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Memorable Occurrences in Swedenborg's Writings

This list of Memorable Occurrences in Swedenborg's Writings was originally compiled by W. C. Henderson in 1960 but has since been updated.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Conjugial Love #330

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330. The second account:

I once heard a friendly discussion among some men regarding the feminine sex, as to whether any woman can love her husband if she is constantly in love with her own beauty, that is, if she loves herself on account of her appearance. The men agreed among themselves, first that women have a twofold beauty, one a natural beauty having to do with their face and figure, and the other a spiritual beauty having to do with their love and demeanor. They agreed also that these two kinds of beauty are very often separated in the natural world, but that they are always united in the spiritual world; for outward beauty in the spiritual world is an expression of a person's love and demeanor. It frequently happens after death therefore that homely women become beautiful, and beautiful women homely.

[2] As the men were discussing this, some wives came to them saying, "Permit us to join you; for what you are discussing you know from observation, but we know it from experience. Besides, as regards the love possessed by wives you know so little as to know scarcely anything. Are you aware that it is a matter of prudence inherent in the wisdom of wives to hide their love for their husbands and conceal it in the recesses of their bosom or at the center of their heart?"

The discussion recommenced, and the first conclusion drawn by the men was that every woman wishes to seem beautiful in appearance and beautiful in demeanor, because she is from birth the form of an affection of love and this affection is expressed in beauty. Therefore a woman who does not wish to be beautiful is not a woman who wishes to love and be loved, and so is not truly a woman.

To this the wives said, "A woman's beauty lies in her gentle tenderness and in her consequent keen sensitivity of feeling. That is what occasions a woman's love for a man and a man's love for a woman. This is perhaps something you do not understand."

[3] The men's second conclusion was that before marriage a woman wishes to be beautiful for men in general, but after marriage, if she is chaste, for her husband only and not for other men.

To this the wives said, "After a husband has tasted the natural beauty of his wife he no longer sees it, but sees instead her spiritual beauty and returns her love because of that. If he calls to mind her natural beauty, he does so with a different view of it."

[4] The third conclusion reached by the men in their discussion was that if a woman after marriage wishes to seem beautiful in the same way as before, she loves men in general and not her husband. "For a woman who loves herself on account of her beauty," they explained, "continually wishes to have her beauty tasted; and because it is no longer seen by her husband - as you women have said - she wishes to have it tasted by men who do see it. It is patent that such a woman has a love for the opposite sex in general and not a love for just one."

At this the wives were silent, though they murmured to themselves, "What woman is so without vanity that she does not wish to seem beautiful to men in general also at the same time as to her one and only?"

Listening to this were some wives from heaven, who were themselves beautiful, being forms of heavenly affection, and they confirmed the three conclusions reached by the men. But they added, "Let women love their beauty and its ornamentation, provided it is for the sake of their husbands and inspired by them."

  
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Many thanks to the General Church of the New Jerusalem, and to Rev. N.B. Rogers, translator, for the permission to use this translation.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Coronis (An Appendix to True Christian Religion) #37

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37. "On a time, when I was meditating on conjugial love, the desire seized my mind of knowing what that love had been like with those who lived in the Golden Age, and what, afterwards, in the succeeding ones which are called the Silver, Copper and Iron ages. And, as I knew that all who lived well in those ages are in the heavens, I prayed to the Lord that it might be permitted me to speak with them and be instructed.

"And, lo! an angel stood by me, and said, 'I am sent by the Lord to be your guide and companion; and I will lead and accompany you, first, to those who lived in the first era, or Age, which is called the Golden.' (The Golden Age is the same as the age of the Most Ancient Church, which is meant by the head of fine gold, on the statue seen by Nebuchadnezzar in a dream - Dan. 2:32- of which we have spoken before.) The angel said, 'The way to them is laborious; it lies through a dense wood, which no one can traverse unless a guide be given him by the Lord.'

[2] "I was in the spirit, and prepared myself for the journey, and we turned our faces to the east; and as we proceeded, I saw a mountain, whose summit towered beyond the region of the clouds. We crossed a great desert, and reached a wood crowded with all kinds of trees, and dark by reason of the dense growth thereof, of which the angel told me beforehand. But that wood was intersected by numerous narrow paths. The angel said that these were so many windings of error, and that unless the eyes were opened by the Lord, and the olive-trees girt about with vine tendrils seen, and the steps led from olive-tree to olive-tree, the traveller would stray into Tartarus. This wood is of such a nature, to the end that the approach may be guarded; for no other race but the primeval one dwells on that mountain.

[3] "After we entered the wood, our eyes were opened, and we saw here and there the olive-trees entwined with vines, from which hung bunches of grapes of a dark-blue colour, and the olive-trees were arranged in perpetual windings; wherefore, we walked round and round as they came into view; and at length we saw a grove of lofty cedars, and some eagles on their branches. When he saw these, the angel said, 'Now we are on the mountain, not far from its summit.'

And we went on; and lo! behind the grove was a circular plain, where were feeding male and female lambs, which were forms representative of the state of innocence and peace of the inhabitants of the mountain.

"We crossed this plain, and lo! there were seen thousands and thousands of tents to the front, and at the sides in every direction, as far as the sight could reach. And the angel said, 'Now we are in the camp where dwell the armies of the Lord Jehovih, for so they call themselves and their habitations. These most ancient people, while they were in the world, dwelt in tents; for which reason they also dwell in them now.' But I said, 'Let us bend our way to the south, where the wiser of them dwell, that we may meet some one with whom we may enter into conversation.'

[4] "On the way, I saw at a distance three boys and three girls sitting at the door of their tent; but as we drew near, both the boys and the girls were seen as men and women of medium height. And the angel said, 'All the inhabitants of this mountain appear at a distance as young children, because they are in the state of innocence, and early childhood is the appearance of innocence.'

"On seeing us, the three men (viri) ran towards us, and said, 'Whence are you, and how have you come hither? your faces are not of the faces belonging to this mountain.'

"But the angel replied, and told the means by which we obtained access through the wood, and the reason of our coming.

"On hearing this, one of the three men invited and conducted us into his tent. The man was clad in a coat of a purple colour, and a tunic of white wool; and his wife was dressed in a crimson robe, and had, underneath, a vest of fine embroidered linen.

[5] "But inasmuch as the desire of knowing about the marriages of the most ancient people was in my mind, I looked at the husband and the wife by turns, and observed as it were a unity of their souls in their faces; and I said, 'You two are one.

"And the man answered, 'We are one; her life is in me and mine in her. We are two bodies, but one soul. There is between us a union like that of the two tents in the breast, which are called the heart and the lungs; she is the substance of my heart, and I am her lungs; but as by heart we here mean love, and by lungs wisdom-we understand the latter by the former on account of correspondence-she is the love of my wisdom, and I am the wisdom of her love. Hence, as you said, there is the appearance of the unity of our souls in our faces. Hence, it is as impossible to us, here, to look in lust upon the wife of a companion, as it is to look at the light of our heaven from the shade of Tartarus.'

"And the angel said to me, 'You hear now the speech of these angels, that it is the speech of wisdom, because they speak from causes.'

[6] "After this conversation, I saw a great light on a hill among the tents, and I asked, 'Whence is that light?'

"He said, 'From the sanctuary of our tabernacle of worship.'

"I enquired whether it was allowed to approach; and he said that it was. Then I drew near, and saw the tabernacle exactly according to the description without and within, of the Tabernacle which was set up for the Sons of Israel in the wilderness, the form of which was shown to Moses on Mount Sinai (Exod. 25:40; 26:30). I asked, further, 'What is there within, in its sanctuary, whence so great a light proceeds?'

"And he answered, 'There is a tablet, on which is written, "THE COVENANT BETWEEN THE LORD JEHOVIH AND HEAVEN."' He said no more.

"Then, also, I questioned them about the LORD JEHOVIH, whom they worship; and I said, 'Is He not God the Father, the Creator of the universe?'

"And they replied, 'He is; but, by the Lord Jehovih we understand Jehovah in His Human; for we are not able to look upon Jehovah in His inmost Divinity, except through His Human': and then they explained what they understood, and also what at this day they understand, by the

Seed of the woman trampling the serpent's head (Gen. 3:15);

namely, that the Lord Jehovih would come into the world, and redeem and save all who believed on Him, and who would believe thereafter.

"When we had finished this conversation, the man ran to his tent, and returned with a pomegranate in which was a vast number of golden seeds, which he presented to me, and I brought away: this was a token that we had been with those who lived in the Golden Age." [See the little work on CONJUGIAL LOVE , n. 75.] - For an account of the heavens of the remaining Churches which succeeded the Most Ancient, in their order, see in the same little work on CONJUGIAL LOVE (n. 76-82).

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

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