4698. ABOUT THE STATE OF HELL

For a whole night, when I was asleep, I had been tormented in hell, so that I might learn what the state of those there is like. For they had fallen upon me, for then they were able to torment my spirit, but I was still without vision as of a dream. It was an uninterrupted torment, one after another, where they are placed upon tables and miserably torn to pieces, and their lust of ruling is aroused, and as long as that passion persists, they are tormented until it subsides. So it goes from one devil to another, as from one place of hell to another, upon tables. When the lust then abates, a period of rest is given them so that they may enjoy some passion of their own. In this manner the head of the serpent is trampled underfoot.