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

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.