507. Fifth Memorable Relation:
Once when conversing with the angels, I finally spoke of the lust of evil which is in every man from his birth. One said, "In the world where I am, those who are in lust seem to us angels as if they were infatuated; but to themselves they seem to be consummately wise. Therefore, in order to withdraw them from their infatuation, they are let alternately into it and into the rationality which they possess in externals; but in this latter state although they see, acknowledge, and confess their folly, they long to return from their rational to their foolish state, and they "let themselves down into that state as if they were exchanging what is compulsory and disagreeable for what is free and delightful. Thus it is lust and not intelligence that gives them interior delight. [2] There are three universal loves, of which every man is by creation composed; love of the neighbor, which is also a love of performing uses, which love is spiritual; love of the world, which is also a love of possessing wealth, which love is material; and love of self, which is also a love of ruling over others, which love is corporeal. Man is truly a man, when love of the neighbor, or love of performing uses, constitutes the head; and love of the world, or love of possessing wealth constitutes the chest and abdomen; while love of self or of ruling over others, forms the feet and the soles of the feet. But when love of the world forms the head, man is merely hunchbacked; while if love of self forms the head, he is not like a man standing on his feet, but like one standing on the palms of his hands with his head down and his posteriors in the air. [3] When a love of doing forms the head, and the other two form the body and feet in their order, the man appears in heaven with an angelic face and a beautiful rainbow about his head; but if the love of the world or of wealth forms the head, he appears from heaven with a face pale like that of a corpse, and a yellowish circle about the head; and if love of self, or of ruling over others, forms the head, he appears from heaven with a dusky-glowing face and a white circle about the head."
Thereupon I asked, "What do the circles about the head represent?"
They replied, "They represent intelligence; the white circle about the head with the dusky-glowing face represents that the intelligence of that man is in externals or round about him, while in his internals or within him there is folly; and furthermore, such a man is wise when in the body, but foolish when in the spirit; and no man is wise in spirit except from the Lord, and he becomes such when he is born and created anew by the Lord."
[4] After these remarks the earth was opened toward the left, and I saw rising up through the opening a devil with a dusky, glowing face and a white circle about his head; I asked, "Who are you?"
He said, "I am Lucifer, the son of the morning; and because I made myself like unto the Most High, I was cast down, as I am described in the fourteenth chapter of Isaiah." He was not that Lucifer, but he believed that he was.
I said, "Since you have been cast down, how can you rise again out of hell?"
He replied, "There I am a devil; but here I am an angel of light. Do you not see that my head is girt with a white band? You shall also see, if you wish, that I am moral among the moral, rational among the rational, and even spiritual among those who are spiritual. I have also been able to preach."
I asked, "How did you preach?"
He replied, "Against defrauders, adulterers, and all infernal loves; and then being Lucifer, I even called myself the devil, and against myself I accused him; and for so doing I was borne up to heaven with praises. That is why I have been called the son of the morning. And what astonished myself, when I was in the pulpit I had no thought but that I was speaking rightly and truly. But the cause of this was disclosed to me; namely, that I was in externals, and these were then separated from my internals. But although this was disclosed to me, still I could not change, because I had exalted myself above the Most High, and set myself up against Him."
[5] Finally I asked, "How could you talk so, when you yourself are a defrauder and an adulterer?"
He replied, "I am one thing when in externals or in the body, and another when in internals or in spirit. In the body I am an angel, but in spirit a devil; for in the body I am in understanding, but in spirit I am in the will; and the understanding carries me upward, while the will carries me downward. While I am in the understanding a white band encompasses my head; but when the understanding gives itself up wholly to the will, and becomes the will's, which is our final lot, then the band grows black and disappears, and when this takes place, I am no longer able to ascend into this light."
But all at once, as he saw the angels with me, his face grew red and his voice excited, and even the band about his head became black, and he sank down to hell through the opening by which he had arisen.
From what they had seen and heard, the bystanders came to this conclusion, that a man's quality is such as his will is, not such as his understanding is, since the will easily draws the understanding over to its side and enslaves it.
[6] I then asked the angels, "Whence have the devils rationality?"
And they said, "It is from the glory of the love of self, for the love of self is encompassed with a glory, this glory being the resplendence of its fire, and it exalts the understanding almost into the light of heaven. For the understanding in every man is capable of elevation according to his knowledges; but the will can be elevated only by a life according to the truths of the church and of reason. Hence it is that even atheists, who are in the glory of fame from self-love, and thereby in the pride of self-intelligence, enjoy a loftier rationality than many others; but that is when they are in the thought of the understanding, not in the love of the will, and the love of the will possesses the internal man, but the thought of the understanding the external." The angel furthermore explained why man is composed of three loves, namely, the love of use, the love of the world, and the love of self; it is in order that man may think from God, yet wholly as if of himself. He said that the highest things of man's mind were turned upward towards God, the intermediate outward towards the world, and the lowest downward into the body; and because these latter are turned downward, although man thinks from God, he thinks wholly as of himself.