Conjugial Love (Rogers) n. 273

Previous Number Next Number Next Translation See Latin 

273. (2) In the spiritual world, all are associated together in accord with their inner affections, and not in accord with their outward affections unless these are in harmony with their inner ones. That is because they have then cast off the material body, which was able to assume and exhibit the features of all sorts of affections, as we said just above. And when a person is divested of that body, he is in a state of his inner affections, which his body previously concealed. With respect to similarities and dissimilarities of character or congenial and uncongenial feelings in the spiritual world, therefore, these are not only sensed there, but they also appear in their faces, words and gestures. Consequently people of like character in that world are associated together, and people of unlike character are apart. (It is because of this that the whole of heaven has been organized by the Lord in accordance with all varieties of affections having to do with a love of goodness and truth, and in opposition to it the whole of hell in accordance with all varieties of affections having to do with a love of evil and falsity.) [2] Since angels and spirits have inner and outer affections just as people in the world do, and since their inner affections cannot be hidden there by outward ones, so that the inner affections show through and make themselves evident, therefore the two sets of affections in them are brought into likeness and correspondence; and after that their inner affections are reflected through their outer ones, being imaged in their faces, perceived in the sounds of their speech, and also visible in the gestures of their comportment. (Angels and spirits have inner and outer affections, too, because they have a mind and a body, and their affections and consequent thoughts are matters of the mind, while their sensations and consequent pleasures are matters of the body.) [3] It frequently happens in the spiritual world that friends meet after death and remember their friendship in the previous world; and they then believe they will continue to share a life of friendship as before. But when their comradeship is perceived in heaven as being one based only on outward affections, a separation is effected in accordance with their inner affections. Then, from that place of meeting, some are sent away to the north, and some to the west, each of them being at some distance from the other, so that they never see each other again or recognize each other; for in the places where they stay, their faces change to become images of their inner affections. It is apparent from this that in the spiritual world, all are associated together in accord with their inner affections, and not in accord with their outer affections, unless these are in harmony with their inner ones.


This page is part of the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg

© 2000-2001 The Academy of the New Church