AE 995 - The Rational; AE 997 - The Essence of Conjugial Love

AE 995

All the intelligence of the natural person
is from his rational,
for the rational is the medium
between the spiritual and the natural;
and because it is the medium,
it first receives influx from the spiritual world
and transfers it into the natural.
From this it follows that before the spiritual mind,
which is called the spiritual person,
can be opened,
and through it influx into the natural mind be given,
the rational must be cultivated,
which is done by means of knowledges,
which are natural and moral truths,
and by means of
cognitions* of truth and good from the Word.
Through these the rational mind is opened from below.
But as soon as the spiritual mind has been opened,
and there is influx from that,
the rational mind is opened from above;
and thus the rational,
as an intermediate, furnishes a passage;
and then through it the natural mind,
. . . is subordinated to the spiritual mind,
and thus to heaven and the Lord.

AE 997 [4]

Since conjugial love in its first essence
is love to the Lord from the Lord,
and thus is innocence,
conjugial love is also peace,
such as the angels in the heavens have.
For as innocence is the very being of all good,
so peace is the very being of all delight from good,
consequently is the very being of all joy
between the marriage pair.
As then, all joy is of love,
and conjugial love is the fundamental love
of all the loves of heaven,
so peace itself has its seat chiefly in conjugial love.
Peace is happiness of heart and soul
arising from the conjunction
of the Lord with heaven and the church,
as well as from the conjunction of good and truth,
when all conflict and combat
of evil and falsity with good and truth has ceased . . ..
And as conjugial love descends from such conjunction
so all the delight of that love
descends and derives its essence from heavenly peace.
Moreover, this peace shines forth in the heavens
as heavenly happiness
from the faces of a marriage pair who are in that love,
and who mutually regard each other from that love.
But such heavenly happiness,
which inmostly affects the delights of loves,
and is called peace,
can be granted only to those
who can be joined together inmostly,
that is, as to their very hearts.
__________

* cognitions = concepts, knowledges of ideas
 (rather than just of facts)
-- NCL 1985, p. 308;
Words, Words, Words by Rev. Frank Rose.