Emanuel Swedenborg
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EMANUEL SWEDENBORG EMANUEL SWEDENBORG By what direction did Henry entirely escape any influence of Swedenborg[?] I do not remember ever hearing him name Swedenborg. SWEDENBORGIANISM HDT WHAT? INDEX EMANUEL SWEDENBORG SWEDENBORGIANISM 1688 January 29, Sunday (1687, Old Style): Emanuel Swedberg was born in Stockholm. HDT WHAT? INDEX EMANUEL SWEDENBORG SWEDENBORGIANISM 1709 Emanuel Swedberg graduated from the University of Uppsala, Sweden. HDT WHAT? INDEX EMANUEL SWEDENBORG SWEDENBORGIANISM 1710 Emanuel Swedberg made a grand continental tour through the Netherlands, France, and Germany, eventually arriving in London where he would remain for 4 years as a student of physics, mechanics, and philosophy, while reading and writing poetry. HDT WHAT? INDEX EMANUEL SWEDENBORG SWEDENBORGIANISM 1715 Returning to Sweden from London after 5 years of travel, Emanuel Swedberg began to put out the country’s 1st scientific journal and would for several decades he would devote himself to natural science and engineering projects. HDT WHAT? INDEX EMANUEL SWEDENBORG SWEDENBORGIANISM 1716 At about this point Carl von Linné was being enrolled in the Latin school of Vaxjo, Sweden. At Lund Emanuel Swedberg attempted to persuade King Charles XII to fund an observatory in northern Sweden. In this he would be unsuccessful, but the monarch was impressed enough that he was appointed to be assessor-extraordinary (Bergskollegium) in Stockholm for the Swedish Board of Mines. For the following 2 years he would publish a magazine Daedalus Hyperboreus that took note of mechanical and mathematical inventions and discoveries. This would appear in book form as DAEDALUS HYPERBOREUS, ELLER NÅGRA NYA MATHEMATISKA OCH PHYSICALISKA FÖRSÖK (THE NORTHERN INVENTOR, OR SOME NEW EXPERIMENTS IN MATHEMATICS AND PHYSICS). HDT WHAT? INDEX EMANUEL SWEDENBORG SWEDENBORGIANISM 1718 Emanuel Swedberg made an attempt to persuade everyone that spiritual and mental events could be explained in terms of minute vibrations that he was terming “tremulations.” SWEDENBORGIANISM December 11, Thursday night (Old Style): King Charles XII of Sweden had invaded Norway and was engaged in a siege of the fortress at Frederickshall. Emanuel Swedberg had helped move forward some needed heavy artillery by creating a 2½-mile canal. On this night the monarch was killed either by a bullet from a soldier or a grapeshot from a cannon. There would be a cease-fire. HDT WHAT? INDEX EMANUEL SWEDENBORG SWEDENBORGIANISM 1719 Since their father Jesper Swedberg (1653–1735) was serving with distinction as bishop of Skara, as was the custom of the time Queen Ulrika Eleonora of Sweden ennobled the Swedbergs, and they chose as their noble designation the name Swedenborg. HDT WHAT? INDEX EMANUEL SWEDENBORG SWEDENBORGIANISM 1721 Tsar Peter the Great’s lengthy war against Sweden, the “Great Northern” war, finally came to an end with the signing of the Treaty of Nystadt. Russia had become the most powerful country in Northern Europe, and had made itself the master of the Baltic Sea. Emanuel Swedenborg’s PRODROMUS PRINCIPIORUM RERUM NATURALIUM: SIVE NOVORUM TENTAMINUM CHYMIAM ET PHYSICAM EXPERIMENTA GEOMETRICE EXPLICANDI (PRINCIPLES OF CHEMISTRY). HDT WHAT? INDEX EMANUEL SWEDENBORG SWEDENBORGIANISM 1722 Emanuel Swedenborg’s MISCELLANEA DE REBUS NATURALIBUS (MISCELLANEOUS OBSERVATIONS). HDT WHAT? INDEX EMANUEL SWEDENBORG SWEDENBORGIANISM 1724 Emanuel Swedberg was offered the chair of mathematics at the University of Upsala, and declined. HDT WHAT? INDEX EMANUEL SWEDENBORG SWEDENBORGIANISM 1730 Emanuel Swedenborg devoted himself to figuring out what the relationship was, between Matter and Spirit. SWEDENBORGIANISM HDT WHAT? INDEX EMANUEL SWEDENBORG SWEDENBORGIANISM 1734 Emanuel Swedenborg’s PRINCIPIA RERUM NATURALIUM or PRINCIPLES OF NATURAL THINGS. His OPERA PHILOSOPHICA ET MINERALIA (PHILOSOPHICAL AND MINERALOGICAL WORKS), 3 volumes: TOMUS I. PRINCIPIA RERUM NATURLIUM SIVE NOVORUM TENTAMINUM PHAENOMENA MUNDI ELEMENTARIS PHILOSOPHICE EXPLICANDI (PRINCIPIA, Volume I); Tomus II. REGNUM SUBTERRANEUM SIVE MINERALE DE FERRO (PRINCIPIA, Volume II); Tomus III. REGNUM SUBTERRANEUM SIVE MINERALE DE CUPRO ET ORICHALCO (PRINCIPIA, Volume III). His PRODROMUS PHILOSOPHIZ RATIOCINANTIS DE INFINITO, ET CAUSA FINALI CREATIONIS; DEQUE MECHANISMO OPERATIONIS ANIMAE ET CORPORIS (THE INFINITE AND FINAL CAUSE OF CREATION). SWEDENBORGIANISM HDT WHAT? INDEX EMANUEL SWEDENBORG SWEDENBORGIANISM 1735 Emanuel Swedenborg’s 3-volume OPERA PHILOSOPHICA ET MINERALIS (PHILOSOPHICAL AND MINERALOGICAL WORKS) was an attempt to conjoin philosophy with metallurgy. He also published DE INFINITO (ON THE INFINITE), a small manuscript in which he attempted to explicate how the Finite related to the Infinite and how one’s soul connected with one’s body. SWEDENBORGIANISM HDT WHAT? INDEX EMANUEL SWEDENBORG SWEDENBORGIANISM 1740 In this year and the next, publication of Emanuel Swedenborg’s OECONOMIA REGNI ANIMALIS or THE ECONOMY OF THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. From about this point he began to devote himself to mystic topics. HDT WHAT? INDEX EMANUEL SWEDENBORG SWEDENBORGIANISM 1743 At the age of 55 Emanuel Swedenborg went abroad to gather source material for REGNUM ANIMALE (THE ANIMAL KINGDOM, OR KINGDOM OF LIFE), an attempt to explain Soul from an anatomical point of view. This was admittedly a great big topic and he was anticipating that he would need to publish a total of 17 volumes. SWEDENBORGIANISM One evening, and I don’t know which particular evening it was or why this should matter, while Swedenborg was finishing his dinner in a private room at a tavern in London, a darkness fell upon his eyes and the room shifted character. He became aware of a person who was sitting in a corner exhorting him “Do not eat too much!” Frightened, Swedenborg hurried back to his rooms. That night, however, this figure reappeared in his dreams, indicating that he was the Lord and that he was appointing Swedenborg to pronounce the spiritual meaning of the BIBLE. He opened the spiritual world to Swedenborg and promised to guide Swedenborg in what to write. Well, this was a big deal, a really big deal, as you can imagine. HDT WHAT? INDEX EMANUEL SWEDENBORG SWEDENBORGIANISM 1744 While traveling in the Netherlands Emanuel Swedenborg began keeping track of his dreams. His journal would be discovered in the Royal Library, and published in 1859 as DRÖMBOKEN (JOURNAL OF DREAMS). SWEDENBORGIANISM During this year and the following one, Swedenborg’s REGNUM ANIMALE (THE ANIMAL KINGDOM) was going through the presses in 3 volumes. October 26, Friday/27, Saturday (Old Style): Emanuel Swedenborg was hypothesizing that what he was recording in his DRÖMBOKEN (JOURNAL OF DREAMS) was a battle between the love of himself and the love of God. In his final entry of this 6-month journal, he determined that what he needed to do was drop his current project and begin a new book about the worship of God, to be titled DE CULTU ET AMORE DEI (THE WORSHIP AND LOVE OF GOD). SWEDENBORGIANISM HDT WHAT? INDEX EMANUEL SWEDENBORG SWEDENBORGIANISM 1745 Emanuel Swedenborg’s DE CULTU ET AMORE DEI (THE WORSHIP AND LOVE OF GOD) in 2 volumes. SWEDENBORGIANISM June: Emanuel Swedenborg’s DRÖMBOKEN (JOURNAL OF DREAMS) was published in London. SWEDENBORGIANISM HDT WHAT? INDEX EMANUEL SWEDENBORG SWEDENBORGIANISM 1747 June: The once-abundant lemon trees of the island of St. Helena in the South Atlantic were mostly gone, or dead. This was disappointing. Lemons had become scarce there. Emanuel Swedenborg resigned as assessor of the board of mines, explaining that he had something better to do with the rest of his life, and requesting that he be put on half salary as a variety of pension (this being Sweden, and his having become noble, of course they said yes to this flakiness). He would concentrate on his study of the Hebrew language and begin to produce an interpretation of the BIBLE in which the spiritual meaning of each verse would be made clear. This would become the anonymous 8-volume ARCANA CŒLESTIA or ARCANA CAELESTIA (HEAVENLY ARCANA, HEAVENLY MYSTERIES, or SECRETS OF HEAVEN, depending on the English translation). SWEDENBORGIANISM HDT WHAT? INDEX EMANUEL SWEDENBORG SWEDENBORGIANISM 1749 From this year until the year 1756, Emanuel Swedenborg’s ARCANA CŒLESTIA, QUAE IN SCRIPTURA SACRA SEU VERBO DOMINI SUNT, DETECTA (ARCANA CŒLESTIA or CAELESTIA or HEAVENLY MYSTERIES) would be being put through the presses in 8 volumes. SWEDENBORGIANISM HDT WHAT? INDEX EMANUEL SWEDENBORG SWEDENBORGIANISM 1757 In a vision, angels informed Emanuel Swedenborg of the end of the world. SWEDENBORGIANISM The Last Judgment began, and was complete by the end of the year. He personally witnessed this. According to THE HEAVENLY DOCTRINE, which would be published in the following year, this Last Judgment had taken place not in the physical world but in the World of Spirits through which all pass on their way to heaven or hell, a world that was half-way between Heaven and Hell. This Judgment had taken place because, the Christian church having lost its charity and faith, there had been a loss of spiritual free will that had unbalanced the equilibrium in everyone’s life between Heaven and Hell. Tragically, few of us took his report seriously. MILLENNIALISM HDT WHAT? INDEX EMANUEL SWEDENBORG SWEDENBORGIANISM (Randi, James. THE MASK OF NOSTRADAMUS. Amherst NY: Prometheus Books, 1993, page 241; Weber, Eugen. APOCALYPSES. Cambridge MA: Harvard UP, 1999, page 104) HDT WHAT? INDEX EMANUEL SWEDENBORG SWEDENBORGIANISM 1758 In this year Carl von Linné purchased a small