I
PRELIMINARIES
THE JOYS OF HEAVEN AND WEDDINGS THERE
I foresee that many of the readers of what follows here, and of the experiences recorded at the end of chapters, will believe them to be imaginative fiction. But I solemnly declare that they are not fictions, but things I have truly done and seen. Nor were they seen in some state of somnolence, but while fully awake. For the Lord has been pleased to show Himself to me, and to send me to teach the doctrines of the New Church meant by the NEW JERUSALEM in the Book of Revelation. For this purpose He has opened up the inner levels of my mind and spirit. This has allowed me to associate with angels in the spiritual world and at the same time with human beings in the natural world, something I have now experienced for twenty-five years.
When he was near, I spoke to him and asked: ‘What is happening now? I heard the sound of your trumpet, and saw you come down through the air.’
‘I have been sent,’ the angel replied, ‘to summon the most famous for their learning, the most perceptive minds and the names most renowned for wisdom, who come from Christian lands and are in this region, to meet together on this hill, where you are now standing, and to speak their minds, stating what, when in the world, they had thought, understood and regarded as wisdom on the subject of HEAVENLY JOY AND EVERLASTING HAPPINESS.
[2] ‘The reason for my mission is that some new arrivals from the world, who have been admitted to our heavenly community in the east, have reported that not a single person in the whole of Christendom knows what heavenly joy and everlasting happiness are, and so what heaven is. My brethren and colleagues were very surprised at this and told me to go down, make proclamation and summon the wisest people in the world of spirits, the place where all mortals are first gathered together on leaving the natural world, so that we can be informed by a number of voices, whether it is true that Christians are in such dense darkness and deep ignorance about the life to come. Wait a little while,’ he said, ‘and you will see the groups of wise men arriving here; the Lord will prepare a hall for their meeting.’
[3] I waited and after half an hour I saw two parties coming from the north, two from the west, and two from the south. On arrival the angel with the trumpet took them into the hall which had been prepared, and there they occupied the places assigned to them in accordance with the quarter from which they came. There were six groups or parties; there was a seventh from the east, but the light rendered them invisible to the rest. When they were assembled, the angel revealed the reason they had been summoned, and asked the groups in turn to set forth their wisdom on the subject of heavenly joy and everlasting happiness. Then each group formed a circle with faces turned in towards one another, so that they could recall the ideas they had had about it in the previous world, discuss them, and after discussion report on them.
[2] After this speech, the second group from the north out of their wisdom made the following prediction: ‘Heavenly joy and everlasting happiness are simply the most entertaining meetings with angels, and the most charming conversations with them. This keeps their faces constantly wreathed in smiles, and the mouths of the whole assembly laughing sweetly at their soft words and witty speech. What are the joys of heaven but variations on this theme for ever?’
[3] The third group, the first of the wise from the western quarter, from thinking about their affections made this declaration: ‘What are heavenly joy and everlasting happiness but feasting with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob? Their tables will be supplied with rich and dainty dishes, fine wines and noble vintages; and after the banquet there will be games and dances by girls and youths to the music of bands and pipes, with interludes of the sweetest singing of songs. Then finally toward evening there will be theatrical performances, and after this another banquet, and so on every day for ever.’
[4] Following this statement the fourth group, the second from the west, pronounced its opinion. ‘We have held,’ they said, ‘numerous ideas about heavenly joy and everlasting happiness, and we have looked into various joys and compared one with another; and we have come to the conclusion that the joys of heaven are the joys of a garden. What is heaven but a garden stretching from east to west and from south to north, containing fruit trees and delightful flowers? In the middle will be the magnificent tree of life, around which the blessed will sit, feeding on fruits of exquisite flavour, and decked with garlands of flowers with the sweetest scent. Under the breezes of a perpetual spring these will grow time and again in infinite variety day by day. Their perpetual growth and flowering, as well as the constant spring climate, will continually refresh the mind, so that they cannot fail to take in and imbibe new joys day by day, and bring people back to the flower of youth and so to the primeval state, which Adam and his wife were created to enjoy. Thus they will be returned to their garden of Eden, now transferred from earth to heaven.’
[5] The fifth group, which was the first of clever people from the south, made the following statement: ‘Heavenly joys and everlasting happiness are simply surpassing dominions and the richest treasures, which will confer magnificence beyond the reach of kings, and splendour beyond compare. We have grasped that these must be the joys of heaven and their continued enjoyment, which is everlasting happiness, by considering those in the previous world who attained this state. Moreover, we infer this from the fact that the happy are to reign in heaven with the Lord, and be kings and princes, because they are the sons of Him who is King of kings and Lord of lords; and they will sit on thrones being waited on by angels. We have grasped the magnificence of heaven from the fact that the New Jerusalem, which is used to describe the glories of heaven, will have each of its gates made out of a single pearl, streets of pure gold, and precious stones for the foundations of its wall. So everyone who is received into heaven will have his mansion gleaming with gold and precious substances, and the rule will pass in turn from one to another. Knowing as we do that in such things joys are inherent and happiness is immanent, and that God’s promises can never be broken, we have been forced to conclude that the happiest state of life in heaven is from this source and no other.’
[6] After this the sixth group, which was the second from the south, spoke up and said: ‘The joy of heaven and its everlasting happiness are simply a perpetual glorifying of God, one long festival lasting for ever, and a most blessed act of worship with songs and shouts of triumph. Thus our hearts will be constantly lifted up to God in full confidence that our prayers and praises will be acceptable on account of God’s generosity in blessing us.’ Some of the group added that this glorifying of God will be accompanied by magnificent lamps, the most fragrant incense and processions of great pomp, with the chief priest leading the way with a great horn, followed by the bishops and dignitaries of higher and lower rank, and finally by the men with palms and the women with images made of gold in their hands.
[2] Then they said to the angel with the trumpet: ‘You know that every person who had longed to go to heaven and had any definite ideas about its joys is after death allowed to experience the joys he imagined; and after they have found out by experience what those joys are like, and realise that they are empty ideas in their minds and ravings of their imaginations, they are taken away from them and taught. This happens to most people in the world of spirits, who in their previous lives had thought deeply about heaven, and come to some conclusion about its joys, so as to desire to experience them.’ On hearing this the angel with the trumpet said to the six groups summoned from the wise of the Christian world: ‘Follow me, and I shall bring you to experience the joys you imagine, and so into heaven.’
I was allowed to look inside that building, and I saw people running from one room to another, looking for gatherings which answered to their affection and thus to their idea of joy. In the gatherings I saw three sorts of people: some who were more or less panting to speak, some who were anxious to ask questions, and some keen on listening.
[2] The building had four doors, one on each side, and I noticed that many people were breaking up the gatherings and hastening to leave. I followed some of them to the east door, and saw some people sitting near it with long faces. So I went up to them and asked why they were sitting looking so sad. ‘The doors of this building,’ they replied, ‘are kept shut against those who want to leave. It is now three days since we came in, and we have spent our time as we wished in meetings and conversations, and we have become so tired of continual talk that we can hardly bear to listen to the mere noise of it. We were so bored we made our way to this door and knocked; but we were told that the doors of this building are open for people to come in, but not to go out. “Stay and enjoy the joys of heaven,” they told us. So we concluded from this reply that we shall have to stay here for ever. As a result our minds have fallen victim to sadness, our chests are beginning now to feel constricted, and we are becoming worried.’
[3] Then the angel addressed them and said: ‘This state is death to your joys, the ones you thought were the only heavenly ones, though they are but concomitant to heavenly joys.’ ‘What then,’ they asked the angel, ‘is heavenly joy?’
The angel replied briefly as follows: ‘It is the pleasure of doing something which is of service to oneself or others. This pleasure derives its essence from love, and its coming-into-being from wisdom. The pleasure of service arising from love by means of wisdom is the soul and life of all heavenly joys. [4] There are in the heavens most entertaining meetings, which cheer the angels’ minds, delight their spirits, gladden their hearts and refresh their bodies. But these take place after they have performed services in their occupations and work. This is what gives soul and life to all their pleasures and amusements. But if you deprive them of that soul or life, the concomitant joys one after another cease to be joys, first becoming matters of indifference, and then worthless, and finally the source of sadness and worry.’
When he had said this, the door was opened and the people sitting near leaped out. They hurried away home, each to his own occupation and his own work, and so were revived.
‘Why are there so many tables?’ they asked. The angel replied that the first table was Abraham’s, the second Isaac’s, the third Jacob’s, and then ranged next to these the tables of the twelve Apostles. On the other side were the same number of tables for their wives, the first three for Sarah, the wife of Abraham, Rebecca, the wife of Isaac, and Leah and Rachel, Jacob’s wives. The other twelve were for the wives of the twelve Apostles.
[2] After a little while all the tables appeared full of dishes of food, and the small spaces between them were decorated with small pyramids of sweets. The diners stood around the tables waiting to see the people who would preside; and after a short interval these were seen entering in procession with Abraham at their head and the rear brought up by the last of the Apostles. Then each went to his own table and sat down on the couch at its head, from where they invited those standing around: ‘Will you too please take your seats with us.’ So the men sat at table with the patriarchs, and the women with their wives, and they ate and drank cheerfully and with reverence. After the lunch the patriarchs went out, and then the games began, dancing by young girls and young men, and then theatrical performances. When these were over, they were invited to feast again, but the rule was that the first day they should dine with Abraham, the second with Isaac, the third with Jacob, the fourth with Peter, the fifth with James, the sixth with John, the seventh with Paul, and so on with the rest up to the fifteenth day, after which they would go through all the feasts again, merely changing places, and so on for ever.
[3] After this the angel called together the men in the group and said to them: ‘All these whom you have seen at table had much the same thoughts as you did, when they imagined the joys of heaven and everlasting happiness. In order that they should see for themselves how vain their notions were, these feasts and performances were set up with the Lord’s permission. The leading figures you saw at the head of each table were old men portrayed by actors, many of them countryfolk who had beards, and as the result of some degree of wealth more haughty than the rest; these were made to imagine that they were the ancient patriarchs. But follow me to the exits from this exercise-ground.’
[4] So they followed him and came upon fifty people in one place and fifty more in another, who had stuffed their bellies with food until they felt sick. Then they longed to return to the familiar surroundings of their homes, some to their duties, some to their businesses, and some to their work. But many of them were stopped by the guards of the wood, and questioned about the days they had spent feasting, and whether they had yet eaten at the tables of Peter and Paul, telling them that if they left before this, it would make them ashamed to be so impolite. But most of them answered: ‘We have had enough of our joys. The food has become tasteless to us, our throats have become parched, so that our stomachs loathe food and we can no longer bear to swallow it. We have spent a number of long days and nights amid that luxury; we beg you earnestly to let us go.’ When they were allowed out, they hurried off home so fast they were out of breath.
[5] After this the angel called the men of the group together, and as they walked gave them the following information about heaven: ‘In heaven, just as in the world, there is food and drink, and there are banquets and parties. The leading people there have their tables laden with rich feasts, dainties and delicacies, which serve to cheer and refresh their minds. There are also games and theatrical performances; there are also concerts and singing, and all achieve the highest perfection. Such things are a joy to them, but they do not constitute happiness. Happiness has to have joys and therefore comes from joys. It is the happiness in joys that makes them joys, enriches them, and keeps them from becoming worthless and boring. Everyone gets this happiness by being of service in his occupation.
[6] ‘Every angel has some hidden tendency in the affection of his will, which induces his mind to do something. By this means the mind calms and satisfies itself. This feeling of satisfaction and calm render the state of the mind amenable to receiving from the Lord the love of service. Heavenly happiness is the result of receiving this, and this is what gives life to the joys I mentioned before. Heavenly food is essentially nothing but love, wisdom and service all combined; that is, service performed by means of wisdom out of love. Everyone therefore in heaven gets food for the body depending on the service he performs; it is magnificent for those who perform the highest services, moderate but of exquisite flavour for those whose service is modest, humble for those who perform humble services. But there is none at all for the lazy.’
[2] When he said this, a throne appeared next to each column, and on the throne a robe of silk, and on the robe a sceptre and a crown; and next to each pyramid appeared a chair raised three cubits above the ground, and on the chair a chain with gold links, and sashes of knighthood with diamond-studded globes at their ends. Then the cry went up, ‘Come now and dress yourselves, take your seats and wait.’ At once the older men hurried to the thrones and the younger men to the chairs, put on their robes and sat down. Then what looked like a mist appeared coming up from below; and as a result of breathing this those who sat on the thrones and chairs had their faces begin to swell up, and their chests were puffed up, and they were filled with a confident belief that they were now kings and princes. The mist was the aura of delusion which inspired them. Then suddenly young men flew in as if from heaven and stood, two behind each throne and one behind each chair, to wait on them. Then it was repeatedly proclaimed by a herald; ‘You kings and princes are to wait here a little longer. Your courts are now being made ready in heaven, and your courtiers and attendants will shortly be here to take you to them.’ They kept on waiting and waiting, until their spirits began to gasp and they were worn out through longing.
[3] After three hours heaven was opened above their heads, and the angels looked down and pitied them. ‘Why,’ they said, ‘do you sit like this looking foolish and playing at acting? They have made fools of you and changed you from human beings into dummies, because you believed in your hearts that you would reign with Christ as kings and princes, and that then angels would wait upon you. Have you forgotten the Lord’s words, that he who would be great in heaven must become a servant? You must learn therefore what is meant by kings and princes and by reigning with Christ. This means being wise and performing services. For Christ’s kingdom, which is heaven, is a kingdom of services. For the Lord loves all and so wishes to do good to all, and good is service. Since the Lord does good or performs services indirectly through angels, and in the world through people, He gives those who faithfully perform services a love of service and its reward, which is inward blessedness, and this is everlasting happiness.
[4] There are in the heavens, as on earth, surpassing dominions and the richest treasures. For there are governments and forms of government, and therefore major and minor authorities and ranks. Those who hold the highest offices have palaces and council-chambers, the magnificence and splendour of which surpass those of the palaces and council-chambers of emperors and kings on earth; and the number of their courtiers, ministers and attendants, and the magnificent uniforms they wear, form for them an ambience of honour and glory. But these highest rulers are chosen from those whose heart is in the welfare of society, and only their bodily senses are concerned with the greatness of magnificence, in order to inspire obedience. Since the public weal demands that everyone should serve some purpose in the community as being the common body, and since all service comes from the Lord, and is performed by angels and by men as if of themselves, it is obvious that this is reigning with the Lord.’
On hearing this from heaven the people dressed up as kings and princes came down from their thrones and chairs, and threw away their sceptres, crowns and robes. The mist which brought the aura of delusion went away, and they were covered by a shining cloud containing an aura of wisdom, and this brought sanity back to their minds.
[2] Under the angel’s guidance they saw a huge throng of men, both old and young, of boys, and of women and girls. There were groups upon groups of three or ten, sitting among the rose-beds weaving garlands to adorn the heads of the old men, the arms of the young men and to wrap around the chests of the boys. Other women were picking fruits from the trees and carrying them in baskets to their companions. Others were pressing juice into goblets out of grapes, cherries and berries, and drinking it with pleasure. Others were sniffing the fragrance given off and spread around by flowers, fruits and aromatic foliage. Others were singing sweet songs to charm the ears of those present. Others were sitting by springs, and diverting the gushing water to make channels of various shapes. Others were walking about conversing and joking together. Others were running, playing, dancing, at one place to make patterns, at another in rings. Others were going into summer-houses to lie down on couches; and there were many other garden delights.
[3] When they had seen this, the angel led his companions through paths that wound hither and thither; and at last they came to a group who were sitting in a most beautiful rose-garden, surrounded by olive, orange and lemon trees. They were rocking to and fro, with their heads in their hands, grieving and weeping. The angel’s companions addressed them and said: ‘Why are you sitting like that?’ ‘It is seven days now,’ they replied, ‘since we came into this garden. When we came in our minds seemed to soar to heaven and to be plunged into the inmost bliss of its joys. But after three days the bliss began to wear off, to fade from our minds, becoming impossible to feel and so nothing. When the joys we had imagined died away, we were afraid of losing all the pleasure in our lives; and we started to feel doubtful whether there was such a thing as everlasting happiness. After this we wandered through the paths and beds, looking for the gate by which we had come in. But we wandered round and round in circles, asking anyone we met. Some of these told us that the gate was not to be found, because this paradise of a garden is a vast maze, so arranged that anyone who wants to get out penetrates deeper into it. “So you have no option but to stay here for ever,” they said. “You are in the middle of it, where all its delights are concentrated.”‘
The people they had encountered went on to tell the angel’s companions: ‘We have been sitting here now for a day and a half, and since we have lost all hope of finding the way out, we sat down by this rose-bed. We can see masses of olives, grapes, oranges and citrus-fruit around us, but the more we look at them, the more our eyes get tired of seeing them, our noses of smelling them, our tongues of tasting them. That is why you see us now sad, grieving and weeping.’
[4] On hearing this the angel with the group said to them: ‘This garden-maze is in fact an entrance to heaven. I know the way and will take you out.’ When he said this, those who were sitting down sprang up and embraced the angel, and they followed him together with his group. On the way the angel taught them what heavenly joy and everlasting happiness are. He told them that there is no outward delight in gardens, unless this is accompanied by inward delight in gardens. The outward delights of gardens are only delights of the bodily senses, but inward delights are delights of the affections of the soul. Unless these are within the outward ones, there is no heavenly life, because there is no soul, in them. Every delight without its corresponding soul becomes feeble and dull by continuance, and wearies the mind more than work. There are paradise-gardens everywhere in the heavens, and the angels find great joy in them, and the more delight of the soul there is in them, the more they feel those joys as joys.’
[5] On hearing this they all asked: ‘What is the delight of the soul, and where does it come from?’ ‘The delight of the soul,’ the angel answered, ‘comes from love and wisdom under the Lord’s guidance. Since love is an effective agent and achieves its effect through wisdom, so both of these are present in the effect, and the effect is service. The Lord pours this delight into the soul, and it passes down through the higher and lower levels of the mind into all the bodily senses, where it reaches its fulfilment. That is what makes joy joy, and it becomes everlasting by the action of Him who is its everlasting source. You have seen the gardens, and I assure you, there is nothing in them, not so much as a tiny leaf, which is not the product of the marriage of love and wisdom realised in service. So if anyone enjoys this, he is in the heavenly garden, and so in heaven.’
* The Latin word paradisus translated here ‘garden’ meant originally a walled garden, but came to mean also what we understand by ‘paradise’.
‘Follow me,’ the angel told them, ‘and I shall take you where you can experience your idea of joy.’ He took them into a small town, in the middle of which there was a church, and all the houses were called sacred buildings. They saw in the town crowds coming from every corner of the surrounding country, and amongst them a number of priests. These received and greeted the new arrivals, and taking them by the hand brought them to the doors of the church, and from there to some buildings around it, and introduced them to the constant worship of God. They told them that this town was a forecourt leading to heaven, and its church was the entrance to a magnificent, vast church in heaven, where the angels glorify God with prayers and praises for ever. ‘The rules here and also there,’ they said, ‘are that people must first enter the church and spend three days and three nights there. After this initiation they must go into the houses of the town, which are all sacred buildings dedicated by us; and then moving from one to another, they must join the congregations there in prayer, shouts of praise and the reading aloud of sermons. But above all you must be careful not to think to yourselves or say to companions anything but what is holy, pious and religious.’
[2] After this the angel took his party into the church, which was packed full with many who had held high rank in the world as well as many ordinary people. There were guards at the doors to prevent anyone leaving before spending his three days there. ‘Today,’ said the angel, ‘is the second day since these people came in; look carefully at them, and you will see how they glorify God.’
When they looked, they saw that most were asleep, and those who were awake could not stop yawning. As a result of constantly keeping their thoughts raised to God, and never allowing them to drop back to the body, some appeared to themselves and so also to others as if their faces were shut off from the body. Some were wild-eyed from constantly withdrawing their eyes. In short, all were depressed at heart and weary in spirit from boredom. They turned their backs on the pulpit and shouted: ‘Our ears are stunned. Put an end to your sermons; we cannot listen to another word and the sound of it is beginning to become hateful.’ Then they got up, rushed in a body to the doors, broke them open and by pressure on the guards drove them out of the way.
[3] On seeing this the priests followed them and coming close beside them kept teaching them amid prayers and sighs. ‘Keep the festival,’ they said, ‘glorify God, sanctify yourselves. In this forecourt to heaven we shall initiate you into the everlasting glorification of God in the magnificent, vast church which is in heaven, and so you will enjoy everlasting happiness.’ But they were unable to grasp this and hardly heard it, because two days of keeping their thoughts raised and removed from domestic and everyday matters had dulled their minds. But when they tried to snatch themselves away, the priests caught hold of their arms and their clothes too, pressing them to enter the buildings where sermons were being delivered. All to no avail; the people cried, ‘Leave us alone; we feel in our bodies as if we were fainting.’
[4] As soon as this was said, four men were seen, dressed in white robes and mitres. One of them had been an archbishop in the world and the other three had been bishops; all had now become angels. They called the priests together to address them. ‘We have seen you,’ they said, ‘from heaven with this flock of yours, and what sort of pastors you are. You are driving them mad. You do not know what glorifying God means; it means bringing forth the fruits of love, that is, faithfully, honestly and painstakingly doing the work demanded by one’s occupation. For this is a part of loving God and loving the neighbour; it is the bond which holds a community together, and it is the good it performs. By this God is glorified, as well as by worship at fixed times. Have you not read the Lord’s words:
In this is my Father glorified, by your bringing forth much fruit and becoming my disciples. John 15:8.
[5] ‘You priests can devote yourselves to worship and glorification, because this is your duty, and it brings you honour, glory and reward. Still you could no more than they devote yourselves to that glorification, if honour, glory and reward did not attend upon your duty.’
With these words the bishops ordered the guards on the doors to allow everyone to enter and to leave. ‘For,’ they said, ‘there is a vast number of people who are unable to imagine any joy in heaven other than constantly worshipping God, because they know nothing about conditions in heaven.’
[2] They replied in turn. The first said: ‘From earliest childhood until the end of my life in the world my notion of heaven was that it was the place of every kind of blessedness, bliss, delight, beauty and pleasure. I thought if I were admitted, such an aura of happiness would lap me round that I should drink it in and fill my heart with it, like a bridegroom at a wedding, and when he enters the bridal chamber with his bride. With this notion I went up to heaven and passed the first set of guards, and also the second. But when I reached the third set of guards, their officer spoke to me. “Who are you, friend?” he said. “Isn’t this heaven?” I answered. “I have come up here to satisfy my earnest desire, so please let me in.” And he did so. There I saw angels in white clothes, and they walked round me and looked at me, and I heard them whispering: “Here is a new arrival who is not wearing the clothes of heaven.” On hearing this I thought: “This sounds to me like the man whom the Lord spoke of as having gone to a wedding without a wedding garment.” So I said: “Give me clothes like yours.” But they only laughed. Then someone hurried up with orders from the court: “Strip him naked, throw him out and throw his clothes after him.” And in that way I was thrown out.’
[3] The second to speak said: “My belief was like his, that if only I was admitted to heaven, which is above my head, I should be surrounded by joys so that I could breathe them in for ever. I too was granted my wish. But when the angels saw me, they ran away, saying to one another: “What is this monstrous happening? How has a night bird come here?” In fact I felt I was changed from a human being, though no change had taken place; this was due to the pressure of the atmosphere of heaven on me. Soon someone hurried up with orders from the court, that two servants should take me out and escort me back down the path I had followed, until I reached home. When I was back at home I seemed to others and to myself like a human being again.’
[4] ‘I,’ said the third, ‘had always had a notion of heaven as a place, not as based on love. So when I came into this world, I had a great longing for heaven; and when I saw people going up, I followed them. I was allowed in, but not for more than a few paces. But when I wanted to cheer myself with my notion of the joys and blessedness there, the light of heaven, which was white as snow, and is said be in essence wisdom, filled my mind with bewilderment, so that darkness covered my eyes and I began to go mad. Then the heat of heaven, which was as intense as the whiteness of the light, and is said to be in essence love, made my heart pound, filled me with anxiety, and so racked me with internal pain, that I threw myself on my back on the ground. As I lay there, an attendant came from the court with orders that they were to carry me gently down to my own light and heat. On reaching these my spirit recovered and my heart became normal.’
[5] The fourth said that he too had thought of heaven as a place and not as based on love. ‘As soon as I came into the spiritual world,’ he said, ‘I asked the wise men whether one was allowed to go up to heaven. They told me that everyone is allowed, but they must take care they are not thrown out. I laughed at this and went up, believing as did others that all in the whole world could receive the joys there to the full. But in fact when I got inside, I nearly died, and the pain which racked my head and body made me cast myself upon the ground, and I writhed like a snake put close to a fire, creeping towards a precipice, over which I threw myself. Afterwards I was picked up by the bystanders below and carried to an inn, where I returned to normal.’
[6] The other five too had remarkable stories to tell about how they went up to heaven. They compared the changes in their condition of life with those of fish, when they are lifted out of water into air, or of birds in the upper air. They said that after such rough treatment they had no further desire to go to heaven, but only to live in the company of people similar to themselves, wherever they were. They were aware, they said, that in the world of spirits, where they then were, all are first prepared, the good for heaven, and the wicked for hell. When they have been prepared, they see roads opened up leading to communities of people like themselves, in whose company they will remain for ever. They take these roads with pleasure, because they are the ways their love takes them. All those from the first group assembled, on hearing this admitted that they too had no other notion of heaven than as a place, where they had only to open their mouths to drink in for ever the joys around them.
[7] After this the angel with the trumpet said to them:’ You can now see that the joys of heaven and everlasting happiness are not places, but are the conditions of a person’s life. The conditions of life in heaven arise from love and wisdom; and because it is service which holds together love and wisdom, the conditions of life in heaven are due to their combination in service. It is the same if one speaks of charity, faith and good deeds, since charity is love, faith is the truth which leads to wisdom, and good deeds are services. Moreover, there are in our spiritual world places just as there are in the natural world, otherwise we should have nowhere to live or any separate dwellings. But place there is not really place, but an appearance of space depending on one’s condition with respect to love and wisdom, that is, to charity and faith.
[8] ‘Everyone who becomes an angel carries within himself his own heaven, since he has a love for his own heaven. For man is by creation a small-scale effigy, image and model of the great heaven. The human form is nothing else. Therefore each person comes into the community in heaven of which he is formed as a particular effigy. When therefore he comes into that community, he enters a form corresponding to himself, so passing as it were from himself to himself in it, and from it to it in himself. He absorbs its life as his own, and its own as his. Each community is as it were something shared, and the angels there are like similar parts combining to create the community. It now follows from this that those who are in the grip of evils and so of falsities have formed in themselves an effigy of hell; and this in heaven is tortured by the influence and violence of one thing working upon its opposite. For hellish love is the opposite of heavenly love, so that the pleasures of those two loves clash with each other like enemies, and kill each other when they come to grips.’
So ten were chosen and followed the angel. They went up a hill by a sloping path, and from there on to a mountain, on top of which was the heaven of those angels. Previously seen from a distance it had looked to them like an expanse in the clouds. Gates were opened for them, and when they had passed through the third, the angel conducting them hastened to the prince of that community or heaven, and announced their arrival.
‘Take some of my retinue,’ replied the prince, ‘and tell our guests that their arrival is welcome to me. Take them into my outer courtyard, and allot each a room with its bedroom. And take some from my court and servants to wait upon them and serve them at their wish.’ This was done as had been ordered.
When they had been brought in by the angel, they asked whether they might visit the prince and see him. ‘It is morning now,’ replied the angel, ‘and you cannot see him before noon. Until then all are occupied with their duties and work. But you have been invited to lunch, and you will then sit at table with our prince. Meanwhile I shall take you into his palace, to see the splendid and magnificent things in it.’
[2] While they were stunned by the magnificence of what they had seen, the angel said: ‘Do not be surprised. These things you see were not made or crafted by the hand of any angel. They are the work of the Craftsman of the universe, given as a present to our prince. This therefore is architecture at its highest, and it is from this that all the rules of architecture in the world derive. You may judge,’ the angel went on, ‘that such things fascinate our eyes and so dazzle them that we think those are the joys of our heaven. But because our hearts are not set on them, they are only extras added to the joys of our hearts. Thus in so far as we look on them as extras, and as God’s handiwork, so far do we see in them the omnipotence and mercy of God.’
‘What do you mean?’ they answered, ‘there is no garden here. We can see only one tree, with what looks like golden fruits on its branches and its top, and what look like leaves of silver, their edges decorated with emeralds; and under the tree there are children with their nurses.’
To this the angel replied with deep feeling in his voice: ‘This tree is in the middle of the garden, and we call it the tree of our heaven; some call it the tree of life. But go on closer and your eyes will be opened, and you will see the garden.’ They did so, and their eyes were opened, and they saw trees laden with tasty fruits, with grape-vines trained round them; and their tops with fruit on them nodded towards the tree of life in the middle.
[2] These trees were planted in an unbroken row, extending outward and running in constant circles or rings, like a never-ending spiral. It was a perfect spiral of trees, in which one species followed another arranged in order of the nobility of their fruits. There was a considerable gap between the beginning of the spiral and the tree in the middle, and this gap sparkled with gleams of light, which made the trees of the ring shine with a splendour running in graduated steps from the first to the last. The first trees were the most outstanding of all, luxuriant with the finest fruits; these were called trees of paradise, something never seen before, because they do not, nor can they, exist on earth in the natural world. These were followed by trees that yield oil, and these by trees that yield wine. After this came trees with a fragrant scent, and finally trees with wood useful for making things. Here and there in this spiral or ring of trees were seats shaped out of tree-shoots brought and woven together from behind, enriched and embellished with their fruits. There were gates in this unbroken circle of trees, leading to flower gardens, and these leading to lawns, divided into plots and beds.
[3] When the angel’s companions saw these they cried; ‘Here is heaven made visible! Whichever way we turn our gaze, there is an impression made on us of heavenly paradise, beyond description.’ The angel was delighted to hear this, and said: ‘All the gardens in our heaven are visible forms or models representing the varied blessedness of heaven in their origins. It was the influence of the varied blessedness which uplifted your minds and made you cry: “Here is heaven made visible!” Those, however, who do not receive that influence look upon these paradises as no more than woodland. It is all those who have a love for performing services who receive that inflow. Those who have a love for glory and are not motivated by service do not receive it.’ Afterwards he set forth and instructed them what was the representation and meaning of each detail in that garden.
So they fastened these on with a girdle and followed their angel, who brought them into an open courtyard of the palace, where people could stroll, to wait for the prince. There the angel introduced them to groups of important people and governors, who were also awaiting the prince. After a short time they saw the doors thrown open, and through a rather wider door on the west the prince entered with a dignified procession. He was preceded by his privy councillors, then came his treasury councillors, and after them the leading members of the court. In their midst walked the prince, followed by courtiers of various ranks, and finally the attendants. Altogether they numbered a hundred and twenty.
[2] The angel was standing in front of the ten newcomers, who were dressed to look like residents. He approached the prince with them and respectfully introduced them. The prince without pausing in his progress said to them: ‘Come and eat with me.’
They followed him into the dining-room and saw a table magnificently set out. In the middle was a lofty pyramid of gold, with a hundred dishes ranged in three rows on their stands. On the dishes were sugared cakes and crystallised grape-juice, together with other delicacies made of bread and wine. Through the middle of the pyramid burst a sort of fountain of wine like nectar; the liquid spread out from the top of the pyramid, and filled goblets. By the side of this lofty pyramid were various heavenly designs made of gold, on which were plates and saucers filled with food of every kind. The heavenly designs on which the plates and saucers stood were artistic representations based on wisdom, which no art in the world could create, nor can they be described in worldly language. The plates and saucers were of silver, engraved all round with designs on a plane surface similar to those of their supports. The goblets were made of translucent gems. Such was the setting of the table.
[2] When they were reasonably satisfied, the prince addressed the ten guests, and said: ‘I have heard that on the earth beneath this heaven you were summoned to assemble, to disclose your thoughts about the joys of heaven, and so about everlasting happiness. I heard that you expressed your thoughts in different ways, each depending on the bodily pleasures you appreciate. But what are bodily pleasures without those of the soul? It is the soul that makes them attractive. The pleasures of the soul are in essence imperceptible states of blessedness, which become more and more perceptible as they come down into the thoughts of the mind, and from these into the feelings of the body. In the thoughts of the mind they are felt as kinds of bliss, in the feelings of the body as pleasures, and in the body itself as gratifications. Everlasting happiness is a compound of all these together. But the latter sort produce a happiness which is not everlasting but temporary; it reaches an end and passes away, sometimes turning into unhappiness. You have now seen that all your joys are also among heaven’s joys, and they exceed anything you have ever imagined; none the less they do not make any deep impression on our minds.
[3] ‘There are three things which flow from the Lord as one into our souls; these three, felt as one, or a triad, are love, wisdom and service. Love and wisdom, however, have no real existence except as concepts, because they are confined to the affection and thought which exist in the mind. But they are realised in service, because they come together in the act and work done by the body. Where they are realised in practice, they also remain in existence. Since love and wisdom come into and remain in existence in service, it is service we find attractive; and service consists in performing the tasks of one’s calling faithfully, honestly and diligently. The love of service and thus diligence in service concentrates the mind and keeps it from wandering, and absorbing all the desires which pour in from the body and the world through the senses to titillate them, causing the truths of religion and morality with the kinds of good they produce to be scattered to the four winds. But the earnest devotion of the mind to service keeps them together and binds them, disposing the mind so as to receive wisdom coming from those truths. Then it banishes to one side or the other the mockery and folly of falsities and vanities. But you will hear more on this subject from the wise men of our community, whom I will send to you this afternoon.’
With these words the prince rose from the table and his fellow diners with him, wished them peace, and told the angel who was their guide to take them back to their rooms, and offer them all the honours politeness demands. He was also told to call in polite and agreeable men to entertain them by talking about the varied joys of their community.
On hearing this the people sent from the town spoke as follows: ‘There are here holidays proclaimed by the prince to give mental relaxation from the weariness which some feel as the result of longing not to be outdone. On these days there are concerts of music and singing in the squares, and outside the town sports and theatrical performances. At this time the squares are equipped with galleries surrounded by balustrades of interwoven vines, from which hang bunches of grapes. Amongst these musicians sit in three tiers with string and wind instruments, some high and some low-pitched, some loud and some gentle-sounding, with at either side singers of either sex. These entertain the citizens with the most delightful anthems and songs, either in choirs or as solos, varying the genre from time to time. On holidays these performances last from morning till noon, and then through the afternoon till evening.
[2] ‘In addition, every morning there are to be heard coming from the houses round the squares the sweetest singing by maidens and girls, which echoes all through the town. There is one affection of spiritual love which is each day the subject of a song. That is to say, the affection is to be heard in the variations and modulations of the singing voice, and it is felt in the singing as if it were actually present. It flows into the souls of the audience, and rouses them to corresponding feelings. Such is the nature of singing in heaven. These singers say that the sound of their singing as it were inspires them and excites them inwardly, making them pleasurably uplifted, in proportion to the reactions of their listeners. When this is over, the windows and doors of the houses in the squares and streets are shut, and there is silence throughout the town, nor is there noise to be heard anywhere, nor are people to be seen wandering about. All then apply themselves to performing the task of their occupations.
[3] ‘But at noon the doors are opened, and in the afternoon the windows too in some places, so that they can watch the boys and girls playing in the streets under the eyes of their nurses and masters, who sit in the porches of the houses.
[4] ‘At the outermost edges of the town there are fields for various sports for boys and youths. There are races and games played with balls. There are games played with balls bouncing off walls, what is called rackets. There are competitions among the boys to see who is more and who less energetic in speaking, acting and seizing the point. The more energetic get a few laurel leaves as their prize. There are many other sports intended to develop latent skills in the boys.
[5] ‘In addition, there are actors who put on performances in theatres outside the town. These display the various kinds of honourable and virtuous action which take place in civilised society. There are some among them who are actors who show contrasts.’ ‘What do you mean,’ said one of the ten, ‘by showing contrasts?’ ‘No virtue,’ they replied, ‘can be vividly displayed with all its fine and proper sentiments, except by contrasts between degrees of virtue varying from maximum to minimum. These actors portray the minimum of virtues, until they become zero. But there is a firm rule that they are not to show anything of their opposites, what are called dishonourable and improper actions, except figuratively and as it were seen a long way off. The reason this rule is laid down is that nothing decent and good in any virtue can by successive steps change into what is indecent and evil; but it decreases more and more until it ceases to exist, at which point the opposite begins. Heaven, therefore, where everything is decent and good, has nothing in common with hell, where everything is indecent and evil.’
When the angel in charge of the group heard this, he said to them: ‘At table our prince talked with them about where wisdom resides and said that it was in service. Would you too please talk to them about this?’ ‘At man’s first creation,’ they said, ‘he was endowed with wisdom and the love of wisdom, not for his own sake, but so that he might share it with others. So there is a warning attached to the wisdom of the wise, that no one is to keep his wisdom to himself alone, or live for himself alone, but is at the same time to share it with others. That is the origin of society, which could not otherwise exist. To live for others is to perform services. Services are what hold society together, and there are as many ways of doing this as there are ways of doing good, and services are beyond counting. There are spiritual services, which have to do with love to God and love towards the neighbour. There are moral and political services, which have to do with the love of the community and country in which a person lives, and with his colleagues and fellow-citizens. There are natural services, which have to do with the love of the world and its demands. And there are bodily services, which have to do with looking after oneself, so as to be able to perform higher services.
[2] ‘All these services are imprinted on a person, and they follow in their proper order, one after the other; when they are present together, then one is contained within another. Those who are devoted to the first set of services, the spiritual ones, are also devoted to those that follow, and these people are wise. Those, however, who are not devoted to the first set, but still are to the second and following ones, are not so wise, but only appear so as the result of an outward show of morality and civility. Those who are not devoted to the first and second sets, but only the third and fourth, are far from being wise, for they are satans, loving only the world and themselves for the world’s sake. But those who are devoted only to the fourth set are the least wise of all, for they are devils who live exclusively for themselves, and what they do for others is entirely for their own sakes.
[3] ‘Moreover, every love has its own pleasure, for this is what gives it life; and the pleasure of the love of service is a heavenly pleasure, which enters into the pleasures that follow in turn, and in accordance with the order in which one follows the other it uplifts them and makes them everlasting.’ After this they listed the heavenly delights arising from the love of service, saying that there were tens of millions, and that those who went to heaven entered into them. So continuing with their wise talk about the love of service they spent the rest of the day with them until evening.
Then when they woke up, they heard the maidens and girls singing from the houses around the square, as was described before. The affection which was the subject of their song was on this occasion that of conjugial love. Its sweetness affected them and moved them deeply. They felt a blessed loveliness growing in their joys, uplifting and renewing them. When it was time, the angel said: ‘Get dressed and put on the clothes of heaven which our prince has sent you.’ They put them on and saw their clothes shining as if with the light of a flame. ‘Why is this?’ they asked the angel. ‘Because.’ he answered, ‘you are going to a wedding; at such times clothes in our community shine and become wedding garments.’
[2] While they were looking at these, the door of the next room was thrown open, and they saw six maidens coming out followed by the bridegroom and bride. They were holding hands, and they led each other to a seat set near the lamp-stand. They sat down on this, the bridegroom on the left and the bride on his right; and the six maidens took up a position beside the seat near the bride. The bridegroom was dressed in a mantle of gleaming purple and a tunic of shining linen with an ephod, on which was a golden plate set with a surround of diamonds. An egret was engraved upon this plate, the wedding emblem of this community of heaven. His head was covered with a mitre. The bride wore a red cloak over an embroidered gown falling from neck to foot, with a golden girdle below the bust; on her head she had a crown of gold set with rubies.
[3] When they had taken their places, the bridegroom turned to the bride and put a gold ring on her finger. Then he took out bracelets and a pearl necklace, and fastening the bracelets above her wrists and the necklace around her neck, he said: ‘Accept these pledges.’ As she accepted them, he kissed her and said: ‘Now you are mine,’ and he called her his wife.
When he did this, all the guests cried: ‘A blessing on you.’ Each said this individually, and then they all called it out together. Someone who had been sent by the prince to represent him also called this out; and at that instant the ante-chamber was filled with the fragrant smoke of incense, a sign of blessing from heaven. Then the attendants took the bread from the two tables next to the lamp-stand, and the goblets, which were now full of wine, from the tables in the corners, and gave each guest bread and a goblet; so they ate and drank. After this the husband and wife rose and were followed by the six maidens with silver lamps in their hands, now lit, as far as the threshold. So the married couple entered the bridal chamber, and the door was shut.
One of the wise men who was at the wedding said: ‘Do you understand the meaning of what you saw?’ They said they understood only a little, and they asked him why the bridegroom, who was now the husband, was dressed in this way. He replied that the bridegroom, who was now the husband, represented the Lord, and the bride, who was now the wife, represented the church, because weddings in heaven represent the marriage of the Lord with the church. ‘That,’ he said, ‘is why he had a mitre on his head, and he was dressed like Aaron in a mantle, a tunic and an ephod. That too is why the bride, now the wife, had a crown on her head and wore a cloak, like a queen. Tomorrow they will be dressed differently, because this representative role lasts only for today.’
[2] They asked a second question. ‘Since he represents the Lord and she the church, why did she sit on his right?’ ‘Because,’ said the wise man, ‘there are two things which make the marriage of the Lord and the church, love and wisdom; and the Lord is love and the church is wisdom. Wisdom is at the right hand of love, because a member of the church has wisdom as if of himself, and to the extent that he is wise, he receives love from the Lord. The right hand also stands for power, and love gets its power by means of wisdom. But as I said, after the wedding the representation is changed, for then the husband represents wisdom, and the bride the love for his wisdom. Yet this love is not the primary one, but a secondary love, which the wife gets from the Lord by means of the husband’s wisdom. The love of the Lord, which is the primary love, is a love of being wise in the husband. So after the wedding, the husband and his wife together represent the church.’
[3] They asked another question. ‘Why did you men not stand at the side of the bridegroom, now the husband, as the six maidens stood at the side of the bride, who is now the wife?’ ‘The reason,’ replied the wise man, ‘is that today we are counted among the maidens, and the number six stands for all and for what is complete.’ ‘Why is this?’ they said. ‘Maidens stand for the church, which is composed of people of both sexes. We too, therefore, in respect to the church are maidens. This passage in Revelation proves that this is so:
These are they who have not defiled themselves with women, for they are maidens, and they follow the Lamb wherever he goes. Rev. 14:4.
It was because maidens stand for the church that the Lord likened it to the ten maidens or virgins invited to a wedding (Matt. 25:1ff). It is because Israel, Zion and Jerusalem stand for the church that the Word says so many times ‘the virgin or daughter of Israel, Zion or Jerusalem.’ The Lord also describes His marriage with the church in these words from the Psalms of David:
The queen is at your right hand in the finest gold of Ophir, her clothing is woven with gold; in embroidered garments she will be brought to the king, and after her the maidens, her friends, will come into the king’s palace. Ps. 45:9-15.’
[4] After this they said: ‘Surely it is appropriate to have a priest present to conduct a service over them?’ ‘This is appropriate,’ said the wise man, ‘on earth, but not in the heavens, because they represent the Lord Himself and the church. This fact is unknown on earth. Yet with us a priest conducts engagement ceremonies, and hears, receives, confirms and consecrates their consent. Consent is the essential feature of marriage, and the other ceremonies which follow are its formal expression.’
So the angel went back to his companions and told them the answer he had received; and he added: ‘I suspect your attraction to the opposite sex is not chaste. In heaven we love maidens for their beauty and the elegance of their manners; we love them very dearly, but in a chaste manner.’ His companions laughed at this, and said: ‘Your suspicions are well founded. Can anyone see such beauties close at hand without some feeling of desire?’
So they dressed themselves and went with the angel and entered the church. It was, they saw, large enough to hold about three thousand; it was semi-circular, with pews or seats running in an unbroken arc to match the shape of the church, the seats at the rear being higher than those at the front. In front of these was a pulpit, a little back from the centre. The door was behind the pulpit on the left. The ten newcomers went in with their angel guide, who assigned places to them where they were to sit, telling them: ‘Everyone who comes into the church knows his own place. He knows this intuitively, and he cannot sit anywhere else. If he does, he cannot hear or perceive anything, and he upsets the arrangement, and if this happens, the priest is not inspired.’
As the congregation was leaving, the angel asked the priest to say a few words of greeting to his ten companions. So he came over to them, and they talked together for half an hour. The priest spoke about the Divine Trinity, saying it was in Jesus Christ, in whom dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, as the Apostle Paul stated. Afterwards he spoke about the union of charity and faith, but what he said was the union of charity and truth, because faith is truth.
There are too the visions of the prophets. For instance, Ezekiel saw the four beasts which were cherubim (Ezek., chapters 1 and 10); the new temple and the new earth and the angel measuring them (chapters 40-48); his being taken off to Jerusalem and seeing abominations there, and being taken to Chaldea into captivity (chapters 8 and 11). Zechariah had similar experiences; he saw a man riding among the myrtles (Zech. 1:8ff); four horns, and then a man, carrying in his hand a measuring-line (2:1ff); a lamp-stand and two olive trees (4:1ff); a flying scroll and a barrel (5:1, 6); four chariots coming from between two mountains, and their horses (6:1ff). Equally Daniel saw four beasts coming up from the sea (Dan. 7:1ff); the fighting between the ram and the he-goat (8:1ff); the angel Gabriel with whom he had a long conversation (chapter 9). Elisha’s boy saw chariots and horses of fire around Elisha; and he saw these when his eyes had been opened [2 Kings 6:17].
It is clear from these and many other passages in the Word that the things which come about in the spiritual world have been seen by many both before and after the Lord’s coming. Is it surprising that the same has happened now too, when a church is starting up, and the New Jerusalem is coming down from the Lord out of heaven?
MARRIAGES IN HEAVEN
The existence of marriages in the heavens is incredible to those who believe that after death a person becomes a soul or spirit, if their concept of a soul or spirit is that of a tenuous ether or breath. So too it is to those who do not believe that a person can live as a person again until after the day of the Last Judgment, and generally speaking to those who know nothing about the spiritual world, where angels and spirits live, and where the heavens and hells are. Since this world has so far remained unknown, and there is utter ignorance of the fact that the angels of heaven are completely human in form, and likewise the spirits of hell, though less completely human, any revelation about marriages has been impossible. For people would say, ‘How can a soul be united with a soul?, or a breath with a breath, as husband and wife are united on earth?’ And many more things which, the moment they were uttered, would destroy and scatter belief in marriages there.
Now, however, that many revelations have been made about the spiritual world, and its nature has been described in my books HEAVEN AND HELL and THE APOCALYPSE REVEALED, it is possible to present also arguments in confirmation of the existence of marriage there, even for reason to grasp, as follows:
(i) A person lives on as a person after death.
(ii) A male is then male and a female is female.
(iii) Each person retains his own love after death.
(iv) The chief love is sexual love; and in the case of those who reach heaven, that is, those who become spiritual on earth, it is conjugial love.
(v) These facts have been fully confirmed by eye-witness.
(vi) Consequently there are marriages in the heavens.
(vii) The Lord’s statement that after the resurrection people are not given in marriage refers to spiritual weddings.
These arguments will now be developed in sequence.
It has not so far been known that a person lives on as a person after death for the reasons which have just been mentioned. It is surprising that this is even true in Christendom, where the Word is known to give enlightenment about everlasting life, and where the Lord Himself teaches that all the dead rise again, and God is not the God of the dead, but of the living (Matt. 22:31, 32; Luke 20:37, 38). Moreover, as far as the affections and thoughts of a person’s mind are concerned, he is in the company of angels and spirits, and so closely associated with them that he cannot be torn away from them except by dying. This ignorance is all the more surprising, when everyone who has died from the beginning of creation has come or is coming to his own people, or, as the Word has it, he has been or is being gathered to them.
In addition, people have a general impression, which is none other than the influence of heaven on the inner levels of the mind, which causes him to have an inward perception of truths, and so to speak to see them. This allows him to grasp this truth in particular, that a person continues to live as a person after death, happily if he has led a good life, unhappily if not. Surely everyone has this thought, if he lifts his mind a little above the body and thinks beyond the immediate level of the senses, as happens when he is deep in the worship of God, or when he lies on his death-bed awaiting his last breath, and similarly when he hears people speaking about the departed and their fate.
I have related thousands of facts about the departed, telling their brothers, wives and friends the fate of some of them. I have also written about the fate of the British, the Dutch, the Roman Catholics, the Jews, and the heathen, and about the fate of Luther, Calvin and Melanchthon. But up to the present I have never heard anyone remark, ‘How can that be their fate, when they have not yet been resurrected from their graves, since the Last Judgment has not yet taken place? Surely they are in the meantime souls, mere puffs of wind, in some limbo called Pu*?’ I have never heard anyone say such things, and this has allowed me to draw the conclusion that each person has a private perception that he lives on as such after death. Does not any husband who loves his wife, his young or older children, say to himself when they are dying or dead, that they are in God’s hands, and he will see them again after his own death, and he will again share with them a life of love and joy?
* Literally, ‘in some Pu or where.’ Pu is the Greek word for ‘where’. See 29 below.
The result of this would be that being born a man was the most lamentable fate imaginable. But it is the reverse of this which has been provided by the Lord, who is Jehovah from everlasting, the Creator of the universe. He has seen to it that a person who links himself to Him by living according to His commandments, is more blessed and happier after death than in the world before it. What makes a person more blessed and happier is that he is then spiritual, and a spiritual person feels and perceives spiritual pleasure, which so far surpasses natural pleasure that it is a thousand times greater.
* By Archbishop Ussher’s Biblical chronology.
The reason why a person after death is spiritual or substantial is because this lay hidden within the natural or material person. This served him as a covering, like an outer skin, which on being shed allows the spiritual or substantial person to emerge, so that he is more pure, more inward and more complete. A spiritual person is still a complete person, although invisible to a natural person, as was made plain by the Lord’s appearing to the Apostles after His resurrection. He was seen and then later was not seen, and yet He was a man like Himself, when He was seen and then disappeared. They said too that, when they saw Him, their eyes were opened.
* i.e. composed of substance, believed to underlie all forms of matter.
Since a person lives on after death, and a person may be male or female, and the male and the female are so different that one cannot change into the other, it follows that after death a male lives on as a male and a female as a female, each of them being spiritual. We say that the male cannot change into the female, nor the female into the male, so that in consequence after death a male is a male and a female is a female, but because it is not known in what masculinity and femininity essentially consist, I must state this briefly here.
The essential difference is that the inmost core of the male is love, and its envelope is wisdom, or what is the same thing, it is love enveloped in wisdom. The inmost core of the female is the wisdom of the male, and its envelope is the love from it. But this is a feminine love, which the Lord gives a wife by means of her husband’s wisdom. The other love is a masculine love, a love of being wise, given by the Lord to the husband to the extent that he acquires wisdom. Thus it is that the male is the wisdom of love and the female the love of that wisdom. There is therefore implanted in each from creation a love of being joined into one. But I shall have more to say about these matters in what follows. The female comes from the male, that is, the woman was taken out of man, as is clear from the following passage of Genesis:
Jehovah God took one of the man’s ribs and closed up the flesh in its place, and he built up the rib he had taken from the man to make a woman. And he brought her to the man, and the man said, She is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh, so it shall be called Ishshah,* because it was taken from man. Gen. 2:21-23.
The meaning of rib and flesh will be given elsewhere.
* Hebrew for ‘wife’.
People know about the existence of love, but not what it is. Our common forms of speech tell us that love exists, as when we say that he loves me, the king loves his subjects, the subjects love their king, the husband loves his wife, the mother her children, and they love her. We also talk of one or another as loving his country, his fellow citizens, his neighbour, and the same expression is used of non-personal objects, as in he loves this or that.
But in spite of the universal mention of love in speech, still hardly anyone knows what love is. Since meditation about it cannot form any concept of it in a person’s thinking, or bring it into the light of the intellect, because it is not a matter of light, but of heat, he asserts that it is either non-existent, or some influence produced by seeing, hearing and being in a person’s company, and so impelling him. He is quite unaware that it is his very life, not just the general vital principle of the whole of his body and of all his thoughts, but the life in every single detail of these. A wise person can grasp this in this way. Suppose we say, ‘If you take away the affection of love, can you think of anything? Can you do anything?’ Surely to the extent that affection, a part of love, grows cold, so do thought, speech and action, and to the extent that affection grows warm, so do they. Love then is the heat of a person’s life, his vital heat, and this alone is the reason blood is hot and also that it is red. These effects arise from the fire of the sun of the heaven of angels, which is unadulterated love.
The reason why a person’s sexual love remains after death is that a male remains a male and a female remains a female, and the male’s masculinity pervades the whole and every part of him, and likewise a female’s femininity; and the impulse to be joined is present in every detail down to the smallest. Since that impulse to be joined was implanted from creation and is therefore continually present, it follows that the one desires the other and longs to be joined to the other. Love taken by itself is nothing but a desire and hence an impulse to be joined; conjugial love is an impulse to be joined into one. For the male and the female of the human species are so created as to be able to become like a single individual, that is, one flesh; and when united, then they are, taken together, the full expression of humanity. If not so joined, they are two, each being as it were a divided person or half a person. Since that impulse to be joined lies deeply hidden in every part of both male and female, and every part has the ability and desire to be joined into one, it follows that people retain mutual and reciprocal sexual love after death.
I have so far considered it enough to confirm these propositions by intellectual, what are called rational, arguments: that a person lives on as a person after death, that a male is then a male and a female a female, that each person retains his own love after death, and his chief loves are sexual and conjugial. But people have from childhood been given by parents and teachers, and later by learned men and clergy, a firm belief that they will not live on as people after death, except on the day of the Last Judgment, and some have now spent six thousand years waiting for it. Moreover, many have placed this belief in the category of things which must be taken on trust and not understood. For these reasons it has been necessary to confirm the same propositions also by eye-witness accounts. If this is not done, the person who trusts only his senses will be led by the belief forced on him to say, ‘If people lived on as people after death, I could see and hear them’ and ‘Who has come down from heaven, or up from hell, to tell us?’
But it has not been and still is not possible for an angel of heaven to come down, or for a spirit of hell to come up, and talk with a person, unless the inner levels of his mind, that is, of his spirit, have been opened by the Lord. This can only happen fully with those whom the Lord has prepared to receive the truths of spiritual wisdom. It has therefore pleased the Lord to do this with me, in order to ensure that conditions in heaven and hell, and how people live after death, should not remain unknown, be sunk in ignorance and finally buried in denial. The eye-witness proofs of the propositions mentioned above are too numerous to relate here; but they can be seen in my book HEAVEN AND HELL, also in the CONTINUATION ABOUT THE SPIRITUAL WORLD*; and later in my Apocalypse Revealed. But in so far as particularly concerns marriage, they will be found in the account of experiences subjoined to sections or chapters of this book.
* Now usually printed together with THE LAST JUDGMENT.
Since this has now been confirmed both by argument and by experience, it requires no further proof.
We read in the Gospels:
Some of the Sadducees, who deny that there is a resurrection, asked Jesus, saying, Master, Moses wrote, ‘If a man’s brother who has a wife dies, and he is childless, his brother is to marry his wife, and raise up seed to his brother.’ There were seven brothers each of whom, one after the other married a wife, but they died childless. At length the woman too died. In the resurrection then, whose wife will she be? But Jesus in reply told them, The children of this world marry and are given in marriage. But those who will be judged worthy of reaching the other world and rising again from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage. For they can no longer die, for they are like angels and sons of God, being sons of the resurrection. But the resurrection of the dead was proved by Moses calling the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. But God is not the God of the dead, but of the living; for him all are alive. Luke 20:27-38; Matt. 22:23-32; Mark 12:18-27.
The Lord made two points in this teaching; first that people rise again after death, and secondly, that they are not given in marriage in heaven. Resurrection after death was proved by God being not the God of the dead, but of the living, and Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are alive; and further by the parable of the rich man in hell and Lazarus in heaven (Luke 16:22-31).
[2] The second point, that people are not given in marriage in heaven, was proved by the words ‘those judged worthy of reaching the other world do not marry or are given in marriage.’ It is plain this means spiritual weddings because of the immediately following words, ‘they can no longer die, because they are like angels and sons of God, being sons of the resurrection.’ A spiritual wedding means being linked with the Lord, something that happens on earth, and if it has taken place on earth, it has also taken place in heaven. The wedding therefore cannot be repeated in heaven, nor can they be given in marriage again. This is the meaning of these words, ‘The sons of this world marry and are given in marriage. But those judged worthy of reaching the other world neither marry nor are given in marriage.’ These people are also called by the Lord ‘the sons of the wedding’ (Matt. 9:15; Mark 2:19*); and in this passage ‘angels,’ ‘sons of God’ and ‘sons of the resurrection.’
[3] Marrying is being linked with the Lord, and going in to a wedding is being received into heaven by the Lord. This is plain from these passages. The kingdom of the heavens is like a royal personage who made a wedding for his son, and sent out his servants with invitations to the wedding (Matt. 22:1-14). The kingdom of the heavens is like the ten maidens who went out to meet the bridegroom, five of whom were ready and went in to the wedding (Matt. 25:1ff). It is clear that the Lord here meant Himself from verse 13 of this chapter, which says, ‘Keep awake, because you do not know the day or the hour at which the Son of Man will come.’ Also from the Book of Revelation:
The time of the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his wife has made herself ready. Blessed are they who are summoned to the wedding feast of the Lamb. Rev. 19:7, 9.
There is a spiritual meaning in everything the Lord said, as was shown fully in THE TEACHING OF THE NEW JERUSALEM ABOUT THE HOLY SCRIPTURE, published at Amsterdam in 1763.
* The original Greek says ‘sons of the bride-chamber.’
* * * * *
One morning I looked up into heaven and saw above me one broad level above another, and as I watched, the first level near to me was opened up, and then the second above, and finally the third, which was the highest. I was enlightened by this so as to grasp that the angels forming the first or lowest heaven were on the first level, those forming the second or middle heaven on the second level, and those forming the third or highest heaven on the third level.
At first I wondered what this meant and why it so appeared; and then I heard a voice like the sound of a trumpet coming out of heaven, which said, ‘We have noticed and now see that you are meditating about conjugial love. We know that so far no one on earth knows what truly conjugial love is in its origin and essence, important though it is to know this. It has therefore pleased the Lord to open up the heavens to you, so that the light which enlightens may flow into the inner levels of your mind and allow you to perceive it. Our celestial delights in the heavens, especially the third, are chiefly from conjugial love. We have therefore been given permission to send down a married couple for you to see.’
[2] Then suddenly there was to be seen a chariot coming down from the highest or third heaven, containing what seemed to be one angel. But as it approached, it seemed to have two angels in it. The chariot seen from afar sparkled like a diamond, and had harnessed to it foals as white as snow. The travellers riding in the chariot held in their hands two turtle-doves, and they called out to me, ‘You would like us to come closer, but be careful then that the fiery radiance, which is from the heaven we come down from, does not strike too deep. It will certainly enlighten the higher concepts in your intellect, which are in themselves heavenly. But these are inexpressible in the world where you now are. So understand rationally what you are about to hear, and so explain this to your intellect.’
‘I will be careful,’ I replied, ‘come closer.’ They did so, and turned out to be a husband and wife. ‘We are a married couple,’ they said. ‘We have led a blessed life in heaven from the earliest time, which you call the Golden Age. We have been perpetually in the bloom of youth, in which you see us today.’
[3] I gazed at them both, because I realised that in their life and their adornment they were a picture of conjugial love. Their lives were to be seen from their faces, their adornment from their dress. For all angels are affections of love in human form. Their ruling affection shines out from their faces, and it is their affection which provides and determines what they wear. So in heaven there is a saying, everyone is dressed by his affection. The husband looked to be of an age half way between an adolescent and a young adult. Sparkling light glittered from his eyes, an effect of the wisdom of love; this light made his face shine with a kind of internal radiance, and this radiation made his skin shine on the outside, so that his whole face was a single lovely splendour. He was dressed in an ankle-length robe, over a blue garment with a gold belt, decorated with three gems, a sapphire at either side and a carbuncle at the centre. He wore stockings of shining linen with silver threads in the weave, and pure silk shoes. This was the picture presented by conjugial love in the husband.
[4] In the wife it appeared like this. I saw her face and at the same time I did not see it. It looked like Beauty itself, but I could not see it because this is inexpressible. Her face shone with fiery light, the light the angels in the third heaven enjoy, and this dazzled my sight, so that I was simply amazed. When she noticed this, she spoke to me. ‘What can you see?’ she asked. ‘I can see nothing but conjugial love and the form it takes,’ I answered. ‘But I both see and don’t see.’
At this she turned sideways on to her husband, and then I could gaze at her more fixedly. Her eyes flashed with the light of her heaven, a fiery light, as I have said, which derives from the love of wisdom. For the love wives have for their husbands in that heaven comes from and is focussed on their wisdom, and the love husbands have for their wives comes from and is focussed on that love for themselves, so that it unites them. As a result her beauty was such that no painter could ever rival it or render it in its true appearance, for his colours lack radiance and his art has no means to express her loveliness. Her hair was beautifully dressed in an arrangement which had a meaning by correspondence, and it had flowers in it made of jewelled settings. Her necklace was of carbuncles, and from it hung a rosary of gold-coloured gems, and she had pearl bracelets. She was dressed in a red gown over a purple blouse, fastened at the front with rubies. But I was surprised to see that the colours changed as she turned towards or away from her husband, and this too made them sparkle more or less, more when they looked at each other, less when not directly facing.
[5] When I had seen this, they spoke with me again; and when the husband spoke, it was as if what he said came at the same time from the wife, and when the wife spoke, it was as if it came at the same time from her husband, so closely united were their minds, from which their utterances flowed. And I could also then hear the sound of conjugial love, which was in inward unison within their speech, and arose from the delights of a state of peace and innocence.
At length they said, ‘We are being called back, we must go.’ Then they were seen again riding in a chariot, as before. They drove along a paved road between flower-beds with olive-trees and trees laden with orange fruit springing from them. When they approached their own heaven, maidens came out to welcome them and escort them in.
I once saw three spirits newly arrived from the world, who were wandering about, gazing around and asking questions. They were surprised to find that they were still living as human beings, and seeing familiar sights. For they knew that they had departed from the previous, natural, world, and that there they had not believed that they would live as human beings until after the day of the Last Judgment, when they would again be clothed in the flesh and bones they had left in their graves. So to free them of all doubt that they were really human beings, they took turns to examine and touch themselves and others, handling objects and finding a thousand proofs that they were just as much human beings as in their previous world, with the one difference that they could see one another in brighter light, and objects in greater splendour, that is to say, more perfectly.
[2] Then it happened that two angelic spirits came across them. They stopped them to ask, ‘Where do you come from?’ ‘We have departed from the world,’ they replied, ‘and are living again in a world, so we have moved from one world to another; that is what is making us wonder.’ The three newcomers then questioned the two angelic spirits about heaven; and since two of the newcomers were young men, and their eyes glittered with the spark of sexual lust, the angelic spirits said, ‘Have you perhaps seen any women?’ ‘Yes, we have,’ they answered.
In reply to their questions about heaven the angelic spirits said, ‘In heaven everything is magnificent and splendid, things of a sort you have never set eyes on. There are girls and youths there, the girls so beautiful they could be called models of beauty, and the youths of such good character they could be called models of good character. The beauty of the girls and the good character of the youths match so well that they resemble shapes that fit snugly together.
The two newcomers enquired whether human form in heaven is exactly like that in the natural world. The reply was that they are exactly alike, with nothing taken away from the man or from the woman. In short, a man is a man, and a woman is a woman, with all the perfection of shape with which they were endowed by creation. Please go aside and check yourselves over, to make sure you are just as much a man as before.’
[3] The newcomers asked another question: ‘We were told in the world we have left that in heaven there is no giving in marriage, because people are then angels. So is sexual love possible?’ The angelic spirits replied, ‘Your sort of sexual love is impossible, but there is angelic sexual love, which is chaste and free from all the allures of lust.’ ‘If sexual love,’ said the newcomers, ‘is devoid of allures, what is it then?’ Thinking about that kind of love made them groan and say, ‘How boring heavenly joy must be! How could any young man long to go to heaven? Is not such love barren and lifeless?’
The angelic spirits replied with a smile, ‘Sexual love among the angels, the kind of love there is in heaven, is still full of the most intimate delights. It is an extremely pleasant feeling, as if every part of the mind were expanded. This affects all parts of the chest, and inside it is as if the heart were playing games with the lungs; and this play gives rise to breathing, sound and speech. These make contact between the sexes, that is, between young men and girls, the very model of heavenly sweetness, because it is pure.
[4] All newcomers who come up to heaven are tested to see how chaste they are. They are introduced into the company of girls of heavenly beauty, and these can detect from their sound, speech, face, eyes, gestures and the sphere they emit, what their sexual love is like. If it is unchaste, they run away and tell their friends they have seen satyrs and priapi. The newcomers too undergo a change and appear hairy to the eyes of angels, with feet like calves or leopards. They are quickly sent back down, so as not to pollute with their lust the atmosphere there.’
On hearing this the two newcomers said again, ‘So there is no sexual love in heaven! What can chaste sexual love be but love stripped of its living essence? Surely the contacts between young men and women there are boring pleasures. We are not made of stone or wood, but sensations and the wish to live.’
[5] On hearing this the two angelic spirits indignantly replied, ‘You are quite ignorant of what chaste sexual love is, because you are not yet chaste yourselves. That love is the supreme delight of the mind and so of the heart, but not of the flesh too below the heart. Angelic chastity, which is shared by either sex, prevents that love from passing beyond the barrier of the heart, but within and above it the young man’s good character enjoys the delights of chaste sexual love with the beauty of the young woman. These are too inward and too rich in charm to be described in words. This sexual love is the prerogative of angels, because they have only conjugial love; and this cannot be combined with unchaste sexual love. Truly conjugial love is a chaste love, and has nothing in common with unchaste love. It is confined to one person of the opposite sex to the exclusion of all others, for it is a love of the spirit leading to love of the body, not a love of the body leading to love of the spirit, that is to say, not a love which attacks the spirit.’
[6] The two newcomers were pleased to hear this and said, ‘So there is sexual love in heaven. What else is conjugial love?’ But the angelic spirits replied, ‘Think more deeply and check your thoughts; you will find that your sexual love is love outside marriage, quite different from conjugial love, which is as different from it as wheat from chaff, or rather what is human from what is bestial. If you ask women in heaven what is love outside marriage, I assure you they will reply, “What do you mean? What are you saying? How can you utter a question that hurts our ears like this? How can a love which was not created be generated in a person?”
‘If you then ask them what truly conjugial love is, I know they will answer that it is not sexual love, but the love of one of the opposite sex, something that happens only when a young man sees the young woman the Lord has provided for him, and the young woman sees the young man. Then they both feel the fire of marriage catch alight in their heart, and he sees that she is his and she sees that he is hers. One love meets the other, makes itself known and instantly joins their souls, and thus their minds. From there it enters their chests, and after they are married spreads further, so becoming love in all its fulness, growing together day by day, until they are no longer two, but as if one person.
[7] ‘I know too that these women in heaven will swear that they know no other kind of sexual love. For they say, “How can sexual love exist, if it does not go out to meet the other and receive it in return, so as to long for everlasting union, the two becoming one flesh?”‘ To this the angelic spirits added, ‘In heaven no one knows what promiscuity means or even the possibility of its existence. Angels feel cold all over at the idea of unchaste love or love outside marriage; on the other hand chaste or conjugial love makes them feel warm all over. In the case of men, all their sinews go slack at the sight of a whore, and become tense on seeing their wives.’
[8] On hearing this the three newcomers asked whether married couples in the heavens have the same kind of love as they do on earth. The two angelic spirits replied that it is exactly the same. Then seeing they wanted to know whether the ultimate delights were the same there, they said they were exactly the same, but far more blessed, ‘because,’ they said, ‘angels’ perception and feeling is much more exquisite that those of human beings; and what brings love alive but the current of potency? Surely its failure leads to a cessation and cooling of that love? Is not that power the very measure, degree and basis for that love? Is it not its beginning, its strengthening and its completion? It is a universal law that first things are brought into being by ultimates, are kept in being by them and endure by their means. So it is with this love; so if the ultimate delights were absent, there would be no delights in conjugial love.’
[9] Then the newcomers asked whether the ultimate delights of that love led to the birth of children there, saying that, if not, what use were they? The angelic spirit replied that there are no natural, only spiritual children. ‘What,’ they asked, ‘are spiritual children?’ ‘A married couple,’ they answered, ‘are more and more united by the ultimate delights in the marriage of good and truth. The marriage of good and truth is that of love and wisdom, and love and wisdom are the children born of that marriage. Since in heaven the husband is wisdom and the wife is the love of wisdom, both being spiritual, they cannot have any but spiritual children conceived and born there. This is why these delights do not leave angels depressed, as some on earth are, but cheerful; this is due to the constant inflow of fresh strength to replace the former, at once renewing and enlightening it. For all who reach heaven return to the springtime of their youth, recovering the strength of that age, and keeping this for ever.’
[10] On hearing this the newcomers said, ‘Do we not read in the Word that in heaven people are not given in marriage, since they are angels?’ ‘Look up to heaven,’ was the angelic spirits’ answer to this, ‘and you will receive your answer.’ They asked why they should look up to heaven. ‘Because,’ they were told, ‘it is from there we get our interpretation of the Word. The Word is deeply spiritual, and angels, being spiritual, will teach us its spiritual meaning.’
After a short while heaven was thrown open overhead, and two angels came into view, who said, ‘There are weddings in the heavens as there are on earth, but only for those for whom good and truth are married, for no others are angels. So it is spiritual weddings, the marriage of good and truth, which are meant by this passage. These are possible on earth, but not after death, and so not in the heavens. So it is said of the five foolish maidens, who were also invited to the wedding, that they could not go in, because they lacked the marriage of good and truth; for they had no oil, but only lamps. Oil means good and lamps truth; and being given in marriage is entering heaven, where that marriage is.’
The three newcomers were very happy to hear this, being full of the longing for heaven and hoping to get married there. So they said, ‘We shall devote ourselves to good behaviour and a decorous life, so that we can achieve our aims.’
THE STATE OF MARRIED COUPLES AFTER DEATH
I have just demonstrated the existence of marriage in the heavens, so I must now show whether or not the marital bond entered into in the world will last and remain stable after death. Since this is not a matter of judgment but of experience, something I have been given by associating with angels and spirits, it is for me to pass it on, but in such a way as to gain support from reason. To know about this is something married couples hope and long for. For husbands who have loved their wives, if their wives are dead, want to know whether all is well with them, and whether they will meet again; and likewise wives who have loved their husbands. Many couples too want to know in advance whether they will be parted after death or will live together. Those whose dispositions are not in harmony want to know if they will be parted; those whose dispositions are in harmony whether they will live together. So to satisfy these wishes I shall pass on my experiences, in the following sequence.
(i) Everyone retains his sexual love after death, exactly as it was inwardly; that is, as it was inwardly in his thought and will while in the world.
(ii) The same is true of conjugial love.
(iii) Married couples generally meet after death, recognise each other, renew their association and for some time live together. This happens in their first state, while they are concerned with outward matters as in the world.
(iv) But by stages, as they put off their outward state and enter instead into their inward one, they perceive what their mutual loves and feelings towards each other were like, and whether or not they can live together.
(v) If they are able to live together, they remain a married couple. But if not they part, sometimes the husband leaving the wife, sometimes the wife leaving the husband, and sometimes each leaving by mutual agreement.
(vi) In this case a man is given a suitable wife, and the woman likewise a husband.
(vii) Married couples enjoy living together in the same way as in the world, but this is more pleasant and blessed. It does not, however, lead to the procreation of children, but their place is taken by spiritual offspring, love and wisdom.
(viii) This is what happens to those who go to heaven, but not to those who go to hell.
I shall now explain how each of these statements can be demonstrated and proved.
Every love accompanies a person after death, because it is the essence of his life; and the dominant love, the chief of all, lasts for ever in a person, together with the subordinate loves. The reason is that love is properly a function of a person’s spirit, reaching the body from the spirit. Since after death a person becomes a spirit, he brings his love with him. Since love is the essence of a person’s life, it is obvious that a person’s fate after death is determined by the kind of life he led in the world.
As regards sexual love, this is a universal feature shared by all. For it was implanted from creation in a person’s soul, which is the source of the whole person’s essence, as something necessary for the continuance of the human race. This love remains the chief one, because after death a man is a man and a woman is a woman; and there is nothing in the soul, mind or body which is not male in the man and female in the woman. These two have been so created as to strive to be joined, in fact to be joined into one. This striving is sexual love, which precedes conjugial love. Since then this tendency to union is stamped upon every detail of the male and the female, it follows that it cannot be wiped out and die together with the body.
* This is the opposite of conjugial love, which Swedenborg named amor scortatorius. Though with other nouns ‘promiscuous’ may serve, it is hardly sufficient to translate ‘promiscuous love’, since it is especially reserved for the love which is the opposite of the love of one man for one woman, and so is opposed to the principle of monogamy.
Because sexual and conjugial love are different, both are here mentioned, and it is stated that conjugial love also remains after death as it was in a person’s interior when he lived in the world. But since few people know the difference between sexual and conjugial love, I must at the outset of this section say something by way of preface. Sexual love is love directed to and shared with several persons of the other sex, but conjugial love is directed to and shared with one person of the other sex. Love directed to and shared with several persons is natural love, for man has this in common with animals and birds, which are natural creatures. But conjugial love is spiritual, special and proper to human beings, because human beings were created, and are therefore born, to become spiritual. In so far as a person becomes spiritual, he sheds sexual love and takes on conjugial love.
At the beginning of a marriage sexual love seems as if combined with conjugial love. But as the marriage progresses, these loves become distinct, and then with those who are spiritual, sexual love is banished and conjugial love is introduced. In the case of those who are natural, the reverse happens. What I have now said makes it plain that sexual love, being shared with several persons and inherently natural, or rather animal, is impure and unchaste, since it is errant and unchecked, scortatory. Conjugial love is totally different. It will be shown in the following pages that conjugial love is spiritual and properly human.
47r* (iii) Married couples generally meet after death, recognise each other, renew their association and for some time live together. This happens in their first state, while they are concerned with outward matters as in the world.
After death a person goes through two states, an outer and an inner one. He comes first into his outer state, afterwards into his inner one. When he is in his outer state, a husband meets his wife, if they have both died, recognises her and if they lived together in the world forms an association and for some time they live together. While they are in this state, each is unaware of the other’s feelings towards him or her, since this is kept hidden at the inward level. But afterwards, when they reach their inner state, their feelings become plain. If they are harmonious and sympathetic, they continue their married life; but if they are discordant and antipathetic, they put an end to it.
If a man had more than one wife, he associates with them in turn, while he is in the outer state; but on entering upon his inward state, when he can grasp the nature of the feelings of love, he either chooses one and leaves the rest, or he may leave them all. For in the spiritual world as much as in the natural one, no Christian is allowed to marry more than one wife, because this is an attack on religion and profanes it. The same thing happens to a woman, if she has had more than one husband. However, wives do not form associations with their husbands; they merely present themselves, and the husbands take them to themselves. It should be noted that husbands rarely recognise their wives, but wives recognise their husbands very well, since women are able to perceive inward love, while men perceive only outward love.
* There are two sections numbered 47 and 48 in the original.
48r (iv) But by stages, as they put off their outward state and enter instead into their inward one, they perceive what their mutual loves and feelings towards each other were like, and whether or not they can live together.
There is no need to explain this further, since it follows from what was explained in the last section. I shall here only illustrate the way a person after death puts off his outer state and takes up his inner one. Each person is after death first brought into what is called the world of spirits, which is midway between heaven and hell, and there he is prepared, for heaven if good, for hell if wicked.
[2] The preparation he undergoes there is intended to bring the interior and the exterior into harmony, so that they make one, instead of disagreeing and making two. This is what happens in the natural world, and it is only in the case of those of upright heart that they make one. Their making two is clear from the deceitful and tricky, especially hypocrites, toadies, pretenders and liars. In the spiritual world, however, no one is allowed to have his mind divided, but anyone who was wicked inwardly will also be wicked outwardly. Likewise one who was good will be good both inwardly and outwardly.
[3] For everyone after death becomes what he was like inwardly, not outwardly. For this purpose he is then by turns put into his outward and then his inward state. When each is in his outward state, he is wise, that is, he wants it to look as if he were wise, even if he is wicked. But the wicked man is inwardly a fool; he can at intervals see his own follies, and recover his senses. But if he did not recover them in the world, he cannot do so later, for he loves his follies, and wants to keep them. Thus he induces his outward state to be similarly foolish, so making his inward and outward states one. When this has happened, he is ready for hell.
[4] The good man follows the opposite course. Since in the world he had looked to God, and recovered his senses, he was more wise inwardly than outwardly. Outwardly he was at times led into madness by the enticements of the world and its vanities. So he too has his exterior brought into harmony with his interior, which, as I said, is wise. When this has happened, he is ready for heaven. This will illustrate the way in which the exterior is put off and the interior is put on after death.
The reason for separations taking place after death is that the unions which happen on earth are rarely due to any inward perception of love, but to an outward perception which conceals the inward one. The outward perception of love is caused by and derived from considerations of love of the world and the body. Considerations of love of the world are chiefly wealth and possessions; of love of the body, rank and honours. In addition to these there are various enticements, such as beauty and a pretence of good behaviour, in some cases even unchastity. Moreover, marriages are usually contracted within the district, city or town where the person is born and lives, where only restricted choice is possible, limited to the households of one’s acquaintance, and to those among them of similar station to oneself. That is why most marriages contracted in the world are outward, and not inward ones at the same time. Yet it is inward union, the union of souls, which really makes a marriage. This union cannot be perceived before a person puts off the exterior and puts on the interior, and this happens after death. This then is the reason why separations take place at that time, followed by new unions with similar persons or of the same type, unless such a union had been provided on earth. This can happen in the case of those who from youth up have loved, wished for and begged the Lord for a lawful and agreeable match with one partner, rejecting and turning up their noses at shifting lusts.
This is because only those couples who have been or can be inwardly united to make one can be accepted into heaven to stay there. For in heaven a couple are not called two, but one angel. This is what is meant by the Lord’s words, that they are no longer two, but one flesh. The reason why no other couples are accepted into heaven is that no other people can there live together, that is, in one house sharing a room and a bed. For it is the affinity and closeness of their love which determines everyone’s associations in the heavens, and equally where they live. The spiritual world does not have space, but the appearance of space, and this appearance depends upon the way in which people live, which in turn depends upon the way they love. No one therefore can stay anywhere but in his own house, which is provided for him and allocated depending on the nature of his love. If he lives elsewhere, his chest feels tight and he has difficulty in breathing.
Two people cannot live together in the same house unless they are exactly alike; nor consequently can married couples, unless they have the same feelings towards each other. If the feelings are only outward and not at the same time inward, the house or the location itself parts them, rejecting them and driving them away. This is why those who are after preparation admitted to heaven have a marriage provided for them with a partner, whose soul is so strongly attracted to union with the other’s, that they do not wish to have two lives, but one. It is for this reason that after parting a man is given a suitable wife and a woman likewise a suitable husband.
Married couples enjoy living together in much the same way as they do in the world, because after death the male is male and the woman is female, each having from creation an innate tendency to union. This tendency in each person belongs to the spirit, from where it reaches the body. After death, therefore, when he becomes a spirit, the mutual tendency remains; and this is possible only when they live together in much the same way. For a person remains as much a person as before, and neither male nor female have anything less, having similar bodily form and equally similar affections and thoughts. How then can the result be anything but living together in the same way? And because conjugial love is chaste, pure and holy, how can their living together not be fully realised? More on this subject may be found in the experience recorded in 44. Living together then is more pleasant and blessed, because, when a person becomes a spirit, that love becomes more inward, purer and so more deeply felt; and every pleasure increases the more deeply it is felt, to the point where its blessedness is noticeable in its pleasure.
When it is said that after death a man is given a suitable wife and a woman likewise a suitable husband, and that they enjoy the pleasures and blessedness of living together, but without procreating any but spiritual offspring, it must be understood that this refers to those who are received into heaven and become angels. This is because these people are spiritual, and marriages are essentially spiritual and thus holy. Those, however, who go to hell are all natural, and marriages that are only natural are not marriages, but unions tainted with unchaste lust. The nature of these unions will be described later on, when I discuss chastity and unchastity, and further when I speak of scortatory love.
(a) All married partners who are only natural are parted after death. This is because their love of marriage is cold, and their love of adultery is warm. Still after parting, they sometimes associate with other like couples, but after a short while they leave each other. This often happens repeatedly. At length a man is made subservient to some slut, and a woman to some adulterer; this happens in the prison of hell (described in APOCALYPSE REVEALED 153[.10]), where promiscuous fornication is forbidden on pain of punishment.
(b) If one of a couple is spiritual and the other natural, they too are parted after death. The spiritual one is given a suitable partner, but the natural one is banished to join similar spirits in lewd surroundings.
(c) Those, however, who lived unmarried in the world putting all idea of marrying far from their minds, remain unmarried, if they are spiritual. But if they are natural they become fornicators. It is different if unmarried people have longed to get married, and even more so if they have kept seeking to get married without success. If such people are spiritual, blessed marriages are found for them, but not until they reach heaven.
(d) Those who were confined to monastic institutions in the world, young women as well as men, are after living the life of a monk, which continues for some time after death, freed from their vows and allowed out. They achieve the freedom to satisfy their longings, whether they want to live in a marriage or not. If they do, they can; if not, they are directed to the unmarried on the fringe of heaven. But those inflamed with impermissible lust are cast down.
(e) The unmarried live on the fringe of heaven, because the sphere of perpetual celibacy is repulsive to the sphere of conjugial love, the sphere of heaven itself. This is because it comes down from the heavenly marriage of the Lord and the church.
* * * * *
I once heard from heaven the sweetest music. There were wives there together with girls, who were singing a song. Its sweetness was like the affection of some love, pouring forth in a harmonious stream. Songs in heaven are nothing but affections in audible form, that is, affections expressed in modulated sounds, for just as thoughts are expressed by speaking, so are affections by singing. Angels can grasp the subject of the affection by the regularity and fluency of the modulation.
There were a number of spirits around me, some of whom told me that they could hear this very sweet music, and it was the music of some affection, but they did not know what its subject was. They made various guesses, but without success. One guess was that the song expressed the affection of the bridegroom and bride on plighting their troth, another that it was their affection on entering wedlock, another that it was the earliest stage in the love of husband and wife.
[2] Then an angel from heaven suddenly appeared among them, and said that they were singing about chaste sexual love. The bystanders enquired what chaste sexual love was. The angel replied that it was a man’s love for a young woman or a wife of lovely appearance and good manners, free from any idea of lewdness; and the similar love of a woman for a man. With these words the angel vanished.
The singing continued, and since they then knew the subject of the affection it expressed, they began to hear it in many different ways, in each case depending on the state of their own love. Those who looked on women chastely heard the singing as harmonious and sweet. But those who looked on women unchastely heard it as inharmonious and depressing, and those who looked on women with distaste, heard it as discordant and harsh.
[3] The ground on which they were standing was suddenly changed into a theatre, and a voice was heard, saying, ‘Discuss this love.’ Spirits then quickly appeared from various communities, and among them some angels dressed in white, who said, ‘In the spiritual world we have made enquiry into all the kinds of love, not only the love of a man for a man and a woman for a woman, and the reciprocal love of husband and wife, but also a man’s love for women and a woman’s love for men. We have been allowed to work through communities checking, and we have not yet found any shared chaste sexual love, except among those endowed with constant potency by truly conjugial love; and these are in the highest heavens. We have also been allowed to feel the influence of that love on the affections of our hearts, and our feeling was that it surpassed in sweetness every other love, except the love of a married couple whose hearts are one. But we should like you to discuss this love, since it is a new and unfamiliar one to you. Since it is the height of loveliness, we in heaven call it the sweetness of heaven.
[4] So in the discussion the first to speak were those who were unable to think of chastity in connexion with marriage. ‘Can anyone,’ they said, ‘on seeing a lovely or loveable girl or wife so control the ideas he thinks about and keep them so untainted by lust, as to love her beauty and yet not wish, if he were allowed, to taste it? Can anyone turn the lust innate in every man into such chastity as to make it what it is not, and still go on loving? Can sexual love, when it passes from the eyes into the thoughts, stop at the woman’s face? Does it not instantly go down to the chest, and beyond? The angels were talking nonsense when they said that there is a chaste form of that love, which is none the less the sweetest of all; a love which is only possible for husbands who have truly conjugial love, so that they have extraordinary potency with their wives. Are these so much above others that on seeing lovely women they can keep the ideas they think about uplifted and as it were in suspense, to prevent them coming down and proceeding to what makes that love?’
[5] The next speakers were those who felt both heat and cold, coldness towards their wives, but heat towards the other sex. ‘What is chaste sexual love?’ they said. ‘Surely to add chastity to love is a contradiction in terms. Can you add a contradiction without taking away what is predicated of a thing, so making it non-existent? How can chaste sexual love be the sweetest of all loves, when chastity robs it of its sweetness? You all know where the sweetness of that love is located. So when the idea of union is thrown out together with that, where is its sweetness, and where is it to come from?’
Then some others intervened, saying, ‘We have been with the loveliest women without desiring them. So we know what chaste sexual love is.’ But their companions, knowing their lewdness, replied, ‘You were then reduced to loathing the other sex as the result of impotence, and this is not chaste sexual love, but the depth of unchaste love.’
[6] On hearing this the angels were angry and asked those who stood on the right, that is, to the south, to speak. ‘There is,’ they said, ‘the love of two men for each other, and the love of two women for each other, and the love of a man for a woman and of a woman for a man. These three pairs of loves are completely different. The love of two men is like the love of two intellects, for man was created and therefore is by birth designed to become an intellect. The love of two women is like the love of two affections for man’s intellect, for woman was created and is designed by birth to become the love of a man’s intellect. These loves, those between two men or two women, do not sink far into the breast, but stay outside, making merely superficial contact and not leading to any inner union of the two. This too is the reason why two men fence with reasoned arguments on either side, like boxers; and two women sometimes with lusts on either side, like actors pretending to fight with fists.
[7] But the love of a man and a woman is the love of the intellect and its affection, which sinks in deep and leads to union. That union is love; but the union of minds, and not of bodies at the same time, or an impulse towards that union and no other, is spiritual love, and so a chaste one. This love is only possible for those who possess truly conjugial love, and thus have abundant potency, because these people’s chastity does not allow them to feel any influence of love from the body of any woman other than their wife. Being in this state of surpassing potency, they cannot help loving the other sex and at the same time loathing unchastity. As a result they have chaste sexual love, which regarded in essence is an inner spiritual friendship; this gains its sweetness from their abundant, but chaste, potency. That abundant potency is the result of a total forswearing of promiscuity, and, since the wife alone is loved, it is chaste. Now since that love in their case does not partake of the flesh, but only of the spirit, it is chaste; and because their innate attraction makes the woman’s beauty at the same time enter the mind, it is delightful.’
[8] On hearing this many of the bystanders clapped their hands over their ears, saying, ‘Your remarks offend our ears, and we regard what you have said as nonsense.’ They were unchaste. Then the singing from heaven was heard again, and it was even sweeter than before. But to the ears of the unchaste it sounded such a discordant din, that to avoid the racket they rushed out of the theatre and took to their heels, leaving a few behind, whose wisdom made them love chastity in marriage.
I was once talking with angels in the spiritual world when I was filled with a delightful longing to see the Temple of Wisdom, which I had visited once before. I asked them the way to it, and they replied, ‘Follow the light and you will find it.’ ‘What do you mean,’ I said, ‘by following the light?’ ‘Our light,’ they said, ‘gets more and more brilliant, the closer you come to that temple. So follow the light as its brilliance increases. Our light comes from the Lord as a sun, so regarded in essence it is wisdom.’
Then accompanied by two angels I went towards the increasing light, climbing by a sloping path to the top of a hill in the southern region. There was a magnificent gateway there, and on seeing the angels with me the porter opened it. Inside we saw an arcade made of palms and laurels, along which we walked. It led us in a curve and ended in a garden, in the middle of which was the Temple of Wisdom. Arriving there I looked around and saw small buildings resembling the temple, each containing a wise man. We went up to one, and on the door-step spoke with our host, explaining why we had come and how we had arrived there. ‘You are welcome,’ said our host, ‘come in and sit down and let us engage in wise conversation.’
[2] On looking into the building I saw it was divided into two, though still one. It was cut in half by a transparent wall, but being of the purest crystal its transparency made the room appear to be one. I asked why this was.
‘I am not alone,’ he said, ‘my wife is with me, and though we are two, we are still not two, but one flesh.’ ‘I know,’ I said. ‘that you are wise; but what has a wise man or wisdom to do with a woman?’ At this our host’s face dropped in some show of annoyance, and he held out his hand. At once other wise men came from the nearest buildings, to whom he said in a joking manner, ‘Our guest here asked the question, “What has a wise man or wisdom to do with a woman?”‘ This provoked general laughter, and they said, ‘What is a wise man or wisdom without a woman, or without love? A wife is the love of a man’s wisdom.’
[3] ‘Let us have a wise conversation,’ our host said, ‘on the subject of causation, beginning with the cause of the beauty of the female sex.’ So they took turns to speak. The first said that the reason was that women were created by the Lord as affections for the wisdom of men, and the affection for wisdom is the height of beauty.
The second said the reason was that woman was created by the Lord by means of a man’s wisdom, being created from a man, so that she is a form of wisdom inspired by the affection of love. And since the affection of love is really life, a woman is the life of wisdom, but the male is wisdom, and the life of wisdom is the height of beauty.
The third said that the reason was that women have been endowed with a feeling for the delights of conjugial love, and since their whole body is an organ of this feeling, it must inevitably be that, where the delights of conjugial love reside and are felt, there is beauty.
[4] The fourth said the reason was that the Lord took the beauty and elegance of life from man and placed it in woman. So a man, unless reunited with his beauty and elegance in a woman, is grim, stern, dry and unlovable. He is not wise, except to himself, which makes him insensitive. But when a man is united with his beauty and elegance of life in a wife, he becomes pleasant, charming, lively and loveable, and so is wise.
The fifth said that the reason was that women were created as models of beauty, not for their own sakes, but for the sake of men, so that men, being of themselves hard, should be softened, their characters, being of themselves serious, should be made mild, and their hearts, being of themselves cold, should grow warm. This is what happens to them, when they become one flesh with their wives.
[5] The sixth said the reason was that the universe was created by the Lord as the most perfect work. But nothing more perfect was created in it than a woman with a lovely face and proper manners. This was to make men thank the Lord for that act of munificence, and repay it by receiving wisdom from Him.
When these and many similar opinions had been expressed, his wife was seen through the crystal wall. She said to her husband, ‘Please speak.’ While he spoke, we could perceive in his words the life of wisdom coming from his wife, for her love was present in the sound of his speech. So experience bore witness to this truth.
Afterwards we visited the Temple of Wisdom and the gardens surrounding it. So we went away full of joy, passing through the arcade to the gateway, and went down by the way by which we had come up.
TRULY CONJUGIAL LOVE
There are countless varieties of conjugial love; no one has exactly the same conjugial love as another. It may indeed seem similar in many people, but this is the result of applying bodily judgment, and this judgment does not allow one readily to make distinctions, being gross and dull. Bodily judgment means mental judgment which relies on the outward senses. But those whose sight comes from the judgment of the spirit can see the differences, and the more clearly if people are able to lift this power of judgment to a higher level, something which can be done by withdrawing it from the senses and raising it into a higher light. Those who reach this level are finally able to confirm intellectually and thus see that no one has exactly the same conjugial love as another.
Still no one can see the countless varieties of this love, however enlightened and raised his intellect may be, unless he first knows what that love is like in its essence and integrity; what it was like, in fact, when conferred on man by God together with life. Without knowing the most perfect state it then had, it is vain to expect any amount of research to reveal its distinctions. For there would not then be any fixed point from which distinctions could be seen to depart, or target at which they could be said to aim, so as to show whether they were truly or fallaciously made. This is why we here begin with a description of conjugial love in its true essence; and since it was in this state when it was introduced by God into man together with life, we begin by describing its primeval state. Because at that stage it was truly conjugial, this section is headed ‘Truly Conjugial Love.’ The description will proceed in the following order.
(i) Truly conjugial love exists, but is so rare that today its nature is unknown and almost its very existence.
(ii) This love arises from the marriage of good and truth.
(iii) This love stands by correspondence for the marriage of the Lord with the church.
(iv) This love, having regard to its origin and correspondence, is more celestial, spiritual, holy, pure and clean than any other love the Lord confers on angels in heaven or people in the church.
(v) This love is also the foundation of all celestial and spiritual loves, and thus of all natural ones.
(vi) All joys and all delights, from first to last, have been conferred on this love.
(vii) The only people who can acquire and enjoy that love are those who approach the Lord, loving the truths the church teaches and doing the good deeds it prescribes.
(viii) This was the highest form of love among the people of antiquity, who lived in the Golden, Silver and Copper Ages, but after this it gradually came to an end.
There now follows an explanation of these propositions.
The existence of such conjugial love as is described hereafter can in fact be recognised from the initial stage of that love, when it finds its way into and takes possession of the heart of a young man or woman. Or so it does with those who start by loving only one of the opposite sex and wanting her for a bride; and it increases during the time they are engaged, when this is prolonged, and as their wedding draws near; and then when at last they are married and in the first days afterwards. Is there anyone who does not then recognise and agree with the following proposition: that this love is the foundation of all loves, and all joys and delights, from first to last, have been conferred on it? And is there anyone who does not know that after this pleasant time, this cheerful state little by little passes away and comes to an end, so that in the end the couple hardly feels any cheerfulness at all? If you then tell them the same as previously, that this love is the foundation of all loves, and that all joys and cheerfulness are conferred on it, they do not agree or recognise this. They may perhaps say that these are trivial, or that they are transcendental mysteries.
It is plain from this that the earliest stage of love in marriage imitates truly conjugial love and presents some kind of picture of it. This happens because then sexual love, which is unchaste, is rejected and instead there is implanted the love of one member of the opposite sex, which is truly conjugial and chaste love. Surely everyone then looks on other women without any feelings of love, and only on one’s own choice in amorous fashion.
[2] What happens on entering upon marriage is almost the same. Then a person becomes more fully human, because by being joined with his partner he acts as one person with her. But this happens at the first stage, when there is a kind of picture [of conjugial love], as mentioned before. It begins in the same way from the bodily level, and progresses to the natural, but in respect of married life, and so to union into one. Those who then love what is bodily or natural, and only the rational ideas arising from them, cannot be joined as it were into one with their partner, except at this outward level. And when the outward level fails, coldness invades the inward levels driving the pleasures of that love from the body as it does from the mind, and later from the mind as it does from the body. This process goes so far that nothing is left of the remembrance of the earliest state of their marriage, and so there is no knowledge of it. Since this is the case with most people today, it is now plain that the nature of truly conjugial love is unknown, and almost its very existence. The case of spiritual people is quite different. For them the first state is an introduction to perpetual bliss, and this progressively grows, as the spiritual rational level of the mind, and as a result the natural sensual level of the body, in each person join with that of the other and unite. But such people are rare.
Every intelligent person acknowledges, since it is a universal truth, that everything in the universe has reference to good and truth. It must also be admitted that in every detail of the universe good is linked with truth, and truth with good, because this too is a universal truth which hangs together with the other one. The reason why everything in the universe has reference to good and truth, and why good is linked with truth, and truth with good, is that both of these proceed from the Lord and do so from Him as one. Love and wisdom are the two things proceeding from the Lord, because these are the Lord and so come from Him. All things relating to love are called kinds of good, all things relating to wisdom are called truths. Since the two proceed from the Lord as the Creator, it follows that the two are present in what is created.
An illustration of this is the heat and light radiated by the sun. Everything on earth comes from these, since it is their presence and the extent to which they are linked which controls germination. Natural heat corresponds to spiritual heat, which is love; natural light corresponds to spiritual light, which is wisdom.
I said just above [60] that the linking of good and truth is in every single created thing; and linking is impossible unless it is reciprocal, since a one-sided link not balanced by one on the other side falls apart of its own accord. Since then there is a linking between good and truth, and this is reciprocal, it follows that there is truth of good, that is, coming from good, and there is good of truth, that is, coming from truth. It will be seen in the next chapter that truth of good, that is, truth coming from good, is to be found in the male, and constitutes his masculinity; and good of truth, that is, coming from truth, is to be found in the woman, and constitutes her femininity. These two are linked in a marriage union. This is mentioned here to give some preliminary idea of the subject.
This means that husband and wife love each other, as the Lord loves the church and wants the church to love Him. It is well known in Christendom that there is a correspondence between these things, but so far no one knows what sort of correspondence it is. This will therefore be explained in another section following this devoted to this subject [64]. The correspondence is mentioned here so that it may be seen that conjugial love is celestial, spiritual and holy, because it corresponds to the celestial, spiritual and holy marriage of the Lord and the church. This correspondence also follows from conjugial love being the product of the marriage of good and truth, as stated in the previous section, because the marriage of good and truth is what makes the church with a person. For the marriage of good and truth is the same as the marriage of charity and faith, since good has to do with charity and truth with faith. It is impossible to fail to acknowledge the fact that this marriage is what makes the church, because it is a universal truth; and every universal truth is acknowledged as soon as it is heard. This is due to the Lord’s influence, and at the same time to the confirmation given by heaven. Now since the church, being from the Lord, is His, and since conjugial love corresponds to the marriage of the Lord and the church, it follows that this love comes from the Lord.
A little earlier a brief proof was offered that the nature of conjugial love having regard to its origin, the marriage of good and truth, is as stated; but then only a brief foretaste could be given. The same is true of the proposition that this love gets its nature from its correspondence with the marriage of the Lord and the church. These two marriages, from which conjugial love is derived as an offshoot, are the very height of holiness. If therefore this love is received from its Author, who is the Lord, holiness coming from Him accompanies it, constantly cleansing and purifying it. If a person then possesses in his will a desire and striving after it, this love becomes more clean and pure day by day for ever.
[2] Conjugial love is called celestial and spiritual, because it is possessed by the angels of the heavens. It is celestial among the angels of the highest heaven, because they are called celestial angels; and it is spiritual among the angels below that heaven, because they are called spiritual angels. These angels are so named, because the celestial ones are models of love and the wisdom that comes of it; the spiritual ones are models of wisdom and the love that comes of that. Their conjugial love is similar.
[3] Since conjugial love is present among the angels of both the higher and lower heavens, as was also shown in the earlier chapter on ‘Marriages in heaven’ [27-41], it is evident that it is holy and pure. The reason why it is, regarded in essence due to the sources from which it is derived, more holy and pure than any other love angels or human beings possess, is that it is, so to speak, the chief of the other loves. Some remarks about its leading position will be made in the next section.
The reason why conjugial love, regarded in its essence, is the foundation of all the loves of heaven and the church is that its source is the marriage of good and truth; and from this marriage arise all the loves which make heaven and the church present with a person. The good of this marriage makes love, and its truth makes wisdom. When love approaches wisdom or joins itself to it, it becomes real love; and when wisdom in turn approaches love and joins itself to it, it becomes real wisdom. Truly conjugial love is nothing else but the linking of love and wisdom.
A married couple between whom or in whom that love is together shared are models and a visible form of it. Indeed, all in the heavens, where faces are true images of the affections of one’s love, are likenesses of it; for it is in them both generally and in every part of them, as shown before. Now since a married couple are that love in model and form, it follows that every love which arises from the form of love itself is a copy of it. So if conjugial love is celestial and spiritual, so are the loves arising from it. Thus conjugial love is like a parent, and the other loves are like its children. This is how it is that the marriages of angels in the heavens lead to the birth of spiritual offspring, things to do with love and wisdom, or good and truth; on this see 51 above.
Whatever pleasures a person feels are the products of his love. By their means love shows itself, or rather, comes into existence and life. It is well known that pleasures become more intense as love does, and also the more closely the affections of the moment concern the dominant love. Now since conjugial love is the foundation of all good loves, and since it is imprinted on the smallest details of a person, as shown before, it follows that its pleasures exceed those of all other loves, and the degree to which it is present and joins itself with them makes those loves yield pleasure. For it enlarges the inmost levels of the mind and those of the body at the same time, as the delightful current of its stream flows through and opens them up.
[2] The reason why all pleasures, from first to last, are conferred on that love is that its purpose so far excels that of the others. Its purpose is the propagation of the human race, and so of the heaven of angels. Since this purpose was the ultimate aim of creation, it follows that every kind of blessedness, bliss, pleasure, charm and gratification that the Lord the Creator could ever confer on a person are concentrated on this love of his. It is obvious that pleasures result from purpose and affect a person in proportion to his love of the purpose, from considering the pleasures of the five senses, sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch. Each of these has its own pleasures, which vary depending upon the specific purposes they serve. What then should the pleasure of conjugial love lack, the purpose of which is something which embraces all other purposes?
[2] But as they come down they become more and more easily perceived, in the upper levels of the mind as blessedness, in the lower levels as bliss, in the chest as the pleasant sensations these give, and spreading out from the chest into every part of the body, and finally uniting at the lowest level to produce the greatest of delights. The angels went on to relate wonderful things about these, saying too that the variations of these delights in the souls of married couples, and passing from there into their minds, and from there into their chests, are countless and also everlasting. They increase in degree depending on the wisdom the husband possesses. This is because the husbands live for ever in the flower of youth, and the angels find nothing more blessed than to keep on increasing in wisdom. Further descriptions of these delights, as related by angels, will be found in the account of experiences, especially those following at the end of a number of chapters.
The reason why only those who approach the Lord achieve this love is that monogamous marriages, between one man and one wife, correspond to the marriage of the Lord and the church, and such marriages arise from the marriage of good and truth spoken of above (60, 62). The consequence of this origin and this correspondence is that truly conjugial love is from the Lord and is given to those who approach Him directly. But this cannot be fully proved without a detailed discussion of these two mysteries. This will be given in the two following chapters, one of which will be about the origin of conjugial love from the marriage of good and truth, the other about the marriage of the Lord with the church and its correspondence. There too it will be seen that it follows as a consequence of these that a person’s conjugial love depends on the state of the church with him.
[2] No love among human beings, nor among angels, can become pure; so neither can this one. But since it is the intention of the will which is chiefly regarded by the Lord, in so far as one has this intention and keeps to it, so far is one set on the road to and so far does one advance towards its purity and holiness. None but those whom the Lord makes to be such can enjoy spiritual conjugial love, because it has heaven in it. A natural man, for whom that love draws its pleasure only from the flesh, cannot approach heaven or any angel, nor in fact any person who possesses that love, since this love is the foundation of all celestial and spiritual loves (see 65-67 above).
[3] I have had this proved to me by experience. I have seen genii* in the spiritual world, who were being prepared for hell, approach an angel who was taking his pleasure with his partner. While they were still at a distance, they became like furies, the more so the nearer they approached, and they looked for caves and ditches into which to throw themselves to take refuge. Wicked spirits love whatever matches their own affection, however unclean it is, and loathe the spirits of heaven for their purity, as being the reverse of themselves. This can be inferred from what I related in the Preliminaries (10).
* A name for the most wicked spirits; see 514 end.
72. Those who come into that love and can remain in it are those who love the truths the church teaches and do the good deeds it prescribes, because no others are accepted by the Lord. For they are linked with Him and can therefore be kept in that love by Him. There are two things which make the church and thus heaven with a man, the truth of faith and goodness of life. The truth of faith causes awareness of the Lord’s presence, and goodness of life in accordance with the truths of faith brings about linking with Him, the result making the church and heaven. The truth of faith causes awareness of the Lord’s presence, because it is a source of light; spiritual light is precisely this. Goodness of life brings about linking with Him because it is a source of heat; spiritual heat is precisely this, because it is love, and goodness of life is a matter of loving. It is well known that all light, even in winter, causes awareness of things as present, and heat combined with light makes a linking. For gardens and flower-beds can be seen in any light, but they only flower and bear fruit when heat accompanies the light. The conclusion from this is obvious: those who merely know the truths of the church are not endowed by the Lord with truly conjugial love, but only those who know the truths and perform the good deeds it prescribes.
Conjugial love among the most ancient people and the ancients who lived in those early ages which bear these names was the highest form of love. It is impossible to learn this from histories, because there are none of their writings preserved, and those which are preserved were written in later ages. Those writers gave these names and described the purity and rectitude of their lives, and how these progressively declined in a sequence like that from gold to iron. The last, the iron age, starting from the time of these writers, can to some extent be appreciated from the historical accounts of certain kings, judges and wise men, called sophi, in Greece and elsewhere. Daniel (2:43) contains a prediction that this age would lack the stability iron possesses, but would become like iron mixed with clay, which will not hold together.
[2] Since the ages named after gold, silver and copper were over by the time of these writers, so that it is impossible for any knowledge of their marriages to exist on earth, it has pleased the Lord to make these known to me in a spiritual way, by taking me to visit the heavens where they live, so that I could learn from their own lips what their marriages were like, when they lived during their own periods. For all who have since creation departed from the natural world are in the spiritual world; and they all keep their previous loves and will so remain for ever. Since these facts deserve to be known and reported, and they prove the holiness of marriages, I should like to publish them, as they were exhibited to my wakeful spirit, and later recalled to memory and written down with the help of an angel. As these are from the spiritual world, like the rest of the experiences at the end of chapters, I have decided to divide them into six accounts, to match the series of ages.
* * * * *
I was once meditating about conjugial love, when my mind was seized with a desire to know what this love had been like in the case of those who lived in the Golden Age, and also in the following ages, which were named after silver, copper and iron. Knowing that all who lived good lives in those ages are in the heavens, I prayed to the Lord to allow me to talk with them and be taught by them.
At once I found an angel beside me, who said: ‘I have been sent by the Lord to be your guide and companion. First I shall guide and accompany you to those who lived in the first era or age, known as golden. The route to them,’ he added, ‘is steep, leading through a dark forest, which no one can penetrate unless supplied with a guide by the Lord.’
[2] I was in the spirit, so I prepared myself for travelling, and we set our faces towards the east. As we went I saw a mountain, the top of which was higher than the level of the clouds. We crossed a great desert and reached a forest thickly filled with trees of various kinds, so dense they made it dark, as the angel had said beforehand. But the forest was cut by numerous narrow paths, and the angel told me that all of these were a maze to lead people astray, and unless the Lord opened his eyes to see the olive-trees wreathed in grape-vines, and so to follow the path from one olive to the next, a traveller would stray into Tartarus, which is the region surrounding this at the sides. The forest is like this to guard the approach. For none but the primeval people live on this mountain.
[3] After we entered the forest, our eyes were opened and we saw here and there olive-trees entwined with vines, from which hung bunches of dark blue grapes. The olives were arranged in continuous curves, so as we spied them we went round and round. At length we saw a group of tall cedars with some eagles on their branches. On seeing them the angel said; ‘Now we are on the mountain not far from the summit.’ So we went on and a little beyond the cedars came upon a circular plain, where lambs of both sexes were feeding. These were forms intended to picture the state of innocence and peace among the mountain-dwellers.
We went across this plain and saw tents upon tents to the number of many thousand extending as far as the eye could see before us and to the sides in all directions. ‘Now,’ said the angel, ‘we are in the camp where is the Army of the Lord Jehovih* – that is what they call themselves and where they live. These most ancient people lived, when they were in the world, in tents, so they continue to do so now. But let us turn aside to the south, where the wiser among them are, so that we can find someone to talk with.’
[4] As we went I saw at a distance three boys and three girls sitting at the door of a tent. But as we came closer, they turned out to be like men and women of middling height. ‘All the inhabitants of this mountain,’ said the angel, ‘look from a distance like children, because they are in a state of innocence, and childhood is how innocence appears.’
When these men saw us, they hurried up to us and said: ‘Where do you come from, and how have you come here? Your faces are not those of the people of our mountain.’
The angel replied telling them how we had been given permission to come through the forest, and why we had come. On hearing this one of the three men invited us in and took us into his tent. The man was dressed in a cloak of blue colour and a tunic of pure white wool. His wife was dressed in a purple robe with underneath it a blouse of fine embroidered linen.
[5] Since I was thinking that I wanted to know about marriage among the most ancient people, I looked in turn from husband to wife and back again, and observed that their faces showed how they were almost of one soul. So I said: ‘You two are one.’ The man replied: ‘We are one. Her life is in me and mine is in her, so we are two bodies, but one soul. The union between us is like that of the two cavities in the chest, called the heart and lungs. She is my heart and I am her lungs. But since by heart we understand here love and by lungs wisdom, she is the love of my wisdom, and I am the wisdom of her love. Her love therefore forms the outer covering of my wisdom and my wisdom is inwardly inside her love. As a result, as you said, the unity of our souls is to be seen in the look of our faces.
[6] Then I asked, ‘If your union is such, are you able to look at any woman other than your own?’ ‘Yes,’ he replied, ‘I can, but because my wife is united with my soul, we two look together, and so not the slightest spark of lust can enter in. For when I look at other people’s wives, I see them through my wife, whom alone I love. Since she is capable of perceiving all my feelings, as an intermediary she directs my thoughts, taking away anything discordant, and at the same time striking into me a feeling of coldness and horror at anything unchaste. It is therefore as impossible for us here to look lustfully on any of our companions’ wives as it is to look upon the light of our heaven from the shades of Tartarus. So we do not either have any idea in our thinking, much less a word in our language, for the enticements of lustful love.’ He could not use the word fornication, because the chastity of their heaven prevented it. My angel guide said: ‘Now you can hear how the angels of this heaven speak, a language of wisdom, since it is derived from causes.’
[7] After this I looked around and saw that their tent was as if gilded. So I asked, ‘Why is this?’ He answered that it was ‘the result of the flaming light, which glitters like gold, flooding and striking the curtains of our tent, while we are talking about conjugial love. For then the heat of our sun, which in its essence is love, bares itself and tinges the light, which in its essence is wisdom, with its own, gold colour. This happens because conjugial love in origin is the play of wisdom and love. For man was born to be wisdom, woman to be the love of her man’s wisdom. This is the source of the delights of that play in conjugial love, and thus between ourselves and our wives. We have witnessed here over thousands of years how these delights are surpassing and excellent in quantity, degree and strength in proportion to our worship of the Lord Jehovih, who is the source from which that heavenly union, the heavenly marriage of love and wisdom, flows in.’
[8] After this speech I saw a great light above a hill in the middle of the tents. ‘What is that light coming from?’ I asked. ‘It is,’ he said, ‘from the sanctuary of our tent of worship.’ I asked if one might approach it. ‘Yes,’ he said. So I went near and saw a tent which both within and without exactly matched the description of the tabernacle constructed in the desert for the Children of Israel, the plan of which was shown to Moses on Mount Sinai (Exod. 25:40; 26:30). ‘What,’ I asked, ‘is there in the sanctuary to give so much light?’ ‘There is a tablet, ‘ he answered, ‘bearing the inscription “The Covenant between Jehovah** and the heavens.”‘ He said no more.
[9] As we were then preparing to leave, I asked: ‘Did any of you, when you were in the world, live with more than one wife?’ He answered that he knew of none. ‘For,’ he said, ‘we could not think of several. Those who had thought so told us that the heavenly blessedness of their souls at once fled from the inmost to the outermost parts of the body, even to the finger-nails, and at the same time also their virility departed. When this was noticed, they were thrown out of our country.’
After saying this, the man hastened back to his tent and came back with a pomegranate containing a mass of golden seeds. He presented it to me, and I brought it away as a token that we had visited those who lived in the golden age. Then after wishing each other peace, we departed and returned home.
* Jehovih for Jehovah occurs in a few places in the Word, e.g. Gen. 15:2; Isa. 65:13.
** In CORONIS 37, where this account is repeated, the form Jehovih appears here, and it is explained as their name for ‘Jehovah in His Humanity’.
The next day the same angel as on the previous day came to me and said: ‘Would you like me to take and accompany you to the people who lived in the era or age of silver, so that we can hear from them about marriage in their time?’ He said that these too were not to be approached except under the Lord’s guidance. I was in the spirit, as previously, and I went with my guide, first to a hill on the border between east and south. When we were on the slopes of that hill, he showed me a great expanse of territory. We saw far off a towering mountain, between which and the hill on which we stood there was a valley, and beyond it a plain with a slope rising gently from it.
We came down from the hill to cross the valley, and saw in places on either side pieces of wood and stone carved to resemble human beings and various animals, birds and fishes. ‘What are they?’ I asked the angel. ‘Are they not idols?’ ‘Far from it,’ he answered. ‘They are shapes designed to depict various moral virtues and spiritual truths. The peoples of that age knew about correspondences; and since every person, animal, bird and fish corresponds to some quality, each carving depicts some aspect of a virtue or truth, and a number of them taken together depict the whole virtue or truth in its general full form. These carvings are what in Egypt are called hieroglyphics.’
[2] We crossed the valley and on entering the plain saw horses and chariots. The horses had various kinds of metal disks on their harness and halters; the chariots were of different types, some carved to represent eagles, some whales, some stags with antlers, some unicorns. Also finally we saw some waggons with stables at either side of them. But when we came near the horses and chariots both disappeared, and we saw in their place people walking in twos, conversing and reasoning. The angel told me: ‘The kinds of horses, chariots and stables which can be seen at a distance are appearances of the rational intelligence of the people of that age. For a horse stands by correspondence for the understanding of truth, a chariot for its teaching, and stables for lessons. You know that in this world everything has an appearance in keeping with its correspondence.’
[3] Passing these by we climbed a long ascent and at length we saw the city, which we entered. As we walked through, we looked at their houses from the streets and squares. They were all palaces built of marble. In front they had steps of alabaster, and at the sides of the steps columns of jasper. We also saw temples of precious stones, sapphire and azure coloured. ‘Their houses,’ said the angel, ‘are built of stones, because stones stand for natural truths, precious stones for spiritual truths. All the people who lived in the silver age were made intelligent by spiritual truths, and thus by natural truths. The meaning of silver is similar.
[4] As we toured the city, we saw here and there people in pairs, and since they were husbands and wives, we waited to be invited in somewhere. While we had this in mind, as we went past we were called back by two people and invited to their home. We went up and inside it. The angel spoke with them for me, explaining the reasons for my visit to this heaven. ‘It is,’ he told them, ‘so that he can learn about marriage among the people of antiquity, of whom you here are representatives.’
‘We came,’ they replied, ‘from the peoples of Asia. Our age was devoted to the study of truths, the means by which we acquired intelligence – this was the kind of thing that appealed to our souls and minds. But the thing that appealed to our bodily senses was devising forms to represent truths. Our knowledge of correspondences made a link between our bodily sensations and the perceptions of our minds, so giving us intelligence.’
[5] After hearing this the angel begged them to tell us something about marriage among them. ‘There is,’ said the husband, ‘a correspondence between the spiritual marriage, that is, of truth with good, and the natural marriage, that is, of a man with one wife. Being students of correspondences, we saw that the church with its kinds of truth and good could not possibly exist except among those who live in truly conjugial love with one wife. For the marriage of good and truth makes the church in the individual. All of us, therefore, who are here now, assert that the husband is truth and the wife the truth’s own good. Good cannot love any truth but its own, nor can truth return that love to any but its own good. In other circumstances the inner marriage which makes the church would be lost, and the marriage would become merely outward; and it is not the church, but idolatry, to which this corresponds. We therefore call marriage with one wife a sacrament; but if it happened in our community with more than one, we should call that a sacrilege.’
[6] Following this speech we were taken into an ante-chamber, where there were many devices on the walls and small pictures which looked as if cast in silver. ‘What are these?’ I asked.
‘They are,’ they said, ‘ paintings and forms which depict for us many qualities, attributes and pleasures belonging to conjugial love. One group depicts the unity of souls, another the linking of minds, another the harmony of hearts, another the delights which arise from these.’
As we gazed, we saw a kind of rainbow on the wall composed of three colours, purple, blue and white. We noted how the purple colour passed through the blue and turned the white dark blue; and this colour then flowed back through the blue into the purple, enhancing it so as to resemble a flaming ray.
[7] ‘You understand that?’ the husband said to me. ‘Tell me,’ I replied. ‘The purple colour,’ he said, ‘because of its correspondence stands for the wife’s conjugial love; the white colour stands for the husband’s intelligence. The blue stands for the beginnings of conjugial love as perceived in the husband by the wife, and the dark blue, which tinged the white, stands for the conjugial love then present in the husband. This colour, flowing back through the blue into the purple and enhancing it so as to resemble a flaming ray, means the husband’s conjugial love flowing back to the wife. We see such things depicted on our walls, when we think about conjugial love, its natural, successive and simultaneous union, and fix our gaze upon the rainbows depicted there.’
To this I said, ‘These matters are more than mysterious to us today, since they are a way of picturing the secrets of the conjugial love of one man with one wife.’ ‘Yes, that is so,’ he replied, ‘but they are no secrets to us here, so not mysteries either.’
[8] When he had said this, a chariot was seen a long way off, pulled by white ponies. On seeing it the angel said, ‘That chariot is a sign for us to leave.’ Then when we came down the steps, our host gave us a bunch of white grapes with vine-leaves attached; these leaves suddenly turned silver. We took them away as a token of our conversation with the peoples of the silver age.
Next day my angel guide and companion came again, and said: ‘Get ready, so that we can visit the inhabitants of heaven in the west, who are some of the people who lived in the third or copper age. Their homes extend from the south through the west towards, but not into, the north.’
When I was ready, I accompanied him, and we entered their heaven on its southern side. There we found a magnificent wood composed of palms and laurels. We passed through this, and then exactly on the border of the west we saw some giants twice as tall as the average human. They asked us: ‘Who let you in through the wood?’ ‘The God of heaven,’ said the angel. ‘We,’ they answered, ‘are the guardians of the approach to the ancient western heaven; but you may go in.’
[2] We passed through and from a view-point we saw a mountain soaring to the clouds. Between the view-point where we were and the mountain we saw one village after another, with gardens, woodland and fields between them. After passing through the villages we reached the mountain and climbed it. Its summit turned out to be not a peak, but a plain, on which was a large and spacious city. All its houses were of the wood of resinous trees, and their roofs of planks.
‘Why, I asked, ‘are the houses here made of wood?’ ‘Because,’ the angel answered, ‘wood stands for natural good, which was the good of the people of the earth’s third age. Copper also stands for natural good, so the early people called this the copper age. There are also sacred buildings here made of olive-wood, and in their centre is a sanctuary containing in a chest the Word which was given to the inhabitants of Asia before the Israelite Word. Its historical books are called The Wars of Jehovah, its prophetic books The Utterances. Both of these are mentioned by Moses (Numb. 21:14, 15, 27-30). This Word is now lost in the kingdoms of Asia and is only preserved in Great Tartary’.*
Then the angel took me to one of the buildings, and we saw the sanctuary in the middle, all in the whitest light. ‘The light,’ said the angel, ‘comes from the ancient Asiatic Word; for all Divine truth shines in the heavens.’
[3] On leaving the building we heard that the presence of two strangers had been reported in the city, and they were to be questioned about their origin and what business they had there. An officer hurried up to us from the assembly and summoned us to court. Asked where we came from, and what our business was there, we replied, ‘We have passed through the palm-tree forest and also the homes of the giants, who are the guardians of your heaven, and after that the region of villages. You can tell from that that it is not we ourselves, but the God of heaven, who has brought us here. Our business here is to learn about your marriages, whether you are monogamous or polygamous.’ ‘What does polygamous mean? they answered. ‘Is it not the same as promiscuous?’
[4] Then this court of law delegated an intelligent man to take us home and teach us about this subject. When he reached home, he asked his wife to join him, and then spoke as follows. ‘The earliest or most ancient people, who enjoyed truly conjugial love, so that they excelled others in the strength and power of that love while in the world, and who now live in the most blessed condition in their own heaven in the east, handed on commandments about marriage for us to keep. We are their descendants, and like fathers to sons they gave us rules of life, amongst which are these about marriage. “Children, if you wish to love God and the neighbour and to be wise and happy for ever, we advise you to adopt a monogamous life. If you depart from this commandment, all heavenly love will desert you, and along with it inner wisdom, and you will be banished.” We have obeyed, as sons should, this commandment of our fathers, and we have seen how true it is. To the extent that anyone loves his wife alone, to that extent he becomes a heavenly and an inward person. To the extent that anyone does not love his wife alone, to that extent he becomes a natural and an outward person; and he loves only himself and the ideas he thinks up, becoming mentally unbalanced and foolish.
[5] ‘This is why we in this heaven are all monogamous, and being so, we keep all the borders of our heaven closed to polygamists, adulterers and fornicators. If polygamists break in, they are cast out into the darkness of the north; if adulterers, into the furnaces of the west; if fornicators, into the deceptive lights of the south.’
On hearing this I asked what he meant by the darkness of the north, the furnaces of the west and the deceptive lights of the south. He replied that the darkness of the north was darkness of mind and ignorance of truths; the furnaces of the west were loves for evil; and the deceptive lights of the south were falsifications of truth. These are types of spiritual fornication.
[6] After this he said, ‘Come with me to our treasure house.’ So we followed him, and he showed us the scriptures of the most ancient people; they were on boards of wood and stone, and later on books of smoothed tablets. The second age wrote its scriptures on skins; and he brought a skin on which the rules of the earliest people had been copied from stone tablets, and among them was that about marriage.
[7] When we had looked at these and other things remarkable for their extreme antiquity, the angel said, ‘It is now time for us to leave.’ Then our host went out into the garden and plucked a few twigs from a tree, which he tied into a bundle, and gave it to is with these words, ‘These are twigs from a tree native and restricted to our heaven; its sap smells sweetly of balsam.’ We brought this bundle with us as we came down by a path close to the east, where there were no guards. The twigs we saw turn to shining bronze, and their tips to gold; this was a sign that we had visited the people of the third age, which is called the copper or bronze age.
* Apparently Western China and Tibet.
Two days later the angel spoke to me again and said: ‘Let us complete the cycle of the ages. All we have left is the last age, which is called after iron. The people of this age live in the north, deep inside on the west side. All of these are from the early inhabitants of Asia who had the old Word, and their worship was based on this; that is to say, before the Lord’s coming into the world. This is clear from the writings of the ancients, in which this period is so named. The same periods are meant by the statue seen by Nebuchadnezzar, which had a head of gold, chest and arms of silver, belly and thighs of bronze, legs of iron, and feet of iron as well as clay (Dan. 2:32, 33).’
[2] The angel told me this on the journey, which was shortened and hurried on by changes produced in our mental state to match the characters of the peoples we passed through. For spaces and distances in the spiritual world are appearances dictated by mental states. When we lifted up our eyes, we found ourselves in a wood composed of beeches and two kinds of oak; and on looking around we saw bears to our left and leopards to our right. When I showed surprise at this, the angel said, ‘They are not bears or leopards, but people who act as guards for those who live in the north. They sniff out the spheres given off by the way passers-by live, and fly at all who are spiritual, because those who live here are natural. Those who only read the Word without drawing any teaching from it, look at a distance like bears, and those who confirm false ideas from the Word look like leopards.’ However on seeing us these creatures turned their backs and we passed through.
[3] After passing through the wood there were thickets, and then grassy plains, divided into plots with box-wood hedges. Then the ground sloped down into a valley, in which there was one city after another. We passed some by and went into a large one. Its streets were irregular, and so were its houses. The houses were built of bricks, with half-timbering and plastered walls. In the squares there were shrines built of ashlar limestone; they had an underground basement and a storey above. We went down into one of these by three steps, and saw the walls around us covered with idols of various shapes, and a crowd on their knees adoring them. In the centre was a choir, from which the head of the city’s tutelary deity stood out. As we went out, the angel told me that among the ancients who lived in the silver age, as mentioned above, there were images to represent spiritual truths and moral virtues. When the knowledge of correspondences was lost from memory and became extinct, these images first became objects of worship, and after were adored as divinities. This was the origin of idolatry.
[4] When we had left the shrine, we examined the people and their dress. Their complexion was greyish, like steel, and they were dressed like clowns, with tabs around their hips hanging from a tunic which tightly fitted the chest. On their heads they had sailors’ cocked hats. ‘That’s enough of this,’ said the angel. ‘Let us learn about marriage among the peoples of this age.’
We entered the house of one of the leading citizens, who wore a top hat on his head. He made us welcome and said, ‘Come in and let us have a chat.’ We went into the entrance-hall and sat down there. I asked him about marriage in this city and region. ‘We,’ he said, ‘do not live with one wife. Some have two or three, some more. This is because we take pleasure in variety, obedience and being treated with the respect due to royalty. When we have several wives, we get this from them. With only one we should not have the pleasure of variety, but be bored with sameness; we should not be flattered by their obedience, but annoyed by their equal status. Nor should we have the satisfaction of controlling them and so being respected, but we should be bothered with quarrels about who was superior. And what about the woman? Surely she is by birth subject to her husband’s will, intended to be a servant, not a ruler. Every husband here is treated in his house like a king. Since this is what we love, it is what makes our lives blessed.’
[5] ‘But,’ I asked, ‘where then is conjugial love, which makes one soul out of two, linking minds and making people blessed? This love is indivisible; divided it turns into an ardour which cools off and disappears.’ ‘I don’t understand what you mean,’ he replied to this. ‘What else makes a man blessed, if not the rivalry between wives to give the greatest respect to her husband?’ On saying this the man went into the women’s quarters and opened a double door. An odour of lewdness came out, stinking like filth; this was the result of polygamous love, which is marital and at the same time scortatory. So I got up and closed the doors.
[6] Then I said, ‘ How can you keep living on this land, lacking as you do any truly conjugial love and adoring idols?’ ‘As for marital love,’ he replied, ‘we are so jealous of our wives that we do not allow anyone to come further into our homes than the entrance-hall. Where there is jealousy, there is also love. As for the idols, we do not adore them; but we cannot think about the God of the universe except by having some object before our eyes. For we cannot lift our thoughts above the sense-impressions of the body, or in thinking about God rise above His visual aspect.’
Then I asked further: ‘Are your idols not of different forms? How can they suggest the vision of one God?’ ‘This,’ he replied, ‘is one of our mysteries; each form contains some aspect of the worship of God.’ ‘You,’ I said, ‘are entirely sunk in the bodily senses. You have no love of God, nor love for a wife with any spirituality in it. These loves together make a person what he is, and can turn him from a creature of the senses into a heavenly one.’
[7] When I said this, there was something like a flash of lightning seen through the doorway. ‘What is that?’ I asked. ‘Such a flash of lightning,’ he said, ‘is for us a sign announcing the arrival of the Ancient Man of the East, who teaches us about God, as being one, alone and omnipotent, who is the First and the Last. He also warns us not to worship idols, but only to look on them as images representing the powers which proceed from the one God; these taken together make up His worship. This ancient man is our angel, whom we revere and listen to. He comes to us and sets us straight, when we slip into a dim way of worshipping God by indulging in fancies about images.’
[8] When we had heard this speech, we left the house and the city, and as we journeyed we drew conclusions from what we had seen in the heavens about the ambit and development of conjugial love. Its ambit ran from the east to the south and from this to the west, and hence to the north. Its development was marked by a decrease as it moved around; in the east it was celestial, in the south spiritual, in the west natural, and in the north sensual. It also decreased in step with the love and worship of God. Our conclusion from this was that this love was in the first age like gold, in the second like silver, in the third like bronze, in the fourth like iron, and it finally ceased altogether. Then my angel guide and companion said: ‘Yet I am still full of hope that this love will be revived by the God of heaven, who is the Lord, since it is capable of being revived.’
The angel who had previously been my guide and companion on my visits to the people of antiquity, who had lived in the four ages, golden, silver, copper and iron, came to me again and said: ‘If you want to see what the age which followed those ancient ones was and still is like, follow me and you will see. These are the people of whom Daniel prophesied:
There shall arise after those four a kingdom in which iron will be mixed with common clay. They will mix together by the seed of man, but one will not stick together with another, even as iron will not mix with clay. Dan. 2:41-43.
‘The seed of man,’ he said, ‘by which iron will be mixed with clay, but without sticking together, means the truth of the Word falsified.’
[2] After this speech I followed him, and on the way he informed me: ‘They live on the border between the south and the west, but a long way behind those who lived in the four earlier ages, and also lower down.’ We travelled through the south until we came to the region bordering the west, and passed through a terrifying forest. For it had lakes in it, from which crocodiles raised their heads, gaping at us with their wide, toothy jaws. Among the lakes there were frightening hounds, some with three heads like Cerberus, some with two; all with horrid jaws, watching us pass with their savage eyes. On entering the western sector of this region we saw dragons and leopards, as described in Rev. 12:3, 13:2.
[3] ‘All these beasts,’ the angel told me, ‘which you have seen are not beasts at all, but correspondences and so forms which represent the lusts of the inhabitants we are to visit. The lusts themselves are represented by those horrid hounds, their tricks and cunning by the crocodiles, their falsities and erroneous attitude to religious matters by the dragons and leopards. But the inhabitants, of whom they are a picture, live not near the end of the forest, but across a great intervening desert, so that they can be kept apart and separated from the peoples of earlier ages. They are too of quite an alien and different nature from them. Admittedly they have their heads above their chests, their chests above their hips, their hips above their feet, like the primeval people. But their heads contain not a scrap of gold, their chests not a scrap of silver, and their hips not a scrap of bronze; nor indeed is there a scrap of unmixed iron in their feet. But their heads contain iron mixed with clay, their chests iron and clay mixed with bronze, their hips the same too mixed with silver, their feet these mixed with gold. This inversion has turned them from human beings into sculptures of human beings, lacking all internal cohesion. For what was highest has become lowest, the head has become the heel and vice versa. As we look from heaven they seem like clowns who stand upside down and walk on their hands; or like animals that lie flat on their backs, lifting their feet in the air, and burying their heads in the ground, to look up to the sky.
[4] Crossing the forest we entered the desert, which was no less frightening. It was composed of heaps of stones, with ditches between them, out of which crept poisonous snakes and vipers, and fiery serpents flew out. The whole of this desert kept sloping downwards, and we went down a long descent, finally reaching a valley inhabited by the peoples of that region and age.
Here and there we saw huts, which eventually seemed to come together and join up to form a town. We went into it and found the houses were built of tree-branches, charred and stuck together with mud; they were roofed with black slates. The streets were irregular, all of them narrow to begin with, but opening out as you went on, and widening out at the end to form squares. So there were as many squares as were streets.
On entering the town it grew dark, as the sky was not to be seen. So we looked up and light was granted us to see by. Then I asked any I met on the way, ‘Surely you can’t see, since the sky is not to be seen above you?’ ‘What sort of a question is that?’ they answered, ‘we can see clearly, we walk in broad daylight.’ On hearing this the angel told me: ‘Darkness is light to them, and light is darkness, just as it is for night birds. They look down and not up.’
[5] We went into some houses here and there, and saw in each a man with his woman. So we asked whether they all live in their own homes with only one wife. To this they replied with a whistle, ‘Why do you say with one wife? Why not with only one trollop? What is a wife but a trollop? Our laws do not allow us to fornicate with more than one woman; still there is nothing indecent or improper in doing it with more, so long as it is not at home. We boast about this among ourselves, thus taking more delight and pleasure in it than polygamous people. Why is it that we are not allowed to have several wives, when it used to be allowed, and is still today in all parts of the world around us? What is living with only one woman, but being shut up and imprisoned? But we are breaking down the bars of this prison, rescuing ourselves from slavery and setting ourselves free. No one can be cross with a prisoner who grabs his freedom when he can.’
[6] We replied to this: ‘Friend, you speak as if you had no knowledge of religion. Is there anyone with any rationality, who does not know that adultery is profane and hellish, and that marriage is holy and heavenly? Surely adultery is to be found among the devils in hell, and marriage among the angels in heaven? Haven’t you read the sixth commandment, or Paul’s statement that adulterers can by no means reach heaven? [1 Cor. 6:9]’
This amused our host so much he roared with laughter, looking on me as a simpleton and almost crazy. But then suddenly a messenger arrived from the chief man of the town, who said: ‘Bring the two newcomers to the court, and if they refuse, drag them there. We have seen them in the shades of light;* they have crept in secretly to spy on us.’
The angel said to me: ‘They saw us in shade, because the light of heaven we brought with us is shade to them; their light is in the shade of hell. This happens because they think nothing of sinning, not even of committing adultery, so that falsity to them looks exactly like truth. Falsity shines brightly before the satans in hell, and the truth darkens their eyes like the shades of night.’
[7] ‘We shall not,’ we told the messenger, ‘be forced, much less dragged, to court, but we shall go with you of our own free will.’ So we went and found there a large crowd. Some lawyers detached themselves from the crowd and whispered in our ears: ‘Take care not to say anything against religion, our kind of government and good behaviour.’ ‘No,’ we replied, ‘we shall not say anything against them, but speak in their favour and as they dictate.’
‘What,’ we asked, ‘is the rule of your religion about marriage?’ This produced a murmuring among the crowd, ‘What business of yours are marriages?’ they said, ‘marriages are marriages.’
We asked another question: ‘What is the rule of your religion about licentious conduct?’ Again there was a murmur from the crowd. ‘What business of yours is licentious conduct?’ they said. ‘Licentiousness is licentiousness. Let him who is without guilt throw the first stone.’
Our third question was: ‘Surely your religion teaches that marriages are holy and heavenly and that adulteries are profane and hellish?’ This made many in the crowd cackle, laughing and making fun of us. ‘Address,’ they said, ‘your questions on religion to our priests, not to us. We fully accept their pronouncements, because no religious matters fall within the scope of intellectual judgment. Surely you have been told that the intellect is deranged when it comes to mysteries, and these are what religion is all about. And what have actions to do with religion? Isn’t it heartfelt mumbling about expiation, satisfaction and imputation which make souls blessed, not deeds?’
[8] Then some men came up sent by the so-called wise men of the town, who said: ‘Leave here at once. The crowd is growing angry and there will soon be a riot. Let us have a talk about this subject by ourselves. Behind the courthouse there is a walk, where we can be private. Come with us.’
So we followed them, and then they asked us where we came from and what our business was there. ‘We came,’ we said, ‘to learn about marriage, whether like the ancient peoples of the golden, silver and copper ages you regarded marriages as sacraments or not.’ ‘Sacraments indeed!’ they answered, ‘Aren’t they the work of flesh and darkness?’ ‘Aren’t they too,’ we replied, ‘the work of the spirit? Isn’t what the flesh does under the direction of the spirit itself spiritual? Everything the spirit does is directed by the marriage of good and truth. So isn’t it this spiritual marriage which enters into the natural marriage, that between husband and wife?’
To this the so-called wise men replied: ‘You are being too sharp and lofty in your treatment of the subject. You are going beyond the realm of reason into the spiritual realm. How can anyone start there, and come down from there to make any judgment?’ They added with a mocking grin, ‘Perhaps you have eagle’s wings so that you can soar to the heights of heaven and spy such things out? We cannot.’
[9] Then we asked them to tell us, from their height, that is, the region where the volatile ideas of their minds flit about, whether they knew or could know of the existence of the conjugial love of one man with one wife, a love on which are conferred all the blessedness, bliss, pleasures, charms and gratifications of heaven; this love being given by the Lord in proportion to one’s ability to receive good and truth from Him, and so depending on the state of the church.
[10] On hearing this they turned away and said: ‘These men are crazy. They soar about the atmosphere with their judgments, and indulge in the folly of playing with toys.’ Then turning back to us, they said: ‘We will give you a straight answer to your vain and vacuous prognostications. What connexion is there between conjugial love and religion or Divine inspiration? Surely everyone has this love in proportion to his sexual potency? Don’t those outside the church feel it just as much as those inside? The heathen just as much as Christians? In fact, the irreligious as much as the religious? Doesn’t the strength of that love depend on heredity, state of health, self-discipline or climate? It can also be strengthened and aroused by drugs. Isn’t it shared with animals, especially with birds, which form loving pairs? Surely it is a fleshly love. What has the flesh to do with the spiritual state of the church? When it comes to the effects at the lowest level, there is surely not the slightest difference between a wife and a trollop. The lust is the same and the delight felt is the same. It is therefore disrespectful to derive the origin of conjugial love from the holy things of the church.’
[11] On hearing this we told them: ‘Your reasoning arises from the goadings of lewdness, not from conjugial love. You are totally ignorant of what conjugial love is, because for you it is cold. Your remarks have proved to us that you come from the age named after a mixture of iron and clay, which do not hold together, as prophesied by Daniel (2:43). You make conjugial love and scortatory love one and the same. Can these two hold together any more than iron and clay? You think you are wise and you have that reputation, yet you are in fact anything but wise.’
On hearing this they shouted out in fury and summoned the crowd to throw us out. Then by the power given us by the Lord we held out our hands, and at once fiery serpents, poisonous snakes and vipers, and also dragons, appeared from the desert, moving into and filling the town, so that the inhabitants were terrified and fled.
The angel said to me: ‘Newcomers from earth are daily arriving in this region, and the earlier inhabitants are from time to time banished and cast into quagmires in the west. These look from a distance like lakes of fire and brimstone. All the people there are both spiritually and naturally adulterers.’
* Not a mistake for ‘night’, as the next sentence shows.
After this had been said I looked towards the border of the west, and there I saw lakes of fire and brimstone. ‘Why,’ I asked the angel, ‘do the hells there appear in such a form?’
‘They look,’ he said, ‘like lakes because of the falsifications of truth, water being in the spiritual sense truth. The appearance of fire around and in them results from the love of evil, the appearance of brimstone from the love of falsity. These three, lake, fire and brimstone, are appearances corresponding to the wicked loves of those there. All of them are shut up for ever in labour-camps, where they work for food, clothing and bed. When they commit crimes, they suffer severe and grievous punishments.’
[2] I asked the angel another question. ‘Why did you say that the people there are spiritual and natural adulterers? Why not criminals and unbelievers?’ ‘Because,’ he replied, ‘all who think nothing of committing adultery, all, that is, who commit these acts in the firm belief that they are not sins and with deliberate purpose, are at heart criminals and unbelievers. For the principles of human marriage and religion go hand in hand; every pace and every step away from or towards religion is also a pace and a step away from or towards the principles of marriage, which is the special quality belonging to a Christian.’
When I asked, ‘What is this principle of marriage?’ he said, ‘A desire to live with a single wife, a desire a Christian has the more, the more religious he is.’
[3] After this I felt very sad in spirit that marriages, which had been most holy in ancient times, were so corrupted and changed into adulteries. ‘It is the same,’ said the angel, ‘with religion today. For the Lord says that at the ending of the age the abomination of desolation foretold by Daniel will take place; and there will be great affliction such as there has never been since the beginning of the world (Matt. 24:15, 21). The abomination of desolation means the falsification and removal of all truth; affliction means the state of the church when it is attacked by evils and falsities. The ending of the age, about which these things are said, means the final period or end of the church. The end is now, since there is no truth left which has not been falsified; and the falsification of truth is spiritual licentiousness, which goes so closely with natural licentiousness that they make one.’
Since the angel understood everything, he told me first that these glorifications and praises of the Lord were taken from the Word, because they then come from the Lord, who is the Word, that is, He is the Divine truth itself in it. ‘At this particular moment,’ he said, ‘they are glorifying and praising the Lord with the words spoken by the prophet Daniel:
You have seen iron mixed with common clay; they will mix by means of the seed of man, but will not hold together. But in those days the God of the heavens will cause a kingdom to arise, which will not perish for ever. It will crush and destroy all those kingdoms, but will stand itself for ever.’ Dan. 2:43, 44.
[2] After this I heard what sounded like singing, and yet further away to the east I saw a gleam of light more brilliant than before. I asked the angel what was the glorifying taking place there. He said it was with the words of Daniel:
I was watching in the visions of the night, and I saw as it were the Son of Man coming with the clouds of heaven. And to him were given dominion and the kingdom, and all peoples and nations will worship him. His dominion will be a dominion for ever, which will not pass away, and his kingdom one which will not perish. Dan. 7:13, 14.
Besides this they praise the Lord using these words from Revelation:
To Jesus Christ be glory and strength. Behold, he comes with clouds. He is Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty. I, John, heard this from the Son of Man from the midst of the seven lampstands. Rev. 1:5-13; 22:13, also Matt. 24:30, 31.
[3] I looked again to the east of heaven and the light was growing from the right; the brightness spread into the expanse of sky to the south, and I heard a sweet sound. I asked the angel, ‘What aspect of the Lord are they glorifying there?’ He said it was with these words from Revelation:
I saw a new heaven and a new earth; and I saw the holy city, the New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared like a bride for her husband. And the angel spoke with me and said, Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb. And he carried me away in the spirit onto a great and high mountain, and showed me the holy city of Jerusalem. Rev. 21:1, 2, 9, 10.
Also with these words:
I, Jesus, am the bright star of the morning; and the spirit and the bride will say, Come. And he said, I am coming soon. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. Rev. 22:16, 17, 20.
[4] After this and more, I heard a general glorifying from the east of heaven to the west, and also from the south to the north. I asked the angel what this was. He said it was these words from the Prophets:
Let all flesh know that I am Jehovah your Saviour and your Redeemer. Isa. 49:26.
Thus spoke Jehovah, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, Jehovah Zebaoth, I am the first and the last, and there is no God beside me. Isa. 44:6.
On that day it will be said, Behold, this is our God, whom we have waited for to free us. He is Jehovah, whom we have awaited. Isa. 25:9.
The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare the way for Jehovah. Behold, the Lord Jehovih comes in strength. He will feed his flock like a shepherd. Isa. 40:3, 5, 10, 11.
A child is born for us, a son is given to us, whose name is Wonderful, Counsellor, God, Hero, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Isa. 9:6.
Behold the days will come when I shall raise up for David a righteous shoot, who will reign as king. And this is his name, Jehovah our righteousness. Jer. 23:5, 6; 33:15, 16.
Jehovah Zebaoth is his name, and your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. He will be called the God of the whole earth. Isa. 54:5.
On that day Jehovah will become king over the whole earth; on that day Jehovah will be one, and his name one. Zech. 14:9.
When I heard and understood all this, my heart leaped for joy, and I went home rejoicing; and there I came back from the state of the spirit into that of the body, and in this I wrote down what I had seen and heard. To this I can now add the following. Since the Lord’s coming He is reviving conjugial love as it was among the ancient peoples, because that love comes only from the Lord, and is present with those who are under His guidance becoming spiritual by means of the Word.
‘The teachings, ‘ I replied, ‘of the church meant by the New Jerusalem are these:
(i) God is one, in whom is the Divine Trinity, and He is the Lord Jesus Christ.
(ii) Faith leading to salvation is believing in Him.
(iii) Evil actions are to be shunned, because they are the work of the devil and come from him.
(iv) Good actions are to be done, because they are the work of God and come from Him.
(v) A person must perform these actions as if they were his own, but he must believe that they come from the Lord present with him and acting through him.’
[2] On hearing this his fury departed for a few moments. But after pondering for a while, he glowered at me again and said: ‘Are these five commandments what the new church teaches about faith and charity?’ ‘Yes,’ I answered. Then he asked roughly, ‘How can you prove the first point, that God is one , in whom is the Divine Trinity, and He is the Lord Jesus Christ?’ ‘My proof,’ I said, ‘is this. Do you not agree that there is one, undivided God, and a Trinity? If there is one, undivided God, is He not one Person? If He is one Person, is there not a Trinity in that Person? He is the Lord Jesus Christ, as is clear from it being said that He was conceived of God the Father (Luke 1:34,35), and so in soul He was God. It follows from this, as He said, that He and the Father are one (John 10:30); He is in the Father, and the Father is in Him (John 14:10, 11); whoever sees and knows Him, sees and knows the Father (John 14:7, 9); no one sees and knows the Father but He who is in the Father’s bosom (John 1:18); all things of the Father’s are his (John 3:35; 16:15); He is the way, truth and life, and no one comes to the Father except through Him (John 14:6). That means from Him, because He is in Him. Also according to Paul:
All the fulness of the Godhead resides bodily in him. Col. 2:9.
Moreover, He has power over all flesh (John 17:2); and He has all power in heaven and on earth (Matt. 28:18). It follows from this that He is the God of heaven and earth.’
[3] Then he asked how I could prove the second point, that faith leading to salvation is believing in Him. ‘I prove this, ‘ I said, ‘ by the words of the Lord Himself:
This is the Father’s will, that everyone who believes in the Son should have everlasting life. John 6:40.
God so loved the word that he gave his only son, so that everyone who believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:15, 16.
He who believes in the Son has everlasting life.; but he who does not believe the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God remains upon him. John 3:36.
[4] Later he said, ‘Prove your third and following points.’ ‘What need is there,’ I answered, ‘to prove that evil actions are to be shunned because they are the work of the devil and come from him? Or that good actions are to be done, because they are the work of God and come from Him? Or that a person ought to do good actions as if they were his own, but to believe that they come from the Lord present with him and working through him? The whole of Holy Scripture from beginning to end is a confirmation of these points. Is there anything else in it, to put it briefly, than shunning evil and doing good actions, and believing in the Lord God? Moreover, there cannot be any religion without these three points. Surely religion is a matter of how one lives; and what is this but shunning evil and doing good actions? How can a person do these things and believe in the Lord God, except as from himself? If therefore you take these things away from the church, you deprive it of the Holy Scriptures and also of religion; and without these it is no longer a church.’
On hearing this the man went off to think about it; but he still departed in an angry mood.
THE DERIVATION OF CONJUGIAL LOVE FROM THE MARRIAGE OF GOOD AND TRUTH
There are both inward and outward sources of conjugial love; the inward ones are many, and so are the outward ones. But there is but one inmost or truly universal source, and this is the marriage of good and truth, as will be proved in the following pages. Up to now no one has traced the origin of this love to that source, because the existence of a union between good and truth has remained a secret. This is because good, unlike truth, cannot be seen by the light of the intellect, so that knowledge of it has been concealed and has escaped research. Since good therefore is an unknown entity, no one could guess that there was a marriage between it and truth.
In fact, on a natural, rational view good seems to be so far removed from truth as to have no connexion with it. This can easily be seen by considering the forms of language we use in speaking about them. When we say ‘This is good,’ we do not have any thought of truth; and when we say ‘This is true,’ we do not have any thought of good. Many people nowadays therefore believe that truth is something totally different from good, and likewise good from truth. Many too believe that if a human being is intelligent and wise, his humanity depends upon the truths he thinks, speaks, writes about and believes, without any reference to his goodness. I shall now explain how good cannot exist without truth, nor truth without good, and in consequence there is a permanent marriage between them, and it is this which is the source of conjugial love. This will be proved in the following series of propositions:
(i) Good and truth are universal principles of creation, and are thus in everything that has been created; but the form of each thing determines their presence in created objects.
(ii) There is no such thing as good in isolation or truth in isolation, but they are everywhere linked.
(iii) There is the truth of good, and from this the good of truth, that is to say, truth coming from good and good from that truth; both of them have a tendency implanted from creation to join themselves into one.
(iv) In the members of the animal kingdom the truth of good, that is, truth coming from good, is male; and from this the good of truth, that is, the good coming from that truth, is female.
(v) The influence of the marriage of good and truth coming from the Lord produces sexual love and also conjugial love.
(vi) Sexual love belongs to the outward or natural person, and consequently is shared by all animals.
(vii) Conjugial love belongs to the inward or spiritual person, and consequently is peculiar to human beings.
(viii) In a human being conjugial love is in sexual love, like a gem in its native rock.
(ix) Sexual love in a human being is not the source of conjugial love, but is its first phase, being as it were the natural exterior in which the spiritual interior is implanted.
(x) When conjugial love has been implanted, sexual love turns upside down and becomes chaste sexual love.
(xi) Male and female were created to be a true likeness of the marriage of good and truth.
(xii) They are this likeness at the inmost levels, and the likeness ascends from these to the following levels, as the interiors of the mind are opened up.
An explanation of these points now follows.
Good and truth are universal principles of creation because these two are present in the Lord God the Creator; in fact, they are God, for He is Divine good itself and Divine truth itself. But it falls more clearly into the grasp of the intellect, and so into the concepts of thought, if love is substituted for good and wisdom for truth. That is to say, in the Lord God the Creator there are Divine love and Divine wisdom, and these are God, that is, He is love itself and wisdom itself. For these two are the same as good and truth. This is because good has to do with love, and truth with wisdom, since love is composed of kinds of good, and wisdom of kinds of truth. As these two are one and the same, in the following pages now one and now the other will be named, but they are to be understood as having the same meaning. This preliminary caution is inserted here, to prevent the intellect thinking that different things are meant where they are mentioned in what follows.
It is as a result of this that good and truth are called universal principles of creation. Anyone who uses his reason to study this can see that it is plainly so; he can see in everything created what has reference to good and what has reference to truth.
There are various possible examples of how the form of an object determines how it receives influences; for instance, the way vegetation of all kinds receives heat and light radiated by the sun. Any plant receives radiation in the way its form prescribes; every tree in its own way, every shrub in its, every plant and grass in its. The radiation reaching them all is the same, but the way it is received, being dictated by the form, ensures that each species remains true to itself. The same idea can be exemplified by radiation reaching every animal in a way dependent on its form. Even a peasant can see that form determines the force acting on it, if he listens to the various musical instruments, pipes, flutes, trumpets, horns and organs, which all make sounds appropriate to their forms as a result of a similar input of breath or air.
Anyone wishing to gain from any phrase an idea of good is unable to find one except with some addition which presents and displays it. Without this good is a nameless entity. That which presents and displays it has reference to truth. If you say ‘good’ by itself, and not something or other connected with it, or if you define it in the abstract with no additional phrase attached, you will see that it is not anything, but it is when it has something added. If you can sharpen your powers of reasoning enough, you will grasp that good with no additional phrase cannot have anything predicated of it, and so cannot refer to anything, arouse any emotion, or represent any state; in short, it lacks any quality. It is the same with truth, if you hear the word used without anything connected with it. An acute reason can see that what is connected with it has reference to good.
[2] But since there are countless kinds of good, and each of them rises to its maximum and falls to its minimum as if on the rungs of a ladder; and since it changes its name as it advances or varies in quality, it is difficult for any but the wise to see what relation good and truth have to things or how they are combined in them. However, it is obvious from what is generally perceived that good cannot exist without truth, or truth without good, as soon as it is recognised that every detail of the universe has reference to good and truth, as was shown in the preceding sections (84, 85).
[3] Various things can be used to illustrate and prove that neither good nor truth can exist in isolation. For instance, essence cannot exist without form, nor form without essence; and good is the essence or being, and truth is that by means of which essence is formed and its being comes into existence. Again, man is endowed with will and intellect; good is a matter of will, truth of intellect, and the will cannot do anything except by means of the intellect, nor can the intellect by itself except as a result of the will. Again, there are two sources of life in man, the heart and the lungs. The heart cannot give rise to any sensation or movement we call life without respiration by the lungs, nor can the lungs without the heart. The heart has reference to good, the respiration of the lungs to truth; and this too is their correspondence.
[4] It is the same in every detail of the mind and in every detail of the human body. But I have not space here to adduce further proofs. All these points can be seen more fully proved in my THE WISDOM OF THE ANGELS ABOUT DIVINE PROVIDENCE (3-26), where they are set out in the following order:
(i) The universe with everything in it is the product of Divine love by means of Divine wisdom, or, what is the same, of Divine good by means of Divine truth.
(ii) Divine good and Divine truth proceed from the Lord as a single entity.
(iii) Some kind of likeness of this single entity is present in every created thing.
(iv) Good is not good except in so far as it is united with truth, and truth is not truth except in so far as it is united with good.
(v) The Lord does not allow any division, so that a person must either be in a state of good and at the same time truth, or he must be in a state of evil and at the same time falsity.
There is more there besides.
Some idea of the distinction between these two must be gained, because knowledge of the essential source of conjugial love depends upon it. For the truth of good, that is, truth from good, is, as will be shown in what follows [90, 91], male; and the good of truth, that is the good from that truth, is female. But the distinction can be better grasped, if love is substituted for good and wisdom for truth. These are one and the same (see 84 above). The only way wisdom can come into existence for a person is by means of the love of being wise. If this love is taken away, there is no way the person can be wise. It is wisdom arising from this love which is meant by the truth of good, or truth coming from good. But when a person has as a result of that love acquired wisdom, and loves wisdom in himself, that is, loves himself for his wisdom, then he forms a love, which is the love of wisdom and is meant by the good of truth, or good coming from that truth.
[2] A man therefore possesses two loves. One, which comes first, is the love of being wise, and the other, which comes later, is the love of wisdom. But if this second love remains with a man, it is a wicked love, called pride in or love of one’s own intelligence. It will be proved in the following pages that it has been provided from creation that, to prevent this love being his ruin, it was taken from the man and copied into the woman, so becoming conjugial love which makes him whole again. Some remarks about these two loves and the copying of the latter one into the woman may be seen in 32, 33 above, and in the Preliminaries, 20. If therefore we understand for love good and for wisdom truth, then it is proved by what has been said that there is truth of good, that is, truth coming from good, and from this the good of truth, that is good coming from that truth.
It was shown above (84-86) that there is a perpetual influence from the Lord, the Creator and Upholder of the universe, seeking to bring about a union of love and wisdom, or a marriage of good and truth, and that created beings receive it, each in accordance with its own form. However, these further points remain to be shown. The male receives from this marriage or union the truth of wisdom, and the more he receives this, the more is the good of love linked with it by the Lord. This is received in the intellect, and consequently the male is by birth destined to become intellectual. These points can be seen even by reason’s own light from various aspects of the male, in particular from his affection, interest, behaviour and form.
[2] They can be seen from the affection of the male being an affection for knowing, understanding and being wise. In childhood there is an affection for knowing, in adolescence and early adulthood an affection for understanding, and from this point to old age an affection for being wise. It is obvious from this that the nature or character of the male tends to the formation of the intellect, so that as a result he is by birth destined to become intellectual. But this cannot happen except as the result of love; so therefore the Lord gives this in addition in proportion to his reception, that is, his willingness to be wise.
[3] They can be seen from the interest of the male, which is directed towards intellectual matters, that is, those in which the intellect plays the leading role; most of these concern public matters and have in view services to the community. They can be seen from the behaviour of the male, which is totally dominated by the leading role of the intellect. As a result every act in his life, which is what is meant by behaviour, is rational; or, if not, he would like them to look rational. The rationality of the male is visible too in every one of his excellences. They may be seen from the form of the male, which is quite different and distinct from the female form; see also what was said above (33). An additonal point is the fact that the reproductive faculty belongs to the male. This is from no other source than the intellect, since it is produced by the truth in it coming from good. It will be seen in the following pages that this is the source of the reproductive faculty.*
* This is in agreement with the general belief of the 18th century, that reproduction was exclusively the prerogative of the male, the female contributing only the means of the development and birth of the foetus.
It has been shown above (84-87) that good and truth are universal principles of creation, and are thus present in all created things, in each case in a way depending on their form; and also that good and truth proceed from the Lord not as two, but as one. It follows from these premises that there is a universal sphere of marriage which proceeds from the Lord, pervading the universe from first to last, and so from angels right down to worms. The reason such a sphere of the marriage of good and truth proceeds from the Lord is that it is equally a sphere of propagation, that is, of reproduction and fruitfulness; and this is the same as the Divine providence which keeps the universe in being by a succession of generations.
Now since that universal sphere, marrying good and truth, influences things that receive it in accordance with their form (see 86), it follows that the male receives it in accordance with his own form, that is, in his intellect, since he is an intellectual form. The female too receives it in accordance with her own form, that is, in her will, since she is a form of will arising from her husband’s intellect. Since this same sphere is also a reproductive sphere, it follows that this is the source of sexual love.
Everyone is by birth immersed in bodily concerns, and becomes more and more inwardly natural. His love of intelligence makes him rational, and later, if he has a love of wisdom, he becomes spiritual. I shall discuss later on (130) what the wisdom is which makes a person spiritual. Now as a person progresses from knowledge to intelligence, and from this to wisdom, so too his mind undergoes a change of form, becoming more and more open and more closely linked with heaven, and through heaven with the Lord. This makes him more fond of truth and more keen to live a good life. So if he stops at the first threshold in his progress towards wisdom, his mind retains a natural form, and this receives the influence of the universal sphere, that of the marriage of good and truth, in exactly the same way as the lower members of the animal kingdom, what we call animals and birds. These are utterly natural, and so the person becomes like them, and shares with them the same sexual love. This is what is meant by saying that sexual love belongs to the outward or natural person and is consequently shared with all animals.
Conjugial love belongs to the inward or spiritual person, because the more intelligent and wise, the more inward and spiritual he becomes. The more perfect too the form of his mind becomes, and this is the form which receives conjugial love. For in this it perceives and feels spiritual pleasure, which is what makes one inwardly blessed, and is the source of natural pleasure, which derives its soul, life and essence from it.
Since this is merely a comparison, its explanation can be deferred to the next section. It will also illustrate the point that sexual love belongs to the outward or natural person, but conjugial love to the inward or spiritual person (as was proved just above in 95).
I am speaking here of truly conjugial love, not the common kind of love which is also called conjugial* love, and in some cases is nothing but a restricted sexual love. Truly conjugial love is only to be found among those who have a thirst for wisdom, and so advance further and further towards it. The Lord sees them beforehand and provides them with conjugial love. This love of theirs certainly begins with sexual love or rather begins by way of sexual love; but this is not its source. It grows as the person’s wisdom steps forward and comes to light; for wisdom and conjugial love are inseparable companions.
[2] The reason why conjugial love begins with sexual love is that, before a partner is found, there is a generalised love and aimiable disposition towards the other sex. Social custom also plays a part in it. For the young man is free to choose, and as a result of the innate inclination towards marriage with one woman, which lurks in the depths of his mind, his exterior is aroused to welcome warmth. A final resolution on marriage is put off for various reasons until he is well into adulthood, and meanwhile the beginning of this love resembles lust, which in some cases actually turns into sexual love; still in these cases restraint is not relaxed beyond the point up to which indulgence is conducive to health. These remarks apply to the male sex. since this is subject to an enticement which produces genuine passion; but they do not apply to the female sex.
These considerations make it plain that sexual love is not the source of truly conjugial love, but is its first stage in time, but not first as an objective. That which is the first objective comes first in the mind and intention, because it plays the leading role. But this first objective is approached by a succession of intermediate stages. These are not essentially first objectives, but merely means which promote the realisation of what is in itself the first objective.
* The word ‘also’ seems to prove that conjugalis is here a misprint for conjugialis, the form consistently employed by the author. If not, it might be here translated ‘married love.’
Sexual love is then said to turn upside down, because when conjugial love reaches its source, located in the inner levels of the mind, it sees sexual love not in front of but behind itself, or not above but below itself, and thus as something it left behind as it passed. This is like what happens when anyone has risen from one post to another until he reaches a position of the highest rank, and then looks back at the posts below him through which he has passed. Or when anyone has in mind a journey abroad to visit a king’s court, and after his arrival turns his gaze back to what he saw on the way. In these circumstances sexual love lasts, becoming chaste, yet sweeter than before to those who have truly conjugial love. This can be seen from the way it is described by people in the spiritual world in the two accounts of experiences there (44, 55).
This is because the male was created to be the understanding of truth, and so a model of truth; and woman was created to be the willing of good, and so a model of good. Each had implanted at the inmost level a tendency to become joined into one (see 88 above). So the two of them make up a single model, which imitates the model of the marriage of good and truth. The term ‘imitates’ is used because it is not the same, but resembles it. For the good which links itself with truth in the man comes directly from the Lord; but the wife’s good, which links itself with truth in the man, comes to him indirectly from the Lord by way of the wife. There are, therefore, two kinds of love, one inward, one outward, which link themselves with truth in the husband. These ensure that the husband remains constantly able to understand truth, and so by means of truly conjugial love to be wise. But this will be discussed further in the following pages.
Every person is composed of three elements arranged in order: soul, mind and body. The inmost is the soul, the middle the mind, the outermost the body. All influences coming from the Lord enter at the inmost level, the soul, and from there come down to the middle one, the mind, and through this reach the outermost one, the body. This is how the marriage of good and truth coming from the Lord influences a person. There is a direct influence on the soul, and this passes on to the following level, by way of which it reaches the outermost; and these working together make up conjugial love. It is plain from this concept of how influence is felt that a married couple is a model of this at the inmost level, and so also in the following ones.
The wisdom which forms this model and receives this love is rational, and at the same time moral, wisdom. Rational wisdom looks on the kinds of truth and good to be seen inwardly present in a person, not as its own, but as flowing in from the Lord. Moral wisdom shuns the evils and falsities which sully conjugial love, especially lewdness, as it would leprosy.
* * * * *
One morning before sunrise I looked towards the east in the spiritual world, and saw four horsemen as it were flying out of a cloud shining with the flaming light of dawn. On the horsemen’s heads were to be seen helmets with raised brims, on their arms what looked like wings, and about their bodies tunics of orange colour. Then, dressed as racers, they rose in their stirrups, stretching the reins above the manes of the horses, which galloped as if they had wings on their feet. I followed with my eyes their course, or rather flight, with the idea of discovering where they were going; and I saw three of the horsemen spread out towards three points of the compass, south, west and north, while the fourth after a short distance stopped in the east.
[2] Wondering at this I looked up to heaven and asked where the horsemen were going. I got this reply: ‘They are to be sent to the wise men in the various kingdoms of Europe, who in making judgments are skilled in reasoning and sharp-witted, and who have achieved distinction in their own countries for their intellectual abilities. They are summoned to come and resolve the problem of the source of conjugial love, and its strength or potency.’
I was told from heaven, ‘Wait a little and you will see twenty-seven chariots; three containing Spaniards, three Frenchmen, three Italians, three Germans, three Dutchmen, three Englishmen, three Swedes, three Danes and three Poles.’ Two hours later the chariots came into view pulled by dun-coloured ponies with elaborate harness. They sped towards a commodious building to be seen on the border between the east and the south. All the travellers in the chariots dismounted around this, and entered it in high spirits.
[3] Then I was told, ‘You too may go and enter, so that you can listen.’ So I went and passed inside. When I surveyed the interior of the building, I observed that it was square, each side looking out towards a compass-point. On each side there were three lofty windows filled with clear glass, the frames being of olive-wood. On either side of the window-frames there were projections from the walls forming as it were rooms with vaulted ceilings, and containing tables. The walls of these rooms were of cedar-wood, the ceilings of fine citron-wood, the floors of planks of poplar. On the east wall, where no windows were to be seen, was placed a table overlaid with gold, on which lay a headdress studded with precious stones, to be given as a reward or prize to the one who solved the problem that was to be set.
[4] As I let my gaze rove around the vaulted projections, which were like rooms next to the windows, I saw in each five men from each of the kingdoms of Europe, waiting ready to deal with the subject submitted to their judgment. Then all at once an angel took his place in the middle of the hall and said, ‘The subject for you to judge will be the source of conjugial love, and of its strength or potency. Discuss this and come to a conclusion, When you have decided on your opinion, write it on a piece of paper and put this in the silver urn which you see placed next to the golden table. Sign the paper with the initial letter of your kingdom, F for France, B for Holland, I for Italy, A for England, P for Poland, G for Germany, H for Spain, D for Denmark and S for Sweden.’* After saying this the angel left, promising to return.
Then the five representatives in each chamber by a window discussed this decree, investigated it, and reached a decision to the best of their powers of judgment. This they wrote on papers signed with the initial letter of their kingdom, and placed them in the silver container. After three hours the angel came back and, taking the papers in sequence from the urn, read them to the assembled company.
* These letters represent the initials of the Latin form of the name of the countries.
‘We, the five representatives in our chamber, have decided that conjugial love originated with the most ancient people of the golden age, and from the creation of Adam and his wife among them. This is the origin of marriage, and together with marriage of conjugial love. As regards the strength or potency of conjugial love, we see no other source for it than the climate or situation with reference to the sun, and as a result the heat experienced on earth. We have arrived at this opinion, not from any empty notions we have thought up, but from clear observations we have made; for instance, by studying the peoples living in the tropical zone, where the heat of the day is almost burning, and peoples living nearer to or further away from that zone. We also deduce this from the way the heat of the sun works together with vital heat in earth-bound animals and in the birds of the heavens, when they breed in springtime. Moreover, is conjugial love anything but heat, which with the additional help of the sun becomes strength or potency?’ This was signed H, the initial of the [Spanish] kingdom from which they came.
‘We, the representatives in our meeting, have agreed that the source of conjugial love is the same as that of marriage. This has been established by law in order to restrain human beings’ inbred lust for adultery, which destroys their souls, poisons their rational minds, debases their behaviour, and blights their bodies with sickness. For adultery is the conduct of wild beasts, not human beings, of brutes, not rational beings, and so of barbarians, not Christians. Marriage grew up because such conduct was dangerous, and conjugial love developed together with it.
‘It is much the same with the strength or potency of this love. This depends on chastity, which is abstaining from indiscriminate fornication. This is because the strength or potency in the case of a man who loves only his wife is restricted to one woman, and is therefore gathered together and, so to speak, concentrated. This ennobles it and makes it quintessential by removing the impurities, but it would otherwise be dispersed and scattered in all directions. One of us five who is a priest also brought in predestination as a cause of this strength or potency. “Are not marriages,” he said, “predestined? And if they are, so is the begetting of children and the means which effect this.” He insisted on this reason, because he had taken an oath on it.’ This paper was signed with the letter B [for Holland].
On hearing this someone said in a mocking tone ‘Predestination! That’s a pretty excuse for inability or impotence.’
‘We, the representatives in our cell, have debated the reasons for the development of conjugial love, and have observed that the leading one is its identity with the development of marriage, since this love had not before come into existence. It did so, because when someone is dying [of love],* that is, is desperately in love with a girl, he wants with all his heart and soul to possess her, as the most attractive of all properties. As soon as she pledges herself, he looks on her as one looks upon oneself. It is quite plain that this is the source of conjugial love from the frenzy each lover displays against his rivals, and his jealousy towards any who violate his love.
‘Afterwards we debated the source of the strength or potency of that love, and the verdict by a majority of three to two was that strength or potency with a wife was the result of some licence with the other sex. They said they knew from experience that the potency of sexual love was stronger than that of conjugial love.’ This paper was signed with the letter I.
On hearing this there was a cry from the tables, ‘Take this paper away, and draw another from the urn.’
* It has been suggested that perit ‘is dying’ is here a printer’s error for petit ‘is seeking’, but this is unnecessary.
‘We, the representatives under our window, have decided that conjugial love and sexual love share the same source, since conjugial love is the result of sexual love. The only difference is that sexual love is unrestricted, unbounded, free, promiscuous and inconstant; conjugial love is restricted, bounded, restrained, fixed and constant. This love has therefore been sanctioned and established by the prudence of human wisdom, because there would otherwise be no empires, kingdoms or republics, or even any communities at all. People would roam the countryside and forests in hordes with their trollops and women they had carried off, moving from one place to another to avoid bloody slaughter, rape and pillage, which would have wiped out the whole of the human race. This is our judgment about the source of conjugial love.
‘We trace the strength or potency of conjugial love to the continuous preservation of bodily health from birth to old age. For a person who is continually safe and sound, with established good health, suffers no lack of vigour. His fibres, sinews and muscles, including those which control the testicles, do not become dull, relaxed and flagging, but retain their full strength and ability. Adieu.’ This paper was signed with the latter A [for England].
‘We, the representatives at our table, have employed the rational faculty of our minds to look into the source of conjugial love and that of its strength or potency. Having taken an all-round look at the reasons, we have seen and proved that the only source is the fact that everyone as a result of the stimuli and their prodding which lie concealed in the depths of his mind and body finds his eyes leading him to varying lusts, but eventually he concentrates and shapes his mind towards one member of the female sex, until his passion for her grows hot. From this time on his heat develops a series of flames, until it becomes a fire. In that state sexual lust departs and the place of lust is taken by conjugial love. When the young bridegroom is hot with this fire, he is unaware that the strength or potency of that love will ever fade, since he lacks the experience which could teach him about the way its strength declines and love cools off after achieving its delights. The source of conjugial love therefore is from that first ardour which precedes marriage, and this is also the source of its strength or potency. But after the wedding there is a change in his potency, and it increases and decreases in turn. But it still lasts until old age, decreasing and increasing in a constant rhythm, because it is controlled by prudence and the lusts are checked which burst out of the as yet unpurified caverns of the mind. For lust is the forerunner of wisdom. This is our judgment about the source and persistence of marital strength or potency.’ This paper was signed with the letter P.
‘We, the representatives in our group, have looked around for causes which give rise to conjugial love and have agreed on two. One of these is the correct upbringing of children, the other is the clearly defined possession of inheritances. We have selected these two causes, because they aim at and have regard to a single target, the public good. This is achieved, because children conceived and born as the result of conjugial love are proper and true to their breeding; and a result of the enhanced parental love engendered by their legitimacy they are brought up to inherit all their parents’ possessions, spiritual as well as natural. Reason can see that the public good is founded on the correct upbringing of children and the clearly defined possession of inheritances.
‘There is sexual love and there is conjugial love. The second may look as if it were identical with the first, but it is quite clearly different. Nor is one alongside the other; one is inside the other, and what is inside excels in nobility what is outside. We have observed that conjugial love is from creation inside and hidden in sexual love, just like an almond in its shell. So when conjugial love is laid bare of its shell, sexual love, it shines in the sight of angels like such gems as beryl or moonstone. The reason for this is that conjugial love has been labelled the preservation of the whole human race, which is what we mean by the public good. This is our judgment about the source of this love.
‘However, after debating the causes of its strength or potency, we have come to the conclusion that this is due to the laying bare and separation of conjugial love from sexual love. This results from wisdom on the part of the husband, and the love of her husband’s wisdom on the part of the wife. For sexual love is shared with animals, but conjugial love is peculiar to human beings. So a man is a man and not an animal, to the extent that conjugial love is bared and separated from sexual love. It is his love which allows a person to acquire his strength or potency, and it is love which gives an animal its.’ This paper was signed with the letter G.
‘We, the representatives in the room under the light of our window, have been much cheered in thinking and passing our judgments by meditating on conjugial love. Surely everyone is cheered by it; for when we have that love in our minds, it pervades at the same time the whole of our bodies. Our judgment is that the source of this love is from its pleasures. Does anyone know or has anyone ever known a trace of any love except from the pleasure and gratification it gives? The pleasures of conjugial love are experienced in its beginnings as blessedness, bliss and happiness; and as it progresses as loveliness and gratifications, and at the lowest level as the supreme delight. So sexual love arises as the interior of the mind, and so the interior of the body, is opened up, as those pleasures flood in. But conjugial love then arose when the earliest sphere of that love conceptually advanced those pleasures by starting formal engagements.
‘As regards the strength or potency of that love, this is the product of that love’s ability to penetrate, carrying its influence from the mind into the body. For the mind, when feeling and acting, leaves the head for the body, and especially when experiencing the delights of that love. We judge that to be the source of the degrees of potency and the regularity of its alternations. In addition, we think the strength of potency depends on breeding. If that is exceptional in the father, it is equally so in the offspring who inherit it. Reason combined with experience demands that it is inheritance which produces, passes on and transmits such excellence.’ This paper was signed with the letter F.
‘We, the representatives in our meeting, have not discovered the ultimate source of conjugial love, because it lies too deeply hidden in the inmost recesses of the mind. Even the most masterly wisdom cannot cast a ray of light on that love at its source. We have made many conjectures, but having to no purpose debated its subtleties, we do not know whether our guesses are trifles or sound judgments. Anyone therefore wishing to extract the source of that love from the inmost recesses of the mind and present it to view is advised to resort to the Delphic oracle.
‘We have thought about that love below its source as being a spiritual movement in people’s minds, resembling there a spring of sweet water, from where it flows down into the breast, becoming there pleasant and being called bosom-love. This regarded in itself is full of friendship and full of trust, as a result of an unqualified mutual propensity. On passing through the breast it turns into fervent love. When a young man ponders such things in his thoughts, as he does when he chooses for himself one in particular of the opposite sex, the fire of conjugial love is lighted in his heart; and since this fire is the first sign of that love, it is its source.
‘We cannot make out any other source for its strength or potency than the love itself, since these are inseparable companions, but of such a nature that sometimes one takes precedence and sometimes the other. When love takes precedence, and its strength or potency follows, both are noble, because potency is then the strength of conjugial love. But if potency takes precedence and love follows, then both are ignoble, because love is then the result of carnal potency. We therefore judge the quality of either to be dependent upon the order in which loves comes down or goes up, thus advancing from its source to its goal.’ This paper was signed with the letter D.
‘We, the representatives in our committee, have submitted to our judgment the two subjects set before us, the source of conjugial love and the source of its strength or potency. When we engaged in subtle discussions about the source of conjugial love, to avoid obscurity in our reasoning we made a distinction between spiritual, natural and carnal sexual love. By spiritual sexual love we mean truly conjugial love, since this is spiritual. By natural sexual love we mean polygamous love, since this is natural. And by wholly carnal sexual love we mean scortatory love, since this is wholly carnal. When we applied our most penetrating judgment to conjugial love, we realised that this is only possible between one male and one female, and it is from creation heavenly and inmost, the soul and father of all good loves; it was breathed into our first forefathers, and can be breathed into Christians. Moreover, its uniting power is so great that it can make two minds into one, and two persons as it were one person; this is what is meant by their becoming one flesh. The Book of Creation shows plainly that this love was breathed in from creation:
And a man shall leave his father and mother, and cling to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. Gen. 2:24.
It is clear that this love can be breathed into Christians from the following passage:
Jesus said, Have you not read that the Maker from the beginning made them male and female? Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and cling to his wife, and the two of them shall become one flesh; so henceforth they are two, not one flesh. Matt. 19:4-6.
This is said of the source of conjugial love.
‘We suggest that the source of the strength or potency of truly conjugial love arises from similarity of minds and unanimity. For when two minds are joined in wedlock, these thoughts spiritually kiss each other, and there breathe into their bodies their strength or potency.’ This paper was signed with the letter S.
Then one of them came right in and stood by the table on which the headdress was placed. ‘You Christians,’ he said, ‘trace the source of conjugial love to the love itself; but we Africans trace it to the God of heaven and earth. Is not conjugial love a chaste, pure and holy love? Do not the angels in heaven possess it? Is not the whole human race, and so the whole heaven of angels, the seed of that love? Surely something of such surpassing excellence cannot come into being from any source other than God Himself, the Creator and Upholder of the universe. You Christians trace the strength or potency of marriage to various rational and natural causes; but we Africans trace it to the way human beings are linked with the God of the universe. We call this the state of religion, but you the state of the church. For when love comes from this source, and it is firm and perpetual, it cannot help making its strength which resembles it also firm and perpetual. Truly conjugial love is unknown except to those few who are close to God. So no more is the potency of that love known to others; but this potency together with that love is described by angels in the heavens as the delight of a perpetual springtime.’
In the middle of the night I was awakened from sleep and saw, fairly high up towards the east, an angel holding in his right hand a paper, which shone brilliantly in the light of the sun. There was something written at its centre in letters of gold. I could make out what was written as The Marriage of Good and Truth. The writing shone so brightly it spread in a circle far around. The circle or halo looked like the dawn when it appears in springtime.
Afterwards I saw the angel with the paper in his hand coming down. And as he came the paper shone less and less, and the writing on it, The Marriage of Good and Truth, changed from a golden to a silver colour, then to the colour of copper, and then to that of iron, finally to those of iron rust and verdigris. At the last stage the angel was seen entering a dark cloud, and passing through this to reach the ground. There the paper, although it was still held in the angel’s hand, was no longer visible. This took place in the world of spirits, where all people are first gathered after death.
[2] Then the angel addressed me and said, ‘Ask those who come here whether they can see me or anything in my hand.’ A large crowd came, one group from the east, another from the south, another from the west and another from the north. I asked those coming from the east and the south, who were those who in the world had devoted themselves to learning, whether they could see anyone present with me and anything in his hand. They all said that they could see nothing at all.
Then I asked those who had come from the west and north, who were those who in the world had believed what learned men told them. These said that neither could they see anything. However, the last of these, who in the world had had a simple faith based on charity, that is to say, who had some degree of truth coming from good, said, when the previous group had gone away, that they could see a man with a paper. The man was smartly dressed and the paper had writing on it. When they looked closer, they said they could read, The Marriage of Good and Truth; and they addressed the angel asking him to tell them what it meant.
[3] He said that everything throughout the whole of heaven and everything throughout the whole world is nothing but a marriage of good and truth, since every one of them, both those that live and breathe, as well as those that do not, have been created from the marriage of good and truth, and so as to make this marriage. ‘There is,’ he said, ‘nothing created to be truth alone, nor to be good alone; isolated good and isolated truth are nothing, but by that marriage they come into being and become such as is the marriage. In the Lord the Creator Divine good and Divine truth exist in their real substance; Divine good is the being of that substance, Divine truth is its coming-into-being. Its substance is also their actual union, for in Him they are infinitely one. Since the two are one in the Creator Himself, they are therefore one also in every single thing created by Him; and by this the Creator is linked in an everlasting covenant, like that of marriage, with all of His creations.’
[4] The angel went on to say that the Holy Scripture which came forth directly from the Lord is both in general and in detail a marriage of good and truth. Since the church, which is formed by the truth of its teaching, and religion, which is formed by goodness of life in accordance with the truth of teaching, are among Christians solely derived from Holy Scripture, it is evident that the church is in general and in detail a marriage of good and truth. (This may be seen in THE APOCALYPSE REVEALED 373, 483.) What has just been said about the marriage of good and truth applies in the same way to what can be said about the marriage of charity and faith, since good belongs to charity and truth to faith.
Some of the earlier groups who had not seen the angel and the writing were still standing close by, and on hearing this said in a low voice, ‘Yes, that is so; we understand.’ But then the angel said to them, ‘Turn a little away from me, and say the same.’ They turned away and said out loud, ‘No, that is not so.’
[5] After this the angel talked about the Marriage of Good and Truth among married couples. He said that if their minds were so married, the husband being truth and the wife the good of that truth, they would both enjoy the delights of blessed innocence, and so the happiness angels have in heaven. In this state the husband’s reproductive powers would be constantly as in the springtime of life, and so striving and succeeding in propagating his own truth; and his wife’s love would make her constantly receptive of his truth. ‘The wisdom the Lord gives to men finds no greater pleasure than in propagating its truths. And the love of wisdom that wives have in these circumstances finds nothing more welcome than to receive them, so to speak, in their womb, and so to conceive, carry and bring them to birth. This is what having spiritual children is like for the angels of heaven; and if you are prepared to believe it, this is the source from which natural children too come.’
The angel gave a greeting of peace and left the ground; and as he was carried through the cloud and rose into heaven, then the paper began to shine as before at each stage of the ascent. Then suddenly the circle of rays, which previously looked like the dawn, came down and scattered the cloud which had darkened the earth, and it became sunny.
THE MARRIAGE OF THE LORD AND THE CHURCH, AND ITS CORRESPONDENCE
The reason for including at this point a discussion of the marriage of the Lord and the church is that, without a knowledge and understanding of this, hardly anyone can know that conjugial love is in origin holy, spiritual and celestial, and that it comes from the Lord. There are of course those in the church who assert that marriages have some relationship with the Lord’s marriage with the church, but without knowing what is the nature of that relationship. In order, therefore, to cast some intellectual light on these matters, it is necessary to deal in detail with that holy marriage experienced by and in those who make up the Lord’s church. It is these and no others who have truly conjugial love. But in order to elucidate this secret, the discussion must be split into sections as follows.
(i) In the Word the Lord is called bridegroom and husband, and the church is called bride and wife. The linking of the Lord with the church, and the reciprocal linking of the church with the Lord, is called a marriage.
(ii) The Lord is also called father and the church mother.
(iii) The offspring of the Lord as father and of the church as wife and mother are all spiritual, and in the spiritual sense of the Word these are meant by sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, sons-in-law and daughters-in-law and other terms of relationship.
(iv) The spiritual offspring born of the Lord’s marriage with the church are truths, the source of understanding, perception and every thought, and good deeds, the source of love, charity and every affection.
(v) From the marriage of good and truth proceeding and flowing in from the Lord a person receives truth, to which the Lord links good. This is how the church with a person is formed by the Lord.
(vi) The husband does not represent the Lord and his wife the church, because they both together, husband and wife, make up the church.
(vii) Therefore there is no correspondence of the husband with the Lord and of the wife with the church in angelic marriages in the heavens or in those of human beings on earth.
(viii) There is, however, a correspondence with conjugial love, the planting of seed and reproduction, the love of children and similar matters which arise in and from marriages.
(ix) The Word is a means of linking because it is from the Lord and thus is the Lord.
(x) The church is from the Lord, and is present with those who approach Him and live in accordance with His commandments.
(xi) Conjugial love depends on the state of the church, because it depends on the state of wisdom a person possesses.
(xii) Since the church is from the Lord, so too is conjugial love from Him.
There now follows an explanation of these points.
It is evident from the following passages that in the Word the Lord is called bridegroom and husband, and the church bride and wife.
He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the bridegroom’s friend is he who stands and listens to him, and rejoices with joy at the bridegroom’s voice. John 3:29.
This was said about the Lord by John the Baptist.
Jesus said, So long as the bridegroom is with them, the children of the wedding cannot fast.* The days are coming when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast. Matt. 9:15; Mark 2:19, 20; Luke 5:34, 35.
I saw the holy city, the New Jerusalem, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. Rev. 21:2.
The New Jerusalem means the Lord’s new church (see THE APOCALYPSE REVEALED 880, 881).
The angel said to John, Come and I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb. And he showed him the holy city of Jerusalem. Rev. 21:9, 10.
The time of the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his wife has prepared herself. Blessed are those who are summoned to the wedding feast of the Lamb. Rev. 19:7, 9.
The bridegroom, who was met on the way by the five maidens who were ready, and with whom they went into the wedding (Matt. 25:1-10), means the Lord, as is plain from verse 13 where it is said:
Keep awake therefore, because you do not know the day or the hour at which the Son of Man is to come. [Matt. 25:13]
There are besides many passages in the Prophets.
* The Greek of Matthew says ‘cannot mourn’.
It is evident that the Lord is called father from these passages.
A child is born to us, a son is given to us, and his name will be called Wonderful, Counsellor, God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of peace. Isa. 9:6.
You, Jehovah, are our Father, your name is the Redeemer from of old. Isa. 63:16.
Jesus said, He who sees me sees the Father who sent me. John 12:45.
If you knew me, you knew also my father; and henceforth you have known and seen him. John 14:7.
Philip said, Show us the Father. Jesus said to him, He who has seen me has seen the Father; how then can you say, Show us the Father? John 14:8, 9.
Jesus said, the Father and I are one. John 10:30.
All that the Father has is mine. John 16:15; 17:10.
The Father is in me, and I am in the Father. John 10:38; 14:10, 11, 20.
It was fully shown in THE APOCALYPSE REVEALED that the Lord and His Father are one, just as soul and body are one; that God the Father came down from heaven and took upon Himself human form in order to redeem and save mankind, and His human form is what is called the Son who was sent into the world.
Jehovah said, Strive with your mother; she is not my wife, and I am not her husband. Hosea 2:2, 5.
You are your mother’s daughter, a mother who loathes her husband. Ezek. 16:45.
Where is the divorce document of your mother, whom you* have sent away? Isa. 50:1.
Your mother is like a vine planted close to water and fruitful. Ezek. 19:10.
These refer to the Jewish church.
Jesus stretching out his hand to the disciples said, My mother and my brothers are those who listen to God’s word and do it. Luke 8:21; Matt. 12:48, 49; Mark 3:33-35.
The Lord’s disciples mean the church.
His mother was standing by Jesus’ cross; and Jesus, seeing his mother and the disciple he loved standing by, says to his mother, Lady, here is your son; and he says to the disciple, Here is your mother. So from that hour the disciple took her as his own mother. John 19:25-27.
This passage means that the Lord did not recognise Mary as His mother, but the church; so He called her ‘Lady’ and the disciple’s mother. The reason why she was called the mother of this disciple, that is, of John, is that he represented the church as regards the good deeds of charity; these are the church in its real action. That too is the reason why he took her as his own mother. It can be seen in THE APOCALYPSE REVEALED (5, 6, 790, 798, 879) that Peter represented truth and faith, James charity and John the works of charity; and the twelve disciples together represented the church in all respects (233, 790, 903, 915).
* Elsewhere, as AC 5886:2, TCR 306, this verse is quoted as ‘whom I have sent away.’
There is no need to prove that no other offspring is born to the Lord by means of the church, because it is plain for reason to see without proof. For it is the Lord from whom all good and truth comes forth, and the church which receives them and puts them to use. All spiritual things in heaven and the church have reference to good and truth. Hence ‘sons and daughters’ in the spiritual sense of the Word mean kinds of truth and goodness; ‘sons’ mean truths conceived in the spiritual man and born in the natural man, ‘daughters’ likewise kinds of goodness. Those therefore who are regenerated by the Lord are called in the Word ‘sons of God,’ ‘sons of the kingdom,’ and ‘born of Him’; and the Lord called his disciples ‘sons’. The ‘male child’ which the woman gave birth to, and which was snatched up to God (Rev. 12:5) has the same meaning (see THE APOCALYPSE REVEALED 543). It is because ‘daughters’ mean the church’s good deeds that the Word so frequently speaks of ‘the daughter of Zion,’ ‘of Jerusalem’, ‘of Israel’ and ‘of Judah.’ These do not mean anyone’s daughter, but the affection for good which the church has (see THE APOCALYPSE REVEALED 612). The Lord also calls ‘brothers and sisters’ those who belong to His church (Matt. 12:49; 25:40; 28:10; Mark 3:35; Luke 8:21).
The reason why the spiritual offspring born of the Lord by means of the church are instances of truth and good is that the Lord is good itself and truth itself, and these are not two, but one, in Him. Also nothing can come forth from the Lord but what is in the Lord and is the Lord.
It was shown in the preceding chapter on the marriage of good and truth that this marriage comes forth from the Lord and influences human beings, being received in a way determined by the state of mind and way of life of those who belong to the church. The reason why truths are the means which allow a person to have understanding, perception and every thought, and good deeds are the means which allow a person to have love, charity and every affection, is that everything in a person relates to truth and good. Also, a person is composed of two faculties, the will and the intellect, the will being the means of receiving good, the intellect the means of receiving truth. Love, charity and affection belong to the will, and perception and thought belong to the intellect – a point which does not need to have light cast on it by being proved, because this statement is illustrated by the act of understanding.
The reason why a person receives truth from the good and truth which come forth as one from the Lord is that he receives it as of himself. For he thinks it as if of himself, and likewise employs it to speak. This happens because truth enjoys the light of the intellect and consequently a person sees it. Anything he sees in himself, that is, in his mind, cannot have its source known, for its influence is invisible, just as are the things which impinge on the eyesight, so that the impression is given that they are inside it. This appearance is God’s gift to a person, thus enabling him to be a human being and to be linked in return.
Another reason is that a person is by birth able to know, understand and be wise, and this ability receives the truths that give him knowledge, intelligence and wisdom. Since woman was created by means of man’s truth, and after marriage is more and more formed to love it, it follows that she too receives the husband’s truth in herself and joins it to her own good.
It is generally said in the church that as the Lord is the head of the church, so the husband is the head of the wife.* From this it would follow that the husband would represent the Lord and the wife the church. But the Lord is the head of the church, and human beings, male and female, are the church; and even more so in the case of husband and wife. In this case the church is first planted in the man and by means of the man in the wife, because the man receives its truth in his intellect, and the wife receives it from the man. But if it happens the other way round, this is not in good order. However, this does sometimes happen, but only in the case of men who are no lovers of wisdom, and so not part of the church either, or who in servile fashion hang upon their wives’ whims. On this subject generally see the remark in the Preliminaries (21).
* E.g. Eph. 5:23.
This follows from what has just been said. However, it needs to be added that truth appears to play the leading part in the church, because it comes first in time. It is this appearance which has made the leaders of the church give the prize to faith, which relates to truth, rather than to charity, which relates to good; and likewise scholars rate thought, a matter of the intellect, above affection, a matter of the will. For this reason the nature of the good of charity and the affection of the will are buried away as in a grave, and some people throw earth on them to prevent them rising again, as they do on the dead. Yet it is the good of charity which plays the leading part in the church, as can be seen with fully open eyes by those who have not shut off the route from heaven to their intellect by finding proofs that it is faith alone which makes the church, and it is thought alone which makes a person. In fact, the good of charity is from the Lord, and the truth of faith is for a person as if it were from him, and these two bring about the kind of linking of the Lord with a person, and of a person with the Lord, which is meant by the Lord’s saying that He is in them and they are in Him (John 15:4, 5). From this it is plain that this linking is the church.
These matters are too deep for the intellect to cast any light on them, unless there has first been some knowledge of correspondence. Until this has been revealed and lodged in the intellect, the effort to grasp what this paragraph says will be vain, however it is explained. How a correspondence exists between natural and spiritual things has been demonstrated at length in THE APOCALYPSE REVEALED and also in ARCANA CAELESTIA, and more particularly in THE TEACHING OF THE NEW JERUSALEM ABOUT THE HOLY SCRIPTURE. There will be given later a particular account of an experience on this subject [326]. Until some knowledge of this has been acquired, I can only make these few remarks, which will seem obscure to the intellect. Conjugial love corresponds to the affection for real truth, and its chastity, purity and holiness. The planting of seed corresponds to the power of truth; the procreation of children to the propagation of truth; the love of children to the guarding of truth and good. Since then truth in a person seems as if it were his own, and good is added to it by the Lord, it is plain that these correspondences are between the outward or natural man and the spiritual or inward man. But these matters will have further light shed on them in the account of experiences which follow.
The reason why the Word is a means of linking the Lord with a person and a person with the Lord is that it is in essence Divine truth combined with Divine good, and Divine good combined with Divine truth. Their union is in every single detail of the Word in its celestial and spiritual senses (see THE APOCALYPSE REVEALED 373, 483, 689, 881). From this it follows that the Word is a perfect marriage of good and truth. Since this is from the Lord, and what is from Him is the Lord, the consequence is that, when a person reads the Word and takes truths from it, the Lord gives him good in addition. For the person does not see the kinds of good which affect him, because he uses his intellect to read it, and the intellect can only gather from it its own kind of thing, namely, truths. The intellect can feel the addition of good by the Lord from the pleasure which floods in when it is being enlightened. But this only happens inwardly in the case of those who read the Word with the object of being wise; this is the object of those who want to learn more truths there and use these to form the church in themselves.
If some, however, read it only to be able to boast of their learning, and also if they hold the opinion that merely reading or hearing it injects faith and helps to salvation, these do not receive any good from the Lord, because their object is to achieve salvation simply from its words, which contain no part of truth. The other group’s object is to be renowned for learning, an object which has no link with any spiritual good, but only with the natural pleasure which comes from worldly fame. It is because the Word is a means of linking that it is called the Old and the New Covenant, and a covenant means a link.
No one nowadays denies that the church is the Lord’s, and being the Lord’s that it comes from Him. The reason the church exists with those who approach the Lord is that in the Christian world His church is based on the Word; and the Word is not only from the Lord, but is so in such a way that it is the Lord. In it Divine truth is combined with Divine good, and this too is the Lord. This is precisely what is meant by the Word being with God, and being God, the source of life and light to men, and becoming flesh (John 1:1-14). Furthermore its presence with those who approach the Lord is because it is present with those who believe in Him, believing that He is God the Saviour and Redeemer, Jehovah our righteousness, the gate by which the sheepfold, that is, the church, must be entered; that He is the way, truth and life; that no one comes to the Father except through Him; the Father and He are one; and many more things He teaches. No one, I repeat, can believe these things without approaching Him, since He is the God of heaven and earth, as He also teaches. Ought anyone else to be approached? and can anyone else be approached? His presence with those who live in accordance with His commandments is because linking is only possible with such people. For he says:
He who keeps my commandments and does them, he it is who loves me; and I will love him and make my dwelling with him. He, however, who does not love me does not keep my commandments. John 14:21-24.
Love is linking, and linking with the Lord makes the church.
I have said many times before, and shall say many times in future, that conjugial love depends upon the state of wisdom a person has. So at this point I shall give an illustration of what wisdom is, and how it makes one with the church.
Man possesses knowledge, intelligence and wisdom. Knowledge is a matter of knowing facts, intelligence of reasoning, and wisdom of how to live. Wisdom regarded in its fullness takes in knowing, reasoning and how to live. Knowing comes first, the reason is formed by this means, and wisdom is formed by them both, arising when people live according to reason as dictated by the truths which have been learned. Wisdom is therefore a matter both of reason and of living taken together; and it becomes wisdom when it is a matter of reason and so of how to live; but it is wisdom, when it has become a matter of how to live, and so of reason. The most ancient peoples of this world knew of no wisdom but that of how to live; and this was the wisdom of those they called ‘wise men’ (sophi ). But the ancients after this earliest period recognised the wisdom of reason as wisdom, and they were called ‘philosophers’ (philosophi*). Nowadays many people also call knowledge wisdom, for educated and learned men, even those who merely know a great deal, are called wise. So has wisdom declined from its heights to the trough.
[2] But some remarks must be added on what wisdom is like when it arises, and then when it reaches its full development. The matters to do with the church, what are called spiritual matters, occupy the inmost position in a person. Matters to do with the state, called civil matters, occupy a lower place; and those which are to do with knowledge, experience and skill, called natural matters, make up their footstool. The reason matters to do with the church, those called spiritual, occupy the inmost position in a person is that they establish a link with heaven, and through heaven with the Lord; nothing else comes into a person from the Lord by way of heaven. The reason why matters to do with the state, called civil matters, occupy a place below the spiritual ones is that they establish a link with the world, for they belong to the world. These are the statutes, laws and regulations which bind people together to form a fixed and stable society and state. The reason why matters to do with knowledge, experience and skill make up their footstool is that they are closely linked to the five bodily senses, and these are at the outermost position, on which the inner positions, those of the mind, and the inmost positions, those of the soul, rest.
[3] Now since the matters which fall in the realm of the church, spiritual matters as they are called, are lodged at the inmost position, and since what is lodged there makes up the head, and what comes beneath them, civil matters as they are called, make up the body, and what comes beneath them, natural matters as they are called, make up the feet, it is evident that when these three elements are arranged in the proper order, a person is in a state of perfection. For in these circumstances they exert similar influence. Just as what belongs to the head influences the body, and through the body the feet, so too spiritual matters influence civil ones, and, by way of these, natural ones. Now since spiritual matters are illuminated by heaven’s light, it is plain that they have light to illuminate the next steps in order, and give them life by their heat, which is love. When this happens, a person acquires wisdom.
[4] If, as said earlier, wisdom is to do with how to live and so with reason, it may be asked what is the wisdom of living. To sum it up briefly, it is shunning evils, because they damage the soul, the state and the body; and doing good because these actions benefit the soul, the state and the body. This is the kind of wisdom meant by that with which conjugial love forms a tie; for it does this by shunning the evil of adultery as a plague to the soul, the state and the body. Since that wisdom wells up from spiritual sources, which have to do with the church, it follows that conjugial love depends upon the state of the church in a person, which depends on the state of his wisdom. This too will make intelligible what has several times been said in earlier passages, that the more a person become spiritual, the more he has truly conjugial love. For it is the spirituality of the church which make a person spiritual. More about the wisdom to which conjugial love is joined may be seen below (163-165).
* Literally ‘lovers of wisdom’.
As this follows from what was said above, I refrain from giving further proofs. Moreover, all the angels of heaven bear witness to the fact that conjugial love comes from the Lord; and also that this love depends upon one’s state of wisdom, and this depends on the state of the church with one. This witness by the angels of heaven is plainly recorded in the accounts of experiences seen and heard in the spiritual world, to be found at the end of each chapter.
* * * * *
I once had a talk with two angels, one from the eastern and one from the southern heaven.
When they noticed that I was pondering the mysteries of wisdom on the subject of conjugial love, they said: ‘Don’t you know anything about the contests of wisdom in our world?’ ‘No, not yet,’ I replied.
‘There are many of them,’ they said, adding that those whose love of truth comes from a spiritual affection, that is to say, they love truths because they are true, and because they are the way to wisdom, meet when the signal is given, to discuss matters requiring profound understanding and to reach conclusions about them. Then they took me by the hand, saying: ‘Come with us and you will see and hear. The signal has been given for a meeting today.’
I was taken across a plain to a hill, and there at the foot of the hill was an avenue of palm-trees extending all the way to the top. We went in and climbed the hill. On the top or summit of the hill we saw a wood, the trees of which formed on a rise in the ground a kind of theatre. Inside this there was a flat space paved with pebbles of different colours, and around this were ranged seats in a square; these were occupied by the lovers of wisdom. In the middle of the theatre was a table, and a document secured with a seal lay on it.
[2] Those who were sitting on the seats invited us to occupy some which were still vacant. But I replied, ‘I have been brought here by two angels to see and listen, not to take part in the session.’
Then the two angels went up to the table in the middle of the arena and broke the seal on the document. They then read out to the meeting the mysteries of wisdom written in the document, which were to be discussed and expounded. It had been written by angels of the third heaven, and sent down to lie on the table. There were three questions: the first was, ‘What is the image of God and what is the likeness of God in which man was created?’ The second was, ‘Why is man born without knowledge of what he should love, yet animals and birds, the highest as well as the lowest, are born knowing all that their loves require?’ The third was, ‘What is the meaning of “the tree of life”, “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” and “eating of them?”
Underneath was written, ‘Link these three subjects into a single statement of opinion, and write it on a fresh sheet of paper; then place it on this table, and we shall look at it. If the opinion appears well-balanced and fair, each of you will be awarded a prize for wisdom. After reading this out the two angels went away, and rose up into their own heavens.
[3] Then those taking part in the session began to discuss and expound the questions set before them. They spoke in turn, beginning with those who sat on the north side, then those who sat on the west, then those on the south and finally those on the east. They took up the first subject for discussion: ‘What is the image of God, and the likeness of God, in which man was created?’ First of all the following passages were read aloud from the book of Genesis:
God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and God created man in His own image, to be an image of God He created him. Gen. 1:26, 27.
On the day when God created man, He made him to be a likeness of God. Gen. 5:1.
Those who sat on the north were the first to speak. They said that the image and the likeness of God are the two lives breathed into men by God, the life of the will and the life of the intellect. ‘For we read,’ they said,
‘Jehovah God breathed into Adam’s nostrils the breath of lives,* and man became a living soul. Gen. 2:7.
Into the nostrils means so as to perceive that the willing of good and the understanding of truth, and so the breath of lives, was in him. And since life was breathed into him by God, the image and the likeness of God mean his uprightness arising from wisdom and love, and from righteousness and the powers of judgment present in him.’
Those who sat on the west side supported this view, with, however, the addition that the state of uprightness breathed into Adam by God is constantly breathed into every person after Adam. But it is present in a person as if in a receiver; and to the extent that a person is a receiver, he is an image and likeness of God.
[4] Then the fourth group, who sat on the south side, said: ‘The image of God and the likeness of God are two separate things, but in man they are combined from his creation. Some kind of inward illumination shows us that the image of God can be destroyed by man, but not his likeness. This is visible as it were through a screen from the fact that Adam retained the likeness of God after he had lost His image. For we read, after he was cursed:
See, man is as one of us, knowing good and evil. Gen. 3:22.
Afterwards he is called a likeness, but not an image of God (Gen. 5:1). But we would leave it to our colleagues from the east, who therefore enjoy better illumination, to say what the image and the likeness of God properly are.’
[5] Then, when there was silence, those who sat on the east side rose from their seats and looked up to the Lord. Then they sat down again and said that an image of God was a means of receiving God, and since God is love itself and wisdom itself, the image of God is the means in a person of receiving love and wisdom from God. But the likeness of God was the perfect likeness and complete appearance of love and wisdom being present in a person and belonging to him. ‘For a person cannot help feeling that he loves and is wise of himself, that is, he wills good and understands truth of himself, when in fact it is not in the least from himself, but from God. It is only God who loves of Himself and is wise of Himself, because God is love itself and wisdom itself. The likeness or appearance that love and wisdom, or good and truth, are present in a person as if they belonged to him is what makes him human, and capable of being linked to God and so living for ever. The consequence of this is that a person’s humanity is the result of his ability to will good and understand truth exactly as if he did so of himself, while at the same time knowing and believing that he does so from God. For to the extent that he knows and believes this, God places His image in a person; it would be otherwise if he believed that it was of himself and not from God.’
[6] After saying this they were overcome by zeal because of their love for truth, and this led them to say: ‘How can a person receive any love and wisdom and keep it and reproduce it, unless he feels that it is his own? And how can he be linked by love and wisdom to God, unless he has given to him something by which to reciprocate the linking? No linking is possible unless it is reciprocal; and the reciprocal side of the link is the person’s loving God and being wise about things to do with God, as if of himself, yet believing that they come from God. Again, how can a person live for ever, unless he is linked to the everlasting God? So how can a person be human without having that likeness in him?’
[7] All applauded this speech and asked for a conclusion to be drawn from what had been said. The following statement was adopted: ‘Man is made to receive God, and the means of receiving Him is God’s image. Since God is love itself and wisdom itself, man can receive both of these; and the more it receives, the more that which receives God becomes an image of God. Man is a likeness of God by virtue of the fact that he feels in himself that what he receives from God is his, as if it belonged to him. But still that likeness makes him an image of God, in so far as he acknowledges that the love and wisdom, or good and truth, in him are not his, and do not come from him, but are present only in God and therefore come from Him.’
* The Latin follows the Hebrew in using the plural ‘lives’ here,
First they established the truth of the proposition by various observations. For instance, that man is born without any knowledge, not even that of conjugial love. They made enquiry and learned from researchers that a baby does not even know by instinct how to approach its mother’s breast, but has to be positioned by its mother or nurse; it only knows how to suck, and that is because it has learned this by continually sucking in its mother’s womb. Later on, it does not know how to walk; or how to adapt the sounds it makes to form a word of human speech, not even how to express its emotions by sounds as animals do. Moreover, it does not know what food is suitable for it, as all animals do, but grabs anything it finds, whether clean or dirty, and puts it in its mouth. The researchers reported that without instruction man does not know how to distinguish the sexes, and has no knowledge at all of how to make love. Not even young men and women know about this without being told by others, although they have been trained in various skills. In short, a man is by birth merely bodily, like a worm; and he remains bodily, unless he learns from others how to know, understand and be wise.
[2] Then they established that both the higher and lower animals, land animals, birds of the air, reptiles, fish and insects are born knowing all that their loves require for their lives; for instance, everything they need to know about feeding, about where to live, how to copulate and produce young, and how to bring up their young. They established these facts by remarkable observations which they recalled to mind from what they had seen, heard and read in the natural world – as they called our world where they had previously lived – where the animals which exist are not representative but real. When they had fully proved the truth of this proposition, they turned their minds to seeking and finding the purposes and reasons which would explain and elucidate this question. They all asserted that these facts must be the result of divine wisdom, to ensure that human beings were human and that animals were animals. Thus the imperfections with which a man is born would become his perfection, and the perfection with which an animal is born would become its imperfection.
[2] The westerners spoke next. They said that man has by birth, not knowledge like an animal, but ability and inclination, the ability to know and the inclination to love. He has by birth not only the ability to know, but also to understand and to be wise. Also he is born with the most perfect inclination to love, not only what is his own and worldly, but also what is God’s and heavenly. Consequently, a person is by inheritance from his parents an organ, which lives merely by its outward senses, and at first by no inward sense, in order that he may become successively first a natural, then a rational and finally a spiritual man. This could not happen, if he acquired all kinds of knowledge and love by birth, like an animal. For innate knowledge and affections restrict that advancement, but if ability and inclination are innate, they do not restrict it at all. A person therefore can go on becoming more perfect in knowledge, intelligence and wisdom for ever.
[3] The southerners followed on with their statement. ‘It is impossible,’ they said, ‘for anyone to acquire any knowledge from himself, but he must acquire it from others, since he has no innate knowledge. Being unable to acquire any knowledge from himself, neither can he acquire any love, since where knowledge is absent, so is love. Knowledge and love are inseparable companions, no more capable of being divided than will and intellect, or affection and thought, or even essence and form. Therefore as a person acquires knowledge from others, so does love attach itself to it as a companion. The universal love which attaches itself is the love of knowing, understanding and being wise. This is a love man does not share with any animal, and it flows in from God.
[4] ‘We agree with our colleagues from the west that man does not have by birth any love, and thus not any knowledge either; but he has by birth only an inclination to love, and thus an ability to receive knowledge, not from himself, but from others, that is, by way of others. We have to say “by way of others” because neither have they received any knowledge from themselves, but from God. We also agree with our colleagues on the north that man is, when first born, like soil in which no seeds have been planted, but in which fine as well as worthless seeds can be planted. We would add to this that animals have by birth natural loves, and thus the kinds of knowledge which correspond to these; but still their knowledge does not enable them to know, think, understand or be wise about anything, being merely guided by their loves through their knowledge, almost like blind people being guided through the streets by dogs, since they are intellectually blind. Or rather they are like sleep-walkers, who do what they do by blind knowledge, while the intellect is asleep.’
[5] The last to speak were the easterners, who said: ‘We accept the view expressed by our brothers, that man has no knowledge from himself, but from and through others, in order that he may recognise and acknowledge that God is the source of all he knows and understands and of all his wisdom. Also that there is no other way that a person could be conceived, born and created by the Lord, and become His image and likeness. For he becomes an image of the Lord by acknowledging and believing that he has received and continues to receive all the good of love and charity and all the truth of wisdom and faith from the Lord, and nothing at all from himself. He becomes a likeness of the Lord by feeling these things in himself as if they came from himself. This feeling is due not to being born with knowledge, but to acquiring knowledge, and when he acquires it, it seems to him as if it came from himself. The Lord also grants man this awareness to make him a man and not an animal, since by the fact of willing, thinking, loving, knowing, understanding and being wise as if from himself, he receives different kinds of knowledge, raises them so as to become intelligence, and by applying them to purposes so as to become wisdom. Thus the Lord links a person to Himself, and the person links himself to the Lord. None of these things could happen, if the Lord had not ensured that man was born in a state of complete ignorance.’
[6] After this statement there was a general wish for a conclusion to be drawn from the debate, and this resolution was adopted: ‘Man is born without any knowledge, in order to be able to acquire knowledge of all kinds, and to advance to intelligence and by this means to wisdom. He is born without any loves, in order to be able to acquire all kinds of love by the intelligent application of what he knows, and to acquire love to the Lord by love towards the neighbour, thus being linked with the Lord, by this becoming fully man and living for ever.’
‘Yes,’ they said, ‘we shall tell you this. But since man takes nothing from himself, but only from the Lord, our words will come from Him, but still from us as if they were our own.’ Then they said: ‘A tree stands for a person, and its fruit for the goodness of his life. So the tree of life means a person living from God, that is, God living in a person. Since love and wisdom, and charity and faith, or good and truth, make up God’s life in a person, these are meant by the tree of life, and this is the source of his everlasting life. The tree of life from which it was granted to eat (Rev. 2:7; 22:2, 14) has a similar meaning.
[2] ‘The tree of the knowledge of good and evil means a person believing that he owes his life to himself and not to God, and so the love and wisdom, charity and faith, that is, good and truth, a person has are his own and not God’s. This belief is because he thinks and wills, speaks and acts, in all likeness and to all appearance as if from himself. It is because a person is persuaded by this belief that God has put Himself in him, or poured His Divinity into him, that the serpent said:
God knows that on the day when you have eaten of the fruit of that tree, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. Gen. 3:5.
[3] ‘Eating of those trees means receiving and making one’s own. Eating of the tree of life means receiving everlasting life, and eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil means receiving damnation. That too is why both of them, Adam and his wife, together with the serpent, were cursed. The serpent means the devil as regards self-love and pride in one’s own intelligence. This love is the owner of that tree, and people who are proud as the result of that love are those trees.
‘Those, therefore, who believe that Adam was wise and did good of himself, and that this was his pristine state, are making a gross error, since in fact Adam himself was cursed for this belief. For this is what eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil means. It was then that he fell from his pristine state, which he owed to believing that he was wise and did good from God, and not at all from himself; for this is what eating of the tree of life means. It was only the Lord who, while He was in the world, was wise from Himself and did good from Himself, because from birth Divinity itself was in Him and was His. So by His own power He became the Redeemer and Saviour.’
[4] From both these points they drew the conclusion that the tree of life, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and eating of them mean that life for a person is having God in him, and then he enjoys heaven and everlasting life; but it is death for a person to be persuaded and believe that life for a person is not God, but himself, and he then finds hell and everlasting death, in other words, damnation.
They wrote these words on a fresh sheet of paper and laid it on the table. Suddenly the angels appeared in a flash of light and carried the document off to heaven. When it had been read there, those sitting in the seats heard from there voices saying, ‘Well done, well done, well done.’ At once there appeared one as it were flying, with two wings at his feet and two at his temples. He carried in his hand as prizes gowns, hats and laurel-wreaths. He alighted and gave to those who sat on the north gowns of iridescent colour, to those on the west gowns of scarlet, to those on the south hats decorated at the rim with bands of gold and pearls and on the raised left side diamonds cut into the shape of flowers. To those on the east he gave laurel-wreaths decorated with rubies and sapphires. They all left the contest of wisdom decorated with these prizes, and when they were seen by their wives, they were surprised to see their wives come to meet them also decked out with ornaments they had been given from heaven.
While I was meditating about conjugial love, suddenly there appeared far off two naked children with baskets in their hands and turtle-doves flying around them. On a closer look they were more or less naked, but elegantly decked out with garlands. Small wreaths of flowers adorned their heads, and decorative bands of lilies and roses of blue colour hung obliquely across their chests from shoulders to hips; around the pair of them there was a kind of shared bond woven of small leaves interspersed with olives. But when they came closer, they no longer looked like children or naked, but like two people in the prime of life, dressed in gowns and tunics of shining silk with a pattern of the loveliest flowers you could see woven into it. When they stood beside me, a breath of spring-like warmth spread from heaven through them bringing a sweet fragrance, like that of fresh vegetation in gardens or fields. They were a married couple from heaven, who addressed me and asked, since my thoughts were on what I had just seen, what it was I had seen.
[2] I told them that they had at first looked to me like naked children, and then like children decked out in garlands, and then finally as taller and dressed in flowery clothes; and that then I felt a sudden breath of spring fill me with its delights. At this they gave a pleasant laugh, and said that while they were on their way they did not seem to themselves as children, or naked, or garlanded, but continually like they were then. Seen from a distance their conjugial love took on this appearance; its state of innocence was represented by the children being seen naked, and its delights by the garlands, as well as then by the flowers woven in their gowns and tunics. ‘Since you told us,’ they said, ‘that as we approached a breath of spring-like warmth spread over you with pleasant scents as from a garden, we shall explain why this was.’
[3] ‘We have now,’ they said, ‘been married for centuries, and have been constantly in the prime of life, as you see us now. Our first state was like that of a girl and a young man when they are just married; and we then thought that state to be the utmost blessedness of our lives. But we heard from others in our heaven, and later we felt for ourselves, that our first state was one of unmodified heat together with light; and this is by stages modified, as the husband acquires higher perfection in wisdom, and the wife loves it in her husband. This happens as the result of and in proportion to the services which each performs for the mutual help of their community; and then delights follow in succession as the heat and light, that is, wisdom and the love of it, are modified.
[4] ‘The reason why, as we approached, a breath of spring-like warmth spread over you is that in our heaven conjugial love and that heat act as one, for amongst us heat is love, and light with which heat is combined is wisdom; the use to which they are put is like the atmosphere, which holds both of these in its depths. What are heat and light without something to hold them? So what are love and wisdom without a purpose to serve? They lack a conjugial bond because there is nothing for them to work on. In heaven there is truly conjugial love to be found, wherever there is the heat of springtime; and its presence is due to the fact that springtime is only to be found where heat is evenly combined with light, that is to say, there is as much heat as there is light, and vice versa. It is our conjecture that just as heat takes its pleasure with light, and light in turn does with heat, so love takes its pleasure with wisdom, and wisdom in turn with love.’
[5] ‘We in heaven,’ the angel went on to say, ‘enjoy perpetual light, and there are never any shades of evening, much less darkness, because our sun does not set and rise like yours, but remains constantly fixed midway between the zenith and the horizon, what you would call at an elevation of forty-five degrees. This is why the heat and light radiated by our sun create a perpetual spring, and those whose love is evenly combined with wisdom enjoy a perpetual springtime. By the everlasting combination of heat and light our Lord seeks only to further services. This too is the cause of germination in your world and the mating of birds and animals every spring. For the warmth of spring opens up their inward parts right to the inmost, what is called their souls, and works on them, implanting its tendency towards marriage, and making their reproductive faculty achieve its delights by a constant effort to produce the fruits of their purpose, which is the continuation of their kind.
[6] ‘But human beings enjoy a perpetual inflow of spring-like warmth from the Lord. They can therefore at any season, even in midwinter, enjoy the delights of marriage. For men were created to receive light, that is, wisdom, from the Lord, women to receive heat, that is, the love of their husband’s wisdom, from the Lord. That then is why when we approached, you felt a breath of spring-like warmth spread a sweet fragrance over you, like that of fresh vegetation in gardens or fields.’
[7] After saying this the man gave me his right hand and took me to their homes, where there were married couples in the prime of life, as they were. He said that their wives, who now looked like young women, had been aged crones in the world, and the husbands, who now looked like young men, had been broken-down old men. They had all been brought back by the Lord to this flowering period, because they loved each other, and religion induced them to shun adultery as an extremely grave sin. He said that no one knows the blessed pleasures of conjugial love, unless he rejects the horrid pleasures of adultery; and no one can reject these, unless he has wisdom from the Lord, and no one has wisdom from the Lord, unless he performs services for the love of service.
I also saw the furniture of their homes, all in heavenly forms and shining with gold that seemed to be aflame with rubies interspersed.
CHASTITY AND UNCHASTITY
Since I am still at the outset of my discussion of the details of conjugial love, and this love can only indistinctly and thus dimly be recognised, unless its opposite, unchastity, is somehow made visible; and since this is somehow or dimly made visible, when chastity is described together with unchastity, seeing that chastity is merely the removal of what is unchaste from the chaste, [I shall here say something about chastity and unchastity].* The latter part of this book will deal with unchastity, which is the direct opposite of chastity; it will there be described fully and in all its varieties under the heading The gross pleasures of folly on the subject of scortatory love. The nature of chastity and unchastity and of the people who show them will be set forth in the following order.
(i) Chastity and unchastity are only attributed to marriages and matters relating to marriage.
(ii) Chastity is only attributed to monogamous marriages, that is, between one man and one wife.
(iii) Only Christian marriage can be chaste.
(iv) Truly conjugial love is the height of chastity.
(v) All the delights of truly conjugial love, even the lowest, are chaste.
(vi) In the case of those whom the Lord makes spiritual, conjugial love is more and more purified, and it becomes chaste.
(vii) The chastity of marriage comes about through the complete renunciation for religious reasons of promiscuous conduct.
(viii) Chastity cannot be attributed to small children, or to boys and girls, or to young men and women, before they feel sexual love in themselves.
(ix) Chastity cannot be attributed to those born eunuchs, or to those made eunuchs.
(x) Chastity cannot be attributed to those who do not believe acts of adultery to be religious evils, much less to those who do not believe acts of adultery to be damaging to society.
(xi) Chastity cannot be attributed to those who refrain from acts of adultery only for various outward reasons.
(xii) Chastity cannot be attributed to those who believe marriages to be unchaste.
(xiii) Chastity cannot be attributed to those who have renounced marriage by a vow of perpetual celibacy, unless there is and persists in them a love of a truly conjugial life.
(xiv) The married state is preferable to the celibate.
An explanation of these points now follows.
* The sentence as it stands is incomplete and needs to be finished in some such manner as that here proposed. It is also necessary to change non ‘not’ before ‘chastity’ to nam, here translated ‘seeing that’. See further 147.
This is because truly conjugial love is the height of chastity, as will appear below [143]; and the love opposed to it, which is called scortatory, is the height of unchastity. In so far therefore that it is purified of scortatory love, that love is chaste, for so far is its opposite, which destroys it, removed. From this it is plain that the purity of conjugial love is what is called chastity. Unchaste conjugial love can still exist without being real unchastity, as between a married couple who for various outward reasons so far refrain from expressing their wantonness as not even to think of it. Yet if that love is not purified in their spirits, it is still not chastity; it may have the form of chastity, but it lacks its essence.
I have heard from angels that unchastity can be detected in the most consummate hypocrites by listening to them, however chaste their conversation, and it can be felt from the sphere which emanates from them. This too is a sign that unchastity is resident in the inmost parts of their minds, and so in the inmost parts of their bodies, but this is covered over like a shell painted with pictures in various colours. The emanation of a sphere of lewdness from the unchaste is plain from the laws among the Children of Israel, that every single object merely touched by the hand of such people was unclean. From this example the conclusion can be drawn that the same applies to the chaste; that is to say, with them every single thing, from inmost to outermost, is chaste, and this is the result of the chastity of conjugial love. This is why there is a saying in the world that to the clean all things are clean, and to the unclean all things are unclean.
Chastity can only be attributed to them, because in their case conjugial love does not stay in the natural man, but enters into the spiritual man; and by stages it opens up the way to the spiritual marriage itself, between good and truth, which is its origin, and establishes a link with it. That love enters the more as wisdom increases, and this happens as the church is planted in a person by the Lord, as has been shown at length above. This cannot happen in the case of polygamists, since they divide conjugial love, and when divided it is not very different from sexual love, which is essentially natural. But some interesting details on this subject will be seen in the chapter on polygamy [332-342].
This is because truly conjugial love advances in step with the state of the church with a person, and because this comes from the Lord (as shown in the previous chapter, 130, 131 and elsewhere). It is also because the church is in its real truths in the Word, and the Lord is there present in them. It follows from these statements that chaste marriage is only possible in the Christian world, and even if it does not exist, it is still possible. Christian marriage means the marriage of one man with one wife. It will be seen in due course that this kind of marriage can be implanted in Christians, and be passed on to their children by inheritance from parents who enjoy truly conjugial love; and that there arises at the same time both the ability and the inclination to be wise about matters concerning the church and heaven. If Christians marry more than one wife, they commit not only natural, but also spiritual adultery, as will be shown in the chapter on polygamy.
The reasons for this are:
(a) It comes from the Lord and corresponds to the marriage of the Lord and the church.
(b) It comes down from the marriage of good and truth.
(c) It is spiritual, just as the church in a person is.
(d) It is the foundation love, and the chief of all celestial and spiritual loves.
(e) It is the proper seed-bed of the human race, and the source of the heavens of angels.
(f) It is therefore also found among the angels of heaven, and causes them to produce spiritual offspring, love and wisdom.
(g) Thus it has a higher purpose than all the other purposes of creation.
It follows from these statements that truly conjugial love is, by its origin and regarded in its essence, pure and holy; so much so, that it can be called the height of purity and holiness, and so of chastity. Yet in the case of human beings and of angels it is not absolutely pure, as will be shown in section (vi) just below (146).
This follows from the explanations given above, that truly conjugial love is the height of chastity, and delights constitute its life. The delights of that love rise up and enter heaven, passing on the way through the pleasures of the heavenly loves enjoyed by angels in heaven, and they combine with the delights of their conjugial love, as was related above. I have in addition heard from angels that they feel their delights uplifted and filled out, when they rise up from chaste married couples on earth. And for the sake of the by-standers, who were unchaste, they assented to the question whether this included the lowest delights, whispering, ‘Of course; are not these then at their fullest?’ On the source and nature of the delights of this love see above 69, and in the accounts of experiences, especially the next.
The reasons are: (a) First love, which means love before marriage and immediately after marriage, is somewhat affected by sexual love, that is, by the ardour which belongs to the body and has not been modified by spiritual love.
[2] (b) A person proceeds by stages from natural to spiritual. He becomes spiritual as his rational faculty, held midway between heaven and the world, begins to draw breath from heavenly influence, which happens as he is affected and pleased by wisdom (on this see 130 above). To the extent that this happens, his mind is lifted into a higher atmosphere which holds heavenly light and heat, or, what is the same, the wisdom and love enjoyed by the angels. For heavenly light acts as one with wisdom, heavenly heat with love. As the wisdom and the love of it increase in married couples, so their conjugial love is purified. Since this takes place by stages, it follows that this love becomes more and more chaste. This spiritual purification can be compared with the purification of natural spirits practised by chemists, what they call defecation, rectification, castigation, distillation, refining, decantation and sublimation. Purified wisdom can be compared with alcohol, which is the highest degree of rectified spirit.
[3] (c) Spiritual wisdom then has the essential quality of growing warmer the more wisdom is loved, so that it goes on increasing for ever. This happens by the processes of defecation, castigation, rectification, refining, decantation and sublimation; and these take place by means of the process of refining and distancing the intellect from the fallacies of the senses, and the will from the snares of the body. It is plain from this that likewise conjugial love, which is the child of wisdom, by stages becomes more and more pure and so chaste. The first state of love between a married couple is one of heat not yet moderated by light, but it is by stages moderated as the husband’s wisdom becomes more perfect, and his wife loves this in her husband; see the experience in 137.
The reason is that chastity is the removal of unchastity. It is a universal rule that so far as anyone removes evil, so far does good have a chance to replace it; and further, so far as evil is hated, so far is good loved, and vice versa. Consequently so far as promiscuity is banished, so far does the chastity of marriage come in. Anyone can see from what is generally felt, as soon as the statement is made and heard without waiting for proofs, that conjugial love is purified and corrected in so far as promiscuity is banished. But since what is generally felt is not felt by everyone, it is worth adducing proofs by way of illustration.
Conjugial love grows cold as soon as it is divided, and this chill is the death of it, for the warmth of an unchaste love quenches it. Two kinds of warmth of opposite types cannot exist together, without one banishing the other and depriving it of its power. So when the warmth of conjugial love removes and banishes the warmth of scortatory love, conjugial love begins to grow delightfully warm, and the feeling of delight makes it bud and flower, like an orchard or a rose-garden in springtime. This is the effect of the mixing in spring of heat and light from the sun of the natural world. But the other is the effect of the mixing in spring of heat and light from the sun of the spiritual world.
[2] It might be thought that the outer tendency remaining after the inner has separated itself from it, or separated it from itself, was much the same as the outer which has not been separated. But I have been told by angels that they are quite clearly different. They said that for instance the outer arising from the inner, what they called the external of the internal, was devoid of all wantonness, because the internal cannot engage in wanton play but only take chaste delight, and it imposes the same on its external, in which it feels its delights. It is quite different when the external is separated from the internal; this they said is wanton, both in general and in every part of it. They compared the outer tendency towards marriage arising from the inner to a splendid fruit, the pleasant taste and smell of which penetrate to the surface and give this a form answering to theirs.
[3] They also compared the outer conjugial principle arising from the inner to a granary, the grain in which never grows less, but what is taken out is constantly replaced. But they compared the outer separated from the inner with wheat on a winnowing-fan, of which, when it is spread around, only the chaff is left, and this is blown away by the wind. This is what happens to conjugial love, unless promiscuity is banished.
This is because chastity and unchastity can only be attributed to marriages and related matters (see 139 above). Those who know nothing of the tendency towards marriage cannot have chastity attributed to them, since it is as nothing to them; and it is impossible to have affection for nothing, or to think about it. But this nothingness is followed by the beginnings of an interest in marriage, an effect of sexual love. Young women and men are commonly called chaste before they feel any stirring of sexual love in themselves; but this is due to ignorance of what chastity is.
Those born eunuchs means in particular those who from birth lack the lowest level of love. Since then the first and intermediate stages are without a basis to rest on, they do not come into existence. If they do, these people are not interested in distinguishing between chastity and unchastity, both being to them matters of indifference. But there are many different kinds of people in this class. It is almost the same with those made eunuchs as with those born eunuchs. But since those who are made eunuchs are both men and women, they cannot help looking on conjugial love as a fantasy and its delights as a fairy-tale. If they have any such inclination, it becomes neuter,** being neither chaste nor unchaste. What is neuter has no name derived from one side or the other.
* The numbers 151-156 are used twice in the first edition; the sections following 156 are here numbered 151r-156r.
** Reading neutrum, a necessary correction for mutum ‘dumb’, as the next sentence shows.
The reason chastity cannot be attributed to these people is that they have no knowledge of chastity or even of its existence. For chastity is an attribute of marriage, as was shown in point (i). These people, who do not regard adultery as a religious evil, make marriages also unchaste, despite the fact that it is the religious scruples of the couples which makes them chaste. Since thus to these people nothing is chaste, it is useless to talk to them about chastity; they are confirmed adulterers.
Moreover, those who do not regard adultery as damaging to society are even less than the former group aware of chastity or even its existence; these are adulterers by design. If they say that marriages are less unchaste than acts of adultery, this is a verbal profession which does not come from the heart, since there is no warmth in their marriages. Those who base their remarks about chaste warmth on this chill can have no idea of the chaste warmth of conjugial love. It will be seen in the second part of the book, on the follies of adulterers, what such people are like, what concepts they think about, and so what their talk is like inwardly.
Many people think that refraining in body from acts of adultery is chastity, though it is not so unless one also refrains in spirit. It is a person’s spirit, here meaning his mind as regards affections and thoughts, which makes him chaste or unchaste, and it is this which determines how he behaves in body. For the body is exactly what the mind or spirit is. It follows from this that those who refrain from acts of adultery in body, but not in spirit, and those who refrain from them in spirit for bodily reasons, are neither of them chaste. There are many reasons which make a person refrain from them in body, and also in spirit for bodily reasons; but someone who fails to avoid them in body for spiritual reasons is still unchaste. For the Lord says:
If he has looked upon someone else’s wife so as to desire her, he has already committed adultery with her in his heart. Matt. 5:28.
[2] It is impossible to list all the reasons for refraining from acts of adultery merely in the body, because they differ depending on the state of a person’s marriage and his bodily condition. There are those who refrain for fear of the law of the land and its penalties; for fear of loss of reputation and thus of position; for fear of picking up diseases; for fear of quarrelling with one’s wife at home, and being unable to live in peace; for fear of a husband or relative seeking revenge; for fear of being beaten by servants. There are also those who refrain because of poverty, greed, or weakness arising from disease, self-abuse, age or impotence. Some among these, since they are unable or do not dare to commit adultery in body, therefore condemn such acts in spirit, so that they speak out against adultery as immoral and praise marriage. But if these do not disavow adultery in spirit, and their spirit is not motivated by religion, they are still adulterers who commit the act in spirit even if not in body. After death, therefore, when they become spirits, they speak openly in favour of adultery. From these considerations it is plain that even an irreligious person can shun acts of adultery as damaging, but no one but a Christian can shun them as sins, This is now enough to establish the truth of the proposition that chastity cannot be attributed to those who refrain from adultery only for various outward reasons.
Such people do not know what chastity is, or even that it exists, like those spoken of above in 152, and like those who equate chastity with celibacy, the subject to be dealt with next.
Chastity cannot be attributed to these because, following a vow of perpetual celibacy, conjugial love is cast away. Yet chastity can only be attributed to that love. It is also because creation and so birth introduces a sexual inclination, and when this is restrained and subdued, the inclination cannot but be transformed into warmth, in some cases into burning heat, which, rising from the body to the level of the spirit, attacks it and in some cases pollutes it. It can also happen that a spirit polluted in this way may pollute religious ideas, casting these down from the inner level, where they are in holiness, to the outer level, where they become matters of speech and behaviour. It has therefore been provided by the Lord that this kind of celibacy exists only among those who practise outward worship, which is what happens to those who do not approach the Lord or read the Word. With such people a promise of celibacy together with a vow of chastity does not endanger everlasting life, as it does with those who practise inward worship. It also happens that many people enter upon that state of life without free choice, some before they are old enough to enjoy freedom by the use of reason, some under the influence of worldly enticements.
[2] Of those who take up that state in order to distance their minds from the world, so as to be free to worship God, those alone are chaste who previously cherished a love for a truly conjugial life, or acquired it subsequently and retained it, because it is the love of such a life to which chastity can be attributed. For this reason too all monastics are after death released from their vows, and given freedom to choose a life in or out of marriage, as the inward vows and desires of their loves dictate. If they then choose married life, they are married in heaven, if they have also loved the spiritual side of worship. But those who choose unmarried life are sent to join their like who live on the fringes of heaven.
[3] I asked the angels whether nuns who have devoted themselves to religion, making themselves servants in the worship of God, and so withdrawing themselves from the deceits of the world and the lusts of the flesh, and for that reason taking a vow of perpetual virginity, are received into heaven and take a leading place among the blessed in accordance with their belief. The angels replied that they are certainly received, but when they feel the sphere of conjugial love in heaven, they become depressed and worried; then they leave and are allowed out, some of their own accord, some after asking permission, some being ordered to leave. Once outside that heaven the way is open for them to join their colleagues whose state in the world was similar. This makes them cheerful instead of worried, and they are happy with one another.
This is evident from what has already been said about marriage and celibacy. The reasons why the married state is preferable are: that the married state exists from creation; that its source is the marriage of good and truth; that it corresponds to the Lord’s marriage with the church; that the church and conjugial love are constant companions; that its purpose is higher than that of all else in creation, since it is the propagation in due order of the human race, and also of the heaven of angels, since this comes from the human race. A further consideration is that marriage is a person’s fulfilment, since it makes a person fully a person, as will be proved in the next chapter. All these reasons are lacking in the case of celibacy.
[2] If, however, we suppose that the celibate state is superior to the married state, and this supposition is subjected to enquiry to enable it to be affirmed and established by proofs, the consequences are as follows. Marriages are not holy and cannot be chaste; in fact chastity is impossible in the female sex, except for those who abstain from marriage and take a vow of perpetual virginity. Moreover, it is those who have taken a vow of perpetual celibacy who are meant by ‘eunuchs who make themselves eunuchs for the sake of God’s kingdom’ (Matt. 19:12). There are many other untrue consequences which follow from such an untrue supposition. ‘Eunuchs who make themselves eunuchs for the sake of God’s kingdom’ means spiritual eunuchs, those who in the married state refrain from the evils of promiscuity. It is evident that Italian castrati are not meant.
* * * * *
151bis* I shall add here two accounts of experiences, of which this is the first.
When I was going home from the contest of wisdom (described above in 132), I saw on the way an angel dressed in blue. He came and walked beside me, and said: ‘I see that you have come away from the contest of wisdom, and that you took great pleasure in what you heard there. But I perceive that you are not fully in this world, because you are at the same time in the natural world, so you do not know about our Olympic sports. At these the wise men of antiquity meet, and learn from newcomers from your world what changes of state and what vicissitudes wisdom has up to the present undergone and is still undergoing. If you like, I will take you to the place where many of the wise men of antiquity live together with their sons, that is, their disciples’.
So he took me to a place on the border between the north and the east, and when I had a view in that direction from a piece of high ground, I caught sight of a city with two hills at one side, the one nearer the city being the lower of the two. ‘This city,’ he told me, ‘is called Athenaeum, the lower hill is called Parnassium, the higher Heliconeum. They bear these names because in the city and its neighbourhood the wise men of ancient Greece live, men such as Pythagoras, Socrates, Aristippus and Xenophon,** with their disciples and recruits.’
I asked about Plato and Aristotle. He told me that they and their followers were in a different region, because they had taught about reasoning, purely intellectual matters, but the others about moral issues relevant to the conduct of life.
[2] He said that scholars from the city of Athenaeum were frequently sent on embassies to the educated Christians of the day, to report what they thought about God, the creation of the universe, the immortality of the soul, the condition of man as compared with that of animals, and other matters which belong to inner wisdom. He told me that the crier had announced a meeting for that day, a sign that their emissaries had met some newcomers from the earth and heard some interesting news.
We saw a lot of people coming out of the city and its neighbourhood, some of them with laurel-wreaths on the heads, some holding palm-fronds in their hands, some with books under their arms, and some with pens tucked under the hair of the left temple. We joined them and went up together, and found on the hill an octagonal palace, which they called the Palladium. When we went in, we found eight hexagonal recesses, in each of which there was a bookcase, as well as a table, at which those who wore laurels sat down. In the Palladium proper we saw seats carved out of stone, on which the remainder seated themselves.
[3] Then a door on the left was opened, and by it two newcomers from the earth were brought in. When they had been welcomed, one of those wearing laurels asked them, ‘What news is there from earth?’
‘The news,’ they said, ‘is that in forests men have been found resembling animals, or animals resembling men. It was recognised from their faces and bodies that they had been born men, but that at the age of two or three they had been lost or abandoned in the forests. It was said that these creatures could not voice any of their thoughts, nor learn how to make articulate sounds so as to utter words. Neither did they know what food was fit for them, as animals do, but they put in their mouths what grew in the forest whether clean or dirty, and much more of the same kind. From these facts some of our learned men made many guesses and some drew many deductions about the condition of men as compared with that of animals.’
[4] On hearing this some of the wise men of antiquity asked, ‘What were their guesses and deductions from these facts?’ The newcomers replied that there was a great deal, but it could be reduced to the following:
(a) Man by his nature and also from birth is more stupid and so more vile than any animal, and if not taught becomes like one.
(b) He can be taught because he has learnt to make articulate sounds, and so to talk; and by this means he has begun to express his thoughts; and by degrees he has done so more and more, until he could frame the laws of living together, many of which, however, have been imprinted on animals from birth.
(c) Animals equally with men are capable of reasoning.
(d) If therefore animals could talk, they would reason as cleverly on all subjects as men. A proof of this is that they think from reason and prudence just as much as men.
(e) The intellect is merely a modification of sunlight with the co-operation of heat by means of the ether, so that it is simply an activity of a more inward nature. This activity can be raised to such a height that it looks like wisdom.
(f) It is therefore useless to believe that man lives after death any more than an animal does, except that perhaps for a few days after death an exhalation of the life of the body may appear as a cloud in the form of a ghost, before being dispersed into nature. This is very much as when a twig picked out of the ashes of a fire may appear to retain the likeness of its shape.
(g) Consequently religion, which teaches that life continues after death, is an invention so that the simple may be kept inwardly obedient by its laws, just as they are kept outwardly obedient by the civil law.
They added that these were the reasonings of those who were only clever, not intelligent. ‘What do the intelligent think?’ they asked. The reply was that they had not heard, but they were of the opinion that they thought the same.
* The numbers 151-156 are used twice in the first edition; the sections following 156 are here numbered 151bis-156bis.
** Greek philosophers of the 6th, 5th and 4th centuries B.C.
152bis On hearing this all who were sitting at the tables said: ‘What times they live in on earth now! What sad changes has wisdom undergone! It seems to have been turned into foolish cleverness. The sun has set and is beneath the earth, diametrically opposite its noon position. How can anyone fail to know from the evidence of the people abandoned in the forests, that this is what man is like if he receives no instruction? Surely he is what he is taught to be. By birth he is more ignorant than animals. He must then learn to walk and to talk. If he did not learn to walk, would he stand upright on his feet? And if he did not learn to talk, would he be able to utter any of his thoughts? Surely everyone is what he is taught to be, crazy if taught falsities, wise if taught truths? And if he is crazy from being taught falsities, does he not imagine himself to be wiser than the man who is wise from being taught truths? Are there not foolish and deranged people who are no more human beings than those who were found in the forests? Are not those who have lost their memory like them?
[2] ‘From both these sets of facts we draw the conclusion that a man is not a man without instruction, and is not an animal either, but he is a form capable of receiving in himself what makes a man human, so that he is not born a man, but becomes one. Man has by birth a form such that he can be an instrument for the reception of life from God, with a view to being a subject into which God can put all good, and by union with Himself make blessed for ever. We perceive from what you say that wisdom at the present time is so far extinct or turned to foolishness, that there is total ignorance about the terms upon which human being live as compared with those on which animals live. As a result, they do not know either anything about how a person lives after death. But those who are able, but unwilling, to know about this, and so deny its reality, as many of you Christians do, can be likened to the people found in the forests. It is not that they have become so stupid through being deprived of instruction, but they have made themselves stupid by relying on the fallacies of the senses, which are the darkness that conceals truths.’
153bis But then someone standing in the middle of the Palladium and holding a palm-frond in his hand said: ‘Please unravel this mystery. How could a man having been created a form of God be changed into the form of a devil? I am well aware that the angels of heaven are forms of God, and the angels of hell are forms of the devil, and that these two are completely opposite forms, one of madness, the other of wisdom. Tell me, then, how could man created as a form of God pass from daylight into such a night as to be able to deny the existence of God and everlasting life?’
[2] The teachers replied one after the other, first the Pythagoreans, then the Socratics, and afterwards the rest. But among them there was a certain follower of Plato, who was the last to speak. His opinion, which was adopted, went like this. The people of the age of Saturn, the golden age, knew and acknowledged that they were forms for the reception of life from God, and consequently they had wisdom written on their souls and their hearts, so that they saw truth by the light of truth, and truths enabled them to perceive good by the pleasure of its love. ‘But,’ he said, ‘as in the following periods the human race retreated from the acknowledgment that all the truths of wisdom and thus all the good of love they had was continually flowing in from God, they ceased to be dwelling-places of God, and then too they stopped talking with God and mixing with angels. For the interiors of their minds were diverted from their previous direction, which was being raised upwards by God towards God, and they were turned further and further aside, outwards towards the world, and so directed by God to God by way of the world. Finally they were turned in the opposite direction, which is downwards towards oneself. Because a person who is inwardly turned upside down or away cannot look to God, people separated themselves from God and became forms of hell, and so of the devil.
[3] ‘It follows from this that in the earliest ages people acknowledged with heart and soul that all the good of love, and so all the truth of wisdom, came to them from God, and also that this good and truth were God’s in them, so that they were purely receivers of life from God; which is why they were called images of God, sons of God and born of God. But in the following ages people no longer acknowledged this with their heart and soul, but were influenced by some incorrect belief, later by historical faith and finally merely professing it with their lips. Acknowledging anything of this kind merely by professing it with the lips is not acknowledging it, but is in fact denying it at heart.
‘These facts enable us to see what wisdom is like on earth among present-day Christians. They can still be inspired by God as the result of a written revelation, while not being aware of the difference between man and an animal. Thus many people believe that if a man lives after death, so too must an animal; or because an animal does not live after death, neither can man. Surely our spiritual light, which enlightens our mental vision, is in their case turned to thick darkness; and their natural light, which only enlightens the bodily vision, has become dazzling light to them?’
154bis After this speech all turned to the two newcomers and thanked them for coming and bringing them their report; and they begged them to carry back to their brethren a report of what they had heard. The newcomers replied that they would strengthen their people in their belief in this truth, that in so far as they attribute all the good of charity and all the truth of faith to the Lord and not to themselves, so far are they human beings and so far do they become angels of heaven.
155bis The second experience.
One morning I was woken up by the sweetest singing, heard coming from some height above me. So in the earliest moments of waking, a period which is inward, peaceful and sweet compared with the rest of the day, I could for some while remain in the spirit as if outside the body, and give the most detailed attention to the affection expressed by the singing. Singing in heaven is simply a mental affection which is expressed through the mouth as a modulation of sound, since it is the sound, distinct from the speaker’s words, coming from the affection of his love which gives life to speech. In that state I perceived that it was the affection for the delights of conjugial love, which wives in heaven had made into a song. I could tell this was so by the sound of the singing, in which those varied delights were reproduced in wonderful ways.
After this I got up, and looked out into the spiritual world, and saw to the east what looked like golden rain below the sun there. It was morning dew falling so densely that it seemed to my view like golden rain as it caught the rays of the sun. This made me still more fully awake, so I went out in spirit and asked an angel whom I chanced to meet whether he had seen the golden rain falling from the sun.
[2] ‘Yes,’ he answered, ‘I see it every time I meditate about conjugial love,’ and then he turned his gaze in that direction. ‘That rain,’ he said, ‘falls on a hall where three husbands live with their wives in the middle of the eastern park. The reason such rain is seen falling* from the sun over that hall is that there wisdom about conjugial love and its delights abides with them, about conjugial love with the husbands and about its delights with their wives. But I perceive that you are meditating about the delights of conjugial love, so I will take you to that hall and introduce you.’
He took me through park-land to some houses built of olive wood with two cedar columns in front of the door. He introduced me to the husbands, and asked if I might talk with their wives in their presence.
They agreed and summoned them. The wives looked piercingly at my eyes, so I asked, ‘Why do you do that?’
‘We can,’ they said, ‘see exactly what is your inclination and so affection, and thus what you are thinking about sexual love. We see you are meditating deeply but chastely about it. What,’ they asked, ‘do you want us to tell you about it?’
‘Please be so good,’ I answered, ‘as to tell me something about the delights of conjugial love.’ Their husbands agreed and said, ‘Yes, you can reveal something about that if you like; they have chaste ears.’
[3] ‘Who was it,’ they asked, ‘told you to question us about the delights of that love? Why not our husbands?’ ‘This angel with me,’ I replied, ‘whispered in my ear that it is wives who receive and feel those delights, since they are born to be loves, and all delights belong to love.’
They replied to this with a smile, ‘Be careful, and don’t say anything like that, except with ambiguous meaning, because we women have wisdom deeply stored in our hearts, and we do not disclose it to any husband unless he enjoys truly conjugial love. There are many reasons for this, which we keep hidden away.’
‘Our wives,’ said the husbands, ‘know every state of our minds, and nothing escapes their notice. They see, perceive and feel anything that proceeds from our will, but we in turn perceive nothing in our wives. Wives have this privilege, because they are very tender loves and as it were burning with zeal to preserve friendship and trust in marriage, and thus a happy life for both. They take care to maintain this for their husbands and themselves due to the wisdom inherent in their love, which is so full of prudence that they are unwilling and thus unable to say they love, but only that they are loved.’
‘Why,’ I asked, ‘are they unwilling and thus unable?’ They replied that if the slightest hint of this escaped their lips, a chill would grip their husbands, and banish them from their bed, their bedroom and their sight. ‘But this,’ they said, ‘happens to those who do not regard marriage as holy, and therefore do not love their wives with spiritual love. It is different in the case of those who do; in their minds that love is spiritual and from this it becomes natural in the body. We in this hall enjoy natural love arising from spiritual, so we entrust our husbands with our secrets about the delights of conjugial love.’
[4] Then I pressed them strongly to reveal some of these secrets to me too. At once they started looking towards the window facing the south, where we saw a shining white dove, with its wings glistening as if of silver and its head decorated with a crest as if of gold, standing on a branch from which sprang an olive. When the dove tried to stretch its wings, the wives said, ‘We will reveal something; when that dove appears, it is a sign that we may.’
‘Every man,’ they said, ‘has five senses, sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch. But we also have a sixth, which allows us to feel all the delights of our husband’s conjugial love. We have this feeling in the palms of our hands, when we touch our husbands’ chests, arms, hands or cheeks, but particularly their chests. We also feel it when they touch us. All the happiness and charm of the thoughts in their minds, and all the joys and pleasures in their consciousness, and the amusement and cheerfulness in their chests are passed from them to us and take a form, becoming perceptible, capable of being felt and touched. We can tell them apart as accurately and exactly as the ear can tell apart the notes of a song, or the tongue the tastes of delicacies. In short, our husbands’ spiritual pleasures put on a kind of natural embodiment in us. Our husbands therefore call us the sense organs of chaste conjugial love, and so of its delights. This sense our sex has comes into and remains in existence, continues and grows the more our husbands love us for wisdom and judgment, and we in turn love them for the same qualities in them. This sense our sex has is called in the heavens the sport of wisdom with its love and of love with its wisdom.’
[5] These remarks filled me with a longing to ask many more questions, for instance, about the various kinds of delights. ‘The variety is endless,’ they said, ‘but we do not wish to say more, and so we cannot, because the dove in our window has flown off with the olive branch in its claws.’ I waited for it to come back, but in vain. Meanwhile I asked the husbands, ‘Do you not have a similar sense of conjugial love?’ ‘We have,’ they replied, ‘a general sense, but not a particular one. We feel a general blessedness, pleasure and charm arising from the particular ones our wives feel. This general feeling we get from them is like the tranquillity of peace.’
When they had said this, we saw through the window a swan standing on the branch of a fig-tree; it unfolded its wings and flew away. On seeing this the husbands said, ‘This is our sign to keep quiet about conjugial love. Come back again from time to time, and perhaps more will be revealed.’ So they turned away, and we left.
* Reading cadens for cadentis.
156bis CHAPTER VIII
THE LINKING OF SOULS AND MINDS BY MARRIAGE, WHICH IS WHAT IS MEANT BY THE LORD’S WORDS: ‘THEY ARE NO LONGER TWO, BUT ONE FLESH’
It is evident from Genesis and also from the Lord’s words that from creation men and women are endowed with an inclination and also the ability to be linked as it were into one; and both of these are still present in men and women. We read in the Book of Creation called Genesis:
Jehovah God built the rib which he had taken from the man to make a woman, and brought her to the man. And the man said, As things are now this is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. Her name shall be Ishshah, because she was taken from Ish.* For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother and cling to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. Gen. 2:22-24.
The Lord as reported by Matthew said much the same:
Have you not read that he who from the beginning made male and female said, For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and cling to his wife, and they shall become one flesh; therefore they are no longer two, but one flesh. Matt. 19:4, 5.
[2] It is plain from these words that woman was created out of man, and both of them have an inclination and ability to be reunited into one. This means into one human being, as is plain from Genesis, where each are together called man. For it says:
On the day when God created man, he created them male and female, and called their name man. Gen. 5:1, 2.
We read there: ‘He called their name Adam,’ but ‘Adam’ and ‘man’ are the same word in Hebrew. Moreover, each is also called man (Gen. 1:27; 3:22-24). ‘One flesh’ also means one human being, as is plain from passages in the Word where the expression ‘all flesh’ is used to mean every human being (e.g. Gen. 6:12, 13, 17, 19; Isa. 40:5, 6; 49:26; 66:16, 23, 24; Jer. 25:31; 32:27; 45:5; Ezek. 20:48; 21:4, 5; and elsewhere).
[3] However, I have shown in ARCANA CAELESTIA, which explains the spiritual sense of the two books of Genesis and Exodus, what is the meaning of ‘the man’s rib’ which was built to make a woman, of ‘the flesh’ which was closed up in its place, and so of ‘bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh’, of ‘father and mother’ whom a man is to leave on getting married, and of ‘clinging to his wife.’ It was proved there that ‘rib’ does not mean rib, ‘flesh’ does not mean flesh, ‘bone’ does not mean bone, and ‘cling’ does not mean cling; but the spiritual things are meant which correspond to them and are therefore expressed in this way. It is plain that they mean spiritual things which turn two people into a single person, from the fact that it is conjugial love which links them, and that is a spiritual love. I have said several times above that the man’s love of wisdom is copied into the wife; and a fuller proof of this will be given in the following chapters. I cannot at this point digress and depart from the subject here under discussion, which is the linking of a married couple to become one flesh by the union of their souls and minds. This union will be expounded in the following order:
(i) From creation each sex is endowed with the ability and inclination to be linked as it were into one.
(ii) Conjugial love links two souls and so two minds into one.
(iii) A wife’s will links itself to a man’s intellect, and so his intellect links itself to his wife’s will.
(iv) The inclination to be united with a man is constant and permanent in the case of a wife, but inconstant and fluctuating in the case of a man.
(v) The linking is inspired in a man by his wife in proportion to her love; and it is received by the man in proportion to his wisdom.
(vi) That linking takes place by stages from the first days of a marriage, and in the case of those who enjoy truly conjugial love it becomes deeper and deeper for ever.
(vii) The linking of a wife to her husband’s rational wisdom takes place from within, but to his moral wisdom from outside.
(viii) In order to effect that linking a wife is given the ability to perceive her husband’s affections and to guide them with extreme caution.
(ix) Wives hide this power of perceiving away in themselves, and conceal it from their husbands for very necessary reasons, so that conjugial love, friendship, trust and so the blessings of living together and a happy life may be firmly established.
(x) This power of perception is the wife’s wisdom; it cannot exist in a man, nor can the man’s rational wisdom exist in the wife.
(xi) A wife is constantly led by love to think about her husband’s inclination towards herself, with the intention of linking him to herself; but it is different for a man.
(xii) A wife links herself to her husband by paying attention to the desires of his will.
(xiii) A wife is linked to her husband by the sphere of life which issues from her love for him.
(xiv) A wife is linked to her husband by making her own the powers of his manliness; but this is dependent upon their spiritual love for each other.
(xv) The wife thus receives in herself an image of her husband, and consequently perceives, sees and feels his affections.
(xvi) A man has his own duties and a wife has hers; a wife cannot be involved in her husband’s duties, nor a man in his wife’s, and perform them properly.
(xvii) These duties also link the two into one as they help each other; and together they make a single household.
(xviii) As they are linked in the ways that have been stated couples become more and more one person.
(xix) Those who enjoy truly conjugial love feel themselves a united person and like one flesh.
(xx) Truly conjugial love regarded in essence is a union of souls, a linking of minds, and an effort to be linked in chest and so in body.
(xxi) The states of this love are innocence, peace, tranquillity, intimate friendship, full trust and a desire shared by the disposition and heart of each to do the other all the good they can. All these things give rise to blessedness, bliss, joy and pleasure, and by their everlasting enjoyment heavenly happiness.
(xxii) There is no way that these can exist except in the marriage of one man with one wife.
An explanation of these points now follows.
* Hebrew ‘ishshah ‘woman’, ‘ish ‘man’.
It was shown just above from Genesis that woman was taken out of man. From this it follows that both sexes have the ability and inclination to join themselves into one. For that which is taken out of anything takes with it and retains as a result of its individuality what it makes its own. Since this is of like nature, it longs to be reunited, and when reunited is in the other as if in itself, and conversely. There can be no doubt about the ability of one sex to be linked or be united to the other; nor about the inclination to be linked. Both of these facts are proved by what we can see with our own eyes.
Each person is composed of a soul, a mind and a body. The soul is the inmost part of him, the mind the intermediate, and the body the outermost. The soul, being the inmost part of a person, is in origin celestial; the mind, being the intermediate, is in origin spiritual; and the body, being the outermost, is in origin natural. Things which are in origin celestial or spiritual are not in real space, but apparent space. This is also well known in the world; which is why we say that neither extension nor location can be attributed to spiritual things. Since then space is only an appearance, remoteness and presence are also only apparent. Apparent remoteness and presence in the spiritual world depend upon the similarity, kinship and affinity of love, as I have frequently investigated and proved in my books about that world.
[2] This preamble is necessary to make it known that the souls and minds of people are not in space, like their bodies, because, as just stated, they are in origin celestial and spiritual. Since they are not in space, they can be linked as it were into one, although bodies cannot be so linked. This happens primarily between married couples who love each other intimately. But because woman came from man, and their linking is a kind of reunion, reason allows us to see that it is not a linking into one, but an attachment, which is nearer and closer in proportion to their love, and approaches contact in the case of those who enjoy truly conjugial love. This attachment can be called spiritual cohabitation, which is possible in the case of married couples who love each other tenderly, however far apart their bodies are. Experience in the natural world too offers plenty of evidence to prove this. So from this it is plain that conjugial love links two souls and minds into one.
The reason is that the male is destined by birth to become an intellect, the female to become a will which loves the male’s intellect. It follows from this that in marriage a wife’s will is linked with her husband’s intellect, and the husband’s intellect is reciprocally linked with his wife’s will. Anyone can see that the linking of intellect and will is the closest, and that it is so in order that one faculty can enter into the other and be delighted as the result of and in that linking.
The reason is the fact that love cannot help loving and uniting itself so as to be loved in return. This and nothing else is its essence and life. Women are by birth forms of love, and the men with whom they unite themselves to be loved in return are forms for reception. Moreover, love is continuously in action; it is like heat, flame and fire, which cease to exist if they are prevented from acting. That is why the wife’s inclination to unite a man to herself is constant and permanent. But a man does not have a similar inclination towards his wife, because a man is not a form of love, but is only a receiver of love. His receptivity comes and goes as worries interfere, as the mind wavers between warmth and chill for various reasons, and as bodily strength increases and decreases. Since these factors are not constant and do not recur in a regular pattern, it follows that the inclination towards this linking is inconstant and fluctuating in the case of men.
The fact that love and the linking it produces are inspired by the wife in her husband is a secret not revealed to men today; in fact without exception they deny it. The reason is that wives persuade people that men alone love and they themselves receive that love; in other words men are forms of love, women of obedience. They are heartily pleased when men believe this. There are many reasons for this persuasion, all of which have to do with the wives’ prudence and caution; something more will be said on this subject in the following pages, and in particular in the Chapter [XI] on the reasons for the coldness, separation and divorce of married couples. The reason why love is inspired or instilled into men by their wives is that men do not have a scrap of conjugial love, nor even of sexual love, but this is only to be found in wives and women. I received a vivid demonstration of this fact in the spiritual world.
[2] There was once a conversation there on this subject, and under the influence of their wives’ persuasion the men were insistent that it was they and not their wives who loved, and their wives received love from them. In order to settle this question, all the women, including the wives, were taken away from the men; and at the same time the very sphere of sexual love was also removed. With this gone the men came into an utterly strange state, which they had never before experienced; and they complained a great deal about it. While they were in that state the women were brought to them, and the wives joined their husbands. Both of these groups addressed their menfolk affectionately. But their endearments left them cold; they turned their backs and said to one another, ‘What’s all this? What are these women?’ When some of the women said that they were their wives, they replied ‘Wives indeed! We don’t know you.’ But when the wives began to feel hurt by their husbands’ chilling indifference, and some started to cry, the sphere of love of the female sex and of conjugial love, which had been taken away, was restored, and then the men at once returned to their former state. Those who loved marriage became as they had been before, those who were lovers of the female sex as they had been. In this way the men were convinced that nothing at all of conjugial love, and not even of sexual love, was lodged with them, but only with women and their wives. All the same, the wives were prudent enough to make their husbands believe that the love was lodged with the men, but that some spark of it could pass over from them to themselves.
[3] This experience is brought in here to make it known that wives are forms of love, men receivers of love. It is plain that men receive love in proportion to the wisdom they possess, and especially in so far as this is based on the religious belief that only one’s wife is to be loved, from the fact that, when love is directed solely to one’s wife, it is concentrated. Since it is also ennobled, it retains its strength, is established and endures. If this were not so, it would be as when wheat is taken from the barn and thrown to the dogs, causing a famine at home.
The first heat of marriage does not make a link, for it derives from sexual love, which is bodily and in that way affects the spirit. Whatever in the spirit is of bodily origin does not last long; but love which is of spiritual origin in the body does last. The love of the spirit, and love of spiritual origin in the body, is instilled into the souls and minds of married couples together with friendship and trust. When these two are combined with the first love of marriage, this becomes conjugial love, opening their hearts and breathing into them the sweetness of love; and it does so more and more deeply as friendship and trust attach themselves to the earliest love, and the love pervades them and they pervade the love.
Wisdom among men is twofold, rational and moral. Their rational wisdom is purely intellectual, their moral wisdom is both intellectual and a matter of how they live. This conclusion can be seen merely by looking at this proposition and studying it. But I shall list some particular examples, so as to make it known what is meant by men’s rational wisdom and their moral wisdom.
The subjects which belong to their rational wisdom are given different names. Their generic names are knowledge, intelligence and wisdom. The more specific terms are rationality, judgment, ingenuity, learning and sagacity. But there are sciences proper to each person’s occupation, so these are very numerous. There are sciences proper to the clergy, to magistrates and their various officers, to judges, to doctors and chemists, to soldiers and sailors, to craftsmen and labourers, to farmers and so on. Rational wisdom also includes all the sciences which young people learn at school, so as later to achieve intelligence. They have different names, such as philosophy, physics, geometry, mechanics, chemistry, astronomy, law, politics, ethics, history, and many more; these serve as gateways leading to rational ideas, from which rational wisdom is acquired.
The reason why a wife’s linking with men’s moral wisdom is from outside is that the virtues of that wisdom are for the most part akin to similar ones among women, and derive from the man’s intellectual will, with which the wife’s will unites and makes a marriage. Since the wife knows these virtues in her husband, even better than he does in himself, we say that the wife’s link with them is from outside.
The fact that wives know their husbands’ affections and prudently guide them is one of the secrets of conjugial love which wives keep hidden. They know them by three senses, sight, hearing and touch, and control them without their husbands having any idea of this. Now since this is one of wives’ secrets, it is not proper for me to give a circumstantial account of it; but since it is proper for wives to do so, I have appended four experiences at the end of chapters, in which these subjects are disclosed by the wives themselves. There are two from the three wives who live in the hall above which golden rain was seen falling [155bis, 208]; and two from the seven wives who were sitting in the rose-garden [293, 294]. If these are read, this secret will stand revealed.
The hiding and concealment of their perception of their husbands’ affections are described by the wives as necessary actions, because, if they were revealed, they would drive their husbands from their bed, bedroom and home. The reason is that most men suffer from a deep-seated coldness in marriage, for many reasons which will be revealed in the Chapter on the causes of coldness, separation and divorce between married couples [XI].
[2] If wives were to uncover their husbands’ affections and inclinations, this coldness would burst out of its hiding place and chill first the inner regions of the mind, then the chest, and so the lowest expressions of love, the reproductive organs. If they were chilled, conjugial love would be so far banished that there would be no hope left for friendship, trust and the blessings of living together and so leading a happy life. Yet this hope constantly encourages the wives. To disclose their knowledge of the affections and inclinations to love their husbands feel would mean declaring and making public their own love; and it is well known that the more wives open their mouths on that subject, the more the husbands grow cold and wish to be parted. These facts make plain the truth of the proposition, that the reason why wives keep their perceptions to themselves and conceal them from their husbands is that it is necessary.
This follows from the distinction between the male and the female. The male employs the intellect to perceive, the female love. Also the intellect perceives what lies above the bodily level and beyond the limits of the world, since rational and spiritual sight can penetrate thus far. But love does not penetrate beyond what it feels; when it goes beyond, it derives this ability from being linked with the man’s intellect, something which was established from creation. For the intellect works by light, love by heat, and what belongs to light is perceived, what belongs to heat is felt. It is plain from this that on account of the distinction between the male and the female the wife’s wisdom cannot exist in the man, nor the husband’s wisdom in the wife. Neither can a man’s moral wisdom exist in women, in so far as it derives from his rational wisdom.
These points are inseparable from the previous explanation that the inclination to unite herself with her husband is constant and permanent in the case of the wife, but inconstant and fluctuating in the case of the husband; see the discussion of this [160]. From this it follows that a wife is continuously thinking about her husband’s inclination towards herself, with the intention of linking him to herself. The wife’s thinking about her husband is interrupted by the domestic duties which fall to her, but still she keeps up the affection for his love; and this affection is not separate from their thoughts in the case of women, as it is with men. But I report this from hearsay; see the two accounts of experiences with the seven wives who were sitting in the rose-garden, which will follow some chapters later [293-4].
This is too well known to need any explanation.
From each individual there comes, or rather pours forth, a spiritual sphere due to the affections of his love; this surrounds him and enters into the natural sphere coming from the body, and they are linked together. It is commonly known in the world that there is a natural sphere continuously emanating from the body, not only from human beings, but also from animals, and indeed from trees, fruits, flowers, and also from metals. It is much the same in the spiritual world; but there the spheres which emanate from objects are spiritual. The spheres emanating from spirits and angels are more deeply spiritual, because they possess affections of love, and so inward perceptions and thoughts. This is the origin of every kind of sympathy or antipathy, and it is what links everything or holds it apart. Presence or absence in that world depends upon these spheres, for what is of the same nature and concordant causes presence and linking, but what is of different nature and discordant causes separation and absence. These spheres therefore are what create distance there.
Certain people are also aware of the effects produced by these spiritual spheres in the natural world. The mutual inclination of married couples towards each other are from no other origin. Spheres of unanimity and concord unite, those of opposition and discord separate; for concordant spheres are pleasant and welcome, opposing and discordant ones unpleasant and unwelcome.
[2] I have heard from angels, who are able to perceive the spheres clearly, that there is not a single internal or external part of a person which is not renewing itself. It does this by dissolving and being replaced, and this is the source of the sphere which continually pours forth. They said that this sphere is packed closely around the person to the back and to the front, thinly at the back, but densely at the front. The sphere coming from the chest is linked with respiration. That is why a married couple who differ in disposition and disagree in their affections lie in bed turned away from each other, back to back. Conversely, those who agree in disposition and affections turn towards each other.
[3] They also said that since the spheres come from every part of the person and extend to some distance around him, they not only link or separate the couple from without, but also from within. This, they said, is the origin of all the differences and varieties in conjugial love. They ended by saying that the sphere of love coming from a wife who is tenderly loved is perceived in heaven as a sweet fragrance, notably more pleasant than that perceived in the world by a newly wed bridegroom in the first days after his wedding. These facts make plain the truth of the assertion that a wife is linked to her husband by the sphere of life which comes from her love for him.
I have heard evidence of the truth of this directly from the lips of angels. They said that the reproductive force expended by husbands is in every way received by wives, and it reinforces their life; thus wives lead a life of increasing unanimity with their husbands, producing in effect a union of souls and a linking of minds. They gave as the reason for this the fact that the husband’s reproductive force contains his soul, and also his mind as regards the inner regions linked to the soul. This, they added, was provided from creation, so that the man’s wisdom, which makes his soul, should become the wife’s possession, thus making them, in the Lord’s words, one flesh. It was also provided to ensure that a male as the result of some fancy should not leave his wife after she has conceived. But they went on to say that wives grasp and take possession of their husbands’ life in proportion to their conjugial love, because it is love which, being a spiritual union, links them. They said there were a number of other reasons why this provision was made.
The reasons adduced above lead to the proof that wives receive into themselves what belongs to their husbands’ wisdom; that is, what is proper to their souls and minds, and thus they make themselves wives instead of virgins. The reasons required for this conclusion are as follows:
(a) Woman was created out of man.
(b) This engenders an inclination to unite herself and, as it were, to be reunited with her husband.
(c) As a result and to effect that union with her partner a woman is by birth the love of her husband; and she becomes more and more the love of him by marriage, because then love constantly concentrates its thoughts on linking her husband with herself.
(d) She is linked to her one and only man by the attention she pays to the desires of his life.
(e) The linking is achieved by means of the spheres enveloping them and uniting them, all over and in detail, depending on the quality of conjugial love the wives possess, and at the same time depending on the quality of the wisdom receiving that love among the husbands.
(f) Another linking is effected by means of the wives’ making their husbands’ strength their own.
(g) It is plain from these facts that something of the husband is constantly being copied into the wife, and it is imprinted on her as if it were hers.
From all these considerations it follows that an image of the husband is formed in the wife, which allows her to perceive, see and feel in herself what goes on in her husband, and thus, so the speak, to feel herself in him. The perception comes from communicating, the seeing from looking, and the feeling from touching. The wife feels her love being received by the husband by touching with her palms his cheeks, arms, hands and chest. This was disclosed to me by the three wives in the hall and the seven wives in the rose-garden, as described in the accounts of experiences [155bis, 208, 293, 294].
There is no need to list the duties proper to a husband and to a wife, in order to demonstrate their existence; there are many of them of different kinds. Anyone can grasp how to classify them into genera and species, if he merely gives his mind to thinking about them. The primary duties by which wives link themselves with their husbands are the bringing up of children of either sex, and of girls up to the age at which they are given in marriage.
[2] Many people believe that women can perform the duties of men, provided they are introduced to them at a sufficiently early age, just as boys are. But they can be taught to perform them, not to judge them; and it is on this that the inner correctness of their duties depends. As a result, women who have been introduced to men’s duties are obliged in matters of judgment to consult their menfolk, and then, if they are given freedom, they choose from the advice they receive what suits their love.
[3] Some are of the opinion that women can equally lift the gaze of their intellect into the sphere of light which men enjoy, so perceiving things equally deeply. This opinion has been supported by the writings of certain learned authoresses. But when these writings of theirs were investigated in their presence in the spiritual world, they turned out to be the products, not of judgment and wisdom, but of cleverness and facility. What results from the latter two qualities is made by the elegance and neatness of composition to seem sublime and learned; but only to those who call every display of cleverness wisdom.
[4] The reason why men cannot be involved either in the duties proper to women, and perform them correctly, is that they cannot assume women’s affections, which are quite distinct from those of men. It was because the affections and perceptions of the male sex were thus distinguished from creation, and so became their nature, that one of the statutes of the Children of Israel was:
A woman is not to wear man’s clothing, nor a man woman’s clothing; for this is an abomination. Deut. 22:5.
The reason is that in the spiritual world everyone is dressed according to his affections, and the two separate sets of affections of a woman and a man cannot be united except in the persons of two people; it can never happen in one person.
It is one of the things well known in the world that the husband’s duties are in some way linked to those of the wife, and the wife’s duties are associated with the husband’s, these links and associations being effected and determined by their mutual help. But the primary duty, which binds, associates and brings together into one the souls and lives of the married couple is seeing jointly to the bringing up of children. In dealing with this the duties of husband and wife are at once different but linked. They are different in that seeing to the feeding of babies and the bringing up of children of either sex, and teaching girls up to the age at which they are given in marriage and transferred to the company of husbands, is the proper duty of the wife. But seeing to the education of boys between infancy and adolescence, and beyond this until they become independent, is the proper duty of the husband.
These duties are linked by the advice, support and many other forms of help rendered by one to the other. It is well known that both these sets of duties, both those which are linked and those which are different, both those which are shared and those which are special, bind the dispositions of a couple into one, the result of the action of what is called parental love. It is also well known that these duties as regards their difference and their linking make a single household.
This is the same as the contents of point (vi), where it was explained that the linking takes place by stages, starting from the first days of the marriage, becoming in the case of those who enjoy truly conjugial love deeper and deeper for ever; see this discussion [162]. It is the increase in conjugial love which makes them into a single person. Since in the heavens this is the real love which comes from the celestial and spiritual life of the angels, a married couple are therefore called two, when the terms husband and wife are used, but one person when the term used is angels.
This proposition needs to be proved, not from the lips of any dweller on earth, but from those who dwell in heaven, because truly conjugial love does not exist among people on earth today. In addition, these are enveloped by a gross body, which blunts and absorbs the feeling that a married couple are one person and, so to speak, one flesh. Moreover, those in the world, who love their partners only outwardly and not inwardly, are unwilling to listen to this statement. Their thoughts on this subject are lewd, deriving from the flesh. But it is different for the angels in heaven, since they enjoy celestial and spiritual forms of conjugial love, and they are not enveloped in such a gross body as people on earth. I have heard evidence from those who have lived for ages with their partners in heaven, that they feel themselves thus united, the husband with his wife, the wife with her husband, and are each present in the other, as if they were in the other’s flesh, although they are separate persons.
[2] They reported as the reason for this phenomenon, so rare on earth, the fact that the uniting of their souls and minds is felt in their flesh, because the soul is not just the innermost part of the head, but of the whole body; and likewise the mind, which stands midway between the soul and the body. It seems as if the mind were in the head, but it is actually in the whole body. This, they said, is why the actions devised by the soul and mind proceed instantly from the body. It is also why the angels, after casting off their bodies in their former world, are complete persons. Now because the soul and mind are so closely attached to the flesh of the body as to be able to carry out and produce the effects they wish, it follows that the uniting of one’s soul and mind with one’s partner’s is felt also in the body, as if it were one flesh. When these statements were made by angels, I heard spirits standing by say that these are matters of transcendent angelic wisdom; but they were natural rational spirits, not spiritual rational ones.
The union of souls and the linking of minds were discussed before (see 158). The reason why the striving to be linked is felt in the chest is that this is the council chamber and, so to speak, the royal court, and the body is the town with all its people around it. The chest is the council chamber because all the influences exerted by the soul and mind on the body flow first into the chest. It is like a royal court, because it has control over every part of the body, being the seat of the heart and lungs; the heart exerts its control everywhere through the blood, the lungs everywhere through breathing. It is obvious that the body is like the town with all the people around it.
So when the souls and minds of a married couple are united, and it is truly conjugial love which unites them, it follows that this gratifying union first affects their chests, and through it their bodies, producing a striving to be linked. It does so the more, because conjugial love directs its effort to its lowest level, so as to achieve the fullness of its welcome pleasure. Since the chest stands at the junction of the ways, it is obvious why conjugial love has acquired there the location of its delicate feeling.
The reason why conjugial love enjoys and is the source of both these sets of states is that it is the product of the marriage of good and truth, a marriage that comes from the Lord. It is the nature of love to wish to communicate with the object of heartfelt love, in fact to give pleasure to the other and to seek one’s own pleasure from him. So even infinitely more does the Divine love in the Lord for man, whom He created to receive the love and wisdom which proceed from Him. Since He created man to receive, the male to receive wisdom, the female to receive the love of her husband’s wisdom, He therefore instilled into the innermost region of human beings conjugial love, as being the means of conferring all the blessedness, happiness, joy and pleasure which proceed solely from His Divine love by means of His Divine wisdom together with life, and enter into human beings. Consequently it affects those who enjoy truly conjugial love, because they are the only ones to receive this. Innocence, peace, tranquillity, intimate friendship, full trust and a desire shared by the disposition and heart to do to the other all the good they can are mentioned, because innocence and peace belong to the soul, tranquillity to the mind, intimate friendship to the chest, full trust to the heart, and the desire shared by the disposition and heart to do to the other all the good they can belongs to the body as the result of the others.
This conclusion follows from everything which has so far been said, and it is also the conclusion to be drawn from all that remains to be said. There is therefore no need for any special discussion to prove this.
* * * * *
Some weeks later* I heard a voice from heaven saying, ‘There is to be another meeting on Parnassium; come and we will show you the way.’
I went towards them, and on coming near I saw standing on Heliconeum a man with a trumpet, which he used to announce and summon a meeting. I also saw people from the city of Athenaeum and its neighbourhood going up as before, and among them three newcomers from the world. All three came from the Christians; one was a priest, one a politician, the third a philosopher. On the way they entertained the newcomers with talk on various subjects, especially about the wise men of antiquity, whom they mentioned by name. The newcomers asked whether they would see them. They were told that they would see them, and be able to greet them if they wished, as they were easy to approach.
They asked about Demosthenes, Diogenes and Epicurus.** ‘Demosthenes,’ they said, ‘is not here, but where Plato lives. Diogenes with his school lives under Heliconeum, because he regards worldly matters as of no consequence, and meditates only on heavenly matters. Epicurus lives on the western boundary, and does not visit us, because we make a distinction between good and evil affections; we assert that good affections go along with wisdom, and evil affections are opposed to wisdom.’
[2] When they had climbed the hill of Parnassium, some guards there brought water from the local spring in crystal goblets, saying, ‘This is water from the spring which ancient myths describe as having been struck open by the hoof of the horse called Pegasus, and later dedicated to the Nine Maidens.*** But by the winged horse Pegasus they meant the understanding of truth which leads to wisdom. Its hoofs meant the experiences which give rise to natural intelligence. The Nine Maidens meant knowledge and learning of every kind. These stories are nowadays called myths, but they were correspondences, a manner of expression used by the earliest peoples.’
‘Don’t be surprised,’ the three newcomers were told by their companions; ‘the guards are taught to explain this. By drinking water from the spring we too understand being taught about truths, and by means of truths about kinds of good, and so being wise.’
[3] After this they went into the Palladium, and the three newcomers from the world, the priest, the politician and the philosopher, went with them. Then those wearing laurels who were sitting at the tables asked, ‘What news from earth?’
‘This,’ they answered, ‘is the news. There is someone who claims to talk with angels and have his sight opened to see into the spiritual world, just as well as he does into the natural world. He reports news from there, among which are the following. A person, he says, lives on as a person after death, just as he had lived before in the world. He can see, hear and speak, as he did before in the world. He wears clothes and ornaments just as he did before in the world. He feels hunger and thirst, eats and drinks, just as he did before in the world. He enjoys the delights of marriage, just as he did before in the world. He goes to sleep and wakes up, just as he did before in the world. That world has lands and lakes, mountains and hills, plains and valleys, springs and rivers, parks and woodland. There are also palaces and houses there, towns and villages, as in the natural world. There is writing there and books, official positions and businesses, precious stones, gold and silver. In short every single thing on earth is to be found there, but in the heavens they are infinitely more perfect. The only difference is that everything in the spiritual world is of spiritual origin, and so is spiritual, because it originates from the sun there, which is undiluted love. Everything in the natural world is of natural origin, and so is natural and material, because it originates from the sun there, which is undiluted fire. In short, a person after death is a complete person, in fact, more complete than he was before in the world. For before in the world he had a body made of matter, but in the spiritual world he has a spiritual body.’
[4] After this speech the wise men of antiquity asked what was thought on earth about this. ‘We know,’ said the three, ‘that these reports are true, because we are here and have examined and investigated everything. So we shall say what statements and deductions have been made about those reports on earth.’
The priest was the first to speak. He said that the clergy on first hearing these things called them visions, then inventions, and then claimed that he was seeing ghosts. Finally they were perplexed and said, ‘Believe it if you like. We have up to now taught that a person will not have a body after death until the day of the Last Judgment.’ ‘Are there not any among them,’ they asked, ‘intelligent enough to be able to prove and convince them of the truth, that a person lives on as a person after death?’
[5] The priest said that there are some who offer proofs, but they do not carry conviction. ‘Those who offer proofs assert that it is contrary to sound reason to believe that a person does not go on living as a person, except on the day of the Last Judgment, being meanwhile a disembodied soul. “What,” they say, “is a soul, and where is it in the meanwhile? Surely not a breath or a puff of wind flitting about in the air, or something lodged in the centre of the earth, in what is called its Pu.**** Are the souls of Adam and Eve, and all their descendants, still flitting around in space six thousand years, that is, sixty centuries, later?***** Or are they shut up in the bowels of the earth awaiting the Last Judgment? Is there anything more distressing and pitiful than waiting like that? Surely their fate could be compared with that of prisoners in jails chained hand and foot. If that is the fate that awaits people after death, would it not be better to be born a donkey than a human being? “Surely it is unreasonable to believe that a soul can be clothed again in its body, when the body has been eaten by worms, rats or fish. Or that the new body will be wrapped around a bony skeleton, which has been scorched by the sun or reduced to dust. How could such stinking bits of corpses be gathered together and united with souls?”
‘But when they hear such arguments, they do not offer any reasonable answer, but cling to their faith and say, “We keep reason obedient to faith.” Their reply to the question about all being gathered from the grave on the day of the Last Judgment is: “This is the task of omnipotence, and when one starts talking about omnipotence and faith, reason flies out of the window. I can assure you that then sound reason is treated as nothing, and some regard it as a mirage.” They are actually able to tell sound reason it is crazy.’
[6] On hearing this the wise men of Greece said: ‘Surely these paradoxes collapse of their own accord as being self-contradictory. Yet in the world today even sound reason cannot refute them. Is there any more paradoxical belief than what is related about the Last Judgment: that then the universe will come to an end, the stars will fall from the sky onto the earth (which is smaller than the stars), and the bodies of human beings, which are corpses or mummies consumed by people****** or reduced to shreds, will be joined to their souls again? When we were in the world, we believed in the immortality of people’s souls because of the deductions which reason offered to us; and we found a place for the blessed souls, which we called the Elysian fields, believing them to be images or appearances of human beings, though delicate because they are spiritual.’
[7] After this speech they turned to the second newcomer, who in the world had been a politician. He admitted that he had not believed in life after death, and had thought the stories he had heard about it were imagination and fiction. ‘When I thought about it,’ he said, ‘I said: “How can souls be bodies? Surely everything a person has lies dead in the grave. Has anyone there an eye to see with? Has anyone there an ear to hear with? How can he have a mouth to speak with? If anything of a person lives on after death, could it be anything but a kind of ghost? How can a ghost eat or drink? How can it enjoy the delights of marriage? Where can it get clothes, houses, food and so on? Ghosts are airy images which appear to exist but don’t.” When I was in the world, my thoughts about people living after death were these and similar. But now that I have seen everything, and touched everything with my hands, I have been convinced by my very senses that I am a person just as I was in the world. So much so, that I am not aware of living any otherwise than I did before, apart from the fact that my reason is now much more sound. I have several times been ashamed of what I used to think.’
[8] The philosopher gave a similar account of himself, but with the difference that he had put down the news he heard about life after death to the opinions and theories which he had gathered from ancient and modern thinkers.
The wise men were astonished to hear this. Those who belonged to the school of Socrates said that this news from earth allowed them to perceive that the inner regions of men’s minds had been progressively closed off. In the world now belief in falsity shone like truth and silly cleverness like wisdom. The light of wisdom had since their time sunk from the interior of the brain to the mouth below the nose; there it looked to men’s eyes like a gleam on the lips, and the speech of the mouth sounded like wisdom.
On hearing this one of their recruits said, ‘How stupid are the minds of those who dwell on earth today! I wish we had here the disciples of Heraclitus and Democritus,******* who find everything a cause for laughter or for tears. We should hear a mighty roar of laughter and a lot of weeping.’
When the meeting was over, they gave the three newcomers from earth mementoes of their country, copper plates inscribed with some hieroglyphic characters. These they took away with them.
* This probably means following the experiences related in 132 and 155bis.
** Demosthenes was an Athenian orator and statesman of the 4th century B.C. There were several Greeks called Diogenes; the one meant is probably the founder of the Cynic sect in the 4th century B.C., who regarded worldly matters as unworthy of notice. Epicurus (4th-3rd century B.C.) sought to achieve happiness by discussion and reasoning.
*** Otherwise known as the Muses.
**** Literally, ‘in some Pu or where.’ Pu is the Greek word for ‘where’. See 29 above.
***** By Archbishop Ussher’s Biblical chronology.
****** Parts of mummies were sometimes used as medicine; see TCR 160:5.
******* Greek philosophers of the 5th century B.C. Heraclitus took a gloomy view of human affairs; Democritus found them ridiculous.
In the eastern quarter there appeared to me a wood of palm-trees and laurels arranged in spiralling curves. I approached and went in, walking though several curving paths, until at the end of the paths I saw a garden, which occupied the central position in the wood. There was a small bridge which divided off the garden, with a gate on the side of the wood and another on the garden side. When I approached, the gates were opened by the guard. I asked him what the garden was called. ‘Adramandoni’, he said, ‘which means the delights of conjugial love.’
I went in and saw olive-trees, with vines running between the trees and hanging down. Beneath and between the trees there were flowering shrubs. In the middle was a grassy circle, in which husbands and wives and young men and women were sitting in pairs. At the centre of the circle there was a rise in the ground with a fountain leaping into the air due to the force of the water. When I came close by, I saw two angels dressed in purple and red engaged in conversation with those who were sitting on the grass; they were talking about the source of conjugial love and its delights. Since this love was the subject, they were listened to eagerly and given full attention, and they were uplifted as if by the fire of love in what the angels said.
[2] What I gathered from their talk can be summarised as follows. They started by talking about the difficulty of the enquiry, saying how difficult it was to perceive the source of conjugial love, because it has a celestial Divine source; this is Divine love, Divine wisdom and Divine use, the three of which proceed as one from the Lord. They flow into men’s souls as one, and through their souls into their minds. There they enter into their inner affections and thoughts, passing through these into the desires closely connected with the body, and from these through the chest into the genital region. Here everything which derives from the prime source is present at once, and together with their successive stages brings about conjugial love.
After this the angels said, ‘Let us converse by question and answer, for if something is merely heard it may be perceived at the time, but the impression does not last, unless the hearer also thinks about it for himself and asks questions.’
[3] Then some from the assembly of couples said to the angels, ‘We have heard that the source of conjugial love is a celestial Divine one, because it results from the Lord’s influence on men’s souls. Being from the Lord it is love, wisdom and use, the three essentials which together make up the one Divine essence. Nothing can proceed from the Lord except what belongs to His Divine essence, nor can anything else flow into the inmost region of a person, what we call his soul. Those three are, as they descend into the body, turned into analogous and corresponding things. Our first question then is ‘What is meant by the third essential which proceeds from the Divine, what is called use?’
The angels replied that love and wisdom without use are merely abstract ways of thinking, which also after a brief stay in the mind, pass away like winds. ‘But,’ they said, ‘these two are gathered together in use, there becoming one, what is called reality. Love cannot rest except in action, for love is the very principle which gives activity to life. Nor can wisdom come into and remain in being, except as the result of love and by acting together with it. Action is use. So we arrive at the definition of use: doing good out of love through wisdom. Use is goodness itself.
[4] ‘Since the trio of love, wisdom and use flow into men’s souls, it can be established why it is said that all good is from God. For all that is done out of love through wisdom is good, and use is also something done. What is love without wisdom but folly? And what is love together with wisdom without use but a state of mind?* But love and wisdom together with use not only make a person, they are a person. In fact, surprising as you may find it, they cause human reproduction. For the man’s seed contains his soul in a complete human form, enveloped by the purest substances in nature, and from this the body develops in the mother’s womb. This is the highest and ultimate use served by Divine love through Divine wisdom.’
[5] ‘The conclusion to be drawn,’ the angels finally remarked, ‘is that all fruitfulness, all propagation and all reproduction come in origin from the love, wisdom and use flowing in from the Lord. It flows directly from the Lord into men’s souls, indirectly into the souls of animals, and even less directly into the inmost regions of plants. All these processes arise in the final region from the first. It is plain that fruitfulness, propagation and reproduction are the means of continuing creation; and the only possible source of creation is out of Divine love through Divine wisdom in Divine use. Everything therefore in the universe is procreated and formed out of use, in use and to serve a use.’
[6] Later those who were sitting on the grassy banks asked the angels, ‘Where do the delights of conjugial love, which are beyond counting and telling, come from?’
The angels replied that they come from the uses of love and wisdom. This could be seen from the fact that the more anyone loves to be wise for the sake of a proper use, so much the more does the drive and potency of his conjugial love increase. These two together are the measure of his delight. It is the result of use, because love by means of wisdom [brings about use, and then love and wisdom]** take pleasure in each other and as it were play like children; and as they grow up, they become linked in cheerfulness. This takes place as it were through engagements, weddings, marriages and having children; and this continues in different forms for ever. These are the relations between love and wisdom when they underlie the use made of them; but these delights are in their beginnings impossible to perceive, but become more and more perceptible, as they come down by stages and enter the body. The stages by which they enter are from the soul into the inner regions of a person’s mind, from there into the outer regions, from these into the cavity of the chest, and from there into the genital region.
[7] ‘These heavenly nuptial games in the soul pass quite unnoticed by the person, but from there they slip into the inner regions of the mind as a feeling of peace and innocence, and into the outer regions of the mind as a feeling of blessedness, cheerfulness and pleasure. In the chest cavity, however, they take on a feeling of the delights of intimate friendship, and in the genital region as the result of the influence constantly coming from the soul together with the real sense of conjugial love, the feeling of utmost delight. As these nuptial games of love and wisdom in use in the soul proceed towards the chest cavity, they last, and in that cavity they make themselves felt as a boundless variety of delights. On account of the remarkable connexion that exists between the chest cavity and the genital region, the delights of one become in the other the delights of conjugial love. These exceed all the delights known in heaven and in the world, because the use of conjugial love is the most exalted of all uses, being the procreation of the human race, and from that the heaven of angels.’
[8] The angels went on to say that those who do not love being wise for the sake of use coming from the Lord know nothing of the countless varieties of delights arising from truly conjugial love. ‘For,’ they said, ‘in the case of those who do not love being wise with real truths, but love to be crazed with falsities, a madness which leads them out of some love to perform evil uses, the route to the soul is blocked. Hence it is that the heavenly nuptial games of love and wisdom in the soul are more and more cut off and cease; and this produces the same results on conjugial love, its drive, potency and delights.’
On hearing this the audience declared that they perceived that conjugial love is in proportion to the love of being wise for the sake of uses coming from the Lord. The angels replied that it was so. Then some of them were seen to have garlands of flowers on their heads; when they asked why, the angels said, ‘Because their understanding of the subject is deeper.’ Then they left the garden with the angels in their midst.
* Reading status mentis for flatus mentis (A.W. Acton).
** The Latin text is here plainly defective, and some words seem to have fallen out. Those supplied are merely conjectural. The original Latin may have been quia amor per sapientiam [in usum venit, et tunc amor et sapientia] inter se delitiantur.
THE CHANGE OF STATE OF LIFE PRODUCED BY MARRIAGE IN MEN AND IN WOMEN
It is very well known to the learned and the wise what is meant by states of life and their changes, but since it is not known to the uneducated and uncomplicated, I must start by saying something on this subject. A person’s state of life means what kind of person he is. Since everyone has two faculties which make up his life, what are called the intellect and the will, a person’s state of life means what kind of person he is with regard to his intellect and his will. From this it is obvious that changes of state of life means changes in what kind of person he is with regard to what is to do with the intellect and what with the will. Everyone is continually changing in these two respects; but there is a difference in the variations he undergoes before and after marriage. It will be the aim of this chapter to prove this, in the following order.
(i) A person’s state of life undergoes continuous changes from infancy up to the end of his life, and thereafter for ever.
(ii) The same happens to the inner form, which is that of his spirit.
(iii) These changes are different in the case of men and of women, since men are from creation forms of knowledge, intelligence and wisdom, and women are forms of the love of these things in their menfolk.
(iv) Men can have their minds lifted into a higher degree of light, women into a higher degree of heat; a women feels the delights of her heat in her husband’s light.
(v) Both men and women have different states of life before and after marriage.
(vi) In the case of married couples their states of life change after marriage and develop as their minds become linked by conjugial love.
(vii) Marriage also produces different forms in the souls and minds of married couples.
(viii) A woman is really formed into a wife for her husband as described in Genesis.
(ix) This formation is effected by the wife in secret ways, and this is meant by woman being created while the man slept.
(x) This formation is effected by the wife linking her will with her husband’s inner will.
(xi) The purpose of this is to make the will of both into one, and so the two become a single person.
(xii) This formation is effected by the wife making her husband’s affections her own.
(xiii) This formation is effected by the wife receiving what is propagated by her husband’s soul, with a delight which arises from the fact that she wishes to be the love of her husband’s wisdom.
(xiv) In this way a young woman is formed into a wife, and a young man into a husband.
(xv) In the marriage of one man with one wife, between whom truly conjugial love exists, the wife becomes more and more a wife, the husband more and more a husband.
(xvi) Thus by stages their forms are from within made more perfect and noble.
(xvii) The children born of a couple who enjoy truly conjugial love inherit from their parents the principle of the marriage of good and truth, which gives them the inclination and ability to perceive what has to do with wisdom in the case of a son, and to love the teachings of wisdom in the case of a daughter.
(xviii) This happens because the child’s soul is from the father, and its clothing is from the mother.
An explanation of these points now follows.
The states of a person’s life are generally termed infancy, childhood, adolescence, maturity and old age. It is well known that every person, if he remains living in the world, passes by stages from one to the next, so from the first to the last. Passage from one age to the next is not noticeable, except by the passing of time; but it is plain to reason that development advances from moment to moment, so that it is a continuous process. What happens with a person is like what happens with a tree, which from the time the seed is planted in the ground grows and gets taller every minute, even in the shortest period of time. These momentary developments are also changes of state, for each adds something to the one before, which perfects its state.
[2] The changes taking place at a person’s inner levels are more perfectly continuous than those which take place at the outer levels. This is because his inner levels, I mean what belongs to his mind or spirit, are at a higher degree than the outer levels; and thousands of events take place at a higher degree in the same time as one event takes place at the outer levels. The changes taking place at the inner levels are changes of the state of the will, as regards affections, and of the intellect as regards thoughts. It is especially the progressive changes of state in affections and thoughts which are meant in this section.
[3] The changes of state undergone by a person’s two faculties or types of life are continuous from infancy to the end of his life, and afterwards for ever. This is because no limit exists to knowledge, much less to intelligence, still less to wisdom. Their infinite and eternal extension is due to the Infinite and Eternal, who is their source. This is the origin of the philosophical maxim of the old scholars, that everything can be infinitely divided; and we can add to this, that everything can likewise be infinitely multiplied. The angels assert that the Lord goes on perfecting them in wisdom for ever, which is the same as infinitely, since eternity is an infinity of time.
The reason why this is continuously undergoing changes in keeping with the changes in the state of a person’s life is that nothing exists unless it has a form, and it is its state that creates its form. It is therefore the same whether we say that the state of a person’s life changes or his form changes. All of a person’s affections and thoughts are in forms and thus come from forms, since forms are their realisations; if affections and thoughts could exist without being realised, they might even exist in skulls devoid of brains. This would be much the same as seeing without an eye, or hearing without an ear, or tasting without a tongue; these organs are the means by which these senses are realised and these are their forms, as is well known.
[2] The reason why states of life are continually changing, as is the form they take in a person, is that it is a truth taught in the past and up to the present by wise men, that it is impossible for two things, much less more than two, to be absolutely identical. Thus for instance no two persons-much less more than two-have the same face. The same is true in successive series; no state of life is exactly the same as that which preceded it. From this the conclusion follows that a person’s state of life is perpetually changing, and so as a result is his form, especially that of his inner regions. However, since these matters do not teach us anything about marriage, but only prepare the way for knowledge of the subject, and because they are merely philosophical investigations based on the intellect and some people may find them difficult to grasp, I shall pass on after these few remarks.
It was explained above (90) that men were created as forms of the intellect, women as forms of the love of their menfolk’s intellect. It follows that the changes of state, which take place successively in both men and women from childhood up to maturity, are designed to complete the form of the intellect in men and of the will in women. That is why it is said that the changes in men are different from those in women. But in both cases the outer form, that of the body, is completed in keeping with the inner form, that of the mind. For the mind acts upon the body, and not the reverse. This is the reason why children in heaven grow up to become people of the stature and looks which are in keeping with the development of their intelligence. This is different from the case of children on earth, because they, like animals, are enveloped in a material body. They do, however, agree in growing first of all in inclination towards the objects which gratify their bodily senses, and then gradually towards those which affect their inner thought-processes; and by stages towards things that fill their will with affection. At the point where one’s age is on the turn from immaturity to maturity, the inclination towards marriage comes in too. This is a young woman’s inclination towards a young man, and a young man’s towards a young woman.
Since young women in the heavens, just as much as on earth, have the inborn prudence to conceal their inclinations towards marriage, the young men there too do not realise that it is not they who inspire young women with love, an appearance favoured by the masculine drive. But this they get from the influence of love coming from the fair sex, a subject which will be specifically treated elsewhere [223]. These considerations will establish the truth of the assertion that the changes of state are different in the case of men and of women, since men were created forms of knowledge, intelligence and wisdom, and women forms of the love of these qualities in men.
The light into which men are lifted means intelligence and wisdom, because spiritual light radiated from the sun of the spiritual world (this sun being in essence love) acts equally or as one with intelligence and wisdom. The heat into which women are lifted means conjugial love, because spiritual heat radiated from the sun of the spiritual world is in essence love; and in women it becomes specialised into the love which links itself with intelligence and wisdom in men, what taken all together is called conjugial love.
[2] We speak of being lifted into a higher light and heat, because it is being lifted into the light and heat enjoyed by the angels of the higher heavens. There is also a real lifting, as from a cloud into clear air, and from the lower level of this to a higher one, and from this into the ether. So the lifting into a higher light in the case of men is lifting into higher intelligence, and from this into wisdom. Lifting into wisdom can proceed higher and higher. But in the case of women, lifting into a higher heat is into more chaste and pure conjugial love, and a constant striving towards marriage, something hidden in their inmost regions from creation.
[3] This process of lifting regarded in itself is an opening up of the mind. The human mind is divided into separate levels, as the world is into atmospheric levels; the lowest of these is that of water, the next higher that of air, higher still that of the ether, and there is a highest level above this. As a person’s mind is opened up, it is lifted to similar levels, by wisdom in the case of men, by truly conjugial love in the case of women.
This can up to a point be illustrated from the play, as it is called, of heat with light in vegetation. Outwardly it is merely a simple combination of heat and light; but inwardly it is like them playing with each other, because heat and light are there in forms capable of receiving them; for heat and light pass through astonishingly circuitous paths, and in the inmost regions yearn to produce benefits; they also spread their charms widely into the air, which is filled with fragrance. There is an even more delightful play of spiritual heat with spiritual light in human forms; here the heat is conjugial love and the light is wisdom.
Before marriage both sexes have two different states, one before there is any inclination towards marriage, and another after there is one. The changes of these two states, and the consequent forming of minds, follow one after the other, as these states continually develop. But there is no time to describe these changes here, since they are varied and differ from one individual to another.
The actual inclinations towards marriage are, before marriage, only ideas in the mind, but they become more and more perceptible as feelings in the body. But after marriage the state of these inclinations tends towards linking and also reproduction. It is obvious that these are as different from the earlier states as results are from intentions.
The reason why the successive changes of state undergone by both partners after marriage depends on whether their conjugial love links or separates their minds, is that conjugial love is not only varying but different in different couples. It varies in the case of those who love each other inwardly, since in their case it ceases from time to time, though inwardly it constantly retains its warmth. But this love is different in the case of couples who love each other only outwardly, for in their case there are different reasons, the alternation of chill and warmth, for it ceasing from time to time.
[2] The principle behind these differences is that in the one case the body plays the leading part, and its heat spreads around forcing the lower regions of the mind to share it. But in the case of those who love each other inwardly, the mind plays the leading part, and carries the body along to share it. It looks as if love rises from the body to the soul, because the body, as soon as it is ensnared, penetrates into the mind through the eyes, as if through a door; and thus into the thoughts through the faculty of sight, as if through a forecourt, and so immediately into love. But in fact love comes down from the mind and acts upon the lower regions so as to reflect their disposition. A lewd mind therefore acts lewdly, a chaste mind chastely; this imposes its will on the body, but the lewd mind has the body impose its will on it.
In the natural world it is not possible to observe that marriage imposes different forms on souls and minds, because there souls and minds are enveloped in a material body, and the mind rarely shows through this. Moreover, people of today are better than the ancients at learning from childhood up how to assume facial expressions which deeply conceal the affections of the mind. This is the reason why it is impossible to recognise the difference between the form people’s minds have before and after marriage.
However, in the spiritual world it is plain to see by looking at them that the forms of souls and minds are different after marriage from what they were before it. For then people are spirits and angels, who are nothing but minds and souls in human form, stripped of their covering, which had been composed of aqueous and terrestrial elements and their exhalations scattered around in the air. When these have been discarded, the forms of minds, as they had existed within their bodies, become visible; and it is clear that there is a difference between those who are living in a marriage and those who are not. Generally speaking married couples have an inner beauty of face, since the husband gets from his wife the charming blush of her love, and the wife gets from her husband the bright gleam of his wisdom, since there the two partners are united in soul. Moreover, each appears to be fully human. This happens in heaven, because nowhere else are there true marriages; under heaven there are only pairings which are made and unmade.
In this book it is said that woman was created from man’s rib, and that the man said when she was brought to him, ‘She is bone from my bones and flesh from my flesh; and she shall be called Ishshah, because she was taken from Ish (man)’ Gen. 2:22-24. In the spiritual sense of the Word the rib of the chest means nothing but natural truth. This is the meaning of the ribs which a bear had in its teeth (Dan. 7:5), for bears mean those who read the Word in its natural sense and see the truths in it without understanding them. A man’s chest, by which* it is distinguished from a woman’s chest, means the essential and the self. This is his wisdom (see 187 above), for truth supports wisdom, just as a rib supports the chest. They have these meanings because the chest is the part in which a person’s whole being is centred.
[2] These facts establish that woman was created out of man by copying his own wisdom, that is, out of natural truth; and that the love of this is transferred from the man to the woman, so as to become conjugial love. This happens to prevent the man being filled with self-love, but rather with the love of his wife. Her innate character cannot fail to convert the self-love a man feels into a love for her. I have been told that this results from the wife’s love without either the man or his wife being aware of it. That is why truly conjugial love can never be found in anyone who is moved by self-love to feel pride in his own intelligence.
[3] Once this mystery of woman being created from man is understood, it can be seen that a woman is likewise, as it were, created or formed from the man in marriage; this is brought about by the wife, or rather by the Lord through the wife, since it is the Lord who imparts to women the inclination to act thus. For a wife takes upon herself an image of the man by making his affections her own (see 183 above), and by linking the man’s inner will with hers, on which see below. It also happens by her taking to herself what is propagated by his soul; on which also see below. These remarks make it plain that a woman, according to the description in Genesis understood inwardly, is formed into a wife by what she takes from her husband and from his chest, and copies into herself.
* Reading quo for quod.
We read in Genesis that Jehovah God made a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, so that he went to sleep, and He then took one of his ribs and built it into a woman (Gen. 2:21, 22). The man’s sleep and going to sleep mean his total ignorance of his wife being formed and, as it were, created out of him. This is plain from what was demonstrated in the last chapter, as well as from the natural prudence and carefulness which prevents wives revealing anything about their love, or how they take over the affections of their husbands’ life, and copy their wisdom into themselves. It is clear from what was explained above (166-168 ff.) that this is done by the wife while her husband is unaware of it and, so to speak, asleep, that is, in secret ways. In that passage it was also made clear that women have the prudence to act like this instilled in them from creation, and so from their birth, for the very necessary reasons that this establishes conjugial love, friendship and trust, so that they can enjoy living together and have a happy life. To ensure that this duly takes place, the man is instructed to leave his father and mother and cling to his wife (Gen. 2:24; Matt. 19:4, 5).
[2] In the spiritual sense the father and mother whom the man is to leave mean selfishness in the will and in the intellect. Selfishness in a person’s will is self-love, and selfishness in his intellect is loving his own wisdom. Clinging means devoting oneself to one’s wife’s love. These two forms of selfishness are fatal evils to the man, if they endure with him. The love of these two evils is changed into conjugial love to the extent that a man clings to his wife, that is, to the extent that he receives her love. On both these points see just above (193 and elsewhere). This is not the place for it, but it can be adequately confirmed from other passages in the Word, that sleeping means being unaware and uncaring, father and mother mean a person’s two forms of selfishness, one in the will and the other in the intellect, and clinging means devoting oneself to someone’s love.
A man has rational and moral wisdom, and a wife links herself with what belongs to his moral wisdom (see 163-165 above). What belongs to rational wisdom makes up the man’s intellect, what belongs to moral wisdom his will. It is with what makes up the man’s will that a wife links herself. It is the same whether we speak of the wife linking herself or linking her will to her husband’s will, because a wife is by birth a creature of the will, and so it is her will which directs her to do what she does. We speak of linking with the husband’s inner will, because a man’s will is located in his intellect, and the inmost level in a woman is the intellectual part of the man, as stated in the discussion of how woman was formed from man (see 32 above, and many later passages). Men also have an outer will, but this is more often affected by pretence and dissimulation. A wife can observe this will, but does not form a link with it, unless she pretends to do so, or for fun.
Anyone who links another’s will to himself also links his intellect to himself. For the intellect regarded in itself is merely the servant and lackey of the will. This fact is obvious from the affection of love being able to control the thinking of the intellect as it likes. Every affection of love is specific to the will, for what a person loves he also wills. It follows from this that anyone who links a person’s will to himself also links his whole personality. That is why it is innate in a wife’s love to unite her husband’s will to her own, since by this she becomes her husband’s, and her husband becomes hers; thus they are together one person.
This statement makes one with the two preceding statements, because affections belong to the will. For affections, being simply derivatives of love, form the will, and make it up and compose it. In the case of men affections are located in the intellect, but in the case of women in the will.
This statement fits the explanation given above (172, 173), so need not be further discussed. The delights of marriage experienced by wives have no other source than their wish to be one with their husbands, just as good is one with truth in the spiritual marriage. It was proved in detail that conjugial love comes down from that marriage in the chapter devoted to that subject [V].
From this it can be seen as in a model that a wife links her husband to herself, just as good does to truth; and that a man reciprocally links himself to his wife, in proportion to his receiving her love into himself, just as truth reciprocally links itself to good in proportion to its receiving good into itself. Thus the wife’s love forms itself by means of the husband’s wisdom, just as good forms itself by means of truth; for truth is the form of good. It is also plain from this that the delights of marriage experienced by the wife are chiefly due to her wishing to be one with her husband, and consequently to be the love of her husband’s wisdom. For she then feels the delights of her own heat in her husband’s light, as was explained in proposition (iv) above (188).
This consequence flows from what was said in the earlier parts of this chapter, and in the preceding chapter on married couples being linked so as to be one flesh. A young woman becomes or is made a wife, because a wife possesses elements taken from her husband and so additional, which she did not have before as an unmarried young woman. A young man becomes or is made a husband, because a husband possesses elements taken from his wife, which increase his ability to receive love and wisdom; these he did not have as a young man. These effects take place in the case of those who enjoy truly conjugial love. These, as may be seen in the last chapter (178), are among those who feel themselves a united person, and, as it were, one flesh. It is obvious from this that the character of a young woman is changed into a wifely one in the case of women, and the youthful character into a marital one in the case of men.
[2] The following experience in the spiritual world proved the truth of this to me. Certain men claimed that being linked with a woman before marriage was just like being linked with a wife after marriage. On hearing this the wives were extremely angry and said, ‘In fact it is nothing like it; they are as different as what is imaginary and what is real.’ The men replied to this, ‘Are you not women as you were before?’ To that the wives replied in a louder voice, ‘We are not women, we are wives. You are experiencing imaginary, not real, love, and this is empty talk of yours.’ Then the men said, ‘If you are not women, at least you are females.’ ‘At the beginning of our marriages,’ they replied, ‘we were females, but now we are wives.’
Truly conjugial love links two people more and more into a single person; see above (178, 179). A wife becomes a wife by being linked with her husband and in proportion to this, likewise a husband with his wife; and truly conjugial love lasts for ever. It follows from these two facts that a wife becomes more and more a wife, and a husband more and more a husband. The real reason is that in a marriage of truly conjugial love each partner becomes a more and more inward person, for that love opens up the inner regions of their minds, and, as this happens, each becomes more and more a person. In the case of a wife becoming more a person means more a wife, and in the case of a husband more a husband.
I have heard from angels that a wife becomes more and more a wife as her husband becomes more and more a husband, but the reverse does not hold. This is because rarely, if ever, does a chaste wife fail to love her husband, but the husband may fail to love her in return. This is due to the lack of any raising of his wisdom, which is the only way he can receive his wife’s love (on this wisdom see 130, 163-165). But these remarks were made about marriages on earth.
The most perfect and noblest human form is when two forms are made by marriage into one, so when the flesh of two becomes one, as they were created to be. The man’s mind is then lifted into a higher light, and the wife’s mind into a higher heat; and then they germinate, flower and bear fruit, like trees in spring (see 188, 189 above). It will now be seen in the next section that the ennobling of this form leads to the birth of noble fruit, spiritual in the heavens, natural on earth.
Children get from their parents inclinations towards whatever their parents’ love and life suggested, as is very well known from history in general and from one’s experiences in particular. However, I have been convinced by wise men in the spiritual world, as mentioned in two of the experiences related above,* that children do not get or inherit the actual affections of their parents, so as to live like them, but only the inclination towards that way of life and the ability to follow it.
[2] Their inborn inclinations bring their descendants to share similar affections, thoughts, speech and lives with their parents, if they are not checked. This is obvious from the Jewish race, which is today like its forefathers when they were in Egypt, in the wilderness, in the land of Canaan, and in the time of our Lord. They resemble them not only in mind, but even in face; anyone can recognise a Jew at first sight. It is the same with other offspring; and this leads unmistakably to the conclusion that people are born with inclinations to the same kind of things as their parents. It is, however, of Divine providence that the actual thoughts and deeds do not follow automatically, so that wrong inclinations can be corrected. The ability to achieve this is also implanted, which allows behaviour to be improved by parents and masters, and later on by the persons themselves, when they are able to act by their own judgment.
* Perhaps 152bis, 182.
No wise man can doubt that the soul is from the father. This is also plain to see from the characters, as well as the faces, which are marks of character, of descendants proceeding in a direct line from the head of each family. For the father is repeated as it were in a copy, if not in his sons, at least in his grandsons and great-grandsons. This happens because the soul constitutes the inmost part of a person, and although this may be covered up in the immediate offspring, it still comes to light and is revealed in later progeny.
The fact that the soul is from the father and it is clothed by the mother can be illustrated by analogous facts in the vegetable kingdom. Here the earth or soil is the mother all share, which as it were receives seeds in itself as if in a womb and clothes them; in fact, so to speak, it conceives, carries, gives birth to and brings them up, just as a mother does the father’s offspring.
* * * * *
Some while later I looked towards the city of Athenaeum which I mentioned in a preceding account [151bis]. I heard an unusual shouting coming from it. There was a certain amount of laughter in the shouting, and a certain amount of indignation in the laughter, and a certain amount of sadness in the indignation. Yet this shouting was not for this reason discordant; it was harmonious, because one element was not alongside the other, but one was inside the other. In the spiritual world one can distinguish in sounds the mixture of differing affections.
I asked from a distance, ‘What is happening?’ ‘A messenger,’ they said, ‘has come from the place where newcomers from the Christian parts of the world first appear, to say that he had heard from three people there, that in the world they had come from they shared the belief of other people, that the blessed and happy would after death have total rest from their labours. Since administrative duties, official positions and work are labours, they believed they would have rest from them. The three have now been brought by our emissary, and are standing waiting in front of the gate. So a shout has gone up, and they have deliberated and decided that they should not be brought into the Palladium on Parnassium, as in the previous case, but into the large auditorium, so that they can reveal their news from Christendom. Some people have been despatched to introduce them in due form.’
[2] I was in the spirit, and distances for spirits depend upon the states of their affections. So then having a desire to see and hear them, so I found myself in their presence, watching them being brought in and hearing what they had to say.
The older and wiser people were seated at the sides of the auditorium, and the rest in the middle. There was a raised platform in front of them, and to this the three newcomers, together with the messenger, were conducted by younger men in a solemn procession through the middle of the auditorium. When silence had been obtained, they were greeted by one of the elders present and asked: ‘What is the news from earth?’ ‘There is a lot of news,’ they said, ‘please tell us on what subject.’
‘What is the news from earth,’ replied the elder, ‘about our world and about heaven?’ They replied that when recently they had arrived in the spiritual world, they had heard that there and in heaven there are administrative duties, ministries, public offices, businesses, studies in all the sciences and wonderful handicrafts. ‘Yet we had believed that after our migration or transfer from the natural world to the spiritual one, we would come into everlasting rest from labours, and what were duties but labours?’
[3] To this the elder said: ‘Did you understand everlasting rest from labours to mean everlasting idleness, in which you would continually sit or lie, plying your hearts with delights and filling your mouth with joys?’ The three newcomers smiled gently at this, and said they had supposed something of the sort.
‘What have joys,’ they were asked in reply, ‘and delights and the happiness they give got in common with idleness? The result of idleness is that the mind collapses instead of expanding, or one becomes as dead instead of more alive. Imagine someone sitting completely idle, with his hands folded, his eyes cast down or withdrawn, and imagine him at the same time being surrounded with an aura of cheerfulness; would not his head and body be gripped by lassitude, the lively expression of his face would collapse, and eventually his every fibre would become so relaxed that he would sway to and fro until he fell to the ground? What is it that keeps the whole system of the body stretched and under tension but the stretching of the mind? And what is it that stretches the mind but administrative duties and tasks, so long as they are enjoyable? So I will tell you some news from heaven: there are there administrative duties, ministries, higher and lower law-courts, as well as crafts and work.’
[4] When the three newcomers heard that there were in heaven higher and lower law-courts, they said, ‘Why is that? Are not all in heaven inspired and led by God, so that they know what is just and right? What need then is there of judges?’
‘In this world,’ replied the elder, ‘we are taught and learn what is good and true, and what is just and fair, in the same way as in the natural world. We do not learn these things directly from God, but indirectly through others. Every angel, just like every man, thinks what is true and does what is good as if of himself, and this, depending upon the angel’s state, is not pure truth and good, but mixed. Among angels too there are simple and wise people, and it will be for the wise to judge, when the simple as the result of their simplicity or ignorance are in doubt about what is just or depart from it. But if you, who have not yet been long in this world, would be good enough to accompany me to our city, we shall show you everything.’
[5] So they left the auditorium, and some of the elders went with them. They came first to a large library, which was divided into smaller collections of books by subjects. The three newcomers were astonished to see so many books, and said, ‘Are there books in this world too? Where do they get parchment and paper, pens and ink?’
‘We perceive,’ said the elders, ‘that you believed in the previous world that this world is empty, because it is spiritual. The reason for this belief of yours is that you entertained the idea that the spiritual is abstract; and that what is abstract is nothing and so as if empty. Yet here everything is in its fullness. Everything here is substantial, not material; material things owe their origin to what is substantial. We who are present here are spiritual people, because we are substantial, not material. That is why everything that is in the natural world exists here in its perfection; and so are our books and writing, and much more.’
When the three newcomers heard the term substantial mentioned, they thought this must be so, both because they saw there were books written and because they had heard it said that matter originated from substances. To give them further proof of this, they were taken to the houses of scribes, who were making copies of books written by the city’s wise men. They looked at the writing and were surprised how neat and elegant it was.
[6] After this they were taken to research institutions, high schools and colleges, and to the places where their literary contests took place. Some of these were called contests of the Maidens of Helicon, some those of the Maidens of Parnassus, some those of the Maidens of Athenaeum, and some those of the Maidens of the Spring-waters. They said that they were so named because maidens stand for the affections for branches of knowledge, and everyone’s intelligence depends upon his affection for knowledge. The contests so called were spiritual exercises and gymnastics. Later, they were taken around the city to visit controllers, administrators and their officials, and these showed them the remarkable work performed by craftsmen in a spiritual manner.
[7] When they had seen this, the elder talked with them again about the everlasting rest from labours the blessed and happy obtain after death. ‘Everlasting rest,’ he said, ‘is not idleness, since that reduces the mind and so the whole body to a state of feebleness, torpidity, stupor and somnolence. These are not life, but death, much less the everlasting life of the angels in heaven. So everlasting rest is a rest that banishes all those ills and makes people alive. This can only be something that uplifts the mind. So it is some interest or task which excites, enlivens and delights the mind. This depends upon the purpose for which, in which and towards which it aims. This is why the whole of heaven is seen by the Lord as one unbroken service, and it is his service that makes every angel an angel. The pleasure of service carries him along, as a favourable current does a ship, and confers upon him everlasting peace and the rest peace gives. This is what is meant by everlasting rest from labours. The extent to which an angel is alive depends upon his mental commitment arising from service. This is perfectly clear from the fact that the depth of conjugial love anyone enjoys, together with manliness, potency and the delights that accompany it, depend upon his commitment to true service.’
[8] When it had been proved to the three newcomers that everlasting rest is not idleness, but the pleasure of some work that is of service, some young women came with embroidery and sewing, their own handiwork, and presented these to them. Then, as the new spirits took their departure, the young women sang a song expressing in an angelic melody their affection for useful work and its attendant pleasures.
While I was meditating about the secrets of conjugial love which wives keep treasured up, I saw again the golden rain mentioned before. I remembered that it had been falling on a court in the east, where there lived three conjugial loves, that is, three couples who loved each other dearly. On seeing this I hastened to the spot, as if invited by the sweetness of meditating on that love. As I approached, the rain turned from golden to purple, and then to scarlet, and, when I was close, to an opal colour like dew. I knocked and the door was opened. ‘Take a message,’ I said to the attendant, ‘to the husbands, and tell them their previous visitor who came with an angel is here again, and asks to be allowed to come in and talk with them.’
The attendant came back and reported that the husbands had agreed, so I went in. The three husbands with their wives were together in an open courtyard, and they returned my greeting in friendly fashion. I asked the wives whether the white dove had appeared since in the window. They said it had done so that day, and it had spread its wings. ‘From that,’ they said, ‘we guessed you were coming and would request us to reveal one more of the secrets of conjugial love.’ ‘Why do you say one,’ I asked, ‘when I have come here to learn many?’
[2] ‘They are secrets,’ they replied, ‘and some of them so far surpass your wisdom that the power of understanding in your thought-processes is unable to grasp them. You brag to us about your wisdom, but we do not brag to you about ours, although it far exceeds yours, penetrating into your inclinations and affections, so that it can see, perceive and feel them. You know absolutely nothing about the inclinations and affections of your love, although it is these that are the source of and determine what your intellect thinks. So they determine whether and in what way you are wise. Yet wives know these so well in their husbands, that they can see them on their faces, and hear them in the tone of voice they use in speaking; in fact, they even feel them by touching their chests, arms and cheeks. But the zeal of our love for your happiness, and also for our own, makes us pretend we are not aware of them; and we still control them with such prudence that we allow and suffer whatever our husbands wish, decide and will, only modifying this as far as possible, but never forcing them.’
[3] ‘Where,’ I asked, ‘do you get this wisdom?’ ‘It is innate, they answered, ‘from creation and so we have it from birth. Our husbands compare it to an instinct, but we say it is by Divine providence, so that men are made happy by means of their wives. We have been told by our husbands that the Lord wishes a male to act in freedom in accordance with reason, and his freedom, as regards his inclinations and affections, is therefore controlled by the Lord Himself inwardly, but outwardly by means of his wife. This is how He forms a man and his wife into an angel of heaven. Moreover, love changes its essence and it is no longer that love, if it is forced. But we will put this more openly: we are so far influenced towards this, that is, to control with prudence our husbands’ inclinations and affections, that they seem to themselves to be acting in freedom in accordance with their own reason. This is because we take delight in their love, and love nothing more than giving them delight from our delights. If they find these feeble, they become dull for us too.’
[4] After this one of the wives went into her bedroom, and when she came back said, ‘My dove is still beating its wings; this is a sign that we may reveal more.’ ‘We have observed,’ they said, ‘various changes in inclinations and affections on the part of men. For instance, husbands feel cool towards their wives, when they have wild ideas against the Lord and the church. They do so too, when they take pride in their own intelligence; or when they look lustfully on other people’s wives; and on many other occasions. There are differences in the coolness they feel. We notice this by the way, in the presence of our senses, sensation is withdrawn from their eyes, ears and body. These few remarks will enable you to see that we are more aware than men whether it is well or ill with them. If they are cool towards their wives, it is ill, but well, if they feel warmly towards their wives. Wives therefore are continually thinking up ways of making men feel warmly rather than coolly towards them, and they plan this with an awareness men find impenetrable.’
[5] When this was said, there was a sound like a dove moaning. Then the wives said, ‘This is a sign to us that although we are eager to disclose deeper secrets, we must not. It may be that you are revealing to men what you have been told.’ ‘Yes,’ I replied; ‘that is my intention. How can it hurt?’ The wives had a private discussion about this, and then said, ‘Reveal it, if you like. It does not escape us what power wives have to persuade; for they will tell their husbands, “Don’t take that man seriously; these are fictions, jokes based on appearances, and the usual sort of nonsense men talk. Don’t believe it; believe us. We know that you are forms of love and we are forms of obedience.” So reveal this if you like, yet husbands will still not hang on your lips, but on those of the wives whom they kiss.’
GENERALITIES ON THE SUBJECT OF MARRIAGE
If I were to record in detail all the many facts about marriage, this small work would grow into a large volume. For instance, I could talk about likeness and unlikeness in married partners; the way natural conjugial love is raised to become spiritual conjugial love, and how they are linked; how one declines as the other increases; the various types of both these forms of love, and how they differ; the intelligence of wives; the general sphere of marriage which radiates from heaven, and the opposing sphere from hell; how they exert their influence and are received; and many other subjects, which, if expounded in detail, would make this work into such a vast volume it would weary the reader. For this reason, and to avoid useless prolixity, I shall abbreviate these subjects into a chapter of generalities on the subject of marriage. These, as in previous chapters, will be divided into a series of propositions, as follows.
(i) The sense which properly belongs to conjugial love is that of touch.
(ii) In the case of those who enjoy truly conjugial love the ability to be wise increases, but in the case of those who do not, it decreases.
(iii) In the case of those who enjoy truly conjugial love the joy of living together increases, but in the case of those who do not, it decreases.
(iv) In the case of those who enjoy truly conjugial love the linking of minds increases, and so does friendship along with it, but in the case of those who do not, both of these decrease.
(v) Those who enjoy truly conjugial love continually want to be a single person, but those who do not, want to be two people.
(vi) Those who enjoy truly conjugial love have eternity in view in their marriage; but the reverse is true of those who do not.
(vii) Conjugial love is lodged with chaste wives, but their love still depends upon their husbands.
(viii) *Wives love the bonds of marriage provided their husbands do.
(ix) The intelligence of women is in essence modest, refined, peaceful, yielding, gentle and tender; but that of men is in essence serious, harsh, hard, spirited and disposed to licence.
(x) Wives do not share the arousal which men feel, but they have a state of readiness to receive.
(xi) Men’s potency is proportional to their love of propagating the truths of their wisdom, and to their love of performing services.
(xii) Decisions [about making love]** must be left for the husband to make as he pleases.
(xiii) There is a sphere of marriage which flows from the Lord through heaven into every detail of the universe, down to the most trivial.
(xiv) This sphere is received by the female sex, and by them it is transferred to the male sex; but the reverse of this is not the case.
(xv) Where truly conjugial love exists, this sphere is received by the wife and is only received by the husband through the wife.
(xvi) Where conjugial love does not exist, this sphere is certainly received by the wife, but not by the husband through her.
(xvii) Truly conjugial love can exist with one of a married couple and not at the same time with the other.
(xviii) There are a number of [likenesses and]*** unlikenesses, both inward and outward, to be found among married couples.
(xix) A number of likenesses can be linked, but not with unlikenesses.
(xx) The Lord provides a likeness for those who desire truly conjugial love, and if this is impossible on earth, He provides for it in the heavens.
(xxi) In so far as a person suffers failure or loss of conjugial love, he approximates to the nature of an animal.
Now follows the explanation of these propositions.
* The items numbered (viii) and (ix) are reversed in the original, but presented in this order below, 217, 218.
** These words are not in the original, but the content of 221 shows that this is what is meant.
*** These words are restored from 227.
Each love has its own special sense. The love of seeing resulting from the love of understanding has the sense of sight; its charms are examples of symmetry and beauty. The love of hearing resulting from the love of listening and obeying has the sense of hearing; its charms are harmonies. The love of knowing what pervades the ambient air resulting from the love of perceiving has the sense of smell; its charms are fragrances. The love of feeding oneself resulting from the love of absorbing good and truth has the sense of taste; its pleasures are fine foods. The love of recognising objects arising from the love of awareness of one’s surroundings and of self-preservation has the sense of touch; and its charms are being aroused.
The love of linking oneself with a partner arising from the love of uniting good and truth has touch as its special sense, because this is shared by all the other senses and so derives from them their particular roles. It is well known that this love takes all the senses mentioned before into partnership, and makes their charms its own. The sense of touch is specifically assigned to conjugial love and is proper to it, as is evident from all the play it inspires and from the way its subtleties are raised to the most exquisite pitch. I leave it to lovers to pursue this line of thought further.
The reason why in the case of those who enjoy truly conjugial love the ability to be wise increases, is that married couples get this love from wisdom and in proportion to it. This was fully shown by argument in the preceding chapters. It is also because the sense of touch belongs particularly to this love in partnership with all the other senses, and is full of delights. Consequently it opens up the inner levels of the mind as it opens up the inner levels of the senses, and together with them all the organs of the body. It follows from this that those who enjoy this love have nothing they prefer to being wise. For a person is wise to the extent that the inner levels of his mind are opened up. This opening raises the thoughts of the intellect into a higher degree of light, and the affections of the will into a higher degree of heat; and the higher degree of light is wisdom, that of heat is the love of wisdom. Those who enjoy truly conjugial love have spiritual delights combined with natural ones; and it is these which make being wise loveable and so give them the ability to be wise.
This is how it is that angels possess conjugial love in proportion to their wisdom, and that love and its delights increase in keeping with the increase in their wisdom. The spiritual offspring born of their marriages are the products of the father’s wisdom and the mother’s love; they love their offspring with spiritual parental love. This love is added to their conjugial love and continually raises it and links the parents together.
The reason why the joy of living together increases in the case of those who enjoy truly conjugial love is that they love each other with every sense. The wife sees nothing she loves more than her husband, and the husband nothing more than his wife. Nor, in fact, do they hear, smell or touch anything they love more. This is why they have such joy in sharing together their home, their bedroom and their bed. You husbands can confirm the truth of this from the delights experienced in the first days of marriage; the delights are then at their fullest, because then none of the whole female sex but the wife is loved. It is well known that the reverse happens in the case of those who have no conjugial love.
The linking of minds in the case of those who enjoy truly conjugial love increases, as was proved in the chapter dealing with the linking of souls and minds by marriage, as meant by the Lord’s words ‘they shall be no longer two, but one flesh’ (see 156bis-181).
[2] The reason why that linking increases as friendship links itself to love is that friendship is, so to speak, the face of that love, and also like its clothing. For it not only attaches itself to love like clothing, but is also linked to it like a face. The love which precedes friendship resembles sexual love, which once it has achieved its object fades away; but love linked to friendship lasts after it has achieved its object and is strengthened by its success. It also penetrates deeper into the chest; friendship opens the way for it and makes it truly conjugial. Then that love makes this friendship too truly conjugial. This kind of friendship is very different from the friendship based on any other love, for here it is at its fullest.
[3] As is well known, the opposite happens in the case of those who have no conjugial love. In their case the early friendship which springs up at the time of an engagement and then in the first days of marriage, recedes further and further from the inner regions of the mind, and by stages reaches the point where it retires to the outer layers of the skin. In the case of those who have separation in mind, it departs altogether; but in the case of those who do not, love lingers at the outer level, though the inner levels are cold.
Conjugial love is in essence nothing but two people wishing to be one, that is, wishing their two lives to be one. That wish is the permanent effort of that love, from which all its results follow. Effort is the essence of movement, and a wish is a lively effort on a person’s part; this has been established by the investigations of philosophers and is obvious to those who study the matter with discernment. Hence it follows that those who enjoy truly conjugial love are continually making this effort, that is, wishing to be a single person. Those who do not enjoy truly conjugial love know full well themselves that the reverse is true of them. The disunion of their souls and minds makes them continually think of themselves as two. That too is why they do not understand the meaning of the Lord’s words, that they are no longer two, but one flesh (Matt. 19:6).
The reason why those who enjoy truly conjugial love have eternity in view is that eternity is contained within this love. This is because this love increases for ever in the case of the wife, and wisdom increases for ever in the case of the husband; and as these increase and develop, the couple plunges deeper and deeper into the blessings of heaven, which lie hidden in their wisdom and also the love for it. So if the notion of eternity were torn away, or by any accident slipped from their minds, it would be as if they were cast down from heaven.
[2] The following experience made it perfectly clear to me what happens to couples in heaven, if the notion of eternity is lost from their minds, and its place is taken by the notion of impermanence.
A married couple were once given permission to visit me from heaven. Then a joker by his cunning arguments took away from them the notion of eternity in marriage. Without it they began to grumble, saying that they could not go on living and were suffering such vexation as never before. When their fellow angels in heaven noticed this, they chased the joker away and cast him down. The moment this was done, their notion of eternity was restored, which filled them with heartfelt gladness, and they embraced each other most lovingly.
[3] As well as this, I heard of a married couple who thought of their marriage at one time as eternal, and at another as temporary. This was because they were inwardly quite unlike. When they thought of it as eternal, they were very happy with each other. But when they thought of it as temporary, they said, ‘This is no longer a marriage,’ and the wife said, ‘I’m no longer a wife, but a concubine,’ and the man ‘I’m no longer a husband, but an adulterer.’ So when their inward unlikeness was revealed, the man left the woman and she left him. But later on, since each thought of marriage as eternal, they were given companions of similar character.
[4] These experiences allow us to see clearly that those who enjoy truly conjugial love have eternity in view; and if this notion slips out of their inmost levels of thought, they suffer disunion in their conjugial love, however much they retain their friendship. For this is lodged in the outer levels, but love in the inner ones. It is much the same with marriages on earth. When couples there love each other dearly, they think of their partnership as eternal, and pay no attention to its being ended by death. But if they do think of this, it upsets them; though they are revived by hope, when they think of it continuing after death.
216bis* (vii) Conjugial love is lodged with chaste wives, but their love still depends upon their husbands.
The reason is that wives are by birth forms of love, so that it is innate in them to wish to be one with their husbands, and by keeping this thought in their will they constantly nurture their love. So abandoning the effort to unite themselves with their husbands would be abandoning their own nature. But it is different with husbands; since they are not by birth forms of love, but designed to receive that love from their wives, the more readily they receive it, the more readily do their wives come in with their love. But if they fail to receive it, their wives equally stay outside with their love and wait. This happens in the case of chaste wives, but it is different with the unchaste. These considerations will establish that conjugial love is lodged with wives, but their love depends upon their husbands.
* This number appears twice in the original.
This follows from what was said in the last paragraph. Moreover, wives have an innate desire to be and to be called wives. They regard this title as prestigious and honourable, so that they love the bonds of marriage. Since chaste wives want to be wives not merely in name, but in fact, something which is the result of an ever closer tie with their husbands, they love the bonds of marriage as a means of strengthening this compact; and this they do the more, the more their husbands love them in return, or, what is much the same, the more the men love those bonds.
It is plainly to be seen that women have the traits here ascribed to them, and men those ascribed here to them, from a consideration of each sex as regards their bodies, faces, voices, speech, gestures and behaviour. The body shows that men have hard skin and flesh, but women soft. The face of men is harder, more determined, rougher, deeper coloured, even bearded, and so less beautiful; women’s faces are softer, more yielding, more tender and whiter, so these are its beauties. Men have voices that are deep, women light. Men’s speech is fond of licence and spirited, women’s modest and peaceful. Men’s gestures are bolder and stronger, women’s weaker and feebler. Men’s behaviour is less restrained, women’s more elegant.
[2] I was able clearly to see the innate difference of character between men and women by observing how boys and girls behaved when they got together, a sight I have several times seen from a window in a large city overlooking a street, where twenty or more children gathered every day. The boys, in keeping with their innate character, played together making a noise, shouting, fighting, beating and throwing stones at one another. But the girls sat quietly by the doors of their houses, some playing with babies, some dressing up dolls, some embroidering on small pieces of linen, some kissing one another. I was surprised to see that the girls still looked favourably on the boys, for all their behaviour. This experience allowed me to see plainly that a man is by birth an intellect, a woman a love, and what kind of intellect and what kind of love they are in their beginnings. So I could see what a man’s intellect would be like, if it developed without being linked with feminine love, and later with conjugial love.
It is obvious that the emission of semen and so arousal is the function of men, but women do not have the one, and therefore not the other. I can only report from hearsay that women have a state of being ready to receive, which leads to conception. What this state of women’s is, however, I am not allowed to describe; and also it is known only to them. Whether their love, when they are in this state, is pleasurable or not (as some of them claim), has not been disclosed by them. The only matter which is popularly known is that it is not permissible for a husband to tell his wife that he is able, but does not wish it, for this does significant damage to the state of receiving, which is made ready in proportion to the husband’s state of potency.
This fact is one of the secrets which were known to the ancients, but have now been lost. The ancients knew that every single thing which takes place in the body has a spiritual source. Actions, for instance, arise from the will, which is in essence spiritual; speech arises from thought, which is also spiritual; natural sight arises from spiritual sight, which is understanding. Natural hearing arises from spiritual hearing, which is the application of the intellect and at the same time the adjustment of the will; and natural smelling from spiritual smelling, which is perception; and so forth. The ancients saw that the male production of semen was from a spiritual source, and they concluded from many proofs afforded by both reason and experience that its source was the truths of which the intellect is composed. They also said that what males received from the spiritual marriage, that between good and truth, which influences every detail of the universe, is nothing but truth and what refers to truth; and this as it progresses into the body is formed into semen. This is why seed understood spiritually means truth.
[2] As regards its formation, they said that the male soul is truth because it is intellectual; for what is intellectual is nothing else, so when the soul comes down, so does truth. This takes place by the soul, which is the inmost part of a person and of every living thing and is in its essence spiritual, having an inborn striving to propagate itself, so as it comes down the soul follows and wishes to recreate itself. When this happens, a whole soul forms and clothes itself, becoming a sperm. This can happen thousands and thousands of times, because the soul is a spiritual substance, having no extension, but fullness. No part is taken away from it, but the whole is reproduced without loss. This is why it is fully present in the tiniest receptacles, the sperm, just as it is in its major receptacle, the body.
[3] Since then the truth of the soul is the source of the seed, it follows that men’s potency depends upon their love of propagating the truths of their wisdom. It is also dependent upon their love of performing services; and this is because services are examples of goodness, which truths bring forth. Even in the world some people are aware that potency is found with the active, and not the idle. I asked how the female is propagated from a male soul. The reply I received was that this is from intellectual good, because this is in its essence truth. For the intellect is able to think that something is good, and so that it is true that it is good. It is different for the will, which does not think about good and truth, but loves and does them. Therefore sons in the Word mean truths, and daughters instances of goodness (see 120 above); and seed in the Word means truth (see THE APOCALYPSE REVEALED 565).
This is because men have the potency described above, and this varies depending on the state of their minds as well as that of their bodies. For the intellect is not constant in its thoughts, as the will is constant in its affections. The intellect is carried along, now up, now down, now in a calm and clear state, now in a turbulent and dim one, now directed to welcome thoughts, now to unwelcome ones. Since, when the mind is acting, it is also present in the body, it follows that the body undergoes similar states. This is why a husband at one time recedes from conjugial love, at another approaches close to it, so that in one state his potency is taken away, and in the other it is restored. These are the reasons why decisions must be left to the husband’s pleasure; and this is why wives are guided by their innate wisdom never to give any instructions on such matters.
* These words are not in the original, but the content of 221 shows that this is what is meant.
It was shown above in the chapter devoted to the subject [V] that love and wisdom, or what is the same thing, good and truth, proceed from the Lord. These two proceed from the Lord continually wedded together, because they are the Lord and He is the source of all things. What proceeds from the Lord fills the universe; for without this nothing that has come into existence could continue to exist.
[2] There are a number of spheres proceeding from Him; for instance, the sphere which keeps the created universe in being, the sphere which protects good and truth against evil and falsity, the sphere which reforms and regenerates mankind, the sphere of innocence and peace, the sphere of mercy and grace, and many more. But the one which is universally present in all is the conjugial sphere, because this is also the reproductive sphere, and so it is the one which ranks above all others as keeping the created universe in being by a succession of generations.
[3] This conjugial sphere fills the universe, pervading it from first to last, as is plain from what was shown before: that there are marriages in the heavens, and the most perfect ones in the third or highest heaven; and apart from existing among human beings, this sphere is present in all the members of the animal kingdom on earth, down to worms. It is moreover present in all the members of the vegetable kingdom, from olive and palm trees down to small grasses.
[4] This sphere is more universal than the sphere of heat and light which is radiated from the sun of our world, as can be proved to reason by the fact that it also works in the absence of its heat, as in winter, and in the absence of its light, as at night, especially among human beings. The reason it so works is that it is from the sun of the heaven of angels, so that it has a constant balance of heat and light, that is, a constant linking of good and truth; for it is springtime all the time in heaven. The variations in good and truth, that is, in its heat and light, are not due to variation in that sun, as are the variations on earth resulting from the differing amounts of heat and light received from the sun there; but these variations are due to the objects affected by it.
My experiences have allowed me to see evidence that there is no conjugial love present in the male sex, but it is only in the female sex, being transferred from this to the male (see 161 above). Reason can add a further proof: the male form is an intellectual one, woman is a voluntary form. An intellectual form cannot be warmed by conjugial heat by itself, but only from the linking heat of someone who has it implanted from creation. Consequently it cannot receive that love, except through having attached to it the voluntary form of a woman; this is also the form of love.
[2] The same point can be further proved by the marriage of good and truth; and in the natural man by the marriage of the heart and the lungs, since the heart corresponds to love and the lungs to understanding. But since most people lack any knowledge of these things, to use them as a proof would shed more obscurity than illumination. It is also due to the transfer of this sphere from the female to the male sex that the mind is fired by merely thinking about that sex. It follows that this too is the source of reproductive formation, and so arousal. For on earth, unless heat is added to light, nothing flourishes or is aroused to bear fruit.
The fact that in the case of those who enjoy truly conjugial love this sphere is received by the husband solely through his wife is today a secret; yet it is not really a secret, because a husband when he gets engaged and is first married can be aware of it. Is he not then affected by any conjugial influence coming from his fiancee or bride, but not if it comes from any other of the female sex?
It is much the same with those who live together in truly conjugial love. Since everyone, man and woman alike, is enveloped in a sphere of life, densely in front and thinly at the back, it is plain why husbands who are deeply in love with their wives turn towards them and during the day smile kindly on them. Conversely those who do not love their wives turn away from them, and during the day withdraw their gaze when they see them. The way the conjugial sphere is received by the husband solely through his wife allows truly conjugial love to be recognised and distinguished from spurious, false or cold conjugial love.
This conjugial sphere which affects the universe is of Divine origin; as it develops among angels it is celestial and spiritual, among human beings natural, among animals and birds animal, among insects bodily, among plants lifeless. Moreover, it is varied in each creature it affects, depending on their forms.
Now since this sphere is directly received by the female sex and indirectly by the male sex, being received in accordance with their forms, it follows that this sphere, although holy in origin, can be turned into an unholy one when it is received by creatures, in fact, it can even be transformed into its opposite. Its opposite is called meretricious in the case of women of this type and scortatory in the case of men of this type; and since both of these groups are in hell, that is the source of that sphere. But this too exhibits great variety, and so it is of many kinds. A man attracts and drags with him the kind which matches him, is in keeping with his character and corresponds. These facts allow it to be established that a man who does not love his wife receives this sphere from some source other than his wife. Still it may happen that it is also breathed into him by his wife without his being aware of it, even to the point of making him warm.
One person can swear from the bottom of his heart to keep his marriage chaste, while the other does not know what chastity means. One can love what is to do with the church, while the other loves only worldly things. One can have his or her mind in heaven, while the other has his or hers in hell. So one can enjoy conjugial love, but not the other. Their minds, facing as they do in opposite directions, are inwardly in conflict; and if this does not show outwardly, still the one who lacks conjugial love looks upon his partner in the marriage contract as a tiresome old woman, and so forth.
It is well known that married couples exhibit points of likeness and unlikeness, which are visible if they are outward, but not if inward, except to the couple themselves after living together for some time; and others may pick up clues. But it is a waste of time to list either kind to enable them to be recognised, because a list and description of the varieties could fill many pages. It is possible to some extent to deduce and reach conclusions about likeness by studying the unlikenesses, which cause conjugial love to cool off, the subject of the next chapter. Likeness and unlikeness generally speaking arise from the variation induced on innate inclinations by upbringing, company and the adoption of false beliefs.
The varieties of likeness are very many, and they may be more or less remote. Yet even those which are remote can in time be linked together by various things; chiefly by adapting to the other’s desires, by sharing duties, by courtesy, by avoiding unchaste acts, by shared love of babies and taking care of children. Most important is conformity in religious matters, for these bring about the inward linking of even remote likenesses, while the other things only effect an outward linking. But in the case of unlikenesses, no linking is possible since they are hostile.
This is because all marriages based upon truly conjugial love are provided by the Lord. It was shown above (130, 131) that they are from Him. I have been told by angels how this happens in the heavens.
The Lord’s Divine providence, they said, is at its most detailed and its most universal on the subject of and in marriages, because all the pleasures of heaven pour forth from the pleasures of conjugial love, like sweet waters from a spring. Provision is therefore made for couples to be born who are well matched in marriage for each other. Under the Lord’s continual guidance they are brought up with a view to their marriage, though neither the boy nor the girl is aware of this. When in due course the young woman, as she is then, is of an age to be married, and the young man, as he is then, is ready for marriage, they meet somewhere as if by fate and see each other. Then by some instinct they at once recognise that they are well matched, and they think to themselves, as if by some inward prompting, the young man ‘She is the one for me,’ and the young woman, ‘He is the one for me.’ After allowing this to sink into their minds for a while, they resolve to speak to each other, and they become engaged. We say as if by fate, by instinct and by prompting, but we mean by Divine providence, because when it is not known, it looks like this. For the Lord opens up their inward likeness, so that they see each other.
This is because a person is spiritual to the extent that he enjoys conjugial love, and he is a human being to the extent that he is spiritual. For a person is by birth intended for life after death, and he achieves this by having a spiritual soul in him, and he can be raised to this life by the capability of his intellect. If his will is also then raised together with the intellect by the capability given to it, after death he enjoys the life of heaven. The reverse happens if his love is the opposite of conjugial love. For he is natural to the extent that his love is the opposite, and a purely natural person resembles an animal in desires, appetites and the pleasures they give.
The only difference is that he has the capability of raising his intellect into the light of wisdom, and also the capability of raising his will into the heat of heavenly love. No one is ever deprived of these possibilities. As a result a purely natural person, although resembling an animal in his desires, appetites and the pleasures they give, still lives on after death, but in a state corresponding to the life he previously led. These considerations can establish that a person approximates to the nature of an animal in proportion to the failure* of his conjugial love. This may seem to be contradicted by the fact that the failure and loss of conjugial love can occur in the case of people who remain human beings. But what is meant is those who are led by scortatory love to disparage conjugial love, and so suffer its failure and loss.
* The original has dejectum ‘casting down’, but it is clear that defectum was intended, as in the heading to this section.
* * * * *
I once heard some shouting, which welled up from the lower regions as if through water. One shout on the left was ‘How just!’; another on the right ‘How learned!’; and a third behind me ‘How wise!’ This made me wonder whether even in hell there were just, learned and wise people; and I had a strong desire to see whether there were such people there. A voice from heaven told me: ‘You will see and hear.’
Then I left home in the spirit and saw in front of me an opening in the ground; on approaching and looking into it I saw steps, so I went down. When I reached the lower level, I saw plains overgrown with bushes mixed with thorns and nettles. I asked whether this was hell. ‘It is the lower earth,’ they said, ‘just above hell.’ Then I went towards each of the shouts in turn, first to that of ‘How just!’ There I saw a gathering of those who in the world had been judges influenced by partiality and bribery. Then I went towards the second shout ‘How learned!’ and saw a gathering of those who in the world had been fond of logic; and then to the third shout ‘How wise!’ and saw a gathering of those who in the world had been keen to prove everything.
[2] But I left the others and went back to the first group, the judges influenced by partiality and bribery, those who were being hailed as just. On one side I saw a sort of amphitheatre built of bricks and roofed with black tiles; I was told it was their court-house. It had three entrances on the north side, and three on the west, but none on the south or east sides; this was an indication that their judgments were not equitable, but arbitrary. In the middle of the amphitheatre was to be seen a hearth, on which stokers threw torches dipped in sulphur and full of pitch. Their light projected onto the plastered walls produced pictures of birds of the evening and night. But the hearth and the flickering light projected from it to form these pictures were representations of their judgments, indicating their ability to depict the truth of any question in false colours and make it look favourable to the side they preferred.
[3] Half an hour later I saw some old and young men in robes and gowns filing in; they took off their hats and sat down on chairs at the tables to hold a session. As I listened I realised with what skill and ingenuity they leaned towards the side they favoured, and twisted their judgments to make them appear equitable. Indeed they went so far that they themselves could see injustice as just and justice instead as unjust. It could be seen from their faces and heard in the sound of their voices that they had such delusions. Then I was granted enlightenment from heaven, so that I was able to grasp whether each point was valid or not. I then saw how zealously they wrapped up injustice and gave it the appearance of justice, selecting from the laws the one which suited their case, and using clever arguments to set the rest aside. When judgment had been passed, their sentences were relayed to their clients, friends and supporters outside, and they, to repay the favour shown them, went off far down the street crying ‘How just, how just!’
[4] After this I talked about these judges to some angels from heaven, and told them some of what I had seen and heard. The angels said that such judges appear to others to be endowed with the sharpest powers of understanding, when in fact they are unable to see a grain of justice and equity. ‘If you take away their partiality,’ they said, ‘they sit in court as dumb as statues, and only say, “I agree, I concur with the judgment of so-and-so or so-and-so.” The reason is that all their judgments are based on prejudice, and prejudice treats the case from beginning to end with partiality. Consequently they can see no other side than their friend’s; if anything comes to oppose it, they set it aside. If they do take the opposing point up again, they entangle it in arguments, like a spider’s web wrapped around its prey, and swallow it. So it is that they cannot see any point as valid, unless it fits into the web of their prejudice. They were tested to see whether they could, and were found to be unable. The inhabitants of your world will be astonished that this is so, but you can tell them that this is a true statement which has been checked by angels from heaven. Since these judges cannot see any justice, we in heaven do not regard them as human beings, but as monstrous effigies of people, their heads made of partiality, their chest of injustice, their hands and feet of proofs and the soles of their feet of justice, so that, if this does not support their friend’s case, they can tread it underfoot and trample on it. What they are really like to us from heaven you are going to see, since their end is at hand.’
[5] Then suddenly the earth split open, tables fell one on another, and the people together with the whole amphitheatre were swallowed up and thrown into prison in caves. Then I was asked whether I wanted to see them there. They appeared to have faces of polished steel, their bodies from neck to loins like carvings of stone dressed in leopard skins, and feet like snakes. I saw that the law books, which they had placed on the tables, had turned into playing cards; and now instead of delivering judgments the task assigned to them was to make vermilion into rouge, to daub on the faces of prostitutes and make them look like beauties.
[6] After seeing this I wanted to visit the other two groups, the one which consisted of people fond of nothing but logic, and the other of those who wanted to prove everything. ‘Wait a bit,’ I was told, ‘and you will be given an escort of angels from the community closest above them. By their help enlightenment will come to you from the Lord, and you will see astonishing sights.’
Some time later I heard again from the lower earth the same cries as before ‘How learned, how wise!’ On looking around to see what angels were there, I found myself in the presence of angels from the heaven exactly above the people who were shouting ‘How learned!’
When I talked to them about their shout, they said that these were learned people who only argue about whether a thing exists or not, and rarely reach the thought that it is so. ‘They are therefore like winds which blow and pass on, or like bark around trees that have no heart-wood, or like almond shells with no kernel, or like the peel around fruits with no flesh inside. For their minds are devoid of inward judgment, and merely coupled to the bodily senses. So if the senses themselves are unable to judge, they can reach no conclusions. In short, they are creatures of their senses, and we call them logic-mongers. We call them this because they never reach any conclusions, but they pick up anything they hear and argue whether it exists, continually speaking for and against. They like nothing better than attacking truths and by subjecting them to argument tearing them in pieces. These are the people who consider themselves learned beyond anyone in the world.’
[2] On hearing this I begged the angels to take me down to visit them. So they took me down to a hollow, from which steps led down to the lower earth. We went down and followed the sound of shouting ‘How learned!’ There we found some hundreds of people standing in one place stamping on the ground. I was surprised at this and asked ‘Why are they standing like that stamping on the ground? They might,’ I added, ‘make a hole in the ground with their feet like that.’
The angels smiled at this and said, ‘They seem to stand in one place because they never think about anything being so, but only whether it exists, and this they argue about. When thought makes no further progress, they seem merely to trample and wear out one clod of earth without advancing.’
But then I approached the gathering and saw people with not unpleasing faces and well dressed. ‘They look like this,’ said the angels, ‘in their own light, but if light is shed from heaven, there is a change in their faces and clothes.’ This happened, and their faces turned swarthy and they seemed to be wearing black sackcloth. But when this light was shut off, they returned to their previous appearance.
A little later I spoke with some of the people in the meeting and said, ‘I have heard the crowd around you crying out “How learned!” So I should like, if I may, to enter into conversation with you about matters of the most profound learning.’ ‘Say anything you like,’ they replied, ‘and we will satisfy you.’
[3] ‘What sort of religion,’ I asked, ‘will effect people’s salvation?’ ‘We shall split up this question,’ they said, ‘into several, and we cannot give a reply until we have settled these. The order of discussion will be: 1) whether religion is of any importance; 2) whether or not there is such a thing as salvation; 3) whether one religion is more efficacious than another; 4) whether heaven and hell exist; 5) whether there is everlasting life after death; and many more questions.’
So I asked about the first question, whether religion is of any importance; and they started discussing with many arguments whether there is such a thing as religion and whether it is of any importance. So I asked them to refer it to the meeting, which they did. The agreed reply was that this proposition required so much investigation that it would not be finished before evening. ‘Could you,’ I asked, ‘finish it within a year?’ One of them said it could not be finished in a hundred years. ‘So,’ I said, ‘ in the meantime you have no religion.’
‘Wouldn’t you like us,’ he replied, ‘to prove first whether religion exists, and whether what is so called is of any importance? If it exists, it will be for the wise too; if it does not, it will be only for the common people. It is well known that religion is called a bond; but the question may be asked, “For whom?” If it is only for the common people, it is not really of any importance; but if it is for the wise too, then it is.’
[4] On hearing this I told them, ‘You are anything but learned, since you can think of nothing but whether it exists and argue for and against this. Can anyone be learned, unless he knows something for certain, and advances to that conclusion, just as a person advances step by step, and in due course achieves wisdom? Otherwise you do not so much as touch truths with your finger-tips, but drive them further and further from your sight. Therefore reasoning only whether it exists is like arguing about a hat without ever wearing it, or about a shoe without putting it on. What can come of this, except ignorance whether anything exists, and so whether salvation exists, or everlasting life after death, whether one religion is better than another, or whether heaven and hell exist? You cannot have any thoughts on these subjects, so long as you are bogged down at the first step and pound the sand there, unable to put one foot in front of the other and make progress. Take care that, while your minds stand in the open outside the court, they do not inwardly grow ossified and turn into pillars of salt, making you friends of Lot’s wife.’
[5] With these words I left them, and they were so incensed they threw stones after me. Then they looked to me like stone carvings, totally devoid of human reason. I asked the angels what was their fate. They said that their fate is to be plunged into the depths, and there they find a desert, where they are forced to carry loads. Since they can then make no reasonable utterance, they chatter and make idle remarks. Seen from a distance there they look like donkeys carrying loads.
After this one of the angels said, ‘Come with me to the place where they are shouting “How wise!” You will see monstrous people there, with the faces and bodies of human beings, though they are not human beings.’
‘Are they animals then?,’ I asked. ‘No,’ he replied, ‘they are not animals but bestial people. They are those who are utterly unable to see whether truth is truth or not, although they can make anything they wish appear to be true. We call such people proof-mongers.’
We followed the noise of shouting and reached its source. There we found a group of men surrounded by a crowd. There were in the crowd some men of noble lineage, who, on hearing that they proved everything they said, and so obviously agreed in supporting one another, turned around and said ‘How wise!’
[2] But the angel said to me, ‘Let us not approach them, but let us call out one from the group.’ We did so, and took him aside; we discussed a variety of subjects, and he proved each point so that it seemed exactly as if it were true. So we asked him if he could also prove the opposite. He replied he could do so just as well as the earlier points. Then speaking openly and from the heart he said, ‘What is truth? Can there be any truth in the whole of nature other than what someone makes true? Say anything you please, and I will make it true.’
‘Then,’ I said, ‘ make the following proposition true: faith is all the church needs.’ He did so, with such cleverness and skill that the learned men who were present clapped to express their admiration. Next I asked him to establish the truth of the proposition that charity is all the church needs; and this too he did. Then I asked him about the proposition that charity is no use to the church; and he so dressed up either proposition and adorned them with such plausible arguments that the bystanders looked at one another and said, ‘Isn’t he wise?’
‘Don’t you know,’ I said, ‘that living a good life is charity, and having a correct belief is faith? Does not the person who lives a good life also have a correct belief? And consequently faith is a part of charity, and charity a part of faith? Can’t you see that this is true?’
‘I shall establish the truth of it,’ he said, ‘and then I shall see.’ He did so, and then remarked, ‘Now I see.’ But a moment later he established the truth of the opposite, and then he said, ‘I see that this too is true.’ We smiled at this and said, ‘Are they not opposites? How can you see two opposite propositions both as true?’ He was indignant at this and answered, ‘You are wrong. Both propositions are true, because there is no truth other than what someone establishes as true.’
[3] A man was standing nearby who in the world had been an ambassador of the highest rank. He was astonished at this and said, ‘I admit that something like this goes on in the world, but still you are crazy. Establish, if you can, the truth of the proposition that light is darkness and darkness is light.’
‘Nothing easier,’ he replied. ‘What are light and darkness but conditions of the eye? Is not light changed into shadow, when the eye comes in from sunlight, and also when one stares fixedly at the sun? Everyone knows that then the condition of the eye changes, and light then seems like shadow; and in the opposite case when the eye returns to its normal condition, the shadow seems like light. Does not the owl see the darkness of the night like broad day, and daylight like the darkness of the night? And then it actually sees the sun itself as a dark and dim ball. If a person had the eyes of an owl, which would he call light and which darkness? So what is light but a condition of the eye? And if so, is not light darkness, and darkness light? So just as one proposition is true, so also is the other.’
[4] After this the ambassador asked the proof-monger to establish the truth of the proposition that a raven is white and not black. ‘Another easy task,’ he replied. ‘Take,’ he said, ‘a needle or a razor and open up the feathers and plumage of a raven; are they not white inside? Or take away the feathers and the plumage and look at the bare skin of the raven, is it not white? What is the blackness that surrounds it but a shadow, which must not be used to judge the raven’s colour? Consult the experts on optics, and they will tell you that blackness is merely shadow; or grind a black stone or a piece of black glass into fine powder, and you will see that the powder is white.’
‘But when you look at it,’ said the ambassador, ‘surely the raven appears black?’ The proof-monger replied, ‘As a human being are you willing to allow appearances to determine your thinking about anything? Of course you can speak from appearance of the raven as black, but you cannot really think so. For instance, you can speak from appearance of the sun rising, advancing and setting; but as a human being you cannot really think it does, because the sun remains unmoving, and it is the earth which moves. It is the same with the raven; appearances are only appearances. Say whatever you like, the raven is utterly and completely white. It also turns white when it grows old, a fact I have observed.’
[5] Then we asked him to speak from the heart and say whether he was joking, or whether he really believed that there was no truth but what someone established as true. He replied, ‘I swear I do so believe.’ Then the ambassador asked whether he could establish the truth of the proposition that he himself was insane. ‘Yes,’ he said, ‘I can, but I don’t want to. Everyone is insane.’
Afterwards this universal proof-monger was sent to some angels to have his nature examined. After doing this they said that he did not possess a grain of understanding. ‘The reason is,’ they said, ‘that in his case everything above the rational level is shut off, and only what is below this level is open. Heavenly light is above the rational level, and natural light is below it, and it is natural light which enables a person to prove whatever he likes. But if there is no spiritual light flowing into natural light, a person cannot see whether some truth is true, and consequently not whether a falsehood is false either. The ability to see either comes from the presence of heavenly light in the natural light, and heavenly light comes from the God of heaven, who is the Lord. Therefore the universal proof-monger is neither a man nor an animal, but a beast-man.’
[6] I asked the angel about the fate of such people; and whether they could be in the company of the living, since heavenly light is the source of people’s life; and this is the source of their understanding. He said that as long as such people are alone, they cannot think or talk about anything, but they stand dumb as machines and as if fast asleep. But they wake up as soon as their ears catch any sound. They added that it is those who are inmostly wicked who become like that. Heavenly light from above cannot flow into them, but only some spirituality through the world; this is what gives them the ability to make up proofs.
[7] When they had said this, I heard one of the angels who had examined him say, ‘Make a general conclusion out of what you have heard.’ My conclusion was this: it is not the mark of an intelligent person to be able to prove anything he likes; but to be able to see that truth is true and falsehood is false, and to prove that is the mark of an intelligent person.
After this I looked towards the gathering where the proof-mongers stood with the crowd around them shouting ‘How wise!’; and suddenly a dark cloud overshadowed them, with owls and bats flying about in it. I was told: ‘The owls and bats flying about in that cloud are correspondences, so as to display their thoughts. The proving of falsities, so that they seem like truths, is represented in the spiritual world in the form of birds of nocturnal habit, whose eyes are inwardly enlightened by a false light; this enables them to see objects in darkness as if in daylight. Those who prove false propositions until they seem true and are afterwards believed to be and are called true, have a similar, false, spiritual light. They are all able to see behind them, but nothing at all before them.’
THE REASONS FOR COLDNESS, SEPARATION AND DIVORCE IN MARRIAGE
In discussing here the reasons for coldness in marriage, I shall also deal with the reasons for separation and also for divorce. This is because these all hang together. For there is no reason for separation other than the various forms of coldness which develop by stages after marriage, or reasons discovered after marriage, which also result in coldness. Divorce, however, is the result of adultery, because this is the exact opposite of marriage, and what is opposite creates coldness, if not for both, at least for one partner. This is why the reasons for coldness, separation and divorce are brought together in a single chapter. But it will be seen more clearly how these hang together, if set out in order, as follows:
(i) There is spiritual heat and spiritual coldness; spiritual heat is love, and spiritual coldness is being deprived of love.
(ii) Spiritual coldness in marriage is disunion of souls and a parting of minds leading to indifference, discord, contempt, hatred and turning away. In many cases these lead eventually to separation from bed, bedroom and home.
(iii) There are many reasons for the successive stages of coldness, some inward, some outward and some accidental.
(iv) The inward reasons for coldness are religious ones.
(v) The first of these reasons is the rejection of religion by both parties.
(vi) The second is the acceptance of religion by one and not the other.
(vii) The third is each party having a different religious belief.
(viii) The fourth is adherence to false religious beliefs.
(ix) These are in many cases the reasons for inward coldness, but not accompanied by outward coldness.
(x) There are also many outward reasons for coldness, the first being unlikeness in character and behaviour.
(xi) The second is the belief that conjugial love is no different from scortatory love, except that one is legally permitted and the other is illicit.
(xii) The third is competition between the couple who is to be dominant.
(xiii) The fourth is the lack of interest in any study or business, which results in wandering desire.
(xiv) The fifth is inequality of outward rank and condition.
(xv) There are also several reasons for separation.
(xvi) The first of them is mental deficiency.
(xvii) The second is physical deficiency.
(xviii) The third is impotence before marriage.
(xix) Adultery is the reason for divorce.
(xx) There are also many accidental reasons, the first of which is familiarity due to continual permission.
(xxi) The second is if living with one’s partner seems forced by compact and law, and not free.
(xxii) The third is the wife’s giving notice of her love and talking about it.
(xxiii) The fourth is when the husband thinks day and night about his wife being willing, and conversely when the wife thinks about her husband being unwilling.
(xxiv) As there is coldness in the mind, so there is also in the body; and as that coldness increases, the outward parts of the body too are shut down.
There now follows an explanation of these points.
Spiritual heat comes from no other source than the sun of the spiritual world. For there is a sun there which comes forth from the Lord, who is in the midst of it. Since it is from the Lord, that sun in essence* is undiluted love. This sun looks to the angels like a fire, exactly as the sun of our world does to us. This fiery appearance is because love is spiritual fire. This sun radiates heat and light, but since this sun is undiluted love, the heat it produces is in essence love, and the light it produces is in essence wisdom. This makes it plain what the source of spiritual heat is, and that this is love.
[2] However, a few remarks must be made about the source of spiritual coldness. This comes from the sun of the natural world, and from its heat and light. The sun of the natural world was created so that its heat and light could receive into themselves spiritual heat and light, and convey these through the atmospheres to the final level on earth. This was so that they could carry out the Lord’s purposes which He intends in His own sun, and also could cover spiritual things with suitable clothing, that is, materials, in order to execute His ultimate purposes in nature. These results take place when spiritual heat is combined with natural heat. But the result is the reverse, when natural heat is separated from spiritual heat, which is the case with those who love natural things and reject spiritual ones. In their case spiritual heat turns into spiritual coldness. The reason why those two kinds of heat,** created to be in harmony, become so opposed is that then the master heat becomes the servant heat, and vice versa. To prevent this happening, spiritual heat, which is by its lineage the master, withdraws; and then in these cases spiritual heat grows cold, because it becomes its opposite. These considerations make plain the nature of spiritual coldness, as being deprived of spiritual heat.
[3] In what has just been said heat is understood to mean love, because that heat is felt by living*** things that it affects as love. I have been told in the spiritual world that purely natural spirits feel an intense cold, when they come alongside an angel who is in a state of love. Likewise the spirits of hell, when heat from heaven reaches them; yet among themselves, when the heat of heaven is shut off from them, they broil with great heat.
* The original says ‘in its coming to be’, but this appears to be a mistake for ‘in essence.’ Cf. 380:11, TCR 33.
** Reading calores ‘heats’ for amores ‘loves’.
*** Reading in subjectis viventibus for in subjectis vivens.
It is too well known to need discussing that these things befall married couples, when their first flush of love departs and turns to coldness. The reason is that coldness in marriage occupies a higher place in the human mind than any other kind of coldness; for the principle of marriage is imprinted on the soul, in order that one soul may be propagated from another, and the father’s may be continued in his children. That is why this coldness begins there and by stages spreads downwards to the following levels, where it poisons them, so turning the happiness and pleasure of the first flush of love into sadness and unpleasantness.
It is known in the world that there are many reasons for coldness in marriage, and that these are due to many outward causes. But it is not generally known that the sources of these lie hidden at the inmost level, and spread to the following levels, until they become apparent outwardly. To ensure therefore that it is known that the outward causes are not in themselves the basic reasons, but are derived from these, which, as I said, are at the inmost levels, I begin by classifying the causes generally as inward and outward, and then proceed to their detailed investigation.
The true source of conjugial love is lodged at a person’s inmost level, that is, in his soul. Anyone can be convinced of this simply from the fact that the child’s soul comes from the father, and this fact can be known from the likeness of their inclinations and affections, and also from the shared facial characteristics which continue from the father down to his remote posterity. It may also be seen from the capability of reproduction implanted in souls from creation; and, moreover, by analogy with the members of the vegetable kingdom. The inmost levels of seedlings conceal the reproduction of the seed itself, and so of the whole plant, whether it be tree, bush or shrub.
[2] The reproductive or formative force present in seeds in this kingdom, and in souls in the other one, is from no other source than the sphere of the marriage of good and truth, which is perpetually radiated and poured in from the Lord, the Creator and Preserver of the universe (on which see above 222-225). It is also from the striving of these two principles, good and truth, to combine into one. It is this striving towards marriage implanted in souls which is the originating cause of conjugial love. It is this same marriage, the source of this universal sphere, which makes the church in a person; this was proved adequately, and more than adequately, in the chapter on the Marriage of Good and Truth [V*], and in many other passages. From this it will be plain and fully evident to reason that the origin of the church and that of conjugial love occupy the same seat, and are continuously embracing; on this see the fuller account above (130), where it was shown that conjugial love depends upon the state of the church with a person. It therefore depends upon religion, since this is what brings about that state.
[3] Man was also designed by creation to have the capability of becoming more and more inward, and so being brought into or raised nearer and nearer to that marriage, thus to truly conjugial love, until he is able to perceive its state of blessedness. The sole means by which he can be brought into or raised to this is religion, as is plainly to be seen from what was said before, that the origin of the church and of conjugial love occupy the same seat, there embrace each other, and so cannot fail to be combined there.
* B. Rogers suggests that Chapter VI and in particular 122 is meant here.
In the case of those who throw the holy things of the church behind them, from the face to the back of the head, or from the chest to the back, no good love can exist. Though there may look from the body’s point of view to be some, still in spirit there is none. In such cases instances of good are placed on the outside of evils, and conceal them as a robe glittering with gold does a rotten body.
The evils which are lodged within and concealed are hatreds in general, and the internal conflicts directed against everything spiritual. For all the matters relating to the church, which they reject, are essentially spiritual. Since, as was shown above [65], truly conjugial love is the foundation of all spiritual loves, it is plain that the hatred felt deep within is directed against it, and the deeply felt or peculiar love these people feel is in favour of its opposite, adultery. These people therefore will, more than others, make fun of this truth, that each has conjugial love in accordance with the state of the church with him. In fact, they may perhaps roar with laughter at the very mention of truly conjugial love. Never mind if this happens. Yet they are to be forgiven, because they find it as impossible to think of embraces in marriage as any different from those in wantonness, as it is to push a camel through the eye of a sewing needle. Those who are like this feel coldness in conjugial love more acutely than others. If they stay with their partners, they do so merely for some of the outward reasons listed above (153), which hold them together and make a bond. In their case the inner levels of the soul, and so of the mind, are more and more shut off and dammed in the body; then even sexual love is cheapened or leads to mad wantonness in the inner levels of the body, from where it spreads to the lowest levels of thought. For these are the people meant in the experience related in 79, which they should please read.
The reason is that their souls cannot fail to be out of harmony. For the soul of the one is open to receive conjugial love, while that of the other is shut for this purpose. It is shut in the case of the one who lacks religion, open for the one who has some religion. So at this level living together is quite impossible; and when conjugial love is banished thence, coldness arises, but this is in the case of the one who has no religion. There is no way this coldness can be dispelled, except by accepting a form of religion which matches the other’s, if it is a true one. Otherwise the one without religion suffers a coldness which comes down from the soul into the body, even as far as the surface of the skin. This eventually makes him unable to look his partner in the eye, or to converse so that their breaths mix, and only in a voice which sounds remote; or to touch each other with the hand, and only with difficulty with the back. Not to mention the follies which this coldness allows to creep into the thoughts, which they do not reveal. This is why such marriages break up of their own accord. Moreover, it is well known that impious people have no respect for their partner; and all without religion are impious.
The reason is that in their case good cannot be linked to its corresponding truth; for the wife is the good of her husband’s truth, and he is the truth of his wife’s good, as was shown above. As a result it is impossible for their two souls to become one. This shuts off the source from which that love flows; and when this happens, they are reduced to the state of marriage below this. This is between good and a truth other than its own, or between truth and a form of good other than its own, so that no harmonious love can exist between them. As a result coldness begins to affect the partner whose religious belief is false, and this becomes more intense as the breach with the other develops.
I was once wandering through the streets of a large city to look for somewhere to live, and I went into a house, where there lived a couple who were of different religions. Then, though I knew nothing of this, angels spoke to me and said, ‘We cannot stay with you in that house, because the couple there are not in agreement on religion.’ They could tell this from the lack of inward unity between their souls.
The reason is that false belief in spiritual matters either banishes religion or befouls it. It is banished in the case of those whose genuine truths have been falsified; it is befouled in the case of those who possess falsities, but no genuine truths, so that they could not have been falsified. In these cases kinds of good can exist with which those falsities can be linked by the Lord making them conformable. For these falsities are like discords of various notes, which by cleverly bringing them together and inserting notes can be resolved into harmony, so that it can even be made to sound pleasant. In these cases some sort of conjugial love can exist, but not in the case of those who have turned the genuine truths of the church they have into falsities. This is the cause of the current ignorance about truly conjugial love or the doubt which questions whether it can exist. It is also the cause of the crazy belief so many people have fixed in their minds, that adultery is not a matter of religious evil.
If the reasons so far defined and proved, which cause coldness at inner levels, brought about a similar coldness at the outer levels, then separation would be as common as inner coldness. There are as many cases of inner coldness as there are of marriages between couples accepting false religious beliefs, of different religions, or none, subjects already discussed. Yet it is well known that many couples live together like models of love and mutual friendship; the reasons for this in cases of inward coldness will be given in the next chapter, which is on the reasons for the appearance of love, friendship and good will between married couples.
[2] There are many reasons which link characters, but still not souls, including some of those listed above (183). But there is still coldness lurking within, which allows it in many cases to be noticed and felt. In these cases the affections of each partner diverge from those of the other, but their thoughts, as expressed in speech and behaviour, converge to give the appearance of friendship and good will. As a result they know nothing of the charms and pleasure, much less the happiness and blessings, of truly conjugial love. Such things they regard as hardly more than mythical. These belong to the party who pretend that the origins of conjugial love have the same causes as the nine groups of wise men assembled from different kingdoms, as described above in the account of experiences (103-114).
To this I shall add a secret I have been told from heaven, that between the unlinked souls of the two, especially if they are married, a linking takes place in the middle of making love; and but for this the conception of human beings could not occur. See in addition what is said about coldness in marriage, and its location in the highest region of the mind, in the last account of experiences in this chapter (270).
There are inward and outward likenesses and unlikenesses. The inward ones are due solely to religion, for it is this which is implanted in souls, and by means of souls is transmitted by parents to children, as the highest kind of inclination. For the soul of each individual draws life from the marriage of good and truth, and this is the source of the church. Since this is different and varied in different parts of the world, the souls of all human beings are also different and varied. Inward likenesses and unlikenesses are therefore from this source, and the linking of married couples depends upon these, as has been said.
[2] Outward likenesses and unlikenesses are not of souls, but of characters. I mean by characters affections and the outward inclinations arising from them; these are principally introduced after birth by upbringing, the company kept, and the habits these lead to. For we say, ‘I have a mind to do this or that,’ which implies an affection or inclination towards it. False ideas adopted about one or another life-style can also often form characters; this is the reason for inclinations towards marriage with ill-matched partners, and for rejecting marriage with well-matched partners. But still these marriages, when the couple has been living together for some time, undergo changes depending on the likenesses and unlikenesses resulting from heredity and at the same time from upbringing; and unlikenesses cause coldness.
[3] It is the same with unlikeness in behaviour, as, for instance, a coarse man or woman with an refined woman or man, a cleanly man or woman with a dirty one, a quarrelsome one with a peaceable one, in short, an inconsiderate one with a considerate one. Marriages between such unlike persons are not unlike the pairings of animals of different species, such as sheep and goats, deer and mules, hens and geese, sparrows and noble birds, even indeed between dogs and cats, which are too unlike to pair. But in the human race the face does not indicate unlikeness, but habits; these therefore lead to coldness.
It is plainly to be seen by reason that this is a cause of coldness, if it is considered that scortatory love is the diametrical opposite of conjugial love. When therefore it is believed that conjugial love is the same as scortatory love, both of them become notionally alike. Then a wife is looked upon as a whore and marriage as uncleanness. The man himself is also an adulterer, if not physically, at least in spirit. The inevitable consequence is a flood of contempt, loathing and aversion, and so intense coldness, between the man and his woman. Nothing contains in itself more coldness in marriage than scortatory love; and since it actually turns into that coldness, it can justifiably be called the height of coldness in marriage.
The reason is that conjugial love places the highest value on a union of wills, and so freedom of choice. These two aims are banished from a marriage by competing for ascendancy or the dominant position. This competition divides or splits their wills into separate parts, and changes freedom of choice into slavery. So long as it lasts, the spirit of one plots violence against the other. If their minds were then opened up and inspected by spiritual sight, it would look as if they were fighting with daggers, and regarding each other alternately with hatred and with good will; with hatred when they are intensely competing, with good will when they hope to win and when under the influence of lust.
[2] Once one has gained the victory over the other, this hostility withdraws from the outward to the inner regions of the mind, and remains there uneasily. This results in coldness for the man who is subdued or enslaved, and also for the woman who wins or becomes dominant. She too feels coldness, because there is no longer any conjugial love, and its absence is coldness (see 235). The place of conjugial love is taken for her by the warmth derived from ascendancy, but this is utterly at variance with the warmth of marriage, though it may show outward signs of agreement through the workings of lust. When the couple have come to a tacit understanding, it looks as if conjugial love has turned into friendship. But the difference between conjugial friendship and servile friendship in marriage is like that between light and shade, between a real fire and illusory light, in fact, between a fully fleshed person and one composed of nothing but skin and bone.
Man was created to perform services, because these hold good and truth; and their marriage is the source of creation, and also of conjugial love, as was demonstrated in the chapter on this subject [V]. By any study or business we mean any way in which these can be applied to be service. So when a person devotes himself to any study or business, when, that is, he is performing a service, his mind is bounded and, as it were, has a circle drawn around it, within which it is by stages arranged to become a truly human form. From this, as from its home, it can see various desires outside itself, and is brought by soundness of reason to banish them, and as a result also the wild follies of scortatory lust. That is why in such people the warmth of marriage lasts better and longer than in others.
[2] The result for those who abandon themselves to sloth and idleness is the reverse. In their case the mind is unbounded and uncircumscribed, and so a person allows into it all the empty and absurd ideas emanating from the world and the body, and causes it to love them. It is obvious that then conjugial love too is sent into exile. For the result of sloth and idleness is a mental stupor and a bodily numbness, the whole personality becoming incapable of feeling any vital love, and above all, conjugial love. For this is the source from which industry and keenness in life pour forth. But coldness in marriage in their case is different from that in other cases; it is certainly being deprived of conjugial love, but as the result of their failure.
There are many inequalities of rank and condition, which, when the couple live together, tear apart the conjugial love they entered upon before their wedding. But the inequalities may be in respect of age, rank or wealth. It does not need to be proved that inequality of age can cause coldness in marriage, as between a boy and an old woman, or between a teenage girl and a broken down old man. Nor is any proof needed to show that inequality of rank can do the same, as in marriages between a prince and a serving girl or a matron of noble family and a manservant. It is obvious the same is true of differences in wealth, unless the couple are brought together by likeness of character and behaviour, and the attention one pays to the other’s inclinations and inborn desires. But in both these cases the deference due to the other’s superior rank and condition prevents any link but a servile one. But this is a cold kind of linking. For in these cases there is no true principle of marriage of spirit and heart, but only of the lips and name, so that the inferior boasts of it and the superior blushes for shame.
In the heavens there can be no inequality in age, rank or wealth. As for age, all there are in the flower of youth, and remain in it for ever. As for rank, everyone there looks upon others from the point of view of the services they perform; the more distinguished look on those of lower rank as brothers, and do not treat rank as more important than service, but service as more important than rank. Moreover, when young women are married, they do not know from what family they came. For no one in heaven knows who was his father on earth, but the Lord is the Father of all. Much the same is true of wealth, which in heaven means a talent for wisdom. They are given resources enough to match their talents. On how marriages are arranged, see 229 above.
Separation may be from bed or from home. There are many reasons for separation from bed, and as many for separation from home. Here we deal only with legitimate separations. Since the reasons for separation are the same as those for having a concubine, the reader is referred to the relevant chapter [XX] in the second part of this work, to see them set out in order. The reasons for legitimate separation are as follows.
This is because conjugial love is the linking of minds; if therefore the mind of one goes in the opposite direction to that of the other, their link is dissolved and together with it their love fades. The faults which cause separation can be seen from this list. In the majority of cases these are madness, inflammation of the brain, unsoundness of mind, real stupidity and silliness, loss of memory, serious hysterical disease; such extreme simplicity that good and truth cannot be perceived; excessive stubbornness in failing to respect justice and equity; excessive pleasure in chattering and talking about nothing but insignificant and trivial subjects; an unrestrained desire to publish domestic secrets, or for litigation, beating, punishing, committing crimes, stealing, lying, deceiving, swearing; failure to take care of children, intemperance, extravagance, excessive prodigality, drunkenness, uncleanliness, immodesty, an interest in magic and sorcery, impiety, and many more. By legitimate reasons we do not mean legally accepted ones, but ones which offer the other partner a satisfactory reason. Separation from home too is rarely decreed by a judge.
Physical faults do not mean the accidental diseases which may befall one partner or the other during a marriage, and pass over; it is chronic diseases which do not pass over which are meant. Their listing is due to the pathologists. They are of many kinds, such as those which infect the whole body so severely that fatal results may follow from contagion. Of this sort are malignant and plague-type fevers, leprosy, venereal infection, gangrene, cancer and others of the same kind. Then there are diseases which make the body so repulsive that it is impossible for others to live with them, ones which emit harmful discharges and noxious gases, either from the surface of the body or from inside, especially from the stomach and lungs. Diseases of the surface are malignant pox, warts, pustules, consumption due to scurvy, acute scabies, especially if the face is made ugly by them.
[2] Among emissions from the stomach are foul, evil-smelling and rank belches due to indigestion; from the lungs, foul and rotten breath due to pockets of pus, ulcers, abscesses or corruption of the blood or lymph in these. In addition there are other diseases of various types, such as fits of unconsciousness, causing total feebleness of the body and loss of strength; paralysis, a slackening and relaxation of the membranes and ligatures which control movement; certain chronic diseases arising from the loss of the ability of the sinews to contract and stretch, or from excessive viscosity, tenacity or acidity of humours; epilepsy; permanent disability due to strokes; certain types of consumption, leading to wasting of the body; colic, coeliac disease, hernia and other similar diseases.
This is a reason for separation, because the purpose of marriage is the procreation of offspring, and this is impossible in these cases; and knowing this, they deliberately deprive their wives of the hope of children, although it is this hope which nourishes and strengthens their conjugial love.
There are many reasons for this, which can be seen by the light of reason, but still at the present time hidden. It can be seen by the light of reason that marriages are holy, and acts of adultery are a profanation, so that marriage and adultery are diametrically opposite. When one thing acts upon its opposite, one destroys the other until the last glimmer of life in it is extinguished. This is what happens to conjugial love, when a married man of set purpose, that is, deliberately, commits adultery. For those who have some knowledge about heaven and hell, these facts come even more into the clear light of reason. For they know that marriages are in heaven and from heaven, acts of adultery in hell and from hell, and the two cannot be linked together, as heaven cannot be with hell. If in the case of a person they are linked, heaven at once departs and hell comes in.
[2] This then is why adultery is a reason for divorce. The Lord therefore says that anyone who sends his wife away, except for licentious behaviour, and marries another woman commits adultery (Matt. 19:9). He says that if he sends her away, except for licentious behaviour, and marries again, he commits adultery, because sending her away for this reason is a complete separation of minds, which is called divorce. But other cases of sending her away, for the special reasons which have just been listed, are separations. If another wife is married after these, adultery is committed, but not following a divorce.
Familiarity due to continual indulgence is an accidental reason for coldness, because it is what happens to those whose thoughts about marriage and their wives are lascivious, but not to those who have a holy respect for marriage and confidence in their wives. Familiarity due to continual indulgence also causes joys to become matters of indifference and even boring, as is obvious from games and shows, musical concerts, dances, feasts and such like; these are essentially sweet, because they enliven our lives. It is much the same with married couples living and sleeping together, especially in the case of those who have failed to banish unchaste sexual love from their love for each other, and when they think about the familiarity due to continual indulgence, but to no purpose in the absence of opportunity. It is self-evident that these people find that familiarity is a reason for coldness.
This is called accidental, because it is an additional cause for inherent coldness, and supports it as providing a motive. In order to get rid of the coldness this causes, wives have the innate prudence to prevent excessive indulgence by various expressions of repugnance. But it is utterly different in the case of those whose judgment of their wives is chaste. Among the angels therefore familiarity from continual indulgence is the height of the soul’s delight, serving as a vehicle for their conjugial love. For they enjoy the pleasure of that love continually, and the extreme pleasures in so far as their minds are not distracted from attention by worries, and so as their husband’s judgment dictates.
This is a reason which only applies to those whose conjugial love at the inmost level is cold; and since it comes on top of inward coldness, it is an additional or accidental reason. In these cases love outside marriage is inwardly on heat because it is approved and favoured. For coldness in one party is heat in the other, and this even if not felt is still present, even in the midst of coldness. If it were not still present even then, it could never be revived. It is this heat which causes compulsion, and this increases to the extent that one party regards the compact agreed on and the law fairly applied as bonds which cannot be broken. But it is different if these are broken by both parties.
[2] The case is quite different for those who have forsworn love outside marriage, and whose thinking about conjugial love is heavenly and is heaven, and even more so if they experience this. For them the compact with its agreements and the law with its prescriptions are imprinted on their hearts, and are ever being more deeply imprinted. In their case the bond of this love is not tied by entering on a compact or by passing a law, but both of these are from creation implanted in the love itself which they enjoy. The worldly consequences result from them, not the other way around. This is why everything relating to that love is felt as freedom; and there can be no freedom which does not come from love. I have been told by angels that the freedom of truly conjugial love is the greatest, because it is the highest of loves.
Among the angels in heaven there is no refusal or repugnance on the part of wives, as there is in some cases on earth. Among the angels in heaven wives are willing to talk about love, and do not keep the same silence as some wives on earth. But I am unable, since it would not be proper for me, to disclose the reasons for these differences. Still reference may be made to the statements by the wives of angels, freely uttered in front of their husbands, which are recorded in the four accounts of experiences at the ends of chapters: the three wives in the court over which the golden rain was seen [155bis, 208], and the seven who were sitting in the rose-garden [293-4]. These accounts are given so that everything may be revealed about conjugial love, the subject of this work both in general and in particular.
The second is a reason for the cessation of love among wives, and the first is a reason for coldness among men; these statements require no comment. A man who, on seeing his wife by day or lying by her side at night, thinks of her as desiring or being willing, experiences extreme coldness; and on the other hand a wife, who thinks of her husband as being able but unwilling, loses her love. These facts are well known to husbands who take an interest in the secrets of conjugial love. These facts are also reported so as to make this work complete, and to make a full list of the delights of wisdom concerning conjugial love.
People today believe that a person’s mind is in his head, and not at all in his body. Yet the truth is that both soul and mind are as much in the body as in the head. For a person is his soul and mind, since they both make up the spirit which lives on after death. I have shown at length in my works that the spirit has a complete human form. This is why, the moment a person thinks anything, he can at once express it with his lips and at the same time make the appropriate gesture. Likewise the moment he wishes anything, he can at once do it and use the parts of his body for the purpose. This could not happen, if the soul and mind were not together present in the body, and if they did not compose his spiritual man. In these circumstances it can be seen that when conjugial love is present in the mind, a similar emotion is present in the body; and since love is heat, it opens up the path from the inner to the outer levels of the body. On the other hand, anything that takes that love away, that is, any coldness, closes off the path from the inner to the outer levels of the body. These facts make perfectly plain the reason for the angels having a potency that lasts for ever, and for men failing through coldness.
* * * * *
In the higher northern region of the spiritual world near to the east there are places of instruction for boys. (There are also places for youths, men and old men.) All who died in childhood are sent to these places and brought up in heaven. Likewise all who are recent arrivals from the world, and want to know about heaven and hell, are sent there. The area is close to the east, so that all may be taught by the inflow from the Lord. For the Lord is the east, being in the sun there, which is undiluted love coming from Him. Hence the heat from that sun is in essence love, and the light from it is in essence wisdom. Those are breathed into them by the Lord from that sun; the degree to which this happens is dependent upon their ability to receive it, and this is dependent on their love for being wise. After periods of instruction those who have become intelligent are discharged from there, and those are called the Lord’s disciples. On being discharged they go first to the west, and those who do not remain there proceed to the south, some passing through the south to the east. They are admitted to communities where they will be given a home.
[2] Once when I was reflecting about heaven and hell, I began to wish I had a general knowledge of the state of each. I knew that anyone with a general knowledge can afterwards grasp the particulars, since these are contained in the general view, like parts in the whole. So under the influence of that desire I looked towards that region in the north bordering on the east, where the places of instruction were, and went there by a road which was opened up for me. I went into one college where there were young men, approaching the senior teachers who were instructing them, I asked whether they knew any general facts about heaven and hell.
[3] They replied that they knew only a little, ‘but,’ they said, ‘if we look eastwards towards the Lord, we shall be enlightened and then we shall know.’ They did so, and said, ‘There are three general facts about hell, but those about hell are diametrically opposed to those about heaven. The general facts about hell are the three loves: the love of controlling as the result of self-love, the love of possessing other people’s goods as the result of love of the world, and scortatory love. The general facts about heaven are the opposite three loves: the love of controlling as the result of a love of being of service, the love of possessing worldly goods as the result of the love of being of service by their means, and truly conjugial love.’
After this conversation I wished them peace, and leaving them went back home. When I was at home, I was told from heaven, ‘Examine those three general facts above and below, and then we shall see them on your hand.’ They said ‘on your hand’ because everything a person examines with his intellect appears to the angels as if written on his hands.
[2] The reason why the love of controlling others as the result of self-love is hellish above all others is that controlling as the result of self-love comes from the self, and a person’s self is from birth sheer evil, and sheer evil is diametrically opposed to the Lord. The more, therefore, those people advance into that evil, the more they deny God and the holy things of the church, worshipping themselves and Nature. I beg those who are possessed by that evil to seek it out in themselves, and then they will see it.
This love is also such that in so far as checks are relaxed, something that happens provided there is no insuperable obstacle, it rushes from one stage to the next until it reaches its acme. Nor does it even stop there, but grieves and groans, if there is no further stage for it to reach.
[3] In the case of politicians this love climbs so high that they want to be kings and emperors, and control, if possible, everything in the world, earning the title of king of kings and emperor of emperors. In the case of the clergy the same love rises to the point that they want to be gods and, so far as possible, to control everything in heaven, acquiring the title god of gods. It will be seen in what follows that both these groups of people do not at heart acknowledge any God. On the other hand, those who want to exercise control from a love of being of service do not want to exercise control from themselves, wanting it to be from the Lord, since the love of being of service is from the Lord, and is the Lord Himself. These people look upon high offices as nothing but means to be of service. They regard such services as far superior to high office; but the others regard high office as far superior to services.
[2] I was terrified by this apparition and called out, ‘Don’t come closer. Tell me where you are from.’ ‘I am from the underworld,’ he replied in a hoarse voice, ‘and I belong with two hundred others to a community which is the most exalted of all. All of us there are emperors of emperors, kings of kings, dukes of dukes, princes of princes. There is no one there who is merely an emperor, king, duke or prince. There we sit on thrones of thrones, from where we despatch our commands through all the world, and beyond.’ ‘Don’t you see,’ I said to him, ‘that your imagined pre-eminence has driven you mad?’ ‘How can you say such a thing,’ he replied, ‘when this is exactly what we seem to ourselves to be, and we are acknowledged by our companions as such?’
On hearing this I was unwilling to go on telling him he was mad, because his madness was the result of his delusion. I was allowed to know that when that devil lived in the world he had been nothing but the steward of a household. He had been so haughty in spirit that he despised the whole human race compared with himself and indulged in the fancy that he was of higher rank than the king or even the emperor. This pride made him deny the existence of God and treat all holy things of the church as of no value to him, but merely something for the unintelligent populace.
[3] At length I asked him, ‘How long are the two hundred of you there going to go on boasting to one another?’ ‘For ever,’ he said. ‘But those of us who torture others for denying our pre-eminence sink down below. For we are allowed to boast, but not to harm anyone.’ ‘Do you know,’ I went on to ask, ‘what awaits those who sink down below?’ He said that they sink into a sort of prison, where they are called lower than the low, the lowliest of all, and there they work. Then I told the devil to take care, that he too did not sink down.
[2] Then I said to him, ‘How can you be so crazy? In the world you were only an ordinary clergyman; and because you laboured under the delusion that you had the keys, and so the power to bind and release, you let your spirit be so far carried away, that you have now reached such a pitch of madness as to make you believe that you are God Himself.’
He was annoyed at this and swore that he was, and that the Lord had no power in heaven, ‘because,’ he said, ‘He has transferred it all to us. We need only issue orders, and heaven and hell respectfully obey us. If we send anyone to hell, the devils immediately accept him; and so do the angels when we send anyone to heaven.’ ‘How many,’ I went on to ask, ‘are there of you in your community?’ ‘Three hundred,’ he said, ‘and all of us are gods; but I am the god of gods.’
[3] After this the ground opened beneath the feet of both, and they sank deep down to their own hells. I was allowed to see that under their hells were prison workshops, for those who harm others to fall into. For everyone in hell is allowed to keep his delusion and to boast about it, but not to do anyone else harm. The reason why people there are like this is that a person is then in his spirit, and the spirit, when it has been separated from the body, enjoys complete freedom to act in accordance with its affections and the thoughts they give rise to.
[4] Later I was allowed to look into their hells. The hell, where emperors of emperors and kings of kings were, was full of all kinds of filth. They themselves looked like various wild beasts with glowering eyes. It was much the same in the other hell, where the gods and god of gods were. In that hell were to be seen the ill-omened night birds called ochim and iyim* flying around them. Their delusions produced images like this to my sight. These experiences made it plain what the self-love of politicians and ecclesiastics is like. The latter want to be gods, the former emperors. In so far as the restraints placed on those loves are relaxed, they want this and strive to achieve this.
* Hebrew words apparently meaning ‘howling creatures’.
‘We have travelled down here from heaven,’ they replied, ‘in response to the Lord’s instruction that we were to talk to you about the blessed state of those who want to control others because they love performing services. We are worshippers of the Lord; I am the prince of our community, and the other is the chief priest in it.’
[2] The prince said that he was the servant of his community, since he served it by performing services. The other one said that he was the minister of the church there, since his service to them was the administration of holy rites for the service of their souls. They both enjoyed perpetual joys arising from the everlasting happiness the Lord bestows on them. They said that everything in their community was splendid and magnificent, splendid with gold and precious stones, and magnificent in its palaces and parks. ‘The reason,’ he said, ‘is that our love of controlling others does not arise from self-love, but from the love of performing services. Since this love comes from the Lord, all good services in heaven sparkle and gleam. And since all in our community share this love, the atmosphere there appears golden as the result of the light it receives from the sun’s flame. It is this flame-coloured sunlight which corresponds to that love.’
[3] When they said this, an atmosphere of this kind became visible to me around them; and I smelt an aroma from it, as I also told them. I begged them to add a little more to what they had said about the love of performing services. So they went on to say, ‘The ranks we enjoy are something we sought, but for no other purpose than to perform services more fully and to spread them over a wider range. We also have honours heaped on us, and we accept them, not for ourselves, but for the good of our community. Our brethren and colleagues who belong to the common people there are hardly aware that the honours of our rank are not in us or that the services we perform do not come from us. But we can tell the difference; we feel that the honours of rank lie outside us, being like clothes in which we dress. But the services we perform come from the love of performing them, which is within us coming from the Lord, and this love derives its blessedness by being shared with others by means of the services performed. We know by experience that in so far as we perform services as a result of our love for them, so far does that love increase, and wisdom increases with it, as a result of which it is shared. But to the extent that we keep these services to ourselves and do not share them, to that extent our blessedness departs. Then the performing of services becomes like food stored in the stomach instead of being carried around to nourish the body and its parts; but if it remains undigested it causes nausea. In short, the whole of heaven is nothing but a container of services, from first to last. What is a service, but the realisation in action of love for the neighbour? And what holds the heavens together but this love?’
[4] On hearing this I asked, ‘How can anyone tell whether he is performing services out of self-love or out of a love of service? Everyone, good as well as wicked, performs services and does so at the bidding of some love. Suppose that in the world there were a community composed of none but devils, and another composed of none but angels. It is my opinion that the devils in their community, fired by self-love and resplendent in their self-importance, would perform just as many services as the angels in their community. Who then can tell what is the love and the origin from which these services come?’
[5] The two angels replied to this speech thus: ‘Devils perform services for their own sakes and to get a reputation, so as to be promoted to honours, or to make a profit. But angels do not perform services for these reasons, but for the sake of the services and their love of being of service. No person can distinguish between those services, but the Lord can. Everyone who believes in the Lord and shuns evils as sins, performs services at the Lord’s bidding. But anyone who does not believe in the Lord, and does not shun evils as sins, performs services for himself and his own sake. This is the difference between services performed by devils and those performed by angels.’
After saying this the two angels went away; and from a distance they appeared to be travelling in a chariot of fire like Elijah, until they were taken up into their own heaven.
Some time later I went into a park and walked there reflecting on those who have a longing to possess worldly goods and so imagine that they do. Then I saw at some distance from me two angels in conversation, who from time to time looked towards me. So I went nearer, and as I approached they addressed me and said, ‘We have an inward perception that you are you are reflecting on what we are talking about, or that we are talking about what you are reflecting on, which is the result of the reciprocal communication of affections.’
[2] So I asked what they were talking about. ‘About imagination,’ they said, ‘longing and intelligence; and just now about those who delight in day-dreaming and imagining they possess everything in the world.’ So I asked them to reveal their thoughts on these topics, longing, imagination and intelligence. They began their reply by saying that everyone inwardly by birth has longing, but outwardly acquires intelligence by education. No one has intelligence, much less wisdom, inwardly, that is, in respect of his spirit, except from the Lord. ‘For everyone,’ they said, ‘is restrained from longing for evil, and is kept in intelligence in proportion to the extent that he looks to the Lord and at the same time is linked with Him. Failing this, a person is nothing but longing; yet in externals, that is, as regards the body, he has intelligence as the result of education. A person longs for honours and riches, or to be eminent and wealthy; and these two goals cannot be attained unless he appears to be principled and spiritual, and so intelligent and wise. So from childhood he learns to appear thus. This is why, as soon as he mixes with people or attends a meeting, he reverses his spirit, switching it away from longing, and speaking and acting in accordance with the principles of decency and honour which he learned from childhood and retains in his bodily memory. He also takes the greatest care to see that nothing of the mad longing of his spirit slips out.
[3] ‘Thus everyone, who is not inwardly guided by the Lord, is a pretender, a sycophant and hypocrite, appearing to be a human being without being one. Of him it can be said that his shell or body is wise, his kernel or spirit is mad; that his external is human, his internal that of a wild beast. Such people go about with the back of their heads pointing upwards, and the front downwards, so that they walk about as if weighed down by their burden, with their heads hanging down, their gaze fastened on the ground. When they put off their bodies, becoming spirits and being set free, they turn into what their own mad longings are. For those who are ruled by self-love long to be masters of the universe, or even to extend its limits so as to have wider sway, for they can see no end to it. Those ruled by love of the world long to possess everything in it, and are grieved and envious if anyone has any treasures stored away in secret. So to prevent such people turning into sheer longings and losing their humanity, they are allowed in the spiritual world to have their thoughts influenced by fear of losing their reputation, and so their honours and profit, as well as by fear of the law and its penalties. They are also allowed to concentrate their mind on some study or task, so that they are kept in externals and so in a state of intelligence, however much inwardly they rave and behave like madmen.’
[4] After this I asked whether all who have this longing to possess worldly goods also suffer from the delusion that they do so. They replied that the people who suffer from this delusion are those who think inwardly about it and over-indulge their imagination, talking to themselves about it. These people come close to separating their spirit from its link with the body; they swamp the understanding by day-dreaming, and indulge in the empty pleasure of imagining they possess everything. A person is after death the victim of this madness, if he has withdrawn his spirit from the body, and has not been willing to retreat from the delight his madness gives. He thinks little from a religious point of view about evils and falsities, and hardly anything about unrestrained love as being destructive of love to the Lord, and unrestrained love of the world as being destructive of love towards the neighbour.
[2] Suddenly we caught sight of a building made of reeds, and therefore full of chinks, standing in the cloud, which continually seeped out like smoke from the chinks in three of the walls. We went in and saw fifty people on one side and fifty on the other, sitting on benches. They had their backs to the east and south and faced the west and north. Each had a table in front of him with bulging money-bags on it, and around the bags piles of gold coins.
‘Are those,’ we asked each, ‘the wealth of all in the world?’ ‘Not all in the world,’ they said, ‘but all in the kingdom.’ Their speech sounded like a whistle, and they themselves had round faces which had a ruddy look like the shell of a snail. The pupils of their eyes seemed to sparkle against a green background; this was caused by the light of their delusion.
We took up a position among them and said, ‘Do you believe that you possess all the wealth of the kingdom?’ ‘Yes,’ they replied. Then we asked, ‘Which one of you possesses this?’ ‘Each of us,’ they said. ‘How can you each possess this?’ we asked. ‘There are many of you.’ ‘We each of us,’ they said, ‘know that everything that belongs to another is ours. We are not allowed to think, much less say, “What is mine is not yours,” but we are allowed to think and say, “What is yours is mine.”‘
Even to our eyes the coins on the tables looked as if made of pure gold. But when we let in light from the east, they turned out to be small particles of gold which they had magnified to such an extent by means of shared joint delusion. They said that anyone who comes in has to bring with him some gold, which they cut up into pieces, and these into small particles, and these they then magnify by concentrating their delusive powers with one intention, to make them look like coins of the larger sort.
[3] Then we said, ‘Were you not born rational human beings? Where have you acquired that foolish fancy?’ ‘We know,’ they said, ‘that our vanity is fanciful, but because it pleases the interiors of our minds, we come in here and are delighted by seeming to possess everyone’s wealth. But we do not stay here for more than a few hours, and having spent this time here we go out, and each time sanity returns to our minds. But still the attraction of our day-dreams from time to time comes upon us, and makes us alternate between coming in and going out, so that by turns we are wise and crazy. We know too that a harsh fate awaits those who cunningly filch other people’s property.’ ‘What fate is that?’ we asked. ‘They are swallowed up,’ they said, ‘and thrown naked into some prison in hell, where they are obliged to work for clothing and for food, and then for a few pennies which they hoard and make their hearts’ desire. But if they do harm to their companions, they have to give up some of their pennies as a fine.’
[2] ‘There are,’ they said, ‘ three universal loves of which every person is from creation compounded: the love of the neighbour, which is also the love of performing services, and this is a spiritual love; the love of the world, which is also the love of possessing wealth, and this is a material love; and self-love, which is the love of ruling over others, and this is a bodily love.
[3] A person is truly human when the love of the neighbour, or the love of performing services, makes up the head, and the love of the world makes up the body, and self-love makes up the feet. But if the love of the world makes up the head, a person is only human in the way a hunchback is. And if self-love makes up the head, he is not like a person standing on his feet, but like one standing on the palms of his hands with his head down and his haunches in the air.
When the love of the neighbour makes up the head, and the other two loves duly make up the body and feet, the person as seen from heaven appears to have the face of an angel with a lovely rainbow around his head. But if the love of the world makes up the head, seen from heaven he seems to have a pale face like a corpse with a yellow ring around his head. And if self-love makes up the head, seen from heaven he seems to have a swarthy face with a white ring around his head.’
This led me to ask, ‘What do the rings around the head represent?’ ‘Intelligence,’ they replied, ‘the white ring around the head of a person with a swarthy face represents his intelligence being limited to externals or around him, and his craziness being in his internals or inside him. Also a person of this sort is wise when in the body, but crazy when in the spirit. No one is wise in the spirit except by the Lord’s doing; this happens when he is born again and created anew by the Lord.’
[4] When this was said, the ground opened up on the left, and through the opening I saw a devil rising with a shining white halo round his head. ‘Who are you?’ I asked. ‘I am Lucifer,’ he said, ‘the son of the dawn. I was cast down for regarding myself as like the Most High.’ He was not really Lucifer, but he thought he was.
‘Since you have been cast down,’ I said, ‘how can you rise again from hell?’ ‘There,’ he said, ‘I am a devil, but here I am an angel of light. Don’t you see I have a sphere of light round my head? And you will see, if you wish, that among moral people I am more than moral, among rational people more than rational, among spiritual people even more than spiritual. I can also preach, and have done so.’
‘What did you preach about?’ I asked. ‘I preached against cheats, against adulterers, and all the loves of hell. In fact it was then I called myself the devil Lucifer and invoked curses on myself as such, so that I was praised to the skies. That was how I got the name of the son of the dawn. To my own surprise when I was in the pulpit I could think of nothing but speaking correctly and properly. But I discovered the reason, that I was in my outward state, and this was separate from my inward one. Yet although I had discovered this, I still could not change myself, because my pride prevented me from looking to God.’
[5] ‘How then,’ I asked next, ‘could you speak like that, when you are yourself a deceiver, an adulterer and a devil?’ ‘I am different,’ he replied, ‘when I am in my outward or bodily state from what I am in my inward or spiritual state. In the body, I am an angel, but in the spirit I am a devil. For in the body I am under the control of the intellect, but in the spirit under that of the will. The intellect carries me aloft, but the will drags me down. When under the control of the intellect, I have a white halo round my head; but when my intellect makes itself subservient to the will and becomes its creature, as ultimately happens to us, then the halo turns black and disappears. Once this has happened, we can no longer come up here into the light.
Later he talked more rationally than anyone else about his double state, inward and outward. But suddenly on seeing I had angels with me, his face and voice caught fire, and he became black, even the halo about his head doing the same; and he fell back into hell through the same opening he had come up by. On seeing this the bystanders arrived at this conclusion, that it is a person’s love which determines what he is like, not his intellect, since love easily carries the intellect away to support it and makes it subservient.
[6] Then I asked the angels, ‘Where do devils get such powers of reasoning?’ ‘It comes,’ they said, ‘from the radiance of self-love, for this is enveloped in radiance, which can even raise the intellect into the light of heaven. For everyone’s intellect can be raised, depending on what he knows; but his will cannot be raised except by living in accordance with the truths taught by the church and by reason. This is why even atheists, who have a radiant reputation as the result of self-love, and are therefore proud of their own intelligence, enjoy higher powers of reasoning than many other people. But this happens when they are engaged in intellectual thinking, not when their will is engaged in affection. The will’s affection controls a person’s interior, but the intellect’s thinking controls his exterior.’
The angel went on to explain the reason why a person is a mixture of the three loves mentioned above: the love of service, the love of the world and self-love. This is to enable him to think from God, although as if from himself. He said that the highest level in a person is turned up towards God, the middle level outward towards the world, and the lowest level downwards towards oneself. Since this level is turned downwards, he thinks as if his thoughts came from himself, yet in fact they come from God.
One morning after I had slept, my thoughts plunged deep into some of the secrets of conjugial love, ending up with this: In what region of the human mind does truly conjugial love reside, and hence where does conjugial coldness reside? I knew that the human mind has three regions, one above the other; in the lowest region natural love dwells, in the higher one spiritual love, and in the highest celestial love. In each region there is a marriage of good and truth; and since good relates to love and truth to wisdom, there is a marriage of love and wisdom. This marriage is the same as that between the will and the intellect, because the will is designed to receive love, the intellect wisdom.
[2] While I was deep in these thoughts, I caught sight of two swans flying towards the north, and then two birds of paradise flying towards the south, and also two doves flying in the east. As I followed their flight with my eyes, I noticed the two swans altering their course from north to east, and the birds of paradise did the same from the south, and they went to join the doves in the east. They flew together to a lofty palace there, which was surrounded by olive, palm and beech trees. The palace had three rows of windows, one above the other; and as I watched I saw the swans fly into the palace through the open windows of the bottom row, the birds of paradise through those of the middle row, and the doves through those of the top row.
[3] When I had seen this, an angel stood beside me and said, ‘Do you understand what you have seen?’ ‘A little,’ I answered. He told me that the palace represented the dwellings of conjugial love, as they exist in people’s minds. The top floor, to which the doves took themselves, represented the highest region of the mind, where conjugial love dwells in the love for good together with its own wisdom. The middle floor, to which the birds of paradise took themselves, represented the middle region, where conjugial love dwells in the love for truth together with its own intelligence. The lowest floor, to which the swans took themselves, represented the lowest region, where conjugial love dwells in the love for justice and equity with its own knowledge.
[4] ‘The three pairs of birds,’ he said, ‘also have the same meaning: the pair of doves mean conjugial love of the highest region, the pair of birds of paradise conjugial love of the middle region, the pair of swans conjugial love of the lowest region. The three kinds of trees surrounding the palace, olive, palm and beech, have the same meaning. We in heaven call the highest region of the mind celestial, the middle spiritual, the lowest natural. We see these like apartments in a house one above the other, with a staircase leading up from one to the next. On each floor there are two rooms, one for love, the other for wisdom, and in front of them a kind of bedroom, where love associates in bed with its own kind of wisdom, or good with its own truth, or, what is the same thing, the will with its own intellect. This palace contains pictorial representations of all the secrets of conjugial love.’
[5] On hearing this I was fired with longing to see it, and I asked whether anyone was allowed to go inside and view it, seeing that it is a representational palace. The reply was that only those who are in the third heaven are allowed to do so, because for them every representation of love and wisdom is realised. ‘What I have told you,’ he said, ‘I have heard from them. I was also told that truly conjugial love dwells in the highest region, in the midst of mutual love in the chamber or room of the will, in the midst of perceptions of wisdom in the chamber or room of the intellect; and they associate in bed in the bedroom at the front, that is, in the east.’ ‘Why are there two chambers?’ I asked. He said it was because the husband is in the chamber of the intellect, and the wife is in the chamber of the will.
[6] ‘Since conjugial love dwells there,’ I asked, ‘ where does conjugial coldness dwell?’ He replied that it too was in the highest region, but only in the chamber of the intellect, and the chamber of the will there was closed. ‘For the intellect accompanied by its truths,’ he said, ‘can go up as often as it wishes by the spiral staircase to its chamber in the highest region; but if the will accompanied by the good of its love does not at the same time go up to the matching chamber, this is shut off, causing coldness in the other one. This is conjugial coldness. When such coldness is felt towards a wife, the intellect looks down from the highest region to the lowest, and also, if not held back by fear, goes down there and warms itself with illicit fire there.’
After saying this he wanted to relate more about conjugial love based on the representations of it to be found in that palace; but he said, ‘This is enough for now. Ask first whether these facts are beyond the grasp of the average intellect. If they are, what is the point of saying more? But if not, more will be revealed.’
THE REASONS WHY AN APPEARANCE OF LOVE, FRIENDSHIP AND GOOD WILL ARE TO BE SEEN IN MARRIAGES
After dealing with the reasons for coldness and separation, the next subject in due order must be the reasons why an appearance of love, friendship and good will is to be seen in marriages. For it is well known that, although coldness divides the minds of married couples today, they still live together and have children. This would not happen, if the appearance of love were not possible, and love that by turns imitates or rivals the warmth of genuine love. It will be seen in what follows that these appearances are necessary and useful; without them households could not hold together, and so neither could communities.
In addition to these considerations some people who possess a conscience may be bothered by thinking that the mental discord between their partner and themselves, which leads to inward estrangement, is their fault and is reckoned against them, something that makes them grieve at heart. But since inward discord is something it is not in their power to help, it is enough for them to allay the distress which their conscience evokes by an appearance of love and good will. This may even lead to a return of friendship, in which conjugial love lies hidden on the part of one partner, even though not on that of the other. But the numerous varieties of this subject demand that it be discussed under a series of headings, as before. These are as follows:
(i) In the natural world almost all people can be linked in their outward affections, but not in their inward affections, if these disagree and are seen to disagree.
(ii) In the spiritual world all are linked as their inward, but not outward, affections dictate, unless these act in unison with the inward ones.
(iii) It is outward affections which generally influence people in the world to get married.
(iv) But in the absence of inward affections to link a couple’s minds, such marriages fall apart at home.
(v) The married state, however, in the world is intended to last until the end of each partner’s life.
(vi) Marriages which lack the linking of inward affections may have outward ones, which resemble inward ones and lead to association.
(vii) This is the source of an appearance of love, of friendship and of good will between married couples.
(viii) These appearances are the pretences appropriate to marriage, which are praiseworthy as being useful and necessary.
(ix) In the case of a spiritual person linked to a natural one these pretences of couples have a touch of justice and judgment.
(x) In the case of natural people these pretences have a touch of prudence, for various reasons.
(xi) They are intended to improve people and make them accommodating.
(xii) They are intended to keep proper order in household affairs and to provide mutual help.
(xiii) They are intended to ensure concord in the care of babies and looking after children.
(xiv) They are intended to promote peace in the home.
(xv) They are intended to protect reputations outside the home.
(xvi) They are intended to ensure the various marks of good will looked for by the partner, or his or her relatives, and also to allay fears of losing these.
(xvii) They are intended to excuse faults and so to avoid ill-repute.
(xviii) They are intended to bring about reconciliation.
(xix) If a wife does not cease to show good will, so long as her husband remains capable, there may be friendship which resembles that of marriage and which lasts until they grow old.
(xx) Various kinds of apparent love and friendship are possible between couples, one of whom is dominated and thus subject to the other.
(xxi) Hellish marriages are possible in the world between couples who are inwardly out-and-out enemies, but outwardly the best of friends.
An explanation of these propositions now follows.
The reason is that in the world a person has a material body, and this is stuffed full of desires; these behave there like the dregs which collect at the bottom when new wine is clarified. The materials from which human bodies are composed in the world are of such a kind. So it is that inward affections, those of the mind, are not seen; in many cases hardly as much as a grain of them shows through. For the body either absorbs them and envelops them in its dregs, or hides them deep to prevent others seeing them, as the result of being taught from childhood to pretend. This allows one partner to adopt the state of any affection perceived in the other, and to lure the other’s affection to himself, so that they become linked. The reason for this linking is that every affection has its own pleasure, and pleasures bind minds together.
However, it would be different if inward affections were as visible as outward ones, on people’s faces, in their gestures, and to be heard in the tone of their voices, or if the pleasures they give were perceived by the nose or smelled, as happens in the spiritual world. Then if their disagreement reached the point of discord, their minds would be parted from each other, and they would take themselves off to a distance, depending on the perception of antipathy. These considerations will make it obvious that in the natural world almost all can be linked in outward affections, but not in inward ones, and if these disagree and are seen to disagree.
The reason is that then the material body, which had been able to receive and exhibit the forms of every affection, as said just before, is cast off. Once a person is stripped of that body, he is subject to his inward affections, which were previously hidden by the body. This is why there similarity or dissimilarity of nature, or sympathy and antipathy, are not only felt, but also revealed in faces, utterances and gestures. Likenesses therefore are linked together, unlikenesses parted. This is the reason why the whole of heaven is arranged by the Lord according to all the differences of affections of the love for good and truth; hell on the other hand is arranged according to all the differences of the affections for evil and falsity.
[2] Since angels and spirits have inward and outward affections, just as people do in the world, inward affections, being there incapable of being masked by outward ones, show through and become plain; each kind is therefore in these cases brought to resemble and match the other. After this their inward affections are portrayed by outward ones in their faces, perceived in their tone of voice, and made visible in their behaviour. Angels and spirits have inward and outward affections because they have a mind and a body; affections and the thoughts they evoke belong to the mind, sensations and the pleasures they give belong to the body.
[3] It often happens that after death friends meet in the spiritual world, and remembering their friendships in the former world think that they will then resume the friendly relations they had before. But when their association, which is merely based on outward affections, is noticed in heaven, they are parted in keeping with their inward affections. Then some are sent away from that meeting to the north, some to the west; and each is removed some distance from his friend, so that they do not ever see or recognise each other again. For their faces are changed in the places where they live, so as to become a picture of their inward affections. This makes it plain that in the spiritual world it is inward affections which link people together, not outward ones, unless these are in unison with the inward ones.
274. (iii) It is outward affections which generally influence people in the world to get married.
This is because inward affections are rarely taken into account, and if they are, the similarity on the woman’s side is still not seen, since her native talents lead her to keep these deeply hidden in the recesses of the mind. There are numerous outward affections which induce men to get married. The leading one in this period is the desire to increase one’s patrimony by extra wealth, either to become rich or to ensure plenty. Another is the ambition to gain honours, either to achieve a high reputation or to live at a more exalted level. Apart from these there are various things which attract and inspire lust; these do not even allow any opportunity for finding out if there is a match between inward affections. These few remarks will make it plain that it is generally outward affections which influence people in the world to get married.
275. (iv) But in the absence of inward affections to link a couple’s minds, such marriages fall apart at home.
We say at home, because this takes place between the couple in private. This happens when the early warmth created at the time of an engagement, which bursts into flame at the time of the wedding, afterwards by stages loses its zest on account of their ill-matched inward affections, so that finally it is replaced with coldness. It is well known that the outward affections which induced and enticed them to get married disappear, so that they no longer link them. I proved in the last chapter that coldness arises for various reasons, inward, outward and accidental, all of them derived from unlikeness in inward inclinations. This makes plain the truth of the proposition, that in the absence of inward affections to link a couple’s minds, such marriages fall apart at home.
276. (v) The married state, however, in the world is intended to last until the end of each partner’s life.
This point is made so that the reason may grasp the necessity, usefulness and truth of the proposition that conjugial love, where it is not genuine, should still be professed and made to look as if it were. It would be different if marriages entered into were not a promise lasting until the end of one’s life, but something which could be ended at will. This was the situation of the Israelite people, who claimed for themselves the freedom to divorce wives for any reason whatsoever. This is plain from this passage in Matthew:
Some Pharisees came and said to Jesus, Is it permissible for a person to divorce his wife for any reason? And when Jesus replied that it was not permissible to divorce one’s wife and marry another, except for unchaste conduct, they retorted that Moses had commanded them to give notice of repudiation and to divorce. And the disciples said, If this is a person’s situation in respect of his wife, it is preferable not to marry. Matt. 19:3-10.
[2] Since therefore the marriage contract is for life, it follows that couples are bound to keep up the appearance of love and friendship. The need for marriages entered into to be maintained until the end of life in the world arises from God’s law, and this being so, it is prescribed by the law of reason too, and so is a matter of civil law. It is God’s law that it is not permissible to divorce a wife and marry another, except for unchaste conduct, as was shown just above. It is the law of reason, because this is founded upon the spiritual law, since God’s law is one with the law of reason. These two together, or rather the law of reason inspired by God’s law, [give rise to the civil law. Today]* numerous examples are to be seen of aberrations, the destruction of communities, and the dissolution of marriage before death or the divorce of wives at the husband’s whim. These aberrations and the destruction of communities can be seen discussed at some length in the account of the debate on the origin of conjugial love by the representatives of the nine kingdoms (103-115). There is thus no need to give additional reasons. These reasons, however, do not prevent separation being permissible for special causes (on these see 252-254 above); and also having a concubine (which is discussed in Part Two [Chapter XX]).
* The sentence appears to be incomplete in the original.
Inward affections mean the mutual inclinations coming from heaven which each party has in his or her mind; outward affections are the inclinations coming from the world which each party has in his or her mind. Outward affections or inclinations are indeed equally in the mind, but they occupy its lower level, while the inward affections occupy the upper level. It might be thought that, since they both have their seat in the mind, they are alike and agree. But even though they are unlike, they can still look as if alike; in some cases they come into being as if by agreement, in others by polite pretence.
[2] From the beginning of the marriage compact there is a sharing implanted in both partners, which remains rooted in them, however much their minds disagree. For instance, the sharing of possessions, in many cases the sharing of services undertaken and the various needs of the household; this leads to the sharing of thoughts and of some secrets. There is also the sharing of a bed, and a shared love of children; not to mention many more things which are present in their minds, because they are involved in the marriage compact. These are the chief source of outward affections resembling inward ones. Outward affections, however, which are merely pretended, are partly from the same source, but partly from another; both of these will be discussed further in what follows.
278. (vii) This is the source of an appearance of love, of friendship and of good will between married couples.
The appearance of love, friendship and good will between married couples is the result of entering into a marriage bond for life, and of the principle of sharing imprinted on those thus linked in marriage, which gives rise to outward affections resembling inward ones, as pointed out just above. There are, moreover, reasons of usefulness and need. From these there arise in part outward affections which link people together or which pretend to do so, thus making outward love look like inward love, and outward friendship like inward friendship.
279. (viii) These appearances are the pretences appropriate to marriage, which are praiseworthy as being useful and necessary.
We speak of pretence because this is possible between those who disagree in mind, and as the result of these disagreements are inwardly in a cold state. When they still in outward behaviour, as is right and fitting, live a sociable life, then their joint actions in living together can be called pretences, but ones appropriate to marriage. Since these are particularly praiseworthy as being intended to serve a purpose, they are to be completely distinguished from hypocritical pretences. For they have in view all the good results enumerated below in points xi to xx. They can be called praiseworthy on account of need, because otherwise those good results would be thrown away. Yet living together is prescribed by the marriage compact and the law, and so this is incumbent on each party as a duty.
280. (ix) In the case of a spiritual person linked to a natural one these pretences of couples have a touch of justice and judgment.
The reason is that it is justice and judgment which lead the spiritual man to do what he does. Therefore he does not see these pretences as estranged from his inward affections, but coupled to them. For he acts seriously, looking to improvement as his aim, and if he does not achieve this, he aims at an arrangement, so as to keep order in his household, to provide mutual help, to look after his children, and to enjoy peace and tranquillity. Justice impels him to have these intentions and judgment to put them into practice. The reason why a spiritual person can live thus with a natural person is that a spiritual person behaves spiritually, even with a natural person.
281. (x) In the case of natural people these pretences have a touch of prudence, for various reasons.
In the case of a married couple, one may be spiritual and the other natural; we mean by spiritual one who loves spiritual things and thus has wisdom from the Lord, by natural one who loves only natural things and thus has wisdom from himself. When two such people are joined in marriage, the spiritual one feels conjugial love as heat, the natural one as coldness. Obviously heat and coldness cannot exist together, and heat cannot fire a person in a state of coldness, unless this is first dispelled; nor can coldness invade one in a state of heat, unless this is first removed. So it is that intimate love is impossible between partners, one of whom is spiritual, the other not. But there can exist a love rivalling intimate love on the part of the spiritual one, as was said in the previous section.
[2] However, intimate love cannot exist between a couple both of whom are natural, since they are both cold. Any heat they have comes from unchastity. Yet these can still live together in one household, while keeping their minds apart; they can also keep up an appearance of love and mutual friendship on their faces, however much their minds disagree. In these cases outward affections, for the most part for wealth and possessions, or for honours and high rank, can become as it were ardent. Since this ardour produces the fear of their loss, pretence between couples becomes essential for them; the main ones are those listed in sections xv-xvii below. The remaining reasons listed with them may have something in common with the reasons affecting a spiritual person mentioned above (280), but only if the natural person’s prudence has a touch of intelligence.
282. (xi) They are intended to improve people and make them accommodating.
The pretences practised by married couples, allowing those who disagree in character to appear loving and friendly, are intended to lead to improvement, because a spiritual person bound in matrimony with a natural one has no other aim than improving the way they live. He does this by talking about wisdom and refinement, and by acts of good will which appeal to the other’s character. But if these fall on deaf ears or make no impression on his behaviour, he aims at arrangements which will keep order in household affairs, provide mutual help, take care of babies and children, and so forth. For what a spiritual persons says and does has a touch of justice and judgment, as shown above (280).
[2] In the case, however, of a married couple, neither of whom are spiritual, but both natural, something similar may occur, but for other purposes. If they aim at improvement and an arrangement, the intention is either to bring the other one to behave in a similar fashion to oneself or to make him or her subservient to one’s own desires; or to ensure the performance of duties which serve one’s own, either for the sake of peace at home or good repute outside it, or for the sake of favours hoped for from one’s partner, or from his relatives, not to mention other aims. But these in some cases arise from their rational prudence, in some cases from their native politeness, in some cases from the pleasures of desires which have become familiar from birth, so that their loss is feared. There are also many more purposes, which cause the good will assumed to be the product of conjugial love to become more or less pretended. There are also acts of good will looking as if from conjugial love to be seen outside the home, but not inside it; but these have in view the preservation of each party’s reputation, or if not, they are merely a game.
283. (xii) They are intended to keep proper order in household affairs and to provide mutual help.
Each household which also contains children, their teachers and other domestics is a community modelled on the large one. This comes into being by their combination, like any whole out of its parts. Moreover, just as the healthy condition of a major community depends upon its order, so does that of this minor one. As therefore it is the business of magistrates to examine and provide that order exists and is preserved in the people who compose the community, so it is that of the married couple in their own household. But this order is impossible, if husband and wife disagree in character, since this results in their advice and help given to each other pulling in opposite directions, and being divided like their characters; thus the form of the minor community is torn apart. In order, therefore, to keep order, and by this means to provide for oneself together with the household, or for the household together with oneself, so that they are not destroyed and rush headlong into ruin, it is essential for the master and mistress to agree and act as one. If the difference between their minds prevents this from happening, still to keep good order it is necessary and proper for the couple to display a picture of friendship. It is well known that concord is patched up* in households for the sake of needs and the uses they serve.
* Reading consarciantur for confarciantur ‘is crammed together’.
284. (xiii) They are intended to ensure concord in the care of babies and looking after children.
It is very well known that pretence by married couples producing an appearance of love and friendship, an image of truly conjugial feelings, is for the sake of babies and children. The couple’s shared love for their children causes each partner to look kindly and favourably on the other. A mother’s love for her babies and children and a father’s love for them are linked, as the heart and the lungs are linked in the chest. The mother’s love for them is like the heart, and the father’s love towards them is like the lungs in the body. The reason why they can be compared is that the heart corresponds to love and the lungs to intellect; and love in the case of the mother comes from the will, in the case of the father from the intellect. In the case of spiritual people this love leads to linking in marriage as the result of justice and judgment. We say, as the result of justice, because it is the mother who carried them in the womb, bore them in pain, and then with untiring care suckles them, feeds them, washes and clothes them, and brings them up.
285. (xiv) They are intended to promote peace in the home.
It is principally men who practise pretence in marriage or outward friendship in order to have peace at home; this is because they have the natural characteristic of doing what they do at the bidding of the intellect. The intellect, being the seat of thought, considers various matters which make the mind restless, distracting and troubling it. If therefore there were no quiet at home, it might happen that their vital spirits would flag and their inner life would, so to speak, die off, thus destroying their mental and bodily health. The fear of these and many other dangers would beset men’s minds, if they did not have a refuge with their wives at home to calm the disturbance of their intellect.
[2] Besides peace and calm soothe the mind and make it ready to accept gratefully the favours bestowed by wives, who devote all their efforts to dispelling the clouds which they are quick to notice besetting their husbands’ minds. These things also lend charm to their presence. This makes it plain that the pretence of love, as if it were truly conjugial, is needed and useful to promote peace and calm in the home. Another point is that wives do not practise pretence as much as men do. But if something like it shows, it is a pretence of real love, because women are by birth intended to love their husbands’ intellects. So they are pleased at heart to receive their husbands’ favours, even if they do not say so.
286. (xv) They are intended to protect reputations outside the home.
Men’s good fortune is mostly dependent upon their reputation for being fair, honest and upright. This reputation in turn depends on the wife, who is aware of his private life. So if their mental disagreement were to break out into open enmity, quarrels and threats of hatred, and if these were divulged by the wife and her friends, or by servants, this might easily lead to criticism, which would be a scandal and an affront to his name.
There is no other remedy to avoid such a result than for the husband to pretend to favour his wife, or for them to set up separate homes.
287. (xvi) They are intended to ensure the various marks of good will looked for by the partner, or his or her relatives, and also to allay fears of losing these.
This happens especially in the case of marriages between couples who are of different rank and condition (on which see 250 above). For instance, when a man marries a wealthy wife, and she hoards her cash in purses or her treasures in safe deposits; even more so, if she boldly insists that it is her husband’s duty to maintain the household out of his own resources and income. It is common knowledge that this results in a forced pretence of a kind of conjugial love. The results are similar when he marries a wife, whose parents, relatives and friends hold high office, have profitable trading interests or are engaged in commerce, so that they can arrange for her to be better off. It is generally known that this situation too leads to the pretence of a kind of conjugial love. It is obvious that both of these cases are due to the fear of losing these advantages.
288. (xvii) They are intended to excuse faults and so to avoid ill-repute.
The faults which make couples fear ill-repute are many, some serious, and some not. There are the faults of mind and body less serious than those listed in the last chapter (252, 253) as reasons for separation. So here we mean the faults which the other partner keeps quiet about for fear of ill-repute. As well as these there is also in some cases the possibility of charges which, if made public, would incur legal penalties. Not to mention the failure of virility, which men are so prone to boast about. It is obvious without further proof that excusing such faults to avoid ill-repute is a reason for pretending love and friendship with one’s partner.
289. (xviii) They are intended to bring about reconciliation.
It is well known in the world that married couples who disagree in mind for various reasons alternate between disagreement and trust, between estrangement and closeness, even between quarrelling and making up or reconciliation. The appearance of friendship is also known to bring about reconciliation. There are also cases where after a parting reconciliation follows, when it is not a passing phase like this.
290. (xix) If a wife does not cease to show good will, so long as her husband remains capable, there may be friendship which resembles that of marriage and which lasts until they grow old.
The leading reason for the separation of a couple’s minds is the loss of good will, and so love, on the wife’s part, when the man suffers from a loss of capability. For just as heat in both partners is mutually shared, so is coldness. Reason and experience both establish that the loss of love on the part of either partner puts an end to friendship, and so long as there is no fear that family property at home will suffer, good will too may be lost. If therefore the man thinks to himself that he is to blame, and the wife still continues to show chaste good will towards him, this may lead to a friendship which, being between married partners, looks like a love imitating conjugial love. Experience shows that a friendship like that of this love may exist between elderly couples, as a result of their living and working together, and enjoying each other’s company in a calm, confident, loving and fully civilised way.
291. (xx) Various kinds of apparent love and friendship are possible between couples, one of whom is dominated and thus subject to the other.
It is one of the known facts of life in the world today that after the first days of a marriage are over, rivalry over rights and power begins to affect the couple. They speak of rights, asserting that equality is laid down by the terms of the compact entered into, and each has his proper place in performing the duties of his station; of power, asserting that men insistently claim the superiority in all matters at home, because they are men, and they assign inferiority to women, because they are women. Such rivalry in households today are due to nothing but the lack of any consciousness of truly conjugial love and the lack of any feeling of how blessed that love is. Their absence substitutes for that love a desire which counterfeits that love. This desire, in the absence of the genuine love, makes people ambitious for power. Some people get this ambition from the pleasure of a love of mastery, some have it implanted by crafty women before the wedding, and some are unaware of it.
[2] Men with that ambition, who after the ups and downs of rivalry establish control, reduce their wives either to accepting their rights or deferring to their decisions, or to servitude; in each case the result depends on how strong that ambition is and what kind of underlying state they have buried in their personality. However, if wives have that ambition, and after the ups and downs of rivalry gain control, they reduce their husbands either to equality of rights with themselves, or to deference to their decisions, or to servitude. But once wives have wrested control from their husbands, they live a companionable life with them since they retain a desire which counterfeits conjugial love and is restrained by the law and the fear of a legal separation, if they stretch their powers beyond what is permissible and go too far.
[3] It is impossible to give a brief description of the nature of love and friendship between a dominant wife and a subservient husband, as well as between a dominant husband and a subservient wife. In fact, pages would not be enough to classify all their differences into species and to list them, so varied and diverse are they. There are differences which depend on the nature of men’s ambitions, and likewise on women’s ambitions. Those of men differ from those of women. For such men can only experience a foolish kind of friendship based on love, and such women only a friendship based on a spurious kind of love arising from desire. The skills which enable wives to gain power over their husbands will be discussed in the next section.
292. (xxi) Hellish marriages are possible in the world between couples who are inwardly out-and-out enemies, but outwardly the best of friends.
Wives of this description in the spiritual world have forbidden me to speak openly about these marriages. For they are afraid of the skills which enable them to gain power over their husbands being revealed at the same time, when they want nothing more than to keep them concealed. But since I am encouraged by men in that world to disclose the reasons for their peculiar hatred, I might almost say the rage introduced into their hearts against their wives as the result of their secret skills, I should like simply to present the following remarks.
The men said that without being aware of it they had acquired a terrifying fear of their wives. This made them unable to do anything but submissively obey their orders, deferring to their whims more humbly than the meanest servants, so that they became as it were nobodies. They said that it was not only those who hold no important position who took this attitude to their wives, but also men of high rank, even powerful and distinguished leaders. After being reduced to such terror, they dare not talk with their wives in any but friendly fashion, or do anything which did not please them, despite the intense hatred they felt for them in their hearts. They added that their wives still talked and behaved politely to them, and meekly gave in to some of their requests.
[2] Now since the men themselves were very puzzled about the source of such a strong antipathy on the part of the women* at the inner levels, while they showed almost sympathy at the outer levels, they went to women expert in that secret skill to investigate it. They told me that they had it from the women’s own lips, that females keep very deeply hidden the skill that enables them to subject men, if they wish, to the yoke of their control. Uneducated wives do this by alternately scolding and being nice. In other cases they do it by keeping constantly a stern and severe expression on their faces, in other similar cases by other means. Wives of the educated classes do it by keeping up obstinate demands without a break, and by stubborn resistance to their husbands, if they treat them badly, insisting on the equal rights conferred by law, to which they cling determinedly. In fact, they claim that even if they are thrown out of their homes, they will come back as soon as they please and continue to make similar demands. For they know that men’s nature does not allow them to resist their wives’ obstinacy, and that once they have given in they submit to their control. Then the wives when in control put on a show of politeness and flattery to their husbands.
The real reason for wives establishing their control by this trickery is that a man’s actions are directed by his intellect, a woman’s by her will. The will can be obstinate, but not the intellect. I was told that the worst women of this sort, who are totally hooked on the pursuit of domination, can keep up their obstinacy to the point of risking their lives.
[3] I have also heard the defence women put up, to explain why they resorted to using this skill. They claimed that they would never have started, had they not foreseen that if they became subject to their husbands, they would have been utterly despised, rejected and ruined. It was therefore necessity which made them take up arms. They added this warning to men, to leave wives their rights, and when at intervals they are cold to them, not to consider them as more worthless than servant-girls. They also said that many of their sex are by nature too timid to pursue such a course; but I interjected that they were by nature too modest.
These experiences have now made me aware what sort of marriages are meant by hellish marriages in the world, between couples who are inwardly out-and-out enemies and outwardly the best of friends.
* Reading illarum for illorum.
* * * * *
I once looked out of a window towards the east, and saw seven women sitting in a rose-garden by a spring, drinking its water. I gazed very hard to see what they were doing, and the intensity of my gaze made itself felt by them. So one of them nodded to me as an invitation. I left home and hurried to join them, and on my arrival politely asked them where they came from.
‘We are wives,’ they said, ‘engaged in a conversation about the delights of conjugial love. Many proofs have led us to conclude that these delights are those of wisdom.’ This reply so pleased my mind that I seemed to myself to be in the spirit, and capable of more inward and clearer perception than ever before. So I said to them, ‘Will you allow me to ask you some questions about these pleasures?’ They agreed to this, so I asked, ‘How do you wives know that the delights of conjugial love are the same as those of wisdom?’
[2] ‘We know this,’ they answered, ‘from the way our husbands’ wisdom matches the delights we feel in conjugial love. For we feel the delights of this love enhanced or diminished, taking on the nature which matches the wisdom our husbands have.’ On hearing this I asked, ‘I know that flattery on the part of husbands and their cheerfulness of mind affect you, so that you feel delight with all your hearts in them. But I am surprised you say that this is the result of their wisdom. Tell me what wisdom this is, and of what sort.’
[3] The wives were indignant at this. ‘Do you think,’ they replied, ‘we do not know what wisdom this is and of what sort, when we constantly reflect on our husbands’ wisdom, and hear about it daily from their lips? We wives think about our husbands’ condition from morning to evening; there is hardly a minute’s respite during the day, in which the concentration of our thoughts really leaves them or is absent. On the other hand, our husbands spend very little time during the day thinking about our condition. This is how we know what wisdom of theirs takes delight in us. Our husbands call this spiritual rational wisdom and spiritual moral wisdom. Spiritual rational wisdom according to what they say belongs to the intellect and knowledge; spiritual moral wisdom to the will and the way we live. But they combine both of these into one, and hold that the pleasures of this wisdom are copied from their minds into the delights felt in our hearts, and then from our hearts into theirs, so that they return to the wisdom that was their source.’
[4] Then I asked whether they knew anything more about the way their husbands’ wisdom took delight in them. ‘Yes,’ they said. ‘There is spiritual wisdom, and rational and moral wisdom from this. Spiritual wisdom is to acknowledge the Lord the Saviour as the God of heaven and earth, and from Him to gather for oneself the truths of the church, which is done through the Word and preaching based on it. This leads to spiritual rationality. It is also to be led by the Lord to live in accordance with those truths; this leads to spiritual morality. Our husbands call these two the wisdom which in general brings about truly conjugial love.
‘We have also heard from them the reason for this: that this wisdom opens up the inner levels of their minds, and so of their bodies, thus creating a free passage for the current of love from its first beginnings to its last realisations. It is on the quantity, adequacy and strength of this current that conjugial love depends and lives. The spiritual rational and moral wisdom of our husbands has as its particular purpose and aim in marriage the love of one wife alone, setting aside all lust after others. To the extent that this is achieved, that love is enhanced in degree and perfected in nature; and we also feel more clearly and exquisitely in ourselves the delights which match the joys of our husbands’ affections and the pleasures of their thoughts.’
[5] Later I asked whether they knew how these were shared. ‘Every act of linking by means of love’ they said, ‘involves acting, receiving and reacting. The delightful state of our love is the acting or that which acts. The state of our husbands’ wisdom is the receiving or what receives, and this too is the reacting or that which reacts in proportion to what is felt. This reaction is felt by us with delights in our heart in keeping with the state constantly deployed and made ready to receive the influences, which in some way hang together with and proceed from the strength in our husbands and also with the ultimate state of love. Take care,’ they went on to say, ‘you do not understand the delights we have spoken of to mean the lowest delights of that love. We never say anything on that subject, but we do speak of the delights of our hearts, which perpetually match the state of our husbands’ wisdom.’
[6] After this what looked like a dove was seen in the distance, flying with a tree-leaf in its mouth. But as it approached, instead of a dove, it looked like a small boy with a document in his hand. He came up to us and held it out to me, saying, ‘Read this in the presence of the spring-maidens.’ What I read was this: ‘Tell the inhabitants of earth among whom you are that there is truly conjugial love, and it has tens of thousands of delights, though the world is so far only aware of a few. But it will get to know them, when the church betroths itself to the Lord and marries Him.’ Then I asked, ‘Why did that boy call you spring-maidens?’ ‘We are called maidens,’ they replied, ‘when we sit by this spring, since we are affections for the truths of our husbands’ wisdom; and an affection for truth is called a maiden. The spring too stands for the truth of wisdom, and the rose-garden in which we sit stands for its delights.’
[7] Then one of the seven wove a garland of roses, sprinkled it with spring water, and placed it on the boy’s hat around the crown, saying, ‘Receive the delights of intelligence. You should know that a hat stands for intelligence, and a garland from this garden for its delights.’ The boy went off with this adornment, and was seen again at a distance looking like a dove in flight, but this time with a crest on his head.
Some days later I again saw the seven wives in a rose-garden, but not the same one as before. It was a magnificent rose-garden, the like of which I had never seen before. It was circular, and the roses were arranged to make a kind of rainbow. The outermost ring was made of roses with purple flowers, the next inner ring of flowers of a golden yellow, the one within this of blue, the inmost of light or shining green. Inside this rainbow of roses was a small pool of limpid water. The seven wives, who had earlier been called the spring-maidens, were sitting there when they spied me at the window, and called me to visit them again. When I arrived they said, ‘Have you ever seen anything more beautiful on earth?’ ‘Never,’ I said. ‘Such things,’ they told me, ‘are created by the Lord in a moment, and they represent something new on earth, since everything created by the Lord represents something. But see if you can guess what this represents. Our guess is that it is the delights of conjugial love.’
[2] On hearing this I said, ‘Do you mean the delights of conjugial love about which you had so much to say before, with such wisdom and also eloquence? After I left you, I reported what you had said to some wives who live in our district. ‘Now I have been taught,’ I told them, ‘I know that you have delights in your hearts arising from your conjugial love, and you are able to share these with your husbands in proportion to their wisdom. Consequently you gaze at your husbands continually from morning to evening with the eyes of your spirits, trying to deflect and guide their minds towards being wise, so that you can snap up these delights. I also related what you mean by wisdom, spiritual rational and spiritual moral wisdom. I said your view of marriage was that it was restricted to loving one’s wife only and putting away all lust after other women. But the wives of our district responded to this by laughing. “What is this you say?” they said, “this is all nonsense. We do not know what conjugial love is. Even if our husbands have some, we certainly don’t have any. So how could we enjoy its delights? In fact, we sometimes violently refuse what you call the ultimate delights, for we find them displeasing, hardly different from suffering rape. In fact, if you look closely, you will not see any sign of such a love in our faces. So you must be talking nonsense or joking, if you told those seven wives that we think about our husbands from morning to evening, continually paying attention to their whims and pleasures, in order to gain such delights from them.” I remember this from what they said, so that I could report it to you, seeing that they find repugnant and in fact totally contradict what you told me by the spring, which I so eagerly drank it in and believed it.’
[3] The wives sitting in the rose-garden replied to this, ‘Friend, you are unaware of the wisdom and prudence wives possess, because they keep it completely hidden from men; and they do so for no other purpose but to be loved. For each man, who is not spiritually but only naturally rational and moral, is cold to his wife, a feeling hidden at his innermost level. A wise and prudent wife has a keen and exact perception of this, and so to this extent she conceals and retracts into her heart her conjugial love, keeping it so deeply hidden as not to show the slightest trace of it in her face, her tone of voice or her gestures. The reason is that the more she shows this, the more her husband’s coldness to marriage floods out from where it is lodged in the inmost levels of his mind into the outermost levels, inducing a total chill in the body, and so an impulse to seek a separate bed and bedroom.’
[4] Then I asked, ‘Where does the coldness that you call coldness to marriage come from?’ ‘It comes,’ they replied, ‘from their folly about spiritual matters. Everyone who is foolish about spiritual matters feels at the inmost level coldness towards his wife, and warmth towards prostitutes. Since conjugial love and scortatory love are opposites, it follows that, when scortatory love is hot, conjugial love is cold. When a man has coldness dominant in him, he cannot put up with any feeling of love, not even a breath of it, coming from his wife. So his wife wisely and prudently conceals it, and to the extent that she conceals it by her denials and refusals, to that extent her husband is warmed and restored by the sphere of prostitution influencing him. That is why the wife of such a man has no delights in his heart, as we have, but only pleasures. These are called the pleasures of folly as applied to the man, since they are the pleasures of scortatory love.
[5] ‘Every chaste wife loves her husband, even if he is unchaste. But since wisdom is the only means by which her love can be received, she devotes all her energies to turning his folly into wisdom, that is, preventing him lusting after other women. She has a thousand ways of doing this, but she takes the greatest care to see that none of them are tracked down by her husband. For she is well aware that love can never be forced, but slips in where there is freedom. Women therefore have been given the ability to recognise by sight, hearing and touch any state of mind their husbands have. Men, on the other hand, are not given the ability to recognise any state of mind their wives have.
[6] ‘A chaste wife can look sternly at her husband, speak harshly to him, get angry and quarrel with him, while still in her heart she cherishes a mild and tender love for him. These fits of anger and pretence are aimed at making the husband wise and receptive of her love, as is obvious from the fact that they can be instantly reconciled. Moreover, wives have these methods of concealing their love implanted in their heart and marrow, in order to prevent an explosion of coldness to marriage in the husband. It is also to prevent this coldness quenching the fire of his scortatory warmth, thus turning him from green wood into a dry stick.’
[7] After this and many similar lectures from the seven wives, their husbands came with bunches of grapes in their hands, some of which had a delightful taste, but others a sharp one. ‘Why,’ said the wives, ‘have you brought us nasty or uncultivated grapes?’ ‘Because,’ the husbands replied, ‘we could tell in our souls, which are united with yours, that you have been talking to that man about truly conjugial love, saying its delights are those of wisdom, and about scortatory love, saying its delights are the pleasures of folly. These last are the grapes with the nasty taste, the former ones are the ones that taste delightful.’
They confirmed what their wives had said, adding that the pleasures of folly look on the outside like the delights of wisdom, but not on the inside. ‘They are,’ they said, ‘just like the good and the nasty grapes we brought. Both the chaste and the unchaste have outwardly the same kind of wisdom, but inwardly it is quite different.’
[8] After this the little boy came back again with a parchment in his hand; he held it out to me and said, ‘Read it.’ This is what I read: ‘You must know that the delights of conjugial love rise to the highest heaven, being joined on the way and there by the delights of all the heavenly loves. So they enter upon their happiness which lasts for ever. This is because the delights of that love are the delights of wisdom. You must also know that the pleasures of scortatory love sink down to the lowest hell, being joined on the way and there by the pleasures of all hellish loves, and thus they enter upon unhappiness, which consists in distress affecting all the heart’s joys. This is because the pleasures of that love are also the pleasures of folly.’
After this the husbands went away with their wives, escorting the little boy until his path took him up to heaven. They were able to recognise the community which had sent him as being one of the new heaven, with which the new church on earth will be linked.
ENGAGEMENTS AND WEDDINGS
This chapter deals with engagements and weddings, and the rituals they entail, particularly from the intellectual standpoint. For the purpose the contents of this book are intended to serve is to enable the reader to see true facts by the light of his own reason, and so agree to them, since this is how his spirit is convinced. Facts on which the spirit is convinced are allocated a higher position than those which are taken on trust, as coming from authority but without the reason being consulted. For these do not penetrate further into the head than the memory; and there they become mixed up with fallacious and false statements, so that they occupy a position lower than the matters of reason which belong to the intellect. Every individual can use them to speak as if rationally, but this is the wrong way round. For then his thinking is like a crab walking, looking towards its tail. But it would be different if he thought from the intellect; when he does this the sight of his reason selects suitable items from his memory to enable him to prove the truth he has seen in himself.
[2] This is the reason why many details are quoted in this chapter, which are the accepted practice; for instance, that it is for men to make a choice; parents must be consulted; pledges are to be given; a marriage compact must be made before the wedding; this is to be consecrated by a priest; and a wedding is to be celebrated. There are many more things which are brought forward to enable a person to see by his rational faculty, that such things are imprinted on conjugial love as being needed to promote and complete it.
[3] The propositions into which this study is divided follow in this order:
(i) It is for the man, not the woman, to choose.
(ii) The man should court and propose marriage to the woman, and not the reverse.
(iii) A woman ought to consult her parents or anyone who takes their place, and then take time for private deliberation before agreeing.
(iv) After the announcement of consent pledges are to be given.
(v) Their agreement is to be confirmed and established by a formal engagement.
(vi) Engagement is a means by which either party is prepared for conjugial love.
(vii) Engagement links the mind of one to that of the other, so as to bring about the marriage of the spirit before that of the body.
(viii) This is what happens to those who have chaste thoughts about marriage, not to those who have unchaste thoughts.
(ix) During the period of an engagement it is not allowable to become linked physically.
(x) When the period of the engagement is over, the wedding should take place.
(xi) Before the celebration of a wedding a marriage compact should be concluded in the presence of witnesses.
(xii) The marriage should be consecrated by a priest.
(xiii) The celebration of the wedding should be accompanied by festivities.
(xiv) After the wedding the marriage of the spirit becomes a marriage of the body, and is thus complete.
(xv) Such is the proper order and procedures of conjugial love, from its first heat to its first fire.
(xvi) If conjugial love is hurried on without this proper order and its procedures, it burns out the marrow and is consumed.
(xvii) The mental states of each partner as they advance in successive order influence the state of the marriage; but this is different in the case of spiritual and of natural people.
(xviii) This is because there are successive as well as simultaneous arrangements, and the latter are from the former and determined by them.
There now follows an explanation of these points.
This is because a man is by birth intended to be an intellect, a woman a love. It is also because men generally have a love of the other sex, but women a love for one of the other sex; and it is not unfitting for men to speak of their love, but it is for women. However, women still have the right to choose one of their suitors.
As regards the first reason, that men have the choice because they are by birth designed to be an intellect, this is because the intellect can see clearly the points of agreement and disagreement, and tell them apart, so that it can judiciously choose what is suitable. But it is different for women, since being by birth destined for love, they do not have the clarity of sight in that light, so that they can only make up their minds to marry as the result of the inclinations of their love. Even if they know how to tell men apart, still their love is moved by appearances.
[2] As regards the second reason why it is for men and not women to choose, that men generally have a love of the other sex, but women a love of one of the other sex, those who have a love of the other sex are free to look around and make up their minds. It is not the same for women, whose innate love is for one of the other sex. You can prove this, if you like, by asking any men you come across about monogamous and polygamous marriage; you will rarely find anyone who is not in favour of polygamy, and this too is the result of their love for the other sex. But if you ask women the same question, almost all, with the exception of prostitutes, will be against polygamy. Hence we say that women have a love for one of the other sex, so they have conjugial love.
[3] As regards the third reason, that it is not unfitting for men to speak of their love and to make it public, whereas this is unfitting for a woman, this is self-evident. Hence it follows that is for men to declare their love, and if they do so, they are choosing. It is well known that women have the right to choose from their suitors; but this kind of choice is restricted and limited, while that of men is wide and unlimited.
This follows after the choice is made; moreover, it is honourable and proper for men to court and propose to women, and the reverse is not. If women were to court and propose, they would not only be exposed to slander, but after proposing they would be regarded as cheapened, or after marriage as lustful, women there was no living with except in coldness and loathing. This therefore turns marriages into tragic spectacles. Wives even make a virtue of, as it were, surrendering overcome by the pressure of men’s demands. Can anyone fail to foresee that, if women courted men, they would rarely be accepted, being either angrily rebuffed or seduced to wantonness, and they would also prostitute their modesty? Moreover, men have no inborn sexual love, as was convincingly proved above; and without that love, there is no inner pleasantness in life. In order, therefore, to raise the level of their life by that love, it is the duty of men to flatter women, politely, assiduously and humbly approaching them and begging them to add the sweetness they can bring to their suitors’ lives. The loveliness of face, figure and behaviour that sex possesses as compared with men comes as an additional bonus.
Parents must be consulted, because they can employ judgment, knowledge and love in discussion and in giving advice. Judgment, because of their age, for judgment comes with age, so that points of agreement and disagreement can be clearly seen. Knowledge, about both the suitor and their daughter; they will seek information about the suitor, about their daughter they know, so that they can form a joint view and judge them both together. Love, because seeking what is best for their daughter, and seeing that she will have a home, is looking after their own household and themselves.
[2] A daughter, however, ought to think hard about the match before she agrees to it, to ensure that she is not unwillingly driven into a marriage with a man she does not love. For in this case there is a lack of consent on her part, and consent is what makes a marriage, and gives her spirit the first taste of that love. Consent unwillingly given or forced does not give the spirit a taste, though it may do so to the body; and this turns the chastity present in the spirit into lust, which damages conjugial love in the warmth of its first flowering.
By pledges are meant gifts, which serve to confirm and bear witness to the engagement, and which are the first marks of good will and happiness. These gifts are confirmations because they are tokens of consent. That is why, when two people agree on something, we say, ‘Give me a token.’ Similarly we say of a couple, who have engaged to get married and given presents to confirm the promise, that they are pledged, and so confirmed in the engagement.
[2] These gifts bear witness, because the pledges are as it were permanent visible evidence of mutual love, and so also serve to call this to mind, especially if they are rings, pomanders and sashes which are worn so as to be seen. They form a kind of pictorial image of the intentions of the engaged couple. The pledges are the first marks of good will, because conjugial love promises itself everlasting good will, and these gifts are its first fruits. They are marks of the happiness of love, as is well known; for on seeing them the mind is cheered, and since there is love in them, these marks of good will are more dear and more precious than any other gifts whatsoever. It is as if their hearts were in them.
[3] Since these pledges serve to establish conjugial love, the giving of presents after giving consent was an accepted practice among the people of antiquity, and when they had been accepted, the couple were pronounced engaged. It should, however, be known that it is a matter of choice whether the presents are given before or after the ceremony of engagement. If given before, they confirm and bear witness to the agreement to become engaged; if afterwards, they confirm and bear witness to the agreement to marry.
The reasons for an engagement are these:
1. So that subsequently the souls of the couple may incline towards each other.
2. So that the sexual love all feel may be restricted to one person of the other sex.
3. So that each may get to know the other’s inner affections, and by making them conformable link them in the inward cheerfulness of love.
4. So that the spirit of each may enter upon marriage, and become ever more closely associated.
5. So that conjugial love may thus advance duly from its first warmth to the wedding flame.
6. Consequently, so that conjugial love may develop and grow in the proper sequence from its origin.
The state of being engaged can be likened to the state of spring before the summer begins, and the inner pleasantness of that state to the flowering of trees before they form fruit. Since the first and subsequent stages of conjugial love develop in sequence because of their influence on the realisation of love, which begins with the wedding, there are also engagements in the heavens.
It has been established by the points made in the preceding section that engagement serves to prepare the mind or spirit of one for union with the mind or spirit of the other, or what is the same thing, the union of the love of one with that of the other. In addition to these a further point must be borne in mind. The rule is imprinted on truly conjugial love that it spreads both up and down. It climbs from its first warmth progressively upward towards their souls, striving to link them there, and it does so by opening up their minds ever more inwardly. There is no love which works harder at opening up the mind or which is stronger or more powerful in opening up the inner regions of the mind than conjugial love; for the soul of each has this intention. But at the very same moment that this love climbs towards their souls, it also comes down towards the body, and clothes itself with the body.
[2] It needs to be known that the quality of conjugial love as it comes down is determined by the height to which it climbs. If it reaches the heights it comes down as chaste, but if it does not, it comes down as unchaste. The reason is that the lower levels of the mind are unchaste, the higher levels chaste. For the lower levels of the mind are attached to the body, but the higher levels keep separate; but more on this subject may be seen below (305). These few remarks will establish that an engagement serves to prepare the mind of each partner for conjugial love, although this happens in different ways, depending on their affections.
Since this is the consequence of what has just been said (301, 302), it may be passed over without adding further rational proofs.
In the case of the chaste, those who take a religious view of marriage, the marriage of the spirit comes first, and that of the body follows. These are the people in whose case love climbs towards the soul, and comes down from that height (see 302). The souls of these people cut themselves off from unrestricted sexual love, and commit themselves to one person, regarding everlasting and eternal union with him or her, and its ever increasing blessings, as means to kindle the hope which constantly refreshes their minds.
[2] But the case of the unchaste is quite different. These are those whose view of marriage or the sanctity of marriage is not based on religion. They have a marriage of the body, but not of the spirit. If there is any appearance of a marriage of the spirit during the period of an engagement, still even if it climbs up by the lifting of their thoughts about it, it still falls back into longings in the will arising from the flesh; and so from the unchastity there rushes headlong into the body, befouling it at the lowest level with the alluring passion of love. Then just as quickly as it blazed up at first, it burns out and is succeeded by the coldness of midwinter; and so its failure is hastened. The period of engagement hardly does anything to help these people, other than to fill their longings with wantonness, which pollutes their principle of conjugial love.
If this happens, it destroys the order imprinted on conjugial love. For the human mind contains three regions, the highest of which is called celestial, the middle one spiritual, and the lowest natural. A person is by birth in the lowest region, but climbs to the higher one called spiritual by living in accordance with the truths of religion, and to the highest by the marriage of love and wisdom. The lowest region, called the natural one, is where all the longings for evil and wantonness dwell. But the higher region, called spiritual, contains no longings for evil or wantonness; it is into this that the person is guided by the Lord when he is reborn. In the highest region, called the celestial, is the dwelling of conjugial chastity in its love. A person is lifted into this by the love of performing services, and since the most outstanding services are those arising from marriage, by truly conjugial love.
[2] This can offer a brief summary of how conjugial love from the earliest phase of its warmth must be lifted up from the lowest into a higher region, so as to become chaste. Then from chastity it can come down through the middle and lowest regions into the body. When this happens the lowest region is cleansed of its unchastity by the chaste love coming down. As a result the lowest level of this love becomes chaste. Now if the successive stages of this love are hurried on by premature physical union, the consequence is that the person acts from the lowest region, which is by birth unchaste. It is well known that this is the beginning and source of coldness towards marriage and neglect accompanied by distaste for a partner. Still there may be widely differing results from premature unions, as well as from too protracted engagements and too hasty ones. But they are so numerous and varied that it would be difficult to list them.
Some rituals are mere formalities, but there are others which are at the same time essential; weddings belong to the latter class. The following reasons will confirm that they are of the essential type, to be made public by ritual and formally celebrated.
1. A wedding puts an end to the earlier state which began with the engagement; this was primarily a state of the spirit, and the beginning of the subsequent state to be introduced by the marriage, which is a state at once of spirit and of body. For the spirit then enters into the body and acts at that level. Accordingly on that day the bridegroom and bride abandon their engaged state and name, and assume the state and name of husband and wife and become bedfellows.
2. A wedding is the introduction and entry into a new state, which is to make a young woman a wife and the young man a husband, so that the two of them become one flesh. This happens when love unites them at the lowest level. I showed in earlier chapters that marriage really changes a young woman into a wife and a young man into a husband; and also that marriage unites two people into one human form, so that they are no longer two, but one flesh.
3. A wedding is the starting point which leads to the complete separation of sexual love from conjugial love. This happens when through the opportunity for full union the love of one partner becomes restricted and devoted to the love of the other.
4.* It looks as if a wedding is merely the gap between these two states, so that it is a mere formality which can be omitted. But a wedding contains this essential element, that the new state just described is then to be entered upon by a compact, and the parties must declare their consent in the presence of witnesses, and it must be consecrated by a priest, as well as the other means which firmly establish it. Since weddings contain this essential element, and since only after this is a marriage lawful, weddings are therefore also celebrated in the heavens (see 21 and then 27-41 above).
* This section is numbered 5 in the original.
The marriage compact needs to be concluded before the wedding is held, so that the statutes and laws of truly conjugial love may be made known, and remembered after the wedding. It is also intended as a bond compelling the mind to a proper marriage. For after some of the initial stages of a marriage, the state preceding the engagement at times recurs; this causes the memory of the marriage to be lost and the compact concluded to be forgotten. In fact, it may be totally wiped out by the enticements of unchaste people to unchaste behaviour; and if it is then recalled to memory, it is scorned. But to avoid these transgressions society has taken on itself the duty of protecting that compact, laying down penalties for those who break it. In short, the prenuptial compact makes clear the precepts of truly conjugial love, establishes them, and constrains libertines to obey them. In addition this compact makes lawful the right to procreate children, and the right of children to inherit their parents’ property.
The reason is that marriage regarded in itself is spiritual and therefore holy. For it comes down from the heavenly marriage of good and truth, and the details of marriage correspond to the Divine marriage of the Lord and the church. Consequently marriages come from the Lord Himself and depend on the state of the church with the contracting parties. Now since on earth the ordained ministry performs the functions of the Lord’s priesthood, that is, those things which relate to His love, and also everything to do with blessing, marriages ought to be consecrated by His ministers. Since they are the leading witnesses, the consent to the compact ought to be heard, accepted, confirmed and so established by them.
The reasons are that then the prenuptial love which the engaged couple had comes down into their hearts, and by being spread around in all directions into the body, leads to a feeling of the delights of marriage. This puts the idea of a festive occasion into their minds, and so far as is permissible and proper, their minds yield to festivities. To encourage this it is important that the festivities of their minds are shared, and so they themselves are introduced to the joys of conjugial love.
All the events which take place in a person’s body are influenced by his spirit. For it is well known that the mouth does not speak by itself, but it expresses what the mind thinks; again the hands do not act or the feet walk by themselves, but it is the mind’s will which acts through them. Thus it follows that the mind speaks through the appropriate organ, and the mind acts through the appropriate parts of the body. It is plain from this that the nature of what the mouth speaks and the body does is determined by the nature of the mind. The conclusion to be drawn from this is that by its constant influence the mind instructs the body simultaneously to match its activities. So human bodies viewed inwardly are nothing but mental forms outwardly organised so as to carry out the soul’s decisions. This preface is needed to show why it is that minds or spirits must first be united as it were in marriage, before the union extends to the bodily level; that is to say, so that when bodies marry, spirits do too, and consequently so that the couple both love each other in spirit, and thus in body.
[2] Let us now consider marriage from this point of view. When conjugial love links the minds of two people and shapes them for marriage, it also links and shapes their bodies for the same purpose. For, as I have said, the form of the mind is also inwardly the form of the body, with the one difference that the form of the body is outwardly organised so as to produce the result to which the inner form of the body is directed by the mind. The mind, however, which is formed by conjugial love, is not only inwardly spread around all parts throughout the body, but is as well inwardly in the reproductive organs, which occupy their particular region below the other bodily organs. In them the forms of the mind reach their final stage in the case of those united by conjugial love. Consequently the affections and thoughts of their minds are directed to that region. The activity of minds influenced by other loves is different, in that it does not penetrate to this region.
The conclusion can be drawn from this that conjugial love has inwardly the same nature in the appropriate organs as it has in the couple’s minds or spirits. It is self-evident that after the wedding the marriage of the spirit becomes a marriage of the body and is thus complete. Consequently, if the marriage is chaste in spirit and is inspired by its holiness, it is similar when fully realised in the body; and the reverse occurs, if the marriage is unchaste in spirit.
We say, from its first warmth to its first fire, because vital heat is love, and conjugial heat or love grows progressively until it, so to speak, bursts forth into flame or fire. We say, to its first fire, because we mean the first state after the wedding, when that love burns. What happens to it after this first fire, when the marriage continues, has been described in the preceding chapters. In this part of the study its sequence from the starting block to this first goal has been explained.
[2] Every sequence advances from the first state to the last, and the last becomes the first stage of a following sequence; and everything in an intermediate sequence is the last stage of an earlier and the first stage of a later sequence. Thus by causes ends advance continually towards effects. All this can be well enough proved and illustrated to the reason from what is known and can be seen in the world. But since the only subject under discussion here is the sequence in which love advances from its first stage to its goal, the general discussion can be omitted and here we shall only say that whatever was the nature of the sequence followed by this love from its first warmth to its first fire, such also is usually its nature inherent in its subsequent development. For in this it develops, as its first warmth was. If this was chaste, its chastity is strengthened as it advances; but if unchaste, its unchastity increases as it advances, until it is stripped of all the chastity it had outwardly, but not inwardly, from the time of the engagement.
This is what some in heaven say; they mean by marrow the inner regions of the mind and body. These are burnt up, that is, destroyed if conjugial love is hurried on, because this love then begins with a flame, which eats up and ruins the shrine in which conjugial love should dwell in its beginning and from which it should develop. This is what happens, if a man and a woman hasten into marriage without following the proper sequence, not looking to the Lord, not consulting reason, rejecting an engagement, and merely giving in to the demands of the flesh. If that love begins with the burning heat of the flesh, it becomes outward and not inward and so not conjugial. This love may be called a shell of love with no kernel, or fleshy, lean and dry, since it is emptied of its real essence. (See further on this subject 305 above.)
There is a rule, which ought to be recognised in the educated world because it is true, that the final state is such as the stages which form and bring it about. For this reveals what influence is and what its effects are. Influence means everything which precedes and makes up what follows, and through successive stages the last stage. For instance, in the case of a human being all that precedes and makes up his wisdom; or in the case of a politician, all that precedes and makes up his prudence; in the case of a theologian, all the precedes and makes up his learning. Likewise all that precedes from childhood and makes up a man, as well as what proceeds in due order from a seed and a sapling and makes up a tree; and later what proceeds from the flower and makes up its fruit. It is exactly the same with what precedes and proceeds in the case of an engaged couple, and which makes up their marriage. This is what the term influence is used to mean.
[2] All the preceding stages form series in the mind, and the series are tied together, one alongside another, or one after another, so that taken together they make up the last stage. This is up to now unknown in the world, but since it is a true fact revealed from heaven, I bring it in here. For by this means is disclosed what are the effects of influence, and what is the nature of the last stage, in which the series of stages just mentioned are formed and come to exist together. These considerations allow it to be seen that the states of mind in each party, as they develop in succession, influence the state of the marriage. But the couple are after their marriage in complete ignorance of the successive stages introduced into their characters by the preceding ones and present in them. Yet it is these which give a form to conjugial love and cause the mental state which determines their behaviour to each other.
[3] The reason why the states and the order in which they are formed are different in the case of spiritual and natural people is that the spiritual advance in the proper order, and the natural do not. For the spiritual look to the Lord, and the Lord provides and guides the order. But the natural look to themselves, so that they advance in the opposite order. The state of their marriage is therefore inwardly full of unchastity; and each act of unchastity brings on coldness, and each coldness is an obstacle to inmost life, so that its flow is stopped and the spring runs dry.
This is introduced as a reason which serves to confirm the previous propositions. It is well known that arrangements can be successive or simultaneous, but not that a simultaneous arrangement is derived from and depends upon a successive one. The process by which successive stages collapse into simultaneous ones, and the kind of arrangement they then adopt, is very difficult to present in a way that can be perceived, because learned men have so far no notion which might serve to elucidate it. Since the basic notion of this secret cannot be imparted in a few words, and a long treatment would divert people’s minds from a more open view of conjugial love, it may be enough for an illustration, if I quote briefly from what was said on the subject of the two arrangements, successive and simultaneous, and the influence of the former on the latter, in my TEACHING OF THE NEW JERUSALEM ABOUT THE SACRED SCRIPTURE:
[2] “In heaven and in the world arrangements may be successive or simultaneous. In a successive arrangement one stage follows another from highest to lowest; but in a simultaneous arrangement one is alongside another from inmost to outermost. A successive arrangement is like a column with steps from top to bottom, but a simultaneous arrangement is like a structure extending from the centre to the outside. At the last stage a successive arrangement becomes a simultaneous one in this way: the highest stages of a successive arrangement become the innermost of a simultaneous arrangement; and the lowest stages of a successive arrangement become the outermost of a simultaneous arrangement. This may be compared with a stepped column subsiding to become a coherent body on one level. This is how a simultaneous arrangement is formed from a successive one; and this applies to every single detail of the spiritual world, and every single detail of the natural world.”
See 38 and 65 in that book, and the lengthy treatment of the subject in THE WISDOM OF THE ANGELS ABOUT THE DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM, 205-229.
[3] It is much the same with the successive arrangement leading to marriage, and the simultaneous arrangement in marriage; the latter arises from and depends upon the former. Anyone who knows how the successive arrangement influences the simultaneous can understand why it is that angels can see on a person’s hand all he thinks and intends in his mind; and also that wives feel their husbands’ affections by placing their hands on their husbands’ chests, a fact several times mentioned in the accounts of experiences. The reason is that the hands are the final level of a person, and what he debates and concludes in his mind reaches its last stage in his hands, and there they make a simultaneous arrangement. That is why in the Word the expression ‘written on the hands’ occurs.*
* Isa. 49:16.
* * * * *
I once saw not far from me an atmospheric phenomenon. I saw a cloud divided into smaller clouds, some of which were blue and others dark; and I saw these as it were colliding with one another. They were striped with glittering rays which crossed them; sometimes the stripes had sharp tips like sword-points, at other times they appeared square-ended like broken off swords. Sometimes the stripes ran out so as to meet, at other times they withdrew into themselves, rather like boxers. So it looked as if these little clouds of varied colours were fighting one another, but they were playing. Since this atmospheric display took place not far from me, I lifted up my eyes and looking hard I saw boys, young men and old men entering a building constructed of marble, with also porphyry in its foundations. The phenomenon was over this building. Then I asked one of those who were going in what was happening there. ‘It is a high- school,’ he replied, ‘where young men are given an introduction to various matters in the field of wisdom.’
[2] On hearing this I went in with them. I was in the spirit, that is, in much the same state as people in the spiritual world, those who are called spirits and angels. Inside the school there was in front a chair, in the middle were benches, around the sides seats, and a gallery over the entrance. The chair was for the young men who were taking turns to reply to the questions set. The benches were for the audience, the seats at the side for those who had previously given wise answers. The gallery was for the elders who were to be judges and umpires. In the middle of the gallery there was a platform, where a wise man whom they called the headmaster, was seated. He put the questions, and the young men answered these from the chair.
When all were assembled, the man on the platform got up and said, ‘Please now reply to this question and answer it if you can: what is the soul and what is its nature?’
[3] On hearing this all were astonished and began to murmur; and some of the crowd on the benches cried out, ‘What man is there from the age of Saturn* down to our times who has been able by any effort of rational thought to see and grasp what the soul is, much less what its nature is? Surely this is beyond the capacity of anyone’s intellect.’
But people in the gallery replied to this, ‘This is not beyond the intellect, but within its capacity and purview. Just give a reply.’
So the young men got up who had been chosen to mount the chair that day and reply to the questions. There were five of them, who had been examined by the elders and found to be outstandingly clever. They were then sitting on padded seats at the sides of the chair. They then took it in turn, according to the order in which they sat, to climb up to the chair. As each went up, he put on a tunic of opalescent silk and over it a gown of soft wool with flowers woven in it, and a hat on his head with a chaplet of roses surrounded by small sapphires on the crown.
[4] Then I saw the first man so clothed go up and say, ‘What the soul is and what its nature is has not been revealed to anyone since the first day of creation. It is a secret which God alone keeps in his treasure-houses. But it has been discovered that the soul dwells in man like a queen. However the location of its court has been the subject of conjecture among learned experts. Some have placed it in the small tubercle between the cerebrum and the cerebellum known as the pineal gland. They have conjectured that this was the seat of the soul because the whole person is controlled from those two brains, and that tubercle regulates them. So what governs the two brains at its whim, must also govern the whole person from head to heel. This view,’ he said, ‘has been regarded by many in the world as true or very probable, but a later age has rejected it as a mere invention.’
[5] On finishing this speech he took off the gown, tunic and hat, and the second of those chosen put them on and so took the chair. His pronouncement about the soul was that in the whole of heaven and in the whole of the world there is no one who knows what the soul is and what its nature is. ‘This much,’ he said, ‘we know, that the soul exists and is in man; but where it is, is a matter of guesswork. This is certain, that it is in the head, since that is where the intellect thinks and the will forms its resolutions; and it is on the face at the front of the head that man’s five sense organs are to be found. What gives all of these life is the soul which resides inside the head; but I would not dare to express an opinion on where its control-chamber is. I have agreed with those who have assigned to it a lodging in the three ventricles of the brain; at other times with those who placed it in the corpora striata there, at other times with those who placed it in the medullary substance of either brain, at other times with those who placed it in the cortical substance, at others with those who placed it in the dura mater. For there was no lack of points to be made in favour of each one of those seats.
[6] ‘The point in favour of the three ventricles of the brain was that they are the receptacles of the animal spirits and all the brain’s lymphs. The points in favour of the corpora striata were that these compose the marrow through which the nerves emerge, and by means of which either part of the brain has continuous extensions to the spine; and from one or other of these the fibres emerge which compose the whole structure of the body. The points in favour of the medullary substance of either brain were that it is a gathering and massing together of all the fibres which form the starting-point for the development of the whole person. The point in favour of the cortical substance was that here are the first and last ends, and so the beginnings of all the fibres, and so of sensation and movement. The point in favour of the dura mater was that it is the shared covering of either brain, from where it stretches in a kind of continuity over the heart and the viscera of the body. For my part, I do not rate one of these theories as superior to another. Will you please decide and choose which is the best theory?’
[7] After saying this he came down from the chair and passed on the tunic, gown and hat to the third, who went up to the chair and spoke as follows. ‘How can I at my age deal with such a lofty subject? I appeal to the learned people seated at the sides here, I appeal to you wise people in the gallery, in fact, I appeal to the angels in the highest heaven: can anyone by the light of his reason form for himself any idea of the soul? As regards its seat in man, I can offer as good a guess an anyone else. My guess is that it is in the heart, and consequently in the blood. My reason for this is that the heart by means of the blood from it controls both the body and the head. There is a large blood-vessel called the aorta emerging from it and reaching the whole of the body; and there are blood-vessels called the carotid arteries emerging from it and reaching the whole of the head. As a result it is universally agreed that the soul by means of blood from the heart sustains, nourishes and gives life to the whole organic system of both the body and the head.
An additional reason for believing this assertion is the fact that Holy Scripture says so many times ‘soul and heart.’ For instance, you are to love God ‘with all your soul and with all your heart’; and God creates in man ‘a new soul and a new heart’ (Deut. 6:5; 10:12; 11:13; 26:16; Jer. 32:41; Matt. 22:37; Mark 12:30, 33; Luke 10:27, and elsewhere). It also says explicitly that the blood is the soul of the flesh (Lev. 17:11, 14).’ On hearing this some people raised their voices to cry ‘Very learned!’ They were members of the clergy.
[8] After this the fourth put on the garments worn by the previous speaker, and on taking the chair he said, ‘I too suspect that there is no one of such a sharp and subtle mind as to be able to discern what the soul is and what its nature is. I think therefore that anyone who wishes to scrutinise it has his subtlety exhausted by useless exertions. But from childhood up I have persisted in believing the opinion of the ancients, that man’s soul is in the whole of him and in every part of him, and so is as much in his head and each of its parts as in the body and each of its parts. It is a useless invention of modern scholars to locate its seat in some part rather than everywhere. Also the soul is a spiritual substance, to which neither extension nor position can be attributed, but only residing and filling. Again, is there anyone who does not understand life when he mentions the soul, and is not life in the whole and any part you like to name?’ There were many in the audience who supported this statement.
[9] He was followed by the fifth, who wearing the same emblems made this pronouncement from the chair. ‘I don’t much care to say where the soul is, whether it is in some part or in the whole person. But I will draw on my own resources and disclose my opinion on this question, what the soul is and what its nature is. No one thinks of the soul as anything but something pure, which can be likened to the ether or air or wind, the vital principle in which derives from the faculty of reason, something in which man excels animals. I have based this opinion on the fact that, when a person expires, he is said to breathe out or give up his soul or spirit. As a result too, a soul which goes on living after death is believed to be a breath of this kind, containing the consciousness which we call the soul. What else could the soul be? But because I have heard people from the gallery asserting that the question, what the soul is and what its nature is, is not beyond the grasp of the intellect, but within its scope and purview, I beg and beseech you yourselves to disclose this everlasting secret.’
[10] The elders in the gallery here looked at the headmaster, who had set the question. He understood from their nods that they wanted him to go down and tell them the answer. So he at once got down from the platform, and passing through the auditorium took the chair, and holding up his hand said, ‘Please listen to me. Is there anyone who does not believe the soul to be the most intimate and subtle essence of a person? But what is essence without form but a figment of the imagination? The soul then is a form, but what sort of form, I will tell you. It is the form of all the parts of love and all the parts of wisdom. All the parts of love are called affections, and all the parts of wisdom are called perceptions. The perceptions as a result of and so together with the affections make up a single form containing countless parts, but arranged in such order and so coherent that they can be called a unity; and they can be called a unity, because nothing can be taken away from it or be added to it, if it is to remain a unity. What is the human soul but such a form? All the parts of love and all the parts of wisdom are the essentials of such a form, and in the case of a person these essentials are in his soul, and from his soul in his head and body.
[11] ‘You are called spirits and angels; and you believed in the world that spirits and angels were like puffs of wind or particles of ether, and so were minds and characters. Now you see clearly that you are truly, really and actually people, who in the world lived and thought in a material body; and you knew that it is not the material body that lives and thinks, but the spiritual substance in that body. This you called the soul, whose form you did not know; yet now you have seen it and go on seeing it. You are all souls, about whose immortality you have heard, thought, talked and written so much; and since you are forms of love and wisdom coming from God, you cannot ever die. The soul then is a human form, from which nothing can be taken away, and to which nothing can be added, and it is the inmost of all the forms throughout the body. Since the forms which are outside receive from the inmost both essence and form, you are therefore souls, just as you appear to be to your sight and to ours. In short, the soul is the real person because it is the inmost person; its form therefore is the human form in full perfection. But it is not life, but it is the nearest receiver of life from God, and so God’s dwelling.’
[12] This speech was greeted by many with applause, but there were some who said, ‘We must think about this.’ I went home, and suddenly there appeared above that high-school, in place of the previous atmospheric display, a shining cloud without any stripes or rays fighting one another. This cloud penetrated the roof and coming inside lit up the walls. I was told that they saw things written on them, among which was this:
Jehovah God breathed into man’s nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.** Gen. 2:7.
* The ‘golden age’ of antiquity.
** The same word, anima, in Latin means both ‘breath’ and ‘soul.’
Once when I was walking with my feelings at rest and my mind pleasantly at peace, I saw in the distance a park, in the middle of which was an avenue leading to a small palace. I saw young women and men, and husbands and wives, going in. I went there in spirit and asked a doorkeeper who was standing at the entrance whether I might go in too. He looked at me, so I said, ‘Why are you looking at me?’
He replied, ‘I am looking at you to see whether the peaceful pleasure to be seen in your face has anything of the pleasure of conjugial love about it. Behind this avenue there is a small garden with a house in it, where there is a newly-married couple, and their friends of both sexes are coming to them today to congratulate them. I do not know the people I admit, but I have been told that I could recognise them by their faces. If I see there the pleasure of conjugial love, I am to admit them, but no others.’ All angels can see from other people’s faces the pleasures of their hearts, and the pleasure of the love, which he saw on my face, was from my meditation on conjugial love. This shone out of my eyes and so pervaded the inner levels of my face. So he told me I might go in.
[2] The avenue by which I went in was made of fruit-trees with their branches interlacing, so as to make a continuous wall of trees on either side. Coming through the avenue I entered a small garden, fragrant with shrubs and flowers. The shrubs and flowers were arranged in pairs, and I was told that such gardens are to be seen around houses where weddings are or have been taking place, so they are called wedding gardens.
Later I went into the house and saw the couple holding hands and conversing under the effects of truly conjugial love. I was then able to see from their faces a picture of conjugial love and learn of its living force from their conversation. After expressing my good wishes along with many more visitors and congratulating them, I went out into the wedding garden. I saw on the right a group of young men, which all who left the house hurried to join. The reason for this was that they were talking there about conjugial love, and this talk had some hidden power to attract the minds of them all. Then I listened to a wise man speaking on this subject, and the gist of what I heard is as follows.
[3] ‘The Lord’s Divine providence’, he said, ‘is at its most detailed and its most universal on the subject of and in marriages in the heavens, because all the pleasures of heaven pour forth from the pleasures of conjugial love, like sweet waters from a sweet spring. Provision is therefore made for couples to be born who are well matched in marriage for each other. Under the Lord’s continual guidance they are brought up with a view to their marriage, though neither the boy nor the girl is aware of this. When in due course the young woman, as she is then, is of an age to be married, and the young man, as he is then, is ready for marriage, they meet somewhere as if by fate and see each other. Then by some instinct they at once recognise that they are well matched, and they think to themselves, as if by some inward prompting, the young man ‘She is the one for me,’ and the young woman, ‘He is the one for me.’ After allowing this to sink into their minds for a while, they resolve to speak to each other, and they become engaged. We say as if by fate and by instinct, but we mean by Divine providence, because when it is not known, it looks like this.’
He proved that couples were born to be married and are brought up for marriage, although neither was aware of this, by demonstrating that the face of each showed plainly how alike with a view to marriage they were, and by the inmost and everlasting union of their characters and minds, something that could not exist, as they do in heaven, without the Lord’s foresight and providence.
[4] When the wise man made this speech, the group applauded. He went on to say that the conjugial principle is present in the tiniest details of each human being, both male and female, but still it is different in the male and in the female. The male’s conjugial principle is designed to be linked with the female’s and vice versa, even in the tiniest details. He proved this by the marriage of the will and the intellect in each individual, the two of which act together on the smallest details of both mind and body. This enables it to be seen that every substance, even the smallest, contains this conjugial principle, as is evident from compound substances made out of simple ones; or from the fact that we have two eyes, two ears, two nostrils, two cheeks, two lips, two arms and hands, two hips, two feet; and inside the body two hemispheres in the brain, two ventricles in the heart, two lobes in the lungs, two kidneys, two testicles; and where there are not two, the organ is none the less divided into two parts. The reason for this duality is that one belongs to the will, and the other to the intellect, and they work together so wonderfully that they act as one. So the two eyes produce single vision, the two ears single hearing, the two nostrils one sense of smell, the two lips one speech, the two hands one piece of work, the two feet one step, the two hemispheres of the brain one seat of the mind; the two chambers of the heart one life-giving action to the body by means of the blood; the two lobes of the lungs one act of breathing, and so on. But the male and the female, when united by truly conjugial love, make one fully human life.