414. So that a third of the day did not shine, and likewise the night. This symbolically means that they no longer have in them any spiritual truth or natural truth from the Word serviceable for doctrine and life.

The day's not shining means that they had no light from the sun, and "likewise the night" means that they had no light from the moon and stars. Light in general symbolizes Divine truth, which is truth from the Word. The light of the sun symbolizes spiritual Divine truth, and the light of the moon and stars symbolizes natural Divine truth, both acquired from the Word. Divine truth in the spiritual sense of the Word is like the light of the sun during the day, and Divine truth in the natural sense of the Word is like the light of the moon and stars at night. The spiritual sense of the Word, moreover, flows into its natural sense, as the sun does with its light to the moon, and this reflects the light of the sun indirectly.

In this way also does the spiritual sense of the Word enlighten people, even people who know nothing of that sense, when they read the Word in its natural sense. However, it enlightens a spiritual person as light from the sun does his eye, but a natural person as light from the moon and stars does his eye. Everyone is enlightened in accordance with his spiritual affection for truth and goodness, and at the same time in accordance with the genuine truths by which he has opened his rational faculty.

[2] Day and night also have this meaning in the following places:

God said, "Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night...." Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule by day, and the lesser light to rule by night. He made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth, and to rule by day and by night, and to divide the light from the darkness. (Genesis 1:14-19)

(Jehovah) made great lights..., the sun to rule by day..., the moon and stars to rule by night... (Psalms 136:7-9)

The day is Yours, (O Jehovah,) the night also is Yours; You have prepared the light and the sun. (Psalms 74:16)

...Jehovah... gives the sun for a light by day, the ordinances of the moon and the stars for a light by night... (Jeremiah 31:35)

If you can break My covenant with the day and My covenant with the night, so that there will not be day and night in their season, then My covenant also may be broken with David My servant... If I have not appointed My covenant with day and night, the ordinances of heaven and earth, I also will reject the offspring of Jacob and David... (Jeremiah 33:20-21, 25-26)

I cite these passages to make known that the darkening of both kinds of light is meant.

159. That thou sufferest the woman Jezebel, signifies the delight of the love of self and of the world. This is evident from the signification of "the woman Jezebel," as being the church wholly perverted; for "woman" in the Word signifies the church (SeeArcana Coelestia 252, 253, 749, 770, 6014, 7337, 8994), here the church perverted. And as all perversion of the church springs from those two loves, namely, from the love of self and the love of the world, "Jezebel" signifies the delight of these loves. The church in which these loves reign is called "the woman Jezebel," because Jezebel the wife of Ahab represented in the Word the delight of these loves, and the perversion of the church thereby. For all things that are written in the Word, even in the historical portion, are representative of such things as are of the church (See The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem 249-266).

Every perversion of the church springs from these two loves when they reign over the heavenly loves, because these two loves are altogether opposite to the two loves that constitute heaven and the church, which are love to the Lord and love towards the neighbor, and because from these two loves all evils and the falsities thence spring (See in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem 59, 61, 65-82 and in the work on Heaven and Hell 252, 396, 399, 400, 486, 551-565, 566-575).

[2] That Jezebel the wife of Ahab represented what has been said will be seen presently; but something shall first be said about the delights of loves. Every man is such as his love is, and every delight of his life is from his love; for whatever favors his love he perceives as delightful, and whatever is adverse to his love he perceives as undelightful; consequently it is the same whether it be said that man is such as his love is, or such as his life's delight is. Those, therefore, who are loves of self and of the world, that is, they, with whom these loves reign, have no other life's delight or no other life than infernal life. For these loves, or the life's delights from them that are permanent, turn all their thoughts and intentions to self and the world; and so far as they turn them to self and to the world, they so far immerse them in man's proprium [what is his own], which he has by inheritance, thus at the same time in evils of every kind; and so far as man's thoughts and intentions are turned to his inherited proprium, which in itself is nothing but evil, so far are they turned away from heaven. For man's interiors, which are of his mind, that is, of his thought and intention, or of his understanding and will, are actually turned to his own loves, that is, downwards to self where the love of self and its delights reign, and outwards, that is, away from heaven towards the world, where the love of the world and its delights reign. It is otherwise when man loves God above all things, and his neighbor as himself; then the Lord turns the interiors which are of man's mind, or of his thought and intention, to Himself, thus turning them away from man's proprium [what is his own], and elevating them; and this without man's knowing anything about it. From this it is that man's spirit, which is the man himself, after its release from the body is actually turned to its own love, because that constitutes his life's delight, that is, his life. (That all spirits are actually turned to their own loves, see in the work on Heaven and Hell 17, 123, 142-145, 151, 153, 272, 510, 548, 552, 561; and above, n. 41)

[3] This may be illustrated somewhat by the fact that all the least parts of the body turn themselves to the common center of our earth, which is called the center of gravity; and from this it is that wheresoever men are, even those who are in directly opposite positions, and are called antipodes, all stand upon their feet. Yet this center of gravity is merely nature's center of gravity; but there is another center of gravity in the spiritual world, and this, with man, is determined by the love in which he is, downwards if his love is infernal, but upwards if his love is heavenly; and whichever way man's love is determined, in the same way his thoughts and intentions are determined; for these are in the spiritual world, and are impelled by the forces that are there.

[4] From this it can now be seen that the perversion of the church with men, which is signified by "the woman Jezebel," is solely from the loves of self and of the world, since these turn man's interiors, which are of his mind, downward, thus turning them away from heaven. It is said "the perversion of the church with men," because the church is in man, as heaven is in the angel; every church is constituted of those that are of the church, and not of any others, even though they may be born where the church is; as can be clearly seen from this, that love and faith constitute the church, and love and faith must be in man, consequently the church must be in him. (That heaven is in the angel, and the church in man, see in the work on Heaven and Hell, n. 33, 53, 54, 57, 454; and in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem 232, 233, 241, 245, 246.)