Monday 4 May 2009

Numbers 2:1-10 The angelic societies in heaven


And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying,
Every man of the children of Israel shall pitch by his own standard, with the ensign of their father's house: far off about the tabernacle of the congregation shall they pitch.
And on the east side toward the rising of the sun shall they of the standard of the camp of Judah pitch throughout their armies: and Nahshon the son of Amminadab shall be captain of the children of Judah.
And his host, and those that were numbered of them, were threescore and fourteen thousand and six hundred.
And those that do pitch next unto him shall be the tribe of Issachar: and Nethaneel the son of Zuar shall be captain of the children of Issachar.
And his host, and those that were numbered thereof, were fifty and four thousand and four hundred.
Then the tribe of Zebulun: and Eliab the son of Helon shall be captain of the children of Zebulun.
And his host, and those that were numbered thereof, were fifty and seven thousand and four hundred.
All that were numbered in the camp of Judah were an hundred thousand and fourscore thousand and six thousand and four hundred, throughout their armies. These shall first set forth.
10 On the south side shall be the standard of the camp of Reuben according to their armies: and the captain of the children of Reuben shall be Elizur the son of Shedeur.
-Numbers 2:1-10 King James Version (KJV)


Apocalypse Explained, by Emanuel Swedenborg, [1757-9], tr. by John Whitehead [1911], at sacred-texts.com


447
...[6] "Zebulun and Naphtali" signify in the highest sense the union of the Divine Itself and the Lord's Divine Human by means of temptations admitted into Himself, and victories gained by His own power... Because of this signification of "Zebulun": The tribe of Judah, together with the tribe of Issachar and the tribe of Zebulun, pitched to the east about the tent of meeting (Num. 2:3-10); for the encampments of the sons of Israel about the tent of meeting represent and thence signify the arrangements of the angelic societies in heaven; and to the east in heaven are those who are in conjunction with the Lord through love to Him; for "the tribe of Judah" represented love to the Lord, and "the tribe of Zebulun" conjunction with Him.

Heaven and Hell, by Emanuel Swedenborg, [1758], tr. by John C. Ager [1900] at sacred-texts.com


141.
THE FOUR QUARTERS IN HEAVEN. Both in heaven and in the world there are four quarters, east, south, west, and north, determined in each world by its own sun; in heaven by the sun of heaven, which is the Lord, in the world by the sun of the world. And yet there are great differences between them... [In] heaven that is called the east where the Lord is seen as a sun, opposite to this is the west, at the right is the south in heaven, and at the left the north; and this in whatever direction the face and the body are turned. Thus in heaven it is from the east that all the quarters are determined. That is called the east  where the Lord is seen as a sun, because all origin of life is from Him as a sun; moreover, so far as angels receive heat and light or love and intelligence from the Lord He is said to arise upon them. For the same reason the Lord is called the East in the Word...
The quarters in the heavens that give form to the Lord's celestial kingdom differ from the quarters in the heavens that give form to His spiritual kingdom, for the reason that He is seen by the angels in His celestial kingdom as a sun, but by the angels in His spiritual kingdom as a moon; and where the Lord is seen is the east. The distance there between the position of the sun and that of the moon is thirty degrees, and there is a like difference in the position of the quarters. That heaven is divided into two kingdoms, called the celestial kingdom and the spiritual kingdom, may be seen in its own chapter (n. 20-28); and that the Lord is seen in the celestial kingdom as a sun, and in the spiritual kingdom as a moon (n. 118). But it does not follow that the quarters of heaven become confused on this account, for neither can the spiritual angels ascend among the celestial angels, nor the celestial descend among the spiritual, as may be seen above (n. 35).

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