Spiritual Sunshine

In Canada this week we celebrate Remembrance Day on the 11th, when we remember our fallen soldiers as well as the deep risk our armed forces face every day. And I think that no matter our country, religion, or creed, we would do ourselves a service to remember that no matter our differences, there are many of us willing to sacrifice our lives for what we believe is the greater good. That’s partly...

We continue our book discussion of Emanuel Swedenborg's, "The Lord," (free to download) exploring how God connects with every religion and walk, and how Jesus became one with God the Father, uniting his humanity with Jehovah. The Lord - https://swedenborg.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/NCE_TheLord_portable.pdf Our community's affirming Swedenborgian spirituality, inspired by an interfaith, mystica...

In the ancient Hebrew book of Daniel, we see a continuation of the universal spiritual teachings that this book uplifts – with King Nebuchadnezzar falling from his kingship due to his pride and arrogance. In all of our beauty and personal gifts it’s easy to fall into similar vanities, but our feelings of pride only serve to undermine these empowerments from Divinity – the seed of consciousness cal...

We explore the 18th-century interfaith-Christian mystic Swedenborg's ideas about why Jesus is called the Word Made Flesh & the Son of Man/Humanity, as well as other topics from his book, "The Lord." Download his book for free here: https://swedenborg.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/NCE_TheLord_portable.pdf Our community's affirming Swedenborgian spirituality, inspired by an interfaith, mystical Chr...

Throughout time there have been many persecuted due to their loyalty to their cultural heritage and personal convictions, and unfortunately, religion has often been the instrument used to do this. Instead of inviting openness and cultural diversity, like Babylon in today’s story we often set up a graven image in the place of a loving God and then persecute others for being different – resigning th...

We have much to be thankful for today, even when we don’t have that gracious mindset. Like the king in our reading, we’re often only grateful to those who serve us – otherwise condemning them in our minds. Unfortunately, we can act like this king when it comes to our families, as well as even with the world around us in its diversity and life. As we head into a season of thanksgiving, let’s instea...

We continue our book discussion of the mystic Swedenborg's "The Lord" (from 1763) and explore his radical ideas about the Lord and how other faiths connect with Divinity and heaven. Download "The Lord" for free - https://swedenborg.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/NCE_TheLord_portable.pdf Our community's affirming Swedenborgian spirituality, inspired by an interfaith, mystical Christianity, is cente...

Today, like with Daniel, we can find ourselves trapped in many different types of Babylon: within religious bigotry, political demagoguery, or familial and personal oppression. And yes - we often find ourselves both taking part in an aspect of these as well as subject to their whims due to external pressure. It’s tough, because we each can feel somewhat set upon and oppressed while also being a so...

Using the lens of parable to explore the story of Noah and the Ark, we can’t help but immediately reflect on those moments when we’ve been inundated by metaphorical flood waters ourselves – or think about the current state of the world in many ways. There’s a naturalness to many of scripture's use of metaphors that we tend to relate to, biblical and otherwise. Whether it’s David and Goliath, Adam...

Alyssa and Cory dive into how compassion opens and grounds our healthy thinking and approaches to faith (no matter our religion) in this episode of "What is the Word?". Continuing our exploration of Emanuel Swedenborg's book "Faith" (free to download), they explore the meaning of a faith rooted in care, how God uplifts people in all traditions and religions, Jesus' death on the cross, and how God...

Many scriptural reflections on “the fall of humanity” tend to point to Genesis’ serpent and Adam and Eve’s eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, but interestingly, the Christian-mystic Emanuel Swedenborg pointed to a chapter before these events when he describes what he thought was the true beginning of our movement into feelings of separateness and isolation from God. Indeed, living...

Many have asked the question, “Why do the Hebrew and Christian Bible’s have two creation stories, back-to-back?” It’s strange, right? And the typical guess seems to center on the possible Israelite history of bringing diverse cultures together and not being able to choose just one! Although this might be plausible, in-line with our approach toward the Bible as primarily spiritual parable, today we...

We explore the 18th-century mystic Emanuel Swedenborg's view of why Jesus died on the cross, from his book "The Lord." Our community's affirming Swedenborgian spirituality, inspired by an interfaith, mystical Christianity, is centered on love and openness. It has deeply influenced the likes of Helen Keller, Carl Jung, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Johnny Appleseed (John Chapman), William Blake, Henry James...

The spiritual meaning of the seventh day of creation, called the Sabbath (“rest”), is uplifted throughout scripture: biblical and others. We’re told that a true sense of inner peace comes from surrendering to the greater love within that if we work to disentangle ourselves from our obsessive attachments and distracted, lustful thinking, we find that we can surrender to an underlying clarity and pe...

Alyssa and Cory continue their exploration of the mystical book, Faith, from 18th-century scientist turned spiritual visionary, Emanuel Swedenborg. They find that according to him, faith is nothing without care and compassion, and should center on a love for the good in all people. Our community's affirming Swedenborgian spirituality, inspired by an interfaith, mystical Christianity, has deeply in...

Our world is staring down the barrel of a few life-as-we-know-it-ending calamities, from climate change to the rise of fascism in the hearts of many “far-right” politicians and supporters in the U.S. Demagoguery and divisive thinking are the roots of almost-unimaginable cruelty, fear, and pain in this world and indeed, in each of our hearts. And so, personally and socially we must work to uplift t...

In a way, day 6 is the culmination of all of our spiritual explorations of days 1 through 5, which have invited us to and described what this parable believes is a “good” model for spiritual renewal and wholeness of life and peace. A journey that starts with our initial awareness of Divine or spiritual life in our lives (I’ve seen the light!), and has come to a place where we’ve started to live an...

We continue our exploration of 18th-century mystic Emanuel Swedenborg's book, The Lord (free to download below), and the assertion that God came into the world to subdue and reorder Hell. Enjoy and please comment! The Lord - https://swedenborg.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/NCE_TheLord_portable.pdf?fbclid=IwAR0lZ9RMg0ngkn8VGS10WS6kIuHOY_wV80hYPMz7Hue9i1CCGnlQwzz_gw8 Our community's affirming Swede...

We explore the deeper meaning of day 5 of the Hebrew and Christian creation story, and how loving Life, its diversity and interconnectivity, helps to bring abundance to our societies, lives, and spirits. Read more about this here: https://swedenborgiancommunity.org/blog/day-5 Our community's affirming Swedenborgian spirituality, inspired by an interfaith, mystical Christianity, has deeply influenc...

God continues to seek to shine more and more in our spirits so that we may receive the love, peace, and life that we all are meant to have. The parable of the creation story uplifts and seeks to empower this, using imagery found throughout the Bible and other scriptures to describe spiritual truths while inviting us toward greater love and faith. In this we’re told that God’s love, which like the...

Curtis Childs is the director of OffTheLeftEye at the Swedenborg Foundation. While obtaining his degree in communication studies from Oakland University, Curtis experienced an internal battle with depression that led him to question God and his lifelong interest in Swedenborgian theology. After a period of intense suffering, he recovered from his depression with the help of modern medicine, therap...

Today we are being called by the depth of Divine Love to uplift each other with justice and compassion. Often, this starts with ourselves - being patient with our progress while focusing on living virtuously, with humility, and living up to all the higher ideas that should come into our daily lives. Day 3 of the creation story symbolizes this in a way: starting to ground the roots of Divine enligh...

We explore Emanuel Swedenborg's early insights into the brain, as well as his meditative breathing with special guest, Eleanor Schnarr. To learn more about this subject, visit Eleanor's YouTube channel Eleanor Schnarr. Our community's affirming Swedenborgian spirituality, inspired by an interfaith, mystical Christianity, has deeply influenced the likes of Helen Keller, Carl Jung, Ralph Waldo Emers...

An enlightening and peaceful Fathers’ Day to you, particularly as we as a society continue to slowly open our eyes to the burdens we’ve placed on the necks of all too many fathers and families for the last 400+ years. Although seemingly inconvenient, acknowledging both the light and the darkness associated with a celebratory day like today is called for if we hope to continue to grow into health i...

The most prolific world scriptures make it clear that above all we are tasked with rejecting bigotry and the spirit of domination in our hearts and actions if we are to ever experience heaven within or without. Indeed, this is often the core message of the Bible, although we tend to twist the text into something of our own making. The current protests and civil rights activism in the wake of Georg...