560. And stings were in their tails, signifies craftiness in deceiving by means of them. This is evident from the signification of "stings," as being craftiness and shrewdness in persuading as to falsities; it follows therefore that they had in them the power to hurt men, for one who deceives craftily and shrewdly is especially harmful. The stings were "in their tails," because they deceive by means of knowledges [scientifica] sensually perceived, knowledges both from the Word and from the world, which are what human learning consists of; they deceive by knowledges from the Word by explaining it sensually according to the letter, and not according to its interior sense; they deceive by knowledges from the world by using them for confirmation. It is to be known that sensual men are more crafty and shrewd than others, and thus in acutely deceiving; for as spiritual men possess intelligence and prudence, so those who are sensual and in falsities possess malice and craftiness, for all malice has its seat in evil, as all intelligence has its seat in good.

[2] It is believed in the world that those who are crafty and shrewd are also prudent and intelligent; but craftiness and malice are not prudence and intelligence, but viewed in themselves are insanity and folly; for such remove themselves from eternal happiness and cast themselves into eternal misery, and this is not the part of the prudent and intelligent but of the insane and foolish. Moreover, with such all things of heavenly and angelic wisdom are in dense darkness, and where that wisdom is thick darkness there is folly. That sensual men are crafty and shrewd can be seen from those who are in the hells, where all are merely natural and sensual; it can hardly be believed by anyone how much craftiness and shrewdness these possess (See in the work on Heaven and Hell 576-581, where the malice and wicked devices of the infernal spirits are treated of).

[3] That "stings" signify craftiness can be seen without confirmation from the Word, for in common discourse the craftiness in speech by which men are deceived are called sharp points, and the talk itself is called sharp. But "stings" signify particularly interior falsities, which are such as cannot be dispelled, because they are from the knowledges and fallacies of the senses. That such falsities are signified by "stings" (or sharp points) can be seen from representatives in the spiritual world, where interior falsities are represented in various ways by sharp things, like the points of swords, the points of arrows, and things pointed in various forms, and this when they are intended to hurt; for this reason it is also forbidden there to exhibit such things to view, for spirits when they see them become furious to inflict injury.

[4] These falsities are signified by "sharp instruments" in Amos:

Behold the days will come upon you in which they will draw you out with barbs, and your posterity with fishhooks (Amos 4:2).

"To draw out with barbs" signifies to lead away from truths by knowledges [scientifica] from the Word and from the world falsely applied; and "to draw out with fishhooks" signifies to lead away from truths by the fallacies of the senses, from which the sensual man reasons.

[5] And in Moses:

If ye will not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then those whom ye let remain of them shall be thorns in your eyes and pricks in your sides (Numbers 33:55).

The "inhabitants of the land whom they were to drive out," signify the evils and falsities of religion and of doctrine; for these were signified in an abstract sense by the nations of the land of Canaan. Therefore "they shall be thorns in your eyes" signifies the harm that will be done by malignant falsities to the truths of the church, and "pricks in your sides" signify the harm that will be done by malignant falsities to the goods of the church, "eyes" signifying in the Word the understanding of truth, and "sides" the things of charity, consequently goods.

576. The Malice and Unspeakable Skills of Hellish Spirits

Anyone who thinks deeply and knows anything about the workings of the human mind can see and understand how significantly superior spirits are to other people. In a minute, we can consider and turn over and decide in our minds more than we can express in speech or writing in half an hour. This shows how much better we are when we are in the spirit and therefore when we become spirits, since it is the spirit that thinks and the body is what the spirit uses to express its thoughts in speech or writing.

This is why people who become angels after death have access to indescribable intelligence and wisdom relative to the intelligence and wisdom they had while they were living in the world. While they were living in the world, their spirits were confined in a body and by that means were in the natural world. So when the spirit did think spiritually, the thoughts flowed into natural concepts that are relatively general, crude, and hazy. This means they are not open to the countless elements characteristic of spiritual thought. They also immerse them in the thickets of the cares of the world. It is different once the spirit has been freed from the body and has arrived at its own spiritual state, which happens when it crosses from the natural world to the spiritual world that is appropriate to it. We can see from what has already been said that its state in regard to thoughts and affections is far better than its former state. This is why angels think thoughts that are unutterable and indescribable, things that cannot come through to our natural thoughts. Yet in fact, every angel was born a person on earth and lived as such, and then seemed to himself or herself to be no wiser than anyone else.