Correspondances

   I will continue to add to this post and to order these elements as they will appear in the Libretto. 

Update 7/19/25

   My recent thoughts on Correspondences; I have it in my mind to review the concept of the piece, from beginning to end (Alpha & Omega) in the context of the Correspondances that should encompass the content. This is difficult to express. There are notable events conveyed throughout the Word, but there are also lesser events and concepts that contain significant correspondances.

   I'm looking at it this way, it is difficult to see a sequence of events that give the "plot line" substance other than in a documentary/informative sense.  But I really believe that this correspondental interior needs to be revealed before any "plot line structure" can be locked in. I want to say established, but there is (in past revisions) a plot line of sorts.

   Absolutely, the original screenplay had a good plot line, but subsequent rewrites and attempts to convert it to the stage, lost that plot line in deference to a more ridgid biblical structural foundation.

   Now that the piece is taking a definitively New Church form of expression, which involves conveying that the Word has an internal and an external, it becomes important to outline what the significant internal points are throughout the Word, from Alpha to Omega.

   I am sending that strict adherence to the biblical events could be restrictive in a theatrical sense. Overall, if the biblical events are conveyed in "abstract" with another predominant element that is somewhat isolated from those events, then there might be a sense that the piece flows better and will avoid getting bogged down in laborous details.

   I am thinking that the "isolated" element (though not isolated at all) is God. Hence "I Am Alpha & Omega".  Well that is pretty presumptuous to be speaking for God, but in the context of this piece, I think that is how this needs to be crafted. 

   So, based on New Church philosophy, the Lord is contained within the Word, in that He is revealed through the internal sense of the Word, because the internal sense reveals the nature of God.  It is further said that - the internal sense of the Word is made up of Correspondences.

   With all this in mind, "I Am Alpha & Omega" must be founded on a full range of Correspondances, from beginning to end. Of course this needs to be crafted in the context of the timeframe available to a theatrical presentation. Hence the need to outline the Correspondances, before the actual sequence of events can be decided upon, a sequence of events that must be compelling and engage the audience with emotional content.

  So this is my explanation about how this next rewrite will need to proceed. This will be difficult and complex. Fortunately I have decades of exposure to New Church philosophy, and numerous versions of the script, so I do have a roadmap to follow in creating a final Libretto.

   As I proceed to build the internal structure of this new Libretto, I will post elsewhere the previous scripts, after I convert what I have to .docx files. I likely will post those pages, which are in hard copy, as .jpg.

Archive (updated)

   The Correspondances outlined below are the foundation of the beginning portions of ACT ONE.

   These items are not the text of the Libretto, they are only research notes on the correspondances taken from the Potts Concordance:

Each of these names represent a church, meaning different degrees of The Most Ancient Church:

Adam: the first church

Arcana Coelestia (AC); 64 

By Adam in Paradise, the Angels perceive The. Most Ancient Church, not the church itself, but the faith in the Lord, of that church.

Divine Providence (P); 241 -

That the wisest of men, Adam and his wife, suffered themselves to be seduced... Adam this wife do not mean the first men created in this world, but the men of The Most Ancient Church.

AC; 313 -  When The Most Ancient Church is called Adam it signifies that man was made out of the ground, or that man was made from non-man by regeneration... 

AC; 9960 - Adam and his wife = The Celestial Church 

Divine Love & Wisdom (W); 117 -  Some might imagine that Adam was in such freedom that he could love God and be wise from himself... but this is an error... Wherefore, when he wished to be wise and to live from his own, he fell from wisdom and love, and was cast out of Paradise.

Seth: the second church

AC; 335 - Seth = a new faith given by the Lord in which charity is implanted.  Ex (explained) 436, 437, 439

462 - The Second Church, which was not so Celestial as the Most Ancient one, called Seth.

502 - The three Churches "man" (Adam) "Seth" and "Enos" constitute the Most Ancient Church, with a difference of perfection as to perception.

Enosh or Enos; the third church

AC; 439 - Seth = faith through which is Charity: and his son, whose name was 'Enos' = a church which held charity as the chief thing of faith; as is evident from... the fact that it is called 'Enos', which name means 'man' , not the celestial man, but the human spiritual man, who, here, is 'Enos'

Cainan; the forth church

Kenan

AC 463, 506, 

507; ... not to be reckoned among these three more perfect ones, for perception, which in the former Churches has been distinct, now began to be general...

Mahalalel  the fifth church; 

AC; 463, ... is called Mahalaleel... 506

511; ... The life of those... Was such that the preferred deletation from truths to delight from used.

Jared; the sixth church

AC; 463, 5510, 513

514; nothing is related concerning the church called Jared... But it is evident from the prescreening following churches that it was an intermediate...

Enoch; the seventh church

AC; 463, 464 the church called Enoch is described, that it made doctrine made from things revealed to and perceived by the Most Ancient Church; and that although this doctrine was of no use at that time, it was preserved for use of posterity, which is signified by Enoch was no longer, because God took him.

519;  At that time, there were some who, from the perception of things Most Ancient, and the succeeding churches, made doctrine, in order that it might serve as a rule and that thence might be know what is good and true. Those who were of this character were called Enoch. That is what is signified by these words 'and Enoch walked with God". So also they called that doctrine; which is also signified by the name Enoch, which is, to instruct.

AC; 609, 736, 920, 1241,2 Doctrine

Apocalypse Explained (AE); 728,2 Therefore the Lord provided that some of those who lived with the Most Ancient should collect the Correspondances into one, and should collect them together into a writing. These are they who are meant by Enoch and this writing is what is there signified. As this writing was to be of service to future churches... for the knowledge of spiritual things in natural ones, it was preserved by the Lord for their use, and also guarded, lest the last posterity of the Most Ancient Church... Should injure that writing. This is what is signified in the spiritual sense by "Enoch was no longer, because God took him.

Methuselah; the eight church

AC; 463, 516, 523, 527

Lamech; the nineth church 

Noah: the tenth church

Arcana Coelestia; 64 - [represents] the church remaining with the descendants of The Most Ancient Church which continued until the time of Abraham.

AC; 466 - the tenth church, parent of the three churches after the flood, which church is to be called,  The Ancient Church.

AC; 598:2 - as the new church [the that was established after the flood] called Noah was not celestial, but spiritual it was said not to have found mercy, but grace in the eyes of Jehovah.

AC; 608,609 - when internal respiration ceased, we external respiration gradually succeeded... and with this a language of words... As (thus) the state of man of this church, called Noah, was altogether changed from that of the man of the Most Ancient Church, he could no longer... be informed and illustrated in the same way... because his internals were [now] closed , so that he no longer had communication with Heaven, except as was unconscious. Nor, for the same reason, could he be instructed, except by an external way... On this account, of the Lord's Providence, doctrinal things of faith, with some of the Revelations of the Most Ancient Church were preserved for the use of this prosperity...

AC; 617:10 - Noah begot three sons = three kinds of doctrines arose thence [hence, three churches]

AC; 628 - every man had become corporeal... (including those called "Noah")... for these were such before they were Regenerated [hence the introduction of willful regeneration]... [after the flood] there was nothing true ... and nothing good, except in the remains which were with those called Noah and also in the doctrinal things which they knew. But there was no understanding of Truth, which is never possible, except where there is a Will of Good...  With the Most Ancient Church there was a Will of Good ... and the derivative understanding of Truth, but this understanding [of Truth]  completely perished together with the Will [for good]. A certain rational truth and natural good remained with those called "Noah" and therefore they could be regenerated [with their cooperation, as opposed to regeneration from a brute into a rational man in the case of Adam]