[AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTORY NOTE]

The HEAVENLY ARCANA - the matters in Sacred Scripture or the Word of the Lord that have been disclosed - stand in explanatory sections entitled THE INTERNAL SENSE OF THE WORD. As for the nature of that sense, see what has been presented on the subject from experience in 1767-1777, 1869-1879, and in addition in the main body of the work, in 1-5, 64-66, 167, 605, 920, 937, 1143, 1224, 1404, 1405, 1408, 1409, 1502 end, 1540, 1659, 1756, 1783, 1807.

The MARVELS -- things seen in the world of spirits and in the angelic heaven - have been placed in sections before and after each chapter. In this first volume the sections are:

1. Man's awakening from the dead and his entry into eternal life, 168-181.

2. The entry into eternal life of one who has been so awakened, 182-189.

3. Man's entry into eternal life - continued, 314-319.

4. The nature of the life of a soul or spirit at that time, 320-327.

5. Some examples of what certain spirits had thought during their lifetime about the soul or spirit, 443-448.

6. Heaven and heavenly joy, 449-459.

7. Heaven and heavenly joy - continued, 537-546.

8. Heaven and heavenly joy - continued, 547-553.

9. The communities that constitute heaven, 684-691.

10. Hell, 692-700.

11. The hells of people who have gone through life hating, desiring revenge, and being cruel, 814-823.

12. The hells of people who have gone through life committing adultery and acts of unrestrained lust; also the hells of deceivers and witches, 824-871.

13. The hells of the avaricious; then the filthy Jerusalem and the robbers in the desert. Also the utterly foul hells of people who have lived wholly engrossed in the pursuit of pleasures, 938-946.

14. Other hells that are different from those mentioned already, 947-970.

15. Vastations, 1106-1113.

[NCBSP editor's note: The table of contents for Volume 2 of this translation may be found in section 1114.]

937. All this evidence shows the nature of the Word of the Lord in the internal sense. What appears in the sense of the letter is so gross that nothing more can be recognized than statements about seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night. Yet these phrases embody the arcana of the Ancient or spiritual Church. Such is the nature of the actual words in the sense of the letter, so that they are like very general vessels, every single one of which contains so many and such vast heavenly arcana that not even one ten-thousandth can possibly be brought to the surface. For while man can see scarcely anything, angels are enabled from the Lord to see with unending variety, in those very general words based on earthly images, the whole process of regeneration, and the state both of those who have yet to be regenerated and of those who are regenerated.

1106. VASTATIONS

There are many people who, when they were in the world, out of simplicity and ignorance absorbed falsities in respect to religious faith, but who possessed a kind of conscience that was in keeping with the basic assumptions of their faith. They did not live as others - hating, getting revenge, and committing adultery. In the next life those people cannot be admitted into heavenly communities as long as they are under the influence of falsity, for in that condition they would pollute those communities. They are detained therefore on the lower earth for a considerable length of time so as to get rid of those false assumptions. The length of time they stay there, long or short, depends on the nature of the falsity and of the life acquired from it, and on the extent to which those assumptions have been confirmed with them. Some there suffer quite severely, others not so. The experiences they undergo are called vastations, which receive considerable mention in the Word. When the period of vastation is completed they are carried into heaven and as newcomers receive instruction in the truths of faith, which is given by the angels who receive them.