1041. And ten horns. That this signifies the power of the Word from truths, is evident from the signification of horns, as denoting the power of truth against falsity; and, in the opposite sense, the power of falsity against truth (concerning which see (n. 316, 567, 776). In this case, the power of truth from the Word against falsity, because it is afterwards said:

"The ten horns, which thou sawest, are ten kings; these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall devour her flesh, and burn her with fire; for God hath put into their hearts to give their kingdom unto the beast" (vers. 12, 16, 17).

From this it is clear that by the ten horns which the scarlet beast had, is signified the power of truth, thus of the Word, against falsities; for it is said that they shall hate the whore, and burn her with fire; and by the whore is signified the truth of the Word falsified, which in itself is falsity, and which cannot be hated and burned but by the truth of the Word in its power, thus, by those who are in truths from the Word, and account the Word only as holy, and acknowledge it as Divine truth, without regard to the dictates of the Pope. But upon this subject more will be said in what follows. The reason why there were seen ten horns is, that by ten is signified much, thus, by ten horns, much power.

39. Finally, respecting the angels of the three heavens, it is permissible to relate a certain arcanum which has not hitherto entered the mind of anyone because degrees have not been understood. Namely, with every single angel and also with every single man, there is an inmost or highest degree or an inmost or highest something into which the Divine of the Lord first or most closely inflows and from which it disposes the other interior things which succeed in accordance with the degrees of order with them. This inmost or highest degree may be called the entrance of the Lord to the angel and to the man, and His very Own dwelling-place with them. It is by virtue of this inmost or highest that a man is a man and is distinguished from the brute animals, which do not have it. It is from this that a man, unlike the animals, is capable, in respect of all his interior things which pertain to his mind (mens) and "animus", of being raised up by the Lord to Himself; of believing in the Lord, of being moved by love to the Lord and thereby beholding Him, and of receiving intelligence and wisdom, and speaking from reason. Also it is by reason of this that he lives to eternity. But what is arranged and provided by the Lord in this inmost does not openly inflow into the perception of any angel, because it is above his thought and transcends his wisdom.