Conjugial Love (Rogers) n. 430

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430. (6) The uncleanness of hell springs from licentious love, and the cleanness of heaven from conjugial love. The whole of hell is filled with unclean things, and the universal origin of them is shameless and obscene licentious love. Into such things are the delights of that love turned. Who can believe that every delight of love is, in the spiritual world, made visible in the form of various sights, perceptible in the form of various odors, and observable in the form of various species of animals and birds? Examples of sights under whose forms the lascivious delights of licentious love are made visible in hell are piles of excrement and dirt. Odors by which they are made perceptible are its stinks and stenches. And some of the species of animals and birds under whose forms those lascivious delights are made observable there are pigs, snakes, and birds called ochim* and tsiyyim**. It is the converse, however, with the chaste delights of conjugial love in heaven. Examples of sights under whose forms those delights are made visible there are gardens and fields of flowers. Odors by which they are made perceptible are redolent aromas of fruits and fragrances of flowers. And some of the species of animals under whose forms those delights are made observable are lambs, young goats, doves, and birds of paradise. The delights of their loves are turned into these and other like things because all the phenomena found in the spiritual world are correspondent forms. The inner qualities of their minds are turned into such correspondent forms when they pass over and become outward manifestations discernible to the senses. It should be known, however, that there are countless varieties of unclean things into which the lascivious delights of licentious lusts are turned when they pass over into their correspondent forms. The varieties are distinguished, moreover, in accordance with the kinds and classes of those lascivious delights, which are described later on where we take up adultery and its degrees***. But in the case of people who have repented, such unclean things do not issue from the delights of their love, because they have been cleansed of them in the world. * A Hebrew word (Oy), appearing only once in the Old Testament (Isaiah 13:21). It seems to refer to howling or screeching creatures, perhaps screech owls, but the actual identity is unknown. It may not be a precise term. No. 264:4 identifies as a bird of the night. ** Another Hebrew word (Oy), appearing six times in the Old Testament (Psalms 72:9, 74:14; Isaiah 13:21, 23:13, 34:14; Jeremiah 50:39). It seems refer to desert dwellers, and in contexts suggesting animals, to desert creatures, but the actual identity is unknown. It, too, may not be a precise term. *** See nos. 478ff.


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