410. The name of the star is Wormwood, and a third of the waters became wormwood. (8:11) This symbolizes hellish falsity, the origin of their personal intelligence, by which they had falsified all the Word's truths.

The star symbolizes their personal intelligence owing to a conceit arising from a hellish love (no. 408). The name symbolizes its character (nos. 81, 122, 165). Wormwood symbolizes hellish falsity, which we will consider next. Waters symbolize truths (no. 50), here the Word's truths, because the subject is faith. A third means, symbolically, all, as said before. Gathering these into a single meaning yields the meaning presented above.

As for wormwood, it symbolizes hellish falsity because of its extreme bitterness, which renders foods and beverages unpalatable. Wormwood symbolizes such falsity, therefore, in the following places:

Behold, I feed... this people with wormwood, and will give them water of gall to drink. (Jeremiah 9:14-15)

...thus says Jehovah... against the prophets: Behold, I feed them with wormwood, and will make them drink water of gall; for from the prophets of Jerusalem hypocrisy has gone out into all the land. (Jeremiah 23:15)

...you turn justice into gall, and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood. (Amos 6:12, cf. 5:7)

...that there may not be among you a root bearing gall or wormwood. (Deuteronomy 29:18)

Since the Jewish Church falsified all the Word's truths, like the church which is the subject here, and the Lord represented it by all the events of His suffering, by permitting the Jews to treat Him as they had the Word, because He embodied the Word, therefore "they gave Him vinegar mingled with gall," which is like wormwood, "but when He had tasted it, He would not drink" (Matthew 27:34, Mark 15:23, cf. Psalms 69:21).

As that was the character of the Jewish Church, it is therefore described in this way:

He has filled me with bitterness, (and) He has made me drunk on wormwood. (Lamentations 3:15, 19)

384. "And lead them to living fountains of waters." This symbolically means, and lead them by the truths in the Word to conjunction with Him.

Since a living fountain of waters symbolizes the Lord and also the Word, and waters symbolize truths (no. 50), and because when Divine truths in the Word are applied to life, which happens when a person lives in accordance with them, they bring about a conjunction with the Lord, therefore to lead people to living fountains of waters means, symbolically, to lead them by the truths in the Word to conjunction with the Lord.

That a fountain or fountains symbolize the Lord and also the Word is clear from these passages:

All my fountains are in You (Jehovah). (Psalms 87:7)

...they have forsaken Jehovah, the fountain of living waters. (Jeremiah 17:13)

(The people) have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters... (Jeremiah 2:13)

...You give them drink from the river of Your delights, for with You is the fountain of life. (Psalms 36:8-9)

On that day a fountain shall be opened... for the inhabitants of Jerusalem... (Zechariah 13:1)

Israel dwelt alone in safety at the fountain of Jacob. (Deuteronomy 33:28)

(When the Lord sat by Jacob's well, He said to the woman,) "The water that I shall give... will become... a fountain of water springing up into eternal life." (John 4:5-20)

Joseph is a fruitful son... by a fountain. (Genesis 49:22)

Bless... the Lord, from the fountain of Israel. (Psalms 68:26)

Then with joy you will draw waters from the fountains of salvation. (Isaiah 12:3)

To him who thirsts I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely. (Revelation 21:6)

I will lead them to fountains of waters by a straight way... (Jeremiah 31:9)

Words like these here and just above in the book of Revelation are found also in Isaiah:

They shall neither hunger nor thirst, neither shall heat... strike them; for He who has mercy on them will lead them, even to springs of waters... (Isaiah 49:10)