Heaven and Hell - Swedenborg Foundation

HEAVEN AND HELL 78
the spiritual world into the natural world, and the interaction
between soul and body, are treated of. 75
99. But notwithstanding that all things of man’s body
correspond to all things of heaven, it is not in respect to his
external form that man is an image of heaven, but in respect to
his internal form; for man’s interiors are what receive heaven,
while his exteriors receive the world. So far, therefore, as his
interiors receive heaven, man is in respect to them a heaven in
least form, after the image of the greatest. But so far as his
interiors do not receive heaven he is not a heaven and an image
of the greatest, although his exteriors, which receive the world,
may be in a form in accordance with the order of the world,
and thus variously beautiful. For the source of outward beauty
which pertains to the body is in parents and formation in the
womb, and it is preserved afterwards by general influx from the
world. For this reason the form of one’s natural man differs
greatly from the form of his spiritual man. What the form of a
man’s spirit is I have been shown occasionally; and in some
who were beautiful and charming in appearance the spirit was
seen to be so deformed, black and monstrous that it might be
called an image of hell, not of heaven; while in others not
beautiful there was a spirit beautifully formed, pure, and
angelic. Moreover, the spirit of man appears after death such as
it has been in the body while it lived therein in the world.
75. The correspondence of all the members of the body with the
Greatest Man, or heaven, in general and in particular, from experience (n.
3021, 3624–3649, 3741–3750, 3883–3895, 4039–4054, 4218–4228,
4318–4331, 4403–4421, 4523–4533, 4622–4633, 4652–4660, 4791–4805,
4931–4953, 5050–5061, 5171–5189, 5377–5396, 5552–5573, 5711–5727,
10030).
The influx of the spiritual world into the natural world, or of heaven
into the world, and the influx of the soul into all things of the body, from
experience (n. 6053–6058, 6189–6215, 6307–6326, 6466–6495,
6598–6626).
The intercourse between soul and body, from experience (n.
6053–6058, 6189–6215, 6307–6327, 6466–6495, 6598–6626).