The Earth
THE SPIRITUAL EARTH
- Chapter 49 -
The development of the human fetus
When the soul has developed the gristle, muscles, bones, and veins, she attends to the outer extremities by bringing them to completion through the proper application of the specifica that belong to them. Once this has been accomplished, the soul withdraws into the viscera and begins to set the muscles of the heart into motion. Thus the organs first open with their own fluids, which are as clear as water. When this breakthrough has occurred, the soul sets the spleen in motion. This causes the spleen immediately to produce blood, which is conducted into the chambers of the heart, from whence it is driven into the organs.
Once the blood has completed its first cycle, the stomach is set into activity and begins to bring the nutritive fluids contained in it to greater fermentation. Through this process the nobler specifica are separated. The coarser, indigestible mucous liquids are expelled through the natural eliminatory canal into the amniotic sac. These are the eliminations of the child already physically alive within the mother.
When this fetus has spent three months alive in the mother's womb, the soul, whose heart has grown quiet and reached a certain firmness, will receive an eternal spirit, placed into her heart with a sevenfold shell by an angel. No one should here entertain the idea that this is a material shell; it is a spiritual one, which is much stronger and more enduring than a material one.
Once the spirit has been placed into the heart of the soul - this happens to some children sooner, others later, and, among many, not until three days before birth - then the body matures quickly, and birth will soon occur. When the child is born, the lungs are set in motion. The child begins with every breath to take in a large amount of specifica, which is immediately used for the formation of the nerve spirit and the strengthening of the soul, which means in regard to her formal substantial being. The soul receives her internal nourishment of specifica and intelligence through the senses of the body, and everything is arranged in an orderly manner by the good spirits of this sphere. This explanation clearly discloses to you the spiritual sphere of the first region, and what is contained and occurs therein.
A more comprehensive or complete disclosure is not possible, because the spiritual cannot be portrayed with necessary clarity in earthly words. But whoso has the ability to enter into the spirit concerning what has been said here will soon be fully convinced of the truth, and will gain a deeper understanding.