722. 17:3 So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness. This symbolizes John's being carried away in a spiritual state to people in whom everything of the church had been destroyed.

A wilderness symbolizes a church in which there is no longer any truth, thus where everything in it has been destroyed (no. 546). And to be in the spirit means, symbolically, to be in a spiritual state as a result of Divine influx, as said in no. 36 above. Consequently, John's being carried away in the spirit into the wilderness means symbolically that he was carried away in a spiritual state to people in whom everything having to do with the church was destroyed.

632. "Because she has made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her licentiousness." This symbolically means, because by profanations of the Word and adulterations of the church's goodness and truth, it has led astray all the people it was able to bring under its dominion.

Babylon symbolizes the Roman Catholic religion, as above. Wine symbolizes truth springing from goodness, and in an opposite sense, falsity arising from evil (no. 316). Licentiousness then symbolizes the falsification of truth, and the wrath of her licentiousness symbolizes its adulteration and profanation (no. 134). To make all nations drink means, symbolically, to lead astray all the people they were able to bring under their dominion - making to drink of that wine symbolizing to lead astray, and nations symbolizing people who are under their sway.