402. Verse 13. And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth. That this signifies that the knowledges of good and truth have perished, is plain from the signification of stars, as denoting the knowledges of good and truth (concerning which see above, n. 72); and from the signification of falling unto the earth, as denoting to perish; for when the stars fall to the earth, they perish. The same is signified by, the stars shall fall from heaven, in Matthew 24:29 and in Mark 13:25. Any one may see that by the stars are not meant stars, for these cannot fall from heaven, as they are fixed or stand in their place; neither could they fall to the earth, because they are larger than the earth; therefore such things as pertain to the light of heaven, and give light, which are the knowledges of good and truth, are signified by them. Stars appear also in the angelic heaven, but they are appearances from the knowledges of good and truth, therefore they appear around those who are in those knowledges, especially when they turn them over in the mind, and are in the desire of knowing them.

580. You can gather from their unspeakable arts what the malice of these hellish spirits is like. There are so many of these arts that listing them would fill a book, and describing them would take volumes. Most of these arts are unknown in the world. One kind has to do with the misuse of correspondences; a second kind has to do with the misuse of the most superficial features of the divine design; a third kind with the sharing and instilling of thoughts and affections by distractions, focusing inward, and the use of decoy spirits as well as by emissaries; a fourth kind with manipulation by hallucinations; a fifth kind with external projections that enable the spirits to be present outside their bodies; a sixth kind with various types of imitation and persuasion and pretense.

The spirits of evil people come into these arts spontaneously when they are freed from their bodies. These arts are inherent in the evil they are then absorbed in.

They use these arts to torture each other in the hells. However, since with the exception of the different varieties of imitation and persuasion and pretense these arts are unknown in the world, I do not want to describe them in detail, both because they would not be understood and because they are unspeakable.