Mounts and hills, mounts and islands, mounts and branches, mounts and rocks

In Nahum we read:

"The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burned at his presence, yea, the world, and all that dwell therein" (Nahum 1:5).

The correspondence "mountain" means love to the Lord, and is associated with angels of the highest aka inmost Heaven; and may be abbreviated simply love. The correspondence "hill" means love to the neighbor, and is associated with angels of the second inmost Heaven; and may be abbreviated simply truth. Thus the expression of the Heavenly marriage (if upright) or the infernal adultery (if reversed)  "mountain and hill" expresses the relationship between good and truth or sin and error as well simultaneously as the love of God and the neighbor or the love of self and the world.

We have a very similar usage in Revelation:

"And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found" (Revelation 16:20).

One first notes that both the passage in Nahum and that in Revelation make specific mention of an earthquake; that is because the correspondence "earthquake" involves an (especially traumatic or damaging) change in the state of the Church, in this case from Church to anti-Church; roughly the point in time at which the Lord cries, "Your house is left unto you desolate!" The reason why earthquake involves such a major change in the Church, and especially a change from Church to whore, derives from the meaning of the correspondence "earth", which means Church.

When the Word of God refers to famines, it refers to "famines of the Word"; when it refers to wars, it refers to spiritual wars. This we know; but it has been reemphasized so that it is clear God has no need to mention the physical Earth upon which we live except insofar as doing so expresses a spiritual meaning.

We have already covered God's method of predicate substitution when writing the Word; whereby He will substitute one predicate of the heart or the mind for another. In this case one has specifically drawn two equivalent expressions of the Heavenly marriage involving the predicate of the heart or correspondence of the will "mountain" alongside two different predicates of the mind or correspondences of the understanding.

Accordingly, to say that the mountains and the hills melted and dissolved is to say also that the mountains were not found and every island fled away. The two expressions both involve the Heavenly marriage reversed and thus the adultery of sin and error; with especial connection to the Church no longer being a real Church, a body of people who facilitate growth in love and wisdom and in love of God and the neighbor. That the mountains and hills and mountains and islands are thus described is due to the absence of love and wisdom in a Church which has burned up both of these superlative qualities with its sin and error and love of self and the world; so that it is no longer a Church but a whore, no longer a facilitator of enlightenment and liberation but a purveyor of enslavement and endarkening.

One will now reverse the infernal adultery of sin and error while keeping the correspondence mountain, using here the same example with which one originally explained predicate substitution: 

" But ye, O mountains of Israel, ye shall shoot forth your branches, and yield your fruit to my people of Israel; for they are at hand to come" (Ezekiel 36:8).

Here we have retained the correspondence mountain, but instead of island or hill -- both correspondences and predicates of the mind, of truth, of the understanding, and of faith -- we have the equivalent predicate of the mind "branch"; with "mountain" being used instead of root in the classic tercet of root, branch, and fruit. That is to say, the verse expresses divine truth proceeding from divine love and marrying it so as to bring forth much fruit of good deeds and one's duty well done. 

Let us now see the equivalent positive expression using mountains and hills:

"10 For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills.

11 I know all the fowls of the mountains: and the wild beasts of the field are mine" (Psalms 50:10-11).

It is He who is the source of divine love and divine wisdom in the Church; and thus of all the goods and truths which comprise His name and imbue the Church with the essence of being a Church in heart, mind, and soul; and as to interiors and to actions.

Let us now reverse the Heavenly marriage, retaining the correspondence mountain and again returning to Revelation: 

"15 And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains;

16 And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb" (Revelation 6:15-16). 

Here we see not mountains and hills, not mountains and islands, not mountains and branches and fruit; but rather mountains and rocks. This follows the pattern we have been looking at, for rocks indicate in the upright position spiritual truths and in the reversed position their absence or spiritual falsehoods.

This falsehood of the evil people's utterance -- their ridiculous assertion that they are hiding from a wrathful Lamb of all things -- has been reinforced by pairing it with mountains and rocks. 

Let us return to the expression mountains and hills:

"For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee" (Isaiah 54:10).

For evil loves and false beliefs will depart, but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the Heavenly marriage of love and wisdom, good and truth, or charity and faith which together are the double portion of manna for the Sabbath day depart from thee. For that marriage covenant is the Sabbath rest and the peace that shall not be removed.

One will on this note conclude, because the basic message has been straightforwardly conveyed so as to assist with navigating these correspondences and the patterns in which they occur positive and negative while reading the Word. It should be understood that this is the real nuts and bolts of the Word of God which He had in mind when writing it; and which He wants people to understand in these times. For these are the times of New Jerusalem, whose motto is: "NUNC LICET": "Now it is permitted", short for "Now it is permitted to enter into the mysteries of faith". Godspeed.