1514. Auras also present themselves to the senses through odors, which spirits are much more keenly sensitive to than people on earth are. In fact auras correspond to smells, amazingly enough.
Some people have indulged in humbug, which has given them their character. When their aura is turned into a smell, it stinks like vomit.
Some have learned to speak elegantly in order to impress others with everything they say. When their aura takes on an odor, it resembles the smell of burnt bread.
Some have indulged in mere physical pleasure, without developing any neighborly love or any faith. Their aura smells like excrement.
The same is true of those who have carried out a life filled with adultery, although their stench is even worse.
[2] Some have lived lives of intense hatred and vengefulness and of cruelty. When their aura is turned into a smell, it reeks like a corpse.
The smell of rats wafts from those who have been disgustingly greedy.
The smell of bedbugs 1 drifts from those who have persecuted the innocent.
These smells cannot be picked up by any earthly person except one whose inner senses have been opened to allow companionship with spirits.
Footnotes:
1. The Latin words here translated "the smell of bedbugs" is faetor pediculorum domesticorum, literally, "the smell of household lice." But bedbugs are notorious for their foul odor, an attribute ascribed to these "household lice" again in Secrets of Heaven 4628 and Spiritual Experiences (Swedenborg 1998-2002) §3424. Furthermore, insects that seem to be of the same type are referred to in Spiritual Experiences 1150 as "wall-lice." Bedbugs commonly live in crevices in walls, and in fact the Swedish word for bedbug is still vägglus, "wall-louse" (once a common term for bedbugs in English). These interlocking passages make the identification of these "household lice" as bedbugs highly probable. The translation by Clowes and his revisers (Swedenborg [1749-1756] 1995-1998) makes the same identification. [LHC, SS]
