422. And he opened the bottomless pit, and smoke arose out of the pit like the smoke of a great furnace. (9:2) This symbolizes falsities accompanying the lusts of the natural self springing from those people's evil loves.

The bottomless pit symbolizes the hell described just above in no. 421. The smoke from it symbolizes falsities arising from lusts, and because the smoke is said to be like that of a great furnace, it means falsities accompanying lusts springing from evil loves, inasmuch as fire symbolizes love (no. 468), and the fire of hell, evil love (no. 494). A great furnace has the same symbolism, since it smokes owing to fire.

Spirits of hell are not caught up in any material fire, but in a spiritual fire, which is the fire of their love. Consequently they do not feel any other fire. On this subject, see the book Heaven and Hell, nos. 134 566-575.

When any love is aroused in the spiritual world, it appears at a distance like fire - in the hells like a brightly burning fire, and outside the hells like the smoke of a conflagration or the smoke of a furnace.

Falsities accompanying lusts springing from evil loves are described also elsewhere in the Word by smoke from a fire or from a furnace or oven, as in the following places:

(Abraham) looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah..., and behold, the smoke of the land went up like the smoke of a furnace. (Genesis 19:28)

...the sun went down and it was dark, and behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a burning torch that passed between the pieces. (Genesis 15:17)

...they sin more and more... Therefore they shall be... like smoke from a flue. (Hosea 13:2-3)

...the wicked shall perish... In smoke they shall be consumed. (Psalms 37:20)

I will show wonders in heaven and on the earth: ...fire and pillars of smoke. (Joel 2:30)

(They) will cast (the evil) into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 13:41-42, 49-50)

And elsewhere.

468. And his feet like pillars of fire. This symbolizes the Lord's Divinity on the natural plane in respect to His Divine love, which sustains all things.

This, too, is apparent, from the explanation in no. 49 above, where it is said of the Son of Man that "His feet were like fine brass, as though fired in a furnace."

The angel's feet looked like pillars of fire because the Lord's Divinity on the natural plane - which fundamentally is the Divine humanity that He took on in the world - supports His Divinity from eternity, as the body does the soul, and likewise as the Word's natural meaning supports its spiritual and celestial meanings, on which subject see The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Sacred Scripture, nos. 27-49. To be shown that feet symbolize something natural, see no. 49, and a pillar something that supports, no. 191.

Fire symbolizes love because spiritual fire is nothing else. Therefore it is customary in worship to pray that heavenly fire, that is to say, heavenly love, may kindle the worshipers' hearts. People know that there is a correspondence between fire and love from the fact that a person grows warm with love, and cold with its loss. Nothing else produces vital warmth but love, in both senses. The origin of these correspondences is owing to the existence of two suns, one in the heavens, which is pure love, and the other in the world, which is nothing but fire. This, too, is the reason for the correspondence between all spiritual and natural things.

[2] Since fire symbolizes Divine love, therefore on Mount Horeb Jehovah appeared to Moses in a bush on fire (Exodus 3:1-3). Moreover He descended upon Mount Sinai in fire (Deuteronomy 4:36). For this reason, too, the seven lamps of the lampstand in the Tabernacle were lit every evening, so as to burn before Jehovah (Leviticus 24:2-4). For the same reason fire burned continually on the altar and was not extinguished (Leviticus 6:13), and the priests took fire from the altar in their censers and burned incense (Leviticus 16:12-13).

Therefore Jehovah went before the children of Israel by night in a pillar of fire (Exodus 13:21-22). Fire from heaven consumed the burnt offerings on the altar, as a sign of His being well pleased (Leviticus 9:24, 1 Kings 18:38). The burnt offerings were called offerings by fire to Jehovah, and offerings by fire for a restful aroma to Jehovah (Exodus 29:18; Leviticus 1:9, 13, 17; 2:2, 9-11; 3:5, 16; 4:35; 5:12; 7:30; 21:6; Numbers 28:2; Deuteronomy 18:1).

Therefore in the book of Revelation the Lord's eyes looked like a flame of fire (Revelation 1:14; 2:18; 19:12, cf. Daniel 10:5-6). And seven lamps of fire burned before the throne (Revelation 4:5).

It is apparent from this what lamps containing oil and lamps without oil symbolize (Matthew 25:1-11). The oil means fire, and thus love.

And so on in many other places.

In an opposite sense fire symbolizes hellish love, and this is plain from so many passages in the Word that it would be impossible to cite them all because of their number. See something on the subject in the book Heaven and Hell, published in London, nos. 566-575.