438. I may add here that even while we are living in our bodies, each one of us is in a community with spirits as to our own spirits even though we are unaware of it. Good people are in angelic communities by means of [their spirits] and evil people are in hellish communities. Further, we come into those same communities when we die. People who are coming into the company of spirits after death are often told and shown this.

Actually, we are not visible as spirits in our [spiritual] communities while we are living in the world because we are thinking on the natural level. However, if our thinking is withdrawn from the body we are sometimes visible in our communities because we are then in the spirit. When we are visible, it is easy to tell us from the spirits who live there because we walk along deep in thought, silent, without looking at others, as though we did not see them; and the moment any spirit addresses us, we disappear.

552. It was cast to the earth, and its angels were cast out with it. This symbolically means that they were cast into the world of spirits, which is midway between heaven and hell, from which a direct conjunction is formed with people on earth.

The earth to which the dragon is said to have been cast means the world of spirits, because this world lies directly under the heavens, and when anyone is cast out of heaven, he does not sink immediately into hell, but onto the land in this world that is the nearest one beneath. For this world is midway between heaven and hell, being situated below the heavens and above the hells. More on this world may be seen in the book Heaven and Hell (London, 1758), nos. 421-535.

The people in this world all communicate directly with people on earth. The dragon and its angels consequently communicate with people caught up in falsities and their accompanying evils, owing to the heresy they have accepted regarding faith alone. The text accordingly says later in verse 12 of this chapter,

Therefore rejoice, O heavens...! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, knowing that he has a short time." (Revelation 12:12)

We are also told in verses 13-17 that the dragon pursued the woman into the wilderness, and went off to make war with the rest of her offspring.

It should be known that in respect to his affections and consequent thoughts, everyone is present in a society with people in the world of spirits, and indirectly through them with people either in heaven or in hell. Everyone's life depends on that conjunction.