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MARRIAGE |
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In the symbolic account of the creation, in Genesis, it is said that God first created a man, and that afterwards he formed a woman, from a bone, one of the ribs of the man. Probably there are many simpleminded persons who believe that these statements are to be accepted as literal scientific facts. But, on the contrary, they are symbolic and representative of conditions in the minds and lives of men. The man's rib, being a bone, represents the things in man's mind having very little life, as the things of the senses, the things of the proprium, or self-hood, in its natural deadness as to spiritual life. If a man loves his own life, as his own, apart from the Lord ; and if the man regards his own life as full and perfect; he loves his self-hood; and this makes him selfish, self-centered, and self-conceited, looking to himself, and forgetting the Lord. And in order to elevate the man to a higher condition, and to save him from the deadening influence of self-love, the Lord created a woman. "And the rib which Jehovah God had taken from man, made He a woman, and brought her unto the man." (Gen. ii. 22.) This proprium, or love of self, which was evil in the man, was taken out of him, and formed into a woman, who was not merely a bone, but a complete human form, and who could love the man for his own character. Today, most marriages end in divorce, many people do not take the vows of marriage seriously while others make a mockery of it altogether. But, when we uncover the spiritual correspondence of marriage and procreation, we conclude that ultimately such behavior only leads to spiritual and biological disorder, adultery, debauchery, perversion, addiction, sin and misery. On the literal level, we know what it means “to commit adultery.” But this has repercussions on the Spiritual and Celestial levels as well. On the Spiritual level, it means “to adulterate the goods of the Word and to falsify its truths.” And, on the Celestial level, it means “to deny the holiness of the Word, and to profane it.” Therefore, if we are not even able to be faithful to our spouse, how can we be faithful to the Lord and His Word? We can understand the stark difference between a man and woman by understanding the difference between Wisdom and Love. A woman’s body is graceful, soft and curvaceous because it corresponds to the mercy of Love. A woman has a face that is heart-shaped, her breasts produce milk and her body stores more fat because a woman’s faith is grounded in Love. In contrast, the male human body is muscular and its face is square-shaped because it corresponds to the harsh Judgment of Truth. As a consequence, a man angel contemplates in his wife the grace, beauty and warmth of Love and a woman angel sees in her husband the righteousness of Truth. Now, unlike on earth, the fruits of this spiritual marriage are not new human souls but new spiritual Truths and Goods. A conjugial relationship in Heaven generates new shades of Wisdom and new qualities of Love that are shared and enjoyed by all angels in Heaven. Hence, when those spouses who were not truly compatible meet again in the world of spirits, they must eventually part ways when the inner or true character of their loves and beliefs emerges. Each spirit is then attracted to a spiritual society in Heaven or hell that matches his/her real affections and thoughts. In Heaven, relationships are formed in accordance with Divine Order and Heavenly principles while in hell they are the result of selfishness, disorder, lust and cupidity. As a consequence, only those who were truly conjoined in marriage on Earth are able to pursue their conjugial relationship after they are raised into Heaven. And, in Heaven, such a deep relationship can continue to grow and flourish eternally. Everyone's own love remains in him after death for the reason that love is a person's life, and consequently it is the real person. A person is also what he thinks, thus what his intelligence and wisdom are, but these are united with his love. For a person thinks because of his love and according to it; in fact, if he is free to do so, he speaks and acts from it. From this it can be seen that love is the being or essence of a person's life, and that thought is the resulting expression or manifestation of his life. Speech and action that spring from thought, therefore, do not spring from thought, but from love acting through thought. I have been granted to know from a good deal of experience that a person after death is not what he thinks but what his affection is and what he thinks from that, which is to say that he is what his love is and subsequently his intelligence. I have also been granted to know that after death a person puts away everything that is not in harmony with his love; indeed, that he progressively takes on the look, sound, speech, behavior and manners of his life's love. It is for this reason that the whole of heaven has been set in order according to all the varieties in the affections connected with the love of good, and that the whole of hell has been arranged according to all the affections connected with the love of evil. Especially does a love for the opposite sex remain, and in the case of people coming into heaven, namely, people who become spiritual on earth, conjugial love. A love for the opposite sex remains in a person after death for the reason that a male is then still a male, and a female still a female, and masculinity in the male is masculine in the whole and every part of him, likewise femininity in the female, and there is a capacity for conjunction in every detail - indeed, in every least detail - of the two sexes. Now, because that capacity for conjunction was introduced from creation and is therefore permanently present in the two sexes, it follows that each yearns for and aspires to conjunction with the other. Love regarded in itself is nothing but a desire for and consequent effort to conjunction, and conjugial love is a desire for and effort to conjunction into one. For the human male and the human female were so created that from being two they might become as though one person or one flesh. And when they become one, then taken together they are man in his fullest sense. But without that conjunction they are two, and each is like a person divided or half a person. Now, because that innate capacity for conjunction lies inmostly within every single aspect of the male and in every single aspect of the female, and an ability and desire for conjunction into one is present in every part, it follows that a mutual and reciprocal love for the opposite sex remains in people after death. A natural person loves and wants only external conjunctions, with the physical pleasures arising from them, while a spiritual person loves and wants an internal conjunction, with the states of spiritual happiness resulting from it. The spiritual person also perceives that these states of happiness are possible with only one wife, with whom he can be continually joined more and more into one. And the more he is so joined with her, in the same degree he feels his states of happiness ascending and remaining constant to eternity. The natural person, on the other hand, does not think in this way. That, now, is why we say that conjugial love remains after death in the case of people coming into heaven, who are those who become spiritual on earth. THE STATE OF MARRIED PARTNERS AFTER DEATH It is necessary that I make this known, because it is not a matter of judgment but of personal experience, and I have had this experience through association with angels and spirits. Nevertheless, I must make it known in such a way that reason may also assent. Among the prayers and yearnings of married partners, moreover, is a wish to know the state of married partners after death. For men who have loved their wives wish to know - if their wives have died - whether it is well with them. So, too, wives who have loved their husbands. And they want to know whether they will meet again. Many married couples also would like to know in advance whether partners separate after death or whether they stay together. Those who are discordant in spirit wish to know whether partners separate. And those who are concordant in spirit wish to know whether they stay together. Because these are some of the things people would like answers to, they will be made known, and this will be done in the following order: (1) In every person after death, love for the opposite sex continues to be what it was like inwardly, that is, what it was like in the person's inner will and thought in the world. |
Copyright © 2011-2014 A. J. Coriat All rights reserved. |