Contributions to Marriage from Swedenborg's writings

Contributions to Marriage

from Swedenborg's

writings

That marriage is from heaven and the most important project of our life.

Sure, it is important to honor our parents, but eventually they will fade away from our life. Sure, it is very important that we take care of our children the best way we can, but... eventually they will fade away from our life. But our marriage, our marital state, is all important. It will stay with us to eternity. Thus, the most important project is to be led to that marital state.

That human beings do not need to fear anything in life, except to commit acts that will separate us from the love of God – Specifically: Conjugal or Married Love.

Contributions to Marriage from Swedenborg's writings

Emanuel SwedenborgEmanuel Swedenborg

(1688 - 1772)

Emanuel Swedenborg - 18th century Swedish scientist, philosopher and mystic (Seer and Revelator), which explored the spiritual world for nearly 30 years and wrote (in Latin) extensible about his experiences in that realm, made two important contributions in regard to marriage:

The Sensible Joy in Married Love and The Foolish Pleasures of Illicit Love

by Emanuel Swedenborg

Love in MarriageTranslated by David F. Gladish Introduction by George F. Dole

Swedenborg Foundation - West Chester, Pennsylvania

Originally published as Delitiae Sapientiae de Amore Conjugiali: Post Quas Sequuntur

Voluptates Insaniae de Amore Scortatorio, Amsterdam, 1768

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 92-060085ISBN: 978-0-87785-141-7


They did this and said, "There are three basic facts about hell, but they are just the opposite of the facts about heaven. The basic facts of hell are three loves -- the love of ruling due to self-love, the love of having what belongs to others due to love of the world, and the love of fornication." "The basic facts of heaven are the three loves opposite to these -- the love of ruling due to a love of being useful, the love of having worldly goods due to a love of putting them to good use, and real married love"

Once I was thinking about heaven and hell, and I began to want a basic knowledge of what they are both like, …I went to the head teachers there and asked if they knew the general facts about heaven and hell…

Emanuel SwedenborgChapter 11 - Coldness, Separations, and Divorces - pages 258, 259 – No. 261- Delitiæ Sapientiæ de Amore Conjugiali; post quas sequuntur Voloptates Insaniæ de Amore Scortatorio ab Emanuele Swedenborg -1768


"There are (three universals of heaven and) three universals of hell, but the universals of hell are diametrically opposed to the universals of heaven.

The universals of hell are the following three loves: The love of ruling from the love of self, the love of possessing the goods of others from the love of the world, and scortatory love.

The universals of heaven are the three opposite loves: The love of ruling from the love of use, the love of possessing the goods of the world from the love of performing uses by their means, and love truly conjugial."

Another Translation - “Once, after meditating on heaven and hell, I began to desire a universal knowledge of the state of each, … I asked them if they knew the universals respecting heaven and hell… they said:

Emanuel SwedenborgConjugial Love – 261 - Delitiæ Sapientiæ de Amore Conjugiali; post quas

sequuntur Voloptates Insaniæ de Amore Scortatorio ab Emanuele Swedenborg -1768


"In the world we came from we have heard that there are no weddings in heaven because the people are angels. Then isn't there sexual love?”

"Your sexual love isn't found there," the angelic spirits answered, "but an angelic sexual love that is chaste, without any enticement of lust.” (…)

"If you asked them what real married love is, I know what the answer would be: that it isn't a love for the other sex but a love for ONE member of the other sex,

“… three newcomers asked the two angelic spirits about heaven, and because two of the three newcomers were adolescents and a spark of sexual eagerness glittered from their eyes, … the newcomers spoke.


which happens only one way -- when the Lord arranges for a young man to notice a young woman and the woman the man, and they both feel marriage take fire in their hearts, and they can tell that she is his and he is hers. For love meets love and makes itself known and joins both souls together at once, and then their minds join, and from there it goes into their breasts, and farther after their wedding, and this is how it becomes a complete love. It joins them together more every day, to the point where they are not two any more, but just like one. I also know that they will swear that they know of no other sexual love. In fact, they say, 'How can there be sexual love without its being so responsive and mutual that it aims at an eternal union, which is that two become one flesh?‘”


The angelic spirits added to this. "In heaven they absolutely do not know what fornication is, nor that it exists, nor that it can exist. An angel's whole body is cold to unchaste or extramarital love, and, vice versa, his whole body gets warm from chaste or married love. Among men, every cord goes slack at the sight of a prostitute, and tunes up at the sight of their wives."


The Sensible Joy in Married Love and The Foolish Pleasures of Illicit Love by Emanuel Swedenborg - Marriages in Heaven - Chapter 2 - pages 49 to 54 – No. 44

I looked closely at the husband and the wife, one at a time, and I noticed in their faces a sort of unity of their souls. I said, "You two are one!" "We are one," the man replied. "Her life is in me and mine is in her. We are two bodies but one soul. The union between us is like the two tents in your chest called heart and lungs. She's my heart, and I'm her lungs. But here we mean love when we say 'heart' and wisdom when we say 'lungs,' so she is love of my wisdom and I'm the wisdom of her love. Because of this her love from outside veils my wisdom, and my wisdom from inside is in her love. This is why you can see the unity of our souls, as you said, in our faces.”

Then I asked, "If you have this kind of unity, can you look at a woman other than your own?”


He said, "I can. But my wife is united with my soul, so we look together, and not a shred of sensuality can enter. For when I look at other wives I look at them through my wife, who is the only one I love. And my wife can tell all my inclinations, so she sets my thinking straight and weeds out everything discordant, and at the same time she puts in a coldness and horror toward anything unchaste. So for us here it is just as impossible to look at a friend's wife lustfully as it is to look at the light of our heaven from the gloom of the underworld. For this reason we have no notion of the attraction of lust, let alone any spoken words for it." He couldn't say "fornication." The chastity of their heaven prevented it.

The Sensible Joy in Married Love and The Foolish Pleasures of Illicit Love by Emanuel Swedenborg - Chapter 4 - page 82 – No. 75


“Unlike the relationship between parent and child or between brothers and sisters, the conjugal relationship is not an absolute one from the beginning, as it is not bonded through the blood relation. It involves truly revolutionary determination and resolution, where a man and a woman, who have lived under different environments and circumstances of growing up, meet with each other and create a new life together.

Conjugal love becomes more absolute than blood relations

Nonetheless, the conjugal relationship will change into a stronger, more absolute one than the blood relations, if a couple unites into one heart and one body through true love. Everlasting and inexhaustible treasures are hidden in the conjugal relationship. If the bond of marriage is once made centering on Heaven, it will grow into an absolute relationship that is eternally inseparable.”

(December 2, 2004) (Sun Myung Moon, Kouten Jidai-no Seikatsu Shinkou (Faith in life in the Age after the Coming of Heaven) (Tokyo: Kogensha, 2005), 85. – From the book - True Love, Sex, and Health by Dr. Masuda - ISBN 978-89-93083-05-7 13230

The union in the act of love should have a mystical and sacred dimension.

It is the intimate union between husband and wife with God to enjoy the love

that He originally designed.

TRUE LOVE AND FORBIDDEN LOVE - AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE CAUSE OF IMMORALITY AND SUFFERING, ITS HISTORICAL ORIGIN AND ITS SOLUTION - Jesús González Losada - New York 1992

The author, Jesus Gonzalez Losada expressly grants permission for reproduction, always under the premises of good faith, fair use, gratuity and citing the sources

More information on:

http://jesus-gonzalez-losada.blogspot.com/

THANK YOU VERY MUCH…

Contributions to Marriage from Swedenborg's writings

Spiritual

Transcript of Contributions to Marriage from Swedenborg's writings