Earths In Our Solar System Which Are Called Planets, and Earths In The Starry Heaven Their Inhabitants, And The Spirits And Angels There

by Emanuel Swedenborg

Footnote cc: [(return) ]

A spiritual sphere, which is the sphere of the life, flows forth and pours forth from every man, spirit, and angel, and encompasses them about, nos. 4464, 5179, 7454. It flows forth from the life of their affection and consequent thought, nos. 2489, 4464, 6206. In the other life consociations are effected according to the spheres, and so also are dissociations, nos. 6206, 9606, 9607, 10312.

65. With respect to their Divine worship, its principal feature is that they acknowledge our Lord as the Supreme Being who governs heaven and earth. Him they call the One only Lord; and because they acknowledge and worship Him during their life in the body, they seek Him after death, and find Him: He is the same with our Lord. Being questioned whether they knew that the One only Lord is Man, they replied that they all know that He is Man, because in their earth He has been seen by many as a Man; and that He instructs them concerning the truth (veritas), preserves them, and gives eternal life to those who worship Him from good. They said further, that it is revealed to them by Him how they ought to live, and how they ought to believe; and that what is revealed is handed on by the parents to the children, and thus the doctrine spreads to all the families, and thus to the whole clan that is descended from one father. They added, that it seems to them as if they had the doctrine written on their minds; which they conclude from the circumstance, that they instantly perceive and acknowledge as of themselves, whether what others say concerning the life of heaven with man is true or not. They do not know that their One only Lord was born a man on our Earth; they said that it does not concern them to know this, but only to know that He is Very Man, and governs the universe. When I said that on our Earth He is named the Christ Jesus, and that the Christ signifies the anointed or the king, and Jesus, the Saviour, they said that they do not worship Him as a king, because kingship savours of what is worldly, but that they worship Him as the Saviour. The spirits of our Earth having injected a doubt whether their One only Lord was the same with our Lord, they removed it by recollecting that they had seen Him in the sun, and had acknowledged that it was He Himself whom they had seen on their earth (see above, no. 40). Once also there inflowed with the spirits of Jupiter who were with me, a momentary doubt whether their One only Lord was the same as our Lord; but this doubt, which inflowed in a moment, was also dispelled in a moment; (it had inflowed from some spirits from our Earth;) and then, what surprised me, they so blushed with shame for having doubted on this point, though but for a moment, that they told me not to make it public, lest on account of it they should be charged with any incredulity, when yet they now knew it more than others. These spirits were greatly affected and rejoiced when they heard it declared that the One only Lord is the only Man, and that all derive from Him what entitles them to be called men, and, indeed, that they are only so far men as they are images of Him, that is, so far as they love Him and the neighbour, consequently so far as they are in good; for the good of love and of faith is the Lord's image.

66. There were some spirits of the earth Jupiter with me while I was reading the seventeenth chapter of John, relating to the Lord's love and His glorification. On hearing the things that are written there, a holy influence filled them, and they acknowledged that all things therein were Divine. But then some spirits of our Earth, who were infidels, kept insinuating scandals, saying that the Lord was born an infant, lived a man, appeared like another man, and was crucified and other like things: but the spirits of the earth Jupiter paid no attention to those things. They said that such are their devils, whom they abhor; adding, that in their minds there abides absolutely nothing that is heavenly, but only what is earthly, which they called dross. They said that they had also ascertained this to be the case from the fact, that when they heard that on that earth they go naked, obscenity instantly occupied their thoughts, and that they gave no thought at all to their heavenly life, of which they also heard at the same time.

67. In how clear a perception on spiritual subjects the spirits of Jupiter are, was made evident to me from their representation of how the Lord converts depraved affections into good ones. They represented the intellectual mind as a beautiful form, and imparted to it the activity of a form fit for the life of affection. This they did in a manner which cannot be described in words, and so skilfully that they were highly commended by the angels. There were present at the time some of the learned from our Earth, who had immersed the Intellectual in terms belonging to scientifics, and had written and thought much about form, substance, the material and the immaterial, and the like, without applying them to any use; these could not even comprehend that representation.

68. On their earth the greatest care is taken to prevent any one falling into wrong opinions respecting the One only Lord; and if they observe that any begin to think wrongly respecting Him, they first admonish them, then deter them by threats, and at length by punishments. They said they had observed, that any family, into which any such thing had crept, is removed from amongst them, not by the punishment of death inflicted by their fellow-men, but by spirits depriving them of respiration and consequently of life, after first threatening them with death. For in that earth spirits speak with the inhabitants and chastise them if they have done evil, and also if they have intended to do evil; of which more will be said in subsequent pages. Therefore, if they think ill concerning the One only Lord, and do not repent, they are threatened with death. In this way the worship of the Lord, who to them is the Supreme Divine, is preserved on that earth.

69. They stated that they have no holy days, but that every morning at sunrise, and every evening at sunset, they perform holy worship to the One only Lord in their tents; and that they also, after their manner, sing sacred songs.

70. I was further informed that in that earth there are some who call themselves Saints, and who, under penalty of punishment in case of disobedience, command their servants, of whom they have great numbers, to address them as lords. They also forbid them to adore the Lord of the universe, saying that they themselves are mediatory lords, and that they will convey their supplications to the Lord of the universe. The Lord of the universe, who is our Lord, they do not call the One only Lord, as all the others do, but the Supreme Lord, for the reason that they call themselves lords. They call the sun of the world the face of the Supreme Lord, and believe that He has His abode there; wherefore they also adore the sun. The other inhabitants hold them in aversion, and are unwilling to have intercourse with them, both because they adore the sun, and because they call themselves lords, and are worshipped by their servants as mediatory gods. Their head-dress was shown me by spirits: it was a high crowned hat of a dark colour. In the other life such appear to the left at some height, where they sit like idols, and at first are worshipped by the servants who had formerly been with them; but these, too, afterwards hold them in derision. What surprised me, their faces there shine as from fire: this arises from their having believed themselves to be saints; yet, notwithstanding this fiery appearance of their faces, they are cold, and intensely desire to become warm. From this it is evident that the fire from which they shine is the fire of the love of self, and an ignis fatuus. In order to acquire warmth they seem to themselves to cut wood, and while cutting, under the wood appears something of a man, whom at the same time they try to strike. This arises from their attributing merit and holiness to themselves: those who do this in the world, in the other life seem to themselves to cut wood, as was likewise the case with some from our Earth, who have been spoken of elsewhere. To illustrate this subject, I may here adduce my experience concerning these:[^A] "In the lower earth, under the soles of the feet, are also those who have placed merit in good acts and works. Many of them appear to themselves to cut wood. The place where they are is very cold, and they seem to themselves to acquire warmth by their labour. With these also I have spoken, and it was given me to ask them whether they had any desire to get out of that place: to this they replied, that they had not as yet merited it by their labour. But when this state has been accomplished they are taken out from thence. These [spirits] are natural, because wishing to merit salvation is not spiritual, for it comes from the proprium and not from the Lord; and besides, they prefer themselves to others, and some of them despise others; and if they do not receive more joy than others in the other life, they are indignant against the Lord; wherefore when they are cutting wood, it appears as if something of the Lord were under the wood. This arises from their indignation."[^dd]

Footnote A: [(return) ]

Arcana, no. 4943. See also nos. 1110, 8740.—Tr.

Footnote dd: [(return) ]

Merit and righteousness belong to the Lord alone, nos. 9715, 9975, 9979, 9981, 9982. Those who place merit in works, or want to merit heaven by the good deeds which they do, in the other life want to be served, and are never contented, no. 6393. They despise their neighbour, and are angry with the Lord Himself if they do not receive reward, no. 9976. What their lot in the other life is, nos. 942, 1774, 1877, 2027. They are of those who in the lower earth appear to cut wood, nos. 1110, 4943.

71. It is common on that earth for spirits to speak with the inhabitants, and to instruct them, and also to chastise them if they have done evil. As many particulars on this subject have been related to me by their angels, I will recount them in their order. The reason that spirits there speak with men is, that they think much about heaven and the life after death, and are comparatively little solicitous about the life of the world; for they know that they shall live after their decease, and in a happy state according to the state of their internal man that has been formed in the world. Speaking with spirits and angels was common on our Earth also in ancient times, and for the same reason, namely, that they thought [much] of heaven and little of the world. But in course of time that living communication with heaven was closed, in proportion as man, from being internal, became external, or, what is the same, as he began to think much about the world and little about heaven, and especially when he ceased to believe in the existence of heaven and hell, or in the existence in himself of a spirit-man that lives after death. For at this day it is believed that the body lives from itself and not from its spirit; wherefore unless man now cherished the belief that he is to rise again with his body, he would have no belief in the resurrection.