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A melody of the utmost sweetness was once heard from a heaven where wives together with virgins were singing a song, the sweetness of which was like the harmonious flowing forth of the affection of some love. Heavenly songs are nothing else than sonorous affections, that is, affections expressed and modified by sounds; for, as thoughts are expressed by speech, so affections are expressed by songs. Angels perceive the subject of the affection from the symmetry and flow of the melody.
There were many spirits about me at the time, and from some of them I learned that they had heard that sweet melody and that it was the song of some lovely affection, the subject of which they did not know. For this reason they made various conjectures, but in vain. Some conjectured that the song was an expression of the affection of a bridegroom and bride when betrothed; some, that it expressed the affection of a bridegroom and bride when going to their wedding; and others, that it expressed the honey moon love of husband and wife.
[2] An angel from heaven then appeared in their midst and said that they were singing the chaste love of the sex. But those standing around asked, “What is chaste love of the sex?” The angel answered: “It is the love of a man for a virgin or wife of beautiful form and becoming manners--a love free from any idea of lasciviousness--and the like love of a virgin or wife for a man.” Saying this, the angel vanished.
The singing continued, and because they then knew the subject of the affection it expressed, they heard it quite variously, each one according to the state of his love. Those who looked chastely upon women heard the song as something harmonious and sweet; but those who looked unchastely upon women heard it as inharmonious and sad, while those who looked upon women with loathing heard it as discordant and harsh.
[3] Then suddenly the plain on which they were standing was changed into a theatre, and a voice was heard, saying, “Investigate this love.” And suddenly spirits were present from various societies, and in their midst several angels in white. These angels then spoke, and they said: “In this spiritual world we have inquired into all kinds of love, not only into the love of a man towards a man and of a woman towards a woman, and into the reciprocal love of husband and wife, but also into the love of a man towards a woman and of a woman towards a man. Moreover, it has been granted us to pass through societies and make investigation, and thus far we have not found the general love of the sex to be chaste, except with those who from love truly conjugial are in continual potency, and these are in the highest heavens. It has also been granted us to perceive the influx of this love into the affections of our own hearts; and we clearly felt it to exceed in sweetness every other love except the love of two married partners whose hearts are one. But we beg you to inquire into this love, for to you it is new and unknown. By us in heaven it is called heavenly sweetness because it is pleasantness itself.”
[4] When they then discussed the matter, those spoke first who could not think of chastity as pertaining to marriages. They said: “Who, when he sees a beautiful and lovely maiden or wife, is able so to restrain and purify from concupiscence the ideas of his thought as to love her beauty and yet in no way desire to taste it if permitted? Who is able to change the concupiscence innate in every man into such chastity--that is, into what is not himself-- and yet love? Can love of the sex, when entering by the eyes into the thoughts, stop at the face of a woman? Does it not instantly descend to her breast and beyond? The angels spoke empty words when they said that that love can be chaste and yet be the sweetest of all loves, and that it can exist only with husbands who are in love truly conjugial and thence in pre-eminent potency with their wives. When they see beautiful women, can they any more than others keep the ideas of their thoughts on high and hold them in the air, as it were, so that they do not descend and press on to that which makes that love?”
[5] After these, those spoke who were both in cold and in heat; in cold towards their wives and in heat towards the sex. They said: “What is chaste love of the sex? When chastity is added to it, is not love of the sex a contradiction? and what is the contradiction in the addition, other than a thing from which its predicate is removed? and that is not anything. How can chaste love of the sex be the sweetest of all loves when chastity deprives it of its sweetness? You all know wherein the sweetness of that love lies; if then the conjunctive idea associated with the love is banished, where and whence is its sweetness?: Other speakers then took up the matter and said, ”We have been with the most beautiful women and felt no desire; therefore we know what chaste love of the sex is.“ But their companions, who knew their lewdness, answered: ”You were then in a state of loathing of the sex from lack of potency, and this is not chaste love of the sex but is the last state of unchaste love.“
[6] Indignant at hearing these sentiments, the angels asked that those would speak who were standing on the right or at the south. These then said: ”There is a love of man and man, and of woman and woman; and there is a love of a man for a woman and of a woman for a man. These three pairs of loves are entirely different from each other. The love of man and man is as the love of understanding and understanding; for man was created and thence born that he may become understanding. The love of woman and woman is as the love of affection and affection, the affection being the affection of the understanding of men; for woman was created and is born to become the love of man‘s understanding. These loves, that is, the love of man and man and of woman and woman, do not enter deeply into the breast but stand without and merely touch each other; thus they do not inwardly conjoin the two. Therefore, two men fight each other with an abundance of arguments like two athletes; and sometimes two women fight each other with an abundance of concupiscences, like two stage players fighting with their fists.
[7] But the love between man and woman is the love between the understanding and its affection, and this enters deeply and conjoins. Such conjunction is the love itself. Conjunction of minds and not at the same time of bodies, that is, the striving towards such conjunction alone, is a spiritual and thence a chaste love. This love exists only with those who are in love truly conjugial and from this in eminent potency; for, by reason of their chastity, they do not admit the influx of love from the body of any woman other than their wife; and, being in supereminent potency, they cannot but love the sex and at the same time hold in aversion what is unchaste. Hence they have a chaste love of the sex, and, regarded in itself, this is interior spiritual friendship which derives its sweetness from eminent but chaste potency. They have this eminent potency by reason of their total renunciation of whoredom; and because the wife only is loved, it is chaste. Now because with them that love does not partake of the flesh but only of the spirit, it is chaste; and because, at the same time, from an implanted inclination the woman’s beauty enters into their mind, it is sweet.“
[8] On hearing this, many of the bystanders put their hands to their ears, saying, ”These utterances hurt our ears; the words you have spoken are empty nothings.“
They were unchaste. Then the singing from heaven was again heard, and now sweeter than before. But to the unchaste it grated so discordantly that, because of the harshness of the discord, they threw themselves out of the theatre and fled, a few only remaining who from wisdom loved conjugial chastity.
The Second Memorable Relation:
Once, while talking with angels in the world of spirits, I was inspired with a pleasant desire to see the Temple of Wisdom which I had seen once before; and I asked them the way. They said, ”Follow the light and you will find it.“ I said, ”What do you mean by `Follow the light‘?“ and they said: ”Our light shines more and more brightly as we draw nearer to that temple. Therefore, follow the light according to the increase of its brightness; for our light proceeds from the Lord as a Sun, and hence, considered in itself, is wisdom.“ Then, walking in company with two angels, I followed the increasing brightness of the light and ascended by a steep path to the summit of a hill which lay in the southern quarter. There was a magnificent gate there. Seeing the angels with me, the keeper opened it and, lo, there was seen an avenue of palm trees and laurels, and along this we walked. It was a winding avenue and terminated in a garden in the midst of which was the TEMPLE OF WISDOM. As I looked around me, I saw also small buildings, similar to the temple, and in them were wise men. We approached one of these buildings and, at the entrance, spoke to the host there and told him the reason of our coming and the manner of our approach. He then said, ”Welcome; come in; be seated and let us join together in discourse on wisdom.“
[2] Within the house, I saw that it was divided into two and yet was one. It was divided into two by a transparent partition; and it seemed to be one because of the transparency of the partition which was as though of purest crystal. I asked why this was the case. He said, ”I am not alone. My wife is with me; and we are two and yet not two but one flesh.“ I then said, ”I know that you are a wise man, but what has a wise man or wisdom to do with woman?“ At this our host, with some indignation, changed countenance. He then stretched out his hand and, lo, from neighbouring houses other wise men were present. To these, he said jestingly, ”Our new-comer here, for the purpose of learning, asks what a wise man or wisdom has to do with woman?“ At this they all laughed and said, ”What is a wise man or wisdom without woman, that is, without love? The wife is the love of a wise man’s wisdom.“
[3] Our host then said, ”Let us now join together in some discourse on wisdom. Let the discourse be concerning causes, and for the present concerning the cause of the beauty of the female sex.“ They then spoke in turn. The first gave this as the cause: ”Women were created, by the Lord, affections of the wisdom of men; and the affection of wisdom is beauty itself.“ A second gave this: ”Woman was created by the Lord through the wisdom of man because from man. Hence, being a form of wisdom inspired with the affection of love, and the affection of love being life itself, woman is the life of wisdom. The male is wisdom, and the life of wisdom is beauty.“ A third gave this: ”To women is given a perception of the delights of conjugial love; and because their whole body is an organ of that perception, it cannot be otherwise than that the abode of the delights of conjugial love with its perception is beauty.“
[4] A fourth gave this: ”The Lord has taken the beauty and grace of life from man and transcribed them into woman. Hence, without reunion with his beauty and grace in woman, a man is stern, austere, dry, and unlovely; nor is he wise save for himself alone, and then he is stupid. But when man is united with his beauty and grace of life in his wife, he becomes agreeable, pleasant, animated, and lovely, and thus wise.“ A fifth gave this: ”Women are created beauties for the sake not of themselves but of men, that men, of themselves hard, may be softened; that their minds, of themselves severe, may become mild, and their hearts, of themselves cold, warm; and they do become such when they become one flesh with their wives.“
[5] A sixth gave this: ”The universe was created by the Lord a most perfect work; but in that universe nothing was created more perfect than woman, beautiful in face and graceful in manners; and this to the end that man may render thanks to the Lord for this bounty, and may repay it by the reception of wisdom from Him.“ After these and many like sentiments had been expressed, the wife appeared through the crystal partition and said to her husband, ”Speak, if you please.“ And when he spoke, the life of wisdom from his wife was perceived in his speech; for her love was in the tone of his voice. Thus experience bore witness to truth.
After this we examined the Temple of wisdom, and also its paradisal surroundings, and then, filled thereby with joy, we departed, and, passing through the avenue to the gate, went down by the way we had come.
Angelic Wisdom concerning Congugial (True Marital) Love #55-56
- E. Swedenborg 1688-1772
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