From Swedenborg's Works

 

Other Planets #1

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The Planets in the Universe

The Earthlike Bodies Called Planets in Our Solar System and in Deep Space, Their Inhabitants, and the Spirits and Angels There, Drawn from Things Heard and Seen

1. By the Lord’s 1 divine mercy the deeper levels within me, which belong to my spirit, have been opened, enabling me to talk with spirits and angels 2 -not only those near our world, but also those close to other planets. Because I have had a longing to know whether there are other worlds, what they are like, and what their inhabitants are like, the Lord has granted me opportunities to talk and interact with spirits and angels from other planets. With some of them I spent all day, with others a full week, and with still others months on end. I learned from them about the planets they came from and are close to now, about the life, customs, and worship of the inhabitants of those planets, and various other noteworthy details about them. Since it has been granted to me to know such things in this way, I am in a position to offer descriptions based on things I myself have heard and seen. 3

[2] It is important to know that all spirits and angels are human 4 and that they remain close to their planet of origin. 5 They know what is happening on that planet; and any people whose deeper levels have been opened to the point where they can talk and interact with spirits and angels can learn such things from those spirits and angels. After all, in our essence we too are spirits; 6 and in our deeper levels we are already among other spirits. 7 So anyone whose deeper levels have been opened by the Lord can talk with spirits and angels the way people talk with each other. 8 For twelve years now, this has been granted to me daily. 9

Footnotes:

1. On Swedenborg’s use of the term “the Lord” to refer to Jesus Christ as God, see note 10 in New Jerusalem 1. [Editors]

2. On spirits and angels in Swedenborg’s works, see note 2 in New Jerusalem 25. [Editors]

3. The Latin words here translated “based on things I myself have heard and seen” are ex auditis et visis, literally, “from things heard and seen.” It repeats a phrase that appears in the full Latin title of Other Planets. For more on the significance of this phrase, see note 2 in Last Judgment 17. [Editors]

4. [Swedenborg note] There is no such thing as spirits and angels who are not human: 1880.

5. [Swedenborg note] The spirits from each planet remain close to that planet, because they once lived there themselves, they have a nature similar to that of the current inhabitants, and the inhabitants need their help: 9968.

6. [Swedenborg note] The soul that lives after death is our spirit, which is the essential person within us; in the other life it appears in a perfect human form: 322, 1880, 1881, 3633, 4622, 4735, 6054, 6605, 6626, 7021, 10594.

7. [Swedenborg note] Even while we are in this world, in our deeper levels, meaning our spirit or soul, we are surrounded by spirits and angels whose character is like our own: 2379, 3644, 4067, 4073, 4077.

8. [Swedenborg note] It is possible for us to talk with spirits and angels; the early people on our planet did this frequently: 67, 68, 69, 784, 1634, 1636, 7802. These days, however, it is dangerous to talk with them unless we have true faith and are being led by the Lord: 784, 9438, 10751.

9. On the commencement of Swedenborg’s spiritual experiences, see note 2 in Last Judgment 15, and compare Other Planets 124. It may be noted that while this passage in Other Planets reports the length of Swedenborg’s spiritual experiences as twelve years, Heaven and Hell 1 reports thirteen years, though both books were published in 1758. The simplest explanation for this discrepancy is that Other Planets was written before Heaven and Hell. On the order in which the works published in 1758 were actually written, see the editors’ preface, pages 29-33. [Editors]

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Thanks to the Swedenborg Foundation for their permission to use this translation.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #4077

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4077. 'And your father has deceived me, and has changed my wages in ten ways' means the state of good in relation to Himself when, acting of Himself, He applied to Himself the things which constituted that good, and also a very great change in that good. This is clear from the meaning of 'father', who in this case is Laban, as intermediate good, dealt with already; from the meaning of 'wages' as His acting of Himself, dealt with in 3996, 3999; and from the meaning of 'ten ways' as a very great change - 'ten' meaning very great, 1988, and 'ways' changes. All this implies a change in the actual state of that good when, acting of Himself, the Lord applied to Himself the things constituting that good. Now if instead of the good meant by 'Laban' a community of spirits or angels is thought of such as are governed by that kind of good, what is involved is then made plain. Communities do not readily depart from someone with whom they have been present; but when a person with whom they are present departs they become annoyed, and they react in a way similar to Laban's behaviour here towards Jacob. Indeed even if they do perceive that some good has come to that person through them they say that it has done so from them; for when they are annoyed evil governs what they say.

[2] A similar situation exists with a person who is being regenerated. That is to say, the Lord applies communities to that person which serve to introduce genuine goods and truths, not from those communities but through them. And when the one who is being regenerated is transferred to other communities those which have been present hitherto are annoyed. But such communities are not visible to him because he does not believe that he is within any community of spirits or angels. They are however clearly visible to angels, and also to those who in the Lord's Divine mercy are allowed to talk to them and go among them as one of them. This is how I have been given to know about such things.

[3] Spirits deplore very much the fact that man does not know about such things too, not even that they are present with him, and more still the fact that many deny not only their presence but also the very existence of hell and of heaven. This ignorance however they attribute to human stupidity, for man does not in actual fact possess the smallest amount of thought or the smallest amount of will except by means of influx through those spirits themselves from the Lord. And it is through them as a means that the Lord governs the human race, and in particular every member of it.

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