Learning About Heaven and Hell (Pt 3)

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

The hells of those who have passed their lives in
ADULTERIES AND LASCIVIOUSNESS
Also concerning the hells of
THE DECEITFUL, AND OF SORCERESSES

Beneath the heel of the right foot* is a hell inhabited by those who have delighted in cruelty and at the same time in adulteries, and have felt in them the greatest delight of their lives. It is remarkable that those who have been cruel in the life of the body have been also, more than others, adulterers. Such are those who are in this hell, where they practice unspeakable methods of cruelty.

Though thou shouldest bray a fool in a mortar among wheat with a pestle, yet will not his foolishness depart from him.

(Prov. 27:22)

And he brought forth the people that were therein, and put them under saws, and under harrows of iron, and under axes of iron, and made them pass through the brick-kiln: and thus did he unto all the cities of the children of Ammon. So David and all the people returned unto Jerusalem.

(2 Sam. 12:31)

Moreover there [were] axes of iron, concerning which [it is spoken] in the same place, 2 Sam. 12:31. By the axes of iron are understood instruments, which similar infernal [spirits] also in the same place make use of through phantasy. The axes are like the broad [ones] employed by executioners, and they do not amputate or kill man, but open him in the belly, and draw out his intestines, and take them out with the broad axe of iron, and roll them about, and so draw them out until every intestine has been extracted.

(Spiritual Diary 2639)

By their phantasies they make themselves vessels as for braying, like those used for braying herbs, and pestles, wherewith they bray and torture whomsoever they can; and also as it were broad axes, like those of executioners; and augers, with which they do cruel violence to one another; not to mention other direful cruelties.

Some of the Jews are there who in former times so cruelly treated the Gentiles. And at this day that hell is increasing, especially from those who come from the so-called Christian world and have had all the delight of their life in adulteries, who also are for the most part cruel. Sometimes their delight is turned into the stench of human excrement, which exhales excessively when that hell is opened. I perceived it in the world of spirits, and at the time almost fell into a swoon from the effect of it. This noisome, excrementitious smell by turns fills the hell, and by turns ceases; for it is their delight from adulteries which is turned into such offensiveness. In process of time, when they have passed through a given period in such things, they are left alone and sit in torment, becoming like unsightly skeletons, but still living.

In the plane of the soles of the feet, at a considerable distance in front, there is a hell which is called Gehenna, where are shameless women who have placed all their delight in adulteries, and have regarded adulteries as not only permissible but honorable, and who under various pretenses of honorableness have allured the guileless and innocent to such things. A kind of fiery glow appears there, such as overcasts the sky from a great conflagration; and it is attended with fiery heat, as it was given me to feel by the warmth from it on my face; and there is a stench exhaled therefrom, as from burning bones and hair. Sometimes this hell is changed into direful serpents, which bite them; and then they long for death, but cannot die. Certain women released therefrom came to me and said there was a fiery heat there; but that when they are allowed to draw near to any society of good spirits the heat is changed to intense cold; and then burning heat and cold alternate with them, from one extreme to the other, by which they are miserably tormented. But yet they have their intervals during which they are in the heat of their fiery lust. But, as was said, their states vary.

There were some, of both sexes, from the so-called Christian world, who in their life of the body had believed adulteries to be not only lawful but even holy, and so held collective marriages, as they impiously call them, under a show of sanctity. I saw that they were sent into Gehenna; but when they came there a change took place; the fieriness of Gehenna, which is ruddy, at their coming became whiter; and it was perceived that they could not agree together. This execrable troop was therefore separated and driven away into a region behind (into another world, it was said), where they would be immersed in stagnant pools, and from there would be conveyed into a new Gehenna appointed for them. There was heard in Gehenna a kind of hissing that cannot be described; but the hiss or buzz of Gehenna was grosser than that of those who had defiled holiness by their adulteries.

Those who ensnare by pretended regard for conjugial love and love for children, so deporting themselves that the husband shall have no suspicion but that his guests are chaste, guileless, and friendly, and under such and various other pretenses the more safely commit adultery, are in a hell under the buttocks, in the filthiest excrement; and are vastated until they become as bones, because they rank with the deceitful. Such do not even know what conscience is. I have talked with them, and they were surprised that anyone should have conscience and should say that adulteries are contrary to conscience. They were told that it is as impossible for such conscienceless adulterers to come into heaven as it is for fishes to rise into the air, or birds into the ether, because if they but approach they have a feeling of suffocation, and their delight is turned into a noisome stench; and that they cannot but be thrust down into hell, and become at last as of bone, with little life, because they have acquired to themselves a life of such a character that when they lose it, very little of truly human life remains.

They who are possessed with the lust of defloration, and who find their greatest delight in virginities and the theft of them, without any purpose of marriage and offspring, and who when they have robbed virginity of its flower, afterwards forsake, loathe, and prostitute their victims, suffer the most grievous punishment in the other life, because such a life is contrary to order - natural, spiritual, and celestial; and because it is not only contrary to conjugial love, which is held in heaven to be most holy, but is also contrary to innocence, which they violate and kill by enticing the innocent, who might otherwise be imbued with conjugial love, into a meretricious life; for it is the first flower of love which introduces virgins into chaste conjugial love, and conjoins the minds of a married pair. And because the holiness of heaven is founded in conjugial love and in innocence, and such men are therefore interior murderers, they seem to themselves to be sitting upon a furious horse, which tosses them up so that they are thrown from the horse, to the peril of their life as it seems - such terror seizes them. Afterwards they appear to themselves to be under the belly of the furious horse, and presently seem to themselves to go through the hinder part of the horse into his belly; and then suddenly it appears to them as if they were in the belly of a filthy harlot, which harlot is changed into a great dragon, and there they remain wrapped in torment. This punishment returns many times during hundreds and thousands of years, until they are imbued with a horror of such desires. Respecting their offspring I have been told that they are worse than other children, because they derive from the father something of a like heredity; and therefore children are rarely born from such intercourse, and those that are born do not remain long in this life.

They who in the life of the body think lasciviously, and give a lascivious turn to whatever others say, even to holy things, and this even in adult and old age when nothing of natural lasciviousness incites, do not desist or think and speak differently in the other life; and as there their thoughts are communicated, and sometimes come forth into obscene representations before other spirits, they give offense. Their punishment is, that in the presence of the spirits whom they have offended they are thrown prostrate and rapidly rolled over and over like a roller from left to right, and then transversely in another position, and so in another-naked before all, or half naked, according to the nature of their lasciviousness, and at the same time they are inspired with shame. Then they are whirled about by the head and feet, horizontally, as upon an axis. Resistance is induced, and at the same time pain; for there are two forces acting, one whirling around, the other backward, so that the punishment is attended with the pain of being torn asunder. After undergoing these penalties, an opportunity is afforded the miserable sufferer of withdrawing himself from the sight of other spirits, and a sense of shame is instilled into him. Yet there are those who try him to see whether he still persists in such things; but so long as he is in a state of shame and distress he is on his guard. Thus he seems to himself to be hidden, although they know where he is. This punishment appeared in front, at some distance.

There are also boys, youths, and young men who from the madness and hot desire of their age have conceived abominable principles: as that wives, especially those that are young and beautiful, ought not to be for a husband, but for themselves and their like, the husband remaining only head of the household and educator of the children. These are distinguished in the other life by the boyish sound of their speech. They are behind at some height there. Those of them who have confirmed themselves in such principles, and in actual life conformable thereto, are grievously punished in the other life, by having their joints put out of place and back again, or twisted one way and the other, by spirits who can by their art induce upon them the phantasy of being in the body, and at the same time make them feel bodily pain. By these violent alternations, together with their struggles in resistance, they are so rent that they seem to themselves as if dismembered and torn to bits, with frightful pain; and this time after time, until being struck with horror at such principles of life they cease to think in that way.

They who beguile men by subtle deceit, wearing a pleasant face and manner of speech, but concealing envenomed guile within, and thus captivating men for the purpose of ruining them, are in a hell more dreadful than the hells of others, even more dreadful than the hell of murderers. They seem to themselves to live among serpents; and the more pernicious their deceit has been, the more dreadful and venomous and the more numerous the serpents appear which surround and torment them. They know not but that they are serpents; they feel similar pains and similar torments. Few perhaps will believe this, but yet it is true. These are they who practice deceit with premeditation, and feel therein the delight of their life. The punishments of the deceitful are various, each according to the nature of the deceit. In general such persons are not tolerated in societies, but are expelled; for whatever a spirit thinks, they who are near instantly know and perceive; thus they perceive whether there is anything of deceit, and what sort of deceit. Therefore, being at length expelled from societies, they sit in solitude; and they then appear with a broad face, the breadth equaling that of four or five faces of others, and with a broad fleshy cap turning white, sitting as images of death, in torment. There are others who are deceitful by nature, thus not so much from premeditation, and not clandestinely under a feigned countenance. They are known at once, and their thought is plainly perceived. They even boast of it, as if they would appear shrewd. These have not such a hell. But, by the Divine mercy of the Lord, more will be said about the deceitful hereafter.

There are women who have lived in the indulgence of their natural inclinations, caring only for themselves and the world, and making the whole of life and the delight of life to consist in outward decorum, in consequence of which they have been highly esteemed in polite society. They have thus, by practice and habit, acquired the talent of insinuating themselves into the desires and pleasures of others, under the pretense of what is honorable, but with the purpose of gaining control over them. Their life therefore became one of dissimulation and deceit. Like others they frequented churches, but for no other end than that they might appear virtuous and pious; and moreover they were without conscience, and very prone to shameful acts and adulteries, so far as these could be concealed. Such women think in the same way in the other life, knowing not what conscience is, and ridiculing those who speak of it. They enter into the affections of others, whatever these may be, by simulating virtue, piety, pity, and innocence, which are their means of deceiving; but whenever outward restraints are removed, they rush into things most wicked and obscene.

These are the women who become enchantresses or sorceresses in the other life, some of whom are those called Sirens; and they there become expert in arts unknown in the world. They are like sponges that imbibe nefarious artifices; and are of such talent that they quickly put them in practice. The arts unknown in this world which they learn in the other are these. They can speak as though they were in another place, so that their voice is heard there as from good spirits. They can as it were be with many at the same time, thus persuading others that they are as if present everywhere. They can speak as several persons at the same time, and in several places at the same time. They can turn aside what flows in from good spirits, even what flows in from angelic spirits, and in diverse ways pervert it instantly in favor of themselves. They can put on the likeness of another, by the ideas of him which they conceive and fashion. They can inspire anyone with an affection for themselves, by insinuating themselves into the very state of another's affection. They can withdraw suddenly out of sight, and escape unseen. They can represent before the eyes of spirits a white flame about the head, which is an angelic sign, and this before many. They can in diverse ways feign innocence, even by representing infants whom they kiss. They also excite others, whom they hate, to kill them (for they know they cannot die), and then divulge it and accuse them of murder.

They have called up out of my memory whatever of evil I have thought and done, and this most skillfully. While I was asleep they have talked with others, just as if from me, so that the spirits were persuaded of it, thus of things false and obscene. And many other arts they have. Their nature is so persuasive that no room is left therein for any doubt; therefore their ideas are not communicated like those of other spirits. And their eyes are like those ascribed to serpents, seeing and paying attention every way at once. These sorceresses or sirens are grievously punished, some in Gehenna, some in a kind of court among snakes; some by wrenchings and various collisions, attended with the greatest pain and torture. In course of time they are separated from all society and become like skeletons from head to foot.

(Arcana Coelestia 824-831)

* The Swedenborg speaks of places in the spiritual world as being situated in accordance with their correspondence to the human body. [Reviser.]

Learning About Heaven and Hell (Pt 2)

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Concerning the hells of those who have passed their life in
HATREDS, REVENGES, AND CRUELTIES.

Such spirits as cherish deadly hatred, and hence breathe out vengeance and nothing less than death to another, knowing no rest till then, are kept in the deepest cadaverous hell, where there is a noisome stench as of carcasses; and, wonderful to say, such spirits are so delighted with the stench there that they prefer it to the most pleasing odors. Such is their dreadful nature, and their consequent phantasy. A like stench actually exhales from that hell. When the hell is opened (which occurs rarely, and then only for a short time), so great a stench pours forth from it that spirits cannot remain in the neighborhood. Certain genii, or rather furies, who were sent forth thence in order that I might know their quality, infected the sphere with such poisonous and pestilent breath that the spirits about me could not stay; and at the same time it so affected my stomach that I vomited. They manifested themselves under the appearance of a little child, of not uncomely face, with a concealed dagger, whom they sent to me, bearing a cup in his hand. From this it was given me to know that they had a mind to murder, either with the dagger or with poison, under a show of innocence. Yet they themselves had naked bodies, and were very black. But presently they were sent back into their cadaverous hell, and it was then given me to observe how they sank down. They went on to the left, in the plane of the left temple, and to a great distance, without descending, and afterwards sank down; first into what appeared as a fire, then into a fiery smoke as of a furnace, and then under that furnace, toward the front, where were many most gloomy caverns tending downward. On the way they were continually revolving and intending evils, and chiefly against the innocent, without cause. When they sank down through the fire they greatly lamented. That they may be well distinguished as to whence and what they are, when they are sent out they have a kind of ring to which are affixed points as of brass, which they press with the hands and twist about. This is a sign that they are of this nature, and are bound.

They who so delight in hatred and the consequent revenge that they are not content to kill the body only, but desire to destroy the soul, which yet the Lord has redeemed, are sent down through a very dark opening toward the lowest parts of the earth, to a depth proportionate to the degree of their hatred and vindictiveness; and there they are struck with grievous terror and horror, and at the same time are kept in the lust for revenge; and as this increases they are sent down to lower depths. Afterwards they are sent into a place beneath Gehenna, where great and dreadful thick-bellied serpents appear (so vividly that it is just as if they were real), by whose bites they are tormented, feeling them acutely. Such things are keenly felt by spirits, answering to their life just as things of the body do to the life of those who are in the body. Meanwhile they live in direful phantasies for ages, until they no longer know that they have been men. Their life, which they have derived from such hatreds and revenges, cannot otherwise be extinguished.

As there are innumerable genera of hatreds and revenges, and species still more innumerable, and one genus has not the same hell as another, and as it is therefore impossible to recount them singly in their order, I may refer to what have been seen.

One came to me who appeared to be a noble. (Those who appeared to me were seen as in clear daylight, and even more clearly, but by my internal sight; for of the Lord's Divine mercy it has been given me to be in company with spirits.) At his first approach he pretended by signs that he had much he wished to communicate to me, asking whether I was a Christian; to which I replied that I was. He said that he was too, and asked that he might be alone with me, to tell me something that others might not hear. But I answered that in the other life people cannot be alone, as men think they are on earth, and that many spirits were present. He now came nearer and approached stealthily behind me to the back of my head, and then I perceived that he was an assassin. While he was there I felt as it were a stab through the heart, and presently in the brain - such a blow as might easily be the death of a man. But as I was protected by the Lord, I feared nothing. What device he used I do not know. Thinking me dead, he told others that he had just come from a man whom he had killed in that way, and by a deadly stroke from behind, saying that he was so skillful in the art that a man would not know until he fell down dead, and it would not be doubted that he himself was innocent. It was given me to know from this that he had but lately departed from life, where he had committed such a deed. The punishment of such is dreadful. After they have suffered infernal torments for ages, they at length come to have a detestable and most monstrous face - such as is not a face, but a ghastly thing as of tow. Thus they put off everything human, and then everyone shudders at the sight of them, and so they wander about like wild beasts, in dark places.

There came one to me out of an infernal apartment at the left side and spoke with me. It was given me to perceive that he was of a villainous crew. What he had done in the world was disclosed in the following manner. He was sent down somewhat deep into the lower earth, in front, a little to the left, and there he began to dig a grave, as is done for the dead who are to be buried. From this arose a suspicion that in the life of the body he had perpetrated some deadly deed. Then there appeared a funeral bier covered with a black cloth. Presently one rising from the bier came to me, and in a devout manner related that he had died, and that he believed he had been killed by that man with poison, and that he had thought so at the hour of his death, but did not know whether it was more than a suspicion. When the infamous spirit heard this, he confessed that he had committed such a deed. After the confession, punishment followed. He was twice rolled about in the dark hole he had dug, and became as black as an Egyptian mummy, both face and body, and in that state was taken up on high and carried about before spirits and angels, and the cry was heard: What a devil! He also became cold, thus one of the cold infernals, and was sent down into hell.

There is a dreadful hell beneath the buttocks, where they seem to stab one another with knives, aiming the knives at one another's breasts like furies, but in the act of striking the knife is continually taken away from them. They are those who have held others in such hatred that they burned to kill them cruelly; and from this they had derived a nature so direful. This hell was opened to me (but only a little on account of their direful cruelties), so that I might see the nature of deadly hatred.

There is at the left, in a plane with the lower parts of the body, a kind of stagnant lake, large, and of greater length than breadth. About its bank in front there appear to those who are there monstrous serpents, such as inhabit stagnant waters, with pestilent breath. Farther away, on the left bank, appear those who eat human flesh, and devour one another, fastening with their teeth on one another's shoulders. Still farther away to the left appear great fishes, enormous whales, which swallow a man and vomit him out again. In the farthest distance, or on the opposite shore, appear very ugly faces, too monstrous to be described, chiefly those of old women, who run about as if frenzied. On the right bank are those who are trying to butcher each other with cruel instruments, which vary in accordance with the direful feelings of their hearts. In the middle of the lake it is everywhere black, as if stagnant. Sometimes I have been surprised to see spirits brought to this lake, but was informed by some who came from it and told me, that they were those who had cherished intestine hatred against the neighbor; and that their hatred burst forth as often as occasion offered, in which they perceived their greatest delight; and that nothing had pleased them more than to bring a neighbor to judgment and cause punishment to be inflicted on him, and, if the penalties of the law had not deterred them, to put him to death. Into such things (as described above) are the hatreds and cruelties of men turned after the life of the body. The phantasies to which their hatreds and cruelties give rise have to them the reality of life.

In the other life those who have practiced robbery and piracy love rank and fetid urine above all other liquids, and seem to themselves to dwell among such things, and among stagnant and stinking pools. A certain robber approached me, gnashing his teeth, the sound of which was as plainly heard as if it had proceeded from a man, which was strange, since they have no teeth. He confessed that he would rather live in urinous filth than by the clearest waters, and that the smell of urine was what he delighted in. He said he would rather stay and have his home in urinous vats than anywhere else.

There are those who outwardly present an honorable face and life, so that no one could suspect them of being other than honorable, studying in every way to appear so, for the sake of being raised to honors, and of acquiring wealth without the loss of reputation. They therefore do not act openly; but through others by deceitful artifices they deprive men of their goods, caring nothing if the families they despoil perish of hunger, and they would themselves be personal agents in this villainy, without any conscience, if they could escape public notice, so that they really are of the same character as if they perpetrated it by their own act. They are hidden robbers, and the kind of hatred peculiar to them is joined with scornful contempt for others, greed of gain, unmercifulness, and deceit. In the other life such men desire to be esteemed blameless, saying that they have done nothing wrong, because it was not detected. And to show themselves guiltless, they put off their garments and present themselves naked - in this way attesting their innocence. Yet while they are being examined their quality is thoroughly well perceived from every single word and every single idea of their thought, without their being aware of it. Such, in the other life, desire without any conscience to murder whatever companions they fall in with. They have also an axe with them, and a maul in their hand, and seem to have another spirit with them whom they strike, when on his back; but not to the shedding of blood, for they are afraid of death. And they cannot cast these weapons out of their hands although they strive to do so with all their might, in order to prevent the actual ferocity of their disposition from appearing before the eyes of spirits and angels. They are at a middle distance under the feet, toward the front.

There is a kind of hatred against the neighbor, which finds its delight in injuring and harassing everyone; and the more mischief they can do the more delighted they are. There are very many such from the lowest of the common people. And there are those not of the common people who have a similar disposition, but outwardly are of better manners, from having been brought up in good society, and also from fear of legal penalties. After death, the upper part of the body of these spirits appears naked, and their hair disheveled. They annoy one another by rushing forward and placing the palms of their hands on each other's shoulders, and they then leap over their heads, and soon come back and make a severe attack with their fists. Those of whom it was said that they have better manners act in a similar way, but first exchange greetings, then go round behind their neighbor's back, and so attack with the fist; but when they see each other face to face they make a salutation, and again go round behind his back and strike him with the fist. In this way they keep up appearances. These appear at some distance toward the left side, at a middle height.

Whatever a man has done in the life of the body successively returns in the other life, and so does all that he has even thought. When his enmities, hatreds, and deceits return, the persons against whom he has indulged hatred and has clandestinely plotted are made present to him, and this in a moment. Such is the case in the other life; but concerning this presence, of the Lord's Divine mercy hereafter. The thoughts a man has harbored against others make their appearance openly, for there is a perception of all thoughts. Hence come lamentable states, for there concealed hatreds break out openly. With the evil all their evil deeds and thoughts thus return, to the life; but it is not so with the good. With these all their good states of friendship and love return, attended with the highest delight and happiness.

(Arcana Coelestia 814-823)

Learning About Heaven and Hell (Pt 1)

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

As with regard to heaven, so with regard to hell, man has only a very general idea, which is so obscure that it is almost none at all. It is such as they who have not been beyond their huts in the woods may have of the earth. They know nothing of its empires and kingdoms, still less of its forms of government, of its societies, or of the life in the societies. Until they know these things they can have but the most general notion of the earth, so general as to be almost none. The case is the same in regard to people's ideas about heaven and hell, when yet in each of them there are things innumerable and indefinitely more numerous than in any earthly world. How numberless they are may be evident from this alone: that just as no one ever has the same heaven, so no one has the same hell as another, and that all souls whatever who have lived in the world since the first creation come there and are gathered together.

As love to the Lord and toward the neighbor, together with the joy and happiness thence derived constitute heaven, so hatred against the Lord and the neighbor, together with the consequent punishment and torment, constitute hell. There are innumerable genera of hatreds, and still more innumerable species; and the hells are just as innumerable.

As heaven from the Lord, through mutual love, constitutes as it were one man, and one soul, and thus has regard to one end, which is the conservation and salvation of all to eternity, so, on the other hand, hell, from man's Own, through the love of self and of the world, that is, through hatred, constitutes one devil and one mind [animus], and thus also has regard to one end, which is the destruction and damnation of all to eternity. That such is their endeavor has been perceived thousands and thousands of times, so that unless the Lord preserved all every instant, they would perish.

But the form and the order imposed by the Lord on the hells is such that all are held bound and tied up by their cupidities and phantasies, in which their very life consists; and this life, being a life of death, is turned into dreadful torments, so severe that they cannot be described. For the greatest delight of their life consists in being able to punish, torture, and torment one another, and this by arts unknown in the world, whereby they know how to induce exquisite suffering, just as if they were in the body, and at the same time dreadful and horrid phantasies, with terrors and horrors and many such torments. The diabolical crew take so great a pleasure in this that if they could increase and extend the pains and torments to infinity, they would not even then be satisfied, but would burn yet again to infinity; but the Lord takes away their endeavors, and alleviates the torments.

Such is the equilibrium of all things in the other life in both general and particular that evil punishes itself, so that in evil there is the punishment of evil. It is the same with falsity, which returns upon him who is in the falsity. Hence everyone brings punishment and torment upon himself, and rushes at the same time among the diabolical crew who inflict such torment. The Lord never sends anyone to hell, but would lead all away from hell, and still less does He lead into torment. But as the evil spirit rushes into it himself, the Lord turns all the punishment and torment to good, and to some use. No penalty is ever possible unless the Lord has in view some end of use; for the Lord's kingdom is a kingdom of ends and uses. But the uses which the infernals can perform are the lowest uses; and when they are engaged in them they are not in so much torment, but on the cessation of the use they are sent back into hell.

There are with every man at least two evil spirits and two angels.

Through the evil spirits the man has communication with hell; and through the angels, with heaven. Without communication with both no man can live a moment. Thus every man is in some society of infernals, although he is unaware of it. But their torments are not communicated to him, because he is in a state of preparation for eternal life. The society in which a man has been is sometimes shown him in the other life; for he returns to it, and thereby into the life that he had in the world; and from thence he either tends toward hell, or is raised up toward heaven. Thus a man who does not live in the good of charity, and does not suffer himself to be led by the Lord, is one of the infernals, and after death also becomes a devil.

Besides the hells there are also vastations, concerning which there is much in the Word.

For in consequence of actual sins a man takes with him into the other life innumerable evils and falsities, which he accumulates and joins to himself. It is so even with those who have lived uprightly. Before these can be taken up into heaven, their evils and falsities must be dissipated, and this dissipation is called Vastation. There are many kinds of vastations, and longer and shorter periods of vastation. Some are taken up into heaven in a comparatively short time, and some immediately after death.

That I might witness the torment of those who are in hell, and the vastation of those who are in the lower earth, I have at different times been let down thither. To be let down into hell is not to be carried from one place to another, but to be let into some infernal society, the man remaining in the same place. But I may here relate only this experience: —

I plainly perceived that a kind of column surrounded me, and this column was sensibly increased, and it was intimated to me that this was the "wall of brass" spoken of in the Word.

For, behold, I have made thee this day a defenced city, and an iron pillar, and brasen walls against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against the princes thereof, against the priests thereof, and against the people of the land. ... And I will make thee unto this people a fenced brasen wall: and they shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevail against thee: for I am with thee to save thee and to deliver thee, saith the Lord. (Jer. 1:18; 15:20)

The column was formed of angelic spirits in order that I might safely descend to the unhappy. When I was there I heard piteous lamentations, such as, O God! O God! take pity on us! take pity on us! and this for a long time. I was permitted to speak to those wretched ones, and this for a considerable time. They complained especially of evil spirits in that they desired and burned for nothing else than to torment them. They were in despair, saying that they believed their torment would be eternal; but I was permitted to comfort them.

The hells being as we have stated so numerous, in order to give some regular account of them, they shall be treated of as follows —

I. Concerning the hells of those who have lived a life of hatred, revenge, and cruelty.

II. Concerning the hells of those who have lived in adulteries and lasciviousnesses; and concerning the hells of the deceitful, and of sorceresses.

III. Concerning the hells of the avaricious; and the filthy Jerusalem there, and the robbers in the wilderness; also concerning the excrementitious hells of those who have lived in mere pleasures.

IV. Afterwards concerning other hells which are distinct from the above.

V. Finally concerning those who are in vastation.

The description of these will in the continuing series.

(from Arcana Coelestia 692-700)

Abusing Rationality and Freedom

Selection from Divine Love and Wisdom ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
The Origin Of Evil Is From The Abuse Of The Capacities Proper To Man
That Are Called Rationality And Freedom

By rationality is meant the capacity to understand what is true and thereby what is false, also to understand what is good and thereby what is evil; and by freedom is meant the capacity to think, will and do these things freely.

Every man from creation, consequently from birth, has these two capacities, and that they are from the Lord; that they are not taken away from man; that from them is the appearance that man thinks, speaks, wills, and acts as from himself; that the Lord dwells in these capacities in every man, that man by virtue of that conjunction lives to eternity; that man by means of these capacities can be reformed and regenerated, but not without them; finally, that by them man is distinguished from beasts.

A bad man, equally with a good man enjoys these two capacities.

The natural mind, as regards the understanding, can be elevated even to the light in which angels of the third heaven are, and can see truths, acknowledge them, and then give expression to them. From this it is plain that since the natural mind can be elevated, a bad man equally with a good man enjoys the capacity called rationality; and because the natural mind can be elevated to such an extent, it follows that a bad man can also think and speak about heavenly truths. Moreover, that he is able to will and to do them, even though he does not will and do them, both reason and experience affirm.

Reason affirms it: for who cannot will and do what he thinks? His not willing and doing it is because he does not love to will and do it. This ability to will and to do is the freedom which every man has from the Lord; but his not willing and doing good when he can, is from a love of evil, which opposes; but this love he is able to resist, and many do resist it.

Experience in the spiritual world has often corroborated this. I have listened to evil spirits who inwardly were devils, and who in the world had rejected the truths of heaven and the church. When the affection for knowing, in which every man is from childhood, was excited in them by the glory that, like the brightness of fire, surrounds each love, they perceived the arcana of angelic wisdom just as clearly as good spirits do who inwardly were angels. Those diabolical spirits even declared that they were able to will and act according to those arcana, but did not wish to. When told that they might will them, if only they would flee from evils as sins, they said that they could even do that, but did not wish to.

From this it was evident that the wicked equally with the good have the capacity called freedom. Let any one look within himself, and he will observe that it is so. Man has the power to will, because the Lord, from whom that capacity comes, continually gives the power; for, as was said above, the Lord dwells in every man in both of these capacities, and therefore in the capacity, that is, in the power, of being able to will. As to the capacity to understand, called rationality, this man does not have until his natural mind reaches maturity; until then it is like seed in unripe fruit, which cannot be opened in the soil and grow up into a shrub.

A bad man abuses these capacities to confirm evils and falsities, but a good man uses them to confirm goods and truths.

From the intellectual capacity called rationality, and from the voluntary capacity called freedom, man derives the ability to confirm whatever he wishes; for the natural man is able to raise his understanding into higher light to any extent he desires; but one who is in evils and in falsities therefrom, raises it no higher than into the upper regions of his natural mind, and rarely as far as the border of the spiritual mind; for the reason that he is in the delights of the love of his natural mind, and when he raises the understanding above that mind, the delight of his love perishes; and if it is raised still higher, and sees truths which are opposed to the delights of his life or to the principles of his self-intelligence, he either falsifies those truths or passes them by and contemptuously leaves them behind, or retains them in the memory as means to serve his life's love, or the pride of his self-intelligence.

That the natural man is able to confirm whatever he wishes is plainly evident from the multitude of heresies in the Christian world, each of which is confirmed by its adherents. Who does not know that evils and falsities of every kind can be confirmed? It is possible to confirm, and by the wicked it is confirmed within themselves, that there is no God, and that nature is everything and created herself; that religion is only a means for keeping simple minds in bondage; that human prudence does everything, and Divine providence nothing except sustaining the universe in the order in which it was created; also that murders, adulteries, thefts, frauds, and revenge are allowable, as held by Machiavelli and his followers. [Nicholas Machiavel, was an Italian diplomat, author, philosopher and historian who lived during the Renaissance. He is best known as the father of modern political philosophy and political science]

These and many like things the natural man is able to confirm, and even to fill volumes with the confirmations; and when such falsities are confirmed they appear in their delusive light, but truths in such obscurity as to be seen only as phantoms of the night. In a word, take what is most false and present it as a proposition, and ask an ingenious person to prove it, and he will do so to the complete extinction of the light of truth; but set aside his confirmations, return and view the proposition itself from your own rationality, and you will see its falsity in all its deformity.

From all this it can be seen that man is able to abuse these two capacities, which he has from the Lord, to confirm evils and falsities of every kind. This no beast can do, because no beast enjoys these capacities. Consequently, a beast is born into all the order of its life, and into all the knowledge of its natural love, but man is not.

Evils and falsities confirmed in man are permanent, and come to be of his love and life.

Confirming evil and falsity is nothing else than putting away good and truth, and if persisted in, it is their rejection; for evil removes and rejects good, and falsity truth. For this reason confirming evil and falsity is a closing up of heaven, - for every good and truth flows in from the Lord through heaven, - and when heaven is closed, man is in hell, and in a society therein which a like evil prevails and a like falsity; from which hell he cannot afterwards be delivered.

It has been granted me to speak with some who ages ago confirmed themselves in the falsities of their religion, and I saw that they remained in the same falsities, in the same way as they were in them in the world. The reason is, that all things in which a man confirms himself come to be of his love and life. They come to be of his love because they come to be of his will and understanding; and will and understanding constitute the life of every one; and when they come to be of man's life, they come to be not only of his whole mind but also of his whole body.

From this it is evident that a man who has confirmed himself in evils and falsities is such from head to foot, and when he is wholly such, by no turning or twisting back can he be reduced to an opposite state, and thus withdrawn from hell.

(from Divine Love and Wisdom 264;266-268)

It has been said that every man is born into that capacity, namely, rationality, but by this is meant every man whose externals have not been injured by some accident, either in the womb, or by some disease after birth, or by a wound inflicted on the head, or in consequence of some insane love bursting forth, and breaking down restraints. In such the rational cannot be elevated; for life, which is of the will and understanding, has in such no bounds in which it can terminate, so disposed that it can produce outmost acts according to order; for life acts in accordance with outmost determinations, though not from them. (from Divine Love and Wisdom 259)

Consociations in The Other Life

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
The Societies Which Constitute Heaven

There are three heavens: the First is the abode of good spirits, the Second of angelic spirits, and the Third of angels. And one heaven is more interior and pure than another, so that they are most distinct. Each heaven, the first, the second, and the third, is distinguished into innumerable societies; and each society consists of many individuals, who by their harmony and unanimity constitute as it were one person; and all the societies together are as one man. The societies are distinct from one another according to the differences of mutual love, and of faith in the Lord. These differences are so innumerable that not even the most universal genera of them can be computed; and there is not the least of difference that is not disposed in most perfect order, so as to conspire most harmoniously to a common unity, and the common unity to unanimity of individuals, and thereby to the happiness of all from each, and of each from all. Each angel and each society is therefore an image of the universal heaven, and is as it were a little heaven.

There are wonderful consociations in the other life which may be compared to relationships on earth: that is to say, they recognize one another as parents, children, brothers, and relations by blood and by marriage, the love being according to such varieties of relationship. These varieties are endless, and the communicable perceptions are so exquisite that they cannot be described. The relationships have no reference at all to the circumstance that those who are there had been parents, children, or kindred by blood and marriage on earth; and they have no respect to person, no matter what anyone may have been. Thus they have no regard to dignities, nor to wealth, nor to any such matters, but solely to varieties of mutual love and of faith, the faculty for the reception of which they had received from the Lord while they had lived in the world.

It is the Lord's mercy, that is, His love toward the universal heaven and the universal human race, thus it is the Lord alone who determines all things both in general and in particular into societies. This mercy it is which produces conjugial love, and from this the love of parents for children, which are the fundamental and principal loves. From these come all other loves, with endless variety, which are arranged most distinctly into societies.

Such being the nature of heaven —

no angel or spirit can have any life unless he is in some society, and thereby in a harmony of many. A society is nothing but a harmony of many, for no one has any life separate from the life of others

Indeed no angel, or spirit, or society can have any life (that is, be affected by good, exercise will, be affected by truth, or think), unless there is a conjunction thereof through many of his society with heaven and with the world of spirits.

And it is the same with the human race: no man, no matter who and what he may be, can live (that is, be affected by good, exercise will, be affected by truth, or think), unless in like manner he is conjoined with heaven through the angels who are with him, and with the world of spirits, nay, with hell, through the spirits that are with him. For every man while living in the body is in some society of spirits and of angels, though entirely unaware of it. And if he were not conjoined with heaven and with the world of spirits through the society in which he is, he could not live a moment.

The case in this respect is the same as it is with the human body, any portion of which that is not conjoined with the rest by means of fibers and vessels, and thus by means of functions, is not a part of the body, but is instantly separated and rejected, as having no vitality.

The very societies in and with which men have been during the life of the body, are shown them when they come into the other life. And when, after the life of the body, they come into their society, they come into their veriest life which they had in the body, and from this life begin a new life; and so according to their life which they have lived in the body they either go down into hell, or are raised up into heaven.

As there is such conjunction of all with each and of each with all, there is also a similar conjunction of the most individual particulars of affection and the most individual particulars of thought.

There is therefore an equilibrium of all and of each with respect to celestial, spiritual, and natural things, so that no one can think, feel, and act except from many, and yet everyone supposes that he does so of himself, most freely. In like manner there is nothing which is not balanced by its opposite, and opposites by intermediates, so that each by himself, and many together, live in most perfect equilibrium. And therefore no evil can befall anyone without being instantly counterbalanced; and when there is a preponderance of evil, the evil or evildoer is chastised by the law of equilibrium, as of himself, but solely for the end that good may come. Heavenly order consists in such a form and the consequent equilibrium; and that order is formed, disposed, and preserved by the Lord alone, to eternity.

It should be known, moreover, that there is never one society entirely and absolutely like another, nor is there one person like another in any society, but there is an accordant and harmonious variety of all; and the varieties are so ordered by the Lord that they conspire to one end, which is effected through love and faith in Him. Hence their unity. For the same reason the heaven and heavenly joy of one is never exactly and absolutely like that of another; but according to the varieties of love and faith, such are the heaven and the heavenly joy in those varieties.

These things in general respecting the heavenly societies are from manifold and daily experience.

(Arcana Coelestia 684-691)

The Nature of Heaven and It's Joys

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
Heaven and Heavenly Joy

The souls who come into the other life are all ignorant of the nature of heaven and of heavenly joy. Very many suppose it to be a kind of joy into which any can be admitted no matter how they have lived, even those who have borne hatred against their neighbor and have passed their lives in adulteries, being quite unaware of the fact that heaven is mutual and chaste love, and that heavenly joy is the derivative happiness.

I have sometimes spoken with spirits fresh from the world concerning the state of eternal life, telling them how important it was for them to know who is the Lord of that kingdom, and what is the nature and form of its government, just as those in this world who go into another kingdom are especially interested to know who and of what sort is the king, what is the nature of the government, and many other things that belong to the kingdom; and how much more should they be interested in this kingdom, where they are to live forever. I told them that the Lord alone rules both heaven and the universe, for He who rules the one must rule the other; and that the kingdom in which they were now is the Lord's kingdom, the laws of which are eternal truths, all of which are based on the one great law that —

men shall love the Lord above all things and their neighbor as themselves, and now even more than themselves

for if they would be as the angels this is what they must do.

To all this they could make no reply, because in their bodily life they had heard something of the kind, but had not believed it.

They marveled that there is such love in heaven, and that it is possible for anyone to love his neighbor more than himself, seeing that they had heard that they were to love their neighbor as themselves. But they were instructed that in the other life all goods are immeasurably increased, and that the life in the body is such that men can go no further than loving the neighbor as themselves because they are in the things of the body, but that when these are removed, the love becomes purer, and at last angelic, which consists in loving the neighbor more than themselves.

The possibility of such love is evident from the conjugial love that exists with some persons, who would suffer death rather than let their married partner be injured; and also from the love of parents for their children, in that a mother will endure starvation rather than see her infant hunger, and this even among birds and animals; and likewise from sincere friendship, in that perils will be undergone for our friends; and even from polite and feigned friendship, that would emulate real friendship in offering the better things to those to whom we wish well, making great professions even when they do not come from the heart.

And finally its possibility is evident from the very nature of love, which finds its joy in being of service to others, not for the sake of self but for the love's own sake.

But all this could not be comprehended by those who loved themselves more than others, and who in the bodily life had been greedy for gain, and least of all by the avaricious.

The angelic state is such that everyone communicates his own bliss and happiness to others. For in the other life there is a most exquisite communication and perception of all the affections and thoughts, so that each person communicates his joy to all, and all to each, so that each one is as it were the center of all. This is the heavenly form.

And therefore the more there are who constitute the Lord's kingdom, the greater is the happiness, for it increases in proportion to the numbers, and this is why heavenly happiness is unutterable. There is this communication of all with each and of each with all when everyone loves others more than himself. But if anyone wishes better for himself than for others the love of self reigns, which communicates nothing to others from itself except the idea of self, which is very foul, and when this is perceived the person is at once banished and rejected.

Just as in the human body all things both in general and particular contribute to the general and individual uses of all the rest, so is it in the Lord's kingdom, which is constituted like a man, and in fact is called the Grand Man. In this way everyone there contributes either more nearly or more remotely, and in many ways, to the happiness of all, and this in accordance with the order instituted and consequently maintained by the Lord alone.

From the universal heaven bearing relation to the Lord, and all there in both general and particular bearing relation to the Very and Only Being both in the universal as a whole and in its most individual constituents, there comes order, there comes union, there comes mutual love, and there comes happiness; for so each person regards the welfare and happiness of all, and all that of each one.

That all the joy and happiness in heaven are from the Lord alone, has been shown me by many experiences, of which the following may be related.

I saw that with the utmost diligence some angelic spirits were fashioning a lampstand with its lamps and flowers of the richest ornamentation in honor of the Lord. For an hour or two I was permitted to witness with what great pains they labored to make everything about it beautiful and representative, they supposing that they were doing it of themselves. But to me it was given to perceive that of themselves they could devise nothing at all. At last after some hours they said that they had formed a very beautiful representative candelabrum in honor of the Lord, whereat they rejoiced from their very hearts. But I told them that of themselves they had devised and formed nothing at all, but the Lord alone for them. At first they would scarcely believe this, but being angelic spirits they were enlightened, and confessed that it was so. So it is with all other representative things, and with everything of affection and thought in both general and particular, and also with heavenly joys and felicities-the very smallest bit of them is from the Lord alone.

They who are in mutual love in heaven are continually advancing to the springtime of their youth, and to a more and more gladsome and happy spring the more thousands of years they live, and this with continual increase to eternity, according to the advance and degree of mutual love, charity, and faith.

Those of the female sex who have died in old age and enfeebled with years, and who have lived in faith in the Lord, in charity toward the neighbor, and in happy conjugial love with their husbands, after a succession of years come more and more into the bloom of youth and early womanhood, and into a beauty that surpasses all idea of beauty such as is ever perceptible to the natural sight; for it is goodness and charity forming and presenting their own likeness, and causing the delight and beauty of charity to shine forth from every least feature of the countenance, so that they are the very forms of charity: some have beheld them and been amazed.

The form of charity, as is seen to the life in the other world, is such that it is charity itself that portrays and is portrayed, and this in such a manner that the whole angel, and especially the face, is as it were charity, the charity both plainly appearing to the view and being perceived by the mind. When this form is beheld, it is unutterable beauty that affects with charity the very inmost life of the beholder's mind. Through the beauty of this form, the truths of faith are presented to view in an image, and are even perceived from it. Such forms, or such beauties, do those become in the other life who have lived in faith in the Lord, that is, in the faith of charity. All the angels are such forms, with countless variety, and of such is heaven.

(Arcana Coelestia 547-553)

Light of Heaven — Thick Darkness of Hell

Selection from Heaven and Hell ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

In the spiritual world, or in the world where spirits and angels are, similar objects appear as in the natural world, or where men are. These are similar in that as to external appearance there is no difference. In that world appear plains and mountains, hills and rocks, and valleys between them; also waters, and many other things that are seen on earth. But yet all these things are from a spiritual origin, and all appear therefore before the eyes of spirits and angels, and not before the eyes of men, because men are in the natural world. Spiritual beings see the things that are from a spiritual origin, and natural beings the things that are from a natural origin. Consequently, man with his eyes can in no way see the objects that are in the spiritual world unless he is permitted to be in the spirit, or after death when he becomes a spirit. On the other hand, an angel and a spirit are unable to see anything at all in the natural world unless they are with a man who is permitted to speak with them. For the eyes of man are adapted to the reception of the light of the natural world, and the eyes of angels and spirits are adapted to the reception of the light of the spiritual world; although the eyes of the two are exactly alike in appearance. That the spiritual world is such, the natural man cannot comprehend, and least of all the sensual man, who believes nothing except what he sees with his bodily eyes and touches with his hands, and therefore takes in by sight and touch. He thinks from these things, so his thought is material and not spiritual. Such being the likeness between the spiritual world and the natural world, man after death can hardly believe otherwise than that he is in the world where he was born, and from which he has departed. For this reason they call death simply a translation from one world into another like it. (That the two worlds are thus alike can be seen [from these next passages], where the representatives and appearances in heaven have been treated of.)

The man who thinks from natural light alone is unable to comprehend that there is anything in heaven like what is in the world, the reason being that from natural light he had thought and confirmed himself in the idea that angels are only minds and that minds are, as it were, ethereal breaths having, as a consequence, no senses like those of men, thus no eyes and if no eyes no objects of sight. Yet, an angel has all the senses that a man has, and much more exquisite senses. Indeed, the light by which angels see is much brighter than the light by which man sees.

The nature of the objects that are visible to angels in the heavens cannot be described in a few words. For the most part, they are like things on earth but more perfect in form and more abundant in number. That such things are in the heavens can be confirmed from the things seen by the prophets - as by • Ezekiel, in respect of the new temple and the new earth, described from chapter 40 - 48 • Daniel from chapter 7- 12 • John from the first to the last chapter of the Revelation, and by others, as described both in the historical and the prophetical parts of the Word. These things were seen by them when heaven was opened to them, and heaven is said to be opened when the interior sight, which is the sight of man's spirit, is opened. For the things that are in the heavens cannot be seen by the eyes of a man's body, but are seen by the eyes of his spirit. When it seems good to the Lord, these are opened and man is then withdrawn from the natural light in which he is from the senses of the body, and is raised up into a spiritual light in which he is from his spirit. In that light the things that are in the heavens have been seen by me.

But although the things seen in the heavens are for the most part like those on the earth, yet in essence they are unlike. For the things in the heavens come into existence from the Sun of heaven, and those on earth from the sun of the world. The things which come into existence from the Sun of heaven are called spiritual, but those which come into existence from the sun of the world are called natural.

The things which come into existence in the heavens do not do so in the same manner as do the things on earth. In the heavens, all things come into existence from the Lord in accordance with their correspondences with the interiors of the angels. For angels have both interiors and exteriors. All things in their interiors have relation to love and faith, thus to the will and the understanding, for the will and the understanding are their receptacles, while their exteriors correspond to their interiors.

Exteriors correspond to interiors. This can be illustrated by the heat and light of heaven - that angels have heat in accordance with the quality of their love, and light in accordance with the quality of their wisdom. The same is true of all other things that present themselves before the senses of the angels.

When I have been permitted to be in company with angels, the things that were there appeared to me precisely the same as those in the world, and so plainly that I did not know but that I was in the world and in a king's palace there. I also spoke with the angels as man with man.

Since all things that correspond to interiors also represent them, they are therefore called REPRESENTATIVES, and because they are varied in accordance with the state of the interiors of the angels, they are also called APPEARANCES. Nevertheless, the things that appear before the eyes of angels in the heavens and are perceived by their senses, appear and are perceived just as true to life as do things on earth to men, nay rather, much more clearly, distinctly and perceptibly. Appearances of this kind in heaven are called real appearances, because they have real existence. Appearances that are not real also occur, which are such as do appear but do not correspond to interiors.

To show what the things are that appear to the angels in accordance with correspondences, I would here mention this one instance only for the sake of illustration. By those who are intelligent, gardens and paradises full of trees and flowers of every kind are seen. The trees there are planted in most beautiful order, entwined in cross-beam formation with arched entrances and encircling walks. All is of such beauty as to beggar description. There walk those who are in intelligence, gathering flowers and weaving garlands with which they adorn little children. There are also kinds of trees and flowers there that are never seen and cannot exist in the world. On the trees also there are fruits that are in accordance with the good of love in which are the intelligent. Such things are seen by them because a garden or park, and fruit trees and flowers correspond to intelligence and wisdom. That there are such things in heaven is acknowledged on the earth but only by those who are in good and who have not extinguished in themselves the light of heaven by means of natural light and its fallacies, for when they think about heaven they think and say that there are such things there as ear hath not heard nor eye seen.

(from Heaven and Hell 170-176)

The heavens are in the more elevated localities of the spiritual world, the world of spirits in those that are low-lying, and under both are the hells. The heavens are not visible to the spirits in the world of spirits except when their interior sight is opened; although they are sometimes visible as mists or as bright clouds. This is because the angels of heaven are in an interior state as to intelligence and wisdom; and for this reason they are above the sight of those who are in the world of spirits. But spirits who are in the plains and valleys see one another; and yet when they are separated there, which takes place when they are let into their interiors, then the evil spirits do not see the good spirits; but the good spirits can see the evil spirits. Nevertheless, the good spirits turn themselves away from the evil spirits; and when spirits turn themselves away they become invisible. But the hells do not appear because they are closed up. Only the entrances, which are called gates, are seen when they are opened to let in other like spirits. All the gates to the hells open from the world of spirits, and none of them from heaven.

The hells are everywhere, both under the mountains, hills, and rocks, and under the plains and valleys. The openings or gates to the hells that are under the mountains, hills, and rocks, appear to the sight like holes and clefts in the rocks, some extended and wide, and some straitened and narrow, and many of them rugged. They all, when looked into, appear dark and dusky; but the infernal spirits who are in them are in such a luminosity as arises from burning coals. Their eyes are adapted to the reception of that light, and for the reason that —

while they lived in the world they were in thick darkness as to Divine truths, because of their denying them, and were in a sort of light as to falsities because of their affirming them.

In this way did the sight of their eyes become so formed.

And for the same reason, the light of heaven is thick darkness to them, and therefore when they go out of their dens they see nothing.

From all these things it has been made very clearly evident that man comes into the light of heaven just to the extent that he acknowledges the Divine, and establishes with himself the things of heaven and the Church; and that he comes into the thick darkness of hell just to the extent that he denies the Divine, and establishes with himself the things that are opposed to those of heaven and the Church.

(from Heaven and Hell 582-584)