In the spiritual world, that is, in the world where spirits and
angels are, the same objects appear as in the natural world, that is,
where men are. In external appearance there is no difference. In that
world plains and mountains, hills and rocks, and valleys between them
are seen; also waters, and many other things that are seen on earth.
And yet all these things are from a spiritual origin, and all are
therefore seen by the eyes of spirits and angels, and not by the eyes
of men, because men are in the natural world. Spiritual beings see
such things as are from a spiritual origin, and natural beings such
things as are from a natural origin. Consequently man with his eyes
can in no way see the objects that are in the spiritual world unless
he is permitted to be in the spirit, or after death when he becomes a
spirit. On the other hand, an angel or a spirit is unable to see any
thing at all in the natural world unless he is with a man who is
permitted to speak with him. For the eyes of man are fitted to
receive the light of the natural world, and the eyes of angels and
spirits are fitted to receive the light of the spiritual world;
although the eyes of the two are exactly alike in appearance. That
the spiritual world is such the natural man cannot comprehend, and
least of all the sensual man, who believes nothing except what he
sees with his bodily eyes and touches with his hands, and therefore
takes in by sight and touch. As his thought is from such things it is
material and not spiritual. Such being the likeness between the
spiritual world and the natural world, man can hardly believe after
death that he is not in the world where he was born, and from which
he has departed. For this reason death is called simply a translation
from one world into another like it. (That the two worlds are thus
alike can be seen above, where representatives and appearances in
heaven have been treated of, n. 170-176.)
583. The heavens are in the higher parts of the spiritual world, the
world of spirits in the lower parts, and under both are the hells.
The heavens are visible to spirits in the world of spirits only when
their interior sight is opened; although they sometimes see them as
mists or as bright clouds. This is because the angels of heaven are
in an interior state in respect to intelligence and wisdom; and for
this reason they are above the sight of those who are in the world of
spirits. But spirits who dwell in the plains and valleys see one
another; and yet when they are separated there, which takes place
when they are let into their interiors, the evil spirits do not see
the good spirits; but the good spirits can see the evil spirits.
Nevertheless, the good spirits turn themselves away from the evil
spirits; and when spirits turn themselves away they become invisible.
But the hells are not seen because they are closed up. Only the
entrances, which are called gates, are seen when they are opened to
let in other like spirits. All the gates to the hells open from the
world of spirits, and none of them from heaven.
584. The hells are everywhere, both under the mountains, hills, and
rocks, and under the plains and valleys. The openings or gates to the
hells that are under the mountains, hills, and rocks, appear to the
sight like holes and clefts in the rocks, some extended and wide, and
some straitened and narrow, and many of them rugged. They all, when
looked into, appear dark and dusky; but the infernal spirits that are
in them are in such a luminosity as arises from burning coals. Their
eyes are adapted to the reception of that light, and for the reason
that while they lived in the world they were in thick darkness in
respect to Divine truths, because of their denying them, and were in
a sort of light in respect to falsities because of their affirming
them. In this way did the sight of their eyes become so formed. And
for the same reason the light of heaven is thick darkness to them,
and therefore when they go out of their dens they see nothing. All
this makes it abundantly clear that man comes into the light of
heaven just to the extent that he acknowledges the Divine, and
establishes in himself the things of heaven and the church; and that
he comes into the thick darkness of hell just to the extent that he
denies the Divine, and establishes in himself what is contrary to the
truths of heaven and the church.
585. The openings or gates to the hells that are beneath the plains
and valleys present to the sight different appearances. Some resemble
those that are beneath the mountains, hills and rocks; some resemble
dens and caverns, some great chasms and whirlpools; some resemble
bogs, and some standing water. They are all covered, and are opened
only when evil spirits from the world of spirits are cast in; and
when they are opened there bursts forth from them either something
like the fire and smoke that is seen in the air from burning
buildings, or like a flame without smoke, or like soot such as comes
from a burning chimney, or like a mist and thick cloud. I have heard
that the infernal spirits neither see nor feel these things, because
when they are in them they are as in their own atmosphere, and thus
in the delight of their life; and this for the reason that these
things correspond to the evils and falsities in which they are, fire
corresponding to hatred and revenge, smoke and soot to the falsities
therefrom, flame to the evils of the love of self, and a mist or
thick cloud to falsities from that love.
586. I have also been permitted to look into the hells and to see
what they are within; for when the Lord wills, the sight of a spirit
or angel from above may penetrate into the lowest depths beneath and
explore their character, notwithstanding the coverings. In this way I
have been permitted to look into them. Some of the hells appeared to
the view like caverns and dens in rocks extending inward and then
downward into an abyss, either obliquely or vertically. Some of the
hells appeared to the view like the dens and caves of wild beasts in
forests; some like the hollow caverns and passages that are seen in
mines, with caverns extending towards the lower regions. Most of the
hells are threefold, the upper one appearing within to be in dense
darkness, because inhabited by those who are in the falsities of
evil; while the lower ones appear fiery, because inhabited by those
who are in evils themselves, dense darkness corresponding to the
falsities of evil, and fire to evils themselves. Those that have
acted interiorly from evil are in the deeper hells, and those that
have acted exteriorly from evil, that is, from the falsities of evil,
are in the hells that are less deep. Some hells present an appearance
like the ruins of houses and cities after conflagrations, in which
infernal spirits dwell and hide themselves. In the milder hells there
is an appearance of rude huts, in some cases contiguous in the form
of a city with lanes and streets, and within the houses are infernal
spirits engaged in unceasing quarrels, enmities, fightings, and
brutalities; while in the streets and lanes robberies and
depredations are committed. In some of the hells there are nothing
but brothels, disgusting to the sight and filled with every kind of
filth and excrement. Again, there are dark forests, in which infernal
spirits roam like wild beasts and where, too, there are underground
dens into which those flee who are pursued by others. There are also
deserts, where all is barren and sandy, and where in some places
there are ragged rocks in which there are caverns, and in some places
huts. Into these desert places those are cast out from the hells who
have suffered every extremity of punishment, especially those who in
the world have been more cunning than others in undertaking and
contriving intrigues and deceits. Such a life is their final lot.
587. As to the positions of the hells in detail, it is something
wholly unknown even to the angels in heaven; it is known to the Lord
alone. But their position in general is known from the quarters in
which they are. For the hells, like the heavens, are distinguished by
their quarters; and in the spiritual world quarters are determined in
accordance with loves; for in heaven all the quarters begin from the
Lord as the sun, who is the East; and as the hells are opposite to
the heavens their quarters begin from the opposite point, that is,
from the west. (On this see the chapter on the four quarters in
heaven, n. 141-153.) [2] For this reason the hells in the western
quarter are the worst of all, and the most horrible, becoming
gradually worse and more horrible by degrees the more remote they are
from the east. In the western hells are those who in the world were
in the love of self, and in consequent contempt of others, and in
enmity against those who did not favor them, also in hatred and
revenge against those who did not render them respect and homage. In
the most remote hells in that quarter are those that had belonged to
the Catholic religion, so called, and that had wished to be worshiped
as gods, and consequently had burned with hatred and revenge against
all who did not acknowledge their power over the souls of men and
over heaven. These continue to have the same disposition, that is,
the same hatred and revenge against those who oppose them, that they
had in the world. Their greatest delight is to practice cruelties;
but in the other life this delight is turned against themselves; for
in their hells, with which the western quarter is filled, one rages
against everyone who detracts from his Divine power. (But more will
be said about this in the treatise on The Last Judgment and the
Destruction of Babylon.) [3] Nevertheless, no one can know how the
hells in that quarter are arranged, except that the most dreadful
hells of that kind are at the sides towards the northern quarter, and
the less dreadful towards the southern quarter; thus the dreadfulness
of the hells decreases from the northern quarter to the southern, and
likewise by degrees towards the east. Towards the east are the
dwelling places of the haughty, who have not believed in the Divine,
and yet have not been in such hatred and revenge, or in such deceit,
as those have who are in a greater depth in the western quarter. [4]
In the eastern quarter there are at present no hells, those that were
there having been transferred to the western quarter in front. In the
northern and southern quarters there are many hells; and in them are
those who while in the world were in love of the world, and in
various kinds of evil therefrom, such as enmity, hostility, theft,
robbery, cunning, avarice, and unmercifulness. The worst hells of
this kind are in the northern quarter, the milder in the southern.
Their dreadfulness increases as they are nearer to the western
quarter, and also as they are farther away from the southern quarter,
and decreases towards the eastern quarter and towards the southern
quarter. Behind the hells that are in the western quarter there are
dark forests, in which malignant spirits roam like wild beasts; and
it is the same behind the hells in the northern quarter. But behind
the hells in the southern quarter there are deserts, which have been
described just above. This much respecting the situation of the
hells.
588. In regard to the number of the hells, there are as many of them
as there are angelic societies in the heavens, since there is for
every heavenly society a corresponding infernal society as its
opposite. That the heavenly societies are numberless, and are all
distinguished in accordance with the goods of love, charity, and
faith, may be seen in the chapter that treats of the societies of
which the heavens consist (n. 41-50), and in the chapter on the
immensity of heaven (n. 415-420). The like is true, therefore, of the
infernal societies, which are distinguished in accordance with the
evils that are the opposites of those goods. [2] Every evil, as well
as every good, is of infinite variety. That this is true is beyond
the comprehension of those who have only a simple idea regarding
every evil, such as contempt, enmity, hatred, revenge, deceit, and
other like evils. But let them know that each one of these evils
contains so many specific differences, and each of these again so
many specific or particular differences, that a volume would not
suffice to enumerate them. The hells are so distinctly arranged in
order in accordance with the differences of every evil that nothing
could be more perfectly ordered or more distinct. Evidently, then,
the hells are innumerable, near to and remote from one another in
accordance with the differences of evils generically, specifically,
and particularly. [3] There are likewise hells beneath hells. Some
communicate with others by passages, and more by exhalations, and
this in exact accordance with the affinities of one kind or one
species of evil with others. How great the number is of the hells I
have been permitted to realize from knowing that there are hells
under every mountain, hill, and rock, and likewise under every plain
and valley, and that they stretch out beneath these in length and in
breadth and in depth. In a word, the entire heaven and the entire
world of spirits are, as it were, excavated beneath, and under them
is a continuous hell. Thus much regarding the number of the hells.