|
|
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 [pg 7] 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.
Index | Next: Chapter 7. The Moon.