3. III.
THE FORMATION OF MAN IN THE WOMB BY THE LORD BY MEANS OF INFLUX INTO THESE TWO RECEPTACLES.
As in the formation of man in the womb spiritual things conjoin themselves with natural things there are many particulars that cannot be described, namely, such spiritual things as are abstracted from natural things, which consequently have no expressions in natural language except some most general expressions which one man may comprehend more intelligently than another. Nevertheless, by these and by comparisons that are also correspondences the following particulars shall be explained:
1. The Lord conjoins Himself to man in the womb of the mother from his first conception, and forms man.
2. He conjoins Himself to man in these two receptacles, in the one through love, in the other through wisdom.
3. Love and wisdom unitedly and harmoniously form each and all things, and yet in these things they may be distinguished.
4. The receptacles are distinguished into three degrees with man, one within another; and the two higher are the dwelling-place's of the Lord, but not the lowest.
6. One receptacle is for the will of the future man and the other for his understanding; and yet nothing whatever of his will or of his understanding is present in the formation.
6. There is life in the embryo before birth, but the embryo is not conscious of it.
1. The Lord conjoins Himself to man in the womb of the mother from his first conception, and forms man.
By the Lord here and elsewhere is meant the Divine that proceeds from Him as the sun of heaven, where the angels are, and by and through which all things in the whole world have been created. That this is life itself has been shown already. That life itself is present from first conception and is what gives form, follows from this, that in order to be the form of life which man is, and in order to be an image and likeness of God, which man also is, and in order to be a recipient of love and wisdom, which are life from the Lord, thus a recipient of the Lord Himself, man must be formed by life itself. That if man loves the Lord he is in the Lord and the Lord in him, and the Lord has His abode in him, the Lord Himself teaches. All this work of preparation for Himself the Lord does in the womb, as will be seen in what follows. This is why Jehovah, or the Lord, is called in the Word:
Creator, Former, and Maker from the womb (Isa. 43:1; 44:2, 24; 49:5).
And in David it is said that:
Upon Him he was cast and laid from the womb (Ps. 22:10; 71:6).
While man is in the womb he is in a state of innocence; therefore his first state after birth is a state of innocence; and the Lord dwells in man only in his innocence, consequently He especially dwells in him when he is as it were innocence. Likewise, man is then in a state of peace. Man is then in a state of innocence and in a state of peace, because the Divine love and the Divine wisdom are innocence itself and peace itself, as can be seen in the work on Heaven and Hell (n. 276-283, 284-290). I foresee that when you read this, some doubts may occur to your mind; but read to the end, and afterwards recollect, and the doubts will disappear.
[2] 2. He conjoins Himself to man in these two receptacles, in the one through love, in the other through wisdom.
This follows from the preceding article, where it was shown that all things of the body, both internal and external, from the head even to the heel, are formed and produced from these two receptacles; and as the beginnings and initiaments of all things are from these, it follows that the forming Divine is in them, and through them is in their continuations; but when it is in them and in their continuations, it is in them spiritually, not materially, for it is in their uses; and uses regarded in themselves are immaterial, while the things necessary for uses to become effects are material. These two receptacles, which are the beginnings of man, are from the father; his formation to the full time of birth is from the mother; for the seed is from the man; his are the spermatic vessels and testicles in which the seed is elaborated and secreted; it is received by the female; hers is the womb wherein is the heat by which it is fostered, and in which are the little mouths by which it is nourished. In nature nothing exists except from seed, and nothing grows except by means of heat. What kind of form these beginnings have, which belong to man only, will be shown in what follows. As the rudiment of man is seed, and this is a double receptacle of life, it is clear that the human soul is not life from life, that is, life in itself, for there is but one life, and that is God. The source of man's perception of life has been explained elsewhere. And as there is a continuation of these receptacles from the brains through the fibers into all parts of the body, it is also clear that there is a continuation of the reception of life into these parts, and that thus the soul is not here or there, but is in every form derived from these, just as the cause is in the things caused, and the principle in its derivations.
[3] 3. Love and wisdom unitedly and harmoniously form each and all things, and yet in these things they may be distinguished.
Love and wisdom are two distinct things, precisely as heat and light are; heat is felt, and so is love; light is seen, and so is wisdom. Wisdom is seen when man thinks, and love is felt when man is affected. Nevertheless, in the formation of things they do not operate as two but as one. This is true also of the heat and light of the sun of the world; for in the time of spring and summer heat co-operates with light, and light with heat, and things vegetate and germinate. Likewise love in a state of peace and tranquillity co-operates with wisdom, and wisdom with love, and produces and forms, and this both in the embryo and in the man. That the co-operation of love and wisdom is like the co-operation of heat and light is very clear from appearances in the spiritual world. There love is heat, and wisdom is light; and there all things in the angels are living, and all things around them are blooming, in the exact measure of the union of love and wisdom with them. The union of love and wisdom is reciprocal, love unites itself to wisdom, and wisdom reunites itself to love; consequently love acts and wisdom reacts, and through this reciprocation every effect exists. [[2]] There is such a reciprocal union and consequent reciprocation between the will and understanding and between good and truth, also between charity and faith, with the man in whom the Lord is; and in fact, such is the reciprocal union of the Lord Himself with the church, which is meant by the Lord's words to the disciples in John, that:
They should be in Him and He in them (14:20; and in other places).
The same union is meant by the union of man and wife, in Mark:
The twain shall be one flesh, so that they are no more twain, but one flesh (10:8).
For the man was born to be understanding and consequently wisdom, and the woman to be will and consequently the affection which is of love (see the work on Heaven and Hell, n. 366-386). [[3]] As there are two things, love and wisdom, that form the embryo in the womb, so there are two receptacles, one for love and the other for wisdom; so again there are two things in the body throughout, and these likewise are distinct and are united. There are two hemispheres of the brain, two eyes, two ears, two nostrils, two chambers of the heart, two hands, two feet, two kidneys, two testicles, and the rest of the viscera are doubled; and in every case what is on their right side has relation to the good of love, and what is on their left to the truth of wisdom. That these two are so joined together as to act as one mutually and reciprocally, a diligent investigator can see if he will take the trouble. The union itself stands forth to view in the fibers stretched to and fro and interlaced in the midst of their course; and this is the reason of the signification of "right" and "left" in the Word. From all this the truth is clear that love and wisdom, unitedly and harmoniously form each and all things in the embryo, and yet in these things they may be distinguished.
[4] 4. The receptacles are distinguished into three degrees with man, one within the other; and the two higher are dwelling-places of the Lord, but not the lowest.
Some one might possibly form a fallacious idea of the beginnings of the human form, which pertain to the seed of the man, because they are called receptacles. From the term receptacle one may easily fall into the idea of a vessel or a little tube. I desire therefore to define and describe that initial form, as it was seen by me and made clear to me in the heavens, as adequately as the expressions of natural language will permit. These receptacles are not tubular, or hollowed out like little vessels, but they are like the brain, of which they are an exceedingly minute and invisible type, with a delineation resembling a face in front, with no visible appendage. This primitive brain in the upper convex part was a structure of contiguous globules or little spheres, each little sphere being a conglomeration of like spheres still more minute, and each of these again of the very least. In front, in the flattened region of the nose, a kind of outline appeared for a face; but in the recess between the convex part and this flattened part there was no fiber; the convex part was covered round about with a very thin membrane, which was transparent. Thus was seen by me and shown to me the primitive of man, the first or lowest degree of which was the structure first described, the second or middle degree was the structure secondly described, and the third or highest degree was the structure thirdly described, thus one was within the other. I was told that in each little sphere there were indescribable interlacings, more and more wonderful according to the degrees, also that in each particular the right part is the couch or receptacle of love, and the left part is the couch or receptacle of wisdom, and that by wonderful connections these are like partners and comrades, the same as the two hemispheres of the brain are. [[2]] It was further shown in the light that fell brightly on it, that the structure of the two interior degrees was, in its position and flow, in the order and form of heaven, while the structure of the lowest degree in its position and flow, was in the form of hell. This is why it is said that the receptacles are distinguished into three degrees with man, one within another, and the two higher are dwelling-places of the Lord, but not the lowest. The lowest degree is such because man, from a hereditary taint, is born opposed to the order and form of heaven, and thus into evils of every kind; and this taint is in the natural, which is the lowest of man's life, and it is not wiped away unless the interior degree that has been formed for the reception of love and wisdom from the Lord is opened in him. But how this degree and the inmost degree are opened is taught by the Lord in the Word, and will be taught in what follows. But to gain light on this subject, see what has been said before about degrees, also about the brain. These degrees are called higher, although they are interior, and for the reason that there is successive order of degrees and simultaneous order; things higher and lower are in successive order, but things interior and exterior are in simultaneous order, and the same things that in simultaneous order are interior, in successive order are higher; and the same is true of things exterior and lower. And as there are three degrees in man so there are three degrees of the heavens, for the heavens consist of men who have become angels. According to degrees in successive order, the heavens are seen one above another, and according to degrees in simultaneous order, one within another. From this it is that "high" signifies in the Word what is internal, and the Lord is called "Most High," because He is in inmost things. Since, then, man in the beginning of his development is such a dwelling place of the Lord as has been described, and these three degrees are then open, and since everything that proceeds from the Lord as a sun is Man in least things and in greatest (as has been shown before in its place), so extension into any other form than the human is not possible; nor is extension possible except through rays of light from wisdom with heat from love in the midst; thus through vivified fibers, which are rays brought out into form. That there is a like determination is apparent to the eye. [[3]] So many are the degrees of life with man; but with beasts the two higher degrees are lacking and they have only the lowest; consequently the beginnings of their life are not receptacles of the Lord's love and wisdom, but are receptacles of natural affection and knowledge, into which they are born. With clean beasts these receptacles are not reflected or turned contrary to the order of the flux of the universe, but are conformable to it; therefore from birth, as soon as they are brought forth, they are led into their functions and know them. For beasts have had no ability to pervert their affections, since they have not the intellectual faculty to think and reason from spiritual light, and to violate the laws of Divine order.
[5] 5. One receptacle is for the will of the future man and the other for his understanding; and yet nothing whatever of his will or of his understanding is present in the formation.
Will and understanding with man do not begin until the lungs are opened, and this does not take place until after birth; then the will of man becomes the receptacle of love, and the understanding becomes the receptacle of wisdom. They do not become such receptacles until the lungs are opened, because the lungs correspond to the life of the understanding, and the heart corresponds to the life of the will, and without the cooperation of the understanding and will, man has no life of his own, as there is no life apart from the co-operation of love and wisdom by means of which the embryo is formed and vivified, as has been said before. In the embryo the heart alone beats, and the liver leaps, the heart for the circulation of the blood, and the liver for the reception of nourishment; from these is the motion of the other viscera, and this motion is felt as pulsative after the middle period of gestation. But this motion is not from any life proper to the fetus; one's own life is the life of the will and the life of the understanding; while the life of the infant is the life of commencing will and commencing understanding; from these only do the sensitive and the motor life in the body exist; and this life is not possible from the beating of the heart alone, but is possible from the conjunction of this with the respiration of the lungs. This is seen to be true in men, who have both will and understanding; when they fall into a swoon or are suffocating, and respiration stops, they become as if dead; they have no sensation, their limbs do not move, they do not think nor will, and yet the heart performs its contractions and the blood circulates. But as soon as the lungs return to their respirations the man comes back into his activities and to his senses, and into his will and understanding. From all this a conclusion may be formed about the quality of the life of the fetus in the womb, in which only the heart performs its motions, and not yet the lungs, namely, that nothing of the life of the will and nothing of the life of the understanding is present in it; but the formation is effected solely by the life from the Lord by which man afterwards is to live. But about this more may be seen in the following article.
[6] 6. There is life in the embryo before birth, but the embryo is not conscious of it.
This follows from what has been said above; also that the life from which the embryo in the womb lives is not its life, but the Lord's alone, who alone is life.