Arcana Coelestia volume 7 - Swedenborg Foundation

ARCANA COELESTIA 3923where is the cauda equina. Their mode of operating is by quickmovements to and fro which no one can stop. It is a method ofconstriction and restriction directed upward, and pointed in theform of a cone. The evil spirits who are thrown within this cone,especially at the upper part, are miserably tormented by beingtwisted to and fro.5390. There are other spirits also who correspond to uncleanexcretions, namely, such as in the world have been tenacious ofrevenge: these appeared to me in front to the left. To these uncleanexcretions also correspond those who debase spiritual things tounclean earthly ones. Such spirits came to me and brought withthem filthy thoughts, from which they spoke filthy things, and alsowarped clean things to unclean things, and turned them into such.Many of this kind had belonged to the lowest orders, and some topeople of higher station in the world, who during their bodily lifehad not indeed so spoken in company, but still had so thought; forthey had refrained from speaking as they thought, lest they shouldcome to shame, and lose friendship, gain, and honor. Nevertheless,among their like, when in freedom, their conversation had beenlike that of the lowest orders, and even fouler, because theypossessed a certain intellectual capacity which they misused todefile even the holy things of the Word and of doctrine.5391. There are also kidneys called the subsidiary kidneys, orrenal capsules. Their function is to secrete not so much the serumas the blood itself, and to transmit the purer blood toward the heartby a short circuit, and thus prevent the spermatic vessels, which arenear, from carrying off all the purer blood. But these organsperform their main work in embryos, and also in newborn infants.It is chaste virgins who constitute this province in the grand man:prone to anxieties, and fearful of being disturbed, they lie quiet atthe lower left side of the body. If there is any thought aboutheaven, or about a change of their state, they become anxious andsigh, as I have several times been given plainly to feel. When mythoughts were led to infants, they felt great comfort and inwardjoy, which they frankly confessed; and when there was any thoughtthat had nothing heavenly in it, they were distressed. Their anxiety