CL 501. The lusts treated of in the following four chapters are not merely lusts of adultery, they are more grievous, for they come only from adulteries, being taken up after adulteries have become loathsome. Thus, until then, the lust of defloration, which is first to be treated of, cannot have its rise with anyone, and this is equally true of the lust of variety, the lust of violation, and the lust of seducing innocences, to be treated of in what follows. They are called lusts because, according to the measure and nature of the lust for them, such is the measure and nature of their appropriation. As specifically regards the lust of defloration, to give clear conviction that it is a shameful thing, this shall be made manifest from the following propositions in their order:

1. The state of a virgin or undeflowered woman before marriage and after marriage.

2. That virginity is the crown of chastity and the token of conjugial love.

3. That defloration without the end of marriage is the shameful deed of a robber.

4. That after death the lot of those who have confirmed themselves in the lust of defloration as not being an evil of sin, is grievous.

The explanation of the above now follows:

CL 502. I. The state of a virgin or undeflowered woman before marriage and after marriage. What the state of a virgin is before she has been instructed concerning the various particulars of the conjugial torch, was made manifest to me by wives in the spiritual world, being women who had departed from the natural world in their infancy and had been educated in heaven. They said that when they came to a marriageable state they began to love the conjugial life from seeing married partners, but only to the end that they might be called wives and might have friendly and trustful companionship with one man; also, that when separated from the house of obedience, they might become of their own right. Respecting marriage, they said that they had thought of it solely from the blessedness of mutual friendship and confidence with a male consort, and not at all from the delight of any flame; but that after the nuptials the virgin state was changed into a new state, of which the virgin had previously known nothing whatever.

[2] They said further that this was a state in which everything of the life of the virgin's body from the first things thereof to the last is expanded for the receiving of her husband's gifts and the uniting of them to her own life, that so she might become his love and his wife; that this state commenced from the moment of defloration, and that after this the flame of love burned for the husband alone; that she felt the delights of that expansion to be heavenly delights; and that, having been introduced into that state by her husband, and the state being from him and so his state in her, she could not possibly love any but him alone.

[3] From this account, the nature of the state of virgins in heaven before marriage and after marriage was made manifest. That the state is the same with virgins and wives on earth when joined (to their husbands) at the first omens, is no secret. What virgin can know that new state before she is in it? Inquire and you will hear. It is different with those who before marriage get allurement from learning about it.

CL 503. II. That virginity is the crown of chastity and the token of conjugial love. Virginity is called the crown of chastity because it crowns the chastity of marriage and is also the sign of chastity. Therefore, in the marriage ceremony the bride has a crown on her head. It is also a sign of the holiness of marriage; for after the virgin flower, the bride gives and devotes her whole self to the bridegroom, then her husband, and the husband in turn gives his whole self to the bride, now his wife. Virginity is also called the token of conjugial love because it is a part of the covenant, the covenant being that love shall unite them into one man or one flesh. Moreover, before the marriage, men regard the virginity of the bride as the crown of her chastity, the token of conjugial love, and the very dainty from which the delights of that love are to commence and to continue. From this, and from what has preceded, it is evident that after the zone has been taken away and the virginity tasted, the virgin becomes a wife, and if not a wife, she becomes a harlot; for the new state into which she is then inducted is a state of love for her man, and if not for her man, it is a state of lust.

CL 504. III. That defloration without the end of marriage is the shameful deed of a robber. Some adulterers have a desire to deflower virgins, and thence also girls in their age of innocence. The virgins are enticed to such deeds by the persuasions of procuresses, by gifts from the men, or by the promise of marriage. After the defloration, these men abandon them and search for other virgins and yet others. Add to this, that they have pleasure not from past victims but only from continually new ones; and that this lust so greatly increases that it becomes the chief of the delights of their flesh. To these they add also the crime, that by various wiles they entice virgins who are about to be married or immediately after the marriage, to offer the first-fruits of marriage to them; thus filthily defiling the marriage. Moreover, I have heard that when their burning heat with its potency has failed, they glory in the number of virginities as in so many golden fleeces of Jason.

[2] This shameless deed, which is stupration, commencing in the age of vigour and being afterwards confirmed by boastings, remains enrooted and thus inseated after death. The nature of this shameful deed is evident from what was said above, namely, that virginity is the crown of chastity, being the token of the conjugial love that is to be; and that the virgin gives up her soul and life to him to whom she gives up her virginity. Upon it also is founded conjugial friendship and the confidence thereof. After this door of conjugial love has been broken through, a woman deflowered by such men loses her modesty and becomes a harlot, and of this also that robber is the cause.

[3] If, after having accomplished their satyriases and profanations of chastities, these robbers apply their mind to marriage, they dwell in their mind on nothing else than the virginity of their future partner, and after they have tasted it, they loathe both bed and bed-chamber, yea, they loathe the whole female sex except young girls. Being violators of marriage and despisers of the female sex, and thus spiritual robbers, it is plain that the Divine nemesis pursues such men.

CL 505. IV. That after death the lot of those who have confirmed themselves in the lust of defloration as not being an evil of sin, is grievous. Their lot is this: After they have passed through the first period in the world of spirits, which is a period of modesty and morality because passed in company with angelic spirits, then, from their externals they are let into their internals and thus into the concupiscences by which they had been consumed in the world. They are let into their concupiscences that it may be seen in what degree these were, and if they were in a minor degree, that after being let into them they may be let out and be covered with shame.

[2] But those who had been in this malignant lust to such an extent that they felt its delight as eminent, and gloried over their thefts as over rich spoils, do not suffer themselves to be led away from it. They are therefore left in their freedom. Immediately thereafter they wander about and inquire after brothels, and when these are pointed out, they enter them; these brothels are at the sides of hell. But when they meet none there but prostitutes, they go away and inquire where there are virgins. They are then taken to harlots who by fantasy are able to assume surpassing beauty and a blushing girlish charm and to pass themselves off as virgins. For these they have the same burning ardour as in the world. They therefore bargain with them; but when about to enjoy their bargain, the fantasy which had been induced from heaven is dispelled, and those virgins then appear in their own deformity, monstrous and dusky. Nevertheless, they are compelled to stick to them for a short time. These harlots are called sirens.

[3] If they do not suffer themselves to be led away from their insane lust by such bewitchments, they are cast down into a hell which is on the border of the south and west, beneath the hell of the more cunning harlots, and are there associated with their fellows. It was also granted me to see them in that hell, and I was told that many there were of noble stock and among the more opulent; but because they had been of such a character in the world, all memory of their lineage and of the dignity they had from their wealth is taken away, and the persuasion is induced that they had been vile slaves and therefore unworthy of any honour.

[4] Among themselves they do indeed appear as men, but as seen by others who are allowed to look in there, they appear like apes, with a fierce face instead of a mild, and a horrible countenance instead of a pleasing. Their loins are contracted, and hence they walk bent downwards, their upper part leaning forwards as if about to fall. They are also ill-smelling. They loathe the sex and turn away from those of them whom they see, for they have no desire. Such do they appear when near by, but at a distance they seem like dogs of indulgence or whelps of delights, and something like barking is heard in the sound of their speech.