means a ‘mask’ ), asthough the three persons of the Trinity wereseparate beings.

I cannot pretend that I understood all thisas a fifteen-year old, but I took what I wastaught seriously and can recall attendingHoly Communion regularly with my motherafter my confirmation. We were encouragedto attend once a month and we used to go tothe 8am service on Sunday morning beforebreakfast. The church was about half a milefrom our home and, as we had no car inthose days, we would often cycle there, likethe old maids described by George Orwell(whose words were much later quoted byJohn Major when he was Prime Minister inan attempt to invoke the sprit ofEnglishness), ‘bicycling to Holy Commun-ion through the early morning mist’ .

My parents moved away from Burnhamin the early 1970s, but I did return to StPeter’s Church a few years ago for thefuneral of a school contemporary who maywell have been in my confirmation class,although I cannot recall that specifically. Iwas able to speak to the vicar after theservice and tell her that I had been con-firmed in that church long ago.

But memory is not always benign orstraightforward. One’s memories may be ofa painful kind which one tries to blot out.

Or they may be of a wistful, teasing kindwhere one tries to imagine ‘what might havebeen’ if things had taken a different course,like the poet Robert Frost’s ‘The Road NotTaken’ . A slightly younger contemporary ofFrost was TS Eliot. Eliot’s poem ‘BurntNorton’ , the first of his famous ‘FourQuartets’ , is about memory. Burnt Norton isa manor house and garden in Gloucester-shire which the poet had visited in 1935with his friend Emily Hale, a teacher ofdrama at Harvard. Over twenty years earlierEliot had been in love with Emily and hadsent her a bouquet of roses. But the affairpetered out and Eliot eventually marriedVivien Haigh-Wood. By the 1930s Eliot’smarriage to Vivien was deeply troubled andthey had separated. She was later to becommitted to a mental institution. In thepoem Eliot points to a future that he andEmily might have enjoyed had their loveaffair prospered:

Down the passage which we did not takeTowards the door we never openedInto the rose-garden. My words echoThus, in your mind.But to what purposeDisturbing the dust on a bowl of rose-leavesI do not know.

Eliot would have recalled the roses (asymbol of love) he had once sent to Emily,and readers of Swedenborg may also recallthe rose-garden in the work Conjugial Loveand can understand the ‘correspondence’here. The poet’s problem is not resolved,but he points to the nature of time andexperience which necessarily involves thememory:

Time past and time futureWhat might have been and what has beenPoint to one end, which is always present.

As Swedenborg put it:The interior memory is such therefore

that it has written into it every detail, …which the person has ever thought, said, ordone, including those things which ap-peared to him in shadow, even the tini-est….The memory of all those things a manretains on entering the next life, and he isgradually brought into a complete recollec-tion of them: (Arcana Caelestia 2474).

The Mystic Chords

of Memory

Continued from page1

Outlook welcomes contributions onreligious topics, preferably with refer-ence to the work of Emanuel Sweden-borg 1688-1772.