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.

23. 3. People who live lives based on truth and use that truth to focus on and move toward what is good; and also the nature of truths that lead to what is good. We intend whatever we love, and whatever we love or intend we think about and justify by various means. Whatever we love or intend we call good, and whatever thoughts and various justifications we have we call true: 4070. That is why truth turns into goodness when it becomes a matter of our love and will, or when we love and will it: 5526, 7835, 10367. And since our love or our will is the core of our existence, no truth comes to life for us as long as we only know about it and think about it-[it comes to life] only when we love and will to do it and we do it as a result of our love and our will: ¹ 5595, 9282. That is how truths receive their life-from what is good: 2434, 3111, 3607, 6077. So truths get their life from what is good, and truths have no life apart from what is good: 1589, 1950, 1997, 2572, 3180, 4070, 4096, 4097, 4736, 4757, 4884, 5147, 5928, 9154, 9667, 9841, 10729. Illustrated [by a comparison]: 9154. When truths can be said to have come to life: 1928. When truth is joined to what is good it becomes part of us because it becomes a matter of our life: 3108, 3161. In order for a truth to be joined to some goodness, our will needs to agree with our understanding; not until our will agrees does the joining take place: 3157, 3158, 3161.

[2] As we are being regenerated, truths become a part of us, along with a feeling of pleasure because we love to do them; and later those truths come back to us with that same feeling again, because the truths and the feeling are joined together: 2480, 2487, 3040, 3066, 3074, 3336, 4018, 5893, 7967. Some feeling related to what we love always attaches itself to any truths we learn, depending on the use we make of those truths in our lives. If those truths come to mind, the feelings come with them: or if those feelings recur, then the truths come with them: 3336, 3824, 3849, 4205, 5893, 7967. Goodness does not recognize anything as true unless it is in harmony with the inclinations of its love: 3161. Truths gain entrance to us by means of things that are pleasurable and delightful [to our earthly self]: 3502, 3512. All genuine love of truth comes from and is shaped by goodness: 4373, 8349, 8356. There is a subtle entry and inflow of goodness into truths, and there is a joining together of goodness and truth (4301); and that is how truths come to life (7967).

[3] Because some feeling of love always attaches itself to any truths we learn, depending on the use we make of those truths in our lives, a given type of goodness recognizes the truth that is its own, and a given type of truth recognizes the goodness that is its own: 2429, 3101, 3102, 3161, 3179, 3180, 4358, 5807, 5835, 9637. The result is a joining together of what is true and what is good: 3834, 4096, 4097, 4301, 4345, 4364, 4368, 5365, 7623-7627, 7752-7762, 8530, 9258, 10555. Truths recognize each other as well and gather together: 9079. This happens because of an inflow from heaven: 9079.

[4] Goodness is the reality underlying life and truth is how life becomes manifest from that goodness. ² So goodness finds the manifestation of its life in truth, and truth finds the underlying reality of its life in goodness: 3049, 3180, 4574, 5002, 9144. Thus everything good has its own truth and everything true has its own goodness, because goodness apart from truth has no manifestation and truth apart from goodness has no reality: 9637. Further, goodness gets its form and character from truths, and correspondingly truth is the form and character of goodness (3049, 4574, 6916, 9154); and so truth and goodness need to be joined together in order to be anything at all (10555). So goodness is constantly engaged in the longing and effort to join truths to itself: 9206, 9495. Some illustrations of this: 9207. Correspondingly, truths also strive to join themselves to some goodness: 9206. The joining is reciprocal-goodness with truth and truth with goodness: 5365, 8516. Goodness acts and truth reacts, though it does this as an effect of goodness: 3155, 4380, 4757, 5928, 10729. Truths focus on the good they can do as their origin and aim: 4353.

[5] The joining of truth with goodness parallels the successive phases of our lives beginning in infancy. We gather truths first as information, and then as the basis for rational thinking; ultimately we put them to use in deciding how to live our lives: 3203, 3665, 3690. It is also like a child: it is conceived, lives in the womb, is born, matures, and eventually gains wisdom: 3298, 3299, 3308, 3665, 3690. It is also like seeds and soil (3671) and like the relationship of water to bread (4976). Our first feeling of love for truth is not genuine, but as we are perfected it is purified: 3040, 3089. Still, forms of goodness and truth that are not genuine serve to lead us to forms of goodness and truth that are, at which point we abandon the earlier forms: 3665, 3690, 3974, 3982, 3986, 4145.

[6] Further, we are led to what is good by means of truths, and not in their absence: 10124, 10367. If we do not learn or accept truths, goodness cannot flow into us, so we cannot become spiritual: 3387. The joining of goodness and truth progresses as our knowledge grows: 3141. For all of us, our acceptance of truths depends on our rational capacity: 3385, [ 3387].

[7] The truths of our earthly self are in the form of information: 3293, 3309, 3310. The information and concepts we have are like containers: 6004, 6023, 6052, 6071, 6077. Truths are containers of goodness because they are receptive to it: 1469, 1900, 2063, 2261, 2269, 3318, 3365.

[8] Goodness flows in through an inner way for us, or through the soul, while what is true flows in from the outside through our hearing and sight; and they are joined together within us by the Lord: 3030, 3098. Truths are lifted up from the earthly self and sown in what is good in the spiritual self, and this is how truths become spiritual: 3085, 3086. Then they flow back into the earthly self; goodness in the spiritual self flows directly into goodness in the earthly self but flows indirectly into the truth in the earthly self: 3314, 3573, 4563. Some illustrations of this: 3314, 3616, 3576, 3969, 3995. In brief, how amply and well truths are joined to what is good in us depends on how amply and well we focus on what is good in the way we lead our lives: 3834, 3843. The joining takes place in one way for heavenly people and in another way for spiritual people: 10124. More on the joining together of goodness and truth and on how it takes place (3090, 3203, 3308, 4096, 4097, 4345, 4353, 5365, 7623-7627); and also on how what is good on the spiritual level is given form through truths (3470, 3570).

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