The Quality of the Merely Natural Man
1. Once, from the desire of knowing the quality of the mind of the merely natural man, I looked up into heaven, and besought this knowledge from the Lord. The reason was that I had heard a most distinguished natural man, saying that he could see, understand, and perceive many things just as rationally as they who are called spiritual, and thence angels of heaven; and he added to what he had said, "Has not each one a like rationality? What makes the difference except a frivolous opinion?" Suddenly then a certain satan
ascended from the hells. Satans are all merely natural and can ratiocinate skillfully, but from the fallacies of the senses; wherefore they see falsities as truths; for all falsities derive their origin from those fallacies. When he came in sight he appeared at first with a bright and living face, afterwards with a face deathly pale, finally with an infernal black face. I asked why his face underwent those changes. I received answer from heaven, that such are the successive states of the minds [mens] of those who are merely natural, for faces are types of minds [animus]. The inmost of their minds [mens], because they are infernal, are represented by blackness in the face; the intermediates of their minds by the pallor of death, because they have falsified truths; but the outmosts, by a living whiteness, because while they are in externals, which is while they are in company, they can think, confirm, understand, and teach truths. They have this ability, because rationality is human nature itself, for by it man is man, and is distinguished from beasts. But the rationality with satans is in externals alone; they have none, however, in internals; because in internals reigns the cupidity of adulterating the goods, and of falsifying the truths of the church; and this cupidity inflows into their rationality and overshadows its light, and covers it with thick darkness, so that they do not see anything but falsities in place of verities.
2. After I looked at his face, I looked into his eyes, and behold their pupils
sparkled as from rays of light; afterwards they became opaque, and the irises
became quite green, and finally, they appeared as if covered by a film, from
which the whole crystalline lens in the pupil appeared like a cataract. Having
seen these things I asked him whether he could see anything, and he said, "I see
clearly and more than before." And I asked, "How can you see when your eyes have amaurosis? Perhaps you see something from fatuous light within." He responded,
"What is fatuous light?" In order therefore that he might know what fatuous
light is, I asked, "What do you think from your light?" He said, "I think in
clear vision that beasts think just as rationally as man." Afterwards he said
that God is nature, and nature is God; and then also that religion is vanity;
and further, that nothing is good or evil but that which is delightful or undelightful and other like things.
3. When these things had been said, I proffered some genuine truths, which,
before while he was in externals, he had seen and confirmed; and immediately
when he heard them, he turned his eyes inward, acknowledged, and turned his eyes
back again, and with a kind of border of the film which covered the pupil, he
absorbed those truths, and injected them into his own fatuous light, and then he
called them falsities; but because this appeared offensive before my sight, and
as it were deadly, since in such a manner he slaughtered truths, from which,
nevertheless, a man is a man and an angel is an angel, I abominated his
presence; wherefore I turned my face from him; and when I looked back, behold I
saw him sinking through a kind of gulf into hell; and because the place where he
had stood stank from him, I went hastily home; for the Divine truth falsified by satans, in the spiritual world, stinks like the filth of the streets.
The First State of Man after Death
4. When any man after death comes
into the spiritual world, which for the most part takes place the third day
after he has expired, he appears to himself in a life similar to that in which
he had been in the world, and in a similar house, chamber, and bed chamber, in a
similar coat and clothing, and in a similar companionship within the house. If
he was a king or a prince he appears in a similar palace, if a peasant in a
similar cottage; rustic things surround the latter, splendid things the former. This happens to everyone after death, to the end that death may not appear as
death, but as a continuation of life, and that the last of natural life may
become the first of spiritual life, and that from this a man may progress to his
goal, which will be either in heaven or in hell.
5. That such a similarity of all things appears to the recently deceased is
because their mind remains the same as it was in the world; and, because the
mind is not only in the head, but also in the whole body, therefore a man has a
similar body; for the body is the organ of the mind, and is continued from the
head; wherefore the mind is the man himself, but then no longer a material man,
but a spiritual man; and, because he is the same man after death, there are
given to him things similar to those which he had possessed at home in the
world, according to the ideas of his mind; but this lasts only some days. That
the mind is in the whole body, and is the very man who lives after death,
appears manifestly from the speech of the mouth and the action of the body being
instantaneous with the will and thought of the mind; for the mouth speaks in an
instant what the mind thinks, and the body executes in an instant what the mind
wills. The erroneous belief that man lives after death a soul or mind, and this
not under the appearance of a man, but under the appearance of a breath, as it
were, of respiration, or as a bubble as it were, of air, is because men do not
know that the mind makes the interior form of the whole body.
6. When newcomers into the spiritual world are in this first state, angels come
to them for the sake of wishing them an auspicious arrival, and at first they
are greatly delighted from conversation with them, since they know that they do
not think otherwise than that they still live in the former world; wherefore the
angels ask them what they think of the life after death, to which the newcomers
respond in conformity with their previous ideas; some that they do not know;
some that they are breaths or ethereal appearances; some that they are airy
transparent bodies; some that they are flitting specters, some of them in ether
and air, others in water, and others in the middle of the earth; and some say
that they are souls like angels in the stars. Some of the newcomers deny that
any man lives after death.
7. When they have heard these things the angels say, "Welcome, we will show
something new, that you have not known, nor have you believed before, namely
this, that every man lives a man after death, in a body altogether as he had
lived before." To these things the novitiate spirits reply, "This is not
possible. Whence has he a body? Does it not lie with all things of it dead in
the grave?" To these things the angels respond merrily, "We will demonstrate it
to your sight." And they say, "Are you not men in perfect form? Look at
yourselves and touch yourselves; and yet you have departed from the natural
world. That you have not known this before now is because the first state of
life after death is altogether like the last state of life before death." On
hearing these things the new guests are astonished and exclaim from joy of
heart, "Thanks be to God that we are alive, and that death has not extirpated
us!" I have often heard novitiates instructed in this manner concerning their
life after death, and have seen them gladdened on account of their resurrection.
The Consummation of the Age, the Destruction of the World, and the End of the
Church
8. I have often heard the conversation of angels with new spirits,
and once about the consummation of the age and the destruction of the world. And
because those new spirits had hitherto known nothing of heaven and of hell nor
of the life of man after death, nor of any other sense of the Word than the
literal, they gave responses void of reason and full of paradoxes. They said
that by the consummation of the age they understood the destruction of the
world; by the coming of the Lord then, His appearing with the angels in a cloud;
by the Last Judgment, sentences decreeing salvation and damnation upon all the
dead after their resurrection from the grave. When the angels had heard these
things they asked with smiling countenance, two or three times, whether the
spirits said these things from faith of heart which is believed to be the truth;
or from historical faith, which in itself is tradition from others, or from the
indulgence of the imagination. To these questions the new guests replied with
indignation, "What have we said from the indulgence of the imagination, or from
mere tradition? Are not these things truths revealed in the Word? They must be
of faith of heart." When these things were said, the angels courteously
answered, "It does no harm for you to believe thus, but that it is not so, you
shall hereafter be instructed."
9. Immediately after this was said little flames appearing like tongues flowed
down from heaven upon the heads of the newcomers, by which they were inspired
with the affection of knowing from reason how they had faith; and they
exclaimed, "What is faith but truth? Where is truth in its own light except in
the understanding? If the understanding be in thick darkness, what then is faith
but a somnambulist? And if to this faith be added confirmation from natural
light separate from spiritual light, it becomes a bat." Among the newcomers was
a certain priest, who, when he heard these things from his associates, said with
an inflamed voice, "What has faith to do with the understanding?" The angels
replied, "What is faith without the understanding, but a blind faith?" Suddenly
then the little flame fell down from the top of the priest's head upon his shoe
and shone there a little while.
10. After this the angels asked the novitiates what further they had thought
from their faith, concerning the consummation of the age, and what they still
thought. They replied, "We had thought of the destruction of the universe, both
heaven and earth; since we read that heaven and earth should be destroyed, and
it was said that they should pass away in smoke." The angels then inquired,
"What heaven and what earth; the heaven and earth of the natural world or of the
spiritual world? There are also heavens and earths here, heavens where the
angels are, and lands upon which they dwell." At this the novitiates responded,
"What is this? Perhaps you are joking? Are not angels spirits? What is a spirit
but a breath of wind? And where is this breath? Does it not fly about in the
atmospheric heaven, and go even to the stars?" The angels then replied, "You are
now in the spiritual world, and as yet you know no otherwise than that you are
in the natural world. Here heaven, where the angels are, is above your head, and
hell, where the devils and satans are, is under your feet. Is not the soil, upon
which you and we stand, earth? Stamp it with your feet and know." But at this,
because it was foreign to previously conceived ideas, they wondered greatly;
yet, because they were in enlightenment, from the little flames upon their
heads, they listened willingly to the discourse of the angels, and comprehended
the truths they uttered.
11. The angels asked further, "In what manner did you believe that the
destruction of your world would take place?" They said, "By fire, about which we
have believed and prophesied many things: some of us, that flames from heaven
would be cast down everywhere upon the earth, as they were upon the sons of
Aaron, and upon the burnt offering of Elijah; some, that the fire of the sun
would be let loose, would break forth, and set the universe on fire; some, that
the central fire of the earth would break the crust round about it, and hurl
itself forth everywhere, as it does from the fire-vomiting mountains, Aetna,
Vesuvius, and Hecla; some, that a great comet would invade the atmosphere of the
earth, and would set it on fire with the flame of its tail; some have said that
the universe would not perish by fire, but would go to ruin, and fall to pieces,
as does a house from age; and others have believed otherwise." When the angels
had heard these things they said to one another, "O what simplicity! Arising
only from utter ignorance of the spiritual world and of the angels, and of their
heavens and earths, and also from utter ignorance of the internal or spiritual
sense of the Word! Thence all things of eternal life have become mere things of
the memory, and not of the reason; and if there be anything of reason, it is not
above the memory but below it, where confirmations from fallacies counterfeit
the light of reason. This was represented by what we lately saw, that the little
flame fell down from the priest's head upon his shoe, and shone there; and this
appears to us as if one were to take his hat from his head, and wrap it round
the soles of his feet and thus walk."
12. The angels then said, "We have been chosen from heaven to instruct newcomers
from the countries of the natural world, since all who arrive here from there,
are in a foolish belief about heaven, yea, even about salvation; wherefore
unless those follies are dissipated, which is effected by instruction, their
rational, which is above the memory, and grows wise from the reception of
celestial light, would be closed, and this being closed, from being men they
would become animals, with this sole difference, that they would still be able
to think from the external senses, and speak from this thought alone.
13. "Since this office of instruction is enjoined upon us, we will teach you
what is meant in the Word by the consummation of the age." And they said, "The
consummation of the church is meant, which consummation is also called
desolation and devastation, and this is when there are no longer truths of faith
and goods of charity in any essence of their own, and thus all the ways to
heaven are obstructed." They also said, "This consummation appears scarcely
anywhere in the world, because those things which are of faith are not truths
but falsities, and those things which are of charity are not goods but only
deeds of their own love, which, when they go forth in the breath of the mouth,
do not elevate themselves to heaven, but as soon as they rise up they are turned
aside and fall down to the earth, just as does the water of a bath when cast
upon the shoulders, or as rotten fruit falls from trees in the time of winter.
14. "In this consummation or end of the church, it will be proclaimed from all
pulpits, and the people will vociferate in all sanctuaries, 'Here is the
dwelling place of God! Here is the temple of God! Here is the church of God!
Here is salvation! Here is the light of the Gospel!' And they do not at all know
that they are in mere darkness, and that they dream the dream of the age. This
is because they believe that falsities are truths, and truths falsities, as also
that evils are goods, and goods evils. This night and this dream the Lord
predicted in Matthew (24:37-39), and in Luke (17:26 to the end).
15. "You shall be confirmed that the consummation of the age is the end of the
church, not only from reason but also from sight. Know then that the end of the
church will not be at all recognized on earth, though fully recognized in the
heavens. Heaven and the church are like a single containing house. The church is
the foundation and substructure, and heaven is its superstructure and roof; and
the inhabitants are consociated like members of a family with domestics. When
therefore the church, by evils and falsities slips from under, that house does
not hold together except as to its walls, and within, communication with the
angels of heaven is intercepted, and the stairway, by which there is ascent and
descent, is taken away. Lest the house should then fall into utter ruin the Lord
returns into the world and establishes a new church, and by it restores the
house, and supports heaven. But this will appear more evidently before your
sight, if we pray to the Lord, and go away from here and walk about."
The Sun of the Spiritual World and the Coming of the Lord in a
Cloud
16. While walking they first turned their faces to the east, where
they saw the sun shining in its strength, and when they were under its direct
rays, the novitiates asked the angels about that sun, whether it was the sun
which they had seen in the former world, since its altitude above us and also
its magnitude equals that; it grows red also and burns from fire in a similar
manner, and also heat and light proceed from it in a like manner; and if it be
the same sun are we not in nature? Whence is nature except from its own sun? But
the angels said, "This sun is not the sun of the natural world, but the sun of
the spiritual world. From this sun is our universe; from its light and heat
angels live and spirits live; from its light both we and they have understanding
and wisdom; from its heat both we and they have will and love. The essence of
this sun is pure love, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the God of heaven and
earth, and is one with God the Father, is in the midst of it.
17. "The Divine love proximately proceeding from Him, and encompassing Him,
appears as a sun; wherefore by the light and heat thence proceeding, He has
omnipresence, omniscience, and omnipotence, from end to end of both worlds. But
the sun from which nature came into existence is pure fire; in the light and
heat of which there is nothing of wisdom and love, wherefore nothing of life,
but still it serves life, that is, wisdom and love, for a swathing and garment,
in order that the forms of those lives may endure, and that they may have as it
were times and spaces; but yet they do not have times and spaces; but love and
wisdom only affect those who are in times and spaces, which takes place
according to reception, and reception is according to the affection of being
wise, and according to a life conformable to wisdom." When the novitiates heard
these things, they exulted with joy, and said, "We perceive that our hearts
exult with joy as never before." "You have this," replied the angels, "from the
celestial and spiritual love and its delight which proceed from our sun."
18. When these things had been said, suddenly there was driven below the sun a
bright cloud, which did not dull, but transmitted the light; and in that bright
cloud appeared angels as with trumpets, and round about them were altars and
tables, upon which in heaps lay half-open books; and above the cloud the Lord
appeared, speaking out of the sun with the angels. Then from the cloud there
fell as it were dew, which, being scattered about, was condensed into manna,
some of which the angels took up and gave to their companions, who ate it. After
a quarter of an hour, there was seen from the cloud a rain, which the angels
called the morning rain, which flowed down, and dissolved the manna into its
original dew. This was collected into drops of a sweet taste. The manna was soon
fully melted and flowed into the ground and penetrated it. And then from the
dwellers under that ground were heard voices of gladness, "Hey! Come forth! Be
ready! Drops of the blessed water are falling from Heaven! We are sprinkled!"
For it was the melted manna which was dropping down.
19. After this the angels instructed the new guests about what they had heard
and seen, saying, "The things, which you have seen, exhibit in a summary the
Coming of the Lord, and the things which will then happen. God, who appeared out
of the sun above the cloud, was the Lord our Savior. The bright cloud under Him
was the angelic heaven, where the Divine truth was in its own light. The speech
of the Lord with the angels there, was inspiration. The trumpets seen in the
hands and at the mouths of the angels, were not trumpets, but representations of
their speech with one another from inspiration. The dew falling from the cloud
upon the earth, and condensing into manna, represented the heavenly affections
of the thoughts in their speech. The rain dissolving the manna, that heavenly
food, into its original dew, which, absorbed by the earth, distilled through to
the dwellers beneath, represented the influx of Divine truth from the Word with
the men of the world who go forth and receive it in spirit and heart. The tables
and the heaps of books upon them, were not tables nor books, but they were
representations of the intentions of the mind, and thence of deeds, according to
which the faithful and the unfaithful will be judged. That bright cloud, in
which the angels were seen, represented the Divine truths of the Lord with them;
for the spheres of thoughts from truths, and of affections from goods,
proceeding from the angels, appear everywhere as clouds."
20. At this the new spirits inquired, "Why do you say that those things that
were seen represent, and do not say that they are?" The angels answered,
"Because each and all things which appear to the sight in this world are
correspondences and representations, which contain in themselves truths, and
thence signify them. Thus spiritual things are here presented under forms
similar to natural things.
"The spiritual things which are proper to our
world, as they here appear, are also described in the Word. For the Word was
written by correspondences, in order that it may be at the same time for angels
and for men. These things are first offered to your sight, and are seen, that
you may know how the coming of the Lord is to be understood."
The abomination of desolation
21. After this the angels prayed to the
Lord. They then led the novitiates from the east to the south, and thence to the
west, and they said, "Here you shall see the abomination of desolation predicted
by the Lord through Daniel (Matt. 24:15)." They then showed them a black cloud
extending from the boundary of the east to the end of the west, and pouring
thick darkness into the south and into the north at the sides. At the sight of
the cloud the novitiates became terrified, and they asked, "What is that great
black cloud and thick darkness and whence is it?" The angels replied, "They are
satanic spirits, who have collected themselves into crowds, and by magical arts,
by abuses of correspondences, and by fantasies, have formed for themselves as it
were heavens, by seizing the hills, and building upon them high places and
towers, as was done in the valley of the land of Shinar (Gen. 11:1 seq.) in
order that they may contrive for themselves ascents into the heavens where the
angels are, for the purpose of thrusting them down; and because they are on high
above this land they appear as though they were in the expanse of the sky, and
the expanse appears as a cloud." And the angels said, "Lift up your eyes and
stretch your sight." And behold they saw a multitude of spirits, and they heard
heinous expressions from them, intermixed with the filthy things of
lasciviousness, and sounds as of drunken revelers in brothels. And the angels
said, "These are they who are meant by the dragon and his two beasts in
Revelation (chap. 12 and 13). These are they who are meant by the harlot sitting
upon many waters, and upon the scarlet beast (chap. 17). They are all from the
Christian world."
22. And the novitiates asked, "How can these things be called the abomination of
desolation?" The angels replied, "They are all in falsities as to faith, and in
evils as to life. The interiors of their minds are infernal, and the exteriors
from feigned morality, are, as it were, heavenly; for they are sycophants and
hypocrites, and because they are in the midst between the heavens where the
angels are, and the earths where men are, no Divine truth from the Lord can pass
through the heavens to the men of the earth, but it is first received by them,
and being received is inverted and falsified, not otherwise than is the case
with light falling upon an opaque cloud, and the heat of the sun falling into a
swamp."
23. Then suddenly the eyes of the novitiates were opened, and they saw flowing
down from that cloud hail mixed with fire, and they saw upon the earth as a
result of that rain something sticky, and in that sticky substance worms. And
farther towards the north they saw descending from the cloud, as it were, bruchi* and locusts, which consumed the grass of the earth. And eagles appeared
flying out of a desert, and also birds of the evening, which devoured the worms
and licked up that sticky substance as though it were water. Amazed by these
things, the novitiates besought the angels to tell what they signified. They
said, "The abomination of desolation upon the earth. The hail signifies
falsified truths; the fire mingled with it, evils of life; the sticky substance
upon the earth, coherence; the worms, life from those things; the bruchi and
locusts, the falsities of faith; the birds signify men of the earth who eat no
other food flowing down from the spiritual world; and the eagles signify
ratiocinations and confirmations.
* A species of locust
24. "Know therefore, that by 'the former heaven and the former earth' which John
saw had passed away (Rev. 21:1), nothing else is meant but those black expanses
where the draconians and Babylonians have fixed their dwelling places and called
them heavens. So long as those expanses remain, the communication of men with
the angelic heavens, thus also in a measure with the Lord, is intercepted; and
when that communication is intercepted, then every truth and good of the Word is
falsified and adulterated. Thus appears the abomination of desolation with us;
but with the inhabitants of the earth it does not appear by any signs, wherefore
they induce a belief in falsities, and by confirmations from the natural man
they encircle that belief with a fatuous light, from which falsities are
believed to be truths."
