Table of Contents

i. [Introduction] §§1-2

I. There are two worlds: the spiritual world, inhabited by spirits and angels, and the natural world, inhabited by men. §3

II. The spiritual world first existed and continually subsists from its own sun; and the natural world from its own sun. §4

III. The sun of the spiritual world is pure love from Jehovah God, who is in the midst of it. §5

IV. From that sun proceed heat and light; the heat proceeding from it is in its essence love, and the light from it is in its essence wisdom. §6

V. Both that heat and that light flow into man: the heat into his will, where it produces the good of love; and the light into his understanding, where it produces the truth of wisdom. §7

VI. Those two, heat and light, or love and wisdom, flow conjointly from God into the soul of man; and through this into his mind, its affections and thoughts; and from these into the senses, speech, and actions of the body. §8

VII. VII. The sun of the natural world is pure fire; and the world of nature first existed and continually subsists by means of this sun. §9

VIII. Therefore everything which proceeds from this sun, regarded in itself, is dead. §10

IX. That which is spiritual clothes itself with that which is natural, as a man clothes himself with a garment. §11

X. Spiritual things, thus clothed in a man, enable him to live as a rational and moral man, thus as a spiritually natural man. §12

XI. The reception of that influx is according to the state of love and wisdom with man. §13

XII. The understanding in a man can be raised into the light, that is, into the wisdom in which are the angels of heaven, according to the cultivation of his reason; and his will can be raised in like manner into the heat of heaven, that is, into love, according to the deeds of his life; but the love of the will is not raised, except so far as the man wills and does those things which the wisdom of the understanding teaches. §14

XIII. It is altogether otherwise with beasts. §15

XIV. There are three degrees in the spiritual world, and three degrees in the natural world, hitherto unknown, according to which all influx takes place. §16

XV. Ends are in the first degree, causes in the second, and effects in the third. §17

XVI. Hence it is evident what is the nature of spiritual influx from its origin to its effects. §§18-20

4. -II-. The spiritual world first existed and continually subsists from its own sun; and the natural world from its own sun.

That there is one sun of the spiritual world and another of the natural world is because those worlds are altogether distinct from each other, and a world derives its origin from a sun. For a world in which all things are spiritual cannot originate from a sun, all the products of which are natural, since thus there would be physical influx, which, however, is contrary to order. That the world came into existence from the sun, and not the sun from the world, is evident from the consequence of the fact that the world, as to all things belonging to it, in general and in particular, subsists by means of the sun; and subsistence proves existence, hence it is said that subsistence is perpetual existence: thus it is evident that if the sun were removed its world would fall into chaos, and this chaos into nothing.

[2] That in the spiritual world there is a sun different from that in the natural world I am able to testify, for I have seen it: in appearance it is fiery, like our sun, of nearly the same magnitude, and at a distance from the angels as our sun is from men. It does not rise or set, however, but stands immovable in a middle altitude between the zenith and the horizon, whence the angels enjoy perpetual light and perpetual spring.

[3] A man given to reasoning, who knows nothing concerning the sun of the spiritual world, easily becomes insane in his idea of the creation of the universe. When he deeply considers it, he perceives no otherwise than that it is from nature; and because the origin of nature is the sun, that it is from its sun as a creator. Moreover, no one can have a perception of spiritual influx, unless he also knows its origin: for all influx proceeds from a sun; spiritual influx from its sun, and natural influx from its sun. The internal sight of a man, which is the sight of his mind, receives influx from the spiritual sun; but the external sight, which is that of the body, receives influx from the natural sun, and in operation they unite, just as the soul does with the body.

[4] Hence it is evident into what blindness, darkness, and stupidity those may fall who know nothing of the spiritual world and its sun; into blindness, because the mind, depending solely upon the sight of the eye, becomes in its reasonings like a bat, which flies by night in a wandering course, and sometimes into linen clothes which may be hanging up; into darkness, because the sight of the mind, when the sight of the eye is flowing into it from within, is deprived of all spiritual light [lumen], and becomes like that of an owl; into stupidity, because the man still thinks, but from natural things about spiritual, and not the other way round; consequently, idiotically, foolishly, and insanely.

3. I. There are two worlds: the spiritual world, inhabited by spirits and angels, and the natural world, inhabited by men.

That there is a spiritual world inhabited by spirits and angels distinct from the natural world inhabited by men, has hitherto been deeply hidden, even in the Christian world, because no angel has descended and taught it by word of mouth, nor has any man ascended and seen it. Lest, therefore, from ignorance of that world, and the uncertain faith respecting heaven and hell thence resulting, man should be so far infatuated as to become an atheistic materialist, it has pleased the Lord to open the sight of my spirit, and to raise it into heaven and let it down into hell, and to exhibit to my view the nature of both.

[2] It has thus been made evident to me that there are two worlds, distinct from each other; one, in which all things are spiritual, whence it is called the spiritual world; and the other, in which all things are natural, whence it is called the natural world: and also that spirits and angels live in their own world, and men in theirs; and further, that every man passes by death from his world into the other, and lives in it to eternity. In order that Influx, which is the subject of this little work, may be unfolded from its beginning, it is necessary that some information respecting both these worlds should be provided; for the spiritual world flows into the natural world, and actuates it in all its parts, with both men and beasts, and also constitutes the vegetative principle in trees and herbs.