The Inhabited Universe

by Frederick L. Schnarr

The farthest planet in our solar system to be mentioned by name is Saturn. Uranus, Neptune and Pluto are not referred to in the Writings. Some have speculated that the six earths in the starry heavens which are treated of in the Writings are these three planets and the moons of Jupiter and Saturn. However, such speculation cannot be supported, for the Writings speak of these six earths in the starry heavens as being outside of our solar system. (See AC 9582, 9693)

The Planet Saturn

Saturn, the second-largest planet in our solar system, is estimated to have a diameter of 75,000 miles, about 13,000 miles less than that of Jupiter. It is nearly twice as far from the sun as Jupiter - 886 million miles away. Many of the conditions thought to exist on Jupiter are thought to exist also on Saturn. Saturn, too, is thought to be a barren, frozen, uninhabited earth, its atmospheres filled with various poisonous gasses. Like Jupiter also, it is thought to have a covering of ice thousands of miles thick. Certain spots, colored zones, and belts can be seen through the telescope, but even less is known of the cause and meaning of these than is known of similar phenomena on Jupiter, if that is possible. Perhaps the most notable phenomenon is the great belt or ring which girds Saturn and is apparently thousands of miles from the planet. This ring is thought to be composed of dust or rock particles all traveling in the same plane and orbit, possibly the debris of satellites smashed by the planet's powerful gravitation. Nine satellites are observable, one of which, named Titan, is 3,500 miles in diameter.* So little is actually known about Saturn that no attempt is made to estimate the surface temperatures. The minimum temperature is thought to be much lower than Jupiter's, - 200 degrees F.

* K. W. Gatland, The Inhabited Universe (1959 edition).

Saturn in the Grand Man

In the Grand Man of heaven the inhabitants of Saturn bear relation to that in man which is in the middle between the spiritual sense and the natural sense, but which looks and inclines more to the spiritual than to the natural. They represent the function of reason, especially reason which is elevated into spiritual light - the light of spiritual truth - but which does not and cannot remain in that light unless the will also is raised up with it. (See AC 8953; SD 1516, 1527, 1528) Spiritual truths give to man's understanding the means for him to elevate his thoughts through his reasoning capacities. That is how we learn to understand heavenly things. But if we do not endeavor to use that which the understanding perceives to be true, we gradually lose the ability even to reason rationally and thus to elevate our thoughts. Note once again that which we mentioned in a previous article, that the inhabitants of our solar system seem to bear relation in the Grand Man especially to the understanding and its various functions. But we will come back to this in a later article.

Life on Saturn

The Writings describe only briefly the character and life of the inhabitants of Saturn. Generally, they are said to be upright, modest and humble, giving little thought to natural things and much thought to spiritual things. So humble are these people that they think of themselves as being small in comparison to others. Because of this, they not only appear small after death, but are small while living on earth. They are described as being dwarf-like, robust but short, reaching only to our loins. (See AC 8948, 8949; SD 1519) Something more of their character may be seen in what is said of their experiences when they come into the world of spirits.

"When any wish to lead astray the spirits of that earth, and draw them away from faith in the Lord, or from humility toward Him, and from uprightness of life, they say that they wish to die. Then little knives are seen in their hands, by which they seem to wish to pierce their breasts. When they are asked why they do so, they say that they would rather die than be led away from the Lord. Sometimes the spirits of our earth laugh at these things, and infest them with questions why they do so. But they answer that they know very well that they are not going to kill themselves, and that this is only an appearance proceeding from the will of their mind, showing that they would rather die than be drawn away from the worship of the Lord." (AC 9050)

That some of the inhabitants of Saturn are in evil and falsity cannot be doubted. Reference is made to those who worship the bright light which they have at night as the Lord. These moon worshippers are separated from others and are not tolerated among them. (See AC 8951)

The peoples of Saturn worship the Lord and acknowledge Him as the only God. As we have noted is the case with peoples of other planets, the Lord sometimes appears to them in an angelic form, and they thus learn to think of the Lord as a Divine Man. When the inhabitants become of age, they speak with spirits in dreams and visions and are thus instructed concerning the Lord: how He is to be worshiped, and how they are to live. Everyone there knows that he will live after death, and because of this they are very little concerned with natural things. They make no account of their bodies, except what is necessary for cleanliness and survival. They do not bury the bodies of the dead, but place them in the forests and cover them over with branches. (See AC 8949, 8955)

In physical appearance the inhabitants of Saturn differ from us not only as to size but also as to the texture of the skin. They have a thick natural skin which wards off cold. This reference to cold should not be taken to confirm the suggestion of science that the planet is a frozen and barren land. This certainly is not the case, although it would seem that their climate is colder than the tropical temperatures of Jupiter. The people of Saturn wear little or no clothing. (See AC 8956; SD 1522)

Very little is said concerning the speech of the Saturnians. From what is stated, we would judge that it is much like the kind of speech which the inhabitants of other planets have - almost silent, conveyed mostly by the expression of the eyes and the mouth. (See SD 1524)

The people of Saturn live a quiet and rural existence, with none of the humdrum and confusion which surround most of the peoples of our earth. There are no cities or kingdoms, but the people live distinguished into families, each family apart from the others; thus a man and wife, together with their children. This is a different arrangement from that which is found on some other planets, such as Jupiter, where the families live more closely together in one great house. On Saturn, when the children become of age and marry, they separate from their parents and seem to have little further contact with them. The cause of this segregation does not lie in thoughtlessness or cruelty, but rather in the desire of each couple to live by themselves. From what is said about the appearance of the people of Saturn after death, namely, that they are seen two and two, we would judge that the states of conjugial love are present with them. The full existence of such states may well be one of the main reasons that couples live apart from each other, for that is much the manner of living in the celestial heaven. (See AC 8954)

The Saturnians live on fruits and vegetables of various kinds. They do not cultivate these, but find them growing wild. In spite of there being forests and trees, the Saturnians told Swedenborg that they never saw any wild animals. Whether or not they have domestic animals is not mentioned. (See AC 8956; SD 1521)

The Writings mention the great lunar belt girding Saturn and state that the inhabitants receive much reflected nocturnal light because of it. Swedenborg told some of the spirits of Saturn that we on our earth see a belt around their earth. They told Swedenborg that to the people of Saturn it does not appear as a belt, but only as a snowy light in the heavens in various directions. The Writings state that the satellites of Saturn are inhabited, though nothing is said about the inhabitants. (See AC 8951, 8952, 6697, 9237)

Before ending our examination of the inhabitants of Saturn, we would note a few of the comments made by the spirits of that planet concerning their contact with the spirits from our earth, and one deplorable incident. They told Swedenborg that they "wondered that spirits from this earth so often come to them and ask them what God they worship. Whenever they observe that the spirits of this earth make such inquiries they answer that they are insane; for there cannot be a greater insanity than to ask what God anyone worships, seeing that there is only one God for all in the universe; and they said that they are still more insane in this, that they did not know that the Lord is the only God, and that He rules the universal heaven and consequently the universal world." (AC 9105)

Something of the nature of the spirits from our earth, and of the reason they are disliked and shunned by other spirits, is evident from the following incident which Swedenborg witnessed:

"The spirits of the earth Saturn came into view from afar, and there were then present many spirits from our earth who, on seeing those from Saturn, became as if insane, and began to infest them by infusing things unworthy respecting faith, and also about the Lord. And while they were full of invective, they also threw themselves into the midst of them, and from the insanity in which they were endeavored to injure them. But the spirits of Saturn feared nothing, because they were safe and were also in tranquillity; whereas those from our earth, being in the midst of them, began to breathe with difficulty, and consequently to be in anguish; and so they cast themselves out, one in this way, and another in that, and disappeared." (AC 9108)

We will comment more fully on this and similar incidents in a later article, but we would draw attention once again to the truth that the knowledge and acknowledgment of the Lord as God is the cornerstone of all thinking, all standards and principles, all conscience, and even of the manners and customs of life.  The fact that this is so is evidenced in the above incident, in that it is the concept of God which the evil spirits first try to bring into doubt and then destroy; and if that fails, they finally resort to open persecution and enmity. They know that if the cornerstone can be destroyed all else will follow.

The Moon

Coming back from the farther reaches of our solar system, we would now turn our attention to our nearest neighbors, the inhabitants of the Moon. Here we come to an area of consideration that presently holds the key interest of our age. Certainly it seems likely that if interplanetary travel becomes possible, the Moon will be the first area to be visited.

Because of its size, 2,160 miles in diameter, and its relatively close proximity to us, 238,000 miles away, much data has been gathered by science about the Moon. Its surface area is estimated to be about that of North and South America put together. Since we see only about 59 per cent of the Moon's surface from our earth because of the manner of its rotation, we do not yet know how the other part appears. The recent Russian photographs from the satellite which they sent into orbit around the Moon give some indication that it appears much the same on one side as on the other. However, it must be noted that the satellite was 10,000 miles, approximately, from the Moon's surface when the pictures were taken. Through the telescope the Moon appears to be a land of large contrasts. There are large mountain ranges ascending to dizzy heights, and often formed in the shape of a ring, appearing much like a crater. So numerous are these rings of mountains in some areas that the surface of the Moon has a pockmarked appearance.

No final agreement has been reached as to how these craters were formed, although three main theories have been advanced. The oldest of these is that the Moon was once bombarded with meteors; another has the craters formed from great gas bubbles which developed when the Moon, a molten mass, was cooling off; but perhaps the most widely accepted theory is that they are of volcanic origin, for many prominent astronomers have seen volcanic action on the Moon. Besides the mountainous areas there are great plains, seemingly formed at one time from seas of rippling hot lava. Cutting across the plains and into the mountain ranges are deep cracks or crevasses. No oceans, seas or rivers are observed anywhere. Most scientists declare the Moon to be a waterless world, although some believe that they have seen small jets of steam issuing from certain craters or cracks and forming small local clouds.

Because there are no cloud formations to be seen over the Moon's surface, and no water on the surface, and because many experiments indicate that there is no atmosphere around the Moon, many scientists state that the gasses needed to support life are completely lacking. Oxygen, nitrogen, water-vapor, helium and hydrogen, they say, are not to be found there.

When all of this evidence is taken together with the fact that no signs of life have been observed on the Moon, the conclusion of many scientists becomes obvious. Here is what Professor H. Spencer Jones states:

"From what we have learnt of the Moon, and in particular from its lack of oxygen and water and from its extreme variations of temperature, we should naturally conclude that it is a world where life of any sort is entirely out of the question. The Moon is the only world where we would expect to see clear evidence of life, if any existed. There is no doubt that if there were a lunar inhabitant equipped with a powerful telescope, he would be able to see many signs of human activity of the Earth. He would be able to watch the growth of greater London; he would see the cities like New York, Sydney, Johannesburg and Ottawa springing up. He would be able to watch the formation of new lakes by the impounding of water in dams. . . . In the course of a few years he would undoubtedly obtain clear evidence not only of plant life on the. Earth but also of human activity.

So, in a similar way, if the Moon were inhabited by intelligent beings, we would expect to find plenty of evidence of their existence. We can find none. The Moon shows no signs of change. There are not even seasonal changes of coloration, such as might be attributed to the growth of vegetation. Some astronomers have claimed, indeed, to have seen slight changes in certain regions, changes mainly of tint, such as might be produced by the growth of lichens on rocks. But such changes have not been confirmed and are generally discredited. It seems that the observers have been misled by changes in the appearance of the surface detail with changing altitude of the Sun. No! it is not possible to admit that t here is life of any sort on the Moon. It is a world that is completely and utterly dead, a sterile mountainous waste on which during the heat of the day the Sun blazes down with relentless fury, but where during the long night the cold is so intense that it far surpasses anything ever experienced on the Earth." (H. Spencer Jones, Life on Other Worlds)

Some have endeavored to moderate and refute such findings and attitudes as Professor Jones here evidences. A. C. Ferber in his book, The Secret of Human Life on Other Planets, has gathered together the observations of notable astronomers that would indicate a possibility of life on the Moon. But we believe it is fair to say that however worthy such an endeavor may be, the opinion that the Moon is lifeless still pervades most thinking. In the last edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica there is no mention whatsoever of even a possibility of there being life on the Moon, and the same may be said about most other authoritative works of reference.

Even to the most complete amateur in this field, as the writer is, it may appear that many of the findings mentioned here need to be compared carefully and then sifted out from theory and speculation. We have mentioned this before, but would do so again. For example, is the fact that no cities are seen evidence that there is no life? No, it is not! We have seen that on all the planets so far studied the inhabitants live in small groups or families, and most of the time in separate family units. They lead a rural existence, and have none of the sciences known and developed on earth. There is some question whether a building the size of the largest cathedral on earth could be seen on the Moon through our telescopes; how, then, would humble cottages, animals, or even vegetation, be seen? Indeed, one astronomer stated last year that we could not see anything less than a mile in diameter on the Moon. Does the fact that there are no color changes prove that there is no vegetation on the Moon? No! As we have seen, a number of planets have a year-round vegetation, a perpetual springtime and harvest; and this from a distance would not show any color change. Does the fact that there is little or no atmosphere on the Moon mean that there is no life there? It might, although that is still theory. We will see from what is said of the Moon people that their atmosphere is somewhat different from ours, though not such as Professor Jones would have it.

The Moon in the Writings

The main question that confronts us in comparing the scientific evidence with the knowledge revealed in the Writings is this: Does that knowledge stand in opposition to concrete scientific evidence? We have seen, in examining the planets, that it does not, but that it often stands in opposition to theories and conclusions that have been drawn from scientific data. We believe that this is the case also with the Moon. We find no concrete evidence which utterly denies the possibility of life on the Moon; and we would counsel those New Church men who tend to become upset about the apparent conflict between the Writings and science to take another look at both. But let us turn now to what the Writings say about the people of the Moon.

Very little is said about them. They are described as being a dwarf-like people about the size of a seven-year-old boy, but stouter. Their general physical form is much like ours, although their faces are smaller and longer than ours. Perhaps the most remarkable thing about them is their speech. They have loud, thunderous voices which proceed like something of a belching forth from the abdomen. It is said that they do not speak from the lungs, like the inhabitants of other earths, but from the abdomen, thus from some air that has collected there. It is noteworthy that the reason given in the Writings for this manner of speaking is that the atmosphere of the Moon is different from the atmospheres of other earths. (See AC 9233; SD 3242; AC 9235)

In the Spiritual Diary, Swedenborg says:

"I am ignorant what atmosphere they have around them; but still ... the human race was there, because there is nothing without an end; thus nothing without the human race, to be a bond between terrestrial and natural things, and celestial things; for otherwise never can an earth, whether planet, or moon, or satellite, exist." (SD 3244)

In the world of spirits the newly arrived spirits from the Moon use their big, booming voices to terrify other spirits who wish to do them harm, among whom are spirits from our earth who laugh at and make fun of these little people. When spirits from the Moon approached to converse with him, Swedenborg saw that one carried another on his back, but nothing is said as to why this was done. (See AC 9232-9234; SD 3241)

A Tentative Conclusion

Apart from this brief account, little is said about the people of the Moon. A number of references speak of the inhabitants as living in the Moon, and we might conclude from the findings of science so far that perhaps these people do indeed live in large caves in the mountains, or even in subterranean caverns. If there is as much volcanic action on the Moon as some scientists contend, this may well be a means of moderating the temperature at the Moon's surface, making it quite livable. Certainly the Lord has created their physical form to suit the various conditions that obtain on the Moon. This is evident from the way in which these people breathe and speak. No New Church man can doubt the truth that whatever the true facts of science are, the Writings will match them in perfect harmony. If the Lord created both, this must be so!

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