Heaven and Hell #561
561. The deeper levels of the thoughts and affections of people who love themselves above all are turned toward themselves and the world - and are turned away, therefore, from the Lord and heaven. This is why such people fall prey to all kinds of evil and why the divine nature cannot flow in. It is because the moment it does flow in, it is submerged in thoughts about self and polluted, and is saturated with evils that arise from their self-centeredness. This is why they all look away from the Lord in the other life, toward the gloom that occupies the site of our world's sun there and is directly across from heaven's sun, which is the Lord (see 123 above). Darkness means evil, and our world's sun means self-love. 1
Footnotes:
1. [Swedenborg's footnote] Our world's sun means love for oneself: Arcana Coelestia 2441. How "worshiping the sun" [Deuteronomy 4:19; 17:3] means worshiping things that are contrary to heavenly love and the Lord: 441, 10584. The warming sun [Exodus 16:21] means the rising up of cravings for evil: 8487.
