143. Nowadays it may seem strange that 'beasts' and 'animals' in ancient times meant affections and similar things residing with man. But because people had heavenly ideas then, and because such things are also represented in the world of spirits by animals - by such animals in fact as resemble those affections - this alone is what they therefore understood when they spoke in this fashion. And this alone is what is meant in the Word whenever beasts are mentioned in general or in particular. The whole prophetical section of the Word is full of things such as these, and therefore anyone who does not know the particular meaning of any beast cannot possibly understand what the Word contains in the internal sense. But as slated already, there are two kinds of beasts - evil ones, because they are harmful, and good ones, because they are harmless. Good beasts, such as sheep, lambs, and doves, mean good affections. Here, because the subject is the celestial man, or the celestial-spiritual man, the same applies. The fact that 'beasts' in general means affections has been confirmed from several places in the Word quoted already in 45, 46. So there is no need of further confirmation.

6311. As has been stated, it is by that inferior light that hell sees, and it is by that light too that some people who are not so wicked see, that is to say, people who have not been avaricious, adulterers, or mere pleasure-seekers, but who have come to see by that light because they have not cultivated the rational degree of their mind. I have been allowed to see those spirits living in a kind of twilight. I saw them in a market-place, crowds of them, where they were bringing sacks containing raw materials; they were weighing them and carrying them away. Some sirens were not far away at that time, and I heard them saying that they wanted to be there because they could see people with their own eyes. For since sirens more than any others have been given to adultery and have also been opposed to everything celestial or spiritual, they are unable to see any other spirits except those who see by the inferior light of the senses. For the sirens themselves see by that kind of light.