What Art has to do with Faith

Ayisha reflects on how the tenets of the New Church have yet to be fully embodied in forms of art. She ponders how these images may augment our experience of God. What are we waiting for? -Editor.

There's an idea out there that heaven is dull. In fact, I can quote someone on it: “I dunno. Heaven just always seems kinda boring to me. Like, who'd wanna go there?”

It's an understandable view, given traditional interpretations of heaven. Take a person with a Christian-ish background, who has a good work ethic and a general zest for life. If their view of heaven is an expectation that they will be sexless, living to eternity playing a harp on a cloud, with a pair of wings that excludes them from small human luxuries like tree-climbing and sleeping on their backs, then it would be no wonder if their desire for heaven were only an obedient one. They feel they ought to want to go to heaven, but they may dread it in reality.

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Lessons from Milankovitch, Swedenborg, and Cold, Obnoxious Winters

After months of dull and overcast weather, Lauren is driven to perform an interpretive dance representing the orbit of the earth around the sun. She compares the seasons to the changes of state we undergo in relation to our center of love and wisdom (the Lord). We could even weary of ecstasy if it were allowed to linger too long. -Editor.

Scenario: What do you do in a small restaurant with adults in your party engrossed in deep conversation and an energetic three-year-old who wants to move? Solution: The Milankovitch Dance. What is the Milankovitch Dance? It is an ingenious way to keep that spritely 3-year old content in a rather confined area, provided that your back is good and your memory of the Milankovitch Cycles better. For those of you unfamiliar with the latter, please rejoice in the knowledge that you are about to receive.

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Mythbusting: Talking With Spirits. Part 3

In the final entry in his three part series Todd questions how members of a church based on the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg could harbor as much fear about contact with spirits as the New Church seems to. He examines communicating with the other world from a fresh perspective. Follow these links to find part 1 and part 2. - Editor.

So if communication between the natural and spiritual worlds is to be open again with the New Church, why do most General Church people that I know think that any spirit contact must be an evil spirit contact, whereas new age folks generally regard them as “spirit guides” or “helpers.” So which is it? Sorry for the non-answer, but for now I think there is both. I figure it just depends on you, and what spirits you are attracting by your thoughts and your life.

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Mythbusting: Talking With Spirits. Part 2

We return to part two of this this three part series where Todd questions how members of a church based on the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg could harbor as much fear about contact with spirits as the New Church seems to. He examines communicating with the other world from a fresh perspective. Find the opening essay here. - Editor.

Speed limits in the USA are designed to be safe for everybody. Even a poor driver can navigate the road safely at the set speed limit. The Writings take a similar approach when it comes to communication with spirits. They say, “Don’t do it” because if you don’t do it, you’re certain not to crash. Evil spirits are out there trying to destroy you, so why take the chance. Seems logical.

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Mythbusting: Talking With Spirits. Part 1

In this three part series, Todd questions how members of a church based on the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg could harbor as much fear about contact with spirits as the New Church seems to. He examines communicating with the other world from a fresh perspective. (Part 2 and part 3 will be published at the end of April). - Editor.

Here we are as a church, with the greatest spiritist of all time as our special revelator, and yet most people I come in contact with are very much conflicted regarding talking or communicating with spirits. On one hand, they LOVE to talk about it, but it is a subject that carries a lot of fear and uncertainty as well. From my point of view, there is something along the lines of an underground conversation regarding spirit contact, something that typically goes like, “I had XYZ experience, but don’t tell anybody.”

So why don’t we tell anybody, or at least tell anybody publicly?

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Meditate | Exquisite Order

This week's meditation is a welcome addition submitted by Alanna Rose, who has contributed also to the main Essays Column of New Church Perspective previously and whose article was the inspiration for this column. As a reminder, I welcome you to share your insights from meditating on the Word and have them published in this column; to submit, simply follow the instructions above. -Editor

“They were told that unless they possessed a faith inspired by love, entering heaven was as dangerous as walking through fire; but they still insisted. On reaching the ‘front entryway’—the lower realm of angelic spirits—they received such a blow that they went tearing off in the opposite direction as fast as they could go. From this they learned how much danger there was in merely approaching heaven before the Lord had prepared them to feel the emotions that come with faith” (Heavenly Secrets 538).

“In a word, every whole has an unlimited number of parts, organized in the most perfect way; every one of those parts is alive; and every one of them affects us, all the way to our inmost recesses. For the inmost recesses is where heavenly joy comes from. I also perceived that joy and pleasure seemed to come from my heart, gently permeating all the inmost fibers of my body and all the bundles of fibers” (Heavenly Secrets 545[2]).

Sitting with my eyes closed, my back relaxes and expands as I open to the breath.  The back body is associated with trust in the greater whole. It is incredible that there is a world as exquisitely vibrant as the one described in the above passages that is protected by the very order of its form. It is so merciful that the Lord prepares us to feel it. It is hard to describe, but I feel a deep trust in this goodness. I can trust that the Lord is preparing me to harmonize with this order, that nothing can move the love that maintains this process, and that all good things will be shared and protected to eternity. Envisioning this, I feel for a moment I have already arrived.