in the Grand Man, to the MIDDLE SENSE BETWEEN THE SPIRITUAL AND THE
NATURAL MAN, but to that which recedes from the natural and accedes
to the spiritual. Hence it is that those spirits appear to be carried
away or caught up into heaven, and soon afterwards let down again; for
whatever belongs to spiritual sense is in heaven, but whatever belongs
to natural sense is beneath heaven. Inasmuch as the spirits of our
Earth, in the Grand Man, have relation to natural and corporeal
sense, it has been given me to know from manifest experience how the
spiritual and the natural man, when the latter is not in faith and
charity, fight and contend with each other. Some spirits of the earth
Saturn came into view from afar, and then a living communication
was opened between them and spirits of our Earth who were of this
character. These latter, on thus perceiving the spirits of Saturn,
became as if insane, and began to infest them, infusing unworthy
ideas concerning faith, and also concerning the Lord. While uttering
invective and abuse, they also cast themselves into the midst of them,
and, from the insanity in which they were, endeavoured to do them
injury. The spirits of Saturn, however, were not at all afraid,
because they were secure and in tranquillity; but those spirits of our
Earth, when in the midst of them, began to be tortured, and to breathe
with difficulty, and so rushed out, one in this direction, another in
that, and disappeared. Those who were present apperceived from this
what is the character of the natural man, separate from the spiritual,
when he comes into a spiritual sphere, namely, that he is insane;
for the natural man separate from the spiritual is wise only from the
world, and not at all from heaven; and he who is wise only from the
world, believes nothing but what the senses apprehend, and what he
believes he believes from the fallacies of the senses, which, unless
they are removed by the influx from the spiritual world, produce
falsities. Hence it is that spiritual things are nothing to him,
insomuch that he can hardly bear to hear the word spiritual mentioned;
wherefore such become insane when they are kept in a spiritual sphere.
It is different while they live in the world; then they either think
naturally about spiritual things, or avert their ears, that is, hear
and do not attend. It was also manifest from this experience, that
the natural man cannot introduce himself into the spiritual, that is,
ascend; but that, when man is in faith, and thus in spiritual life,
the spiritual man inflows into the natural, and thinks therein; for
there is spiritual influx, that is, influx from the spiritual world
into the natural, but not contrariwise[mm].
[Footnote mm: There is spiritual influx, and not physical or natural
influx, consequently influx is from the spiritual world into the
natural, and not from the natural into the spiritual, nos. 3219,
5119, 5259, 5427, 5428, 5477, 6322. It appears as if influx were from
externals into man's internals, but this is a fallacy, no. 3721.]
103. Furthermore, the spirits of that earth gave me information
concerning the inhabitants, the nature of their consociations and
other particulars. They said that they live divided into families,
every family apart from the others; thus, a man (_vir_) and wife
with their children; and that these, when they unite in marriage,
are separated from the house of the parents, and have no further care
about it; wherefore the spirits from that earth appear in pairs. That
they are little solicitous about food and raiment; that they live on
the fruits and pulse which their earth produces; and that they are
lightly clothed, being girt with a coarse skin or coat, which keeps
out the cold. Further, that all on that earth know that they shall
live after death; and that on this account they have no care for their
body, except so far as is necessary for the sake of the life which
they say is to endure and to serve the Lord; that for this reason also
they do not bury the bodies of the dead, but cast them away, and cover
them with branches of trees from the forest.
104. Being questioned concerning that great belt which appears from
our Earth to rise above the horizon of that planet, and to vary its
positions, they said, that it does not appear to them as a belt, but
only as a snowy something in the sky in various directions.
THE EARTH OR PLANET VENUS, AND ITS SPIRITS AND INHABITANTS.
105. The planet Venus, in the idea of spirits and angels, appears to
the left a little behind, at some distance from our Earth. It is said,
in the idea of spirits, because to no spirit does the sun of this
system, or any planet, appear; but spirits have only an idea that they
exist. In consequence of this bare idea, the sun of this system is
exhibited behind as a very dark something, and the planets not moving
as in the system, but remaining constantly in their places (see above,
no. 42).
106. In the planet Venus there are two kinds of men, of contrary
dispositions; the first mild and humane, the second savage and almost
brutal. Those who are mild and humane appear on the other side of the
earth, those who are savage and almost brutal appear on the side of
it looking this way. But it should be known that they appear
thus according to the states of their life, for the state of life
determines every appearance of space and of distance there.
107. Some of those who appear on the other side of the planet, and
who are mild and humane, came to me, and were presented to my sight
overhead, and I spoke with them on various subjects. Amongst other
things, they said that while they were in the world they acknowledged,
and now still more acknowledge, our Lord as their One only God. They
added that on their earth they had seen Him, and they also represented
how they had seen Him. These spirits, in the Grand Man, have relation
to _the memory of material things, agreeing with the memory of
immaterial things_, to which the spirits of Mercury have relation:
wherefore the spirits of Mercury have the fullest agreement with these
spirits of Venus; therefore, when they were together, I was sensible
from their influx of a remarkable change, and a powerful operation in
my brain (see above, no. 43).
108. I did not, however, speak with those spirits who are on the side
that looks this way, and who are savage and almost brutal; but the
angels informed me of their character, and the origin of their so
brutal nature: it is this; they are greatly delighted with robbery,
and more especially with eating the prey. The delight they have
in thinking about eating the prey was communicated to me, and was
apperceived to be exceedingly great. That there have also been
inhabitants of a like brutal nature, on our Earth, appears from the
histories of various nations; also from the inhabitants of the land of
Canaan (1 Sam. xxx. 16); and likewise from the Jewish and Israelitish
nation even in the time of David, in that they made yearly excursions,
and plundered the nations, and rejoiced in feasting on the booty. I
was informed, further, that the greater part of those inhabitants are
giants, and that the men of our Earth reach only to their navel; also,
that they are stupid, not seeking to know anything about heaven or
eternal life, their only care being about their land and their cattle.
109. As they are of this character, even when they come into the other
life, they are greatly infested there by evils and falsities. Their
hells appear near the earth, and do not communicate with the hells
of the evil of our Earth, because they are of an entirely different
genius and disposition; hence also their evils and falsities are of an
entirely different kind.
110. But those of them who are such that they can be saved, are in
places of vastation, and are there reduced to the last degree of
despair; for evils and falsities of this kind cannot otherwise be
subdued and removed. When they are in the state of despair, they cry
out that they are beasts, that they are abominations, that they are
hatreds, and thus that they are damned. Some of them, when in such a
state, even cry out against heaven; but for this they are forgiven,
because it proceeds from despair. The Lord restrains them from
indulging in vituperation beyond fixed limits. When they have passed
through extreme suffering, the corporeal [principles] with them being
then as it were dead, they are finally saved. It was also said of them
that, during their life on their earth, they had believed in a certain
supreme Creator without a Mediator; but when they are saved, they are
also instructed that the Lord is the only God, Saviour, and Mediator.
I have seen some of them, after they had passed through extreme
suffering, taken up into heaven; and when they were received there, I
have apperceived such a tenderness of joy from them as drew tears from
my eyes.
THE SPIRITS AND INHABITANTS OF THE MOON.
111. Some spirits appeared overhead, and voices like thunders were
heard thence; for their voices thundered forth just as thunders do
from the clouds after lightnings. I supposed that there was an immense
multitude of spirits, who had acquired the art of uttering their
voices with such a sound. The more simple spirits who were with me
laughed at them, at which I greatly marvelled. The cause of their
laughter was soon disclosed, and it was, that the spirits who
thundered were not many, but few, and were also small as children, and
that on former occasions they had terrified them by such sounds, and
yet were quite unable to do them the least harm. In order that I might
know their character, some of them let themselves down from on high,
where they were thundering; and, strange to say, one carried another
on his back, and the two thus approached me. Their faces appeared not
unhandsome, but longer than those of other spirits. In stature they
were like boys of seven years old, but of more robust frame; so that
they were dwarfs. I was told by the angels that they were from the
Moon. The one who had been carried by the other came to me, applying
himself to my left side under the elbow, and from thence he spoke,
saying, that when they utter their voice they thunder in this manner;
and that by so doing they strike with terror the spirits who would
do them harm, and put some to flight, so that they go safely wherever
they please. In order that I might know for certain that the sound
they make was of this kind, he retired from me to some others, but not
quite out of sight, and thundered in like manner. They showed to me,
moreover, that their voice, being sent forth from the abdomen after
the manner of an eructation, thus resounded like thunder. It was
perceived that this arose from the circumstance, that the inhabitants
of the Moon do not, like the inhabitants of other earths, speak from
the lungs, but from the abdomen, and thus from some collection of air
therein; the reason of which is, that the Moon is not surrounded with
an atmosphere of the same kind as that of other earths. I was informed
that the spirits of the Moon, in the Grand Man, have relation to the
ensiform or xiphoid cartilage to which the ribs are attached in
front, and from which descends the _linea alba_, which is the point of
attachment of the abdominal muscle.
112. It is known to spirits and angels, that there are inhabitants
even in the Moon, and likewise in the moons or satellites which are
about the earth Jupiter and the earth Saturn. Even those who have not
seen spirits who are from them, and spoken with them, entertain
no doubt that there are human beings upon them, for they, too, are
earths, and where there is an earth, there is man; for man is the end
for the sake of which an earth exists, and nothing has been made by
the Supreme Creator without an end. It may be evident to anyone who
thinks from reason in any degree enlightened that the end of creation
is the human race, in order that there may exist a heaven from it.
THE REASONS WHY THE LORD WILLED TO BE BORN ON OUR EARTH, AND NOT ON
ANY OTHER
113. There are several reasons, about which I have received
information from heaven, why it pleased the Lord to be born, and to
assume the Human, on our Earth, and not on any other. THE PRINCIPAL
REASON _was for the sake of the Word, that it might be written on our
Earth; and when written might afterwards be published throughout the
whole Earth; and that, once published, it might be preserved for all
posterity; and that thus it might be made manifest, even to all in the
other life, that God did become Man_.
114. _That the principal reason was for the sake of the Word_, is
because the Word is the Divine Truth itself, which teaches man that
there is a God, that there is a heaven and a hell, that there is a
life after death; and which teaches, besides, how man ought to live
and believe in order that he may come into heaven, and thus may
be happy to eternity. Without revelation, and thus, on this Earth,
without the Word, all these things would have been entirely unknown;
and yet man has been so created, that as to his interiors he cannot
die[nn].
[Footnote nn: By natural light (_lumen_) alone, nothing can be known
concerning the Lord, heaven and hell, the life of man after death,
and the Divine truths, by means of which man has spiritual and eternal
life, nos. 8944, 10318-10320. This may appear from the consideration
that many, and amongst them the learned, do not believe these
things, although they are born where the Word is, and where there is
instruction by means of the Word concerning them, no. 10319. Therefore
it was necessary that there should be a revelation from heaven,
because man was born for heaven, no. 1775.]
115. _That the Word might be written on our Earth_, is because the
art of writing has existed here from the most ancient time, first
on tablets, next on parchment, afterwards on paper, and lastly
publication by printing. This was provided by the Lord for the sake of
the Word.
116. _That the Word might afterwards be published throughout the
whole of this Earth_, is because here there is an intercourse of all
nations, not only by journeys on land, but also by navigation to all
parts of the entire globe; hence the Word, after it had once been
written, could be conveyed from one nation to another, and be taught
everywhere.
117. _That the Word, after it had once been written, might be
preserved for all posterity_, consequently for thousands and thousands
of years, and that it has also been so preserved, is known.
118. _That thus it might he made manifest that God has become man_;
for this is the first and most essential purpose for which the Word
was given; since no one can believe in a God, and love a God, whom he
cannot comprehend under some form; wherefore, they who acknowledge an
invisible and thus incomprehensible [principle], sink in thought into
nature, and consequently believe in no God. Wherefore, it pleased the
Lord to be born on this Earth, and to make this manifest through
the Word, so that it might not only be made known on this globe, but
_might also by this means be made manifest to spirits and angels from
other earths, and likewise to the gentiles from our own[oo]_.
[Footnote oo: The gentiles in the other life are instructed by angels,
and they who have lived well according to their religionism receive
the truths of faith and acknowledge the Lord, nos. 2049, 2595, 2598,
2600-2603, 2861, 2863, 3263.]
119. It should be known that the Word on our Earth, which was given
by the Lord through heaven, effects the union of heaven and the world,
for which end there is a correspondence of all things in the letter
of the Word with the Divine things in heaven; and that the Word in
its supreme and inmost sense treats of the Lord, of His kingdom in the
heavens and on earth, and of love and faith from Him and towards Him,
consequently of life from Him and in Him. Such things are exhibited
to the angels in heaven when the Word of our Earth is read and
preached[pp].
[Footnote pp: The Word is understood by the angels in the heavens in
a different manner from what it is understood by men on Earth, and
the internal or spiritual sense is for the angels, but the external or
natural sense for men, nos. 1769-1772, 1887, 2143, 2333, 2395, 2540,
2541, 2545, 2551. The Word is what unites heaven and earth, nos. 2310,
2495, 9212, 9216, 9357, 10375. The Word, therefore, was written by
strict correspondences, nos. 1404, 1408, 1409, 1540, 1619, 1659, 1709,
1783, 8615, 10687. In the inmost sense of the Word the Lord alone and
His kingdom are treated of, nos. 1873, 2249, 2523, 7014, 9357.]
120. In every other earth, Divine Truth is manifested by word of mouth
through spirits and angels, as was stated in the foregoing pages, in
treating of the inhabitants of the earths in this solar system. But
this takes place within families; for in most earths the human race
dwell distinct according to families; wherefore, Divine Truth thus
revealed through spirits and angels is not conveyed far beyond the
families, and unless a new revelation constantly succeeds, it is
either perverted, or perishes. It is otherwise on our Earth, where the
Divine Truth, which is the Word, remains in its integrity for ever.
121. It should be known that the Lord acknowledges and receives all,
from whatever earth they may be, who acknowledge and worship God under
the Human Form, since God under the Human Form is the Lord: and as
the Lord appears to the inhabitants in the earths in an angelic form,
which is the Human Form, therefore, when the spirits and angels from
these earths hear from the spirits and angels of our Earth that God is
actually Man, they receive that Word, acknowledge it, and rejoice that
it is so.
122. To the reasons that have been adduced above, may be added, that
the inhabitants and spirits of our Earth, in the Grand Man, have
relation to natural and external sense; and natural and external sense
is the ultimate in which the interiors of life close, and on which
they rest, as on their common [basis]. The case is the same with the
Divine Truth in the letter, which is called the Word, and which for
this reason also was given on this Earth, and not on any other[qq].
And as the Lord is the Word, and the First and Last of it, therefore,
in order that all things might exist according to order. He also
willed to be born on this Earth, and to become the Word, according to
these words in John, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
with God, and God was the Word. The same was in the beginning with
God. All things were made through It, and without It was not anything
made that was made.... _And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among
us, and we saw Its glory the glory as of the Only-begotten of the
Father_.... No one hath seen God at any time; the Only-begotten Son,
Who is in the bosom of the Father, Himself hath manifested Him"
(i. 1-3, 14, 18). The Word denotes the Lord as to the Divine Truth,
consequently the Divine Truth from the Lord[rr]. But this is an
arcanum which enters into the understanding of only a few.
[Footnote qq: The Word in the sense of the letter is natural, no.
8783; by reason that what is natural is the ultimate, in which
spiritual and celestial things close, and on which they subsist as on
their foundation, and that otherwise the internal or spiritual sense
of the Word without an external or natural sense would be as a house
without a foundation, nos. 9430, 9433, 9824, 10044, 10436.]
[Footnote rr: The Word is the Lord as to the Divine Truth,
consequently the Divine Truth from the Lord, nos. 2859, 4692, 5075,
9987. Through the Divine Truth all things were created and made, nos.
2803, 2894, 5272, 7835.]
EARTHS IN THE STARRY HEAVEN.
123. Those who are in heaven are able to speak and converse not only
with those angels and spirits who are from the earths in our solar
system, but also with those who are from other earths in the universe
beyond this system; and not only with the spirits and angels there,
but also with the inhabitants themselves, only, however, with those
whose interiors have been opened, so that they are able to hear those
who speak from heaven. The same thing is possible for a man to whom
it has been given by the Lord to speak with spirits and angels, during
his life in the world; for a man as to his interiors is a spirit, the
body which he carries about in the world being serviceable to him only
for performing functions in this natural or terrestrial sphere, which
is the ultimate or last sphere. But to no one is it given to speak
as a spirit with angels and spirits, unless he be of such a character
that he can be consociated with angels as to faith and love. Neither
can he be consociated with them, unless his faith and love are
directed to the Lord; for man is conjoined to the Lord by means of
faith in Him and love to Him, that is, by means of truths of doctrine
and goods of life from Him; and when he has been conjoined [with the
Lord], he is secure from the assaults of evil spirits from hell. With
others the interiors cannot be opened to such an extent, since they
are not in the Lord. This is the reason why there are few at this
day to whom it is given to speak and converse with angels; a manifest
proof of which is, that at the present day it is scarcely believed
that spirits and angels exist, and still less that they are present
with every man, and that through them man has connection with heaven,
and, through heaven, with the Lord; and that it is still less believed
that a man, when he dies as to the body, lives a spirit, and in the
human form as before.
124. Since, with many in the church at the present day, there is no
faith in a life after death, and scarcely any faith concerning
heaven, nor concerning the Lord as being the God of heaven and earth,
therefore the interiors that are of my spirit have been opened by the
Lord, so that, while I am in the body, I might at the same time be
with angels in heaven, and not only speak with them, but see the
stupendous things there, and describe the same, lest possibly it might
hereafter be said, Who has come to us from heaven, and told us of its
existence, and of the things that are there? But I know that those
who hitherto have at heart denied heaven and hell, and the life after
death, will still persist in confirming themselves against them, and
in denying them; for it is easier to make a raven white than to make
those believe who have once at heart rejected faith; the reason is,
that they always think about such matters from a negative, and not
from an affirmative, standpoint. Nevertheless, let those facts that
have already been stated, and that yet remain to be stated, concerning
angels and spirits, be for those few who are in faith. In order that
others also may be led to some degree of acknowledgment, it has been
granted me to relate such things as delight and allure the man who is
desirous of acquiring knowledge: of this character are the things that
shall now be related concerning the earths in the starry heaven.
125. He who is not acquainted with the arcana of heaven, cannot
believe that a man can see earths that are so far distant, and give
any account of them from sensuous experience. But let him know that
the spaces and distances, and therefore the progressions, which exist
in the natural world, in their origin and first cause are changes
of the state of the interiors, and that with angels and spirits they
appear according to these changes[ss]; and that through changes of
state they may be apparently translated from one place to another, and
from one earth to another, even to earths which are at the end of
the universe: so likewise may man as to his spirit, his body still
remaining in its own place. This has been the case with me, since, by
the Lord's Divine mercy, it has been given to me to speak with spirits
as a spirit, and at the same time with men as a man. That a man, as to
his spirit, can be translated in this manner, is inconceivable to
the sensual man, since he is in space and in time, and measures his
progressions according to them.
[Footnote ss: Motions, progressions, and changes of place, in the
other life, are changes of the state of the interiors of life, and
nevertheless it really appears to spirits and angels as if they
actually existed, nos. 1273-1277, 1377, 3356, 5606, 10734.]