794. "And the sound of a mill shall not be heard in you anymore." This symbolically means that those caught up in the Roman Catholic religion because of its doctrine and a life in accordance with it do not inquire into, investigate, or confirm spiritual truth, because the falsity they have accepted, affirmed, and so enrooted in themselves stands in the way.
The sound of a mill symbolizes nothing else but an inquiry, investigation, and confirmation of spiritual truth, especially that drawn from the Word. This is the symbolic meaning of the sound of a mill or milling because wheat and barley, the grains milled, symbolize celestial and spiritual goodness, and wheat flour and barley meal symbolize the truth springing from that goodness. For all truth originates from goodness, and every truth that does not spring from spiritual goodness is not spiritual truth.
It is called the sound of a mill because spiritual entities are designated here and there in the Word by devices consisting of the most external things of nature, such as spiritual truths and goods by cups, bowls, wineskins, dishes, and many other kinds of vessels (see no. 672 above).
That wheat symbolizes the goodness of the church from the Word may be seen in no. 315; and that flour milled from wheat symbolizes truth springing from that goodness, no. 778.
[2] That a mill symbolizes an inquiry, investigation, and confirmation of spiritual truth can be seen from the following passages:
(Jesus said,) "(At the end of the age) two men will be in the field: one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be milling: one will be taken and the other left." (Matthew 24:40-41)
The final period of the church is meant by the end of the age, when the Last Judgment takes place. The field symbolizes the church, because that is the place of harvest. The women milling symbolize people in the church who inquire into truths. The people taken symbolize people who find and accept those truths, and the people left symbolize people who do not inquire into or accept truths, because they are caught up in falsities.
I will take from them the sound of mirth and the sound of gladness, the sound of the bridegroom and the sound of the bride, the sound of mills and the light of the lamp. (Jeremiah 25:10)
The sound of mills has the same symbolic meaning here as in this verse of the book of Revelation.
No man shall take in pledge a mill or millstone, for he would be taking the person's life in pledge. (Deuteronomy 24:6)
The mill here is called a person's life, because the life or soul symbolizes the truth of wisdom and faith (no. 681).
[3] In an opposite sense a mill symbolizes an investigation and confirmation of falsity, as is apparent from these passages:
They took away young men to mill, and youths collapse under the wood. (Lamentations 5:13)
...sit on the dust, O... daughter of Babylon... Take the mill and grind meal. Uncover your hair..., uncover your thigh, pass through the rivers. Let your nakedness be uncovered and your shame be seen. (Isaiah 47:1-3)
To take the mill and grind meal means, symbolically, to inquire into and investigate in order to confirm falsities.
