1475. But heavenly angels who have already been initiated and reborn of heavenly seed very fully understand everything that has been said, and in fact no differently than as if the whole person consisted of affection, which is the soul. Others [see the person] as a beautiful tree, whose seed is affection; others, whose sap is affection. Others are able to create - but in the person's likeness-whole pleasure gardens, as it were, and so on. But this is done by a heavenly method, inconceivable to any but those who are in heaven, and not expressible by any words.
An example of this is, how charity has everything within it, both of the understanding and of affection, and how the will, which is everything in one's actions, is thus formed out of countless elements, even until there is so much within it that the will finally is one's nature. Its very own properties are engrafted in it by affection-so when they are evil properties, by passions- which therefore constitute its kernel, while matters of understanding what is true and good form its bark or shell. Consequently, when the nature is thus [corrupt], the former kernel becomes rotten, and a new one must be formed by means of the bark-like shells.
These matters cannot but seem extremely vague to mankind, whereas to the angels they appear so clear, that they count them among the easiest subjects. For they see countless things within the nucleus, or character, and in the shell, and then they see how, through the shell, so to speak, new saplings are engrafted, which take root in the former kernel as in manure, and thus grow, consuming the kernel formed by the loves of self and the world. And they see how it is consumed, and how truths and goodness therefrom, and then how goodness and truths therefrom, take root.
These words I write being led by angels, so that it may be understood as by an obscure example, what their speech is like, or their chain of ideas, which is the same thing as speech. 1748, 17 March.
1475. But the celestial angels who have already been initiated, and re-begotten from celestial seed, quite fully perceive the things that have been said, and this in a manner not unlike that by which they perceive the whole man from his affection which is his soul. Some perceive them as beautiful trees in which the affection is their seed; others as trees in which the affection is their sap; others can thence form, as it were, complete paradises after its likeness, and so forth. But this is done in a celestial manner which no one except those in heaven can conceive, nor can it ever be expressed in words: for example, how all things, both those that are intellectual and those that are of affection, are within charity in a celestial manner; and thus the will, which is the all of action, is formed from innumerable things, until there is so much within, that finally the will is the disposition in which its proprial things are inserted by the affection - by cupidities when the will is evil. The affections constitute the kernel, whilst the intellectual things of truth and good constitute the cortex or shell; when, therefore, the disposition is such, the former kernel rots away, and a new one must be formed by means of the cortical shells. These things must needs seem most obscure to man, but appear so manifest to the angels that they deem them among the simplest things. For they see innumerable things in the kernel or disposition, and in the rind, and they thus see how by means of the rind, as I may say, new shoots are insinuated which root themselves in the former kernel as in dung, and thus grow, and consume the kernel formed from the loves of self and of the world. They see how that kernel is consumed, and how truths and thence goods, and goods and thence truths, are inrooted. I have been led by angels as I write these things, in order that the quality of their speech, or the series of their ideas which is the same as their speech, may be understood as by an obscure example. 1748, Mar. 17.
1475. Coelestes vero angeli, qui jamdum initiati sunt, et a semine coelesti regeniti, ii plenius percipiunt ea, quae dicta sunt, et quidem non absimiliter, ac integrum hominem ex affectione, quae ejus est anima, alii sicut arborem pulchram 1
, quibus affectio est ejus semen, alii quibus est ejus succus {a}, alii possunt integros paradisos quasi, sed ad similitudinem, inde quasi formare, et sic porro, sed modo coelesti, quem nemo concipere potest 2
, quam qui in coelo sunt, nec exprimi usquam verbis potest, sicut quomodo insunt omnia coelesti modo charitati, tam quod intellectuale est, quam quod affectionis, et sic formetur voluntas ex innumerabilibus, quae est actionis omne, usque [dum] tantum inest, ut voluntas demum sit indoles, cui inseruntur propria, ab affectione-ita 3
dum mala, a cupiditatibus[quae] ejus 4
sic nucleum constituunt, cum intellectualia veri et boni, corticem, seu putamen; inde sic, quando indoles talis est, nucleus prior putrescet, et novus per corticalia putamina formandus, haec non possunt non obscurissima videri homini, at vero angelis apparent ita manifesta, ut inter levissima haec censeant; nam vident innumerabilia in nucleo, seu indole, inque putamine, et sic quomodo per putamen, ut ita dicam novi insinuantur succuli, qui se in nucleo priori sicut in fimo radicant, et sic crescunt, et exedunt nucleum ab amoribus sui et mundi formatum, et quomodo exeditur, et radicantur vera et inde bona, et sic bona, inde vera: haec ab angelis ductus scribo, ut intelligi queat, sicut in obscuro exemplo, qualis eorum loquela est, seu idearum series, quae eadem est ac loquela. 1748, 17 Martius.
Footnotes:
1. The Manuscript has arbores pulchras
2. The Manuscript has possunt
3. The Manuscript has affectione, ita
4. The Manuscript has cupiditatibus, ejus