Week 5    Day 6

    Listen:

The Political & Ecclesiastical Love of Self

CL 263. While I was reflecting upon [the universal loves of hell and of heaven] it was said to me by an angel from the Lord, “Just now you shall see and be confirmed by seeing what that hellish love is like.”

Then suddenly on the left the earth opened and I saw a devil coming up out of hell, who had on his head a square cap pressed down over the forehead even to the eyes, his face full of pustules as of a burning fever, his eyes ferocious, his bosom swelling into a rhomb. Out of his mouth belched forth a fume as of a furnace; his loins were all aflame; in the place of feet were bony ankles without flesh; and from his body exhaled a stinking and unclean heat.

[2] I was terrified at the sight of him, and called out to him, “Do not come near. Tell me where you are from.”

He answered hoarsely, “I am from the lower regions, and am there in a society with two hundred which is super-eminent above all societies. We there are all emperors of emperors, kings of kings, dukes of dukes, and princes of princes. No one there is a mere emperor, or a mere king, duke, and prince. We sit there upon thrones of thrones, and we send forth mandates from there into all the world and beyond.” ....

CL 264. After this the earth opened again, but on the right, and I saw another devil rising up, on whose head was as it were a tiara twined around with the coils as of a serpent, whose head rose up from the top of it. His face was leprous from the forehead to the chin, and both hands also. His loins were naked and black as soot, through which fire gleamed darkly as of a hearth; and the ankles of his feet were like two vipers. Seeing him the former devil fell upon his knees and adored him.

“Why do you do that?” I asked. He answered, “He is the God of heaven and earth, and is omnipotent.”

And then I asked the other, “What do you say to that?” He replied, “What should I say? I have all power over heaven and hell. The lot of all souls is in my hand.” I asked again:

“How can he who is emperor of emperors thus submit himself, and you receive his adoration?” He answered, “He is nevertheless my servant. What is an emperor before God? In my right hand is the thunderbolt of excommunication.”

[2] I then said, “How can you be so insane? In the world you were only a canon. And because you labored under the fantasy that you also had the keys, and from them the power of binding and loosing, you raised your spirit up to such a height of insanity that now you believe you are God Himself.”

Angry at this, he swore that he was, and that the Lord has no power in heaven, “Because He has transferred it all to us. We need only command, and heaven and hell reverently obey. If we send any one to hell the devils immediately receive him; and so do the angels any one whom we send to heaven.” I asked further, “How many are you in your society?” He said, “Three hundred; and we all there are gods; but I am the god of gods.”

[3] After this the earth opened under their feet and each sank down into his hell. And it was given me to see that there were workhouses under their hells into which those that do harm to others sink down. For his own fantasy is permitted to everyone in hell, and also to glory in it, but he is not allowed to do harm to another.

Those who are there are such because man is then in his spirit, and the spirit after it is separated from the body comes into the full liberty of acting according to his affections and his thoughts from them.

[4] Afterwards it was granted me to look into their hells. The hell where they were emperors of emperors and kings of kings was full of all uncleanness, and they appeared as various wild beasts with ferocious eyes. And so likewise in the other hell where they are gods and god of gods. In this hell dreadful birds of night also appeared flying around them which are called ochim and ijim. This is how the images of their fantasies appeared to me.

From these experiences it was made evident what is the nature of the political love of self, and of the ecclesiastical love of self, that the one is to wish to be gods, and the other to wish to be emperors; and that men do thus wish, and strive to attain it, so far as the reins are given to these loves.

DP 340:6. Some spirits by permission ascended from hell and said to me, “You have written much from the Lord. Write something from us as well.”

“What shall I write?” I replied. “Write,” they said, “that every spirit, whether good or evil, is in the enjoyment of his delight — a good spirit in the enjoyment of the delight of his good, and an evil spirit in the enjoyment of the delight of his evil.”

“What delight do you have?” I asked. They said that it was the delight of committing adultery, stealing, deceiving others, and lying.

Again, then, I asked, “What kind of delights are these?” They replied that they were perceived by others as being like the foul odors of piles of excrement, like the putrid smells of corpses, and like the fetid stenches of stagnant pools of urine.

I said, “Do you find these things delightful?” They said they found them most delightful. “Then you are like unclean animals that live in such filth,” I said. They replied, “If we are, we are; but to our nostrils these things are delightful.”

[7] “Shall I write anything further from you?” I asked.

They said, “This, that everyone is permitted to be in the enjoyment of his delight, even of one most unclean (as others term it), provided he does not molest good spirits and angels. But because we cannot help but molest them,” they said, “we were driven away and cast into hell, where we suffer terrible hardships.”

“Why,” I said, “did you molest good spirits?” The spirits replied that they could not help it. It is as though a kind of madness invades them whenever they see some angel and feel the Divine atmosphere surrounding him. At that I said, “Then you are also like wild animals.” On hearing this, a madness came over them, which appeared as the fire of hatred, and to prevent them from doing any harm, they were drawn back into hell.

previous		next