8343. The horse and his rider hath He cast into the sea. That this signifies that by virtue of His mere presence the falsities of faith and evils of life cast themselves into hell, is evident from the signification of “horse” and of “rider,” as being falsities from evil (see n. 8146, 8148); and from the signification of “casting into the sea,” as being into hell (see n. 8099, 8137, 8138); that this was effected by virtue of the mere presence of the Lord, see n. 8137, 8265. It is said that falsities and evils “cast themselves” into hell, for the reason that it is the very falsities and evils that are cast into hell, and these draw with them those to whom they adhere. For through evil of life men become forms of falsities from evil, and therefore when the evils themselves with their falsities are cast down, the forms also to which they adhere are dragged down together with them; for falsities and evils are exhalations from the hells, and flow in with those who through evils of life have made their interiors forms of reception. (That everything of thought and of will flows in, good from heaven, and evil from hell, see n. 2886-2888, 4151, 4249, 5846, 6189, 6191, 6193, 6203, 6206, 6213, 6324, 6325, 7147, 7343.) Hence then it is that it is said that falsities of faith and evils of life cast themselves into hell; and therefore when the angels are thinking and speaking about the hells they think and speak of falsities and evils abstractedly from those who are there; for the angels always remove ideas of person, and remain in ideas of things (see n. 5225, 5287, 5434).

6206. Be it further known that all evil flows in from hell, and all good through heaven from the Lord. But the reason why evil is appropriated to a man is that he believes and persuades himself that he thinks and does it from himself, and in this way makes it his own. If he believed as is really the case, then evil would not be appropriated to him, but good from the Lord would be appropriated to him; for the moment that evil flowed in, he would reflect that it was from the evil spirits with him, and as soon as he thought this, the angels would avert and reject it. For the influx of the angels is into what a man knows and believes, but not into what a man does not know and does not believe; for their influx is not fixed anywhere except where there is something appertaining to the man.

[2] When a man appropriates evil to himself in this way, he gets for himself a sphere of that evil, which sphere is that to which those spirits from hell adjoin themselves who are in the sphere of a like evil; for like is conjoined with like. The spiritual sphere with a man or a spirit is an exhalation flowing forth from the life of his loves, from which his quality is known at a distance. All in the other life are conjoined together in accordance with the spheres, and so also are the societies one with another; and according to their spheres they are also dissociated, for opposite spheres come into collision, and mutually repel each other. Therefore the spheres of the loves of evil are all in hell, and the spheres of the loves of good are all in heaven; that is, they who are in these spheres.