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WILD BOAR >> Vigorous sensual Mind which attacks and tears apart Truth

wilbo1ar-jw The wild boar is, in some respects, so different from his domesticated brother, that he requires separate attention.  

  Woods and reed beds are always the habitations of the wild boar, . . . which seems to prefer the reed bed to the wood, probably because it can find plenty of mud, in which it wallows, after the fashion of its kind. There is no doubt whatever that the “Beast of the Reeds” (Psalm 68:30) is simply a poetical phrase for the wild boar. 

If there should be any cultivated ground in the neighborhood, the boar is sure to sally out, and do enormous damage to the crops. It is perhaps more dreaded in the  vineyards than in any other ground, as it not only devours the grapes, but tears down and destroys the vines, trampling them underfoot, and destroying a hundredfold as much as it eats. . . . We can well imagine the damage that would be done to a vineyard even by the domesticated swine, but the wild boar is infinitely more destructive. It is of very great size, often resembling a donkey rather than a boar, and is swift and active beyond conception. The wild boar is scarcely recognizable as the very near relation of the domestic species. It runs with such speed that a high-bred horse finds some difficulty in overtaking it, while an indifferent steed would be left hopelessly behind. Even on level ground the hunter has hard work to overtake it; and if it can get upon broken or hilly ground, no horse can catch it. The wild boar can leap to a considerable distance, and can wheel and turn when at full speed, with an agility that makes it a singularly dangerous foe. Indeed, the inhabitants of countries where the wild boar flourishes would as soon face a lion as one of these animals, the stroke of whose razor-like tusks is made with lightning swiftness, and which is sufficient to rip up a horse, and cut a dog nearly asunder. (Bible Animals)  

  When striking with these weapons, the boar does not seem to make any great exertion of strength, but gives a kind of wriggle with his snout as he passes his victim. In India, it is not uncommon for an infuriate wild boar to pursue some unfortunate native, to overtake him as he flies, and, putting his snout between the poor man’s legs, to cut right and left with an almost imperceptible effort, and to pass on his course, leaving the wounded man helpless on the ground. (Natural History)  

  The fleetness and nimbleness of the wild boar suggest much more active mental qualities than those of the domestic hog. His weapons of destruction, the tusks, by which he tears up vines and shrubs, and strips the bark from trees, are enormously developed; and with them his love of destroying, which now becomes the most prominent characteristic; though the greedy love of possession and the love of defilement are still there.  

  He is a representative of a quick, vigorous mind, wholly sensual, which believes itself to know everything that is worth knowing, and slashes right and left at all good things which it does not want to use. Such are especially those who stick in philosophical terms, from which they believe themselves to be intellectually all-powerful. They attack and tear in pieces the terms in which interior truth is stated, without in the least comprehending the truth; as boars tear the bark from the vines. Certain spirits who hated this philosophical destructiveness attacked Swedenborg because he also used some philosophical terms, such as subject and predicate, and likened him to a wild boar. He explained that he used the terms only as exact expressions of spiritual thought; and continued:  

  The abuse is that philosophers remain in terms, and dispute concerning them without coming to agreement. Hence all idea of the real thing perishes, and man’s understanding is so limited that afterwards it knows nothing but terms. Therefore when they wish to comprehend things with their terms, they collect nothing but such terms, and thus obscure the real thing, so that they can understand nothing at all; thus they darken their natural light. For on this account an unlearned man has much more extensive ideas, and sees [more clearly] what is true, than a philosopher.  Such a one remains in the mud like a pig. Such a pig was represented to me as a wild boar, and he becomes a wild beast in the woods; for he wanders like a wild beast among truths, which he tears in pieces and destroys. (Spiritual Diary #1604)  

  In the Psalms, the Church is described as to spiritual truth as a vine brought out of Egypt, and planted; and of such spiritual enemies as have been described, it is said, “The boar out of the wood doth waste it, and the wild beast of the field doth devour it” (Psalm 80:13).  

  Author: JOHN WORCESTER 1875

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