DISCRETE DEGREES

Contents

Colour in the Diagrams 11

PART I: REGENERATION OF MAN.

Diagram 1. (Two Forms.)
Chapter I. The Spiritual and the Natural 15

Diagram II. (Two Forms.)
Chapter II. The Spirit Twofold, -Mind and Spiritual Body 17

Diagram III. (Two Forms.)
Chapter III. The Inmost or the Soul Proper 19

Diagram IV.
Chapter IV. The Mind; its two Faculties-Will and Understanding 21

Diagram V.
Chapter V. Will and Understanding. - Another view, 25

Diagram VI.
Chapter VI. The Internal and the External Mind, 27

Diagram VII.
Chapter VII. Internal Will and Understanding, and External Will and Understanding 29

Diagram VIII.
Chapter VIII. The Mind in Three Degrees 3 1

Diagram IX
Chapter IX. Three Degrees. - Another view 35

Diagram X.
Chapter X. The Spiritual or Internal Mind in Three Degrees, 37
Relation of the Three Heavens and the Two Kingdoms, 37

Diagram XI.
Chapter XI. Illustration of Passages 39

Diagram XII.
Chapter XII. The Mind as the Two Kingdoms 43

Diagram XIII.
Chapter XIII. Relation of the Degrees of the Natural Mind to those of the Spiritual 47

Diagram XIV.
Chapter XIV. Each Degree of the Spiritual Mind in three Planes 51

Diagram XV.
Chapter XV. The Limbus 53

Diagram XVI.
Chapter XVI. The Limbus Retained after Death, 61

Diagram XVII.
Chapter XVII. All the Degrees-in Trines 63

Diagram XVIII. (Two Forms.)
Chapter XVIII. Man at Birth 65
Errors Regarding the Child's Inheritance from the Mother, 72

Supplement 73

Diagram XIX.
Chapter XIX. Growth during Infancy 75

Diagram XX.
Chapter XX. Growth during Childhood 85

Diagram XXI.
Chapter XXI. Growth during Youth 89

Diagram XXII.
Chapter XXII. Adult Life. - First Degree of Regeneration, 93

Diagram XXIII.
Chapter XXIII. The Second Degree of Regeneration,. 101

Diagram XXIV.
Chapter XXIV. The Third Degree of Regeneration, 103

Diagram XXV.
Chapter XXV. The Wicked 107

PART II: ASSUMPTION AND GLORIFICATION OF THE HUMAN BY THE LORD.

Diagram XXVI. (Two Forms.)
Chapter XXVI. The Human of the LORD before the Incarnation 113

Diagram XXVII.
Chapter XXVII. The Degrees of the Human and whence Taken 119

Diagram XXVIII. (Two Forms.)
Chapter XXVIII. State of the Human at Birth 125
Similarity and Dissimilarity between the LORD at Birth and other Infants 125

Diagram XXIX.
Chapter XXIX. The Glorification; Its First Stage - Infancy, 135

Diagram XXX.
Chapter XXX. The Glorification; Its Second Stage Childhood 143

Diagram XXXI.
Chapter XXXI. The Glorification; Its Third Stage-Youth, 145

Diagram XXXII.
Chapter XXXII. The Glorification; Its Fourth Stage - The First Period of Adult Life 149.

Diagram XXXIII.
Chapter XXXIII. The Glorification; Its Fifth Stage-The Second Period of Adult Life 151

Diagram XXXIV. (Two Forms.)
Chapter XXXIV. The Glorification; Its Sixth Stage-The Third Period of Adult Life 153

Diagram XXXV. (Two Forms.)
Chapter XXXV. The Glorification Complete; Its Seventh and Last Stage. - The Fourth Period of Adult Life, 155

Addendum 157

Abbreviations for the Books of the Writings
 

Colour in the Diagrams.

The natural sun is from the spiritual sun, its fire from the love and its light from the wisdom of that sun. This sun also emits two principles, one flammeous or fiery, the other luminous or splendid; the first red from fire, the second white from light. (HH 118, 128.)

Colour becomes perceptible in objects. Objects modify and variously present the influent beams of the sun. This they do according to their form philosophically considered, which is not mere shape but that arrangement and relation of parts on which their quality depends; thus the Colour of objects is as their form. (TCR 52, 53.)

Objects in which the flammeous elements of the sun rules are red, those in which the luminous rules are white. Red represents love or good; white, truth or wisdom.

In the heavens, Colour is genuine. The higher and more perfect the heaven, the brighter, richer and more living the Colour.

Objects apart from the influent beams of the sun have no Colour, nonetheless there is in them a certain something as a ground of dark for the reception of Colour. This ground, like Colour itself, is two-fold, one part for red, the other for white. In objects of orderly form and especially in objects in heaven this ground of dark is mild and agreeable. In hell it is the reverse, a result of the evil and the false; and the Colours there are spurious, dismal, and repulsive. (AC 364.)

In these Diagrams the innermost or supreme degree would, were it possible, be drawn in sun Colour, which Colour arises from a perfect union of red and white and most perfectly represents the union of love and wisdom in the soul; but as we are unable to produce sun-Colour we have adopted gold as the nearest approach to it.

In the representation of the three degrees of the mind and of the three heavens the celestial is drawn in red, the spiritual in white (instead of blue), -and the natural in green.

Were the Colour of the spiritual degree to be determined by good, which is the affectional or voluntary of this degree, the Colour would be blue, but white is chosen-the general correspondent of the intellectual. Blue, however, is implied in the white which corresponds to the truth or intellectual principle of the spiritual degree, because truth reduced to practice implants the good of truth and so imparts a tint of blue to the white of the spiritual heaven. The good of the spiritual degree and of the spiritual heaven in its essence is truth from the good of the celestial, and thus is intellectual good. (HH 118, 128; AE 405[c], 832; D.W. in AE I; DLW 380; AC 9467.)

PART I. The Regeneration of Man.

Chapter I. The Spiritual and the Natural.

The natural sense of the Word is represented by clouds, its spiritual sense by the light of the sun. Accordingly C representing the natural body and the natural world, is here drawn in dark, and B representing the spiritual body and the spiritual world, in light. B may also represent the spiritual sense of the Word, and C its natural sense.

There is another order, the order of subsistence and preservation, in which things created exist simultaneously and one within another; this is simultaneous order. This order results from successive order, and like successive order is universal. When lower things have been produced from higher, the higher are in the lower, remain in them, and perpetuate their existence.

To indicate this order some of the diagrams are drawn as all might be: one degree within another: -In this order the spirit is within the body, is of the same human form as the body, is present in every part of it, imparting life, maintaining its form and order, and thus preserving it. So the whole spiritual world is within the whole natural world, maintaining its form and order and imparting life, force and motion. And while the higher and highest are in the outmost, perpetuating it, the outmost holds the interior and inmost in form and order and thus sustains and preserves them; as the rind, the interior and inmost parts of the fruit, or as the skin, the interior and inmost of the body. Hence in simultaneous order all parts-first, middle and last, are mutually preserved and perpetuated.

Chapter Il. The Spirit Two-fold, Mind and Spiritual Body.

The mind is the primal organism. The spiritual body is formed from it and is its organ of sense and instrument of action in the spiritual world. These together clothe themselves with the material body.

The mind being first in the order of creation and formed of purer spiritual substances is placed at the head of the successive series in this diagram and is drawn in white.

The spiritual body, formed of grosser spiritual substances and being lower in degree is drawn in dull white. Not only is the spiritual body the mind's organ of sense and instrument of action in the spiritual world but it is also its containant, and is as necessary, to preserve it in form and function as are the solids of the material body to preserve its softer parts and its vital fluids.

When the mind, the spiritual body, and the natural body have been thus successively produced, they then subsist simultaneously one within another, - the highest in successive order becoming the central in simultaneous order and thus the essential organism and the first recipient of life in the series, while the lowest becomes the outmost, the containant and the preservative of those within. (AC 6465, 3739, 9211; CL 313, 314)

Things superior and inferior are the same as things interior and exterior; superior and inferior relating to the order of creation, interior and exterior to the order of preservation. (AC 3739, 3695, 5897, 6451 8603, 10099; AR 900.),

That the mind, the spiritual body, and the natural body are produced in successive order and sustained in simultaneous order, was shown above.

Conceive now the existence of these two orders in the work of regeneration and salvation.

Love and wisdom, good and truth, charity and faith are implanted in the mind as the first and fluent principles of the new. These are from "the breath of the LORD" and are breathed life into the mind in their initial forms when the LORD creates man anew in the womb of the Church his spiritual mother. And being too evanescent to abide in form without a firmer clothing than is supplied by the delicate substances of the mind, they descend into the spiritual body and take on therein a more ultimate form suited to sensation and action in the spiritual world; and descending a step lower, even into the material body, the very ultimate plane of human life, they there clothe themselves with a form suited to the natural world, and thus become fixed and enduring. The order has now become simultaneous. Within the renovated natural body exists the renovated spiritual body and within the spiritual body the central forces of the regenerate mind. Surveying this regenerate state from within out we behold love and wisdom in the mind their primal abode, love and wisdom clothed in their firmer organism in the spiritual body, and lastly love and wisdom embodied in fixed form in the very outmost degree such that it can and will preserve the interior and the inmost in form and order to eternity.

The reader should study well the nature and universality of these two orders of discrete degrees, that he may obtain a thorough and familiar comprehension of the structural philosophy of the spiritual and natural universe and especially of man and the heavens.

Chapter III. The Inmost or the Soul Proper.

Though all of man except the natural body is commonly called soul, yet.technically only this supreme or inmost degree is the soul. (TCR 697, 103; DLW 388.)

This soul is the veriest dwelling-place of the LORD. The LORD flows' into this degree with love and wisdom as one, and thence forms, flows into, orders and preserves all the degrees below. (Inf. 8; HH 39; LJ 25.)

This inmost is composed of the highest and purest spiritual substances in man and lies above the plane of either human or angelic consciousness. The mind B, which is below this supreme degree and formed from it, is composed of grosser spiritual substances, and the spiritual body C of still grosser. (HH 39; LJ 25; Inf. 8, 14; S.D. 5548.)

Influx from the LORD enters first into this supreme or inmost degree, thence into the mind, thence into the spiritual body and from this into the natural body. (CL 101.)

This inmost is the primal and unconscious origin of the two great faculties of spiritual liberty and rationality by which man is distinguished from the brute, which faculties are essential elements of his nature, - liberty inhering in the will, rationality in the understanding. (LJ 25 ; DLW 240, 247; AC 1707; TCR 697 end.)

In Arcana Coelestia AC (n. 1940, 1889, 1707) this highest degree is called the internal man, all the planes below it being relatively the external man. It is also called the "human internal;" - the human internals of all men, spirits and angels form in the aggregate a vast complex degree called the heaven of human internals, which is above the inmost angelic heaven. (AC 1999.)

The angelic heavens lie within the region of consciousness. What transcends this region is above the angelic heavens and so appears in the sight of the LORD.

This supreme degree is the very Alpha of man, the material body is his Omega.

Doubtless it was from His residence in this highest degree that the LORD inflowed and filled the angels with His Divine when He appeared and spoke through them to the patriarchs and prophets. The private consciousness of the angel, in whatever plane below, being for the time suspended, the utterances were not his own but the LORD'S through him. (AC 1 745, 1925; AE 1228; DP 96.)

This supreme degree being the source of all the others is drawn in gold to represent sun Colour, because sun Colour, the perfect union of red and white, is the source of all other Colours. (See "Colour in the Diagrams," page 12.)

Chapter IV. The Mind: - Its Two Faculties, Will and Understanding.

The will is drawn in red because it is the receptacle and abode of love or good. The understanding is drawn in white because it is the receptacle and abode of wisdom or truth. See reason for this in "Colour in the Diagrams" page 11.

Below the mind stands the spiritual body D. This body being but a derivative ultimate and foundation of the mind, or in simultaneous order its envelop and containant, has a quality like that of the mind. The mind is both voluntary and intellectual, the voluntary is drawn in red, the intellectual in white. Hence the spiritual body (their complex in ultimates) is both red and white - red from the will and its affection, white from the understanding and thought. Hence also the rosy tint and lily white in the countenance of an angel, and the fire and light in the countenance and eyes of man. (DLW 369; CL 42, 384.)

The natural body E, the last in the series, is drawn in Colour moderately red and white for the same reason, and being an effect from the prior forms may be called the mind in its extreme organism. Hence the presence in the body of dual organs and parts, as two hemispheres of the brain, pairs of nerves, two eyes, two hands, two feet:- the right an ultimate of the will, the left of the understanding.

The spiritual body in form and quality is like the mind, being beautiful and lovely, and inwardly pure and orderly if the mind be so. So too the natural body has an inward quality or nature more or less like the mind and bespeaks its state.

With the adult sufficiently advanced in years the natural body becomes in quality more or less like the mind, pure in substance, orderly in texture and moral in tone with the regenerate, and the reverse with the wicked. (DLW 135 to 143, 420, 423; AC 6872, 5559, 5726.)

Were the natural body more plastic, as before the fall, and were it under no other spiritual influences than those of its own mind and the particular spirits conjunctively associated with that mind it would exhibit far more than now the state and features of the mind. Then the inward order and purity of the body of the good would well answer to the state of the will and understanding. This inward order and purity, however, might nor be observable, yet its external form and beauty would be manifest. It would be the same with the body of the evil, but opposite from an opposite state of the spirit.

Since the fall and especially in later ages the implasticity of the body impedes its full response.

But why are not the bodies of the wicked as much defiled and deformed with natural impurity and disease as their minds, with moral and spiritual impurity? Why are their bodies often beautiful and healthful? This is from a merciful provision for the security of Divine ends, one of which is that a general influx from heaven shall largely order and control the corporeals of man that they may not be controlled by an influx from the particular spirits attendant on him. Thus whatever of health or beauty appertains to the wicked, is due to a general heavenly influx directly into the exteriors of the natural body. We say exteriors of the body meaning its gross and solid parts, because in the case of the evil the vital fluids are always more or less defiled. (DLW 423.) Even when health and beauty are an inheritance they are maintained by this heavenly influx and were mostly of such origin in the ancestors. (AC 5862, 5990, 6192, 6211)

Concerning the hereditary state of the infantile body see Diagram XVIII.

The will and understanding are organic forms. (DLW 373.) Concerning these faculties in general, consult The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine, 28 to 33.

Chapter V. Will and Understanding. - Another View.

Considering the will as the highest and inmost degree and the understanding as the middle, the spiritual body D will be the lowest or outmost degree of the spirit. The spiritual body, however, is not another faculty, but merely an ultimate of the will and the understanding, so organized that by it the will and the understanding may enjoy outward sensation and give expression corresponding with affection and thought. In this view the mind constitutes the whole spirit of man, and the spirit is but an internal and an external will and understanding.

And as the material body is merely an intellectual and voluntary organism superadded for lowest and outmost sensation, perception and expression, it must be included when we say that the whole man is but an organic form of will and understanding. (DLW 358 to 432.)

Chapter VI. The Internal and the External Mind.

The spiritual body D though separately drawn, is yet closely conjoined with the external mind, and in the Writings is generally inclosed in it.

The internal mind is the primary and special abode of love to the LORD and of love to the neighbor. The external mind is the abode of self-love and of love of the world. (DLW 396; DP 324; TCR 401, 402; AC 9701-9709; NJHD 36-53.)

Divisions of the degrees into internal and external other than this occur in the Writings, and the same degrees are differently designated in different passages. A certain degree may in one passage be called the internal man, in another the spiritual man, in another the inmost man, in another the middle man, in another the rational man, and yet in others classed with and called the exterior or external man; all arising from different points of view.

In this diagram the internal mind B in the individual man or angel answers to the plane of the angelic heavens, and the external C answers to the region of the world of spirits.

In Apocalypse Explained, AE we read, -  

"When the interior of man is purified from evils then the internal is opened which is above the interior, and which is called the spiritual internal; this communicates with heaven. There are two internals in man, one beneath and the other above. The internal which is beneath is that in which man is, and from which he thinks while he lives in the world, for it is natural this, by way of distinction, will be called the interior. But the internal which is above is that into which man comes after death when he comes into heaven; all the angels of heaven are in this internal, for it is spiritual."- AE 940.

In Apocalypse Explained, AE 940, this natural C is called natural internal in distinction to an extreme degree of the natural mind close to the body, which constitutes a natural external not here drawn, but to be drawn in Diagram XI

In the original Latin the internal mind is frequently called Mens, and the external mind and spiritual body together are called Animus, though Animus is sometimes restricted to the natural mind merely. In a wider sense Animus includes also that part of the external mind formed of natural substances as mentioned in Divine Love and Wisdom, 257. (See Diagram XV.)

In the prayer "Thy will be done as in heaven so upon the earth", "as in heaven" means "as in the spiritual mind" and "so upon the earth" means "so in the natural mind." "That your days and the days of your sons may be multiplied as the days of the heavens upon the earth," (Deut. xi, 21), means that with the regenerate the states of the natural mind will accord with the states of the spiritual mind.

Chapter VII. Internal Will and Understanding, and External Will and Understanding.

The external will and understanding may be either conjoined with the internal and act in harmony with them, or be severed from them and act in opposition.

In a state of order the external will and understanding are in agreement and co-operation with the internal and are conjoined with them, so that they constitute as it were one will and understanding.

With the wicked, the spiritual will and understanding, although never perverted, are yet closed and quiescent; but their natural will and understanding, though open and operative, are defiled with evil and falsity and severed from the spiritual, and hence act in opposition to them.

The will and understanding are here presented as organic faculties of the mind; the external organism being an outbirth from the internal. Their varying states will be presented in other diagrams.

The will is drawn in red because it is the receptacle of love, the understanding in white because it is the receptacle of truth.

The spiritual body F and the natural body H are only more ultimate forms and instruments of the will and understanding. (DLW 362. See Chap. IV. page 21)

Chapter VIII. The Mind in Three Degrees.

"The nature of man's initiament or primitive in the womb, after conception, no one can know because it cannot be seen, and it is also of spiritual substance, which is not visible by natural light. Now because some in the world are such that they direct the mind even to an investigation of man's primitive which is the seed of the father from which conception takes place, and because many of them have fallen into the error that man is in his fullness from his first which is the beginning [inchoamentuni] and is afterward perfected by growth; therefore the quality of this beginning or first, in its form, has been disclosed to me. This was done by the angels, to whom it was revealed by the LORD. They, have made this of their wisdom, and the joy of their wisdom is to communicate to others what they know; and therefore by leave granted them, they presented before my eyes in the light of heaven a type of man's initial form, which was as follows:- There appeared something like a very small image of a brain with a delicate delineation of a certain face in front without appendage : this primitive in its upper convex part was compacted of contiguous globules or spherules, and every one of these spherules was compacted of still smaller ones, and every one of these again of the smallest; it was thus of three degrees; anteriorly in the flat part something delineated appeared for the face. The convex part was covered about with a very thin membrane or meninge, which was transparent; this convex part, which was a type of a brain in its leasts, was also divided into two cushions. as it were, as the brain in its largest [forrns] is divided into two hemispheres; and I was told that the- right cushion was the receptacle of love and the left the receptacle of wisdom, and that by marvelous interweavings they were like consorts and comrades. It was farther shown in the heavenly light which beamed upon it, that the structure of this little brainlet was interiorly, as to its situation and fluxion, in the order and in the form of heaven, and that its exterior structure was, on the contrary, opposed to that order and that form. After these things had been seen and shown, the angels said that the two interior degrees 1 which were in the order and form of heaven, were the receptacles of love and wisdom from the LORD.; and that the exterior degree, which was in the opposition to these, contrary to the order and form of heaven, was the receptacle of infernal love and insanity. This is because man by hereditary taint is born into all kinds of evil, and these evils reside there in the extremities; and that taint cannot be removed unless the two superior degrees are opened, which, as before stated, are receptacles of love and wisdom from the LORD. And as love and wisdom are the real man, - for love and wisdom in their essence are the LORD, - and as this primitive of man is their receptacle it follows that in this primitive there is a continuous effort toward the human form, which it also gradually assumes."- DLW 432

In the above extract the inmost A is neither described nor mentioned, yet we know from the Writings that it is within this primitive, it being the very primitive of the primitive.

The two higher degrees B and C constitute the whole internal mind and represent that mind in its two aspects of celestial and spiritual, and in the individual are equivalent to the two kingdoms in heaven; and they produce from themselves the external or natural degree D as their ultimate and base, answering to the world of spirits.

In this passage (DLW 432) these three degrees are presented in their strictly initial form as at conception. The two interior or superior degrees are represented in the diagram by B and C and the external degree by D. In Divine Wisdom III, 4, the two higher degrees B and C are said to be in the order and form of heaven, but the mass of the lowest degree, by virtue of hereditary decline, in the order and form of hell.

In Divine Love and Wisdom we read,

"The natural mind of man consists of spiritual substances, and at the same time of natural substances; from it; spiritual substances thought is produced, but not from its natural substances."- DLW 257.

Of this natural mind, only that part which is organized of spiritual substances and called the lowest degree of the human primitive described above, is here represented by D; that part composed of natural substances which the above primitive afterward takes on from the mother, is not here separately drawn, though included in E, but it will be distinctly presented in Diagram XV.

The reader will bear in mind that the human primitive which is the paternal seed, already described from the Writings and here represented by B C D, is composed entirely of spiritual substance not visible in natural light; the material substance commonly regarded as the human seed is not the true seed, but merely its containant and preservative. (TCR 103, 92.)

NOTE. - The initial form of man in a type seen in the light of heaven, (described in DLW 432), is not man's inmost presented in Diagram III and meant in Heaven and Hell 39 and other like passages in the Writings, but is the mind derived from the inmost, - the mind with its three degrees, in a germinal state.

This agrees with the fact that the "inmost, the LORD'S veriest abode in man," (HH 39), is above the sphere of angelic consciousness, and with the fact that the heaven of human internals," which is the complex of these supreme degrees of all the individual angels, is above the angelic heaven (AC 1999), because, above angelic consciousness, above the highest degree of the mind of the angel, as distinguished from his soul. (See Inf. 8.)

Chapter IX. The Mind in Three Degrees. - Another View.

"There are three degrees of altitude in every man from birth, and they may be opened successively; and so far as they are opened man is in the LORD and the LORD in him....

"These three degrees of altitude are named natural, spiritual and celestial. When man is born he first comes into the natural degree, and this grows in him by continuity according to knowledges and according to the understanding acquired by them to the highest of understanding which is called the rational. Yet the second degree which is called spiritual is not hereby opened. The spiritual is opened by the love of uses from intellectuals, but by the spiritual love of uses, which love is love toward the neighbor. This degree likewise may grow by degrees of continuity to its highest, and it grows by the cognitions of truth and good, or by spiritual truths. Yet the third degree which is called celestial is not opened by these, but by the celestial love of use, which love is love to the LORD, and love to the LORD is nothing else than committing to life the precepts of the Word.

".. When man puts off the natural degree, which he does when he dies, he comes into the degree which was opened in him in the world; into the spiritual, he in whom the spiritual degree was opened; into the celestial, he in whom the celestial degree was opened."- DLW 236, 237, 238.

The degrees described in paragraph 256 of the same work, higher than the natural, are also two, as in the above extract. In the light of these statements consider the diagram. The two higher degrees are here equivalent to the whole spiritual mind, - B answering to the celestial kingdom, C to the spiritual. Below the spiritual mind is the natural D, called also the external, sometimes the lowest degree, including the material body during life in the world.

This diagram illustrates also True Christian Religion, 239. The statement in this number as in the extract above that the natural degree of the regenerate is put off by death, although involving the rejection of the material body, yet chiefly means the closure of the natural mind with an elevation of the consciousness into the spiritual or into the celestial of the internal mind, according to the degree of regeneration attained.

Elevation after death above the natural into any one of the higher degrees and thus into heaven can be predicated only of the regenerate; the unregenerate remain in the natural degree.

This diagram represents the internal mind in two planes, celestial and spiritual, the one including all that answers to the celestial kingdom of heaven, the other to the spiritual kingdom.

Chapter X. The Spiritual or Internal Mind in Three Degrees.

Read Apocalypse Explained,, AE 1125 (Ath.Cr. 28) and note the mention of three degrees of life above the ultimate which is a fourth. The three are those of the spiritual mind, answering to the three heavens; the ultimate or fourth consists of the natural mind and spiritual body, answering to the world of spirits, and includes also the natural body during life in the world. In Arcana Coelestia, AC 3405, all below the three heavens is included in the degree in which man is during life in the world; this is taken as the first degree; the ultimate or lowest heaven is the second degree, the middle heaven the third, and the highest heaven the fourth. (See also AC 5145.)

What is here drawn as the ultimate degree (E) is composed of several degrees as will appear from subsequent diagrams.

Relation of the Three Heavens and the Two Kingdoms.

THIS relation may be seen by comparing this diagram with Diagram IX. In Diagram IX the internal mind is drawn in two degrees, celestial and spiritual; in this diagram it is drawn in three degrees, celestial, spiritual, and natural. Diagram IX presents the whole spiritual mind in two degrees, coinciding with the two kingdoms of heaven; but each of these (B and C) has an internal and an external. Diagram X presents the whole internal mind in three degrees, coinciding with the three heavens. B in X is identical with the internal part of B in IX; C in X with the internal part of C in IX; and D in X is identical with the external parts of both B and C in IX, or what is the same the external of B and of C in IX, together constitute the lowest or natural heaven represented by D in X.

Before proceeding farther read Arcana Coelestia, AC 10129 and 9741. Note that in 9741 the clause, "The external of each heaven is what is called the ultimate or first heaven," must mean "The external of each kingdom is what is called the ultimate or first heaven."

The internal part of B in IX is the same as the " holy of holies," and the external part of it is the "inner court." The internal part of C in IX is the "holy place;" and its external part is the "outer court." The whole of B in X is the same as the "holy of holies," and the whole of C is the "holy place;" and D the "inner" and the "outer court;" the inner part of D is the celestial of the natural heaven and is the "inner court," and the outer part of D is the spiritual of the same heaven and is the "outer court."  

"The internal part of B in IX, coinciding with the internal part of the celestial kingdom, and the whole of B in X, coinciding with the celestial heaven, are the same and are represented by the "holy of holies." The internal part of C in IX, coinciding with the internal of the spiritual kingdom, and the whole of C in X, coinciding with the spiritual heaven, are the same and are represented by the "holy place." The external of B in IX, coinciding with the external of the celestial kingdom, and the internal of D in X, coinciding with the celestial of the natural heaven, are the same and are represented by the "inner court;" the external part of C in IX, coinciding with the external part of the spiritual kingdom, and the external of D in X, coinciding with the spiritual of the natural heaven, are the same and are represented by the outer court." (AC 9873, 6366; H. H. 20 to 40; AE 449, 283.)
 

Chapter XI. Illustration of Passages.

"When the interior of man is purified from evils by his desisting from them and shunning them because they are sins, then that internal is opened. which is above the interior' and which is called the spiritual internal, and which communicates with heaven. Hence it is that man is then intromitted into heaven and conjoined with the LORD. There are two internals in man, one beneath and the other above. The internal which is beneath is that in which man is and from which he thinks, while he lives in the world, for it is natural; this by way of distinction will be called the interior. But the internal which is above, is that into which man comes after death, when he comes into heaven. All the angels of heaven are in this internal, for it is spiritual. This internal is opened to the man who shuns evils as sins. but it is held shut to the man who does not shun evils as sins. This internal is held shut to the man who does not shun evils as sins, because the interior or the natural internal, before man is purified from sins, is hell; and as long as hell is there, heaven cannot be opened, but as soon as hell is removed, heaven is opened. But it should be known that the spiritual internal and heaven are so far opened to man, as the natural internal is purified from the hell which is there; and this is not effected at once, but by degrees successively."- AE 940.

C is called internal in distinction to its own external D (not mentioned in the passage) which is the extreme external of the natural mind and is a thin skin or covering to C, being just within the body and inclosing this natural internal C.

The heaven that is kept shut and cannot be opened till the natural internal C is purified from evil, is the spiritual internal B.

Concerning the purification of the natural man "by degrees successively" mentioned in this passage, see Diagrams XXII, XXIII, XXIV.

For an illustration of the state of the degrees in the man or spirit in whom "the spiritual internal is held shut" by the prevalence of evil or hell in the natural internal, see Diagram XXV.

Another passage is in True Christian Religion, TCR 593. The natural man here considered as two-fold consists of C and D together. The internal natural man is C, and the thin external, covering it as with a skin, is D. The higher or spiritual internal B is not mentioned in this passage but is implied as the spiritual man above the natural man.

Through this internal B the power by which the natural internal C is regenerated descends from the LORD, whose sacred and especial abode is in the inmost A above the spiritual internal,

Read Doctrine of Life 86; (also HH 497-8, 501, 502 ; LJ 56, 69), where "the externals" in which man is said to be while in the world are in the plane D the external part of the natural mind. In these he remains till the time of judgment, in the world of spirits.

The "interiors" in these numbers are the interiors of the natural mind C. With the good, "the internals" there mentioned include some one or more of the planes of B.

"The devout external" of the wicked, mentioned in Last judgment, 56, proceeded from "the thin skin" of semblances of good and truth just within the body and in the plane of D; "their profane, internal" was in the degree of C. In Last Judgment, 69, the closed interiors" and "the interiors of the evil to be unveiled" are in C. The "seeming heavens," mentioned in Continuation of Last Judgment, 9, were from the external part of the natural man D; the hells within those seeming heavens, were in C.

From these examples the reader can locate any like "externals and internals" mentioned in Last Judgment or elsewhere in the Writings. A marked example occurs in Arcana Coelestia AC 7046. Here the evil "interiors" are not in the spiritual mind at all but wholly in the internal of the natural mind C. The spiritual internal B, in such cases is closed and almost wholly inoperative. See also Arcana Coelestia AC 6914 where the "bonds" which held the "interiors" in check are in D, the interiors themselves in C.

With this diagram read Divine Providence 100 to 128. The "interiors" or "internals" that are defiled with evil and falsity and must be cleansed that man may be saved, are in the internal of the natural mind here marked C. In C also is the interior will of the Jew, which is adverse to the Christian Religion as mentioned in True Christian Religion TCR 521; his internal mind B being closed, shrunken, and inoperative, like the body affected with marasmus.

In C are the "interiors" mentioned in the last sentence of Arcana Coelestia AC 3489 and in the first of Heave and Hell 553; Apocalypse Explained, AE 939.

The "internal above the interior" (AE 940) is the spiritual mind B; while the "interior" is C.

"Mere natural good," the "good done before evils are shunned as sins," "mere external sanctity and piety," "good done from self and not from the LORD," and hereditary natural good "from evil parents" (AC 3469), all have place in the external degree D. These things are inwardly evil, the evil originating in the internal degree C. The "inside of the cup and platter," (Matt. xxiii, 25) is C, the "outside" is D.

Chapter XII. The Mind as the Two Kingdoms.

When the degrees of the spiritual mind are so opened and stored, then also the two degrees of the natural mind are cleansed of evil and falsity and replenished with good and truth of a lower degree, and form an orderly and correspondent base for the two kingdoms of the internal mind.

Every regenerate man is in one kingdom or the other according to his state of regeneration.

In the internal mind reside love to the LORD and love to the neighbor, and these heavenly loves ought to rule and qualify the loves of self and of the world located in the external mind. With the regenerate they do rule and impart a good and true quality to these natural loves.

But if the natural loves rebel and throw off the dominion of the higher, as with the wicked, they become evil, pervert the external mind, and close up the internal. This state of the external is called hell.

This diagram presents also a view of the two kingdoms of hell opposite to the two kingdoms of heaven. The satanic kingdom lies in the plane D, the diabolic in E. (Read DLW 273, and recur to the diagram; TCR 281 end; AE 740.)

In Last Judgment 14, the lowest hell (in the degree E and called the hell of devils), is said to be behind, because that which is lowest in the order from above down, and outmost from within out, is behind in the order from front back.

The satans mentioned in Apocalypse Revealed 97, 550 and 841 are in the degree D, the devils in E.

There is no discrepancy between the statement in one passage that devil is evil and thence falsity, and in another that devil is the love of self and of dominion thence. In one passage satan means falsity or the love of falsity and the evil thence, in another it means the love of the world, and thence the love of possessing the goods of others, in still another pride of intellect and of self-derived intelligence. A similar variety of statements occurs in regard to heavenly principles. It is said that the celestial principle or kingdom in heaven is love of good and thence of truth, and is love to the LORD and thence love to the neighbor; and that the spiritual kingdom is truth and thence good, or love of the neighbor and thence of the LORD. The good of the spiritual kingdom is intellectual good because the good there is from truth reduced to practice, thus truth which is intellectual is the essence of that good. Concerning the spiritual kingdom we read, -  

"The angels of the second heaven are in spiritual love. Spiritual love is the love of truth, and in the supreme sense the love of Divine Truth which proceeds from the LORD, thus also love to the LORD but in an inferior degree to that in which are the celestial angels, for the celestials are in love to the LORD from the reception of Divine Good from Him; whereas the spiritual angels are in love to the LORD from the reception of Divine Truth from Him; the difference is as between love in the will and love in the understanding, or, as between flame and. its light."- AE 831

This diagram illustrates True Christian Religion TCR 234, 235 and 236 and like passages throughout the Writings in which the angels are considered in two kingdoms and men in the natural degree below. The celestial angels are in B, the spiritual in C. In B is the celestial sense of the Word; the spiritual sense in C. The natural sense is in D, E, F, which together constitute the natural kingdom mentioned in 236. The higher celestial part of the natural sense is in D and the higher spiritual part in E; the merely literal sense, including the lowest spiritual and celestial element, is in F and answers to the life of the natural body.

The celestial degree and kingdom of the internal mind, is the primal abode of celestial perception, the spiritual degree that of conscience.

Perception and conscience flow thence into the natural mind, gifting it with natural perception which is celestial, and natural conscience which is spiritual.

Chapter XIII. Relation of the Degrees of the Natural Mind to those of the Spiritual.

Below the natural or external mind C is drawn the spiritual body D, consisting of the spiritual-sensual and spiritual-corporeal g and h. These are called the spiritual sensual and corporeal in distinction to the natural sensual and corporeal organized of material substances. The sensual degree of the external mind f just above the spiritual-sensual, is the lowest degree of that mind and closely adheres to the spiritual body D.

The celestial degree a is drawn in red because red corresponds to love or the will, the dominant characteristic of this degree, and because red is the distinguishing Colour of the celestial heaven.

The spiritual degree b characterized by what is intellectual, is drawn in white because white corresponds to truth, the dominant characteristic of this degree, and white is a distinguishing Colour of the spiritual heaven.

The natural degree c is drawn in green because green corresponds to the ultimates of celestial love and spiritual truth in the lowest plane of the internal mind, and green is the distinguishing Colour of the natural heaven which is the lowest heaven.

The three degrees of the natural mind are drawn in darker shades of the same Colours but in reverse order, the highest green, the lowest red; this is to indicate the relation of each degree in the natural to its corresponding degree in the spiritual. The whole natural mind as one is an ultimate and base of the whole spiritual as one, but the lowest degree f (the red in the natural) is the special ultimate of the highest degree a in the spiritual, and the highest in the natural d of the lowest in the spiritual e; that is, a ultimates in f, c in d, and b in e, according to the universal law that the LORD works from the highest or inmost forms and at the same time from the lowest or outmost, developing, arranging, binding and thus preserving the intermediates. (D. W. in AE VIII, DP 124, 125.)

The celestial a passes indeed centrally through d and e in the natural mind to reach its appropriate f, as it had passed through b and c in the spiritual mind, and is the essential principle in them all, that is in b c d e; a being first and therefore universal must go to the last where it binds and preserves all. This descent of a is illustrated by the descent of nerves from the brain through intermediates into the skin whence they return again to the brain, binding and preserving all things of the body.

This relation of these degrees further appears where we show that the lowest degree in the spiritual mind when by regeneration it is opened and man is raised into it, rests as a heaven on the degree d, the highest in the natural mind, as its appropriate earth or base, b resting on e, and a on f. See Diagrams XXII, XXIII, XXIV. The same relation is seen from this that the lowest degree of the natural mind is the last regenerated and the highest degree of the spiritual mind is the last opened and entered. (Read AC 9216, 4353) Confirmation of the above relation lies also in the fact that the lowest or deepest hell which is in the lowest natural degree f, when this degree is perverted, is opposite to the highest heaven a. (DLW 275, HH 542, AE 1133.)

Below the natural mind are drawn the spiritual sensual and corporeal g and h. g is drawn in lightish Colour because the senses are the higher life of the body, the corporeal h, having in itself only insensate life, is drawn in dark. (AC 5077.)

The spiritual sensual and corporeal are composed of spiritual substances and are the lowest seat of the paternal proprium.

The natural body E being material is drawn in dark in contrast with the planes above.

Each integral part, namely, the spiritual-corporeal, the spiritual-sensual, each degree of the natural mind, and each of the spiritual is in itself a lesser human because the whole man is composed of parts which are images of the whole. This may be illustrated by the natural body, in which are several systems combined; for each system, the nervous, the sanguineous, the osseous, the muscular, the cutaneous, is, in a sense, a human system, and so a human in a lesser form. Thus man in spirit as in body is composed of many humans one above or within another from the foot of "Jacob's ladder" to the top, that mystic ladder being the whole human and each step in it a lesser human.

This diagram is a key to many passages.

In The True Christian Religion we read, -

"The human mind from which and according to which man is man, is formed into three regions, according to three degrees; in the first degree it is celestial, in which also are the angels of the highest heaven; in the second degree it is spiritual, in which also are the angels of the middle heaven; and in the third degree it is natural, in which also are the angels of the lowest heaven. The human mind, organized according to these three degrees, is a receptacle of Divine influx; but still the Divine flows in no farther than man prepares the way, or opens the door; if he does this even to the highest or celestial degree, then man becomes truly an image of God, and after death he becomes an angel of the highest heaven; but if he prepares the way, or opens the door, only to the middle or spiritual degree, then indeed, man becomes an image of God, but not in that perfection, and after death he becomes an angel of the middle heaven ; but if he prepares the way, or opens the door, only to the lowest or natural degree, then man, if he acknowledges God and worships Him with actual piety, becomes an image of God in the lowest degree, and after death he becomes an angel of the lowest heaven. But if he does not acknowledge God and does not worship Him with actual piety, he puts off the image of God, and becomes like some animal, except that he enjoys the faculty of understanding and thence of speech. If he then closes up the highest natural degree, which corresponds to the highest celestial, he becomes as to love, like a beast of the earth; but if he closes the middle natural degree which corresponds to the middle spiritual, he becomes as to love like a fox, and as to sight of the understanding like a bird of the evening; but if he also closes the lowest natural degree as to its spiritual, he becomes as to love like a wild beast, and as to the understanding of truth like a fish"-TCR 34.
 

The statement that the highest natural d corresponds to the highest or celestial a does not conflict with what is elsewhere said - that the highest degree of the natural d is the degree of the natural in which the lowest degree of the spiritual c especially ultimates, and that when d by perversion becomes a form of hell it is opposite to the lowest heaven c. The statement means only that d is the highest in the natural mind as a is in the spiritual mind

Upon first reading, this number may seem obscure, owing to the omission of a distinct statement that there are three degrees in the natural mind, below the three degrees of the spiritual mind. The highest natural, the middle natural and the ultimate natural in the passage, are represented by d e and f.

The order of the opening of the three degrees of the internal mind during regeneration, will be presented in Diagrams XXII, XXIII and XXIV. The closed state of the degrees of the natural mind, in the case of the wicked, will be presented in Diagram XXV.

The spiritual mind, here drawn in three degrees is the same that is drawn in two degrees in Diagram XII. When this mind is drawn in two degrees, the lowest c in this diagram is included in the two; as will appear more plainly in what follows.

In Arcana Coelestia AC 9215 the whole natural is equivalent to d e f g and h. (See also AC 1589.)

Chapter XIV. Each Degree of the Spiritual Mind in Three Planes.

Each degree of the natural mind also has three planes to be presented in Diagram XVII.

In Arcana Coelestia AC we read, -

"In order that anything may be perfect, it must be distinguished into three degrees; so is heaven, and so are the goods and truths there; that there are three heavens is known, consequently three degrees of good and truths there. Each heaven is also distinguished into three degrees, for its inmost must also communicate immediately with the superior, its external with the inferior, and the middle thus, by means of the inmost and the external, with both; hence is its perfection. The case is similar with the interiors of man which in general are distinguished into three degrees, namely, into the celestial, the spiritual and the natural, in like manner each of these into its three degrees, for man who is in the good of faith and of love to the LORD, is a heaven in the least form, corresponding to the greatest. So it is with all things of nature."-AC 9825.

"There are three heavens, and each heaven is distinguished into three degrees, and likewise the angels who are in them; wherefore in each heaven there are superior, middle, and inferior angels."- AE 342[a].

In each of the above degrees or subdivisions of the mind there is a duality consisting of will and understanding, the will being receptive of love or good which is celestial, and the understanding, of wisdom or truth which is spiritual; and in each heaven and in each subdivision of the heavens, there are angels predominantly receptive of love or good, who are celestial, and others of wisdom or truth, who are spiritual. (AC 459.)

To understand the general division of the whole heaven into two kingdoms, celestial and spiritual, and the existence of the two principles, celestial and spiritual, in each kingdom, and even in each angel, it must be borne in mind that the celestial of one heaven, kingdom or angel, differs from the celestial of another and that the spiritual of one differs from the spiritual of another.

See "Relation of the Three Heavens and the Two Kingdoms," page 37, also the two distinctions between the celestial and the spiritual, page 86.

The three degrees of the natural mind C are drawn in red, white and green-j representing the natural will, k the natural understanding and l a combination of the two in ultimates, thus the celestial, spiritual and natural of the external mind. The view of the degrees of the natural mind, here presented, is different from that in Diagram XIII; hence the reverse order of Colour.

Chapter XV. The Limbus.

"The soul which is from the father is the man himself, and the body, which is from the mother, is not in itself the man, but from him. The body is only the clothing of the soul woven of such [substances] as are of the natural world; but the soul is of such [substances] as are in the spiritual world. Every man after death lays aside the natural [body] which he carried from the mother, and retains the spiritual which was from the father, together with a certain Limbus of the purest [substances] of nature around it."

The Limbus E and gross body F together constitute the entire natural or material body; the limbus being nearer to the spirit and invisible to the natural eye, the gross body more external and rejected at death. E is drawn in green to distinguish it from the spiritual structures above, F consisting of gross natural substances is drawn in dark.

This Limbus, man does not cast off at death but retains as a permanent cutaneous envelop of his spiritual body. The substances of the limbus are the natural substances meant in Divine Love and Wisdom, where we read-  

"The natural mind of man consists of spiritual substances and at the same time of natural substances; from its spiritual substances, thought is produced but not from its natural substances; these [natural] substances recede, [or pass from activity to quiescence] when man dies but not the spiritual substances, wherefore that same natural mind after death when man becomes a spirit or an angel, remains in a form similar to that in which it was in the world. The natural substances of this mind, which as was said recede by death, make the cutaneous envelop of the spiritual body in which spirits and angels are. By such envelop, which is taken from the natural world, their spiritual bodies [permanently] subsist, for the natural is the [fixed] containing ultimate."- DLW 257.

"The material form [or natural body of man] which is added and superinduced [upon his spirit] in the world, is not a human form of itself, but from the human form of the spirit, added to and superinduced [upon the spirit] that man may do uses in the natural world, and also that he may carry with him [after death] from the purer substances of the world, something fixed containing his spirituals, and so continue and perpetuate life."- DLW 388.
 

"Man by death puts off the grosser [substances] of nature and retains the purer which latter are next to his spiritual, and these are then his containants."-DP 220.

Inasmuch as the bodies of men rest on the earth, and spirits and angels through the limbus rest on men, it follows that angels and spirits rest mediately upon the earth itself as the last foundation. (LJ 9.) Angels and spirits rest on men by means of their limbus because the natural substances composing the limbus are joined with the lowest spiritual substances and are in a sense intermediate between the spiritual and the grosser and palpable natural organisms of men. The limbus must be kept in form by connection with natural substances coarser and firmer than itself in graded structures even down to earthly solids.

When we say the limbus is composed of the purest substances of nature we mean the purest of the human body; the substances of the natural sun and others proximately emanating therefrom are doubtless prior to these.

On the nature of spiritual substance on the one hand and material on the other, on the intermediate nature of the Limbus and its use in giving permanence to the existence of angels and spirits and connecting them with men, we read in Divine Wisdom,-  

"The angelic mind cannot be procreated, and through procreation be multiplied except in man.

"He who knows the quality of substances in the spiritual world, and the quality respectively of matters in the natural world, can easily see that there is no procreation of angelic minds nor can be, except in those and from those who inhabit the ultimate work of creation, the earth. But because the quality of substances in the spiritual world in relation to matters in the natural world is unknown [it shall now be told]. Substances in the spiritual world appear as if they were material, but they are not; and because they are not material therefore they are not constant. They are correspondences of the affections of the angels, and with the affections or the angels they are permanent, and with them they are separated [that is, on the cessation of the affections, the substances composing the object are dispersed, and the Object vanishes, see D. L. W. 344; TCR 78]. Similar would it have been with the angels, had they been created there. But besides, there is not, nor can be, with the angels any procreation and thence multiplication other than a spiritual one, which is that of wisdom and of love, such as is also of the souls of men who are generated anew or regenerated. But in the natural world there are matters, by which and from which procreations and afterwards formations can take place, thus multiplication of men and thence of angels.

"Spirits and angels hence derive substance and life to eternity.

"The reason is that every angel and spirit from having been first born a man in the world derives substance, for he retains with himself from the inmost [substances] of nature a medium between the spiritual and the natural by which he is finited [that is, definitely terminated and fixed in form] so that he may subsist and be permanent; by this medium he has something related to the things which are in nature and also correspondent to them.

"By this [medium] also spirits and angels can be adjoined, and conjoined to the human race, for there is conjunction and where there is conjunction there must be a medium.

"That there is such a medium the angels know, but because it is from the inmost [substances] of nature and the words of languages are from the ultimates of nature it cannot be described except by abstract [terms]." -D.W. in AE VIII, 3, 4, 5, (See also DLW 344; 6 to 9.)

"The natural and temporal are the outmosts and ultimates into which man first enters, which he does at birth in order that he may afterwards be introduced into things interior and superior; for outermosts and ultimates are containants, and these are in the natural world. This is why no angel or spirit was created immediately, but why all were first born men and so introduced [into things interior or superior]; hence they have the outermosts and ultimates which in themselves are fixed and established, within which and by which interiors can be held together in connection. But man first puts on the grosser [substances] of nature; his body is from them but by death he puts them off, and retains the purer [substances] of nature which are nearest to spiritual [substances] and these then are his containants. Furthermore in outermosts or ultimates, all things interior or superior are together; wherefore every operation of the LORD is from firsts and ultimates together, thus in fullness. But as the outermosts and ultimates of nature cannot receive the spiritual and eternal things to which the human mind is formed, as these are in themselves, and yet man was born to become spiritual and live forever, therefore man puts off the ultimates, and retains only the natural interiors which meet and accord with the spirituals and celestials and subserve them as containants. This is done by the rejection of temporal and natural ultimates, which is the death of the body."-.DP 220.

From the foregoing we see that

And we see that

And we further see that

There is a difference between the states of the limbus of those who die in infancy and of those who die in adult age. In Heaven and Hell we read:  

"They who die adult have and carry with them a plane acquired from the earthly and material world. This plane is their [external or natural] memory, and its bodily, natural affection. This remains fixed, and is then quiescent; but still it serves their thought after death as an ultimate plane, for the thought flows into it. Hence such as that plane is and such as is the correspondence of the rational with the contents of that plane such is the man after death. But those who died infants and were educated in heaven have not such a plane, but a spiritual natural plane: because they derive nothing from the material world and the earthly body they cannot be in so gross affections and hence thoughts; for they derive all from heaven."- HH 345.

As all living organisms undergo change by a resolution and passing off of their substances and renewal by appropriation of new substances, so must it be with the limbus.

We must not suppose that the limbus is taken into the spiritual world. It is natural and must remain in the natural world. Man as to his spirit being of the spiritual world even from birth and unconsciously an inhabitant there during life in the body, does not go into that world at death but merely awakens to manifest presence there by the opening of his spiritual senses. This is because the spiritual and the natural worlds are not separated by distance but are together and conjoined like soul and body.

How can spirits move from place to place in the spiritual world while clothed with a cutaneous envelop of natural substances? Change of locality in that world is effected by change of state. Swedenborg so traveled there as to his spirit while clothed with the gross body even. (See E.U. 127, HH 192, 195.) A fuller answer to this question is given at the end of Chapter XXIII.

The mental functions of the Limbus will be presented in Chapters XVIII to XXIV.

The meaning of the statement "This limbus with those who come after death into heaven is below and the spiritual above, but with those who come into hell the limbus is above and the spiritual below," etc., (TCR 103) will be best understood after study of the mental functions of the limbus above referred to. (See Diagram XXIV.)

Chapter XVI. The Limbus Retained After Death.

F is the gross material body now rejected, the spirit being separated from it and risen into conscious life in the spiritual world.

The natural or external memory of man in the world is seated in the limbus the extreme ultimate of the natural mind. This memory consisting of the states impressed upon the limbus during life in the world, remains after death but is quiescent.

If this diagram be taken to represent the whole angelic heaven, E is their aggregate limbus. Extending the view, E represents the limbus of the spirits of this earth and all earths in the universe regenerate or unregenerate.

Chapter XVII. All the Degrees in Trines.

The trinality of the natural body in its most obvious form of head, trunk and extremities is well known.

The natural sensual G is composed of the five senses, - sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch. Some of these are more properly organs of the will and are called voluntary, others organs of the understanding and are called intellectual. 

"The sensual which is subject to the intellectual part is especially the sight, that subject to the intellectual and next to the voluntary is hearing, that subject to both together is the smell, and still more the taste, but that subject to the voluntary part is the touch."- AC 5077.

The trinality of the inmost besides being manifest from the doctrine of trinality in all things and in each (AC 9825), may be confirmed by the following considerations. The inmost is the especial abode of the LORD in man. From this He forms, preserves and governs the trines below. Hence the trinality of the internal and the external man. And as there is an influx from the LORD immediately from Himself into each of the three degrees below this Highest, there must be a degree of this His Sacred Abode from which He flows into each of the lower degrees respectively,. otherwise there would be neither adaptation nor correspondence.

Hence we see not only the trinality of the inmost A, but even a subdivision of each of its three degrees into three lesser as each heaven has three lesser planes composing it, and each degree of the mind three lesser degrees, and we may conceive a degree of the inmost to be within each of the nine subdivisions of the internal mind. From each subdegree of the inmost within its corresponding subdegree of the mind there is an immediate influx from the LORD into that degree of the mind, thus there is an immediate influx into each lower plane of the heavens and of the mind, without. passing through the plane or planes higher than it. Immediate influx into each of the angelic heavens does not mean influx from the LORD into them without any medium, for such influx they cannot bear, but into each without passing through the higher. That neither the angelic heavens nor the inmost itself can endure strictly immediate influx from the LORD or even from the spiritual sun is plain from the Writings. (HH 120.)

A right understanding of this diagram exalts our conception of that Ladder or Way with steps set on the earth, and whose head reaches to heaven with the LORD above it and angels ascending and descending upon it. (Gen. xxviii, 12, 13.) "Thou wilt show me the path of life; in Thy presence is fullness of joy; at Thy right hand are pleasures forevermore." (Ps. xvi, 11.)

Chapter XVIII. Man at Birth.

The degrees that are composed of spiritual substances, all of which are from the father,

The parts which are organized of material substances and are from the mother,

The taint of hereditary evil from the father and mother respectively, and

The development of the degrees at birth. *

Concerning what is from the father and what from the mother, we read-  

"The soul which is from the father is the man himself and the body which is from the mother is not man in itself but from him and is only the clothing of the soul woven of such [materials].. are of the natural world. but the soul is of such [substances] as are in the spiritual world. Every 3 man after death lays aside the natural which he carried from his mother, and retains the spiritual which was from the father, together with a certain limbus [an envelop] of the purest [substances] of nature around it."- TCR 103.

"The soul is from the father and the body from the mother; for the soul is in the seed of the father and is clothed with a body in the mother; or, what is the same, all the spiritual [organism] man has is from the father and all the material [organism] he has, from the mother." TCR 92.

"There is a difference between what man receives from his father and what he receives from his mother. Man receives from his father all that is internal, his very soul or life is from the father; but he receives from his mother, all that is external. In a word, the interior man or the spirit is from the father but the exterior man or the body is from the mother."-AC 1815.

"That the inmost of life, which is from the father, is continually flowing in and operating upon the external which is from the mother and endeavoring to make this like itself, even in the womb, may be manifest from sons in that they are born with the inclinations of the father, and sometimes grandchildren and great grandchildren with the inclinations of the grandfather, and the great grandfather; this is because the soul which is from the father continually wills to make the external which is from the mother like itself and an image of itself." AC 6716

"Nothing is provided in the womb of the mother except a body conceived by and derived from the soul."-TCR 167.

"Man is born spiritual as to his soul, and is clothed with a natural which makes his material body."-TCR 583.

"The soul of man that lives after death is his spirit and this is in perfect form a man."-.DLW 394.

"The mind of man is the man himself; for the first rudiments of the human form, or the human form itself with each and everything of it, is from the beginnings continued out of the brain through the nerves. This is the form into which man comes after death, and which is then called a spirit and an angel, and which is in all perfection a man, but spiritual: the material form, which is added and superinduced in the world, is not a human form from itself but from the former." - DLW 388.

"The life of every man is from the father and only the clothing is put on in the mother, hence it is that every man has his name from the father and not from the mother."-A.S. (N.Y. Ed., p. 45; London Ed., p. 52.)

"Since man is not life but a recipient of life it follows that the conception of man from his father is not a conception of life but only of' the first and purest form receptive of life, to which as a stamen or beginning, substances and matters are successively added in the womb in forms adapted to the reception of life in their order and degree." DLW 6.

"Man's inmost [or spirit] is from the father, whereas the exteriors, or those parts which clothe that inmost, are from the mother; each, namely, what he derives from the father and the mother, is tainted with hereditary evil."-AC 4963. (Also AC 1902, 895.)

"All the evils which man derives from his parents, which are called hereditary evils, reside in his natural and sensual man but not in the spiritual."-AE 543 [b].

"Man is born into evils of every kind from his parents and these reside in his natural man which of itself is diametrically opposed to the spiritual man" - TCR 574; (also AC 1902.)

The extremes which are the inmost and the natural body are at birth very large in comparison with the intermediates B and C.

By the inmost as an active and the natural body as a reactive all the intermediate degrees are formed out and stored with remains during childhood and thus are prepared for reformation and regeneration in after years.

The whole natural body (all that the infant takes on from nature) consists, as said above, of the limbus and the gross body. The limbus is the higher and mental part and is retained after death, the gross body being rejected. (See Diagrams XV and XVI.)

The spiritual mind B is drawn in white to indicate its purity. There is no taint of ancestral evil in this mind of the child, as there was no evil in the spiritual mind of the father. Into this mind, which is in form or image a heaven, evil cannot enter; yet this mind may be closed and rendered almost inoperative by the reaction against it of the natural mind confirmed in evil as is the case with the wicked. (DLW 270, 261, 432; AE 176, 739.)

The natural mind is drawn dark to indicate the taint of hereditary evil from the father. (DLW 432, 270; D. W. in AE III, 4, and IV.)

The spiritual body being derived from the natural mind and as it were one with it, is also tainted with evil from the father and is drawn in dark to indicate this.

That the spiritual mind, the germ of which is from the father, is free from taint of evil and in heavenly form and order and that the natural mind, the germ of which is also from the father, is tainted since the fall, may be seen in Divine Love and Wisdom 432, and in Divine Wisdom (in AE ) III, 4.

The two higher degrees of "the little brain, in the order and form of heaven" (DLW 432) constitute the spiritual mind and are equivalent to the three planes of that mind (B in this diagram), and are the two degrees of the spiritual mind B in the 2nd form, which illustrates the degrees of the mind as presented in Divine Love and Wisdom 432 and DivineWisdom (in AE ) III,4. These numbers describe the rudiments of the spiritual and natural minds; the inmost A is not mentioned in them though its presence is implied. The two interior degrees in the order and form of heaven are the two degrees B in the 2nd form. The exterior degree which was in opposition to the form of heaven is the natural mind C in the 2nd form, and is equivalent to the three degrees of C in the first form. The natural mind like the other parts is variously described in the Writings-in one degree, in two and in three, according to the purpose in different passages.

The subject in Divine Love and Wisdom 432, and Divine Wisdom (in AE ) III, 4, is the primitive of man which is a spiritual substance not visible in natural light but only in spiritual and is the seed from the father by which conception takes place. The exterior degree mentioned therein does not include the limbus which is composed of natural substances but consists only of that part of the natural mind which is composed of spiritual substances. (See Chapter VIII.)

The inmost, the spiritual and the natural mind, and the spiritual body are formed of spiritual substances, as shown above, and in their strictly initial state as at conception are derived directly from the father, at which time the ultimate parts are more rudimental than the internal parts and especially more rudimental than the inmost or soul proper as this is the first form from which the others proceed.

This diagram shows the development reached at birth, not the form of the initial at conception. We have in part shown the quality of the paternal faculties at the period of birth by their quality at conception. During growth in the womb no change occurs in their hereditary quality though they undergo an important development which as to the spiritual body is very great, but as to the mental faculties less. Whatever growth occurs in these paternal faculties A B C D from conception to birth must be from an incorporation of spiritual substances; growth from natural substances occurs only in the parts from the mother which are the limbus and the gross body.

The evil from the mother inheres of course in the organism drawn directly from her, called in the whole the natural body. The inmost of this body consists of those purest substances of nature which compose the merest external of the natural mind (mentioned in DLW 257.) This is illustrated in Diagram XV at E. In this mental part from the mother the evil from her primarily inheres, tainting thence the gross body. This mental part is the limbus E E in this diagram. To indicate this taint of evil E and F are drawn in dark.

We have already shown, -

That the natural mind consists of spiritual substance and at the same time of natural substance,

That from its spiritual substance arises thought but not from its natural substance,

That the spiritual substance is initially from the father and the natural substance at birth from the mother,

That the natural substance appertaining to the mind constitutes after death the cutaneous envelop of the spiritual body,

That by such envelop the spiritual body subsists, that is, is preserved permanently in form because the natural is the containing element.

And that in the part of the natural mind composed of natural substances (the limbus in this diagram) and not in any part of the mind composed of spiritual substances, the taint of maternal evil resides.

This external from the mother is the residence of all impressions and knowledge received through the senses whether gained by physical and sensible experience or by instruction in science, morals and religion, and also the residence of all conscious emotions arising from within. In this part only can man by introspection become conscious of his evils and falsities for here only can they be distinctly perceived. This is that ultimate or external in which man is together with the LORD and wherein he must directly cooperate with the LORD; the LORD alone working in the interiors. (DP 119, 120.) What lies further in is not perceptible except by outflow into this plane: only in this outer plane can be clearly seen the light of spiritual truth, and distinctly felt the warmth of celestial love.

In this external part of the natural mind every maternal inclination whether evil or good has its primal abode. Here too reside all mental bias, faculty, disposition and ability, from the mother. These however are subject to more or less modification and even practical nullification from the various conditions of the gross body.

Not only does the body from the mother partake of her quality good or bad but there are always induced upon its interior and often upon its exteriors the quality and likeness of the father also. This is done in the construction of the body from the substances furnished by the mother during gestation. Results produced after birth are not here presented. The infusion of the father's quality into this maternal structure is in part accomplished by the influence of the soul of the child which was from the father and consequently fully imbued with his quality. This soul sits mistress in the formation of that natural human which it is assuming from the mother and weaves more or less fully the materials furnished by her into its own form and quality. It is according to order that the active, here the spirit, shall form the reactive, here the body, as fully as may he after its own nature and gift it with its own quality that it may perform its intended use. This agrees with Arcana Coelestia AC 10125 where the meaning is not that the body is composed of spiritual substances from the soul but that the soul forms the natural substance from the mother into a body resembling itself (See also AC 6716, 10823; TCR 82, 103; DLW 388.)

According to the above order the spirit of the child first forms those purest substances of nature from the mother into the enveloping part or limbus of the natural mind, that it may use that covering as the lowest seat of its thought and the medium by which it may flow into the gross body; and it also forms this body of grosser and grossest substances of nature and places therein the five senses as organs for sensing the outer world, acquiring knowledge and expressing its own feeling and thought. Although the soul of the child measurably imparts its own quality to that natural external it does not remove the quality of the mother. (TCR 103; AC 6716.

We said the quality of the father is imparted to the body of the child chiefly by the child's own soul, but the quality of the father is communicated to the body of the child by being first appropriated by the mother and by her transmitted to the child in the substances and forms furnished by her. In some cases (and there will be more as the Church advances) the father's likeness flows in each globule of the mother's nervous fluid and his image in every drop of her blood. Something of this exists in most instances if not in all. (Marriage page 9, item 22; Latin Edition, p 7. AE 1004.) Still whatever of paternal quality thus reaches the child's body is first materialised and imparted as the mother's also. Conversely, the father may appropriate the sphere of the mother and impart it as his own to the spirit of the child and thence to its body.  

BECAUSE the external acquired by the first rational is called the maternal rational it has been inferred that the rational as an organic faculty is from the mother. Not so. That faculty before regeneration, and with the LORD before Glorification, is called maternal in consequence of clothing itself with an external acquired by means of the maternal but not from it. Moreover the above inference conflicts with the teaching, "that all the spiritual which man has is from the father" (TCR 92 and 103) and that the maternal rational does not exist at birth but is acquired by instruction and sensuals of various kinds. (AC 1893-1895.)

In regard to the maternal rational (called the first rational and represented by Ishmael) it should be recollected that this rational is formed by truths obscured by appearances which appearances are to be dispersed during regeneration; this is the rejection of the maternal rational. From Arcana Coelestia AC 2654, 3207, 2557, we see that this rational is called maternal only because it is mediately, not directly, from the mother.

Another misconception is that because the child inherits somewhat of inclination and talent from the mother, it derives from her some part of its spiritual organism also. Not so. The child inherits no part of its spiritual organism from the mother. These maternal characteristics inhere in the mental part of the natural derived from the mother. (See Diagram XV.)

That the soul is from the father and the body from the mother rightly understood involves no disparagement of the functions of the mother. That no disparagement is involved appears from the following:

I. The maternal part of the natural mind is the seat of all the mental states inherited from the mother and is the seat of the natural memory (AE 193), and during life is the active seat of all the degrees derived from the father. Although this maternal part of the natural mind becomes quiescent after death it still serves two great and indispensable uses to eternity. (1) It is an envelop of the spirit holding its structure in form and its state entire, thus preventing its disintegration through the volatility of its spiritual substances. (2) It preserves the state of man after death as determined by his ruling end, changeless to eternity, securing to the enduring heaven and preventing the evil from sinking good an ever into deeper hells.

II. Without the natural furnished by the mother there could be no propagation of the human race, thus no heaven of angels which is the Divine end of creation.

III. Although the spiritual faculties are not from the mother, they must for regeneration acquire an external, from various knowledges and truths, to embody themselves; and these are obtainable only by means of the natural from the mother.

Let no one then undervalue the function of the mother in comparison with that of the father, his impossible without hers, hers eternally conserving the fruit of his.

Supplement.

"The internal man with every one is of the LORD alone. There the LORD stores up goods and truths with which He gifts man from infancy. By these He flows into the interior or rational man and by this into the exterior [or natural man], thus it is given to man to think and to be a man."-AC 1707.

That this inmost is stored with heavenly principles from man's very conception is evident from these considerations:  

(1.) The inmost is the primordial degree of man's structure into which the LORD first enters by influx of good and truth as one. From this degree He forms the will and understanding and flows into them when formed. (Inf. 8.)

(2.) The LORD conjoins Himself to man at first conception and forms in him two receptacles to be habitations for Himself in man, one for love the other for wisdom. (D. W. in AE III.)

(3.) Did not the LORD flow into this first degree He could not flow into the degrees below or even form them. Thus from conception this highest degree is filled with the Divine Love and Wisdom from which the LORD operates to form the faculties below and prepare them for the work to be accomplished after birth.

"The LORD through the inmost heaven insinuates conjugial love, the angels there being in peace above others. Peace in the heavens is like spring in the world which gives delight to all things, it is the celestial itself in its origin. The angels who are there, are the wisest of all, and from innocence appear to others like infants; they also love infants far more than their fathers and mothers do. They are present with infants in the womb and by them the LORD takes care that infants are nourished and perfected, thus they preside over those who carry in the womb."-AC 5052

"Love truly conjugial is derived from the love of the LORD toward the Church and from the love of good and truth which love is the love of the angels of the third heaven, wherefore love truly conjugial which thence descends as the love of that heaven, is innocence, which is the very esse of all the good in the heavens; hence embryos in the womb are in a state of peace, and infants after they are born are in a state of innocence. "-AE 985.

"This celestial love flows in out of heaven with mothers while they carry in the womb as also with the embryos, hence exists the love of infants with mothers and innocence with infants."-AE