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Genesis 1:1

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Arcana Coelestia #862

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862. That 'it happened at the end of forty days' means the duration of the former state, and the beginning of the one that followed, is clear from the meaning of 'forty', see 730, where, the subject being temptation, the phrase 'forty days and forty nights' was used, which meant the duration of temptation. Here, since the subject is the state following temptation, 'forty days' is mentioned but not forty nights. The reason is that charity now starts to appear, which in the Word is compared to the day and is called the day. Faith however which precedes but has not yet been so joined to charity is compared to the night and is called the night, as in Genesis 1:16, and elsewhere in the Word. Faith is also called 'the night' in the Word because it receives its light from charity, just as the moon does from the sun. Faith is therefore also compared to the moon and is called the moon; and love or charity is compared to the sun and is called the sun. 'Forty days', or the duration of time meant by them, refers both to the things that precede and to those that follow; hence the statement 'at the end of forty days', which accordingly means both the duration of the previous state, and the beginning of the one being described now. This then begins the description of the second state following temptation of the member of this Church.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.

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Arcana Coelestia #829

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829. People whose thoughts during their lifetime have consisted of unrestrained lust and who have twisted all that others say, even things that are holy, into such lust - doing so even when mature and elderly, when no natural lust is present to incite them - continue to think and talk in that manner in the next life. And because their thoughts in that life are communicated, and sometimes end up as lewd representations among other spirits, consequently into things that are offensive, their punishment is this: In the presence of the spirits they have offended they are thrown to the ground in a horizontal position, and are rolled over and over rapidly from left to right like a drum, then back in a different direction, and in yet another. Naked in the presence of all, or half-naked, depending on the nature of their unrestrained lust, they are at the same time filled with shame. Then they are spun around by the head and feet crossways like a spindle. Resistance is set up and simultaneously pain, for two forces are at work, the first going round one way and the second in reverse, producing a painful ripping apart. When all this is finished the offender is given the opportunity to sneak away from the gaze of the spirits, and a sense of shame is instilled into him. Nevertheless there are those who test him to see whether he still persists in such ways. But as long as his state is one of shame and pain he is on his guard. It may thus seem to him that he is hidden, but they know his whereabouts. This punishment was seen to take place in front, some distance away.

[2] There are also boys, adolescents, and young men who, because of the senseless folly and the sexual urge of that time of life, have adopted unspeakable notions to the effect that wives, especially young and attractive ones, were intended not for their husbands but for themselves and others like them, with the husbands remaining purely heads of the household and those who bring up the children. They are recognized also in the next life from the boyish sound of their speech. They are at the back there, a fair way up. Those among them who have confirmed themselves in those notions, and in a life in keeping with the same, are pitiably rough-handled in the next life by having their joints dislocated and then put back in place - that is, twisted together and then twisted back - by spirits who have the skill to delude others into thinking that they are in the body, and at the same time to induce the sensation of pain. By means of these rebounding movements, along with the simultaneous resistance offered to them, they are so severely battered that they seem to themselves to have disintegrated into tiny particles with the immense pain of it all. And this is repeated many times until they have been struck through with horror for such notions about the way to live and so refrain from thinking in this way.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.