AE 984, 985 - Conjugial Love - The Love of Marriage

AE 984 [2], 985 [2]

Man was so created as to be spiritual and celestial love,
and thus an image and likeness of God.
Spiritual love, which is the love of truth,
is the image of God;
and celestial love, which is the love of good,
is the likeness of God.
All the angels in the third heaven are likenesses of God;
and all the angels in the second heaven are images of God.
Man can become the love
which is an image or likeness of God
only by a marriage of good and truth;
for good and truth inmostly love one another,
and ardently long to be united that they may be one;
and for the reason that the Divine good and the Divine truth
proceed from the Lord united,
therefore they must be united in an angel of heaven
and in a man of the church.
This union is by no means possible
except by the marriage of two minds into one,
since, as has been said before,
man was created to be the understanding of truth,
and thus truth,
and woman was created to be the affection of good,
and thus good;
therefore in them
the conjunction of good and truth is possible.
For conjugial love which descends from that conjunction
is the veriest means by which man [homo]
becomes the love that is the image or the likeness of God.
For the two partners who are in conjugial love from the Lord
love one another mutually and reciprocally from the heart,
thus from inmosts;
and therefore although apparently two
they are actually one,
two as to their bodies,
but one as to life.
This may be compared to the eyes,
which are two as organs but one as to the sight;
also to the ears,
which are two as organs but one as to hearing;
so, too, the arms and the feet
are two as members but one as to use,
the arms one as to action,
and the feet one as to walking.
So with the other pairs with man.
All these have reference to good and truth,
the organ or member on the right to good,
and that on the left to truth.
It is the same with a husband and wife
between whom there is love truly conjugial;
they are two as to their bodies but one as to life;
consequently in heaven
two partners are not called two angels but one.
All this makes clear
that through marriage man becomes a form of love,
and thus a form of heaven,
which is the image and likeness of God. 

. . . love truly conjugial is derived
from the Lord's love for the church,
and from the love of good and truth
which is the love of the angels of the third heaven;
therefore conjugial love,
which descends therefrom as the love of the heavens,
is innocence,
which is the very being [esse]
of every good in the heavens.
And for this reason
embryos in the womb are in a state of peace,
and after birth infants are in a state of innocence;
so, too, is the mother in relation to them.