Rev. Thom Muller, managing editor of Our Daily Bread shares some basics about angels and their role in Swedenborgian theology.
Suggested Readings:
Emanuel Swedenborg, Divine Providence §50
Since angels and spirits are feelings derived from love and their consequent thoughts, they are not in space and time; they are simply in what seems to be space and time. The kind of apparent space and time they are in depends on the state of their feelings and consequent thoughts. As a result, when anyone thinks affectionately about someone else, with the focused intent of seeing or talking with that other individual, there is an instantaneous presence.
This is why we all have spirits present with us who are feeling the way we are. […] They are just as present with us as though we were accepted members of their community. Space and time have nothing to do with this presence, because a feeling and its consequent thought are not in space and time, and spirits and angels are feelings and their consequent thoughts.
Manly P. Hall, from The Blessed Angels
It must be understood in all aspects of angelology that the forms in which these beings are generally represented are artistic contrivances. The actual bodies of angels or archangels are fields of light from which they are able to project temporary appearances. They belong in dimensions of existence beyond the sensory perceptions of the human being, but he must embody them with forms created in his own mind if he wishes to have awareness of their presence.
(1) Swedenborg, Emanuel. Divine Love and Wisdom. West Chester: Swedenborg Foundation, 2010.
(2) Hall, Manly P.. The Blessed Angels: The Reality of Things Unseen. United States: Philosophical Research Society, 1999.
Rev. Thom Muller is pastor at the Swedenborgian Society of the East Bay at Hillside, an Urban Sanctuary, in El Cerrito, CA, as well as senior editor of Our Daily Bread. His passions include the intersection of spirituality and psychology, interfaith theology, and the Western esoteric tradition. Rev. Muller was ordained into the ministry of the Swedenborgian Church of North America in 2016, upon receiving his theological education at Bryn Athyn College and the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, CA.