Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 10754

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10754. While the preacher was with the ones wearing clothes a woman with a very lovely face appeared. She was wearing a simple garment or tunic which hung becomingly at the back and was also drawn over the arms; and she had a beautiful headdress that took the form of a garland of flowers. When the preacher saw that virgin he began to take very great delight in her, to talk to her, and also to grasp her by the hand. But because she recognized that he was a spirit, and did not belong to that planet, she pulled herself away from him. Afterwards there appeared to him on the right a large number of other women who were tending sheep and lambs which they were leading then to a drinking-trough containing water that had been brought to it through a small ditch from some lake. They were dressed in a similar way, and in their hands they held shepherds' rods, which they used to guide the sheep and lambs to their drink. They said that the sheep go in whatever direction they indicate with their rods. The sheep that were seen were large, having woolly tails which were broad and long. The women's faces when seen close up were full and beautiful. When the men too were seen, their faces had the colour of human flesh as on our planet; but they were different in that the lower part of the face where the beard grows was black, while the nose was whiter than flesh colour.


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