I’ve started reading one of the small, brief books of the Writings called The White Horse.  It’s only 17 numbers long, plus an Appendix that is 4 numbers long, so it’s not a daunting read, and it’s very interesting.  (Depending on the translation of the Writings, you may find that The White Horse is bound together with other small books in “Miscellaneous Theological Works.”)

It’s all about a story that I have to admit I always took for granted, namely the story of the white horse in Revelation 19:11-14, 16.  The dramatic image didn’t sink in until now.  But now I have stopped to think about it.  First heaven is opened.  Then a Man on a white horse, with a secret name that no one knows but Himself, charges forth at the head of the armies which were in the heavens, all of whom are also on white horses, all following Him. His eyes are flaming, His garment is bloodstained, and He has many diadems on His head.  It says He was called faithful and true (just like a hero should be).  He judges and makes war in justice.  His name is called the Word of God, and it also says that “King of kings and Lord of lords” is written on His clothes and on His thigh.   What an image!

So this little book I am reading explains what that one small story in Revelation means.  The whole story looks like it’s going to be about what happened when the previously hidden internal meaning of the Word was being opened up to the understanding of people on earth. 

One thing I am really enjoying is all the fun bits about horses.  For instance, it talks about the horses and chariots of fire, both in the Elijah story (when Elijah goes up to heaven in a whirlwind) and the Elisha story (when Elisha’s despairing servant discovers that “they that be with us are more than they that be with them”) and as seen in heaven.  I never even thought about how horses and chariots of fire show up in both stories. It turns out that Swedenborg saw “bright horses and chariots of fire” in the other world when some people were taken up into heaven, because that was “a sign that they were then instructed in the truths of heavenly doctrine and became intelligent,” and so were taken up into heaven. When he saw that happening, Swedenborg realized that the process he had just seen represented by horses and chariots of fire was also represented in the Elijah and Elisha stories.  So cool!  

Apparently, the role that Elijah and Elisha both play for the children of Israel represents the Lord as the Word, horsemen represent intelligence, a horse means a person’s understanding, and chariots mean doctrine drawn from the Word (White Horse #2).  Which all sounds kind of arbitrary until you find out why horses stand for our understanding.  

So why do horses represent the part of our minds called the understanding?  Out of curiosity about this, I took a look at the “Horse and Ass” chapter in Language of Parable by Rev. William Worcester, an awesome little book which you can read online on the New Christian Bible Study website here.  Rev. Worcester wrote, “Carrying a rider swiftly from place to place is like the service of the understanding in enabling one to see things comprehensively in their right relations and proportions.  And as beasts of burden carry things from where they are produced to where they are wanted, so the thought picks up a fact here and a bit of experience there and brings them together into useful relations.  These animals (horse and ass) that enjoy work represent our affection for intellectual labor, for thinking, understanding, reasoning. (A.C. 2781, 2761, 2762.)” He explains that asses, which look down at the ground and pay little attention to their masters but prefer to go their own way, represent the natural level of our understandings that plod along, “absorbed in the things of this world.” On the other hand, a horse “gives all attention to his rider or driver, listening for the slightest sound of his voice, and [is] easily trained to obey the least touch upon the neck.”  Rev. Worcester then says you can see wonderful examples of this fact in their crowded city streets (written in the 1800s), but even moreso in countries where people almost live in the saddle and the horse can come near to being a part of his rider.  From these images, we can think about what our understandings can be like in relation to the Lord, our loving Master.  These are some of the reasons why horses stand for our spiritual understanding.  There are a lot more details in the Language of Parable chapter that make it even clearer why a horse is a full representation of a human understanding and how it works.    

Another fun bit about horses in #4 of The White Horse says that in the ancient churches, everyone knew about what chariots and horses meant. This knowledge spread even to Greece, resulting in the Greeks describing their god of wisdom and intelligence, whom they placed in the sun, as driving a chariot and four horses of fire across the sky.  And their god of the sea also had horses, the sea being the sciences derived from the understanding.  The origin of the sciences from the understanding was described by a winged horse which broke open a fountain of water with its hoof.  And the Trojan horse described an artificial contrivance devised by their understanding for the purpose of destroying the walls.  But scarcely anyone realizes where all these stories came from.  

Given all this background, it’s wonderful to return to the white horse in Revelation and learn that it stands for the understanding of the spiritual sense of the Word.  I expect that as we seek to learn more and more about what the Word really means, we too can become riders of white horses in heaven.  And all this cool stuff related to the white horse comes from one small detail in one brief story in Revelation.  The Word is certainly packed with stuff for us to discover and learn from!  

P.S. If you ever want a cheat sheet or Cliff Notes for what the Arcana Coelestia says about why there is an internal sense or spiritual meaning of the Word and how it works in heaven and on earth, see numbers 6-17 of The White Horse.