ANGELIC WISDOM CONCERNING MARRIAGE. ¹

ORDER OF THE CHAPTERS.

PART FIRST.

I. - MARRIAGES IN HEAVEN [See the same subject treated of in the published work concerning Conjugial Love 27-41].

II. - THE STATE OF CONSORTS AFTER DEATH [Conjugial Love 45-54].

III. - LOVE TRULY CONJUGIAL [Conjugial Love 57-73].

IV. - THE ORIGIN OF LOVE TRULY CONJUGIAL, FROM THE MARRIAGE OF GOOD AND TRUTH [Conjugial Love 83-102].

V. - THE MARRIAGE OF THE LORD AND THE CHURCH, AND CORRESPONDENCE WITH IT [Conjugial Love 116-131].

VI. - THE CHASTE AND THE UNCHASTE [Conjugial Love 138-150].

VII. - UNIVERSALS CONCERNING CONJUGIAL LOVE [Conjugial Love 209-230]. ²

The delight of conjugial love is holy and chaste [Conjugial Love 144, 346].

Conjugial love regards the eternal [Conjugial Love 38, 44, 200, 216].

VIII. - THE CAUSES of COLDNESSES, OF SEPARATIONS, AND OF DIVORCES, WITH CONSORTS [Conjugial Love 234-260].

IX. - THE CAUSES OF APPARENT LOVE, FRIENDSHIP AND FAVOR WITH CONSORTS [Conjugial Love 271-292].

X. - THE CHANGE OF THE STATE OF LIFE WITH MAN AND WITH WOMAN BY MARRIAGE, FROM WHICH THE YOUNG MAN BECOMES A HUSBAND, AND THE VIRGIN BECOMES A WIFE [Conjugial Love 184-206].

XI. - CONJUNCTION OF SOULS AND MINDS BY MARRIAGE; WHICH CONJUNCTION IS MEANT BY THE WORDS OF THE LORD, THAT THEY ARE NO LONGER TWO, BUT ONE FLESH [Conjugial Love 156-181 ³ ].

XII. - BETROTHALS AND NUPTIALS [Conjugial Love 295-314].

XIII. - REPEATED MARRIAGES [Conjugial Love 317-325].

XIV. - POLYGAMY [Conjugial Love 332-352].

XV. - JEALOUSY [Conjugial Love 357-379].

XVI. - THE LOVE OF INFANTS, OR PARENTAL LOVE, AND ITS CONJUNCTION WITH CONJUGIAL LOVE [Conjugial Love 385-414].

PART SECOND.

I. - THE OPPOSITION OF CONJUGIAL LOVE AND SCORTATORY LOVE [Conjugial Love 423-443].

II. - FORNICATION; ALSO CONCERNING KEEPING A MISTRESS [Conjugial Love 444-460[*]].

III. - CONCUBINAGE [Conjugial Love 462-476].

IV. - ADULTERIES AND THEIR DEGREES [Conjugial Love 478-499].

V. - THE LUST OF VARIETIES [Conjugial Love 506-510].

VI. - THE LUST OF DEFLORATION [Conjugial Love 501-505].

VII. - THE LUST OF VIOLATION [Conjugial Love 511, 512].

VIII. - LUST OF SEDUCING INNOCENCIES [Conjugial Love 513, 514].

IX. - THE CORRESPONDENCE OF SCORTATIONS AND ADULTERIES WITH THE VIOLATION OF SPIRITUAL MARRIAGE, WHICH IS THE MARRIAGE OF GOOD AND TRUTH [Conjugial Love 515-520].

X. - THE IMPUTATION OF EACH LOVE, SCORTATORY AND CONJUGIAL [Conjugial Love 523-531].

GENERAL CONTENTS.

1. Marriages in heaven (2-30) [Conjugial Love 27-41].

2. The origin of conjugial love (31-76) [Conjugial Love 83-102].

3. The delights of love truly conjugial (77-146) [Conjugial Love 183; see also 69, 144, 155, 293, 294].

4. The connection of conjugial love with all the loves of heaven (147-222) [Conjugial Love 388-390].

5. Masculine and feminine conjugial love, specifically; and the intelligence of each (223-303) [Conjugial Love 218; see also 32, 61, 88, 90, 168].

6. The marriage of good and truth (304-407) [Conjugial Love 83-102, 122, 123].

7. The differences and the variety of conjugial love, according to the states of the church with men (408-568) [Conjugial Love 130].

8. The increments of love truly conjugial, and the decrease of love not truly conjugial (769-763) [Conjugial Love 162, 184-200, 213, 214, 432, 433]. ⁵

9. Conjugial similitude and dissimilitude (564-852) [Conjugial Love 227-229, 246].

10. The causes of coldnesses, separations, and divorces, with consorts (853-1018) [Conjugial Love 234-260].

11. Polygamy, or plurality of wives (1019-1110) [Conjugial Love 332-352].

12. Betrothals and nuptials (1111-1193) [Conjugial Love 295-314].

13. The difference between the love of the sex with beasts and the love of the sex with men (1194-1251) [Conjugial Love 94, 137, 230, 416; see also the posthumous treatise, Concerning Divine Love, 21].

14. The change of state of woman and of man by marriage; from which change the virgin becomes a wife, and the young man a husband (1252-1286) [Conjugial Love 184-200].

15. The state of widowers and of widows; also concerning repeated marriages (1287-1300) [Conjugial Love 317-325].

16. The marriage of the Lord with the church (1301-1344) [Conjugial Love 116-131].

17. Correspondence of the marriage of the Lord and the church with things relating to marriage with angels and men (1345-1457) [Conjugial Love 125-127].

18. Natural conjugial potency and spiritual conjugial potency (1459-1585) [Conjugial Love 220, 221].

19. The causes of love, friendship, and favor, between consorts (1586-1641) [Conjugial Love 180, 214, 290].

20. The love of infants, or parental love (1642-1700) [Conjugial Love 176, 211].

21. The conjunction of conjugial love with love of infants or parental love (1701-1718) [Conjugial Love 385-414].

22. The state of two consorts after death (1719-1737) [Conjugial Love 45-54].

SCORTATORY LOVE (1738. seq.).

1. Jealousy (1739-1791) [Conjugial Love 357-379].

2. Fornication (1792-1848) [Conjugial Love 444-460][*].

It there treats:

(1) Concerning keeping a mistress (1806, seq. [Conjugial Love 459, 460]):

(2) Concerning the lust of varieties (1811) [Conjugial Love 506-510]):

(3) Concerning the lust of defloration (1814) [Conjugial Love 501-505]):

(4) Concerning the lust of violation (1419) [Conjugial Love 511, 512]):

(5) Concerning the lust of seducing innocencies (1823) [Conjugial Love 513, 514].

3. Concubinage (1849-1873) [Conjugial Love 462-467].

4. Adulteries (1874-1909) [Conjugial Love 478-499].

5. The opposition of conjugial love and scortatory love (1910-1949) [Conjugial Love 423-443].

6. The correspondence of whoredoms and adulteries with the violation of spiritual marriage, which is the marriage of good and truth (n.) 1950-2001) [Conjugial Love 515-520].

CONTENTS OF THE REMAINING ARTICLES.

1. The perception and the wisdom proper to man and proper to woman, also the conjunction of man and woman by them (2007) [Conjugial Love 163-173].

2. Duties proper to man and proper to woman; also the conjunction of man and woman by them (2023) [Conjugial Love 174-176].

3. The transcription of the love of his own (proprii) with the man, into conjugial love with the wife (2036) [Conjugial Love 32, 88, 156[*], 192, 293, 353].

4. The faculties, inclinations, affections and qualities of men and of women, and their conjunction by marriage (2047) [Conjugial Love 163-180].

5. Proprium in man, and proprium in woman; and their transcription into conjugial love (2048) [Conjugial Love 32, 156, 163-173].

6. Coldnesses in marriages (2049) [Conjugial Love 234-260].

7. Difficulties in understanding the conjunctions of consorts, and the varieties therefrom (2050).

MEMORABILIA.

Consorts from the third heaven were seen, borne in a chariot, and descending; described as to face and as to garments; having spoken with me, they let down a parchment on which were inscribed arcana of conjugial love (1, p. 16) [Conjugial Love 42, 43].

The correspondence of conjugial love with fire, with the colors of the rainbow, with fragrant things, with rose-gardens and arbors, with winged things and animals, represented by angels (29, p. 42 1/2, 43) [Conjugial Love 76, 293, 294, 316].

The nuptial garden which appears round about the houses while nuptials are celebrated; and the Divine Providence which encompasses marriages: from the discourse of a certain wise person in the garden (76, p. 49) [Conjugial Love 316].

There were seen consorts from the third heaven; at first appearing as infants decked with garlands, afterwards of their proper stature. They had lived a thousand years in conjugial blessedness. Conjugial love, as it is in that heaven, is described; it is from wisdom and from the love of wisdom, and it is with those who do uses, etc. (146, p. 50) [Conjugial Love 137].

Something about the magnificent and splendid things in heaven: next it is told whence angels have perpetual potency: confirmed by reasons, given by an angel (222, p. 46 1/2, 47) [Conjugial Love 12-20, 355, 356].

A paper on which was inscribed, "The marriage of Good and Truth;" - how it appeared on the way, when let down to the earth by an angel, and how it was changed: also many things about that marriage, in the whole heaven and in the church (301, p. 46) [Conjugial Love 115].

Adulterers seen like satyrs, in the company of harlots, in a wood and in a cavern there; afterwards in a house: where they were speaking heinous things about marriages, nature, and religion (407) [Conjugial Love 521].

A discussion concerning God and nature, - (1) Whether nature is of life, or life of nature: (2) Whether the center is of the expanse, or the expanse of the center: (3) Concerning the center and the expanse of nature and of life (568, p. 79) [Conjugial Love 380].

Concerning a certain garden, in which there were several married pairs; also conversations there respecting love, wisdom and use; that the three proceed from the Lord, and that hence are conjugial love and its ineffable delights: much concerning these and their origin (763, p. 41) [Conjugial Love 183].)

Concerning a young man who boasted of his whoredom; he was conducted into heaven, and there he was held by turns in his externals and his internals: while in externals he saw heavenly things, but while in internals he saw the opposite (concerning which see 852, p. 77) [Conjugial Love 477].

While following the light, I came to the Temple of Wisdom, around which there dwelt those who were wise; there I conversed with them concerning the cause of the beauty of the female sex (1018, p. 45) [Conjugial Love 56].

Of the new things revealed by the Lord: as concerning the spiritual sense of the Word, and concerning correspondences, concerning heaven and hell, concerning the spiritual world and the sun there; also concerning conjugial love, as being according to religion: but that these things are not received in the world was testified by experience (1108, p. 48, also 50) [Conjugial Love 532-534].

Discussions, by the wise, of the following subjects:

(1) What the image of God is, and what the likeness of God:

(2) That man is not born into love and into knowledge, as the beasts are, but only into capacity to know and inclination to love:

(3) Concerning the tree of life, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (1193, p. 60) [Conjugial Love 132-136].

Concerning Athenaeum, Parnassium, and Heliconeum: conversation with ancient wise men, and with two newly come from the earth, about men who had been found in the forest; also concerning things that were said in favor of nature and the life of beasts, compared with the life of men (1251, p. 64) [Conjugial Love 151-154[ ¹ ].

Again three new-comers were conducted to Athenaeum, - a priest, a politician, and a philosopher; who reported, as news from the earth, that a certain person had written various things about the life of men after death and about the spiritual world; and they told how these subjects were discussed on earth (1286, p. 66) [Conjugial Love 182].

A tumult against three priests, who preached that with adulterers there is no acknowledgment of God, and consequently that they have not heaven; also what happened to them, out of heaven (1300, p. 75) [Conjugial Love 500].

Concerning a novitiate who meditated about heaven and hell, and who was told to make inquiry, and to learn what delight is: he was led to three assemblies; in which he learned what the delight of heaven is, and what the delight of hell (1344, p. 54) [Conjugial Love 461].

A disputation by spirits concerning God and concerning nature, in favor of nature from devils, and in favor of God from angels: also that man may confirm himself in favor of God, more than for nature, from the things that he can see: those things are adduced which were written on this subject in Angelic Wisdom concerning Divine Love and Divine Wisdom (1458, p. 62) [Conjugial Love 415-422].

A melody was heard concerning chaste love of the sex; and that they have that love who are in love truly conjugial, and thence in fullest potency (1585, p. 64) [Conjugial Love 55].

Various reasonings about the soul; and finally that the soul is the man living after death, because it is the form of all the affections of love, and of all the perceptions of wisdom, and is their receptacle (1641, p. 70) [Conjugial Love 315].

After this there was a conversation about the spiritual and the natural; and it was shown what differences there are between them, as to languages, writings, and thoughts: the conversation was renewed when looking at a moth, and observing that when divided it was more and more multiform, and not more and more simple (1699, p. 72) [Conjugial Love 326-329].

Wise men were called together from nine kingdoms of Europe, to give their opinion concerning the origin of conjugial love, and concerning its virtue and potency; and at last the prize, which was a turban, was given to an African (1718, p. 30) [Conjugial Love 103-114].

Three orators from France discoursed concerning the origin of the beauty of the female sex; one said that it was from love, another from wisdom, and the third from the conjunction of love and wisdom (1737, p. 57 1/2, 58) [Conjugial Love 381-384].

Concerning two angels, who had died in infancy, and who could not perceive what whoredom is, because it is not from creation. Conversation about it, and concerning evil; how evil exists, when from creation there is only good (1738, p. 86) [Conjugial Love 444].

Exclamations were heard, "O how just," "O how learned," "O how wise;" and it is here said of those called just, that they were those who gave judgment from friendship, and were able skillfully to pervert all things; they had no understanding of things that were just: their assemblage is described (1791, p. 37) [Conjugial Love 231].

Preliminary statements concerning the joys of heaven, and concerning nuptials there (1826-1848, p. 1) [Conjugial Love 1-25].

Concerning the love of dominion from the love of self; with politicians, that they wish to be kings and emperors; with canons, that they wish to be gods. Concerning devils that were seen, who had been in such love; also concerning two popes (1873, p. 56) [Conjugial Love 261-266].

Again in Athenaeum; where three new-comers were heard to say that they had believed that in heaven there were no administrations and works, because there was eternal rest; and it was shown that doing uses is that rest; there was also mention of books and writings; and it was said that there are these also in heaven, for all substantial things which are called spiritual are there (1909, p. 68) [Conjugial Love 207].

Of those concerning whom was the exclamation, "O how learned:" they were those who go no farther in their reasoning than to question whether a thing is so, and who are called reasoners (1948, p. 38) [Conjugial Love 232].

Of those concerning whom was the exclamation, "O how wise:" they were those who were able to make whatever they pleased to be true, and were called confirmers (1949, p. 30) [Conjugial Love 233].

A conversation of angels with three novitiates concerning nuptials in heaven (various things, 2001, p. 17) [Conjugial Love 44].

Golden rain was seen: I was conducted to a hall where husbands and wives instructed me concerning conjugial love; also concerning its delights, from the wives there (2002, p. 34) [Conjugial Love 155 [*].

Conversation with those who lived in the golden age, concerning conjugial love, and in regard to their marriages (2003, p. 20, seq. [Conjugial Love 75].

Conversation with those who lived in the silver age; this, too, concerning conjugial love (2004) [Conjugial Love 76].

Conversation with those who lived in the copper age (2005) [Conjugial Love 77].

Conversation with those who lived in the iron age; they were polygamists (2006) [Conjugial Love 78].

Conversation with those who lived after those four ages; they were whoremongers and adulterers (2034) [Conjugial Love 79, 80].

Of the conversion of this age into a golden age by the Lord; concerning which the angels glorified the Lord (2035) [Conjugial Love 81].

Concerning one's own intelligence or prudence, that it, is not [anything] (2051, p. 59) [Conjugial Love 353].

Whether conjugial love and love of [their own] beauty coexist in women; and whether conjugial love and the love of their own intelligence coexist in men (2052, p. 52) [Conjugial Love 330, 331].

Again the golden rain was seen, and some arcana respecting conjugial love in women were disclosed (2053, p. 35) [Conjugial Love 208].

Spiritual coldness has its seat in the highest region (2054, p. 51) [Conjugial Love 270].

Concerning those who are in the love of the world (p. 90) [Conjugial Love 267-269].

The delights of conjugial love are delights of wisdom (p. 91) [Conjugial Love 293]. ⁵

And the pleasures of scortatory love are pleasures of insanity (p. 92) [Conjugial Love 294].

Footnotes:

444. To this I will append the following narrative account:

After I finished my considerations of conjugial love and began reflecting on licentious love, suddenly two angels stood beside me and said, "We perceived and understood what you were thinking about before, but the things you are now pondering escape us, and we do not comprehend them. Omit them, because they are of no consequence."

But I replied, "This love that I am considering now is not of no consequence, because it exists."

To that they responded, "How can there be any love that does not exist from creation? Is it not conjugial love that exists from creation? Is this not a love between two people who have the capability of becoming one? How can there be a love which divides and separates them? What young man can love any other woman than the one who loves him in return? Must not the love in one recognize and acknowledge the love in the other - loves which, when they meet, of their own accord unite? Who can love someone in whom that love is missing? Is it not conjugial love alone that is mutual and reciprocal? If love is not reciprocal, does it not pull back and die?"

[2] On hearing this I asked the two angels what society of heaven they were from, and they said, "We are from the heaven of innocence. ¹ We came into this world of heaven as little children and were raised under the Lord's guidance. Moreover, after I became an adolescent youth, and my wife here with me a marriageable girl, we were betrothed and pledged, and at the earliest opportunity married. So, because we have known nothing regarding any other love than a truly wedded and conjugial love, therefore when your ideas were communicated to us concerning an alien love altogether opposed to our love, we did not comprehend any of them. Consequently we have come down to ask you why you are pondering notions so inconceivable. Tell us, then, how a love is possible which not only does not exist from creation, but is even contrary to creation. We regard things contrary to creation as matters having no reality."

[3] When he said this, my heart rejoiced that I was given an opportunity to speak with angels of such innocence, who did not know at all what licentiousness was. I opened my mouth therefore and explained, saying, "Do you not know that there is such a thing as good and evil, and that good exists from creation, but not evil? And yet evil regarded in itself is not nothing, even though it is nothing good?

"Good exists from creation, and good moreover in the highest degree and in the least degree; and when this least good reduces to nothing, evil arises on the other side. Therefore there is no proportional relationship or progression of good to evil, but a proportional relationship and progression of good to a greater or lesser good, and of evil to a greater or lesser evil; for good and evil are opposites in every single respect.

"Now because good and evil are opposites, there is a middle ground, and in it an area of equilibrium, in which evil acts against good. But because evil does not prevail, it remains in the endeavor. Every person grows up in this equilibrium; and being an equilibrium between good and evil, or to say the same thing, between heaven and hell, it is a spiritual equilibrium, which produces a state of freedom in those who live in it. The Lord draws all people out of this equilibrium to Him, and the person who follows in freedom is led by Him out of evil into good, and thus into heaven.

"It is the same with love, especially in the case of conjugial love and licentious love. Conjugial love is good, while licentious love is evil. Every person who hears the voice of the Lord and follows Him in freedom is introduced by the Lord into conjugial love with all its delights and joys. But the person who does not hear and does not follow introduces himself into licentious love, entering at first into its delights, but afterwards into its distresses, and finally into its miseries."

[4] My having said that, the two angels asked, "How could evil come into existence when nothing but good existed from creation? For anything to exist it must have an origin. Good could not be the origin of evil, because evil is nothing good, being rather the negation and destruction of good. But still, because evil exists and is experienced, it is not nothing, but something. Tell us, therefore, from what this something, after having no existence, came into existence."

To that I replied, "This secret cannot be explained unless it is known that no one is good but God alone, ² and that nothing is good that is good in itself unless it is from God. Consequently it is the person who looks to God and wills to be led by God who is motivated by good. But the person who turns away from God and wills to be led by himself is not motivated by good; for the good that he does is either for the sake of himself or for the sake of the world; thus it is either merit-seeking, or feigned, or hypocritical. From this it is apparent that man himself is the origin of evil - not that that origin was infused into man from creation, but that by turning from God to self he infused it into himself.

"This origin of evil did not exist in Adam and his wife until the serpent said, '...in the day you eat of (the tree of the knowledge of good and evil)...you will be like God' (Genesis 3:5). And then, because they turned away from God, and turned to themselves as though to a god, they created in themselves the origin of evil. Eating of that tree symbolized their believing that a person knows good and evil and is wise on his own, and not from God."

[5] But then the two angels asked, "How could man turn away from God and turn to himself, when a person can will nothing, think nothing, and so do nothing except from God. Why did God permit it?"

However, I replied, "Man was so created that everything he wills, thinks and does appears to him as being in him and thus from him. Without this appearance a person would not be a human being, for he would be unable to receive anything of good and truth or of love and wisdom, retain it, and seemingly adopt it as his own. Consequently it follows that without this, as it were, living appearance, man would not have any conjunction with God, and so neither any eternal life. But if as a result of this appearance he persuades himself to the belief that he wills, thinks, and thus does good of himself, and not from the Lord (even though to all appearance as though of himself), he turns good into evil in him, and so creates in him the origin of evil. This was Adam's sin.

[6] "But let me explain this matter a little more clearly. The Lord views every person by looking at his forehead, and this sight passes to the back of his head. Behind the forehead is the cerebrum, and in the back of the head the cerebellum. The cerebrum is devoted to wisdom and its truths, while the cerebellum is devoted to love and its goods. Therefore a person who looks with his face to the Lord receives wisdom from him, and through that wisdom, love. But a person who looks away from the Lord receives love and not wisdom; and love without wisdom is love that originates with man and not from the Lord. Moreover, because this love allies itself with falsities, it does not acknowledge God, but embraces itself as a god; and this it tacitly defends by the person's faculty of understanding and of becoming wise as though of himself, implanted in him from creation. Thus this love is the origin of evil.

"The fact of this can be visibly demonstrated. I will call here some evil spirit who has turned away from God, and I will speak to him from behind or at the back of his head. And you will see that the things I say are turned into their opposites."

[7] So I summoned such a spirit. He came, and I spoke to him from behind, saying, "Do you know anything about hell, damnation, and the torment there?" Then, when he turned around to face me, I asked, "What did you hear?"

He replied: "I heard the following. 'Do you know anything about heaven, salvation, and the happiness there?'"

Afterwards then, when I repeated his answer to him from behind, he said that he heard what I had said at first.

After that I said to him from behind, "Do you know that people in hell are insane because of their falsities?" And on my asking him about this, as to what he had heard, he said, "I heard, 'Do you know that people in heaven are wise because of their truths?'

Again, when I repeated this answer to him from behind, he said that he heard, "Do you know that people in hell are insane because of their falsities?"

And so it went. From which it became plainly apparent that when the mind is turned away from the Lord, it turns to itself, so that it then perceives things in a contrary way.

"That is the reason," I said, "that, as you know, in this spiritual world, no one is permitted to stand behind another and speak to him; for he thus infuses into the other his love, which the other's intelligence then yields to and obeys because of the delight attached to it, but which, being from man and not from God, is a love of evil or a love of falsity.

[8] "In addition to this, I will relate to you another, similar occurrence, namely, that I have several times heard goods and truths descend from heaven into hell, and they were gradually turned there into their opposites - good into evil, and truth into falsity. The reason for this phenomenon is the same, namely, that all who are in hell turn away from the Lord."

After listening to this, the two angels thanked me and said, "Because you are now thinking and writing about a love that is contrary to our conjugial love, and because anything contrary to that love saddens our minds, we will leave you."

And as they bade me farewell, I asked them not to report anything concerning this love to their brothers and sisters in heaven, because it would injure their innocence.

I can declare for a certainty that people who die as little children grow up in heaven, and when they attain a stature like that of youths eighteen years old and of girls fifteen years old in the world, they stop there, and marriages are then provided for them by the Lord. Moreover, that both before marriage and after it, they do not know at all what licentiousness is, or that it is possible.

Footnotes: