Arcana Coelestia (Potts) n. 1514

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1514. Spheres are also made susceptible to sense by odors, which spirits smell much more exquisitely than men; for, wonderful to say, odors correspond to spheres. When the sphere of those who have indulged in the practice of simulation and have thereby contracted a nature, is turned into an odor, there is a stench of vomit. When the sphere of those who have studied eloquence to the end that everything may redound to self-admiration, is made odoriferous, it is like the odor of burnt bread. With those who have indulged in mere pleasures, and have been in no charity and faith, the odor of their sphere is like that of excrement. So is the odor of those who have spent their lives in adulteries, but this is still more offensive. When the sphere of those who have lived in deep hatred and revenge, and in cruelty, is turned into odors, there is a cadaverous stench. The stench of mice is diffused around from those who have been sordidly avaricious; the stench of bedbugs* from those who persecute the innocent. These odors cannot be smelled by any man, except by one whose interior sensations are opened, so that he may be in company with spirits. * Pediculi domestici, a literal translation into Latin of the Swedish name for the common cimex. [Reviser.]


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