Conjugial Love (Rogers) n. 512

Previous Number Next Number Next Translation See Latin 

512. The fate of such men after death is as follows:

Of their own accord these violators of women separate themselves from men who have a restricted love for the opposite sex and altogether from those who possess conjugial love, thus separating themselves from heaven. After that they are sent off to very cunning harlots who are able not only by persuasion but also by a perfectly acted imitation to carry and portray themselves as though they were the essences of chastity. These harlots accurately perceive which of them are caught up in this lust. In their presence they talk about chastity and its preciousness. Then, when a violator of women approaches and touches them, they blaze up in anger and flee as though in terror to a room where they have a couch and bed, and lightly closing the door behind them, lie down. Thereupon they use their skill to inspire in the violator an unbridled desire to break open the door, rush in and attack them. When he does so, rising up she begins to fight with the violator using her hands and fingernails, lacerating his face, tearing apart his clothes, and with a furious voice crying out to her fellow harlots as though to her servants for help; in the meantime opening the window and shouting "Thief! Robber! Murderer!" Then when the violator is about to rape her, she wails and weeps; and after the rape she lies prostrate, bawling and crying "Villainy!" She also at that point threatens him in a stern voice that unless he atones for the rape by paying her a large compensation, she will bring about his ruin. When they are engaged in this theatrical sex play, they appear from a distance like cats, which fight, run off and howl in much the same way before mating. [2] After several such vulgar combats, the violators are removed and conveyed to a cavern where they are forced into some work. But because they have a sick smell in consequence of their having dispelled the conjugial inclination, which is the precious treasure of human life, they are banished to the fringes of the western zone. At some distance there they appear emaciated, as though consisting of bones covered only by skin; while from afar they look like panthers. When it was granted me to view them closer up, I was surprised to see that some of them were holding books in their hands and reading. I was told that this was because in the world they had made various declarations regarding the spiritual things of the church and yet had defiled them by adulteries, even to these extremes of them, and that of such a character was the correspondence of this lust with the violation of the spiritual marriage. It should be known, however, that men who are caught up in this lust are rare. Because it is not becoming for them to prostitute their love, some women, certainly, do at times resist, and their show of resistance does arouse, but still this does not emanate from any lust to be violated.


This page is part of the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg

© 2000-2001 The Academy of the New Church