884. CONCERNING THE SPIRIT WHO DESIRED HEAVEN The same spirit spoken of above [n. 872] who so ardently desired heaven again came to me, clothed, as I thought, in a still shabbier garment. He said that he indeed longed to enter heaven, but he was still as it were castigating, and was among those spirits of Jupiter who desire to punish. He now showed me a new action which he did not know before, namely, a kind of softly pulsative action. It was above the hips, around that part of the back where there is a similar motion. He pulsated as though with supple knees. He said that now he was of such a nature. I told him that this was an indication that he would soon enter heaven, for I was aware that he was of that genus which corresponds to the genital vessels where the generative particles are clothed with such sheaths, membranes, and coverings, that they may remain securely and later be transferred in safety into the womb, and be there gradually dissolved until the enclosed spiritual particles are insinuated into the ovula. His new clothing indicated that he was then prepared for his exit. His action indicated that the moment was then at hand, for in such a way do the generative particles act in the vesiculae seminales when the time is at hand. His clothing was now rougher. When he was told that he might cast off his raiment and thus enter heaven, from his desire he cast it off so quickly that it could scarcely have been done more quickly. But this was only for the purpose of proving him, and of teaching me the quality of the desires of those in the other life who relate to the seminal vessels. As was said, however, that spirit could not be received, wherefore he returned to his former state. He now spoke with a still more divided tongue, and was below the former region, because in a worse state as to externals. Those who afterwards come hither, in order to pass from these corporeal things to what is interior, and successively to what is heavenly, are carried by a way at the back, then between the knees, and in this way are taken away. 1748, Feb. 20.