LJC 74, 75, 77 - The Africans in the Spiritual World

LJC 74

All who acknowledge
one God as Creator of the universe,
and worship him,
entertain the idea of God as a human being,
saying that no one can have any other idea of God.
When they hear that many people
have an idea of God as being a kind of small cloud,
they ask where such people are to be found.
On being told that they are among the Christians,
they declare that this is impossible.
But they receive the reply
that these people have formed such an idea
because God is called in the Word a Spirit,
and they cannot think of spirit
as anything but a wisp of cloud,
being unaware that every spirit and every angel
is a human being.
They were further tested to see whether
their spiritual idea resembled their natural one,
and it was discovered that it is not similar
in the case of those
who inwardly acknowledge the Lord
as the God of heaven and earth.

LJC 75

The Africans comprehended
and received these things,
because they think
more interiorly and spiritually than others.

LJC 77

When I talked with Africans in the spiritual world,
they appeared dressed in striped linen,
saying that such clothing suited them,
and that their womenfolk wore garments of striped silk.
They told me that their children
often ask their nurses for food,
saying they are hungry,
and when food is set before them
they taste it to see whether it is suitable and eat a little.
From this it is clear that it is spiritual hunger,
the desire to know real truths,
which causes this,
for it is a correspondence.
When the Africans want to know how they stand
as regards affection for and perception of truth,
they draw their swords;
if they shine, they know they have real truths,
and the more they have the brighter they shine;
this too is due to correspondence.
On the subject of marriage
they said that although their law
allows them to marry more than one wife,
they do not take more than one,
because true marriage love is indivisible.
If it is divided, its essence, which is heavenly, is lost;
it becomes external and lewd,
quickly fading as their virility declines
and turning to loathing when it goes completely.
But true marriage love is internal
and untouched by lewdness,
so it lasts for ever,
growing equally in strength and delight.