10478. And I cast it into the fire, and there came out this calf. That this signifies the loves of self and of the world from which and according to which is such worship, is evident from the signification of “fire,” as being love in both senses (see n. 4906, 5071, 5215, 6314, 6832, 6834, 6849, 7324, 7575, 10055), here the love of self and the love of the world, because that nation was in these loves, seeing that it was in external things separate from what is internal; consequently “to cast into the fire” denotes to be in these loves, and to draw forth such things from the sense of the letter of the Word as favor them; and from this to make doctrine; and from the signification of a “calf,” as being worship from these loves, and according to them, which is infernal (n. 10459).

6314. As it is with light, so also it is with the heat which is man’s vital heat. This vital heat does not in the slightest degree derive its origin from the heat which is from the sun of this world; but from spiritual heat, which is love, and which proceeds from the Lord: the angels have this heat. Hence so far as man is in love, so far he is in vital heat. The body, however, is in the heat of the world, and so is the interior sensuous; but the vital heat flows into this heat and vivifies it. The purities and the grossnesses of this heat are circumstanced in the same way as are the lights. It is this heat which is meant by the holy fires in the Word, and therefore by these fires are there signified heavenly loves. But in the opposite sense it is this heat which is meant by the fires of hell, and therefore by these fires in the Word are signified infernal loves and their cupidities.