Earths in the Universe · 14 of 14

A Fifth Earth in the Starry Heaven

168.A FIFTH EARTH IN THE STARRY HEAVEN, ITS SPIRITS AND INHABITANTS. I was led again to another earth which is in the universe out of our solar system, and this also by changes of state, continued for nearly twelve hours. There were in company with me several spirits and angels from our earth, with whom I discoursed in the way or in that progression. I was carried at times obliquely upwards and obliquely downwards, continually towards the right, which in the other life is towards the south. In only two places I saw spirits, and in one I spoke with them. In the way or progression I was enabled to observe how immense is the Lord’s heaven, which is for angels and spirits; for from the parts uninhabited I was led to conclude that it was so immense, that if there were many myriads of earths, and on each earth a multitude of men as great as in ours, there would still be a place of abode for them to eternity, and it would never be filled. This I was enabled to conclude from a comparison made with the extent of the heaven which is about our earth and designed for it, which extent was respectively so small, that it did not equal a hundred millionth part of the extent uninhabited.

169.When the angelic spirits who were from that earth came into view, they accosted us, asking who we were, and what we wanted. We said that we came for the sake of journeying, that we were directed thither, and that they had nothing to fear from us; for they were afraid we were of those who disturb them in regard to God, to faith, and things of a like nature, on account of whom they had betaken themselves to that quarter of their earth, shunning them as much as possible. We asked them by what they were disturbed. They replied, by an idea of three, and by an idea of the Divine without the Human, in God, when yet they know and perceive that God is one, and that He is Man. It was then perceived that they who disturbed them, and whom they shunned, were from our earth. This was manifest also from this, that there are from our earth those who thus wander about in the other life in consequence of their fondness for and delight in travelling, which they have contracted in the world; for on other earths there is no such custom of travelling as on ours. It was then discovered that they were monks, who had traveled on our globe from the zeal of converting the Gentiles; wherefore we told them they did well to shun them, because their intention was not to teach, but to secure gain and dominion; and that they study by various arts first to captivate men’s minds, but afterwards to subject them to themselves as slaves. Moreover, that they did well in not suffering their ideas concerning God to be disturbed by such. They said further, that the above spirits confuse them by asserting that they ought to have faith and to believe the things they say; but they replied to them, that they know not what faith is nor what is meant by believing, since they perceive in themselves whether a thing be true or not. They were of the Lord’s celestial kingdom, where all know from an interior perception the truths which with us are called the truths of faith, for they are in enlightenment from the Lord; but it is otherwise with those who are in the spiritual kingdom. That the angelic spirits of that earth were of the Lord’s celestial kingdom, it was granted me to see from the flaming light whence their ideas flowed; for the light in the celestial kingdom is flaming, and in the spiritual kingdom it is white. They who are of the celestial kingdom, when the discourse is about truths, say no more than yea, yea, or nay, nay, and never reason about truths whether they be so or not so. These are they of whom the Lord speaks: Let your discourse be yea, yea, and nay, nay, for whatsoever is more than this is from evil. Hence it was that those spirits said that they did not know what is meant by having faith or believing. They consider this, like a person’s saying to his companion who sees houses or trees with his own eyes, that he ought to have faith or to believe that they are houses and trees, when he sees clearly that they are so. Such are they who are of the Lord’s celestial kingdom, and such were these angelic spirits. We told them that there are few on our earth who have interior perception, because in their youth they learn truths and do not do them. For man has two faculties, which are called the understanding and the will; they who admit truths no further than into the memory, and thence in some small degree into the understanding, and not into the life, that is, into the will, these, inasmuch as they are not capable of any enlightenment or interior sight from the Lord, say that those truths are to be believed, or that they are objects of faith, and also reason concerning them whether they be truths or not; yea, they are not willing that they should be perceived by any interior sight, or by any enlightenment in the understanding. They say this, because truths with them are without light from heaven, and to those who see without light from heaven, falsities may appear like truths, and truths like falsities; hence so great blindness has seized many there, that although they do not do truths or live according to them, still they say that they can be saved by faith alone, as if it were the knowledge of the things of faith which constitutes man, and not the life according to that knowledge. We afterwards discoursed with them concerning the Lord, concerning love to Him, concerning love toward the neighbor, and concerning regeneration; saying that to love the Lord is to love the commandments which are from Him, which is to live according to them from love. That love toward the neighbor is to will good and thence do good to a fellow-citizen, to one’s country, to the church, and to the Lord’s kingdom, not for the sake of self, to be seen, or to merit, but from the affection of good. Concerning regeneration, we observed that they who are regenerated by the Lord, and commit truths immediately to life, come into an interior perception concerning them; but that they who receive truths first in the memory, and afterwards will them and do them, are they who are in faith; for they act from faith, which is then called conscience. They said that they perceived these things to be so, and thus perceived also what faith is. I discoursed with them by spiritual ideas, whereby such things may be exhibited and comprehended in light.

170.The spirits with whom I now discoursed were from the northern part of their earth. I was afterwards led to others who were on the western part. These also, wishing to discover who and what I was, immediately said that there was nothing in me but evil, thinking thus to deter me from approaching nearer. It was perceived that this was their manner of accosting all who came to them; but it was granted me to reply that I well knew it to be so, and that with them also there was nothing but evil, by reason that every one is born in evil, and therefore whatever comes from man, spirit, and angel, as from what is his own, or his proprium, is nothing but evil, inasmuch as all good with every one is from the Lord. Hence they perceived that I was in the truth, and I was admitted to speak with them. They then showed me their idea concerning evil with man, and concerning good from the Lord, how they are separated from each other. They placed one near the other, almost contiguous, but still distinct, yet as it were bound together in a manner inexpressible, so that the good led the evil, and restrained it, insomuch that it was not allowed it to act at pleasure; and thus the good bent the evil in whatever direction desired, without the evil knowing it. In this manner they exhibited the dominion of good over evil, and at the same time a state of freedom. They then asked how the Lord appeared with the angels from our earth. I said that He appears in the sun as Man, encompassed therein with solar fire, whence the angels in the heavens have all light; and that the heat which proceeds thence is the Divine good, and that the light which proceeds thence is the Divine truth, each from the Divine love, which is the fire appearing around the Lord in that sun. That sun, however, appears only to the angels in heaven, and not to the spirits who are beneath, since they are more removed from the reception of the good of love and of the truth of faith, than the angels who are in the heavens (see above, n. 40). It was granted them thus to inquire concerning the Lord, and concerning His appearance before the angels from our earth, because it then pleased the Lord to present Himself before them, and to reduce into order the things which had been disturbed by the evil spirits of whom they complained. This also was the reason why I was led thither, that I might see these things.

171.There was then seen a dark cloud toward the east, descending from on high, which in descending gradually appeared bright and in the human form; and this form at length appeared in a flaming radiance, around which were little stars of the same color. In this manner the Lord presented Himself before the spirits with whom I was speaking. To this Presence were then gathered together from every side all the spirits who were there; and when they came, the good were separated from the evil, the good to the right and the evil to the left, and this at once, as of their own accord. And those on the right were arranged according to the quality of their good, and those on the left according to the quality of their evil. The good were then left to form a heavenly society among themselves; but the evil were cast into the hells. I saw afterward that this flaming radiance descended quite deep into the lower parts of the earth there; and then it appeared, now flamy verging to brightness, now bright verging to obscurity, and now in obscurity. And I was told by angels that the appearance is according to the reception of truth from good, and of falsity from evil, with those who inhabit the lower parts of that earth; and that the flamy radiance itself did not at all undergo such variations. They said also that the lower parts of that earth were inhabited as well by the good as by the evil; but well separated, in order that the evil might be ruled through the good by the Lord. They added that the good were by turns taken up thence into heaven by the Lord, and others succeed in their place, and so on continually. In that descent the good were in like manner separated from the evil, and all things were reduced into order. For the evil, by various arts and crafty devices, had introduced themselves into the dwellings of the good there, and infested them; and this was the cause of that visitation. That cloud, which in descending gradually appeared bright and in the human form, and then as a flamy radiance, was an angelic society, in the midst of which was the Lord, From this it was given to know what is meant by the Lord’s words in the Evangelists, where He speaks of the Last Judgment: That He will come with the angel in the clouds of heaven with glory and power.

172.Afterward some monkish spirits were seen, namely, those who had been travelling monks or missionaries in the world, and who have been spoken of above; and a crowd of spirits was also seen, who were from that earth, most of them evil, whom they had drawn over and seduced to their side. These were seen at the eastern quarter of that earth, from which they drove away the good, who betook themselves to the northern side of that earth, and have been spoken of above. That crowd, together with their seducers was collected into one body, to the number of some thousands, and was separated when the evil were cast into the hells. I was granted to speak with one spirit who was a monk, and to ask what he did there. He replied that he taught them concerning the Lord. I asked, what besides. He said, concerning heaven and hell. I asked, what further. He said, concerning a belief in all that he should say. I asked, what further. He said, concerning the power of remitting sins, and of opening and shutting heaven. He was then examined as to what he knew concerning the Lord, concerning the truths of faith, concerning the remission of sins, concerning man’s salvation, and concerning heaven and hell; and it was discovered that he knew scarcely anything, and that he was in obscurity and falsity concerning all and each of them, and that he was possessed solely by the lust of gain and dominion which he had contracted in the world and brought with him thence. Wherefore he was told that, because he had traveled so far led by that lust, and was such as to doctrine, he must needs deprive the spirits of that earth of celestial light, and bring in the darkness of hell, and thus bring them under the dominion of hell, and not of the Lord. Moreover he was cunning in seducing, but stupid as to those things which are of heaven. Because he was such he was then cast thence into hell. Thus the spirits of that earth were liberated from them.

173.The spirits of that earth mentioned also, among other things, that those strangers, who, as has been said, were monkish spirits, used all their endeavors to persuade them to live together in society, and not separate and solitary; for spirits and angels dwell and associate in like manner as in the world; they who have dwelt in communities in the world, dwell also in a similar state in the other life; and they who have dwelt in a separate state, divided into houses and families, dwell also in a separate state in another life. These spirits on their earth, while they lived there as men, had dwelt in a separate state, house and house, families and families, and thus nation and nation apart, and hence they knew not what it was to dwell together in society. Wherefore when it was told them that those strangers wished to persuade them to dwell in society, to the intent that they might rule and have dominion over them, and that they could not otherwise subject them to themselves and make them slaves, they replied that they were totally ignorant what was meant by ruling and domineering. That they flee away at the very idea of rule and dominion, was made manifest to me from this, that one of them, who accompanied us back again, when I showed him the city in which I dwelt, at the first sight of it fled away, and was no more seen.

174.I then spoke with the angels who were with me concerning dominion, saying that there are two kinds of dominion, one of love towards the neighbor, and the other of self-love; and that the dominion of love towards the neighbor is among those who dwell separated into houses, families, and nations; whereas the dominion of self-love is among those who dwell together in society. Among those who live separated into houses, families, and nations, he has dominion who is the father of the nation, and under him the father of families, and under these the father of each house. He is called the father of the nation from whom the families originate, from which families the houses are derived; but all these exercise dominion from love, like that of a father towards his children, who teaches them how they ought to live, does good to them, and as far as he can, gives them of his own. It never enters into his mind to subject them to himself, as subjects or as servants, but he loves that they should obey him as sons obey their father. And because this love increases in descending, as is known, therefore the father of the nation acts from a more interior love than the father himself from whom the sons are next descended. Such also is the dominion in the heavens, inasmuch as such is the Lord’s dominion; for His dominion is from the Divine love towards the whole human race. But the dominion of self-love, which is opposite to the dominion of love towards the neighbor, began when man alienated himself from the Lord; for in proportion as man does not love and worship the Lord, in the same proportion he loves and worships himself, and so far also he loves the world. Then from necessity that they might be safe, the nations with their families and houses, formed themselves into one body, and established governments under various forms. For in proportion as self-love increased, in the same proportion all kinds of evil, as enmity, envy, hatred, revenge, cruelty and deceit, increased with it, being exercised against all who opposed them. For from the proprium in which they are who are in self-love, nothing but evil springs, inasmuch as man’s proprium is nothing but evil, and because the proprium is evil, it does not receive good from heaven. Hence self-love, while it has dominion, is the father of all such evils. And that love is also of such a nature that as far as the reins are relaxed it rushes on, until at length every one possessed by it wishes to domineer over all others in the whole world, and to possess all the goods of others. Yea, even this is not enough, but he wishes to have dominion over the whole heaven, as may be evident from the Babylon of this day. This then is the rule of self-love, from which the rule of the love of the neighbor differs as much as heaven does from hell. But however great such dominion of self-love is in societies or in kingdoms and empires, still even in these is found also the dominion of love towards the neighbor among those who are wise from faith in and love to God; for these love the neighbor. That these also dwell in the heavens distinguished into nations, families, and houses, although in societies together, but according to spiritual affinities, which are those of the good of love and the truth of faith, will by the Divine mercy of the Lord be told elsewhere.

175.I afterward questioned those spirits about various things on the earth from which they were, and first about their Divine worship and revelation. In regard to worship they said that the nations with their families assemble at one place every thirtieth day, and hear preaching; and that the preacher then, from a pulpit raised a little above the earth, teaches them Divine truths, which lead to the good of life. Concerning revelation they said that it came in the early morning, in a state midway between sleep and wakefulness, when they are in interior light not yet interrupted by the bodily senses and by worldly things. And that they then hear angels of heaven speaking of Divine truths, and of a life according to them; that when they awaken, an angel in a white garment appears to them by the bed, who then suddenly disappears from their sight; and that from this they know that what they have heard is from heaven. In this way Divine vision is distinguished from vision not Divine; for in vision not Divine no angel appears. They added that revelations are made in this manner to their preachers, also sometimes to others.

176.To an inquiry concerning their houses, they said that they are low, of wood, with a flat roof, around which project caves sloping downward; and that in the front part dwell the husband and wife, in the next adjoining part the children, and after them the maid-servants and men-servants. Of their food they said that they drink milk with water, and that they have the milk from cows, which are woolly like sheep. Of their life they said that they walk naked, and that to them nakedness is not a cause of shame; also that their social interaction is with those who are within their families.

177.In regard to the sun of that earth they related that to the inhabitants it has a flamy appearance; that the length of their years is two hundred days, and that a day equals nine hours of our time, which they could conclude from the length of the days of our earth perceived in me. And further, that they have perpetual spring and summer, and consequently that the fields are ever green, and the trees ever bearing fruit. The reason of this is, because their year is so short, being equal only to seventy-five days of our year; and when the years are so short, the cold does not continue long in winter nor the heat in summer, whence the ground is continually verdant.

178.Concerning betrothals and marriages in that earth, they related that a daughter, when she arrives at a marriageable age, is kept at home, nor is she allowed to leave the house till the day she is to be married; that then she is conducted to a certain connubial house, where there are also many other young women of marriageable age brought together, and there they are placed behind a screen, which reaches to the middle of the body, so that they appear naked as to the breast and face: and that then the young men come thither to choose for themselves a wife. And when a young man sees one that seems suited to him, and to whom his mind draws him, he takes her by the hand; and if she then follows him, he leads her to a house prepared, and she becomes his wife. For they see from the face whether they agree in mind, inasmuch as there every one’s face is an index of the mind, and in nothing does it dissemble and deceive. That all things may be done decently and without lasciviousness, an old man is seated behind the virgins, and an old woman at the side of them, to make their observations. There are many such places to which the young women are conducted: and also stated times for the young men to make their choice. For if they do not find a maid to suit them in one place, they go to another; and if not at one time, they return again at a future time. They said further, that a husband has only one wife, and never more than one, because this is contrary to Divine order.

156-1 Heaven corresponds to the Lord, and man as to each and all things corresponds to heaven, and hence heaven, before the Lord, is a man in a large effigy, and may be called the Greatest Man (n. 2996, 2998, 3624-3649, 3636-3643, 3741-3745, 4625) Concerning the correspondence of man, and of all things pertaining to him, with the Greatest Man, which is heaven, in general, from experience (n. 3021, 3624-3649, 3741-3751, 3883-3896, 4039-4051, 4215-4228, 4318-4331, 4403-4421, 4527-4533, 4622-4633, 4652-4660, 4791-4805, 4931-4953, 5050-5061, 5171-5189, 5377-5396, 5552-5573, 5711-5727, 10,030).

159-1 From the Athanasian Creed.

159-2 Man rises again as to his spirit immediately after death, and he is the human form, and that as to each and every particular he is a man (n. 4527, 5006, 5078, 8939, 8991, 10,594, 10,597, 10,758). Man rises again only as to his spirit, and not as to his body (n. 10,593, 10,594). The Lord alone rose again as to the body also (n. 1729, 2083, 5078, 10,825).

164-1 Movements, progressions, and changes of place in the other life are changes of state of the interiors of the life, and still they appear to spirits and angels as real changes of place (n. 1273-1277, 1377, 3356, 5605, 10,734).

169-1 Heaven is distinguished into two kingdoms, one of which is called the celestial kingdom, the other the spiritual kingdom (n. 3887, 4138). The angels in the celestial kingdom know innumerable things and are immensely more wise than the angels in the spiritual kingdom (n. 2718). The celestial angels do not think and speak from faith, like the spiritual angels, but from an internal perception that a thing is so (n. 202, 597, 607, 784, 1121, 1387, 1398, 1442, 1919, 7680, 7877, 8780). The celestial angels say only concerning the truths of faith, yea, yea, or nay, nay, but the spiritual angels reason whether it be so or not so (n. 202, 337, 2715, 3246, 4448, 9196).

169-2 To love the Lord is to live according to His commandments (n. 10,143, 10,153, 10,310, 10,578, 10,648).

169-3 To love the neighbor is to do what is good, just, and right, in every work and in every function, from the affection of what is good, just, and right (n. 8120-8122, 10,310, 10,336). A life of love towards the neighbor is a life according to the Lord’s commandments (n. 3249).

174-1 Man’s proprium, which he derives from his parents, is nothing but dense evil (n. 210, 215, 731, 874, 876, 987, 1047, 2307, 2318, 3518, 3701, 3812, 8480, 8550, 10,283, 10,284, 10,286, 10,731). Man’s proprium consists in loving himself more than God, and the world more than heaven, and in making light of his neighbor in respect to himself, except it be for the sake of himself, and thus from motives of self-love and the love of the world (n. 694, 731, 4317, 5660). All evils flow from self-love and the love of the world, when they have dominion (n. 1307, 1308, 1321, 1594, 1691, 3413, 7255, 7376, 7480, 7488, 8318, 9335, 9348, 10,038, 10,742). These evils are contempt of others, enmity, hatred, revenge, cruelty, and deceit (n. 6667, 7372-7374, 9348, 10,038, 10,742). And that from these evils every falsity flows (n. 1047, 10,283, 10,284, 10,286).