Dictionary of all Scriptures & Myths

FISH OF THE SEA AND LAKES

A symbol of facts of the lower experience, namely, concepts, percepts, ideas, feelings, emotions.

"But Simon Peter, when he saw it, fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord. For he was amazed, and all that were with him, at the draught of the fishes which they had taken." - LUKE v. 8, 9.

But the disciplined lower mind (Peter) was full of perplexity through being in the midst of acquiring a multitude of facts (fishes), some of which could not be reconciled or assimilated; it became, therefore, oppressed with its own limitations and shortcomings, which feeling implied aspiration towards Truth and the Divine power within (Jesus' knees). When minds become heavily weighted with knowledges, they are often apt to sink, spiritually, from over-valuation of externalities which cannot feed the soul.

By fishes or creatures of the sea are meant the affections and consequent thoughts of those men who are principled in general truths, and are therefore more attracted by what is natural than by what is spiritual." - SWEDENBORG, Apocalypse Revealed, n. 405.

"Thou hast put all things under his feet: All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the sea (Ps. viii. 6-8). The fowls of the air as representing the higher order of human intelligences: and the fishes of the sea, those who are immersed in the waves of worldly affairs (Hesychius)." – WORDS - WORTH, Bible, Psalms, p. 12.

"The sea is a figure of the world; wherefore the creatures that are in it, of the men of the world (Is. lx. 5). This sea bringeth forth small and great beasts, even as the world doth yield both small and great persecutors, who like the fishes of prey, eat up and devour what they can of those fish that are of another condition. Now also out of the world that mystical sea, as fishers do out of the natural; both Christ and his servants catch mystical fish, even fish as of the great sea." - J. BUNYAN, Exp. Of Genesis.

"Success or failure can never be measured in terms of the outward and visible, but only of the inward and spiritual.” - R. J. CAMPBELL, Serm., The Inner Voice.

See Also

ASPIRATION
EXPERIENCES
IKATERE
JESUS OF GOSPELS
KNEES
MAN
NET
PETER
SEA
WATER (lower)