(DLW) - Angelic Wisdom about Divine Love and Wisdom

DLW 273

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273. (1) The natural mind that is in evils and in falsities therefrom is a form and image of hell. The nature of the natural mind in man in its substantial form cannot here be described, that is, its nature in its own form woven out of the substances of both worlds, in the brains where that mind in its first principles, has its seat. The universal idea of that form will be given in what follows, where the correspondence of the mind and body is to be treated of. Here somewhat only shall be said of its form as regards the states and their changes, whereby perceptions, thoughts, intentions, volitions, and their belongings are manifested; for, as regards these states and changes, the natural mind that is in evils and their falsities is a form and image of hell. Such a form supposes a substantial form as a subject; for without a substantial form as a subject, changes of state are impossible, just as sight is impossible without an eye, or hearing without an ear. In regard, then, to the form or image wherein the natural mind images hell, that form or image is such that the reigning love with its lusts, which is the universal state of that mind, is like what the devil is in hell; and the thoughts of the false arising out of that reigning love are, as it were, the devil's crew. By "the devil" and by "his crew" nothing else is meant in the Word. Moreover, the case is similar, since in hell there is a love of ruling from love of self, a reigning love, called there the "devil;" and the affections of the false, with the thoughts arising out of that love, are called "his crew." It is the same in every society of hell, with differences resembling the differences of species in a genus. And the natural mind that is in evils and in falsities therefrom is in a similar form; consequently, a natural man who is of this character comes, after death, into a society of hell similar to himself, and then, in each and every particular, he acts in unison with it; for he thus enters into his own form, that is, into the states of his own mind. There is also another love, called "satan," subordinate to the former love that is called the devil; it is the love of possessing the goods of others by every evil device. Cunning villainies and subtleties are its crew. Those who are in this hell are generally called satans; those in the former, devils; and such of them as do not act in a clandestine way there do not disown their name. From this it is that the hells, as a whole, are called the Devil and Satan. The two hells are generically divided in accordance with these two loves, because all the heavens are divided into two kingdoms, the celestial and the spiritual, in accordance with two loves; and the devil - hell corresponds, by opposites, to the celestial kingdom, and the satan - hell corresponds, by opposites, to the spiritual kingdom. That the heavens are divided into two kingdoms, the celestial and the spiritual, may be seen in the work Heaven and Hell (n. 20-28). The reason why a natural mind of such a character is in form a hell, is that every spiritual form is like itself both in what is greatest and in what is least; therefore every angel is, in lesser form, a heaven, as is also shown in the work on Heaven and Hell (n. 51-58); from which it follows that every man or spirit who is a devil or a satan is, in lesser form, a hell.

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