Yet another message arrived from Candace, who promises to tell us the “true” facts about Swedenborg:

Dear Dan and Jesse,

Thank you both for replying so quickly to my comment that your facts about Swedenborg in your blog are incorrect.

Jesse, I am impressed that you have read so much about and by Swedenborg.

My job as Madam Chair of SILA is to share the true facts about Swedenborg. When I see an error about him in the media, I aim to correct it. I publish a monthly newsletter about Swedenborg that I’ve done since 1988. People from around the world write me with questions about Swedenborg and what he wrote about. I publish the answers.

I will take time to research and discuss the points you brought up Jesse. Suffice it to say, now, that you are misinterpreting Swedenborg.

I knew Wilson Van Dusen (he passed away a few years ago) and I am a third generation Swedenborgian.

I will send you my researched answer in a few months. Currently I am busy working on The 13th Angel Festival which I created because of Swedenborg.

Candace

And my reply:

I’m sorry, Candace, but I haven’t misinterpreted Swedenborg, whatever your job may be. I’m a first generation Swedenborgian, and as I said I’ve read just about everything available in print about him. You are welcome to your interpretation of his writings, and the writings that others have written about him, but Swedenborg was a human being with human foibles, and they were known to many. Yet another of his mistakes, for instance, was Swedenborg’s boast in a letter that he could “read” Egyptian hieroglyphics, when of course he could do nothing of the kind. He saw the hieroglyphs as examples of his “science” of correspondences and that they spoke of spiritual states, etc. Needless to say, he was mistaken. Once again this is documented in the collected letters Vol I (or II), published by the British Swedenborg society.

Perhaps you have a vested interest in presenting Swedenborg as a saint-like figure. This is good for new age workshops and selling how-to books, but it has nothing to do with the historical Swedenborg.

Anyway, every best wish and good luck with that workshop on angels!

Jesse Glass