4573. About the hells of the Sirens

What sirens are like has been described several times before [see the index]. These women are extremely malicious and have learned in the world how to simulate those who are good, as if they were angels. For the purpose of doing this they radiate good affections and thus slip in among simple spirits that relate to a person's outward qualities of thought or earthly characteristics. In this way they keep themselves in the world of spirits and can be forced out only with difficulty, for such things elevate evil spirits from hell for quite a long time and through such things they enter into people's thoughts and lead them entirely. Consequently, because they are of an inward nature, they are the very worst of spirits who take possession of a person's mind, from whom a person can never be defended except by the Lord. They act very stubbornly and fear nothing, trust in their own arts, and know how to slip in by labyrinthine gyres. They speak from these, sometimes in such a way that they are heard elsewhere than where are they really are, so that they are sought in vain. It has granted me to learn this by many actual experiences.

[2] They are of two kinds. Certain ones have the goal of ruling over others and over every society to which they can gain access, doing so by possessing and leading their thoughts. These women are the most annoying. The second kind does likewise but does not have such a wild obsession with ruling. They take freedom entirely away from those who want to have good thoughts and give freedom to those who want to have evil thoughts. These are very obscene women; they are sorceresses and are against everything good and true. Where this gang comes from has been explained before [cf. 3205 ff]. Their hell was in front at some distance toward the left there; the men who want to rule, a little toward the right, in various caverns. But I saw that their hells had been changed and moved to the back toward the left, rather deep down, from which they can never again break out and attack spirits and people on earth. They are there under a thick cloud which their tricks can in no way get through. They were forced in there in crowds of between fifty and a hundred sirens. This went on for many hours.

Above the hell, there is something like a maw with jaws that open. And the moment they arrived, it opened the maw, twisting and bending it like labyrinths into which they put themselves, and it swallowed them up and then thrust them deep under the disreputable earth there, from which they cannot emerge, this appeared to me in 1752, Aug. 5, 6., for they form snakelike connections, in which they fix themselves and then cannot be moved by others except by means of similar connections. Such it is in the other life.

10060. 'And take some of its blood' means Divine Truth emanating from the Lord's Divine Good in the heavens. This is clear from the meaning of 'blood', in reference to a sacrifice or burnt offering, as Divine Truth, dealt with above in 10026, 10033, at this point Divine Truth emanating from the Divine Good of the Lord's Divine Human, transmitted and received in the heavens; for this is the subject in what immediately follows. It was stated above in 10057 that a person who is being regenerated experiences two states, the first being a time when truth is implanted and joined to good, the second when the person is governed by good and good is the source of his actions. In this second state the truths present with him emanate from good, for good is the standpoint from which he sees them, speaks of them, and acts them out. Good is present in everything at this time, as the soul is within a person, or as the heart is within the body, which one who is wise also discerns in the words and actions of those who are governed by good. From this idea of a person's regeneration it is possible to have some conception of the glorification of the Lord's Human; for the way in which the Lord regenerates a person is akin to the way in which He glorified His Human, 3138, 3212, 3296, 3490, 4402, 5688. For the first state of glorification of His Human involved the implanting of Divine Truth and uniting of this Truth to the Divine Good. While He was in the world therefore the Lord made His Human Divine Truth; He also united it to the Divine Good that was within Him and in so doing made it Divine Good, see the places referred to in 9199 (end), 9315 (end). The second state of His glorification is one in which the Divine Truth emanates from Divine Good; that Truth is His Divinity as this is present in the heavens. The first state of the glorification of the Lord's Human is described in the internal sense by the things stated regarding the sacrifice of the young bull and the burnt offering of the first ram, dealt with in verses 10-18 of the present chapter. But the second state is described by those that immediately follow regarding the second ram, which is called 'the ram of fillings [of the hand]'. From all this it is evident that 'blood' here means Divine Truth emanating from the Lord's Divine Good, transmitted and received in the heavens.