8288. 'The depths were congealed in the heart of the sea' means that utter falsities arising from evil belonging to the desires of self-love could not rise to the surface. This is clear from the meaning of 'being congealed', when those in the hells are the subject, as being unable to rise to the surface; from the meaning of 'the depths' as falsities resulting from evil desires, and as the hells, dealt with above in 8278, 8279; and from the meaning of 'the heart of the sea' as the evil of self-love and the falsities arising from that evil. 'The heart' in the genuine sense means celestial good, which is the good of love to the Lord, spoken of in 3635, 3883-3896, 7542, and in the contrary sense the evil of self-love. For this evil is the opposite of the good of love to the Lord, while the evil of the love of the world is the opposite of spiritual good, which is the good of love towards the neighbour. From all this it is evident that 'the depths were congealed in the heart of the sea' means that utter falsities arising from evil belonging to the desires of self-love could not rise to the surface. They are spoken of as being unable to rise to the surface because 'the depths' and 'the heart of the sea' mean the hells where falsities resulting from evil desires are, or where falsities arising from evil are. Consequently, since they are hemmed in by their own falsities arising from evil, they can no longer work their way out, because the Lord's Divine presence stands in the way of the falsities there.

7542. 'Onto your heart' means into what is inmost. This is clear from the meaning of 'heart' as that which belongs to a person's will, thus to his love, dealt with in 2930, 3317, 3888, 3889, consequently what is central to the actual life within him; for his love, belonging intrinsically to his will, constitutes that life within him. This is why 'heart' means what is inmost. What is inmost in the case of the good is love to the Lord and love towards the neighbour, whereas what is inmost in the case of the evil is self-love and love of the world. The latter is what is meant here; and what is around it, constituting so to speak the surrounding parts, are the evils and falsities that lend support, arranged into order according to the ways in which they support it. In the next life they are brought out into the open in the order in which they have been arranged. First to come forth are those that occupy the outermost surrounding parts, then those that lie further in; and finally what is inmost is revealed. So it is that a person in the next life passes through a large number of states, and that the evil are afflicted in successive stages by scourges or plagues before they are cast into hell, as accords with what has been stated immediately above. What is inmost, which they come to last of all, is hell itself residing with them, for it is the evil that had been central to their love, and so the end which they held in view in everything they did and which in the world they had kept deeply hidden within them.