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Arcana Coelestia
6179. Put I pray thy hand under my thigh. That this signifies a sacred binding, is evident from the signification of “putting the hand under the thigh,” as being a binding, with all power, by means of that which belongs to conjugial love; for by the “hand” is signified power (see n. 878, 3091, 4931-4937, 5328, 5544), and by the “thigh” that which is of conjugial love (n. 3021, 4277, 4280, 4575, 5050-5062).
In the supreme sense the conjugial is the union of the Divine and the Divine Human In the Lord; and from this it is the union of the Divine good and the Divine truth in heaven; for that which proceeds from the Lord is the Divine truth from the Divine good.
From this, heaven is heaven, and is called a “marriage,” for it is the conjunction of the good and the truth there, which proceed from the Lord, that makes it. And as the Lord is the good there, and heaven is the truth thence derived, therefore in the Word the Lord is called the “bridegroom,” and heaven and also the church are called the “bride;” for good and truth make a marriage, and their conjunction is what is meant by the conjugial.
Hence it is plain how sacred a thing it was to be bound by means of what is conjugial, which was signified by “putting the hand under the thigh.” From this marriage of good and truth descends genuine conjugial love, In regard to which and its sanctity see what was said above (n. 2727-2759).
Conjugial Love
66 … It must be clearly recognized that there is no good nor any truth which is not in a substance as its subject. Abstract goods and truths, being nowhere because they have no abode, are not possible. They certainly cannot be seen as things floating in the air. Therefore they are mere entities, of which reason seems to think abstractly but of which, nevertheless, it cannot think unless they are in subjects. For all man’s ideas, even though sublimated, are substantial, that is, are attached to substances. It must further be recognized that there can be no substance unless it be a form. A substance not formed is not anything, for nothing can be predicted of it, and a subject without predicates is also an entity of no reason.
Arcana Coelestia
5110 [3] Nevertheless, as man is such that he can have no idea of thought whatever about abstract things unless he adjoins something natural which has entered from the world through the senses (for without some such natural thing his thought perishes as in an abyss and is dissipated),
therefore lest what is Divine should perish in man when he is wholly immersed in bodily and earthly things, and with whomsoever it remained it should be defiled by an unclean idea, and together with what is Divine everything celestial and spiritual thence derived should also perish, it pleased Jehovah to present Himself such as He actually is, and such as He appears in heaven, namely, as a Divine Man.
For everything of heaven conspires to the human form, as may be seen from what has been shown at the end of the chapters concerning the correspondence of all things of man with the Grand Man, which is heaven. This Divine, or this of Jehovah in heaven, is the Lord from eternity.
The same the Lord took also upon Him when He glorified or made Divine the human in Himself, as is very evident from the form in which He appeared before Peter, James, and John, when He was transfigured (Matthew 17:1-2); and also in which He at times appeared to the prophets. It is from this that everyone is able to think of the Divine Itself as of a Man, and at the same time of the Lord, in whom is all the Divine, and a perfect Trinity, for in the Lord the Divine Itself is the Father, this Divine in heaven is the Son, and the Divine thence proceeding is the Holy Spirit. That these are a one, as He Himself teaches, is hence manifest.
Third Round posts are short audio clips taken from Round 3 comments offered in the online Logopraxis Life Group meetings. The aim is to keep the focus on understanding the Text in terms of its application to the inner life along with reinforcing any key LP principles that have been highlighted in the exchanges.
As a disclaimer I want to say that I in no way wish to pretend that I understand anything about the conjunction of the Divine with the Divine Human. There are however numbers which provide me with a small glimpse of the conjunction or marriage by way of comparisons as to different states when couched in the imagery of the differences between the Celestial and the Spiritual. For example the description in AC 5922 on how the Celestial and Spiritual kingdoms find a common ground by which they can be “married’ in a common use together. And since my head… Read more »
Yes there are numbers, which I don’t have at hand, that talk about marriage being between what is of a higher level with a lower as opposed to being on the same level. So for example the marriage is between the celestial truth and the spiritual good. I am also reminded of CL 32 where it talks about the differences between the masculine and feminine forms: … The distinction essentially consists in the fact that in the male, the inmost is love and its clothing wisdom, or, what is the same thing, he is love veiled over with wisdom; and… Read more »