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Memorable Occurrences in Swedenborg's Writings

This list of Memorable Occurrences in Swedenborg's Writings was originally compiled by W. C. Henderson in 1960 but has since been updated.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Conjugial Love #270

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270. The third account:

Awakening one morning, I fell to thinking about some questions having to do with conjugial love, coming finally to this one:

In what region of the human mind is truly conjugial love seated, and in what region, therefore, coldness in marriage?

I knew that the human mind is divided into three regions, one above the other, and that natural love resides in the lowest region, spiritual love in the next higher one, and celestial love in the highest. I knew also that in each region there is a marriage of good and truth, and because good has to do with love, and truth with wisdom, that in each region there is a marriage of love and wisdom; moreover, that this marriage is the same as a marriage of the will and understanding, since the will is the recipient vessel of love, and the understanding the recipient vessel of wisdom.

[2] While I was deep in thought on this question, I suddenly saw two swans flying towards the north, and presently two birds of paradise flying towards the south, and then two turtledoves flying in the east. Following their flight with my eyes, I next saw the two swans veer their course from the north to the east, likewise the two birds of paradise from the south, until they met up with the pair of turtledoves in the east. Then together they flew towards a certain lofty palace there, rising in the midst of olive trees, palms and beeches. The palace had three rows of windows, one above another; and as I watched, I saw the birds fly into the palace - the swans through windows standing open in the lowest row, the birds of paradise through windows open in the middle row, and the turtledoves through windows open in the highest row.

[3] After I witnessed this event, an angel stood beside me and said, "Do you understand the things you have seen?"

"A little," I replied.

"The palace," said the angel, "represents the abodes of conjugial love as these exist in human minds. Its highest level - into which the turtledoves disappeared - represents the highest region of the mind, where conjugial love resides in the goodness of love together with its wisdom. The middle level - into which the birds of paradise disappeared - represents the intermediate region, where conjugial love resides in a love of truth together with its intelligence. And the lowest level - into which the swans disappeared - represents the lowest region of the mind, where conjugial love resides in a love of what is just and right together with its knowledge.

[4] "These degrees are also symbolized by the three pairs of birds - the two turtledoves symbolizing conjugial love in the highest region, the two birds of paradise conjugial love in the intermediate region, and the two swans conjugial love in the lowest region. The three kinds of trees surrounding the palace - the olive trees, palms and beeches - symbolize the same.

"In heaven we call the highest region of the mind celestial, the intermediate one spiritual, and the lowest one natural. And we conceive of them as being like apartments in a house, one above another, with steps going up from one to the next, like stairs. Moreover, on each level there are as it were two sets of rooms, one for love, one for wisdom, with a bedroom, so to speak, in front, where they come together in bed - love with its wisdom, or good with its truth, or to say the same thing, the will with its intellect. In such a palace, all the mysteries of conjugial love become visible as though in effigy."

[5] Hearing this, being fired with a desire to see one, I asked whether a person might go in and look at the palace there, since it was a representational one.

The angel replied that only angels in the third heaven could, because for them every representation of love and wisdom becomes real.

"What I have related to you I have heard from them," he said, "including as well the following, that truly conjugial love resides in the highest region, in the midst of mutual love in the chamber or apartment of the will, and at the same time in the midst of perceptions of wisdom in the chamber or apartment of the intellect; and these come together in bed in a bedroom that is located in front on the east side."

"Why," I asked, "are there two chambers?"

"Because," he said, "a husband lives in the chamber of the intellect, and a wife lives in the chamber of the will."

[6] At that I inquired, "If that is where conjugial love resides, where then does coldness in marriage reside?"

"It, too, resides in the highest region," he replied, "but only in the chamber of the intellect, with the chamber of the will on that level being closed off. For as often as it pleases, the understanding with its truths can ascend by a spiral stairway to its chamber in the highest region; but if the will with the goodness of its love does not ascend at the same time to its companion chamber, the latter remains closed, and coldness develops in the other, which is the coldness one finds in marriage.

"As long as such coldness to one's wife continues, the intellect looks down from the highest region to the lowest; and if fear does not hold it back, it also descends in order to warm itself there with an illicit fire."

Having said this, the angel wished to tell me still more about conjugial love from the depictions of it in that palace; but he said, "Enough for now. First investigate whether these concepts are beyond people's general comprehension. If they are, what is the use of saying more? On the other hand, if they are not, more will be disclosed another time." 1

Footnotes:

1. We find, however, no report of any further disclosures.

  
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Many thanks to the General Church of the New Jerusalem, and to Rev. N.B. Rogers, translator, for the permission to use this translation.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

True Christian Religion #569

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569. The third experience.

Every love a person has emits a pleasing sensation which allows it to be felt. It is transmitted immediately into the spirit, from where it passes into the body. The pleasure of a person's love together with the beauty of his thought makes up his life. These pleasures and beauties are only dimly felt by a person, so long as he lives in this natural body, for this body absorbs and blunts them. But after death, when the material body is taken away, thus removing the covering or clothing of the spirit, then the pleasures of his love and the beauties of his thought are fully felt and perceived. It is remarkable that they are sometimes perceived as smells. This is the reason why the company all in the spiritual world keep depends upon their loves, those in heaven depending on their loves, and those in hell depending on theirs.

[2] All the smells, into which the pleasures of loves are turned in heaven, are experienced as the kind of sweet and fragrant smells, the lovely breaths and delightful sensations, which are experienced in gardens, flower-beds, fields and woods in the morning in springtime. The smells, into which the pleasures of the loves of the inhabitants of hell are turned, are experienced as rank, fetid and rotten stenches, such as arise from latrines, corpses and ponds full of garbage and excrement. It is remarkable that to the devils and satans there these smell like balsam, perfumes and incense, which refresh their nostrils and hearts. In the natural world too animals, birds and insects use smells to select their company, but this is not then allowed to human beings, until they have sloughed off their bodies.

[3] This is why heaven is arranged in the most elaborate order in keeping with all the varieties of love for good, and hell by contraries in keeping with all the varieties of love for evil. It is because of this opposition that there is between heaven and hell a gap that cannot be crossed. For the inhabitants of heaven cannot tolerate any smell from hell, since it causes them nausea and vomiting, and threatens to render them unconscious, if they sniff it. Much the same happens to the inhabitants of hell, if they pass beyond the mid-point of that gap.

[4] I once saw a devil, who looked from a distance like a leopard - I had seen him a few days before among the angels of the lowest heaven, since he knew how to disguise himself as an angel of light. He was crossing the mid-point and standing between two olive-trees without noticing any smell upsetting to his way of life. The reason was that no angels were present. As soon, however, as they came on the scene, he went into convulsions and fell to the ground with all his limbs contracted. He then appeared like a great snake writhing into coils, and finally rolling down through the gap. He was picked up by his companions and carried off to a cave where the foul smell of his own pleasure revived him.

[5] Another time too I saw a Satan punished by his companions. I asked the reason, and was told that he had blocked his nostrils and approached those who smelt of heaven, and on coming back brought that smell with him on his clothes. On a number of occasions it has happened that a stench as of a corpse rising from an open cave of hell has assailed my nostrils and made me feel like vomiting.

These facts can serve to establish why it is that smelling in the Word means perceiving. It is often stated that Jehovah smelt a welcome odour from burnt-offerings; and that the oil for anointing and incense were made from fragrant substances. On the other hand the Children of Israel were ordered to carry what was unclean in their camp outside the camp, and to bury and cover up their excrement (Deuteronomy 23:12-13). The reason was that the camp of Israel represented heaven, and the desert outside the camp represented hell.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.

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