Friday, June 4, 2010

Lecter series - unified analysis - part 11: Swedenborg on the number three

CATEGORY: MOVIES

In the Manhunter analysis, we went over the importance of the number three in the movie (i.e., the references to the three days the biblical Jonah spent in the belly of the whale). Swedenborg believed that certain numbers used in the bible have spiritual significance. In the below, 'A.E.' denotes Apocalypse Explained and 'T.C.R.' denotes True Christian Religion:

"Number" and "measure" are mentioned in many passages in the Word, and it is believed that these mean simply number and measure; but "number" and "measure" in the spiritual sense mean the quality of the thing treated of...There are simple numbers that are more significative than others, and from which the greater numbers derive their significations, namely, the numbers two, three, five, and seven; "two" signifies union, and is predicated of good; "three" signifies fullness, and is predicated of truths; "five" signifies much and something; and "seven" signifies holiness...From the number three the numbers 6, 12, 24, 72, 144, 1,440, and 144,000 arise; and these numbers have a similar signification as three, because they arise from this simple number by multiplication. (--from A.E. n. 429, 430.)

That there is nothing complete and perfect unless it is a trine, geometry also teaches; for a line is nothing unless it becomes a surface, nor is a surface anything unless it becomes a solid; therefore one must pass into the other in order that they may have existence; and they have coexistence in the third. As it is in this, so it is also in each and all created things; they are terminated in a third. And it is from this that the number three signifies in the Word what is complete and whole. (--from T.C.R. n. 387.)

Examples of Swedenborgian triads are: wisdom, love, and use; end, cause, and effect; charity, faith, and works; affection, thought, and operation; and will, understanding, and action (see True Christian Religion).

To skip over the remainder of the Swedenborgian analysis of the Hannibal Lecter movies, click here.

The works of Emanuel Swedenborg from the Internet Sacred Texts Archive
Apocalypse Explained, by Emanuel Swedenborg, [1757-9], tr. by John Whitehead [1911], at sacred-texts.com. Web. 4 Jun. 2010.
True Christian Religion, by Emanuel Swedenborg, [1771], tr. by John Whitehead [1906], at sacred-texts.com. Web. 4 Jun. 2010.


      





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