Martinus: Livets Bog, vol. 4, sect. 1212

1212. This longing or hunger is stimulated and promoted by the events in, and the experiences garnered from, the being's external surroundings. The sight of other beautiful beings than the being's own spouse makes a strong impression. And to the degree that the terrestrial human being has developed its faculty to think, to the same degree can it, from the impressions made on its consciousness by strangers of the opposite sex, form in advance a vivid fantasy or imaginary experience of how wonderful it would be to have relations with such a sexual partner. And the more perfect and vivid it can make this imaginary experience, the more intensely it gives rise to a longing or hunger to experience it realistically, physically and bodily with the partner in question. And here we have arrived at the root of the downfall of all married life. It is this imaginary or intellectual experience of sexual satisfaction with a partner outside marriage that Christ, in the quotation cited in section 1206, expresses as "committing adultery" with a being "in one's heart". And it is this preoccupation of one's thoughts and the subsequent desire for physical, sexual relations with the other party that, in the terminology of the church, is expressed as "temptation", while the cause of this "temptation" is expressed in this terminology as the "tempter", the "evil one" or the "devil". And thus we have once again returned to the "serpent". But the "serpent" is of course the absolute principle of world redemption, which has the task of helping the living being through the mystery of knowledge and thereby making it "one with the Father". And this, of course, is just what we see here. We mentioned previously that the cause or the root of the degeneration or downfall of the principle of marriage in the terrestrial human being's mentality was the being's faculty for fantasising or imagining, through which it can in advance form a vivid, detailed idea or picture of the pleasure engendered by sexual relations with another partner. This faculty, and that which produces or develops this faculty, is thus the deepest cause or root of the many divorces or the being's growth out of the principle of marriage.