Journal of Dreams · §§ 181–210

181. [April] 28-29

Last night it seemed to me that I saw King Charles XII, to whom I once dedicated my work, but it now seemed to me that he had risen from the dead, and that I went out, and now wished to dedicate to him as if he were like another [living] person.

[“Charles XII, to whom formerly I dedicated my work,”-referring to Swedenborg’s Aeldalus Hyuperboraeus and other youthful productions.]

182. I was walking along a road and come to a cross-road, on which I was directed to proceed. I also went up, but it seemed to me that there were only a few days left, so I went back in the place; there was a mass of people. I wanted to go out but was very much crowded.

183. I gave some fruits to a gardener to sell. He sold them and returned two carolines to me, but it was said that he had kept thirteen dalers for himself, but I did not care about it.

184. Videbar mihi aqam mingere, foemina in lecto spectante; obesa erat et rubeda. Postea mammam illius tangebam, nec illa se retraxit; secreta sua et turpe quoddam mihi ostendit; illae nihil facere volebam.

185. All this, it seems to me, signifies that I ought to employ my remaining time upon what is higher, and not write about worldly things, which are far beneath, but [write] about that which concerns the very centre of everything, and that which concerns Christ. May God be so gracious as to enlighten me further in regard to my duty, for I am still in some darkness as to whither I ought to turn.

186. It seemed that some one had written briefly to King Fredrick; it seemed brief to him, and he commanded some persons to travel to the one [who had written], who at first seemed to be a woman but afterwards appeared little a small man, to worry that one in various ways with love-intrigues and the like. They did their best, but I saw that they had not hurt him or done him any injury. He said now, between the thirty-sixth and thirty-seventh day, (which was the day since my temptation), he wished to borrow a heap and go to heaven, without paying those from whom he had borrowed. This I told to Swab, that he should report it to the king. All this seemed to signify that if I go on with the other [work] which I have proposed to myself, I have borrowed a heap from what is spiritual, in order thereby to go to heaven, which I was not willing to pay, unless very tardily.

[King Fredrik, and “the Swab.” This refers to Anders Swab, who acted as the “go-between” in the amours of the adulterous king, whose character and ultimate fate in the spiritual world are described in the Spiritual Diary, n. 5799; and the Minor Diary, nos. 4725, 4742, 4794, 4795.]

187 [April] 30-May 1.

I saw some one on guard with a sword; it was pointed and sharp, and there was something sticking to the sleeve of his coat. I was in danger from him, for I saw that he was somewhat drunk and consequently might do harm. It signifies that the previous day I had drunk a little more than I ought, which is not of the spirit, but of the flesh, and therefore sinful.

188. Afterwards it seemed to me that I had with me Eliezer, my deceased brother, who was being attacked by a wild boar that held him fast and bit him. I tried to drag the animal down with a hook, but could not. Afterwards I went up, and saw that he was lying between two boars which were eating his head. I could not get any one to help him; I ran past. This, as I believe, signifies that the previous day I had indulged my appetite and had partaken too freely of the necessaries of life, which is also as the work of the flesh and not of the spirit; for such is the life of swine, and is forbidden by Paul; it is called feastings.

[Eliezer Swedberg, Emanuel Swedenborg’s younger brother, who was born in 1692 and died in 1717, at the age of twenty-five years. He married Elizabeth Brink, who was married four times: 1. To George Brandt; 2. to Eliezer Swedberg; 3. Anders Swab, and 4. Johan Bergenstjerna.

[“Feastings,”-in the original “commessationes.” It is to be remembered that Swedenborg rarely took more than two or three glasses of wine, and that his favorite repast was break and milk.]

189. On the following day I was more on my guard, but I came into a rather strong temptation. That now and henceforth I must forcibly govern my appetite, this brought me into a strange condition, and as it were into a state of chagrin; but I was quickly delivered from it after I had prayed and sung a hymn; especially as I do not wish to be mine own, but to live as a new man in Christ.

190. Afterwards for several days in succession I was generally for some hours in a state of spiritual anxiety, without being able to tell the cause, although I seemed to be assured of grace of God. After dinner, however, I was in a quite a great state of happiness and spiritual peace.

191. When I started on my journey from The Hague in the ship from Maasland, which took place on the thirteenth of May, it seemed that my brother Jesper had been put in prison on my account, and also another person. I had put something into a carriage and imported it, for which I seemed to be responsible. There came judges who were to sentence him, holding in their hands two written papers. In the meanwhile I beheld some birds which came flying towards me, but I hit them on the neck with a sharp knife so that they died. Then the judges came and released my brother Jesper, whom I thereupon kissed and rejoiced over. It signifies that I had been running wild in my thoughts, but that with the help of the Spirit I had killed them, and that I therefore was declared free.

[The Swedish reprint of 1860 gives the incorrect date of “May 1.”]

[Jesper Swedenborg, Emanuel Swedenborg’s youngest brother, born Aug. 28, 1694. In his youth he seems to have been somewhat wild, and was sent to the Swedish colony in North America, where he taught school at Upland (Delaware), and experienced a religious conversion. Returning to Sweden in 1724, he entered the army as lieutenant, married Christina Silversvard in 1727, and settled down on the estate of Swedensdahl in Westgothland. The year of his death is not recorded. From him descend the various branches of the Swedenborg family of the present day.]

192. While in Harwich, on my arrival in England, I slept only a few hours, and then there appeared many things which may concern my work here. This took place on May 4th-5th, according to the English calendar.

[“May 4-5, according to the English calendar.” Dr. Tafel states that “the Calendar, as improved by Pope Gregory XIII, was not introduced into England until 1752, wherefore upon arriving in England Swedenborg found himself thrown back twelve days. As we see from n. 132 [=191], he left The Hague on May 13th, and he arrived in England in reality on the 16th.” Doc. II:193.)]

193. 1) It seemed that I had lost a banknote, and the person who found it got only nine stivers for it. The same was the case with another person who had also found such a banknote, which was bought for nine stivers only. I observed, jokingly, that this was *”pietasteri.”* It probably showed what is the state in England, partly honest, partly dishonest.

[“Nine stivers.” A “stiver” was a small copper coin, current in Sweden and Holland, and worth about two cents.]

[“Pietasteri.” This word, jokingly coined by Swedenborg, may be a play of words,-mixing “piety” with “piaster,” the Turkish coin. Dr. Tafel renders it “Puritanism.” Doc II:193.)]

194. 2) There were some who admired my copperplate engravings, which were well executed, and they desired to see my first sketches, as if I could sketch them as they were executed. It may signify that my work will gain approbation, although they believe that I was not able to do it.

195. 3) I received a small letter, for which I paid nine stivers; when I opened I found within a large book with blank paper. In the middle there were many beautiful drawings, but the rest was blank paper. A woman was sitting at my left hand; she moved over to my right side and began to turn over the leaves of the book, and the drawings appeared. It seemed to me that the meaning of the letter was that while in England I should order a lot of such drawings or patterns to be made. The woman had a rather broad neckcloth, and was altogether bare on both sides all the way down; the skin was shining as if glazed, and on the thumb there was a miniature painting. It may signify that with the help of God I may while in England execute a lot of handsome designs in my work; and that afterwards speculation will turn to *priora,* while before it has been in *posteriora*, as seems to be signified by her change of position.

[“Nine stivers.” A “stiver” was a small copper coin, current in Sweden and Holland, and worth about two cents.]

196. 4) It seemed as if I had received orders to accompany Bergenstjerna on a commission, and that money had been granted for the purpose. The commission, with which I was quite pleased, seemed to be on the other side of Sicily, but I thought that I would have to be on guard against scorpions there. It may signify something which may be committed to me after my work has been finished; that perhaps I am going to effect it in some other place, and perhaps in some other cause.

[Johan Bergenstjerna, (1663-1748), Assessor of the College of Mines, and for many years intimately associated with Swedenborg in his official life. He married the widow of Swedenborg’s brother, Eliezer, in 1735. His hypocritical character is described in the Spiritual Diary, nos. 4351, 4396, 5132, 5133, 5711.]

197. May 5-6, in London, I got a whipping from a large man, and I took for my good. Then I was about to get up on a horse to ride alongside a carriage, but the horse turned his head and got hold of me by my head and held me. What this signifies I do not know. I may have done something wrong to a pious shoemaker who was with me on the journey, and with whom I was then lodging; or [it may mean] that I had not been thinking of my work.

[The “pious shoemaker,” who had been Swedenborg’s traveling companion from Holland, and with whom he lodged on his first arrival in London, was the person mentioned by John Wesley in the Arminian Magazine for January, 1781, where we find the following statement: “Some time in the year 1743 [should be 1744] a Moravian Brother, by name, Seniff, in his return to London from Holland, where he had been visiting his children, became acquainted in a packet-boat with Baron Emanuel de Swedenborg; who desired to be recommended to a family in London, where he could live retired. Mr. Seniff brought him to Mr. Brockmer. This gentleman was very easily prevailed upon to take him under his roof.” (Doc II:587.)

The list of the original members of the Moravian Church in London, for October 30, 1742, (old style), contains the following entries, (quoted by Charles Higham in The New Church Magazine, of London, Jan., 1814, p. 36):

“(90). ’12. John Paul Brockmer. Gold Watch Chaser, in Salisbury Court, Fleet Street, []admitted to communion in February, 1743; had a son, John, born June 19, 1`742, baptized on the 25th by Bp. Spangenberg. Meetings kept at his house in 1743].'”

“(91). ’15. John Seniff, Shoe Maker; [born at Worms, in Germany, January, 1688. He wsa Warden of the German congregation at London in 1744, died May 2, 1752, and was buried in the burial ground near Bloomsbury].'”]

198. *Summa summarum:* (1) There is nothing else but grace, by means of which we may be saved. 2) The grace is in Jesus Christ who is the throne of grace. 3) It is the love of God in Christ by which salvation is effected. 4) And that a man then allows himself to be led by the spirit of Jesus. 5) Everything that comes from ourselves is dead, and is nothing but sin and worthy of eternal damnation. 6) For nothing good can come except from the Lord.

199. [May] 19-20. In London.

On the twentieth I had intended to go to the Lord’s Supper in the Swedish Church, because recently I had fallen into many pernicious thoughts, so that I observed that the body is continually rebellious, which was moreover represented to me by scum which must be removed. On Sunday in the morning there came quite clearly from the Spirit into my mouth, that this [the Holy Supper] is the manna which comes from heaven. I was neither in a state of sleep nor of wakefulness, but it came quite clearly into my thought and mouth that it signifies Christ in the Lord’s Supper. On the previous day I had been so prepared that I enjoyed an interior tranquility and peaceful contentment in the Lord’s disposition; and the whole time I felt the powerful influence of the Holy Spirit, the joy and an earthly kingdom of heaven, which filled the whole body.

200. Nevertheless I could not keep control of myself so as not to desire the sex, although not with the intention of proceeding to effect; yet in the dream it did not seem to be altogether contrary to the disposition of God. I was in company of Prof. Oelreich in various places. I had never been warned against this, as I had been warned against other things that I had committed. Nevertheless it happened,-as had been represented to me some days before in a dream,-that in one and the same day I was twice in danger of my life, as also happened, so that if God had not then been my protection, I would have lost my life in two places. The particulars I will not describe.

[Niklas von Oelreich, (1699-1770), Professor of Philosophy at Lund, 1732; censor of the Press, 1746; president of the College of Commerce, 1767; a leader of the part of “Hats,” and, after 1762, of the party of “caps.” He was for many years intimately associated with Swedenborg, and it is probable that Swedenborg met Oelreich abroad in 1743 or 1744, as the latter spent the years 1739-1744 in foreign journeys. Oelreich was a very influential and liberal politician, but was a quarrelsome and avaricious man.]

201. The internal joy remained so intense, however,-especially when I was by myself, alone, without company, in the mornings, and evenings, and days,-that it may be compared to a heavenly joy here on earth. This I hope to retain as long as by the grace of our Lord alone I walk on the pure path and have the right intention, for it vanishes if I turn aside to seek my pleasure in worldly things. God knows best whether the interior principle, which is the influx of the Spirit of God, is constantly with me. Every least degree of exultation is that of which it is sensible, and therefore I thought that since I enjoy this heavenly joy, why should I seek for worldly pleasure which by comparison is nothing, is inconstant, hurtful, opposing, and destructive of heavenly, and destroying joy.

202. By various providential dispensations I was led to the chapel belonging to the Moravian Brethren, who claim to be the true Lutherans and that they are conscious of the operation of the Holy Spirit, as they tell one another; and they look only to the grace of God, and the blood and merit of Christ, and that they work in innocent simplicity. Concerning this I shall speak more fully at another time, but it may not yet be permitted for me to join brotherhood with them. Their chapel was represented to me three months ago, just as I afterwards saw it, and all there were dressed like clergymen.

[Swedenborg attended the Church of the Moravian Brethren in London, induced, undoubtedly, by John Seniff and John Paul Brockmer. The Chapel was situated, then as now, at No. 32 Fetter Lane. (N. C. Magazine, Jan., 1914, p. 34.) John Wesley, in his Arminian Magazine, reports further that “the Baron behaved very decently in Brockmer’s house; he went every Sunday to the Chapel of the Moravians in Fetter Lane.” Doc II:587.)]

203. June 11-12

I was thinking about those who resist the Holy Spirit, and about those who suffer themselves to be governed by it. There appeared to me a man in white having a sword; another person approached to attack him and was wounded by his sword; he renewed the attack but was wounded quite severely about the ear and the temples. Still another came to fight against him, but he also was run through so that the blood appeared. I had a long spear and was thinking that if he should come against me, I would hold the spear in front of me, but just he was not far from me I saw that he threw down the sword and went away. As I was wondering at this, I noticed that some one was walking before me, and that he had reversed his sword to give it to him and surrender unconditionally, which was the reason for his reversing his sword.

204. June 15-16. The sixteenth was a Sunday.

My past life was represented to me, and how afterwards I walked where there were precipices on all sides, and that I turned back. Then I came to a very lovely grove, planted everywhere with the most beautiful fig trees in fine growth and order. On one of them there seemed to remain some dried-up figs. The grove was surrounded with moats, except on the side where I was. I wanted to pass over a foot bridge, which was high, and with earth and grass on the top, but I dared not on account of the danger.

205. At some distance from it I saw a large and quite beautiful palace with wings, where, it seemed to me, I desired to take lodgings in order to have the prospect of the grove and the moats always in view. A window was open far down in one of the wings, and I thought I should like to have my room there. It signifies that on Sunday I should be in what is spiritual, which is meant by the lovely grove; the palace may mean the plan of my work, which looks to the grove, whither I intend to look by means of it.

[“The lovely grove” and “the palace” signifying “the plan of my work, which looks towards the grove,” may refer to the Worship and Love of God, which, it appears, Swedenborg now began to plan, and which opens with the words: “Walking once alone in a pleasant grove to dispel my disturbing thoughts,” etc.]

206. [June] 20-21.

It seemed that a deliberation was going on as to whether I should be admitted to the society there, or to one of their councils. My father came out and said to me that what I had written about Providence was the finest. I called to mind that it was only a small treatise. Afterwards, one night, I was found in the Church, but I was naked, having nothing on but the shirt, so

[June] 26-27

that I did not dare to come forward. This may mean that I am not yet clothed and prepared as I need to be.

[Swedenborg’s treatise on “Providence.” In a second edition of the Oeconomia Regni Animalis, vol. I, published at Amsterdam, 1742, Swedenborg, on the reverse side of the title-page, introduced an advertisement of the world On the Infinite and of the “Opera Philosophica et Mineralia,” after which follows a list of four “Books soon to be published.” The fourth of these treats of “Divine Prudence, Predestination, Fate, Fortune, and Human Prudence,” and is undoubtedly the treatise on “Providence” referred to in n. 206. It does not appear that it was ever published, and the MSS may have been lost or destroyed. The subjects enumerated are, however, briefly treated of in the Varia Philosophica et Theologicca (17, 18), which are contained in Codex 36 of Swedenborg’s MSS, and which are reproduced in vol. VI, pp. 349-353, of the Photolithographed MSS. See also the reference to this lost manuscript in the work On the Soul, n. 561.]

[“One night I was found naked in the Church.” This reference to a dream may have been the origin of the slander, spread abroad by Brockmer, Wesley, and Mathesius, that Swedenborg, while lodging in Brockmer’s house in 1744, had become insane, rushed naked into the street, rolled in the mire, etc. It is known that Brockmer and his maid “were continually interrupting Swedenborg in his studies.” (New Church Magazine, Feb., 1914, p. 80.) And “used to meddle with his papers.” (Doc II:597.) It is possible that, out of curiosity, they may have entered Swedenborg’s room in his absence, in company with some one able to read Swedish; examining his private note-book, they may have read the dream about Swedenborg “having been found naked,” etc., and taken this for an actual occurrence. Angry at Swedenborg for leaving his lodgings and for failing to join the Moravian Church, Brockmer subsequently told the falsehood about Swedenborg’s insanity. (See New Church Life for April, 1914.)]

207. [June] 26-27.

I was in a place together with many persons. I went past my garden which looked quite badly,-no doubt in comparison with the heavenly [garden]. Then for a long time I heard the roar of canons being fired against the enemy in various directions, and it seemed to me that the enemy was being beaten. There also came a message that the Danes were attacking with ten thousand men; the battle was mostly with sword hilt [in hand]; they were altogether beaten. There was also [a battle] in another place, and I wanted to drive out to view the battlefields. Where I was there were a number of persons who wanted to run away, because they were of the Danish party, but I advised them to remain, as they were in no danger, but only a Danish soldier was.

208. I saw afterwards that I was protected by a large screen;-that there was something the matter with my left foot, of which I had not be conscious; but it was bound up and would soon be all right again.-In a large cage there was a little bird, which had been concealed a long time, but still it lived and had food and drink, and went in and out of the cage.-I saw Eric Benzelius wearing a wig with two curls behind; he walked about tired and old. I went with him and saw that he walked into a church and sat down in the very lowest place.

[Erik Benzelius, (1675-1743), librarian of Upsala University, 1702; Professor of Theology, 1723; Bishop of Gothenburg, 1726; Bishop of Linkoping, 1731; Archbishop of Sweden, 1742; died, Sept. 23, 1743. On June 16, 1703, he married Anna Swedberg, Emanuel Swedenborg’s elder sister. He was Swedenborg’s chief “guide, philosopher, and friend.” It is to be noticed that Erik Benzelius died soon after Swedenborg left Sweden in August, 1743.]

209. July 1-2.

Something quite wonderful happened to me. I came into violent tremors, one after another, about ten or fifteen in succession, like those [which came upon me] on the occasion when Christ did to me the Divine honor [of manifesting Himself]. I expected to be thrown on my face, as on the former occasion [see nos. 51-56], but this did not take place. At the last of the tremors I was raised up, and with my hands I felt the back [of somebody]; I passed my hands over the whole of the back and in front on the breast. He at once lay down, and in front I also saw a face, but quite obscurely. I was then standing on my knees and I was thinking whether I should lie down beside him, but this did not take place, as if it were not permitted. The tremors came, all of them, from the body below, up to the head.

[The remarkable experiences of Swedenborg during the night between the 1st and 2nd of July, 1744, are thus referred to in the work On the Senses: “Propter haec accidebant mihi mirabilia ista nocte inter sunt mirabiliter, vide somnum Juli 1 dt 2. Scripsi Juli 2.” (Tafel’s edition, VI:2, p. VIII.)]

210. This took place in a vision, when I was neither awake nor asleep, for I had all my thoughts collected. It was the interior man, separated from the exterior, that sensated this. When I was altogether awake similar tremors came over me several times. It must have been an holy angel [and not Christ Himself], since I was not thrown on my face. What it may signify is known best to our Lord. It seemed as if it had been told me before that I should have some [reward] for my obedience or for some other reason. The grace of God is being shown to the interior and the exterior man with me. To God alone be praise and honor!.