1. GAD AND ASHER.*
Angels also are distinguished into heavens, according to the variety of intellectual faith, thus which govern the interior human thoughts, for man has within himself a certain interior heaven; also a more interior one, and an inmost.
By the Divine mercy of God Messiah, it was permitted several times, to communicate thoughts to the life, with those who are in that intellectual heaven, or by thoughts to have interaction with them, and by other means to speak with them. Yea, it was given to purify my thoughts to that degree, that they came immediately into contact with those who were in the heaven of intellectual faith. Then it was observed that they were those, who in the more interior sense, are meant by Gad; for although they know, and thus are able to believe that God Messiah, by the Holy Spirit, alone governs them, and that they have power only when immediately excited, still when they were removed, they at first willed to excite some disturbances, but after some contention with me they acquiesced.
Moreover also today, by the Divine Mercy of God Messiah, it was permitted to have lively experience, that spirits, although evil, namely, who are in perverted order, are nevertheless capable of giving delights to anyone; whilst they are in that exterior state, these are meant by Asher; for they were in the state of making themselves pleasant to their company, in preferring complaisance to the interior heaven, or to the interior man.
These are things which are arcana, and concerning which many things might be said - 1747, 8th day of February - on which day it was permitted to annotate in the margin,** something concerning the blessings of the sons of Jacob (Genesis Chapter 49).
* In a copy of the original edition of Heaven and Hell, Latin, found in the library of the Bath (England) Society, is a sheet of paper containing a fragment of manuscript in Swedenborg's handwriting. Hyde in his Bibliography of Swedenborg's Works, n. 498, concludes that this fragment is a portion of the lost part of the Spiritual Diary of Swedenborg [now called Spiritual Experiences]; belonging probably about n. 28 and 29. The fragment has been phototyped and published, together with an English translation, by William Harbutt, A. R. C. A., The Grange, Bathampton, Bath. The translation is said to have been made by Dr. R. L. Tafel, but it is not in his handwriting. We have made some emendations after comparison with the Phototype copy. - Tr.
** See annotations in Swedenborg's Bible at Gen. 49:19. See also Adversaria, Vol. 3, n. 7634.