171. XIII. THAT THE WIFE IS CONJOINED TO HER HUSBAND BY THE SPHERE OF HER LIFE GOING FORTH FROM HER LOVE. A spiritual sphere, being the sphere of the affections of his love, emanates, nay, pours forth from every man and encompasses him. Moreover, this sphere implants itself in his natural sphere, being the sphere of the body, and the two join together. That a natural sphere is continually flowing forth from the body, not only from man but also from beasts, yea, from trees, fruits, flowers, and even from metals, is a matter of common knowledge. It is the same in the spiritual world; but the spheres flowing from subjects there, are spiritual, and those which emanate from [good] spirits and angels are deeply spiritual, because with them, affections of love and perceptions and thoughts therefrom are more interior. It is from this that all sympathy and antipathy takes its origin, and also all conjunction and disjunction. In that world, presence and absence are according to these spheres, for what is homogeneous or concordant makes conjunction and presence, and what is heterogeneous and discordant makes disjunction and absence. Therefore, it is these spheres that make distances there. Moreover, some men know what the operation of these spiritual spheres is in the natural world; nor are the inclinations of married partners towards each other from any other origin. Unanimous and concordant spheres unite them, and opposing and discordant spheres disunite them; for concordant spheres are delightful and grateful, and discordant spheres undelightful and ungrateful.
[2] I have heard from angels who are in clear perception of these spheres, that in man there is not a single part, whether within him or on the surface, which does not renew itself, doing this by dissolutions and reparations, and that from this comes the sphere which is continually pouring forth. They also said that this sphere presses around man at the back and at the breast, but somewhat thinly at the back, and densely at the breast; that the sphere from the breast conjoins itself with the respiration, and that it is because of this that two partners who disagree in dispositions and are discordant in affections lie in bed turned back to back, while those who are concordant in dispositions and affections turn towards each other. [3] They said further, that because spheres go forth from every part of man and are continually around him in great abundance, they conjoin and disjoin two partners, not only from without but also from within, and that thence are all the differences and varieties of conjugial love. Finally, they said that the sphere of love going forth from a wife who is tenderly loved is perceived in heaven as a sweet fragrance, far more pleasant than that perceived in the world by a newly married husband during the first days after the nuptials. From this, the truth here asserted is evident, namely, that the wife is conjoined to the man by the sphere of her life going forth from her love.
