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Home Preface 5 Planes of Existence Introduction Five Planes of Manifestation A to Z Contact Related Information BIBLE VERSES |
BIRDS (LOWER ASPECT)Symbolic of emotions of ambition, pride, vanity, and exaltation of the personality. These affections multiply themselves and bind the soul to the lower life. “In Holy Scripture ‘birds’ are sometimes given to be understood in a bad sense, and sometimes in a good sense. Since by the birds of the air occasionally the powers of the air are denoted, being hostile to the settled purposes of good. Whence it is said by the mouth of Truth, ‘And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the wayside, and the fowls of the air came and devoured it’; in this way, because evil spirits besetting the minds of men, whilst they bring in bad thoughts, pluck the word of life out of the memory. Hence, again, it is said to a certain rich man full of proud thoughts, ‘The foxes have holes,’ etc. (Matthew xiii. 4). For foxes are very cunning animals… But the birds, as we know, with lofty flight lift themselves into the air. So then, by the name of ‘foxes,’ the crafty and cunning demons, and by the title of the ‘birds of the air’ these same proud demons are denoted. As if he said, ‘the deceitful and uplifted demons find their habitation in your heart’; i.e. in the imagination of pride, ‘but the Son of Man hath not where to lay His head,’ i.e. My humility findeth not rest in your proud mind.” — Gregory the Great, Morals on the Book of Job, Vol. II, pp. 394–5. “Demons,” “powers of the air,” and “evil spirits” are symbols of the lower emotions and desires, which are hostile to the higher nature. “By a foul spirit and an unclean bird are signified all the evils which pertain to the will and consequent actions, and all the falses which pertain to the thought and consequent deliberations.” — Swedenborg, Apocalypse Revealed, n. 757. “For every kind of beasts and birds, of creeping things and things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed by mankind.” — James iii. 7. The desires, ambitions, lower propensities and passions are subjected to the mind. |
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DEMONS
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