'Wilderness' signifies something with little life in it, as described in the internal sense in Luke 1:80 'Wilderness' signifies somewhere there is no good because there is no truth. 'Wilderness,' as in Jeremiah 23:10, signifies the Word when it is adulterated.

(Odkazy: Arcana Coelestia 1927)

330. Then I looked when He opened the sixth seal. (6:12) This symbolizes an examination by the Lord of the states of life of people who were inwardly evil, on whom the Last Judgment would fall.

That these people are the subject is apparent from what now follows. But for those things to be understood, two secrets need to be revealed:

First, that the Last Judgment was not executed on any but people who in outward appearance seemed to be Christians, professing with their mouth matters having to do with the church, but who in their inner makeup or heart were in opposition to them. And because they were of such a character, therefore as to their outward lives they were conjoined with the lowest heaven, and as to their inner ones, with hell.

Second, that as long as they were conjoined with the lowest heaven, the inner qualities of their will and love were kept closed off, so that they did not appear evil to others. But when they were separated from the lowest heaven, then their inner qualities were disclosed, which were in total opposition to their outer qualities, qualities by which they had pretended and feigned themselves to be angels of heaven and the places where they dwelled to be heavens. These so-called heavens were the ones that passed away at the time of the Last Judgment (Revelation 21:1).

More on this subject, however, may be seen in the short work, The Last Judgment, nos. 70, 71, and in A Continuation Concerning the Last Judgment, no. 10.