E-MOTION

Have you ever wondered why human beings derive joy from moving, walking, jogging, running, dancing, skating, surfing, galloping, cycling, driving and traveling? Humans love horses, motorcycles, trains, cars, boats and planes. Race car and motorcycle drivers risk their life to experience the thrill of moving at exceedingly fast speeds. Bungee and parachute jumpers are exhilarated when they step off into the void of space and experience a temporary feeling of total freedom. Dancers and skaters are entranced by moving in rhythm with musical waves while surfers ride the waves of the ocean.  We know that roller-coasters are dangerous but the thrill of freedom makes us forget the risk. Most humans also love to travel to far and exotic places to gain new and exciting experiences.

There is a real reason why human beings love to move. This motion from one place into another translates to an e-motion from one state into another because the material world is in correspondence with the spiritual world. And, it is not just humans, animals and birds that love to move. Everything in the physical universe is in motion. Light is always moving at the fastest speed in the physical universe. Electrons move incessantly around the nucleus of atoms. And moons, planets, stars and galaxies are in harmonic motion. Human blood is equally kept in motion by the rhythm and pumping action of the heart.

This universal and harmonic motion in the physical world corresponds to a universal harmonic e-motion in the spiritual world. Every being in the  spiritual world is moving towards a state of Universal Love. And since we know that Divine Love is God's substance, we could say that every being is moving or returning to God. The whole universe, spiritual and natural, emanated from God's substance or Infinite Love and, as a consequence, every being longs to return to the harmony of Love in Heaven. When we understand and  share the meaning of the Word with others, we are moved towards the Lord by spiritual Love. This is represented in the spiritual world  as someone riding upon a white horse because a white horse corresponds to an understanding of the Word, riding to instruction of the Word and  motion to an e-motion of Love. When we are aware of these correspondences, the following passage  from Revelation is very revealing:

I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse, and He that sat upon him was called faithful and true, and in justice He doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire; and upon His head were many diadems; and He hath a name written that no one knew but He Himself. And He was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood; and His name is called The Word of God. And the armies which were in the heavens followed Him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen white and clean. And He hath upon His vesture and upon His thigh a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords (Apoc. 19:11-14, 16).

We experience joy and freedom by moving at very high speed because such motion induces a feeling of love or spiritual freedom. During such moments our soul is temporarily liberated from the constraints of matter, time and space and lifted into higher states. But we can experience the same feeling by understanding and realizing the Word of God. And, in this case, this feeling of Love can potentially become permanent.

Natural Light is always moving because spiritual Light or Love is spiritual motion. It is the Love within us which moves us to desire, think and do. But everything that we do is caused by our desire to return to the state of Heavenly Love.

For hundreds of years, scientists have sought a perpetual motion machine. But scientists believe such a machine is an impossibility because of the natural laws of physics:

“Perpetual motion is motion that continues indefinitely without any external source of energy. This is impossible to ever achieve because of friction and other sources of energy loss. A perpetual motion machine is a hypothetical machine that can do work indefinitely without an energy source. This kind of machine is impossible, as it would violate the first or second law of thermodynamics.” Wikipedia

However, Divine Love is perpetual spiritual motion or e-motion because it is an infinite, eternal and self-existent source of energy. When we have the Love of God in our heart, we are linked to an inexhaustible source of energy and all things become possible.

All motion in the spiritual world is the effect of changes of inner states, to the point that motion is nothing but change of state. This is how I have been led by the Lord into the heavens and also to other planets in the universe. This happened to my spirit, while my body remained in the same place. This is how all angels move about, which means they do not have distances; and if they do not have distances, they do not have space. Instead they have states and their changes. Emanuel Swedenborg [HH 192]

Motion is nothing else than continuous endeavor; for when endeavor ceases, motion ceases, and therefore there is nothing essential in motion except endeavor. The learned know this, for it is an acknowledged and confirmed theorem. Endeavor in man is will, and motion in him is action; they are so called in man because in him endeavor and motion are living. To be judged according to the will is the same thing as to be judged according to the love, and also the same as to be judged according to the ends of life, likewise to be judged according to the life, for the will of man is his love, and is his end of life, and is his very life itself. That this is the case is evident from the words of the Lord quoted above, that "whoever looketh on a strange woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart" (Matt. 5:27, 28); also that "to kill" a man is not only to do so in act, but also to will to do it, which is signified by "being angry" with him and treating him with insult (Matt. 5:21). Moreover man is judged according to his deeds, but no further than insofar and in such a manner as his deeds have proceeded from his will. Emanuel Swedenborg [AC 8911]

The reason a "quaking" or "motion" denotes a change of state, is that it takes place in space and in time; and in the other life there is no idea of space and of time; but in their stead there is state. It is indeed true that in the other life all things appear as in space, and follow one another as if in time; but in themselves the space and time are changes of state, for they come from this source. This is perfectly well known to every spirit, even to the wicked, who by changes of state induced on others cause them to appear in another place, when yet they are not there. Men may know the same from the fact that insofar as a man is in a state of the affections and of the derivative joy; and insofar as he is in a state of the thoughts and of a consequent absence from the body, so far he is not in time; for many hours then appear to him scarcely as one; and this because his internal man or spirit has states to which the spaces and times in the external man correspond. "Motion," therefore, being a successive progression in space and time, is in the internal sense a change of state. Emanuel Swedenborg [AC 3356]

This being the nature of motion, we can see that drawing near is likeness of inner state and moving away is dissimilarity. This is why the people who are nearby are the ones in a similar state and the ones who are far away are in dissimilar states. It is why space in heaven is nothing but the outward states that correspond to the inner ones.

This is the only reason the heavens are differentiated from each other, as are the communities of each heaven and the individuals in each community. It is also why the hells are completely separate from the heavens: they are in an opposite state. Emanuel Swedenborg [HH 193]

Photo credit: original image:  Andalusian horse cantering with rider ; 22 October 2006; source:eigene Aufnahmen: author:Waugsberg

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