Angelic Chastity

Selection from Conjugial Love ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
— A Memorable Relation —

I once saw three spirits newly arrived from the world, who were wandering about, observing and inquiring. They were in astonishment that they were living as men, just as before, and that they saw similar things as before. For they knew that they had left the former or natural world, and had believed there that they should not live as men until after the day of the last judgment, when, they would be clothed with the flesh and bones that were laid away in the sepulchre. Therefore to relieve themselves of all doubt whether they really were men, they by turns examined and touched themselves and others, and felt of objects, and by a thousand things confirmed themselves in the fact that they were now men, just as in the former world, except that they saw each other in brighter light, and saw objects in greater splendor and thus more perfectly.

Two angelic spirits chancing to meet them at that time detained them, and asked:

"Whence are you?"

They answered:

"We have departed out of the world. And are living again in a world. So that we have migrated from world to world. Now, we are wondering at this."

And then they asked the two angelic spirits about heaven. And two of the new-comers being young men, a slight glow of lust for the sex shone from their eyes, and the angelic spirits said:

"Perchance you have seen women?"

They replied,

"We have."

As they were asking about heaven, the angelic spirits said this:

"In heaven all things are magnificent and splendid such as eye has never seen. And there are young men and maidens there, maidens of such beauty that they may be said to be beauty in its own form; and young men of such morality that they may be called morality in its own form. And the beauty of the maidens and the morality of the young men correspond to each other, as mutual and adapted forms."

The two new-comers asked,

"Whether human forms in heaven are altogether like those in the natural world?"

And it was answered:

"They are entirely like them; nothing is taken from the man, and nothing from the woman. In a word, a man is a man and a woman is a woman in all the perfection of form in which they were created. If you like, step aside and examine yourselves, and see whether anything whatever is wanting, and whether you are not men just as before."

Again the new-comers said:

"We have heard, in the world from whence we have departed, that in heaven they are not given in marriage, because they are angels. Is there then the love of the sex?"

The angelic spirits replied:

"Your love of the sex is not there, but the angelic love of the sex which is chaste, free from all allurement of lust."

To this the new-comers said:

"If there is the love of the sex without allurement, what is then the love of the sex?"

And as they thought of this love they sighed and exclaimed,

"O! how dry is the joy of heaven. What young man can then wish for heaven? Is not such love barren and devoid of life?"

The angelic spirits, smiling, replied:

"Yet the angelic love of the sex, or such love of the sex as there is in heaven is full of inmost delights. It is a most pleasing expansion of all things of the mind, and thence of all things in the breast. And within the breast it is as if the heart were playing with the lungs, and as if from this play, the breathing, the voice, and the speech went forth, making the companionship between the sexes, or between young men and maidens, heavenly sweetness itself, which is pure. All new-comers ascending into heaven are explored as to their chastity. For they are admitted into the companionship of maidens - the beauties of heaven - who perceive from the tone of voice, from the speech, from the countenance, from the eyes, from the gesture, and from the out-flowing sphere, what their quality is in respect to the love of the sex; and if it is unchaste they flee, and tell their companions that they have seen satyrs or priapi. And to the eyes of the angels such new-comers also are actually changed, and appear hairy, and as to their feet like calves or leopards. And very soon they are cast down, that they may not pollute the aura of heaven with their lust."

Hearing this the two new-comers said again:

"Then there is no love of the sex in heaven. What is a chaste love of the sex but the love emptied of the essence of its life? Are not then the companionships of young men and maidens there dry joys? We are not stones and stocks, but perceptions and affections of life."

Hearing this, the two angelic spirits, indignant, replied:

"You do not know at all what the chaste love of the sex is, because you are not yet chaste. That love is the very delight of the mind, and thence of the heart, but not at the same time of the flesh below the heart. Angelic chastity, which is common to both sexes, prevents the passing of that love beyond the enclosure of the heart; but within that and above that, the morality of the youth is delighted with the beauty of the maiden, with the delights of the chaste love of the sex that are too interior and too rich in pleasantness to be described by words. But the angels have this love of the sex because they have only conjugial love, and this cannot co-exist with the unchaste love of the sex. Love truly conjugial is a chaste love, and has nothing in common with unchaste love. It is with one only of the sex, all others being removed; for it is a love of the spirit and thence of the body, and not a love of the body and thence of the spirit. That is, it is not a love that infests the spirit."

The two young novitiates were rejoiced at hearing this, and said:

"There is still a love of the sex in heaven. What else is conjugial love?"

But to this the angelic spirits replied:

"Think more deeply, reflect, and you will perceive that your love of the sex is outside of conjugial love and that conjugial love is altogether different; that it is as different from the former as wheat from chaff, or rather as the human from the bestial. Ask women in heaven what love outside of the conjugial is, and I assure you they will answer: What is that? What do you say? How can such a question come out of your mouth that so offends the ears? How can a love that was not created be begotten in a man?' Then ask them what love truly conjugial is, and I know they will answer that, "It is not the love of the sex, but the love of one of the sex,' which only springs forth when a young man sees the maiden, and the maiden the young man whom the Lord has provided, and they mutually feel the conjugial enkindled in their hearts, and perceive, he that she is his, and she that he is hers. For love meets love and makes itself known, and instantly conjoins the souls, and afterwards the minds, and thence enters the breasts, and after the nuptials, farther; and thus it becomes a full love, which from day to day grows into conjunction, until they are no more twain but as one. I know also that they will solemnly aver that they know no other love of the sex. For they say, "How can there be a love of the sex unless it is so responsive and reciprocal that it breathes after an eternal union, which is that the twain may be one flesh?'"

To this the angelic spirits added:

"In heaven they do not know at all what scortation is, nor that it exists, nor that it can be. Angels are cold throughout the whole body towards unchaste love, or love outside of marriage; and, on the other hand, they grow warm throughout the whole body from chaste or conjugial love. As to the men in heaven, all their nerves are unstrung at the sight of a harlot, and grow tense at the sight of a wife."

Having heard these things the three new-comers asked

"Whether there is a similar love between married partners in heaven as on earth?"

And the two angelic spirits answered:

"It is quite similar."

And perceiving that they wished to know whether there are similar ultimate delights there, they said:

"They are altogether similar, but far more blessed, because the perception and sensation of the angels is far more exquisite than human perception and sensation. And what life has that love unless from a vein of potency? If this fails does not that love diminish and grow cold? And is not that vigor the very measure, the very degree, and the very basis of that love? Is it not the beginning, the foundation, and the complement of it? It is a universal law that first things exist, subsist, and endure from the last. And so it is also with this love. If then there were no ultimate delights, there would be no delights of conjugial love."

Then the new-comers asked,

"Whether from the ultimate delights of this love offspring are born there, and if there are not offspring, of what use are they?"

The angelic spirits replied,

"That there are no natural offspring, but spiritual offspring."

And they asked,

"What are spiritual offspring?"

They answered:

"Through ultimate delights married partners are the more united in the marriage of good and truth, and the marriage of good and truth is the marriage of love and wisdom; and love and wisdom are the offspring which are born of that marriage. And as the husband in heaven is wisdom, and the wife is the love of it, and as both of these are spiritual, therefore no other than spiritual offspring can be conceived and born there. Hence it is that the angels do not become sad after the delights, as some do on earth, but cheerful. And this comes of the perpetual inflowing of fresh powers succeeding the former, which renew and at the same time illustrate them; for all who come into heaven return into the springtime of their youth, and into the vigor of that age, and remain so to eternity."

Hearing these things the three new-comers said:

"Do we not read in the Word that in heaven there are no nuptials because they are angels?"

To this the angelic spirits replied:

"Look up into heaven and you will be answered."

And they asked:

"Why look up into heaven?"

They said:

"Because from thence we have all interpretations of the Word. The Word within is spiritual, and the angels being spiritual must teach the spiritual meaning of it."

And after some delay heaven was opened above their head, and two angels came in sight, and said:

"There are nuptials in heaven as on earth; but with none there but those who are in the marriage of good and truth, nor are any others angels. Therefore spiritual nuptials are there meant, which are marriages of good and truth. These take place on earth, and not after death, thus not in the heavens; as it is said of the five foolish virgins who also were invited to the nuptials, that they could not enter, because there was no marriage of good and truth in them for they had no oil, but only lamps; by oil, good is meant, and by lamps, truth, and to be given in marriage is to enter into heaven where that marriage is."

The three new-comers were rejoiced at hearing these things; and filled with desire for heaven and with the hope of nuptials there, they said:

"We will strive eagerly after morality and a virtuous life, that we may realize our desires."

(Conjugial Love 44)