Martinus: Livets Bog, vol. 5, sect. 1826

1826. Furthermore, when we also find spouses who have entered into marriage and got divorced as many as three and four times, and who would still be prepared to continue this drifting out of and into marriage if the authorities did not step in and put a stop to this tactic, one surely cannot claim that such beings are very well-suited to marriage and that they find true happiness in this particular form of mental and psychic connection. Are they not to be regarded as beings that are actually rootless and thereby not at home in marriage? To claim that they are immoral and have a low, despicable character, and that they are egoistic and inconsiderate can perhaps be true to a certain extent, but it is certainly not their mental or psychic state that is the main cause of their marital misery. The further back we go in evolution, eventually arriving at the animals, we see in the majority of the highly developed animals an excellent marital relationship with regard to mating and reproduction, namely among those beings that live monogamously. And surely one does not dare to claim that these beings, for example, lions, tigers or other beasts of prey, are not by nature egoistic and hostile towards other beings. And here, however, having entered into a marriage or a life together as a pair there is no question of them drifting in and out of it, as is the case with the above-mentioned terrestrial human beings. Are these people then even more selfish, more spiteful or murderous in their dealings with their fellow beings than beasts of prey are? Indeed, it is true that according to the law of the cycle the dark forces, or the mental zone of winter, culminate in the terrestrial human mental sphere, and that there are thus no more refined or gruesome manifestors of the animal, killing principle than the terrestrial human being that is at precisely the very culminating stage of this darkness, but here one must remember that there are also many terrestrial human beings that have already long since passed through this enthusiasm for war, the stage of hatred and revenge, and can show great humaneness in many ways, can take part in great universally loving enterprises, and already appear as ingenious artists who, with their art, contribute every day to giving people great joy, entertainment and teaching, thereby contributing to forming a school or example for others in their particular art form. And the strange thing is that it is among these beings that one finds innumerable divorces and unhappy marriages and not among robust, primitive and war-hungry individuals or beings that are at the stage of egoism and thirst for power or in the sphere of desire for conquest and oppression. It is thus established as fact that the ordinary zone of unhappy marriages is made up of beings that are already advanced with regard to intellectual humaneness and in areas that are beneficial to society. It is here that we find the greatest misery and the loosest relationships in marriage or the mating state. This circumstance again establishes as fact that marriage among beings of these spheres or zones is becoming something of secondary importance. These beings live to a great extent for another sphere of interest, namely, the cultivation of their art form or a particularly favourite category of intellectual activity, which is ordinarily unselfish, humane and beneficial to society. This in turns means that the beings we are referring to here are in actual fact not unloving or inconsiderate beings in the ordinary sense. It is only in marital matters that they seem to lack morals. Here they break the prescribed moral laws to a great extent and become superficial, irresponsible and unfaithful. And it cannot be denied either that beings within this field can be the diametrical opposite of themselves, that is to say, of that part of their psyche that has to do with marriage. In respect of the latter, they can be wonderful, socially beneficial beings that create great joy with their sometimes great, ingenious artistic ability in the art of writing, music, acting, painting and sculpture or with their extensive humane, scientific, educational and creative work. Indeed, so great can their socially beneficial, intellectual, artistic activity and position be that they become world famous, admired and honoured by all nations, while, with the other part of their psyche, the marital part, they create unhappiness and suffering for themselves, their spouse and their offspring. One cannot therefore justifiably stamp these beings as good-for-nothings or ne'er-do-wells, as amoral or insignificant. On the contrary, they demonstrate the fact that they are maritally degenerated to the extent that they have developed in an intellectual, artistic, universally human direction. They have become split beings. The principle of mating inherited from the animal kingdom that was once their alpha and omega must now share space with this intellectual, artistic or humane ability that has arisen in their mentality or psyche. In many cases this latter part of their consciousness or psyche has gradually already taken over leadership of the being's wishes and will. It has become something primary, while everything to do with marriage in reality thus now exists only as something secondary for this being. The great and most advanced artists or intellectuals go on being artists or intellectuals despite their marital breakdown; indeed, they even sometimes become still more brilliant at being intellectually creative. Are not many of the most beautiful love poems written by people who suffered from unrequited love? But even if such beings who are unhappily in love actually get the person that they are so much in love with and praise so highly, for many it will not take very long before they fall in love again and suffer the ensuing anguish of divorce or disentanglement from their previous beloved, sometimes with the risk of doubtful reciprocation of their love from the new party. It is obvious that these intellectuals do not have a psyche that can conform to the traditional, thousands-of-years-old marital law of Moses. If the sexual life of these beings were to be forced to comply with the guidelines of this law, these intellectual beings would feel squeezed in a mental straitjacket of such comprehensive dimensions that mental disappointment, melancholy and depression would kill all intellectual or artistic inspiration and impulses. Their intellectual creative ability, their genius would be a plant that wilted in the desert from lack of water, moisture and nourishment. Thus these intellectual beings no longer have a psyche for which the orthodox marriage bound by the law of Moses can be of primary importance. If they did, one would have to regard their intellectual, artistic ability or gift as an abnormality, as something evil that undermines their normal marital or mating ability, that is, as something evil that to the very greatest extent must be combatted. But can mankind afford this?