Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:45 — 1.8MB)
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | RSS
Arcana Coelestia
6202. Another influx has also been observed, which is not effected through the spirits who are with the man, but through others who are sent forth from some infernal society into the sphere of the man’s life. These speak together about such things as are adverse to the man, from which there usually flows in what is troublesome, undelightful, sad, or anxious, with much variety. Such spirits have often been with me, and they who infused anxieties were felt in the province of the stomach, without my knowing whence these anxieties came. But they were always detected, and I then heard what they said among themselves, which were such things as were adverse to my affections.
The avaricious have sometimes appeared in the same region, but a little higher, and infused anxiety from care for the future; and it was given me to chide them and tell them that they have relation to such things in the stomach as are undigested, have a bad smell, and thus are nauseous. I have also seen that they were driven away, and that then the anxiety entirely ceased, and this repeatedly, that I might know of a certainty that it came from them. Such is the influx with those who for no reason are oppressed with melancholy anxiety, and likewise with those who are in spiritual temptation.
But in this latter case such spirits not only inflow in general, but also infernal spirits in particular call up the evils which the man has done, and pervert and put a wrong interpretation upon the goods. With these the angels then engage in combat. Into such a state comes a man who is being regenerated, whereby he is let down into his own; and this takes place when he immerses himself too much in worldly and bodily things, and when he is to be elevated to spiritual things.
An excerpt from Logopraxis : Awakening to Spiritual Life : Part Two
The separation of evil spirits from good spirits is effected by various means; in general by their being taken about to those societies with which in their first state they had communication by means of their good thoughts and affections, thus to those societies that they had induced to believe by outward appearances that they were not evil. Usually they are led about through a wide circle, and everywhere what they really are is made manifest to good spirits.
At the sight of them the good spirits turn away; and at the same time the evil spirits who are being led about turn their faces away from the good towards that quarter where their infernal society is, into which they are about to come (HH 511).
In the work that comes with living a spiritual life, these evil spirits or states serve a use in allowing us to see the contrast of what is good, and of the Lord, and what belongs to the hellish proprium. It is only then that we, as of self, have the ability to shun evils as sins against the Lord. We see this paralleled in the description of the uses that evil spirits serve:
Another of their uses is their collecting together evil spirits like themselves and separating them from the good; and another, that the truths and goods that the evil had outwardly professed and feigned are taken away from them, and they are brought into the evils of their life and the falsities of their evil, and are thus prepared for hell (HH 508-6).
Evil spirits are not interested in being instructed in the things of heaven which is what the next phase in the awakening process entails. This is because their essential nature is love of self and the world and they are consequently led by their loves, away to their eternal community in the hells. This separation is mirrored in all states of evil and falsity that are acknowledged through awakening to spiritual life. When what belongs to the hellish proprium is seen for what it is, this very acknowledgement initiates the separation of those things that are not of the Lord, so that they are cast aside into the hells from which they arose.
… and after death he continues to be such as the nature is that he has acquired by his life in the world; and with the evil this nature can no longer be amended and changed by means of the thought or by the understanding of truth (HH 508-7).
Exhortation is no longer of any avail, neither is instruction or fear of the law and of the loss of reputation, since everyone then acts from his nature; and that nature can be restrained and broken only by punishments (HH 509).
So, the spirits (or states of the hellish proprium), whose interiors are of a hellish quality, find a home in hell (or are cast to the periphery of our mind). The good spirits (or states of the Lord), that are of a heavenly quality, move onto the third state of instruction in preparation for their assimilation into a heavenly community (or state of use).
The instruction provided is directly related to the uses to which the form of mind is specifically suited.
The third state of man after death, that is, of his spirit, is a state of instruction. This state is for those who come into heaven and become angels. It is not for those who come into hell, because such are incapable of being taught, and therefore their second state is also their third, ending in this, that they are wholly turned to their own love, thus to that infernal society which is in a like love (512 HH).
Third Round posts are short audio clips taken from Round 3 comments offered in the online Logopraxis Life Group meetings. The aim is to keep the focus on understanding the Text in terms of its application to the inner life along with reinforcing any key LP principles that have been highlighted in the exchanges.
