✶Gnosis
← Contents
Theme
05 / 14

Listen

Dhammapada · narration sample

A one-minute narration sample. Every book in the library is narrated end to end — hear the rest in the app.

Earths in the Universe · 5 of 14

The Planet Saturn

97.THE EARTH OR PLANET SATURN, ITS SPIRITS AND INHABITANTS. The spirits from the earth Saturn appear in front at a considerable distance, beneath in the plane of the knees, where the earth itself is; and when the eye is opened to see thither, a multitude of spirits come into view who are all from that earth. They are seen on this part of that earth, and to the right of it. It has also been granted to speak with them, and thereby to know their quality in comparison with others. They are upright and modest, and inasmuch as they esteem themselves little, therefore they also appear small in the other life.

98.In worship they are exceedingly humble, for in it they account themselves as nothing. They worship our Lord, and acknowledge Him as the only God. The Lord also appears to them at times under an angelic form, and thereby as a Man, and the Divine then shines forth from the face and affects the mind. The inhabitants also, when they arrive at a certain age, speak with spirits, by whom they are instructed concerning the Lord, how He ought to be worshiped, and likewise how they ought to live. When any wish to seduce the spirits who come from the earth Saturn, and to withdraw them from faith in the Lord, or from humiliation towards Him, and from uprightness of life, they say they wish to die. There then appear in their hands small knives, with which they seem desirous of striking their breasts, On being questioned why they do so, they say that they would rather die than be drawn away from the Lord. The spirits of our earth sometimes deride them on this account, and infest them with reproaches for so doing. But they reply, that they know well that they do not kill themselves, and that this is only an appearance flowing from the will of their mind, inclining them rather to die than to be withdrawn from the worship of the Lord.

99.They said that sometimes spirits from our earth come to them, and ask them what God they worship; to whom they reply, that they are insane, and that there cannot be a greater proof of insanity than to ask what God any one worships, when there is but one only God for all in the universe; and that they are still more insane in this, that they do not acknowledge the Lord to be that one only God, and that He rules the entire heaven, and thereby the whole world; for whosoever rules heaven also rules the world, inasmuch as the world is ruled through heaven.

100.They said that on their earth there are also some who call the nocturnal light, which is great, the Lord; but that they are separated from the rest, and are not tolerated by them. That nocturnal light comes from the great bolt, which at a distance encompasses that earth, and from the moons which are called Saturn’s satellites.

52-1 Fire in the Word is love in both senses (n. 934, 4906, 5215). The sacred and heavenly fire is the Divine love, and every affection which is of that love (n. 934, 6314, 6832). Internal fire is the love of self and the world, and every concupiscence which is of these loves (n. 965, 1861, 5071, 6314, 6832, 7575, 10.747) Love is the fire of life, and life itself is actually thence (n. 4906, 5071, 6032).

52-2 Spirits and angels do not see what is in this solar world, but they saw through my eyes (n. 1881).

54-1 The most ancient people on this earth had speech through the face and lips, by means of internal breathing (n. 607, 1118, 7361). The people on, certain other earths have a similar speech (n. 4799. 7359, 8248, 10,587). Concerning the perfection and excellence of that speech (n. 7360, 10,587, 10,708).

60-1 A “horse” signifies the intellectual faculty (n. 2760-2762, 3217, 5321, 6125, 6400, 6534, 7024, 8146, 8148). And that “the white horse” in the Apocalypse signifies the understanding of the Word (n. 2760).

61-1 When many spirits speak together and unanimously they form what is called a choir, and concerning them (n. 2595, 2596, 3350). In their speech there is harmony (n. 1648, 1649). By choirs in the other life introduction into unanimity is effected (n. 5182)

64-1 A spiritual sphere, which is the sphere of the life, flows forth and overflows from every man spirit, and angel, and encompasses them about (n. 4464, 5179, 7454). It flows forth from the life of their affections and consequent thoughts (n. 2489, 4464, 6206). In the other life consociations and also dissociations are according to spheres (n. 6206, 9606, 9607, 10,312).

70-1 The Lord alone has merit and justice (n. 9715, 9975, 9979, 9981, 9982). They who place merit in works, or wish to merit heaven by their good deeds, wish to be served in the other life, and are never content (n. 6393). They despise the neighbor, and are angry with the Lord Himself if they do not receive reward (n. 9976). What their lot is in the other life (n. 942, 1774, 1877, 2027). They are of those who appear to cut wood in the lower earth (n. 1110, 4943).

82-1 “Chariots signify the doctrinals of the church (n. 2761, 5321, 8215). “Horses” signify the intellectual faculty (n. 2760, 2761, 2762, 3217, 5321, 6125, 6400, 6534, 7024, 8146, 8148, 8351). “The white horse” in the Apocalypse signifies the understanding of the word (n. 2760). By “Elijah” in the representative sense is meant the word (n. 2762, 5247). And because all the doctrine of the church and the understanding of it are from the word, Elijah was called “the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof” (n. 2762). He was therefore taken up by a fiery chariot and horses of fire (n. 2762, 8029).

83-1 Blue from red or flame corresponds to the good of celestial love, and blue from white or light corresponds to the good of spiritual love (n. 9868).

85-1 The First and Most Ancient Church on this earth which was celestial church, which is the primary of all, see (n. 607, 895, 920, 1121-1124, 2896, 4493, 8891, 9942, 10,545). The church is called celestial in which the principal thing is love to the Lord, but spiritual in which the principal thing is charity toward the neighbor and faith (n. 3691, 6435, 9468, 9680, 9683, 9780).

86-1 Distances in the other life are real appearances, which are presented by the Lord to be seen, according to the state of the interiors of angels and spirits (n. 5604, 9104, 9440, 10,146).

87-1 That spirits and angels have respiration (n. 3884, 3885, 3891, 3893).

88-1 Human faces on our earth in ancient times received influx from the cerebellum, and the faces then acted as one with the interior affections of man but that afterward they received influx from the cerebrum, when man began to dissemble and counterfeit in the face affections not his own, and concerning the changes brought upon faces therefrom in process of time (n. 4325-4328).

95-1 That communications are made through spirits sent forth by societies of spirits and angels to other societies, and that these emissary spirits are called subjects (n. 4403, 5856, 5983, 5985-5989).

101.They related further that another kind of spirits, who go in companies, frequently come to them, desiring to know how things are with them; and that by various methods they draw out from them whatever they know. They said concerning these spirits, that they were not insane, only in this, that they desire to know so much for no other use than to know. They were afterwards instructed that these spirits were from the planet Mercury, or the earth nearest the sun, and that they are delighted with knowledges alone, and not so much with their uses.

102.The inhabitants and spirits of the planet Saturn have relation in the Greatest Man, to the middle sense between the spiritual and the natural man, but to that which recedes from the natural and accedes to the spiritual. Hence it is that those spirits appear to be carried or snatched away into heaven, and presently to be let back again; for whatever appertains to the spiritual sense is in heaven; but whatever appertains to the natural sense is beneath heaven. Inasmuch as the spirits of our earth, in the Greatest Man have relation to natural and corporeal sense, it was given me to know by manifest experience how the spiritual man and the natural fight and strive with each other, when the latter is not in faith and charity. The spirits of the earth Saturn came from afar into view, and there was then opened a living communication between them and such spirits of our earth. The latter, on thus perceiving the former, became as if insane, and began to infest them, by infusing unworthy suggestions concerning faith, and also concerning the Lord; and whilst abusing them with these invectives and insults, they also cast themselves into the midst of them, and from the insanity in which they were, they endeavored to do evil to them. But the spirits of Saturn feared nothing, because they were secure and in tranquillity; whereas the spirits of our earth, when they were in the midst of them, began to be tortured, and to respire with difficulty, and so they cast themselves out, one in this way and another that, till they all disappeared. The spirits who were present perceived from this, what is the quality of the natural man when separate from the spiritual, and when he comes into a spiritual sphere, namely, that he is insane; for the natural man separate from the spiritual is wise only from the world, and not from heaven; and he who is wise only from the world, believes nothing but what he can apprehend with his senses, and the things which he believes he believes from the fallacies of the senses, which, unless they are removed by an influx from the spiritual world, produce falsities. Hence it is that spiritual things to him are not anything, insomuch that he can scarcely bear to hear mention made of anything spiritual; wherefore such become insane when they are kept in a spiritual sphere. It is otherwise during their abode in the world, where they either think naturally concerning spiritual things, or avert their ears that they may not hear them; that is, they hear and do not attend. It was also manifest from this experience, that the natural man cannot introduce himself into the spiritual, that is, ascend; but when man is in faith, and thereby in spiritual life, in this case the spiritual man flows into the natural, and thinks therein. For there is given a spiritual influx, that is, an influx from the spiritual world into the natural, but not the reverse.

103.I was further informed by the spirits of that earth respecting the inhabitants, what their consociations are, with several other particulars. They said that they live distinguished into families, every family apart by itself; each family consisting of a man and his wife with their children; and the children, when they enter the married state, are separated from the parental house, and have no further care about it. Wherefore the spirits from that earth appear two and two. They are little solicitous about food and raiment, they feed on the fruits and legumes their earth produces; and they are clothed slightly, being encompassed with a coarse skin or coat, which repels the cold. Moreover, all on that earth know that they will live after death; and that on this account also they make light of their bodies, only so far as regards that life, which they say is to remain and serve the Lord. It is for this reason likewise that they do not bury the bodies of the dead, but cast them forth, and cover them with branches of forest trees.

104.They were asked concerning that great belt, which appears from our earth to rise above the horizon of that planet, and to vary its situations. They said, that it does not appear to them as a belt, but only as a snowy light in the heaven in various directions.