Earths In Our Solar System Which Are Called Planets, and Earths In The Starry Heaven Their Inhabitants, And The Spirits And Angels ThereSwedenborg, Emanuel
Religion
Earths In Our Solar System Which Are Called Planets, and Earths In The Starry Heaven Their Inhabitants, And The Spirits And Angels There
Swedenborg, Emanuel
Cosmology -- Early works to 1800
150. When I asked them whether they would like to see any objects on
our Earth, informing them that it was possible to do so through my
eyes (see above, no. 135), they answered first, that they could not,
and afterwards, that they would not, because the things that they
would see would be only earthly and material things, from which they
remove their thoughts as much as possible. But nevertheless, there
were represented before them magnificent palaces, resembling those
on our Earth possessed by kings and princes; for such things can
be represented before spirits, and, when they are represented, they
appear exactly as if they existed. But the spirits from that earth
esteemed them as nothing, calling them marble images; and then they
related that they have more magnificent things belonging to them,
which are their sacred temples, built not of stone but of wood. When
it was objected that these were still earthly objects, they replied
that they were not earthly, but heavenly, because when they gaze upon
them they have not an earthly but a heavenly idea; believing that
after death they should also see like objects in heaven.
151. They then represented their sacred temples before the spirits
of our Earth, who declared that they had not seen anything more
magnificent; and as they were also seen by me, I can therefore
describe them. They are constructed of trees not cut down, but growing
in the place where they first took root. They said that on that earth
there are trees of a wonderful size and height; these they set in rows
from the first, so that they may form porticos and colonnades; and by
cutting and pruning, they fit and prepare the tender shoots, so that
as they grow they may interlace and join together so as to form the
groundwork and floor of the temple to be constructed, and to rise at
the sides to form the walls, and above to bend into arches to form
the roof. In this manner they construct the temple with admirable art,
raised high above the ground. They also prepare an ascent into it by
successive branches of the trees, extended from the trunk and firmly
connected together. Moreover, they adorn the temple without and within
in various ways, by disposing the foliage into forms: thus they build
entire groves. But it was not permitted me to see the character of
these temples within: I was only told that the light of their sun is
let in by apertures amongst the branches, and is transmitted here
and there through crystals, by which means the light falling upon the
walls is varied in colours like those of the rainbow, especially blue
and orange, of which they are fondest. Such are their architectural
works, which they prefer to the most magnificent palaces of our Earth.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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