THE MALE
IS A MALE, AND THE FEMALE A FEMALE
Selection from
Conjugial Love • Emanuel Swedenborg
32.
Since man lives as a man after death,
and man is male and female, and the
masculine is one thing and the feminine
another, being so different that the one
cannot be changed into the other, it
follows that after death the male lives
as a male, and the female as a female,
each being a spiritual man. It is said
that the masculine cannot be changed
into the feminine, nor the feminine into
the masculine, and that therefore after
death the male is a male and the female
a female; but because it is not known in
what the masculine essentially consists,
and in what the feminine, it shall here
be told in a few words. The distinction
essentially consists in the fact that in
the male, the inmost is love and its
clothing wisdom, or, what is the same
thing, he is love veiled over with
wisdom; and that in the female, the
inmost is that wisdom of the male, and
its clothing, the love therefrom. This
love, however, is feminine love, and is
given by the Lord to the wife through
the wisdom of her husband, while the
former love is masculine love, being the
love of growing wise, and this is given
by the Lord to the husband according to
his reception of wisdom. It is from this
that the male is the wisdom of love, and
the female the love of that wisdom.
Therefore, from creation there is
implanted in each the love of
conjunction into a one. But of this,
more will be said in the following
pages. That the feminine is from the
masculine, or that woman was taken out
of man, is evident from these words in
Genesis:
Jehovah God... took one of the ribs of
the man and closed up the flesh instead
thereof; and he builded the rib which he
had taken out of the man into a woman,
and brought her unto the man. And the
man said, This is bone of my bones, and
flesh of my flesh; hence she shall be
called woman (Ishah) because she was
taken out of man (Ish). Gen. 2:21-23.
As to what is signified by rib, and what
by flesh, this will be told elsewhere.
33. From this primitive formation it
follows, that the male is born
intellectual and the female voluntary;
or, what is the same thing, that the
male is born into the affection of
knowing, understanding, and being wise,
and the female into the love of
conjoining herself with that affection
in the male. And because interiors form
exteriors after their own likeness, and
the masculine form is the form of the
understanding, and the feminine the form
of the love of that understanding, it
follows that the male has a face, voice,
and body different from the female; that
is, a harder face, a harsher voice, and
a stronger body, and, moreover, a
bearded chin--in general, a form less
beautiful than the female. They differ
also in their attitudes and their ways.
In a word, nothing whatever in them is
alike; and yet, in their single parts,
there is what is conjunctive; yea, in
the male, the masculine is masculine in
every part of his body even the most
minute, and also in every idea of his
thought, and in every grain of his
affection; and so likewise, the feminine
in the female. And since the one cannot
be changed into the other, it follows
that after death the male is a male and
the female a female.
(from
Conjugial Love 32 - 33 – Emanuel Swedenborg) |
