The world of spirits is not heaven, nor is it hell, but it is the intermediate place
or state between the two. For to that place man comes at first after
death, and then, after a certain time, he is either raised up into heaven or
cast down into hell, in accord with his life in the world.
The world of spirits is an
intermediate place between heaven and hell and also an intermediate state of the
man after death. That it is an intermediate place, has been clear to me
from the fact that the hells are below it and the heavens above. Also it
is in an intermediate state, since, so long as man is in it, he is not yet
either in heaven or in hell. The state of heaven with man is the
conjunction of good and truth with him; and the state of hell is the conjunction
of evil and falsity with him. Whenever good with a man-spirit has been
conjoined to truth he comes into heaven, because that conjunction, as has been
said, is heaven with him; but whenever evil with a man-spirit is conjoined to
falsity he comes into hell, because that conjunction is hell with him.
That conjunction is effected in the world of spirits, since man is then in an
intermediate state. It is the same thing whether you say the conjunction
of the understanding and the will, or the conjunction of truth and good.
First let something be said about
the conjunction of the understanding and the will, and about its being the same
thing as the conjunction of good and truth, since that conjunction is effected
in the world of spirits. Man has an understanding and a will. The
understanding receives truths and is formed out of them, and the will receives
goods and is formed out of them; therefore whatever a man understands and thinks
from his understanding he calls true, and whatever a man wills and thinks from
his will he calls good. From his understanding man can think and thus
perceive both what is true and what is good; and yet he thinks what is true and
good from the will only when he wills it and does it. When he wills it and
from willing does it, then it is both in his understanding and in his will,
consequently in the man. For neither the understanding alone nor the will
alone makes the man, but the understanding and will together. Therefore
whatever is in both is in the man, and is appropriated to him. That which
is in the understanding alone is with man, and yet not in him; it is only a
thing of his memory, or a matter of knowledge in his memory about which he can
think when in company with others and outside himself, but not in himself, that
is, about which he can speak and reason, and can simulate affections and
gestures that are in accord with it.
That a man can think from the
understanding and not at the same time from the will is provided in order that
man may be capable of being reformed. For man is reformed by means of
truths, and truths pertain to the understanding, as has been said. For as
to his will man is born into every evil, and therefore from himself wills good
to no one but himself; and he who wills good to himself alone delights in the
misfortunes which happen to others, especially when they tend to his own
advantage; for his wish is to divert to himself the goods of all others, whether
honours or riches, and so far as he succeeds in this he inwardly rejoices.
In order that this will may be corrected and reformed, it is granted to a man to
be able to understand truths, and to subdue by means of these truths the
affections of evil that spring from the will. This is why man can think
truths from his understanding, and also speak them and do them. But until
man is such that he wills truths and does them from himself, that is, from the
heart, he is not able to think truths from his will. When he becomes such
whatever things he thinks from his understanding belong to his faith, and
whatever things he thinks from his will belong to his love. In
consequence, faith and love, like understanding and will, are conjoined with
him.
To the extent, therefore, that the
truths of the understanding and the goods of the will are conjoined, that is, to
the extent that a man wills truths and does them from the will, to that extent
he has heaven in himself, since the conjunction of good and truth, as has been
said above, is heaven. And, on the other hand, just to the extent that the
falsities of the understanding and the evils of the will are conjoined, man has
hell in himself, since the conjunction of falsity and evil is hell. But so
long as the truths of the understanding and the goods of the will are not
conjoined, man is in an intermediate state. At the present time nearly
every single man is in such a state that he has some knowledge of truths, and
from his knowledge and understanding gives some thought to them, and conforms to
them either much or little or not at all, or acts contrary to them from a love
of evil and consequent false belief. In order, therefore, that man may
have either heaven or hell, he is brought after death at first into the world of
spirits, and there a conjoining takes place, of good and truth with those who
are to be raised up into heaven, and of evil and falsity with those who are to
be cast down into hell. For neither in heaven nor in hell is anyone
permitted to have a divided mind, that is, to understand one thing and to will
another; but everyone must understand what he wills, and will what he
understands. Therefore, in heaven, he who wills good understands truth,
while in hell he who wills evil understands falsity. So in the
intermediate state, with the good falsities are put away, and truths that agree
and harmonize with their good are given them; while with the evil truths are put
away, and falsities that agree and harmonize with their evil are given them.
From these things it is clear what the world of spirits is.
In the world of spirits there are
vast numbers, because the first meeting of all is there, and all are there
examined and prepared. The time of their stay in that world is not fixed.
Some merely enter it, and are soon either taken into heaven or are cast down
into hell; some remain there only a few weeks, some several years, but not more
than thirty. These differences in the time they remain depend on the
correspondence or lack of correspondence of man's interiors with his exteriors.
How man is led in that world from one state into another and prepared will be
told in what follows.
As soon as men after their decease
come into the world of spirits the Lord distinguishes them correctly. The
evil are at once attached to the infernal society in which they were, as to
their ruling love, while in the world; and the good are at once attached to the
heavenly society in which they were as to their love, charity and faith, while
in the world. But although they are thus distinguished, all who have been
friends and acquaintances in the life of the body, especially wives and
husbands, and also brothers and sisters, meet and converse together whenever
they so desire. I have seen a father talking with six sons, whom he
recognized, and have seen many others with their relatives and friends, but
because they were of diverse dispositions as a result of life in the world,
they were separated after a short time. But those who come from the world
of spirits into heaven or into hell, unless they have a like disposition from a
like love, no longer see or know each other. The reason that they see
each other in the world of spirits, but not in heaven or in hell, is that those
who are in the world of spirits are brought into one state after another, like
those they experienced in the life of the body; but afterwards, all are brought
into a permanent state in accord with their ruling love, and in that state one
recognizes another only by similarity of love; for then similarity joins and
dissimilarity disjoins....
As the world of spirits is an
intermediate state between heaven and hell with man, so it is an intermediate
place with the hells below and the heavens above. All the hells are shut
towards that world, being open only through holes and clefts like those in
rocks and through wide openings that are so guarded that no one can come out
except by permission, which is granted in cases of urgent necessity ....
Heaven, too, is enclosed on all sides; and there is no passage open to any
heavenly society except by a narrow way, the entrance to which is also guarded.
These outlets and entrances are what are called in the Word the gates and doors
of hell and of heaven.
The world of spirits appears like a
valley between mountains and rocks, with windings and elevations here and
there. The gates and doors of the heavenly societies are visible only to
those who are prepared for heaven; others cannot find them. There is one
entrance from the world of spirits to each heavenly society, opening through a
single path which branches out in its ascent into several. The gates and
doors of the hells also are visible only to those who are about to enter, to
whom they are then opened. When these are opened, gloomy and seemingly
sooty caverns are seen tending obliquely downwards to the abyss, where again
there are many doors. Through these caverns, nauseous and fetid stenches
exhale, from which good spirits flee because they abominate them, but evil
spirits seek for them because they delight in them. For as everyone in
the world has been delighted with his own evil, so after death he is delighted
with the stench to which his evil corresponds. In this respect, the evil
may be likened to rapacious birds and beasts, like ravens, wolves, and swine,
which fly or run to carrion or dunghills when they scent their stench. I
heard a certain spirit crying out loudly as if from inward torture when struck
by a breath flowing forth from heaven; but he became tranquil and glad as soon
as a breath flowing forth from hell reached him.
With every man there are two gates,
one that leads to hell and that is open to evils and their falsities; while the
other leads to heaven and is open to goods and their truths. Those who
are in evil and its falsity have the gate to hell opened to them, and only
through chinks from above does something of light from heaven flow into them,
and by that inflowing they are able to think, to reason, and to speak; but the
gate to heaven is opened to those who are in good and its truth. For
there are two ways that lead to the rational mind of man; a higher or internal
way through which good and truth from the Lord enter, and a lower or external
way through which evil and falsity enter below from hell. The rational
mind itself is at the middle point to which the ways tend. Consequently,
so far as light from heaven is admitted, man is rational; but so far as it is
not admitted he is not rational, however rational he may seem to himself to be.
These things have been said to make known the nature of the correspondence of
man with heaven and with hell. While man's rational mind is being formed,
it corresponds to the world of spirits, what is above it corresponding to
heaven and what is below to hell. With those preparing for heaven, the
regions above the rational mind are opened, but those below are closed to the
influx of evil and falsity; while with those preparing for hell, the parts
below it are opened, and the parts above it are closed to the influx of good
and truth. Thus the latter can look only to what is below themselves,
that is, to hell; while the former can look only to what is above themselves,
that is, to heaven. To look above themselves is to look to the Lord,
because He is the common centre to which all things of heaven look; while to
look below themselves is to look backwards from the Lord to the opposite
centre, to which all things of hell look and tend (see below, n. 123, 124)
1
.
(Heaven and Hell 421 - 430)
(1)
123. Since the Lord appears in heaven
like a Sun by reason of the Divine love which is in Him and from Him, so all in
the heavens turn constantly towards Him, those in the celestial kingdom to Him
as a Sun, those in the spiritual kingdom to Him as a Moon. But those in hell
turn towards the dense blackness and darkness which are in the opposite
direction, that is, they turn backwards, away from the Lord, the reason being
that all in the hells are in the love of self and of the world, thus opposed to
the Lord. Those who turn to the dense darkness, that is, in the place where this
world's sun is, are in the hells behind, and are called genii; while those who
turn to the darkness, that is, in the place of the moon, are in hells in front
and are called spirits. This is why those in the hells are said to be in
darkness, and those in the heavens in light. "Darkness" signifies falsity from
evil, and "light", truth from good. They turn in that way because all in the
other life look towards the things that rule in their interiors, thus to their
loves, and it is the interiors that make the face of an angel or spirit. In the
spiritual world, also, there are no fixed quarters, as in the natural world, but
it is the face that determines them. Man also, in respect of his spirit, turns
in the same way as a spirit does, backwards from the Lord, if he is in the love
of self and of the world, and towards the Lord if he is in love to Him and the
neighbour. But man does not know this, because he is in the natural world where
the quarters are fixed according to the rising and setting of the sun. But, as
this cannot be easily comprehended by man, it will be elucidated in subsequent
sections which will treat of Quarters, Space, and Time in Heaven.
124.
Because the Lord is the Sun of heaven and all things from Him look to Him, the
Lord is also the common centre, the source of all direction and determination.#
So, too, all things beneath are in His presence and under His auspices, both in
the heavens and on earth.
#
The Lord is the common centre to which all things of heaven turn themselves.
(Arcana
Cœlestia 3633)
