d wisdom; therefore as angels are recognized according to that marriage,
so are they recognized according to their respiration. For this reason it
is that when one who is not in that marriage enters heaven, he is seized
with anguish in the breast, and struggles for breath like a man in the
agonies of death; such persons, therefore throw themselves headlong from
the place, nor do they find rest until they are among those who are in a
respiration similar to their own; for then by correspondence they are in
similar affection, and therefore in similar thought. From all this it can
be seen that with the spiritual man it is the purer blood, called by some
the animal spirit, which is purified; and that it is purified so far as
the man is in the marriage of love and wisdom. It is this purer blood
which corresponds most nearly to that marriage; and because this blood
inflows into the blood of the body, it follows that the latter blood is
also purified by means of it. The reverse is true of those in whom love
is defiled in the understanding. But, as was said, no one can test this
by any experiment on the blood; but he can by observing the affections of
love, since these correspond to the blood.

424. (19) Love, when defiled in the understanding and by it, becomes
natural, sensual, and corporeal. Natural love separated from spiritual
love is the opposite of spiritual love; because natural love is love of
self and of the world, and spiritual love is love to the Lord and love to
the neighbor; and love of self and the world looks downward and outward,
and love to the Lord looks upward and inward. Consequently when natural
love is separated from spiritual love it cannot be elevated above what is
man's own, but remains immersed in it, and so far as it loves it, is glued
to it. Then if the understanding ascends, and sees by the light of heaven
such things as are of wisdom, this natural love draws down such wisdom,
and joins her to itself in what is its own; and there either rejects the
things of wisdom or falsifies them or encircles itself with them, that it
may talk about them for reputation's sake. As natural love can ascend by
degrees and become spiritual and celestial, in the same way it can descend
by degrees and become sensual and corporeal, and it does descend so far as
it loves dominion from no love of use, but solely from love of self. It is
this love which is called the devil. Those who are in this love are able
to speak and act