Week 3    Day 3

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A Palace Representing Conjugial Love

CL 270. One morning after sleep, my thought was deeply engaged on some of the secret things of conjugial love; and finally on this: In what region of the human mind does love truly conjugial reside, and hence in what region does conjugial cold [or coldness toward marriage] reside? I knew that there are three regions of the human mind, one above another, and that natural love dwells in the lowest region, spiritual love in the higher, and celestial love in the highest, and that in each region there is a marriage of good and truth. And since good is of love and truth is of wisdom, that in each region there is a marriage of love and wisdom; and that this marriage is the same as the marriage of the will and the understanding, since the will is the receiver of love and the understanding is the receiver of wisdom.

[2] While I was in the depth of this thought, behold, I saw two swans flying towards the north, and presently two birds of paradise flying towards the south, and also two turtle doves flying in the east; and as I followed their flight with my sight I saw that the two swans bent their way from the north towards the east, likewise the two birds of paradise from the south; and that they joined the two turtle doves in the east and flew together to a certain lofty palace there, surrounded by olive trees, palm trees, and beeches. The palace had three rows of windows, one above another; and as I was directing my attention to them, I saw the swans fly into the palace through windows opened in the lowest row, the birds of paradise through windows opened in the middle row, and the turtle doves through windows opened in the highest row.

[3] As I was looking at this, an angel stood by me and said: “Do you understand the things you have seen?” I replied, “A little.”

He said, “This palace represents the dwelling-places of conjugial love as they are in the human mind. The highest part of it, into which the turtle doves entered, represents the highest region of the mind, where conjugial love dwells in the love of good with its wisdom. The middle part, into which the birds of paradise entered, represents the middle region, where conjugial love dwells in the love of truth with its intelligence. And the lowest part, into which the swans entered, represents the lowest region of the mind, where conjugial love dwells in the love of what is just and right with its knowledge.

[4] “The three pairs of birds also signify these same things—the pair of turtle doves signify the conjugial love of the highest region, the pair of birds of paradise the conjugial love of the middle region, and the pair of swans the conjugial love of the lowest region. The three kinds of trees around the palace, the olives, the palms, and the beeches, signify similar things. We in heaven call the highest region of the mind celestial, the middle spiritual, and the lowest natural; and we perceive them as apartments in a house, one above another, and the ascent from one to another by degrees, as by stairs. And on each story, there are as it were two sets of rooms, one for love, the other for wisdom, and in front as it were a bedroom, where love with its wisdom, or good with its truth, or, what is the same, where the will with its understanding come together in bed. In that palace all the secrets of conjugial love stand forth as in a model.”

[5] Hearing these things, and kindled with a desire to see the palace, I asked whether it is granted anyone to enter and view it, as it is a representative palace. He answered:

“To none but those in the third heaven, because to them every representative of love and wisdom becomes real. From them I heard what I have related to you. And this also, that love truly conjugial dwells in the highest region in the midst of mutual love, in the marriage chamber or apartment of the will, and also in the midst of the perceptions of wisdom, in the marriage chamber or apartment of the understanding; and that they come together in bed in the bedroom, which is at the front and in the east.”

I asked, “Why are there two marriage chambers?” He said, “The husband is in the chamber of the understanding, and the wife in the chamber of the will.”

[6] And I asked, “Since conjugial love dwells there, where then is conjugial cold?”

He answered, “That also is in the highest region, but only in the chamber of the understanding, the chamber of the will there being closed. For as often as it pleases, the understanding with its truths can ascend by a spiral stairway into the highest region, into its room. But if the will with the good of its love does not at the same time ascend into the companion room, this [room] is shut, and it becomes cold in the other room, and this is conjugial cold.

“The understanding, as long as there is such cold toward the wife, looks down from this highest region to the lowest, and also descends if fear doesn’t hold it back, that it may be warmed there with an illicit fire.”

Having said this, he wished to tell still more about conjugial love from the images of it in that palace, but he said:

“Enough for now. First find out whether these things are above the common understanding. If they are, why say more? But if they are not, more will be disclosed.”

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