DLW 422, 423 - As Though a Garden of Eden

DLW 422 [1, 2]

A person is born natural,
but as his intellect is elevated
into the light of heaven,
and his love is elevated together with it
into the warmth of heaven,
he becomes spiritual and celestial.
He then becomes as though a garden of Eden,
in the enjoyment of a springlike light
and at the same time a springlike warmth.

The intellect does not become spiritual and celestial,
but the love does,
and when the love does,
it makes the intellect, its partner,
spiritual and celestial also.

Love becomes spiritual and celestial
by a life in accordance with the truths of wisdom
that the intellect teaches and shows it.
Love learns these through its intellect,
and not on its own.
The fact is that love cannot elevate itself
unless it knows truths,
and it can know these only through an intellect
that has been elevated and enlightened.
In the measure that it then comes to love truths
by putting them into practice,
in the same measure the love, too, is elevated.
For it is one thing to understand
and another to will,
or one thing to speak
and another to do.

. . . to the extent
that a person lives in accordance with wisdom,
to the same extent he loves it;
and he lives in accordance with wisdom
to the extent that he purifies himself of pollutions,
which are sins.
To the extent, then, that he does this,
to the same extent he loves wisdom.

DLW 423

. . . everyone has a respiration there (in heaven)
that accords with his marriage of love and wisdom.
Consequently,
as angels are known by that marriage,
so they are known also by their respiration.

It is because of this
that when anyone comes into heaven
who does not possess that marriage,
he suffers chest pain and struggles for breath
like people in the agony of death.
Therefore people in such a case
also cast themselves down headlong from there,
and do not rest until they are with people
who possess a similar respiration,
for these then possess by correspondence
a like affection and consequent thought.

 

DLW 421 - As Long As Love Is Not Elevated

DLW 421

. . . since if love is not elevated,
it remains impure . . ..
And as long as it remains impure,
it loves things that are impure,
such as the practices of vengeance, hatred,
deceit, blasphemy, and adultery.
For these are then its affections,
which we call lusts,
and it rejects things having to do with charity,
justice, honesty, truthfulness, and chastity.

As for the statement that love
is defiled in and by the intellect,
it is defiled in the intellect
when love is affected by those impure practices,
and it is defiled by the intellect
when love causes matters of wisdom
to become its servants,
and still more when it perverts,
falsifies and adulterates them.

 

DLW 419 - Love or the Will Is Purified in the Intellect If They Are Elevated Together

DLW 419 [1-2]

A person from birth
loves only himself and the world,
for nothing else appears before his eyes,
and therefore
he considers nothing else in his heart;
and this love is carnally natural,
and can be called materialistic.
Moreover, this love has also become impure
owing to the separation
of heavenly love from it in parents.

This love cannot be separated from its impurity
unless the person has the ability to elevate
his intellect into the light of heaven
and to see how he should live
in order that his love may be elevated together
with his intellect into wisdom.
Through the intellect love,
which is to say, the person,
sees what evils there are
that defile and pollute the love,
and sees, too, that if he refrains from those evils
and turns away from them as sins,
he loves such things
as are opposed to those evils,
all of which are heavenly.
He also sees as well the means
which enable him to refrain from those evils
and turn away from them as sins.
Love, which is to say, the person,
sees this through use of his ability
to elevate his intellect into the light of heaven
and gain from it wisdom.
Then in the measure
that love puts heaven in first place
and the world second,
and in the measure that it at the same time
puts the Lord in first place and self second,
in the same measure
the love is purged of its pollutions and purified.
That is to say,
in the same measure it is elevated
into the warmth of heaven
and united with the light of heaven
in which the intellect is.
A marriage is then formed,
the marriage we call the marriage
of goodness and truth, or of love and wisdom.

 

DLW 416, 418 - Natural Love, Spiritual Love, Thought and Actions

DLW 416

A person who is prompted by a natural love
and at the same time a spiritual love
is a rational person.
However, one who is prompted by
a natural love only,
although he is able to think rationally
just as well as a spiritual person,
still is not a rational person.

. . . So for example,
when the intellect from being elevated
is in a state of wisdom,
love then sees what justice is,
what honesty is, 
what chastity is,
indeed what genuine love is.
A natural love is capable of seeing this
as a result of its ability
to understand and view matters
in the light of heaven.
Indeed, it can speak, preach and describe them
as moral and at the same time spiritual virtues.
However, when the intellect
is not in an elevated state, then,
if the love is merely natural,
it does not see those virtues,
but sees, instead of justice, injustice;
instead of honesty, deceit and deception;
instead of chastity, lasciviousness; and so on.
If it then thinks about the matters it spoke of
when its intellect was in an elevated state,
it may laugh at them
and think of them only as means
that serve it for captivating minds.

DLW 418

The common opinion
is that wisdom makes the person.
Consequently when people hear
someone speaking or teaching wisely,
they believe that it reflects his character.
Indeed, that is how
the person thinks of himself at the time,
because when he speaks and teaches
in the presence of others,
he thinks on the basis of his memory,
and if he is merely natural,
in accord with the outer layer of his love,
which is an affection for
honor, glory and material gain.
However, when the same person is alone,
he thinks in accord with
the interior love of his spirit,
and he thinks then not wisely
but sometimes insanely.

It can be seen from this
that no one should be judged
by the wisdom of his speech,
but by his life, that is,
not by the wisdom of his speech
apart from his life,
but by the wisdom of his speech
in conjunction with his life.
By life we mean love.
Love is a person's life . . ..

 

DLW 414 - Love Can Only Be Elevated With Wisdom

DLW 414

. . . the will can be equally elevated,
if it loves such matters
as are matters of the light of heaven,
or matters of wisdom.
However, love or the will cannot be elevated
by any measure of honor, glory
or material gain as its end,
but by a love of useful service,
not so much for its own sake,
but for the sake of the neighbor.
And because this love is bestowed
only from heaven by the Lord,
and is bestowed by the Lord
when a person refrains from evils as being sins,
therefore it is by these means
that love or the will can be elevated also,
and apart from these means it cannot be.

The will's love, however,
is elevated into the warmth of heaven,
whereas the intellect
is elevated into the light of heaven,
and if both are elevated,
a marriage of the two takes place there,
which we call the heavenly marriage,
because it is a marriage of heavenly love and wisdom.
That is why we say that love is elevated also
if it loves its partner wisdom in the same degree.

Love for the neighbor from the Lord
is the love proper to wisdom,
or the genuine love proper to the human intellect.

 

DLW 413 - Rationality: The Ability to Understand Matters Interiorly

DLW 413

(13) By a power imparted to it by love or the will,
wisdom or the intellect can be elevated
so as to admit from heaven such matters
as are matters of light and perceive them.
. . . a person can perceive the secrets of wisdom
when he hears them.
This faculty of the human being
is the faculty called rationality,
which everyone has from creation.
It is the ability to understand matters interiorly
and to draw conclusions
regarding what is just and equitable
and what is good and true,
and it is this faculty that distinguishes
the human being from animals.
This, therefore, is what we mean by the statement
that the intellect can be elevated
and admit from heaven such matters
as are matters of light and perceive them.

 

DLW 410 - The Life Belonging to Love, to Good

DLW 410 [2-6]

Now because the first and most immediate
affections of love
are an affection for knowing,
an affection for understanding,
and an affection for seeing
that which it knows and understands,
it follows that love
forms for them the intellect,
and that it enters into these affections actually
when it begins to feel sensation and to act,
and when it begins to think.

That the intellect contributes nothing to this effort
follows from the parallel with the heart and lungs . . ..

It can be seen from this that love or the will
joins itself to wisdom or the intellect,
and not wisdom or the intellect to love or the will.
And it follows from this as well
that the knowledge which love acquires for itself
from an affection for knowing,
and the perception of truth which it acquires
from an affection for understanding,
and the thought that it acquires
from an affection for seeing
that which it knows and understands,
are not properties of the intellect,
but are the properties of love.

Thoughts, perceptions, and consequently knowledge
do indeed flow in from the spiritual world.
But still they are received
not by the intellect,
but by love
in accordance with its affections in the intellect.
It appears as though the intellect receives them,
and not love or the will,
but that is a fallacious appearance.

It also appears
as though the intellect joins itself to love or the will,
but that, too, is a fallacious appearance.
Love or the will joins itself to the intellect
and causes the intellect to be joined to it in return.
That the intellect is joined to it in return
is owing to the marriage of love with it.
Because of that marriage
a seemingly reciprocal conjunction is formed
by the life and consequent power of love.

The like is the case
with the marriage of good and truth,
for goodness is a property of love,
and truth a matter of the intellect.
Goodness initiates everything,
and it receives truth into its home
and unites itself with it
in the measure that it accords.
Goodness can also admit truths that do not accord,
but it does so because of its affection
for knowing, understanding and thinking,
when it has not yet
determined itself to useful applications
which are its ends and which it calls its goods.

A reciprocal conjunction,
or one of truth with good,
does not occur at all.
That truth is joined to good in return
is owing to the life belonging to good.

It is because of this
that every person, and every spirit and angel,
is regarded by the Lord
in accordance with his love or goodness,
and no one
in accordance with his intellect or truth
apart from his love or goodness.
For a person's life is his love . . .
and his life is what it is
according as he has elevated his affections by truths,
that is, according as he has perfected his affections
in accord with wisdom.
For love's affections
are elevated and perfected by truths, thus by wisdom;
and love then acts in conjunction with wisdom,
as though prompted by it,
but doing so of itself through wisdom,
as through a form its own,
which takes nothing whatever
of its quality from the intellect,
but everything from some determination of love,
called affection.

 

DLW 409 -Love and Intellect Acting Together

DLW 409   

. . .what is it to act from love apart from the intellect?
It can only be called irrational,
for it is the intellect that teaches
what ought to be done
and how it ought to be done.
Love without the intellect does not know this.
Therefore such a marriage exists
between love and the intellect
that although they are two distinct entities,
they nevertheless operate as one.

A like marriage exists between good and truth,
for goodness is a property of love,
and truth a matter of the intellect.

Such a marriage exists
in every single constituent of the universe
that has been created by the Lord.
Their usefulness has relation to good,
and the form of their usefulness to truth.

It is owing to this marriage
that every single constituent of the body
has a right and left side,
the right side having relation to good
from which springs truth,
and the left side to truth springing from good,
thus [the two together] to their conjunction.

 

DLW 408 - The Home of Love or the Will

DLW 408

(10) Love or the will
introduces wisdom or the intellect
into all the constituents of its home.
By the home of love or the will
we mean the whole person
in respect to all the constituents of his mind;
and because these correspond
to all the constituents of the body . . .
by the home we mean the whole person
also in respect to all the constituents of his body,
called members, organs and viscera.
The fact that the lungs are introduced
into all the latter constituents
in the same way that the intellect
is into all the constituents of the mind . . .
as for instance, that love or the will
prepares a home or bridal chamber
for its future spouse,
which is wisdom or the intellect,
and that love or the will
prepares all else in its human form -
or in its home -
in order to be able to operate conjointly
with wisdom or the intellect.

DLW 405, 406, 407 - The Affection of Knowing and Doing in the Light

DLW 405 [4]

Since love or the will corresponds to the heart,
and wisdom or the intellect to the lungs,
it follows that the heart's blood vessels in the lungs
correspond to affections for truth,
and that the ramifications
of the lungs' bronchial tubes
correspond to perceptions and thoughts
springing from those affections.

The fact that the first or initial form of this last love
was an affection for knowing
can be seen from considering
that an affection for truth
is an elevated affection for knowing.
For to be affected by truths
is to have in consequence of the affection
a wish to know them,
and when one discovers them,
to be moved by the delight of the affection
to take them in.

DLW 406 [1, 2]

. . . the light of the intellect
is the light by which love sees.

For an action
springing from love apart from the intellect
is like the action of a person
done in the darkness of night,
the person then not knowing what he is doing.
The action would consequently have in it
no element of intelligence or wisdom,
and such an action cannot be called a living act.
An action also takes its being from love
and its character from intelligence.

Good, furthermore, has all its power through truth.
Consequently good acts in truth
and so by means of it;
and good is a matter of love,
while truth is a matter of the intellect.

DLW 407

. . . because there is such a correspondence
between the will and the heart,
and between the intellect and the lungs,
that the way love interacts
with the intellect spiritually
is the way the heart interacts
with the lungs naturally.

 

DLW 404 -Affection for Truth, Perception of Truth, Thought

DLW 404 [4]

. . . these three elements -
an affection for truth,
a perception of truth,
and thought -
follow in succession from love,
and that they take form nowhere else
than in the intellect.
For when love enters the intellect,
which happens
when a conjunction of the two has taken place,
it then produces first an affection for truth,
then an affection for understanding what it knows,
and finally an affection for seeing
what in the thought of the body it understands -
thought being nothing other than an internal sight.

Thought, indeed, occurs first,
because it is a faculty of the natural mind.
But thought from a perception of truth
springing from an affection for truth occurs last.
This latter thought is the thought of wisdom,
while the first is a thought from memory
formed in consequence
of the sight of the natural mind.

All operations of love or the will
apart from the intellect have to do
not with affections for truth
but with affections for good.

 

DLW 400 - The Human Form

DLW 400

(2) Love or the will
continually strives toward the human form
and toward all the elements
that make up the human form.

. . . Its endeavor and effort is toward the human form
for the reason that God is human,
and Divine love and wisdom constitute His life,
from which comes everything connected with life.

DLW 399 - What Is the Core of Life?

DLW 399

(1) Love or the will is a person's very life.
This follows from the correspondence
of the heart with the will . . .
for as the heart functions in the body,
so the will does in the mind.
Moreover, as all the constituents of the body
depend for their existence and motion on the heart,
so all the constituents of the mind
depend for their existence and life on the will.
We say on the will, but we mean on love,
because the will is the recipient vessel of love,
and love is life itself,
and love which is life itself
comes from the Lord alone.

It can be known from the heart
and its extension throughout the body
by means of the arteries and veins
that love or the will is a person's life,
because things that correspond to each other
function similarly,
with the difference
that one is natural and the other spiritual.

 

DLW 394, 398 - The Soul

DLW 394 [2]

. . . the human soul which lives after death
is a person's spirit;
that this spirit is in complete form human;
that its soul is the will and intellect,
and that the soul of these
is love and wisdom from the Lord;
that these two are what constitute a person's life,
which comes from the Lord alone;
and that for Him to be received by the person,
the Lord causes the life to appear
as though it were the person's.
Nevertheless, to keep people
from attributing life to themselves as theirs
and so turning away from a reception of Him,
the Lord also taught
that every element of love that is called good,
and every element of wisdom that is called truth,
comes from Him,
and nothing of them from any person,
and that because these two are life,
every element of life that is life comes from Him.

DLW 398

. . . love and wisdom,
and consequently the will and intellect,
are what are termed the soul . . .
can be known from the correspondence
of the heart with the will,
and of the lungs with the intellect . . ..

 

DLW 390, 391-392 - The Will & Heart and the Intellect & Lungs; (7) Conjunction and Correspondence in Life and Death

DLW 390

(7) The conjunction of a person's spirit with the body
is due to the correspondence
of his will and intellect with his heart and lungs,
and their disjunction
to the absence of that correspondence.

Since a person's spirit possesses
a pulse and respiration just as the body does,
it follows therefore
that there is a like correspondence
of the pulse and respiration of a person's spirit
with the pulse and respiration of his body,
for the mind, as we said, is his spirit.
Consequently, when the correspondence
of these two motions ceases,
a separation takes place, which is death.

In short, the life of a person's body depends on
the correspondence of its pulse and respiration
with the pulse and respiration of his spirit,
and when that correspondence ceases,
the life of the body ceases,
and his spirit departs
and continues its life in the spiritual world,
a life which is so like his life in the natural world
that he does not know he has died.

DLW 391-392

It is apparent from this also
that the conjunction of the spirit and body in a person
is due to the correspondence
of their two cardiac motions and pulmonary motions.

The reason these two motions,
the cardiac and the pulmonary,
occur and continue is that the entire angelic heaven,
both in general and in particular,
possesses these two motions of life.
The entire angelic heaven possesses them
because the Lord infuses them from the sun
where He is and which emanates from Him.
For that sun engenders these two motions
from the Lord.
Moreover, because all the constituents
of heaven and the world
descend in succession from the Lord
through that sun in such a nexus and form,
like the links of a chain
from the first to the lasts of them,
and because the life of love and wisdom
originates from Him,
and all the forces of the universe spring from life,
it is apparent that the origin of these motions
lies nowhere else.

It follows that the varying of these motions
occurs in accordance with
the reception of love and wisdom.

 

DLW 386, 388 - The Will & Heart and the Intellect & Lungs (6) Mind, Body, Spirit

DLW 386

(6) A person's mind is his spirit,
and the spirit is the person,
the body being the outward instrument
by which the mind or spirit senses and acts
in the physical world.

DLW 388

. . . it can also be seen
that a person's mind is the person himself.
For the first framework of the human form,
or the human form itself,
with each and every one of its constituents,
comes from its first elements
continued from the brain through the nerves . . ..

This is the form
into which a person comes after death,
who is then called a spirit or angel,
and who is in every measure of perfection
a human being, only a spiritual one.
The material form
which is added and superimposed in the world
is not the human form per se,
but is its product,
being added and superimposed to enable
the person to perform useful services
in the natural world,
and also to take with him
from the purer substances of the world
some fixed containing vessel
for his spiritual constituents
and so continue and perpetuate his life.

. . . a person's mind possesses,
not only in general but also in every particular,
a constant effort toward the human form,
because God is human.

 

DLW 385 - The Will & Heart and the Intellect & Lungs (5) Correspondences Reveal Secrets

DLW 385

(5) Through that correspondence
one can discover many secrets
relating to the will and intellect,
and so also to love and wisdom.
People in the world scarcely know
what the will is and what love is,
since a person cannot of himself love
and from loving will in the manner
that he can seemingly of himself
understand and think -
just as he cannot of himself
compel the heart to pump in the manner
that he can of himself compel the lungs to breathe.

Now because people in the world scarcely know
what the love and will are,
and yet know what the heart and lungs are -
for the latter two are visible to the eyes
and can be examined,
and by anatomists
also have been examined and described,
whereas the will and intellect
are not visible to the eyes and cannot be examined -
therefore when it is known that they correspond
and by correspondence operate in union,
many secrets can be discovered
relating to the will and intellect
which could not otherwise be discovered.

DLW 382, 383, 384 - The Will & Heart and the Intellect & Lungs (4) The Intellect Corresponds to the Lungs

DLW 382 [end of 1-2,3]

Everyone may also observe in himself
that the intellect corresponds to the lungs
by considering both his thought and his speech.

As regards thought,
it is impossible for anyone to think
without his pulmonary respiration's
concurring and according.
Consequently when someone thinks quietly,
he breathes quietly.
If he thinks deeply, he breathes deeply.

As regards speech,
not the least utterance of a word
flows from the mouth
without the ancillary aid of the lungs.
For sound which is articulated into words
issues wholly from the lungs

DLW 383 [3-4]

Because breath passes through the nostrils,
therefore the nose symbolizes perception . . ..

It is owing to this, too,
that the word for spirit and wind
in Hebrew and in some other languages
is the same.
For the word "spirit"
is derived from a word meaning "to breathe."
Consequently when a person dies
he is also said to breathe his last
and yield up the spirit.

It is owing to this as well
that people believe
the spirit to be a gust of wind or some airy entity,
like a puff of breath exhaled from the lungs,
and the soul likewise.

It can be seen from this
that to love God
with all one's heart and all one's soul
means to do so
with all one's love and all one's intellect,
and that giving a new heart and a new spirit
means giving a new will and a new intellect.

DLW 384

Since all the mind's constituents
are connected with the will and intellect,
and all the body's constituents
with the heart and lungs,
therefore in the head
the brain is divided into two structures,
and these are as distinct from each other
as the will and intellect from each other.
The cerebellum serves primarily the will,
and the cerebrum primarily the intellect.

In the body, the heart and lungs are likewise
separated from the rest of the organs there.
They are separated by the diaphragm
and enveloped in their own covering,
called the pleura,
and they form that part of the body called the chest.

In the remaining constituents of the body,
called its members, organs and viscera,
these two elements are conjoined.
Consequently the parts exist in pairs,
such as the arms and hands,
loins and feet, eyes and nostrils,
and, inside the body,
the kidneys, ureters, and testes.
Even organs that do not exist in pairs
are divided into a right and left side -
including the cerebrum itself into two hemispheres,
the heart itself into two ventricles,
and the lungs themselves into two lobes.
Moreover, the right side of these relates to
the goodness of truth,
and the left side to the truth of good.

 

DLW 379, 380 - The Will & Heart and the Intellect & Lungs (3) The Will Corresponds to the Heart

DLW 379 [1, 2]

. . . one who knows that there is a correspondence
of love and its affections
with the heart and its derivatives
may also know
that love is the origin of the vital warmth.
For love emanates from the spiritual sun
where the Lord is as warmth,
and it is also felt by the angels as warmth.
This spiritual warmth,
which in its essence is love,
is what flows by correspondence
into the heart and its blood,
imparting to it its warmth
and at the same time animating it.

Because love is a person's life,
therefore the heart
is the first and last vessel of that life.
Moreover, because love is a person's life,
and the soul maintains its life in the body
by means of the blood,
therefore blood in the Word is called the soul.

DLW 380

The fact that the blood is red
is owing also to the correspondence
of the heart and blood with love and its affections.
For the spiritual world has in it colors of every kind.
The colors red and white are the fundamental ones,
and the rest take their variations from them
and from their opposites,
which are a dark fiery color and black.
The color red there corresponds to love,
and the color white corresponds to wisdom.

The color red corresponds to love
for the reason that it takes its origin from
the fire of the sun in the spiritual world;
and the color white corresponds to wisdom
for the reason that it takes its origin from
the light of the sun there.
Because, then,
there is a correspondence of love with the heart,
therefore the blood cannot but be red
and attest its origin.

It is in consequence of this
that in the heavens
where love toward the Lord reigns,
the light is a flaming one,
and the angels there are clad in purple garments;
and in the heavens where wisdom reigns,
the light is bright white,
and the angels there
are clad in garments of white linen.

 

DLW 374 - The Will & Heart and the Intellect & Lungs (2) A Correspondence

DLW 374 [1,3]

(2) There is a correspondence
of the will and intellect
with the heart and lungs,
and consequently a correspondence
of all the mind's constituents
with all the body's constituents.

The two planes are distinct.
I can think and not speak,
and I can will and not act.
We also know that the body does not think or will,
but that thought descends into speech,
and will into action.

[3]  people have become so externally oriented
that they have been unwilling
to acknowledge anything but the natural realm.
This has been their love's delight,
and so the delight of their intellect.
Consequently to elevate their thought
above the natural realm
to something spiritual apart from anything natural
has been unappealing to them.
Owing to their natural love and its delight, therefore,
they have been unable to think of a spiritual entity
as being anything other than a purer natural one,
and of correspondence as being
anything other than something flowing in
by a continuous means.
Indeed, the merely natural person cannot think
of anything apart from the natural realm.
Anything apart from that to him does not exist.