The Planets in the Universe

The Earthlike Bodies Called Planets in Our Solar System and in Deep Space, Their Inhabitants, and the Spirits and Angels There, Drawn from Things Heard and Seen

1. By the Lord’s ¹ divine mercy the deeper levels within me, which belong to my spirit, have been opened, enabling me to talk with spirits and angels ² -not only those near our world, but also those close to other planets. Because I have had a longing to know whether there are other worlds, what they are like, and what their inhabitants are like, the Lord has granted me opportunities to talk and interact with spirits and angels from other planets. With some of them I spent all day, with others a full week, and with still others months on end. I learned from them about the planets they came from and are close to now, about the life, customs, and worship of the inhabitants of those planets, and various other noteworthy details about them. Since it has been granted to me to know such things in this way, I am in a position to offer descriptions based on things I myself have heard and seen. ³

[2] It is important to know that all spirits and angels are human ⁴ and that they remain close to their planet of origin. ⁵ They know what is happening on that planet; and any people whose deeper levels have been opened to the point where they can talk and interact with spirits and angels can learn such things from those spirits and angels. After all, in our essence we too are spirits; ⁶ and in our deeper levels we are already among other spirits. ⁷ So anyone whose deeper levels have been opened by the Lord can talk with spirits and angels the way people talk with each other. ⁸ For twelve years now, this has been granted to me daily. ⁹

Footnotes:

6055. Anyone who has no knowledge of the more internal aspects of the human being cannot know about the inflowing of the soul into the body or its interaction with it; for that interaction and inflowing takes place through those more internal aspects. To know about these more internal aspects of the human being one should know about the existence of the internal man and of the external man, and that the internal man exists in the spiritual world and the external in the natural world, so that the former dwells in the light of heaven, the latter in the light of the world. One also needs to know that the internal man is so distinct and separate from the external that, being prior and more internal, it can remain in being without the external, but that the external man, being posterior and more external, cannot remain in being without the internal. In addition one should know that the internal man is the one who is called intellectual or rational, using those terms in their proper sense, since that man dwells in the light of heaven, a light which holds reason and understanding within it. But the external man is one who must be called, strictly speaking, a knowledge-receiver since known facts reside in him, which knowledge derives its light for the most part from things belonging to the inferior light of the world that is brightened and so made living by means of the light of heaven.

3131. 'And Laban ran to the man outside, to the spring' means its inclination, that is to say, the inclination of the affection for good towards truth that was to be introduced into Divine truth. This is clear from the meaning of 'running' as some leaning or inclination towards, as above in 3127; from the representation of 'Laban' as the affection for good, dealt with immediately above in 3129, 3130; from the meaning of 'men' as truth, dealt with in 265, 749, 1007; and from the meaning of 'a spring' also as truth, here Divine truth, dealt with in 2702, 3096, and below in 3137.

[2] These considerations and everything else dealt with show the nature of the internal sense and what arcana exist there. Except from interior exploration of the Word and at the same time from revelation, how can anyone know that these words - 'Laban ran to the man outside, to the spring' - mean the inclination of the affection for good towards truth that was to be introduced into Divine truth? Yet these are the things that angels perceive when these words are read by man. Indeed such are the correspondences between man's ideas and an angel's ideas that while man understands these words according to the sense of the letter and has the idea of Laban running to the man outside, to the spring, an angel perceives the inclination of the affection for good towards truth that was to be introduced into Divine truth. With angels there is no idea of Laban, or of running, or of a spring, but spiritual ideas corresponding to these. The existence of such correspondence between natural things and ideas based on these and spiritual things and ideas may also be seen from what has been stated about correspondences in 1563, 1568, 2763, 2987-3003, 3021.

[3] As to the specific matter dealt with here - that truth was to be introduced into Divine truth - the situation is that at first truth in the natural man was not Divine truth but truth that had the appearance of being Divine. For no truth in its earliest stages is the actual truth but an appearance of truth. In the course of time however it sheds the cloak of appearance and puts on the real essence of truth. To make this intelligible it can be illustrated by examples, for the moment by this alone: It is a Divine truth that the Lord is never angry, never punishes anyone, let alone does evil to anyone, and that from the Lord nothing but good ever comes. Nevertheless in its earliest stages this truth declares that the Lord is angry when someone sins, and that the Lord therefore punishes; indeed with some people it declares that evil comes from the Lord. But as a person progresses from early childhood, grows up, and matures in judgement he casts away that which from the appearance seemed to him to be the truth and gradually takes up the truth itself, which is that the Lord is never angry and does not punish, let alone perform evil. Accordingly it is by means of apparent truth that a person is introduced into actual truth; for it is a general concept that enters first, which in itself is obscure, containing scarcely anything that is to be seen until it has been enlightened by means of particular ideas, and these in turn by specific details. And once it has been enlightened interior things are discernible. In this way the delusions and appearances which are truths at the time of ignorance are dispersed and banished.