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1072 NOTES TO VOLUME II.
From these passages may be deduced the following principles :
First. Dreams are either significative or fantastical.
Secondly. Significative dreams come either from the Lord through
heaven, and are prophetic; or they come from angelic spirits, and
are instructive ; or, finally, they come from the spirits who are near
man when he sleeps, and are simply significative.
Thirdly. Significative dreams are representations of the ideas
of God, of angels, and of spirits by means of correspondences.
Fourthly. The correspondences by which the ideas of God, of
angels, and of spirits are represented in dreams, are according to
the state of the spirits who are with man when he sleeps, and
according to the state of man’s own memory.
Let us now make an application of this general theory of dreams
to those dreams of Swedenborg which are recorded in Docu
ment 209.
First. Those dreams must either be significative or fantastical.
According to Swedenborg’s own testimony in 1748, those dreams
were significative; for he says in the "Spiritual Diary," no. 2951,
"Before my mind was opened so that I could converse with spirits,
[and consequently, before 1745, see Note 162,] I had dreams during
several years, by which I was informed of the things concerning
which I was writing," and in the Adversaria, Vol. II, no. 183,
which he wrote in 1746, he says : "At first I had dreams during a
number of years, when I learned something of their real signi
fication."
Secondly. Those significative dreams came to him either from
the Lord through heaven, and were prophetic, or they came from
angelic spirits, and were instructive, or they came from the spirits
by whom he was surrounded, and were simply significative. Accord
ing to his own testimony those dreams came from the Lord either
as direct messages, or as permissions ; for he says in the "Spiritual
Diary," no. 3177, "From my past life I was able to see that every
thing therein [and hence also his significative dreams] was governed
by the Lord by means of those things that had been produced or
done by me;" and again he says in the "Spiritual Diary," no. 1647,
"What I have learned from representations and visions is from the
Lord alone." This also is plainly stated in no. 116 of the Diary of
1744, where we read, "This signifies that God speaks with me, and
that I comprehend only the smallest portion of it; because it is in
representations, of which I understand as yet but very little."
Thirdy. As all significative dreams, which come from the Lord
through heaven, consist of correspondences, so also did the significa
tive dreams of Swedenborg.
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