756. "And it has become a dwelling place of demons." This symbolically means that the hells of these Roman Catholics are ones marked by lusts to exercise dominion from the heat of self-love, and by lusts to profane heaven's truths from the spurious zeal of that love.

Demons symbolize lusts to do evil (nos. 458), and also lusts to falsify truths. But demons, like lusts, are of many kinds. The worst are those which embody lusts from the heat of self-love to exercise dominion over the sanctities of the church and over heaven. And because this dominion is fixed in their hearts, they also embody lusts to profane heaven's truths from the spurious zeal of that love.

Moreover, because they know, when they become demons, as is the case after death, that the Lord alone has dominion over heaven and earth, they become personifications of a hatred for Him, until eventually, as much as a century later, they cannot bear to hear Him named.

It is apparent from this that Babylon's becoming a dwelling place of demons means symbolically that their hells are ones marked by lusts to exercise dominion from the heat of self-love, and by lusts to profane heaven's truths from the spurious zeal of that love.

[2] People in the world do not know that all after death become embodiments of the affections of their dominant love - embodiments of good affections if they have looked to the Lord and heaven and at the same time refrained from evils as sins, but embodiments of evil affections, namely lusts, if they have looked only to themselves and the world and have refrained from evils, not as sins, but only as damaging to their reputation and honor.

These affections are objectively seen and perceived in the spiritual world, whereas only the thoughts emanating from these affections are seen and perceived in the natural world. As a result, people do not know that hell resides in the affections of an evil love, and heaven in the affections of a good love. So it is that people do not know this and do not perceive it, because the lusts of an evil love derive from heredity that they are delightful in the will, and thus pleasant in the intellect, and people do not reflect on something that is delightful and pleasant because it carries their minds along as the current of a swift river does a boat. Consequently people who have immersed themselves in these delights and pleasant thoughts cannot approach the delights and pleasant thoughts of the affections of a love of goodness and truth otherwise than as people who with straining arms pull on the oars against the current of a swift river.

The case, however, is otherwise with people who have not so deeply immersed themselves.