134. Heaven's warmth, like heaven's light, is different in different places. It has one nature in the heavenly kingdom and another in the spiritual kingdom. It also differs in each community, not only in intensity but in quality. It is more intense and pure in the Lord's heavenly kingdom because the angels there accept more divine good. It is less intense and pure in the Lord's spiritual kingdom because the angels there accept more divine truth. In each community, it varies depending on people's receptivity. There is also warmth in the hells, but it is unclean. ¹

The warmth in heaven is meant by sacred and heavenly fire, and the warmth of hell by profane fire and hellfire. Both refer to love: heavenly fire to love for the Lord and love for one's neighbor, and hellfire to love for oneself and love of the world and all the craving that is associated with these loves. ²

The fact that love is warmth of a spiritual origin can be seen from the way we grow warm in proportion to our love, even becoming inflamed and heated in proportion to its intensity and quality, with its full heat evident when we are attacked. This is why it is usual to talk about inflaming, heating up, burning, boiling, and kindling when we are talking about either the affections of a good love or the cravings of an evil love.

Fusnotat:

819. To the left on a level with the lower parts of the body, there is a sizeable stagnant pond, longer than it is broad. Around its nearest edge, monstrous serpents, like those that frequent stagnant ponds and whose breath is noxious, appear to those who are there. On the left bank, further away from there, appear those who eat human flesh, and also one another, gripping one another on the shoulder with their teeth. Further away still to the left big fish, enormous monsters, appear which swallow a human being and vomit him up again. Furthest away of all, that is, on the opposite side, appear faces very deformed, especially those of old women, so monstrous that they defy description, darting around as though they were mad. On the right bank are those who try to slaughter one another with instruments of cruelty. These instruments vary according to the callousness of their hearts. In the middle of the pond there is blackness everywhere, as though stagnated. I have frequently been amazed to see spirits brought to this pond, but I was told by some of those coming back from there that these were people who had cherished deep-seated hatred against the neighbour and that such hatred had erupted as often as it had been given the chance to do so. And in this they felt their greatest delight. Nothing had pleased them more than taking their neighbour to court, causing him to be punished, and, if there had been no legal penalties to deter them, putting him to death. These are the kinds of things that people's hatred and cruelty are converted into after death; and the delusions that arise from these seem absolutely real to them.