One morning after I had slept, my thoughts plunged deep into some of the secrets of conjugial love, ending up with this: In what region of the human mind does truly conjugial love reside, and hence where does conjugial coldness reside? I knew that the human mind has three regions, one above the other; in the lowest region natural love dwells, in the higher one spiritual love, and in the highest celestial love. In each region there is a marriage of good and truth; and since good relates to love and truth to wisdom, there is a marriage of love and wisdom. This marriage is the same as that between the will and the intellect, because the will is designed to receive love, the intellect wisdom.

[2] While I was deep in these thoughts, I caught sight of two swans flying towards the north, and then two birds of paradise flying towards the south, and also two doves flying in the east. As I followed their flight with my eyes, I noticed the two swans altering their course from north to east, and the birds of paradise did the same from the south, and they went to join the doves in the east. They flew together to a lofty palace there, which was surrounded by olive, palm and beech trees. The palace had three rows of windows, one above the other; and as I watched I saw the swans fly into the palace through the open windows of the bottom row, the birds of paradise through those of the middle row, and the doves through those of the top row.

[3] When I had seen this, an angel stood beside me and said, 'Do you understand what you have seen?' 'A little,' I answered. He told me that the palace represented the dwellings of conjugial love, as they exist in people's minds. The top floor, to which the doves took themselves, represented the highest region of the mind, where conjugial love dwells in the love for good together with its own wisdom. The middle floor, to which the birds of paradise took themselves, represented the middle region, where conjugial love dwells in the love for truth together with its own intelligence. The lowest floor, to which the swans took themselves, represented the lowest region, where conjugial love dwells in the love for justice and equity with its own knowledge.

[4] 'The three pairs of birds,' he said, 'also have the same meaning: the pair of doves mean conjugial love of the highest region, the pair of birds of paradise conjugial love of the middle region, the pair of swans conjugial love of the lowest region. The three kinds of trees surrounding the palace, olive, palm and beech, have the same meaning. We in heaven call the highest region of the mind celestial, the middle spiritual, the lowest natural. We see these like apartments in a house one above the other, with a staircase leading up from one to the next. On each floor there are two rooms, one for love, the other for wisdom, and in front of them a kind of bedroom, where love associates in bed with its own kind of wisdom, or good with its own truth, or, what is the same thing, the will with its own intellect. This palace contains pictorial representations of all the secrets of conjugial love.'

[5] On hearing this I was fired with longing to see it, and I asked whether anyone was allowed to go inside and view it, seeing that it is a representational palace. The reply was that only those who are in the third heaven are allowed to do so, because for them every representation of love and wisdom is realised. 'What I have told you,' he said, 'I have heard from them. I was also told that truly conjugial love dwells in the highest region, in the midst of mutual love in the chamber or room of the will, in the midst of perceptions of wisdom in the chamber or room of the intellect; and they associate in bed in the bedroom at the front, that is, in the east.' 'Why are there two chambers?' I asked. He said it was because the husband is in the chamber of the intellect, and the wife is in the chamber of the will.

[6] 'Since conjugial love dwells there,' I asked, ' where does conjugial coldness dwell?' He replied that it too was in the highest region, but only in the chamber of the intellect, and the chamber of the will there was closed. 'For the intellect accompanied by its truths,' he said, 'can go up as often as it wishes by the spiral staircase to its chamber in the highest region; but if the will accompanied by the good of its love does not at the same time go up to the matching chamber, this is shut off, causing coldness in the other one. This is conjugial coldness. When such coldness is felt towards a wife, the intellect looks down from the highest region to the lowest, and also, if not held back by fear, goes down there and warms itself with illicit fire there.'

After saying this he wanted to relate more about conjugial love based on the representations of it to be found in that palace; but he said, 'This is enough for now. Ask first whether these facts are beyond the grasp of the average intellect. If they are, what is the point of saying more? But if not, more will be revealed.'