Angelic Orb caught on Security Camera, and a Revelation on the One God Jesus Christ

 With the increased usage of security cameras, there is evidence that some security camera footage have caught the light of an angelic or supernatural being on video tape. I discussed one previously, which involves a healing: see Light of an Angel Caught on Video Tape. And here is another: the minister Charles Shelton heard a thought that he should wake up and start to pray around 3:30am in the morning, and while in prayer he was told to look at the security camera footage. And this is what he saw:



Further video footage is here: the ball of light enters twice into the room where the minister was praying, passing through the wall: Angel Captured on Camera by Minister.

It is better to see spiritual truths internally and rationally, rather than to look for external miraculous evidence. But the reason why I bring this up is that in the 18th century the Christian mystic Emanuel Swedenborg reported seeing an angelic orb.  For a period of 27 years he was given the gift to communicate with heaven to reveal the internal spiritual meaning of scripture. On one occasion, he woke up from sleep to mediate - just like the minister Charles Shelton - and reports seeing an oval of light. And then afterwards heaven is opened and he begins a dialogue with angels, concerning his thoughts on God and the Trinity:

"Once having awakened from sleep I fell into profound meditation concerning God; and when I looked up, I saw above me in heaven a bright white light in oval form; and when I fixed my gaze upon the light, it receded to the sides and passed into the circumference. And then, lo, heaven was opened to me, and I saw magnificent things, and angels standing in the form of a circle on the southern side of the opening and talking together; and because I had an ardent desire to hear what they were saying, it was therefore given me first to hear the tone, — which was full of heavenly love, and afterward the speech, which was full of wisdom from that love. They were talking together about the One God, and about conjunction with Him, and thence salvation. They spoke ineffable things, most of which cannot fall into the words of any natural language; but because I had sometimes been in company with angels in heaven itself, and then in similar speech with them because in similar state, I was therefore able now to understand them, and to select from their conversation some things which may be rationally expressed in the words of natural language." (True Christian Religion, n. 25)

Swedenborg often reported that much of the angelic ideas were so high above our human concepts that it did not fall into something that could be described in our spoken language, which in itself is an approximation of the meanings we sometimes wish to convey. The apostle Paul had a similar experience to what Swedenborg has described:

"I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows. And I know that this man was caught up into paradise—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows— and he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter." (2 Cor. 12:2-4)

For Paul it was a one time affair. For Swedenborg, he was able to experience this heavenly communication over a period of 27 years. Most Christians wonder what Paul meant by "third heaven" and Swedenborg explains the three levels of heaven in detail in his works Heaven and Hell and Heavenly Arcana.

Returning to the angelic orb, what exactly were the angels discussing? They were essentially discussing the One God, how He is One Divine Being, One in Essence (Latin Esse), who cannot be divided into multiple beings or persons:

"They said that the Divine Esse is One, the Same, the Itself, and Indivisible. This they illustrated by spiritual ideas, saying that the Divine Esse cannot fall to several, each of whom has the Divine Esse, and still itself be One, the Same, the Itself, and Indivisible; for each one would think from his own Esse from himself, and singly by himself; if then also from the others and by the others, unanimously, there would be several unanimous Gods, and not one God; for unanimity, because it is the agreement of several, and at the same time of each one from himself and by himself, does not accord with the unity of God, but with a plurality — they did not say, of Gods, because they could not; for the light of heaven from which was their thought, and the aura in which their speech was uttered, resisted it. They said also that when they wished to pronounce the word Gods, and each one as a Person by himself, the effort of pronouncing fell instantly into One, yea, to the Only God."

Moreover, they said, God cannot produce another, for does He exist with another, and there is no such thing as a Son of God born from eternity, which is an utter falsehood:

"To this they added that the Divine Esse is a Divine Esse in Itself, not from itself; because from itself supposes an Esse in itself from another prior; thus it supposes a God from God, which is not possible. What is from God is not called God, but is called Divine; for what is a God from God? thus, what is a God born of God from eternity? and what is a God proceeding from God through a God born from eternity, but words, in which there is nothing of light from heaven?"

Moreover, God is love and truth itself, and inasmuch as we are in a state of love and truth, so God is present with us:

"God is the Itself, because He is love itself and wisdom itself, or because He is good itself and truth itself, and thence life itself, which, unless they were the Itself in God, would not be any thing in heaven and the world, because there would not be any thing in them having relation to the Itself. Every quality draws its quality from that which is the Itself, from which it is, and to which it has relation that it may be such as it is. This Itself, which is the Divine Esse, is not in place, but is with those and in those who are in place, according to reception; since of love and wisdom, or of good and truth, and thence of life, which are the Itself in God, yea, God Himself, place cannot be predicated, nor progression from place to place; whence is omnipresence: wherefore the Lord says that He is in the midst of them; and also that He is in them, and they in Him." (True Christian Religion, n. 25-26).

What is most interesting is that to them, the angels, God appears as the central sun in heaven. This brilliant light has been reported by multiple witnesses who have had a Near Death Experience:

"But because He cannot be received by any one such as He is in Himself, He appears as He is in His essence, as a sun above the angelic heavens; the proceeding from which as light is Himself as to wisdom, and the proceeding as heat is Himself as to love. That sun is not Himself; but the Divine love and the Divine wisdom first emanating from Him round about Him, appear to the angels as a sun." (True Christian Religion, n. 25-26).

Moreover, within that sun of heaven God is Man, and is identical to Jesus Christ who appeared to us in human form, and God was within Jesus as a Divine soul just as the soul is within the body of each person - Jesus is not another person or being separate from God, but is God Himself:

"He within the sun is Man; He is our Lord Jesus Christ, both as to the Divine from which He came forth, and also as to the Divine Human; since the Itself, which is love itself and wisdom itself, was a soul to Him from the Father; thus the Divine life, which is life in itself. It is otherwise in every man; in him the soul is not life, but a recipient of life. The Lord also teaches this, saying, I am the way, the truth, and the life; and in another place, As the Father hath life in Himself, so also hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself (John v. 26). Life in Himself is God. To this they added that those who are in any spiritual light may perceive from these things that the Divine Esse, because it is One, the Same, the Itself, and thence Indivisible, cannot be in more than one; and that, if it should be said to be, manifest contradictions would result." (True Christian Religion, n. 25-26).

And as Swedenborg was listening in on this communication, the angels detected in his ideas the ideas of three persons, which was in utter opposition to the primary principle of One God, or Monotheism:

"When I heard these things, the angels perceived in my thought the common ideas of the Christian Church, concerning a Trinity of Persons in unity and their unity in the Trinity, in regard to God; and also concerning the birth of the Son of God from eternity; and then they said, "What are you thinking? Do you not have those thoughts from natural light, with which our spiritual light does not agree? Wherefore unless you remove the ideas of that thought, we close heaven to you and depart." But then I said, "Enter, I pray, more deeply into my thought, and perhaps you will see an agreement." They did so and saw that by three Persons I understood three proceeding Divine attributes, which are Creation, Redemption, and Regeneration; and that they are attributes of one God; and that by the birth of the Son of God from eternity I understood His birth foreseen from eternity and provided in time; and that it is not above what is natural and rational, but contrary to what is natural and rational, to think that any Son was born of God from eternity; but not so, that the Son born of God by the Virgin Mary in time is the only Son of God, and the only begotten; and that to believe otherwise is an enormous error. And then I told them that my natural thought concerning the Trinity of Persons and their unity, and concerning the birth of a Son of God from eternity, I had from the doctrine of faith in the church, which has its name from Athanasius." (True Christian Religion, n. 25-26).

And the angels answered thus:

"Then the angels said, "Well." And they asked me to say from their mouth that, if any one does not go to the very God of heaven and earth, he cannot come into heaven, because heaven is heaven from this only God; and that this God is Jesus Christ, who is the Lord Jehovah, from eternity Creator, in time Redeemer, and to eternity Regenerator; thus who is at once the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; and that this is the Gospel which is to be preached. After these things the heavenly light, which was before seen over the opening, returned, and gradually descended thence, and filled the interiors of my mind, and enlightened my ideas concerning the trinity and unity of God." (True Christian Religion, n. 25-26).

An Angelic Visitation at Death and a Funeral

Recently someone close to me died, and the night before he died, an old neighbor saw that a very tall man in white came to visit him, picked him up and carried him away. The next day he died suddenly of a heart attack. He was old and much loved, hundreds came to his funeral. Unfortunately his daughter could not make it to the funeral in time. I had driven her to the airport, and she arrived the next day. She and many relatives would come every day to the cemetery, and pray at his grave.

She was there for seven days and was going to fly back the next day. On the seventh day she was alone at the cemetery, when suddenly behind her she heard her father call out her name. She turned around and no one was there. However she saw what she thought was her mother and brother praying at his grave. She looked away, and then looked back again. No one was at the gravesite praying. She later talked to her mother and brother, and they were not there.

She recently returned and told me about this, what I told her is angels rarely appear but they do appear more often around time of death, or when someone is in danger of death. You can read some accounts here: True Stories of People Who Have Seen Angels. In some cases they appear in ordinary human form. In other cases, they are seen as shining lights - here is one case where something was caught on video tape: The Light of an Angel caught on Video Tape. I just found another of a strange spherical light caught on security camera that entered a man's home as he was praying: see Christian Minister Catches Angel on Security Camera.

So as I was hearing this story of a possible angelic visitation at her father's funeral, it suddenly hit me. A day earlier, I had this very unusual dream of a female angelic being dressed in armor, who had told me her name was Onin and said I could find out more about her in the myths of Celtic legends. I soon identified her with the Celtic fairy Olwen who married a shepherd boy Eionin. In her name Onin she was calling herself after the shepherd boy Einion. And the story of Olwen and Eionin repeated itself in the dream even though I was unaware of this story - this is in the earlier blog post A Clairvoyant Dream of an Angel and a Celtic Fairy Tale. It was very puzzling, in the dream it was almost as if she was enjoying playing a game of "guess who I am."

In that dream, it begins as follows, here is exactly what I wrote:

"I drive a woman to the base of the mountain, and the road is blocked by a very thick cloud. She wants to pray to God at the edge of the cloud, so I leave her there. Several cars were parked at the edge of the cloud at the bottom of the mountain."

I then began to wonder, is the dream related to this woman's experience? I had actually driven her to the airport, and someone else had driven her to the cemetery, the dream was probably portraying that. Indeed, many people were praying during her father's funeral, and this was shown in the dream as many cars parked at the edge of the cloud for people that had come there to pray. It was crowded in the dream where there was trouble parking. It was a huge funeral. I asked her, what was the weather like when she heard her father's voice at the cemetery? She said it was cold and foggy.

So I am beginning to think this female angel that appeared in my dream is a guardian angel of sorts. The dream pointed me to the Celtic fairy Olwen, one thing did not fit: the Celtic fairy Olwen was certainly not a female in knight's armor as portrayed in the dream. I felt that this angel was masking her identity, and enjoyed doing it - either by covering herself up with a cloud, or hiding herself in armor, or giving me mythical fairy tales.

All of these or what I call "masks" which angels use to hide their identity, and Swedenborg confirms that angels indeed do this. The story of Olwen and Einion was once used by J.R.R. Tolkien in his work Simarillon, which I had also pointed out earlier in the post A Clairvoyant Dream of an Angel and a Celtic Fairy Tale. As I was looking for women in knight's armor, I then realized one I completely missed: Eowyn, daughter of Theoden from Lord of the Rings, again by J.R.R. Tolkien. Yet again another word play. Eowyn is close to the name Olwen. The dream was combining elements from the story of Culwch and Olwen, Olwen and Einion, and now Eowyn from Lord of the Rings.

And for those of you who don't know, Eowyn dresses herself up in knight's armor and hides her identity so she could ride with her father Theoden in the last battle at the siege of Minas Tirith. She portrays herself as a man, just as "Onin" would call herself by male names. In the last ride of Rohirim, Eowyn sees her father Theoden fall in battle. For those of you don't remember the story of Eowyn I am talking about, its the one of the battle between Eowyn and the Witch-king of Angmar. If you haven't seen the movie Return of the King, do not watch the following scene:



The connection is obvious. In the book, Eowyn is unknown until she takes off her helmet and reveals her identity. In the dream Onin kept thinking about taking off her armor to show me her beauty. She was really eager to show me what she could do with her sword.

I am now beginning to think Onin is a guardian angel, who was perhaps sent to protect this woman's father at death from any evil spirit who would want to draw him away from heaven. He was not religious, but he was a good man. There is a constant battle over the souls of men between the forces of light and those of darkness. Her father's death was very hard on her. This is a guess of mine, but compare this with a statement by Swedenborg about a certain class of defending angels:

"There are some societies that defend novitiate spirits, or those who have come recently from the world, from infestations by evil spirits; some that are near those who are in the lower earth; and also some that are near those who are in the hells, and restrain them from tormenting each other beyond the prescribed limits" (Heaven and Hell, n. 391).

What of Eowyn plunging her sword into the face of the Nazgul? There is actually a severe form of punishment for evil spirits that desire revenge upon others:

"Those who are tenacious of revenge and who hold themselves greater than all others, regarding them as of no account in comparison with themselves, suffer the punishment of tearing, after this manner: they are disfigured in face and body until there is scarce any human appearance left; the face becomes like a broad round cake, the arms look like rags and these being stretched out, the man is whirled around on high and all the time toward heaven, while his character is proclaimed in the presence of all until shame penetrates him to the inmost" (Heavenly Arcana, n. 956)

As for the dream, why does the angel first appear as a cloud? This has to do with one's spiritual state. Angels of a lower heaven cannot see angels in the higher heavens, as their view is obstructed by a cloud:

"Angels of a lower heaven cannot speak with angels of a higher one; and even when they look toward them, they do not see them, their heaven appearing like a cloud over head" (Heaven and Hell, n. 209)

This seems to be the more plausible reason, thus Onin was happy she was able to manifest in human form in the dream. I had my doubts if an angel visited me in a dream, but I now think that is indeed the case as it makes sense now. For another story of an angelic visitation in a dream, see Four Angels dressed in Black.

Tolkien was a Catholic, and used many symbols to portray the heavenly battle between good and evil. It is known he even drew influence for his stories from some of his dreams, and seems to have tapped into something deeply spiritual. This is not the first time I have had a clairvoyant dream related to Lord of the Rings - see The Hidden Secret of the Lord of the Rings. If any of you reading this have had what you think angels appearing in dreams, giving information that you did not know before, drop me a note.

A Clairvoyant Dream of an Angel and a Celtic Fairy Tale

The night after I posted Is the Second Coming a Physical Event or Spiritual Event? I had a very unusual dream, which is not an ordinary one as any reader will see below. In that blog post I quoted the following passage: your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions (Joel 2:28). However, I certainly was not expecting anything like this.

For this blog post, I first wrote down the dream as is. The information that comes after the dream is the research I did only after I had written the dream down. I was very surprised at the end when I realized the dream gave me factual information I had not known about before. It is quite a puzzling mystery. I am sharing it, as it shows there is a parallel spiritual world that interacts with our lower material plane.

A DREAM OF A CLOUD ANGEL

In the first part I am at my older house, on top of a mountain, and the base of the mountain is surrounded by a thick cloud. The cloud is unusually thick, and people begin to feel it is something supernatural, that God is hidden in the cloud, similar to how God's presence was surrounded with a cloud on Mount Sinai or in the Jewish temple. I drive a woman to the base of the mountain, and the road is blocked by a very thick cloud. She wants to pray to God at the edge of the cloud, so I leave her there. Several cars were parked at the edge of the cloud at the bottom of the mountain.

Skadi, wintry goddess and daughter of a giant

I drive back up to the house at the top of the mountain, and when I look out the window, I see the cloud has risen up to my level. Or at least a portion of it did. The thick cloud jutted out to the decks outside the window, and formed a large arm with a hand and fingers. This was interesting, I thought, its as if the cloud is trying to achieve a human form. I was beginning to think God was trying to manifest in human form and was reaching out to me.

Michelangelo's Creation of Adam

I then decide to touch the tip of the large finger of the cloud. The cloud suddenly vanishes, and in front of me stood a woman, a goddess, wearing armour. The thought conveyed to me was this was God in the cloud. My first reaction here was, God is a woman? This was such a foreign concept to my belief system, that I began to think that perhaps this dream was not from my subconscious but some other intelligence was communicating with me.

The woman "Saber" from Fate/Zero, similar to "Onin"

The woman was tall. She looks at me, and says, "My name is Onin."  Or she could have said "I am the goddess Onin." My first thought here, that can't be right, does she mean to say she is Odin? Odin was the primary god in Norse and Germanic mythology.

"Destiny" Fate/Stay Night wallpaper by srsng

This woman was very proud and dignified, and wanted to show me her beauty. She then starts thinking about taking off her armour, to show me her full beauty. She then starts to have doubts - she has pride about her beauty, but a certain female honor came upon her to not to do this. She keeps vacillating, thinking, should I show him my beauty? Then maybe not, that's inappropriate. She seems to be glad that she was able to show herself in human form, but wants to show me more. Just when she is about to overcome her female sensibility of shyness (that went against her pride of showing her beauty), someone comes from the left and interrupts our encounter. She stops as she thought we were alone.

They go outside to the deck and have some conversation. I am not sure who the other person is, but I had some vague perception it may have been my father. I go out on the deck and join them.

They talk, I do not hear, and then she turns to me. "My name is Onin, do you know who I am?" She is very proud. "Other people know me as Brutus."  Brutus?  I think that can't be right, that is a male name. I then try to remember, I begin thinking about a web site I remembered, about Celtic goddesses and fairies, and a woman had written about them and her encounters with these Celtic goddesses or fairies in visions or dreams. She reads my thoughts and said, "Yes, that's it, do you remember?"  She wanted me to remember these Celtic goddesses and fairies. I then say, "By Brutus, did you mean Bryddha?" She said "Close, you have the right idea."  I was trying to remember this name of a Celtic goddess.

[I would later find out I was trying to remember the name of the Celtic goddess Brigid. Brigid means "exalted one" and is associated with the spring season. Brigid has two other sisters named Brigid, indicating that she was a "triple deity."]

Returning to the dream, Onin was talking to this other person. Some idea came to me. I then called out to her, "Onin?"

She said "Yes?"

I then replied, "Onin, are you an angelic being?"

I could detect her thoughts, there was some disappointment but also some apprehension about answering. She knew I was beginning to figure out her identity, and that I was no longer thinking of her as God in female form. She wanted me to think that she was a goddess, as in old times. I knew that angels would sometimes portray themselves as such to worshipers, as that is the form of Divinity they expected to see. Swedenborg confirms that angels at times do adapt their appearance and identity to the belief system of worshipers. She seemed to be obligated to tell the truth.

She responded to my question: "Yes, I am." She had been enjoying this time but now she knew the mask was beginning to fall away.

So she is an angel, appearing to me in a dream. I pause a bit. I then say to her, "Onin, then that means you were once human."

At this statement she is shocked, and very surprised. She certainly did not expect me to come to that conclusion.  I had known that all angels originate from the human race (see the post The True Origin of the Angels), but this is not common knowledge.

At this point I can't see, but I feel that I am rapidly enveloped in a cloud. I feel the cloud is transporting me somewhere, very quickly, back in time. We arrive, and I open my eyes.

Before me I see Onin, who is now a young girl. We are on a dirt pathway, in the countryside, and there is a tree next to the path. I feel like we were transported back in time, perhaps centuries, or even older. This is a memory of a time when she was once human, before she achieved her angelic form.

Onin, as a girl, is different. I see that she has a little shield, and a short sword. She swings her sword a few times, showing me what she could do with it. Onin then says gleefully, "Watch what I can do with my sword!!" She then jumps at the tree, and starts hacking away at it with her sword very fiercefully. I am looking at her, and think, boy is she different, she certainly does not act like the other girls. Most of them would be picking flowers in the field.

I then say, "Wait! Let me go and grab my sword and let's have a sword fight!" I have no idea why I am saying this, perhaps I took the place of someone she once knew?

I am about to turn to go down the path and fetch my sword. I then detect she gets worried, she begins to think, there is little time left. She runs and gets in front of me, preventing me from going down the dirt path. She does not want to play sword fighting anymore. She comes up to me, very close, where I can see her face. Her eyes were not brown, perhaps hazel or a light blue. She comes up to me, and she seems that she wants me to remember her face. She gets close, and gives me a kiss. At that moment I awake.

A CELTIC FAIRY TALE PARALLEL TO THE DREAM

The dream felt as if I was talking to a real person. Onin said (or implied) she was a Celtic goddess. First I wrote down the dream, then I looked up a list of Celtic goddesses and one immediately caught my attention - Olwen. I never heard of this Celtic goddess or fairy before. And this is where it starts to get very interesting.

Olwen by Alan Lee. Literature scholars believe that this Welsh story was a major influence on JRR Tolkien’s tale of Beren and Lúthien in The Silmarillion.

Olwen first appears in the tale Culhwch and Olwen in the Mabinogion. Olwen is the daughter of the giant Ysbaddaden, who dwells in a high and unreachable castle.  Culhwch is the cousin of King Arthur who asks for her hand in marriage. However Ysbaddaden gives him a series of difficult tasks to do, for he knows he is fated to die should his daughter ever marry. Culhwch completes these tasks and returns to marry Olwen, after which Ysbaddaden dies.

Culhwch at Ysbaddaden's court

Related to this story, Olwen appears in another folktale, Einion and Olwen. A shepherd boy named Einion travels to the Otherworld where he meets Olwen, who belongs to the fairy folk. I found two versions of this story, one at The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries and another at The Shepherd and the Fairies (A Celtic Tale). The first begins as follows:

"One day when it was cloudy and misty, a shepherd boy going to the mountains lost his way and walked about for hours."

The other begins in a similar fashion:

"One autumn day long ago a young shepherd called Einion was herding his flock toward home when a heavy mist came down and cloaked the hills. In that fog, he lost his way."

This, needless to say, took me by complete surprise. In the dream, I went down and up a mountain, surrounded by a thick cloud through which one could not see. I would later be enveloped by the cloud.

Einion being led to the fairy world

Returning to the story, while lost, Einion is led by an old man to a menhir stone.

"The old man tapped it three times, and then lifted it up. A narrow path with steps descending was revealed, and from it emerged a bluish-white light."

They then pass through this portal to the "Otherworld," a world of fairy beings that look human. Einion was not allowed to speak, and he could not speak if he tried. The story then continues:

"Soon an old lady with smiles came to him leading three beautiful maidens, and when the maidens saw the shepherd boy they smiled and spoke, but he could not reply. Then one of the girls kissed him; and all at once he began to converse freely and most wittily. In the full enjoyment of the marvellous country he lived with the maidens in the palace a day and a year, not thinking it more than a day, for there was no reckoning of time in that land."

I had first tried to identify Onin with Brigid, a Celtic goddess with two sisters. Similar to Brigid, Olwen is also one of three maidens. Also surprising, in the otherworld Olwen kisses Einion just as Onin kisses me in the "cloud world" she once lived in. Once Einion was kissed by Olwen he could finally speak. Once I was kissed by Onin I was able to awake.

Returning to the story, Einion then asks the old man if he could return home, he gives permission, but Olwen who had kissed him was unwilling to let him go. He then promises her to return, and then she consents and sends him off loaded with riches. Einion returns to the upper world, but no one knew him as they believed he had been killed by another shepherd. After a while Einion returns to the Otherworld and Einion and Olwen agree to marry, but had to do so secretly and quietly as the fairy folk did not like noise. They then return to the upper world, and as the Welsh always wanted to know about people's family Einion was having trouble giving an answer for Olwen. She was so beautiful and fair, that they eventually figured out she was of the fairy folk. The two lived out their lives on a handsome estate and eventually had a son.

OTHER STRANGE PARALLELS

The dream, with minor variations, is almost completely parallel with the fairy tale of Einion and Olwen. The name "Onin" is not only similar to "Olwen," but is almost exactly the same as "Einion" (pronounced as "ahN-IY-aaN" - see How To Pronounce Einion). In the dream, "Onin" thus gave two names of herself to identify herself in each fairy story.

Now, here is the other interesting point. In older times, women used to introduce themselves using their husband's name.  Thus in the dream, the angelic being first names herself as "Onin" which is almost exactly the same as "Einion" the shepherd whom she marries. As for the other story of Olwen, according to legend, King Arthur is a descendant of Brutus, the founder of London, from which Britain gets its name. Once Olwen married Culhwch, the cousin of King Arthur, Olwen in this story intermarries with the family of Brutus. Recall that in the dream, Onin said her other name was Brutus. This is totally foreign to modern women of our time. For a discussion on this older custom, see Women introduce themselves using husband's name and surname. In more ancient times they did not have surnames.

In the dream, where we were transported back in time, Onin starts to hack away at a tree which I thought was so utterly strange. I later found this gem of information from Medieval Knights - Sword Training:

Description of Sword Training called Pell Training
The weapons practice during the Medieval times included Pell Training specifically used for sword training. The description of Pell Training provides basic facts and information about the device as follows:

• The Pell - used as a target weapon by a knight when practicing with the sword
• Description - The Pell consisted of a wooden post which was planted firmly in the ground
• The origins of the pell was a simple tree trunk
• The knight would practise striking his sword against the pell target...
• Effective Pell training required knights and other men-at-arms to take sword practice and sword training extremely seriously. The Pell was attacked as if it were a real opponent. Sword training demanded hours of practice to increase skills, strength and agility
• Rigorous and regular sword training on the Pell resulted in precision, focus, and force

So there you have it. Knights would practice their sword fighting skills against a "pell" which was a wooden post, but this wooden post in more ancient times was originally a simple tree trunk. In the dream I was rather surprised at how Onin quickly moved to attack a tree; she was very serious and eagerly showing me her skills with the sword. 

SUMMARY THOUGHTS

The correlation between the dream and the tale of Einion and Olwen is striking, to say the least. Most dreams come from our own subconscious, where we play out our fears or worries, but others have a spiritual origin. In this dream, an angel appears who has a name very similar to a name in a Celtic fairy tale which is parallel to the contents of the dream. I had never heard of these fairy stories regarding Olwen until now. Swedenborg does confirm that some dreams do originate from angels or spirits, who draw out of the person's mind things of interest in order to communicate (see Heavenly Arcana, n. 1976). In this they find much enjoyment:

"They enter upon this duty with the greatest delight, so that there is rivalry among them as to who shall attend, and they love to affect the man with the enjoyable and delightful things which they see in his affection and genius." (Heavenly Arcana, n. 1977.2)

The dream may be based in part to the post Is the Second Coming a Physical Event or Spiritual Event? where I had discussed visions and dreams as a means of revelation, as well as the meaning of mountains and clouds. However the dream seems to be more related to the Celtic fairy tale of Olwen, and it includes new and different information that certainly was not in my thoughts. 

According to the fairy tale, I am now in the "upper world" of humans but at some point I am supposed to return to the "otherworld" and meet Onin.  Then again, perhaps the fairy tale of Olwen is another "mask" to hide her identity. It is quite a mystery.

I tried to find images similar to the one of the woman in the dream, best I could find was that of "Saber" from the anime series Fate/Zero. Saber was summoned as an angelic warrior from the past, who has a similar personality to Onin, and also has a background related to Olwen.

Fate Zero wallpaper by Martin Driver, from Wallpaper Safari

The True Origin of the Angels and the Fall of Satan

There is a popular tradition that before the creation of Adam, or at the time of his creation, Satan and a third of the angels rebelled against God and were cast out of heaven.  It is thought by some that this is described in the 12th chapter of the book of Revelation, in which the dragon and his angels are cast out of heaven.  However this interpretation is problematic, as the book of Revelation concerns the final state of the Christian church, not the past.  Many will be surprised to learn that the story of the 'Fall of Satan" or Lucifer does not come from the Bible, but from traditions built over time.  It is nowhere mentioned in scripture.  The closest we get in Jewish tradition is from the apocryphal book of Enoch which was written some time in the 3rd or 2nd century B.C., which discusses a fall of the angels known as "sons of God" in antediluvian times, who mated with women and produced giants (see Gen. 6:1-4).  The book was never made part of scripture, and the notion that angels have actual physical bodies was rejected by Jewish rabbis in the 1st or 2nd century A.D.  This "fall of the angels" is different, as it does not include an individual Devil or Satan and occurred after the time of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

So where does the story of the fall of Lucifer come from?  One theory is it actually comes from an early church father Origen who lived in the 2nd and 3rd centuries A.D.  From Fallen Angel:

The fall of Lucifer finds its earliest identification with a fallen angel in Origen, based on an interpretation of Isaiah 14:1–17, which describes a king of Babylon as a fallen morning star (in Hebrew, הילל ). When this description was mis-interpreted as regarding an angel, not a human king, the image of the fallen morning star or angel was applied to Satan both in Jewish pseudepigrapha and by early Christian writers, following the transfer of the Lucifer myth to Satan in the pre-Christian century. Origen and other Christian writers linked the fallen morning star of Isaiah 14:12 to Jesus' statement in Luke 10:18, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven" and to the mention of a fall of Satan in Revelation 12:8–9. In Latin-speaking Christianity, the Latin word lucifer, employed in the late 4th-century AD Vulgate to translate הילל, gave rise to the name "Lucifer" for the person believed to be referred to in the text. Orthodox Judaism does not believe the name Lucifer is a reference to Satan but rather the text in chapter four indicates that it is a literal taunt against the King of Babylon. 

So from there, the "fall of Lucifer" then enters into Christian tradition, some extending it to a prophecy of the king of Tyre (see Eze. 28:13-14).  However there is a slightly older tradition from the Slavonic book of Enoch, sometimes known as 2 Enoch, which was written in the 1st century A.D.  In it, Enoch is taken up into heaven and God tests the angels by having them bow down before Enoch.  A group of angels, under the leadership of "Satanail" refuse and are then imprisoned until they obey.  Even before this, there is an ancient religious teaching of the Yazidi religion, in which one of the seven primary angels, Melek Taus, refuses to bow down to Adam and for that is rewarded by God.  He is also called "Shaytan," and thus Muslims have confused Melek Taus with Satan.  From there, a similar story found its way into the Quran in Islam, in which it is Satan himself who refuses to bow down to Adam.

So, the tradition has a convoluted history.  Was there any fall of a primary Devil or Satan?  Swedenborg wondered about this, and in the revelations he received from heaven he was told it was not true - all angels and demons originate from the human race:

"In the Christian world it is quite unknown that heaven and hell are from the human race, for it is believed that angels were created from the beginning and of them was formed heaven; and that the devil or satan was an angel of light, but because he became rebellious he was cast down with his crew, and of them was formed hell. Angels wonder exceedingly that there should be such a belief in the Christian world, and still more that nothing at all should be known about heaven, when yet that is the primary thing of doctrine in the Church; and because such ignorance prevails, they rejoice in heart that it has pleased the Lord now to reveal to mankind many things respecting heaven, and also hell, and thereby as far as possible to dispel the darkness which is daily increasing, because the Church has come to its end. They wish for this reason that I should declare from their mouth, that in the whole heaven there is not one angel who was so created from the beginning, nor in hell any devil who was created an angel of light and cast down; but that all, both in heaven and in hell, are from the human race; in heaven those who lived in the world in heavenly love and faith, in hell those who lived in infernal love and faith; and that hell taken as a whole is what is called the devil and satan." (Heaven and Hell, n. 311, see also Origin of the Angels)

So the tradition of the fall of Satan and his angels is just that - a tradition - and it happens to not be true, or at best, a useful metaphor.  Not only that, but there is no such thing as an individual Devil or Satan, but rather these are terms of symbolic personifications of hell in general.  Thus the "fall of Satan" happens when each person of their own free will turns and rebels against God and His commandments.  The serpent in the Garden of Eden is a symbolic representation of how the ancient race of Adam fell, when they were tempted to regard themselves as gods.

After death, each individual is destined to become an angel or demon in heaven and hell, according to their own free will.  At times, angels manifest themselves when we come close to life or death.  Here is a remarkable documentary concerning a group of children who were saved by their guardian angels:

Angels who watch over Children

Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven.  (Matt. 18:10)

A few days ago a 25 year old mother, Lynn Groesbeck, died in a car crash at night when he car went over an embankment and ended up upside down in an ice cold river.  Over 10 hours later, the car was spotted and reported, there were no signs of life in the car.  Four first responders on the scene then heard a distinct female voice: "Help."  They quickly went into the ice cold river, risking hypothermia, and turned over the car. The mother in the driver's seat was dead. But in the back they saw an 18 month year old baby, Lily Groesbeck, who has been suspended upside down in her car seat. Luckily when the car turned, the baby was submerged in the water but her head was inches above the surface allowing her to breathe. She is now at home doing fine. Here is a video of the officers who arrived at the scene who describe hearing the audible voice:



In case that video gets removed here is another one:



There are several cases of this when a child is close to death. Here is another more dramatic case, involving a miraculous healing, and a bright flash of light that was caught emanating from the hospital room on a security camera, previously discussed in The Light of an Angel caught on Video Tape:



There are other cases of angels having visible manifestations, which were seen over Coptic Churches in Egypt: see Angel Appears before thousands on top of a Coptic Church.  But for cases of angels coming to intervene to save children's lives, nothing is more dramatic perhaps then a case where a couple of terrorists with a bomb came into a school classroom and took a whole class of children hostage - in fact, they took 153 children and teachers and packed them into one classroom. The bomb exploded in the classroom which should have killed everyone - but somehow it only killed the two terrorists. People who investigated were puzzled, but then the children began reporting that they had been saved by angels. Parents were skeptical, but one decided to carefully record the testimony of his child using police techniques. This one is hard to explain away, as there were multiple witnesses:



At least two children later saw pictures of their relatives that they had not seen before, and recognized them as they had appeared to them in the classroom right before the bomb exploded.

THE ORIGIN OF ANGELS

While some theologians speculate on the origin of angels before the creation of mankind, the revelations given to Swedenborg give a very simple answer: all angels originate from the human race, which explains their human form:

"In the Christian world it is quite unknown that heaven and hell are from the human race, for it is believed that angels were created from the beginning and of them was formed heaven; and that the devil or satan was an angel of light, but because he became rebellious he was cast down with his crew, and of them was formed hell. Angels wonder exceedingly that there should be such a belief in the Christian world, and still more that nothing at all should be known about heaven, when yet that is the primary thing of doctrine in the Church; and because such ignorance prevails, they rejoice in heart that it has pleased the Lord now to reveal to mankind many things respecting heaven, and also hell, and thereby as far as possible to dispel the darkness which is daily increasing, because the Church has come to its end. They wish for this reason that I should declare from their mouth, that in the whole heaven there is not one angel who was so created from the beginning, nor in hell any devil who was created an angel of light and cast down; but that all, both in heaven and in hell, are from the human race; in heaven those who lived in the world in heavenly love and faith, in hell those who lived in infernal love and faith; and that hell taken as a whole is what is called the devil and satan." (Heaven and Hell, n. 311).

THE AUDIBLE VOICE OF ANGELS

It is permissible at times for angels to speak directly with man, but this is rare at this time, and typically only happens in times of urgent need. In the age of the prophets, angels were used to communicate directly with men, at which time they were invested with the presence of God, albeit temporarily. With Jesus it was different: the conjunction was permanent, as God directly dwelled within Him, and made his human Divine:

"An angel sometimes speaks, not from himself, but from the Lord, and he then does not know but that he is the Lord; but then his externals are at rest. It is otherwise when his externals are active. The reason is, that their internal man is the Lord's possession; and so far then as there are no obstructions of their own, it is the Lord's and is the Lord. But in the Lord, a plenary conjunction or an eternal union with Jehovah was wrought, so that His very Human Essence also is Jehovah." (Heavenly Arcana, n. 1745.3)

I bring this up for those who have fallen in the error to declare that Jesus was just an angel in human form, or just a teacher, or reborn avatar. The Christian truth is He is the Divine incarnate, otherwise His teaching makes no sense. He spoke directly to his apostles and speaks to the Church through the Holy Spirit, but in ancient times, communication through heaven was done via angels. This was heard as an audible voice, as the prophets would often say "the word of the Lord" came to them. Moreover, when the Jewish priests sought an answer from the Lord through the Urim and Thummim, it was again revealed through an audible voice:

"...it is to be known that when the shining forth appeared, then at the same time a response to the subject of inquiry was given in an audible voice. This was done through angels, to whom by such a shining forth this answer was revealed by the Lord; for, as already told, Divine truths which are answers appear in this manner in the heavens." (Heavenly Arcana, n. 9905)

In ancient times, this audible voice was the method of revelation, but this was closed off due to sin and disobedience. It is still the method of Divine revelation on other planets, who have no knowledge of scripture:

"On every other earth truth Divine is revealed orally through spirits and angels, as has been shown in the preceding chapters where the inhabitants of the earths in this solar system have been described; but this takes place within families; for mankind on most of the earths live distinct according to their families. Wherefore Divine truth thus revealed through spirits and angels is not conveyed far beyond the families, and unless a new revelation is constantly succeeding, what has been revealed is either perverted or perishes. It is otherwise on our earth, where truth Divine, that is, the Word, remains in its integrity for ever." (Heavenly Arcana, n. 9358)

For us, the Divine revelation is ever present in scripture, which is written in a highly symbolic manner, where spiritual concepts lay hidden in the literal sense of every word and story.

THE CHILDREN OF HEAVEN

At times, children do die, and its devastating to their parents.  Swedenborg was shown that all children, without exception, go to heaven as they have not reached the age of reason:

"It is the belief of some that only children who are born within the Church come into heaven, but not those who are born out of the Church; because, they say, children within the Church are baptized and by baptism initiated into the faith of the Church. They do not know that no one has heaven or faith by baptism; for baptism is only for a sign and memorial that man is to be regenerated, and that he can be regenerated who is born within the Church, since there is the Word in which are the Divine truths by which regeneration is effected, and there the Lord is known from Whom regeneration is.[a] Let them know, therefore, that every child, wheresoever he is born, whether within the Church or out of it, whether of pious parents or of impious, when he dies is received by the Lord and is educated in heaven, and according to Divine order is taught and imbued with affections for good, and through this with knowledge of truth; and afterward, as he is perfected in intelligence and wisdom, he is introduced into heaven and becomes an angel. Every one who thinks from reason may know that no one is born for hell, but all for heaven, and that man himself is in fault, that he comes into hell; but little children cannot as yet be in fault." (Heaven and Hell, n. 329)

For an interesting dream, concerning some angels who were taking care of children who died recently in the Middle East, see What is the Way to Heaven?

Marian Apparitions of Egypt, the Orthodox Church and Emanuel Swedenborg

In the blog post Angel Appears before thousands on top of a Coptic Church I described what seems to be an angelic apparition of the virgin Mary on top of a Coptic Church which was caught on video in the morning hours of December 11, 2009, and was seen by about 3,000 people. Now that took me by surprise, but what is even more surprising is this is not the first time this has happened. The first widely reported apparition of the virgin Mary in Egypt took place in Zeitoun Egypt on April 2, 1968 and lasted for over a period of three years, and was seen by at least HALF A MILLION Egyptians - including the former leader of Egypt, President Nasser. There seems to be a parallel between that sighting of 1968 and the one in Warraq in 2009. Again the angelic manifestation appeared on top of a Coptic church, which people thought was a young woman about to commit suicide. The form of the angel seems to have been more clearly visible, who then bowed down and prayed before one of the crosses on the rooftop. Like the sighting of 2009, a man was cured of blindness, and the apparition was seen with doves. Again, skeptics, and the scientists who only observe things in the visible light spectrum in this age of materialism, will tend to deny these things and come up with natural explanations. What do they say on this? Its a "mass hallucination" or tectonic plates producing an electro-magnetic light on top of the church. Here is a short documentary on the sighting, which includes witnesses who saw Mary turn and smile at them:



There is no video, but several photographs of the apparition were taken in black and white. I can show those, but as it turns out, an apparition of the angel Mary appeared later in Edfu Egypt in 1982, again approved by the Coptic Church:

So why the Marian apparition of 1968? One theory is that the day before, some Muslims had marked the houses of Coptic Christians with a cross of blood, marking the house as one that should be attacked. This is the exact sign that was placed on the doors of the Jews to protect them from the angel of death the night of the Passover.

As I was researching this blog, just found another apparition of Mary in Assiut, Egypt, which took place in the year 2000. AGAIN, on top of a Coptic Church. AGAIN, with the appearance of a dove. According to newspaper reports, during mass, pictures showing Mary with a dove above her that were hung on the wall inside the altar began to glow, after which the light from the dove in the pictures started to flow down. Later, the lights appeared above the church as well. It is an approved apparition by the Coptic Church. Here is a video of a light descending on the cross on top of the church:



Here is another shot where an angelic form appears in a tower, you can again hear the crowds cheer when it appears:



I can easily show more Marian apparitions, but for now I have only mentioned ones that have strong support from multiple witnesses and have been approved by the Coptic Church. The only thing that compares with this were the Fatima sightings in Portugal. So why does Mary appear with a dove? It is said that when the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus, he saw it manifested in the form of a dove. Mary had conceived Jesus through the Holy Spirit. While externally he was like any other man, his inner soul was Divinity itself. And that is why the apparition Mary was seen in one case as bowing and praying before the cross.

EMMANUEL SWEDENBORG, ANGELS, AND THE HEAVENLY REALMS

If you want to know anything and everything about angels, and why they appear in such a bright light, you can obtain information on them from Emanuel Swedenborg's visions which he recorded in Heavenly Arcana (aka Arcana Coelestia) and in summary form in Heaven and Hell. There is too much to cover in one single blog post, since his visionary experiences lasted for a period of over 25 years and he wrote volumes about it. Unlike other religious writings I cannot find any logical error in them. All of the above sightings are brief instances, with no communication: Swedenborg's encounters are much more detailed. Most of Swedenborg's visions of angels in their heavenly realm took place in his internal sight, with no visible manifestation. But in one case at least, Swedenborg does mention a bright light that manifested before his very eyes:

That I might know the nature of the light, I have many times been conducted into the abodes where good spirits and angelic spirits dwell, and have there seen not only the spirits but also the things that were there. There have also been seen infants and mothers in light of so great brightness and resplendence that there could not possibly be anything brighter.
An intense flamy light, which I was not expecting, poured down before my eyes, dazzling them greatly — not merely the sight of the eye, but the interior sight also. Presently there appeared a sort of obscurity, like a thick, cloud, in which there was as it were something earthy. And when I was wondering, it was given me to know that such is the light with the angels in heaven, in comparison with the light in the world of spirits; and that although the spirits live in light, yet still there is such a difference; and that, as does the light, so also do the intelligence and the wisdom of the angels exceed the intelligence and the wisdom of spirits; and not their intelligence and wisdom only, but also all the things that belong to intelligence and wisdom, as their speech, thought, joys, and felicities; for these correspond to the light. From this it was also evident to me, how great and of what kind are the perfections of angels as compared with men, who are in obscurity more than spirits. (Heavenly Arcana, n. 1523-24).

In his visions - a state in which Swedenborg was in in full wakefulness, he describes the light of heaven as so bright that there could not be possibly anything brighter in this world. It is a realm where there is no time and space, and while angels are unseen and for the most part not allowed to communicate directly with people, they influence us in general ways through our thoughts and emotions. There is a constant conjunction between the spiritual and material world, without which nothing living could live. Swedenborg observed a more direct link between himself and heavenly realms occurred when he was reading scripture, which also occurs to anyone who reads scripture with an open heart, even though they are unaware of it. With all of his angelic encounters, Swedenborg did not draw one single teaching or doctrine from an angel, but rather from the Lord himself while reading scripture.

EMANUEL SWEDENBORG AND THE VIRGIN MARY

So over the years of many visionary experiences, did Swedenborg ever encounter the virgin Mary? Yes, in one brief instance:

It is otherwise with the so called saints in heaven. They know nothing at all of their being so called on earth; nor have I spoken with them, lest some idea of this should enter into them. Only once Mary, the mother of the Lord, passed by, and was seen over head in white raiment; and then, stopping a little, she said that she had been the mother of the Lord and that He was indeed born of her, but that as He became God He put off all the human from her, and that therefore she now adores Him as her God, and is not willing that any one should recognize Him as her son, because in Him all is Divine. (The Final Judgment, n. 66).

Some observations here: for Mary to appear higher than Swedenborg can mean she exists in a higher realm than he was allowed to visit. The other point is, since of all the so-called saints he was only allowed to visit Mary, that could conversely mean that Mary is one of the few who is allowed to have a visible manifestation to appear before people here on earth. This does not mean that all apparitions are indicate the presence of the virgin Mary herself, it could very well be any female angel was sent to represent her and/or the church itself, to bring focus on the worship of Jesus. In the spiritual world, identities can get mixed somewhat: angels are allowed to represent other identities, as well as become symbolic manifestations. While Catholics are in error in praying to Mary, God acts in such a way where these manifestations are used to bend people back towards the true faith: it is better to bend, not break, the religion one grew up with as a child.

Another statement that Swedenborg makes, which may be puzzling to many Christians, is that she declared she is no longer the mother of the Lord. This is because Jesus gradually put off the human he received from Mary and replaced it with a Divine Human that originated from his own being. When he rose from the dead, he was completely Divine. There are two doctrines which have obscured this in the history of Christianity: the Nicene Creed, which invented a "son born from eternity", and the Chalcedonian Creed, which permanent divided Jesus into two natures, which created endless theological distinctions and debates which I will not get into here. Jesus BEGAN as both human and Divine, but in the end, the Divine absorbed and transformed the human into a Divine Human - a body that was under direct control by Jehovah, which could no longer be tempted to sin, where he could interact directly at our level without having an intermediate angel. For Catholics, this is obscured even more by the false doctrine of the immaculate conception of Mary. This is VERY CLEAR in the revelations that Swedenborg received concerning Mary, and his explanations also make clear why Islam is a "partially" true (not complete) revelation:

The interiors with Him were Divine, from Jehovah His Father; the exteriors were human, from Mary His mother. Hence it may be evident that with the Lord, equally as with other men, there was in His external man, in boyhood, a want of knowledge. (Heavenly Arcana, n. 1460)

From knowledge of boyhood, Jesus later proceeded to make his rational human self Divine:

The Lord, as said before, was born as another man and was as another man as to the things which He derived from the mother Mary; and as the rational is formed by means of the knowledges, external and internal, which enter through things of the external senses, or those of the external man, therefore His first rational was born as with any other man; but as He by His own power was to make all the things that were human in Himself Divine, so also was it with the rational. (Heavenly Arcana, n. 1893.2)

...the Lord wholly exterminated His first rational, so that nothing of it remained; for what is merely human cannot be together with the Divine. Hence He was no longer the son of Mary, but Jehovah as to each Essence. (Heavenly Arcana, n. 2657.7)

That He was born of the virgin Mary is known, yet as another man; but when He was born again, or became Divine, it was from Jehovah who was in Him, and Who was Himself as to the very Being of life. The unition of the Divine and the Human Essence was effected mutually and reciprocally, so that He united the Divine Essence to the Human and the Human to the Divine. Hence it may be evident that the Lord made the Human in Himself Divine by His own power, and thus became Justice. The merit of justice was what was adjoined to the Divine rational when He underwent inmost temptations, from which He then fought, and against which the evil genii fought, until He glorified that also. (Heavenly Arcana, n. 2798.2)

The progession of His human to Divinity continued to the end of his life. And this explains why Jesus is called Lord in the New Testament, but not Jehovah, for during his ministry he had not yet made his human Divine:

Among the hidden causes of their calling Jehovah the Lord, were the following: if at that time it had been said that the Lord was the Jehovah so often named in the Old Testament, men would not have accepted it, for they would not have believed it; and further, because the Lord did not become Jehovah as to the Human also, until He had in every way united the Divine Essence to the Human Essence, and the Human to the Divine. The full unition was accomplished after the last temptation, which was that of the cross; and for this reason after the resurrection the disciples always called Him Lord. (Heavenly Arcana, n. 2921.6)

In a similar manner, today, Muslims believe Jesus to just be a prophet.

The doctrine of immaculate conception of Mary is false: for Jesus received hereditary evil in his human form from Mary, by which he could be tempted and battle against hell:

That this was hereditary evil from the mother, against which the Lord combated, may be evident from what has been shown respecting that hereditary (n. 1414, 1444, 1573); and from His expelling it, so that at length He was not the son of Mary (Heavenly Arcana, n. 4563).

Thus those who subscribe to the immaculate conception, that Mary was born without sin, are not going to properly understand how Jesus saved humanity. The doctrine is late and was added by the Catholic Church: the Orthodox Church does not accept this doctrine.

That his human was Divine, was shown in the transfiguration:

The Lord was indeed born as another man, and had an infirm human from the mother; but this human the Lord entirely cast out, so that He was no longer the son of Mary, and made the Human in Himself Divine, which is meant by His being glorified; and He also showed to Peter, James, and John, when He was transfigured, that He was a Divine Man. (Heavenly Arcana, n. 4692.5)

Repeatedly it is said that the human from Mary was expelled and replaced with a Divine nature:

...with the Lord the prior forms, which were from the maternal, were altogether destroyed and extirpated, and Divine forms received in their place. For the Divine love does not agree with any but a Divine form; all other forms it absolutely casts out; hence it is that the Lord when glorified was no longer the son of Mary. (Heavenly Arcana, n. 6872.4)

He expelled all the human which was from the mother, until at length He was not the son of Mary (Heavenly Arcana, n. 9315.5)

With the Lord however there was not removal, but casting out of those which He derived from the mother, thus full liberation from them, even so that He was no longer the son of Mary (Heavenly Arcana, n. 10057.6)

When the Lord fully glorified His Human, then He put off the human from the mother and put on the Human from the Father. Wherefore then He was no longer the son of Mary, but the Son of God, from Whom He came forth. (Heavenly Arcana, n. 10830)

What about the title of "Son of Man" - why does Jesus call himself that? It is a symbolic appelation, as "man" is a symbol of truth and "woman" is a symbolic form of love:

...the Son of Man, as the Lord called Himself, is not the son of Mary, but the Divine truth (Heavenly Arcana, n. 10053).

What about the Trinity? Here is one brief statement:

That there is a trine in the Lord, namely, the Divine Itself, the Divine Human, and the Divine proceeding, is an arcanum from heaven and for those who shall be in the holy Jerusalem. (Heavenly Arcana, n. 10831)

So NO, there is no such thing as a "second person" of the Trinity. The Son of God is the human that was born to the virgin Mary, and was made Divine by Jehovah. Which is why the apostle John stated it was important to acknowledge that Jesus was indeed born in the flesh.

...the Human of the Lord, conceived of Jehovah the Father, and born of the Virgin Mary, is the Son of God (Doctrine of the Lord, n. 19)

The Father and Son are one in the sense that the soul and body of Jesus are one, and cannot be separated:

From this it follows, that the Divine cannot be separated from the Human, and that the Human cannot be separated from the Divine; for to separate them would be like separating soul and body. That it is so, every one will also acknowledge who reads what is cited above (n. 19 and 21) from two of the Evangelists (Luke i. 26-35, and Matt. 18-25), concerning the Lord's birth; from which it is plain that Jesus was conceived of Jehovah God, and born of the Virgin Mary: so that the Divine was in Him, and it was His Soul. Now, as His Soul was the Divine itself of the Father, it follows that His Body or Human was also made Divine; for where the one is, the other must be also. Thus and not otherwise are the Father and the Son one; the Father in the Son, and the Son in the Father. (Doctrines of the Lord, n. 29)

And it is true, that the Divine could not intermix or commingle with the human:

The Lord successively put off the human taken from the mother, and put on the Human from the Divine in Himself, which is the Divine Human and the Son of God. That the Lord had a Divine and a human, — the Divine from Jehovah the Father, and a human from the Virgin Mary, — is known. Thence it is that He was God and Man; and thus He had a Divine essence and a human nature, — the Divine essence from the Father, and the human nature from the mother; and thence He was equal to the Father as to the Divine, and less than the Father as to the human: also (as the doctrine of faith which is called the Athanasian Creed teaches) that He did not transmute this human nature from the mother into the Divine essence, nor commix it with it; for the human nature cannot be transmuted into the Divine essence, nor can it be commixed with it. And yet from the same creed is our doctrine, that the Divine took on the Human, that is, united itself to it, as the soul unites itself to its body, until they were not two, but one person. (Doctrine of the Lord, n. 35).

SWEDENBORG AND THE ORTHODOX CHURCH

When one understands this, one can understand how Jesus saved humanity by conquering hell through his human body, which is the view espoused by the Orthodox Church against the later doctrine of the vicarious atonement of the Catholic and Protestant churches. Unfortunately the Orthodox Church is highly traditional, and is not likely to reject the Nicene Creed as that is treated as a foundational creed by all three branches of Christianity. But at least they reject vicarious atonement, they reject the doctrine of faith alone by the Protestants, and they reject many other beliefs added onto Christianity by the Catholic Church. From a New Church point of view, these manifestations of the virgin Mary in Egypt are highly significant. Why so? Swedenborg foresaw that while the revelations given to him would be rejected by western Christianity, a similar independent revelation would be established by visions in the continent of Africa, which he described in his final work, True Christian Religion.

Here is the song Ya umm Allah dedicated to Mary by Fairouz, a Lebanese singer of the Syriac Orthodox Church: