|
|
127. I was led by the Lord by means of angels to a certain earth in the starry heaven, where it was given me to gaze upon the earth itself, yet not to speak with the inhabitants of it, but with spirits who had come from it. All the inhabitants or men of every earth, on the termination of their life in the world, become spirits, and remain near their own earth. From them, however, information is obtained concerning their earth and the state of its inhabitants; for men, when they quit the body, carry with them all their former life and all their memorytt. Being led to earths in the universe does not mean being led and translated thither as to the body, but as to the spirit; and the spirit is led through variations of the state of the inner life, which appear to it as progressions through spacesss. Approaches, also, are effected according to the agreements or likenesses of the states of life; for agreement or likeness of life conjoins, and disagreement and unlikeness disjoin. From this it may appear how translation as to the spirit is effected, and how it is made to approach distant regions, while the man, nevertheless, remains in his own place. But to lead a spirit outside of his own globe through variations of the state of his interiors, and to cause the variations to proceed successively until a state is reached which agrees or coincides with the state of those to whom he is being led, is in the power of the Lord alone; for there is needed a continual direction and foresight from first to last, both on the journey thither, and on the return journey, especially when this is to be effected with a man who is still as to the body in the world of nature, and thereby in space. That this has actually been effected, those who are in corporeal sensual things, and who think from them, cannot be induced to believe. The reason is that the corporeal sensual [faculties] cannot conceive of progressions apart from spaces. But, nevertheless, those who think from the Sensual of their spirit, that has in some degree been removed or withdrawn from the Sensual of the body, thus, who think interiorly in themselves, may be induced to believe and comprehend it, since in the idea of interior thought [pg 9] there is neither space nor time, but instead of them there are those things from which spaces and times proceed. Those things, therefore, that follow, concerning the earths in the starry heaven, are for the use of the latter, and not for the former, unless they are of such a character as to suffer themselves to be instructed.
Footnote tt: (^)Man after death has with him the memory of all his concerns in the world, nos. 2476-2486.
128. In a state of wakefulness, I was led as to the spirit by the Lord through angels to a certain earth in the universe, accompanied by some spirits from this globe. The progression took place towards the right, and lasted for two hours. Near the boundary of our solar system, there appeared first a whitish but dense cloud, and after it a fiery smoke ascending from a great gulf: this was an immense chasm, separating our solar system on that side from certain systems of the starry heaven. The fiery smoke appeared over a considerable distance. I was conveyed across the midst of it, and then there appeared beneath in that gulf or chasm very many men, who were spirits (for all spirits appear in the human form, and are actually men). I also heard them talking with each other; but whence they were, or of what character, it was not given me to know. One of them, however, told me that they were guards to prevent spirits passing without permission from this into any other system in the universe. That this was the case, was also confirmed; for when some spirits who were in the company, and who had not received permission to pass, came to that great interstice, they began to cry out wildly that they were perishing, for they were like persons struggling in the agony of death; wherefore they stopped on this side of the chasm, and could not be conveyed any further; for the fiery smoke which exhaled from the chasm attacked them, and tortured them in this manner.
129. After I had been translated across that great chasm, I at length reached a place where I stopped; and then some spirits appeared to me above, and it was given me to speak with them. From their speech, and from their peculiar manner of apperceiving things and explaining them, I discerned clearly that they were from another earth; for they differed altogether from the spirits of our solar system. They also apperceived from my speech that I had come from a great distance.
130. After we had conversed for awhile on various subjects, I asked them what God they worshipped. They said they worshipped some angel, who appears to them as a Divine man, for he is resplendent with light; and that he instructs them and enables them to apperceive what they ought to do. They said further that they knew that the Most High God is in the sun of the angelic heaven, and that He appears to their angel and not to themselves; and that He is too great for them to dare to adore Him. The angel whom they worshipped was an angelic society, to which it has been given by the Lord to preside over them, and to teach them the way of what is just and right; therefore they have light from a certain flame, which appears like a little torch, somewhat fiery and yellow. The reason of this originates in their not adoring the Lord; therefore they do not receive light from the sun of the angelic heaven, but from the angelic society; for an angelic society, when permitted by the Lord, can exhibit such a light to spirits who are in a lower region. I also saw that angelic society, which was high above them; and I also saw the flame there whence they had light.
131. In other respects they were modest, rather simple, but still they thought well enough. The quality of their Intellectual could be inferred from the light which prevailed among them; for the intellect is according to the reception of the light which is in the heavens; since it is the Divine Truth proceeding from the Lord as a sun, that shines there, and enables the angels not only to see but also to understanduu.
Footnote uu: (^)There is much light in the heavens, nos. 1117, 1521, 1522, 1533, 1619-1632, 4527, 5400, 8644. All light in the heavens is from the Lord as the Sun there, nos. 1053, 1521, 3195, 3341, 3636, 4415, 9548, 9684, 10809. The Divine Truth proceeding from the Lord appears in the heavens as light, nos. 3195, 3222, 5400, 8644, 9399, 9548, 9684. That light illuminates both the sight and the understanding of angels and spirits, nos. 2776, 3138. The light of heaven also illuminates the understanding of man, nos. 1524, 3138, 3167, 4408, 6608, 8707, 9128, 9399, 10569.
132. I was informed that the inhabitants and spirits of that earth, in the Grand Man, have relation to something in the SPLEEN: and in this I was confirmed by an influx into the spleen while they were speaking with me.
133. When asked about the sun of their system, which illuminates their earth, they said that it appeared flaming. When I represented the size of the sun of our Earth, they said that their sun was smaller; for before our eyes their sun appears as a star; and I was told by the angels that it was one of the lesser stars. They also said that the starry heaven is also seen from their earth; and that a star larger than the rest appears to them towards the west; it was said from heaven that this is our sun.
134. My sight was afterwards opened, so that I could in some measure gaze upon that earth itself; and there appeared many meadows and forests with trees covered with leaves; likewise fleecy sheep. Afterwards I saw some of the inhabitants, who belonged to the lower class, clothed nearly like the country folk in Europe. I also saw a man (vir) with his wife (mulier). She appeared of handsome stature and of graceful mien; so did the man; but, what surprised me, he walked about pompously, with as it were a haughty gait, while the woman's gait, on the contrary, was humble. The angels told me that such is the custom on that earth, and that notwithstanding this peculiarity, the men are loved, because they are good. I was further told that they are not allowed to have more than one wife, because it is contrary to the laws. The woman I saw had an ample garment before her breast, behind which she could conceal herself, and which was so made that she could put her arms in it, and wrap herself in it, and in this wise go away: the lower portion of it could be gathered up, and, when gathered up and folded about the body, it looked like a stomacher, such as is worn by the women of our Earth. The same garment, however, also served the man for an article of clothing. He was seen to take it from the woman and throw it over his own back, and loosening the lower part, which thus flowed down to his feet like a robe, he walked about clad in this manner. What I saw on that earth was not seen with the eyes of my body, but with the eyes of my spirit, and a spirit can see the objects that are on an earth, when it is permitted by the Lord.
135. As I know that many will doubt the possibility of a man's being able, with the eyes of his spirit, to see anything on an earth so distant, I may state how the matter is. Distances in the other life are not as distances on the Earth. In the other life distances are altogether according to the states of the interiors of each one. They who are in a similar state are together in one society and in one place. All presence there results from likeness of state, and all distance results from unlikeness of state. Hence it was that I was near to that earth when I was brought by the Lord into a state similar to that of its spirits and inhabitants, and that being then present I conversed with them. Hence it is evident that earths in the spiritual world are not distant as in the natural world, but only apparently so according to the states of life of their inhabitants and spirits. The state of life is the state of the affections as to love and faith. In regard to a spirit, or, what is the same, a man as to his spirit, being able to see the things that are on an earth, I may also explain how the case therein is. Neither spirits nor angels are able, by their own sight, to see anything that is in the world; for to them the light of the world, that is, solar light, is as thick darkness: just as man by his bodily sight cannot see anything that is in the other life; for to him the light of heaven is as thick darkness. But nevertheless spirits and angels, when it pleases the Lord, can see the things in the natural world through the eyes of a man; but this is not granted by the Lord with any except those whom He permits to speak with spirits and angels, and to be together with them. It has been permitted them to [pg 72] see through my eyes the things in this world, and as plainly as I myself did; and even to hear men speaking with me. It has sometimes happened that through me some have seen their friends, with whom they had been intimate in the life of the body, altogether present as before, and they have been amazed thereat. Wives also have seen in this manner their husbands and children, and have wanted me to tell them that they were present and saw them, and to inform them of their state in the other life. But it was forbidden me to say and reveal to them that they had been seen in this way, for the further reason that they would have called me insane, or have thought my information ravings of the mind (animus), for I was well aware that, although they affirmed with their mouth, they yet did not at heart believe in the existence of spirits, the resurrection of the dead and their living among spirits, and these being able to see and hear by means of a man. When my interior sight was first opened, and when those who are in the other life saw through my eyes the world and the things therein, they were so amazed that they called it the miracle of miracles, and were affected with new joy that there was thus granted a communication of the Earth with heaven, and of heaven with the Earth. This joy continued for months; but afterwards it became familiar, and now the wonder has ceased. I have been informed that the spirits and angels with other men do not in the least see the things in the world, but only perceive the thoughts and affections of those with whom they are. From all this it may appear, that man was so created that, while living amongst men in the world, he might at the same time live in heaven amongst angels, and contrariwise, so that heaven and the world might be together with man, and act as a one, and that men might know what passes in heaven, and angels what passes in the world; and that when men depart this life, they might pass thus from the Lord's kingdom on earth into His kingdom in the heavens, not as into another, but as into the same kingdom, in which they had been during their life in the body. But as man has become so corporeal, he has closed heaven against himself.
136. Lastly, I conversed with spirits who were from that earth concerning various things on our Earth, especially concerning the fact that sciences are cultivated here, which are not cultivated elsewhere, such as astronomy, geometry, mechanics, physics, chemistry, medicine, optics, and natural philosophy; and likewise arts, which are unknown elsewhere, as the arts of ship-building, of smelting metals, of writing on paper, and likewise of publishing by printing, and thus of communicating with others on the Earth, and thus also of preserving what is communicated for the use of posterity for thousands of years; and that this has been done also with the Word which is from the Lord, and that on this account revelation is for ever permanent on our Earth.
137. At last I was shown the hell of those who are from that earth. Those who appeared from there inspired great terror. I dare not describe their monstrous faces. Sorceresses also appeared there, who practise nefarious arts. They appeared clad in green, and struck me with horror.
Index | Next: Chapter 11. The Second Earth in the Starry Heaven