The Delights of Wisdom Pertaining to Conjugial Love. Emanuel Swedenborg
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therein. The reason why none can be principled in spiritual conjugial love, but those who are of the above description by virtue of conjunction with the Lord, is, because heaven is in this love; and the natural man, whose conjugial love derives its pleasure only from the flesh, cannot approach to heaven nor to any angel, no, nor to any man principled in this love, it being the foundation of all celestial and spiritual loves; which may be seen above, n. 65–67. That this is the case, has been confirmed to me by experience. I have seen genii in the spiritual world, who were in a state of preparation for hell, approaching to an angel while he was being entertained by his consort; and at a distance, as they approached, they became like furies, and sought out caverns and ditches as asylums, into which they cast themselves. That wicked spirits love what is similar to their affection, however unclean it is, and hold in aversion the spirits of heaven, as what is dissimilar, because it is pure, may be concluded from what was said in the PRELIMINARY MEMORABLE RELATION, n. 10.
72. The reason why those who love the truths of the church and practise its goods, come into this love and are capable of remaining in it, is, because no others are received by the Lord; for these are in conjunction with him, and thereby are capable of being kept in that love by influence from him. The two constituents of the church and heaven in man (homo) are the truth of faith and the good of life; the truth of faith constitutes the Lord's presence, and the good of life according to the truths of faith constitutes conjunction with him, and thereby the church and heaven. The reason why the truth of faith constitutes the Lord's presence, is, because it relates to light, spiritual light being nothing else; and the reason why the good of life constitutes conjunction, is, because it relates to heat; and spiritual heat is nothing but the good of life, for it is love; and the good of life originates in love; and it is well known, that all light, even that of winter, causes presence, and that heat united to light causes conjunction; for gardens and shrubberies appear in all degrees of light, but they do not bear flowers and fruits unless when heat joins itself to light. From these considerations the conclusion is obvious, that those are not gifted by the Lord with love truly conjugial, who merely know the truths of the church, but those who know them and practise their good.
73. VIII. THIS LOVE WAS THE LOVE OF LOVES WITH THE ANCIENTS, WHO LIVED IN THE GOLDEN, SILVER, AND COPPER AGES. That conjugial love was the love of loves with the most ancient and the ancient people, who lived in the ages thus named, cannot be known from historical records, because their writings are not extant; and there is no account given of them except by writers in succeeding ages, who mention them, and describe the purity and integrity of their lives, and also the successive decrease of such purity and integrity, resembling the debasement of gold to iron: but an account of the last or iron age, which commenced from the time of those writers, may in some measure be gathered from the historical records of the lives of some of their kings, judges, and wise men, who were called sophi in Greece and other countries. That this age however should not endure, as iron endures in itself, but that it should be like iron mixed with clay, which do not cohere, is foretold by Daniel, chap. ii. 43. Now as the golden, silver, and copper ages passed away before the time when writing came into use, and thus it is impossible on earth to acquire any knowledge concerning their marriages, it has pleased the Lord to unfold to me such knowledge by a spiritual way, by conducting me to the heavens inhabited by those most ancient people, that I might learn from their own mouths the nature and quality of their marriages during their abode here on earth in their several ages: for all, who from the beginning of creation have departed by death out of the natural world, are in the spiritual world, and as to their loves resemble what they were when alive in the natural world, and continue such to eternity. As the particulars of this knowledge are worthy to be known and related, and tend to confirm the sanctity of marriages, I am desirous to make them public as they were shown me in the spirit when awake, and were afterwards recalled to my remembrance by an angel, and thus described. And as they are from the spiritual world, like the other accounts annexed to each chapter, I am desirous to arrange them so as to form six MEMORABLE RELATIONS according to the progressions of the several periods of time.
74. THESE SIX MEMORABLE RELATIONS from the spiritual world, concerning conjugial love, discover the nature and quality of that love in the earliest times and afterwards, and also at the present day; whence it appears that that love has successively fallen away from its sanctity and purity, until it became adulterous; but that nevertheless there is a hope of its being brought back again to its primeval or ancient sanctity.
75. THE FIRST MEMORABLE RELATION. On a time, while I was meditating on conjugial love, my mind was seized with a desire of knowing what had been the nature and quality of that love among those who lived in the GOLDEN AGE, and afterwards among those who lived in the following ages, which have their names from silver, copper, and iron: and as I knew that all who lived well in those ages are in the heavens, I prayed to the Lord that I might be allowed to converse with them and be informed: and lo! an angel presented himself and said, "I am sent by the Lord to be your guide and companion: I will first lead and attend you to those who lived in the first age or period of time, which is called golden:" and he said, "The way to them is difficult; it lies through a shady forest, which none can pass unless he receive a guide from the Lord." I was in the spirit, and prepared myself for the journey; and we turned our faces towards the east; and as we advanced I saw a mountain, whose height extended beyond the region of the clouds. We passed a great wilderness, and came to the forest planted with various kinds of trees and rendered shady by their thickness, of which the angel had advertised me. The forest was divided by several narrow paths; and the angel said, that according to the number of those paths are the windings and intricacies of error: and that unless his eyes were opened by the Lord, so as to see olives entwined with vine tendrils, and his steps were directed from olive to olive, the traveller would miss his way, and fall into the abodes of Tartarus, which are round about at the sides. This forest is of such a nature, to the end that the passage may be guarded; for none but a primeval nation dwells upon that mountain. After we had entered the forest, our eyes were opened, and we saw here and there olives entwined with vines, from which hung bunches of grapes of a blue or azure color, and the olives were ranged in continual wreaths; we therefore made various circuits as they presented themselves to our view; and at length we saw a grove of tall cedars and some eagles perched on their branches; on seeing which the angel said, "We are now on the mountain not far from its summit:" so we went forward, and lo! behind the grove was a circular plain, where there were feeding he and she-lambs, which were representative forms of the state of innocence and peace of the inhabitants of the mountain. We passed over this plain, and lo! we saw tabernacles, to the number of several thousands in front on each side in every direction as far as the eye could reach. And the angel said, "We are now in the camp, where are the armies of the Lord Jehovah; for so they call themselves and their habitations. These most ancient people, while they were in the world, dwelt in tabernacles; therefore now also they dwell in the same. But let us bend our way to the south, where the wiser of them live, that we may meet some one to converse with." In going along I saw at a distance three boys and three girls sitting at a door of a certain tent; but as we approached, the boys and girls appeared like men and women of a middle stature. The angel then said, "All the inhabitants of this mountain appear at a distance like infants, because they are in a state of innocence; and infancy is the appearance of innocence." The men on seeing us hastened towards us and said, "Whence are you; and how came you here? Your faces are not like those of our mountain." But the angel in reply told them how, by permission, we had had access through the forest, and what was the cause of our coming. On hearing this, one of the three men invited and introduced us into his tabernacle. The man was dressed in a blue robe and a tunic of white wool: and his wife had on a purple gown, with a stomacher under it of fine linen wrought in needle-work. And as my thought was influenced by a desire of knowing the state of marriages among the most ancient people, I looked by turns on the husband and the wife, and observed as it were a unity of their souls in their faces; and I said, "You are one:" and the man answered, "We are one; her life is in me, and mine in her; we are two bodies, but one soul: the union between us is like that of the two viscera in the breast, which are called the heart and the lungs; she is my heart