Sperm is more than “cum.”
Scientist/theologian Emanuel Swedenborg stated that human male sperm contains real spiritual substances within it. These spiritual substances represent the deepest qualities of a male’s heart and mind.
Therefore, if a male individual decides to undergo spiritual transformation, it seems logical that this change would be reflected within the innermost structure of his sperm. After all, some more noble active principle, or seed, must be implanted from his understanding into a matrix consisting of an equally noble new species of love in his heart (will) for a man to genuinely change for the better.
This inner change both contributes to the bio-formation of a subtle spiritual body for the soul, and its qualities are also transferred through intercourse with a husband’s wife so that she can enjoy a most intimate knowledge of all his inner states, and make some “corrections” along the way. Together, this gender intimacy makes one angelic soul.
And indeed, Swedenborg suggests that future angels have a different quality of sperm (prolific principle) than do those leaning more to a self-centered lifestyle. (Angelic and celestial qualities, through sperm, can be hereditarily passed on to worldly progeny and ultimately change the entire terrestrial world.)
Furthermore, when human sex energy does not evolve spiritually, its quality decomposes into intense forms of hatred and vehemence.
What about women? Well, Swedenborg tells us that they were created not to simply love their own subjective views but to love those views in some other man. (That is why Swedenborg states that a woman is the love of a man’s understanding, and with that cosmic occupation and passive role, she also takes on the function of the man’s ego and in loving his accomplishments—which would otherwise be spiritually poisonous and damning to the man.)
Women are not unhappy these days because they are treated so unequally, but more so, that they can’t find men whose inner qualities merit their full attention—so they experience incomplete living, regardless of their worldly attainments.
This idea of Swedenborg’s puts the current gender debate (male, female, gay, etc.) on a whole different level!
TheGodGuy 
Hi Ed! – An interesting post. A man releases millions of sperm – a seemingly “random” procedure. But perhaps his spiritual state in his marriage – and the quality of his love for his wife – has an influence on the energy or other physical qualities of the sperm en route to fertilizing his wife’s egg. The woman produces a single egg (usually) and it seems the scientific thought process is that she (through the qualities of the egg and the chemistry of the surroundings) actually does the selection. The sperm and the egg together provide the nuclear DNA for the embryo, but the egg and therefore the mother also provides the mitochondrial DNA which (as I understand it) directs the protein power plants of the cell. Much of this science came after Swedenborg – any thoughts about what the correspondences would be?
Cheers – George Gantz
Dear George,
Thanks for contributing to this conversation. However, I am always amused at how people (even Swedenborgians) give such credence to modern scientific thought. Swedenborg’s science actually surpassed the discoveries being made today. For instance, Swedenborg said that the male sperm contributes everything from the magnetic form up to the spiritual form in the process of conception, while the woman (wife) contributes, within her ovum, everything from the magnetic form down to the lower terrestrial forms in this process. BTW, the magnetic form is above (and superior to) the spiral forms of DNA structure. The basic correspondence (which science ignores) is that the male contributes “active principles” to the formation of a new human, while the woman contributes the “passive principles.”
Spiritually yours,
TheGodGuy