Arcana Coelestia volume 7 - Swedenborg Foundation

ARCANA COELESTIA 3687therefore who does not know what this or that thing in naturerepresents, and especially he who is quite unaware that anything isrepresentative, cannot but believe that these representatives aremerely comparisons, such as everyone uses in common speech.They indeed are comparisons, but such as correspond, and aretherefore actually presented to view in the world of spirits, whenthe angels in an interior heaven are conversing about the spiritualand celestial things of the Lord’s kingdom. (In regard to dreams,see above, n. 1122, 1975, 1977, 1979–1981.)5116. Its blossom went up. That this signifies the state nearregeneration is evident from the signification of the “blossom” thatbuds forth from the tree before the fruit, as being the state beforeregeneration. As just said (n. 5115), the budding and fruiting of atree represent the rebirth of man—its becoming green from theleaves represents the first state; the blossoming the second, which isthe next before regeneration; and the fruiting the third, which isthe very state of the regenerate. It is from this that “leaves” signifythe things of intelligence, or the truths of faith (n. 885), for theseare the first things of the rebirth or regeneration, while “blossoms”signify the things of wisdom, or the goods of faith, because theseimmediately precede the rebirth or regeneration; and “fruits”signify those things which are of life, or the works of charity,because these follow and constitute the very state of the regenerate.[2] That such things exist in the vegetable kingdom is owing tothe influx of the spiritual world. This, however, cannot be believedby those who attribute all things to nature, and nothing to theDivine; whereas they who attribute all things to the Divine, andnothing to nature, are permitted to see not only that everything isfrom the Divine, but also that everything has a correspondence,and is therefore representative; and finally they are permitted to seethat universal nature is a theater representative of the Lord’skingdom; thus that the Divine is in every particular of nature,insomuch that nature is a representation of the eternal and theinfinite—of the eternal from propagation even to eternity, of theinfinite from the multiplication of seeds to infinity. Such endeavorscould never have existed in everything in the vegetable kingdom