8. VI. Those two, heat and light, or love and wisdom, flow conjointly from God into the soul of man; and through this into his mind, its affections and thoughts; and from these into the senses, speech, and actions of the body.

The spiritual influx hitherto treated of by inspired men is that from the soul into the body, but no one has treated of influx into the soul, and through this into the body; although it is known that all the good of love and all the truth of faith flow from God into man, and nothing of them from man; and those things which flow from God flow first into his soul, and through his soul into the rational mind, and through this into those things which constitute the body. If any one investigates spiritual influx in any other manner, he is like one who stops up the course of a fountain and still seeks there perennial streams; or like one who deduces the origin of a tree from the root and not from the seed; or like one who examines derivations apart from their source.

[2] For the soul is not life in itself, but is a recipient of life from God, who is life in Himself; and all influx is of life, thus from God. This is meant by the statement: “Jehovah God breathed into man's nostrils the breath of lives, and man was made a living soul” (Genesis 2:7). To breathe into the nostrils the breath of lives signifies to implant the perception of good and truth. The Lord also says of Himself, “As the Father hath life in Himself so hath He also given to the Son to have life in Himself” (John 5:26): life in Himself is God; and the life of the soul is life flowing in from God.

[3] Now inasmuch as all influx is of life, and life operates by means of its receptacles, and the inmost or first of the receptacles in man is his soul, therefore in order that influx may be rightly apprehended it is necessary to begin from God, and not from an intermediate station. Were we to begin from an intermediate station, our doctrine of influx would be like a chariot without wheels, or like a ship without sails. This being the case, therefore, in the preceding articles we have treated of the sun of the spiritual world, in the midst of which is Jehovah God (5); and of the influx thence of love and wisdom, thus of life (6, 7).

[4] That life flows from God into man through the soul, and through this into his mind, that is, into its affections and thoughts, and from these into the senses, speech, and actions of the body, is because these are the things pertaining to life in successive order. For the mind is subordinate to the soul, and the body is subordinate to the mind. The mind, also, has two lives, the one of the will and the other of the understanding. The life of its will is the good of love, the derivations of which are called affections; and the life of the understanding there is the truth of wisdom, the derivations of which are called thoughts: by means of the latter and the former the mind lives. The life of the body, on the other hand, are the senses, speech, and actions: that these are derived from the soul through the mind follows from the order in which they stand, and from this they manifest themselves to a wise man without examination.

[5] The human soul, being a superior spiritual substance, receives influx directly from God; but the human mind, being an inferior spiritual substance, receives influx from God indirectly through the spiritual world; and the body, being composed of the substances of nature which are called matter, receives influx from God indirectly through the natural world.

That the good of love and the truth of wisdom flow from God into the soul of a man conjointly, that is, united into one, but that they are divided by the man in their progress, and are conjoined only with those who suffer themselves to be led by God, will be seen in the following articles.

61. The destruction followed a visitation, for this always comes first. A visitation is an examination of people's character and a separation of the good from the wicked; the good are carried away from there and the wicked are left behind. When this was over, there were huge earthquakes, which served notice of the imminence of the Last Judgment; panic broke out universally. Those who lived in the southern quarter, especially in the large city there (mentioned above, 58), were then to be seen running hither and thither, some taking to their heels to escape, some hiding in crypts, some in the cells and pits where their treasures were, while others carried out of them anything they could lay their hands on. After the earthquakes a volcanic eruption burst up from below, overturning everything in the city and the surrounding district; and after the eruption came a gale from the east, which stripped bare, shattered and completely overturned everything. Then all the people there were brought out of every place where they had hidden and were thrown into a sea, the waters of which were black. The number of those thrown in amounted to many tens of thousands.

[2] Following this smoke, as after a fire, began to rise from the whole district, and finally thick dust; this was carried out to sea by the east wind and settled as a layer on it. All their treasuries were turned to dust, together with all the possessions they held sacred. The reason the dust was scattered on the sea was that such dust means that which is damned.

[3] Finally a black shape was seen flying over that whole district, which on closer view looked like a dragon - a sign that the whole of that great city and the district had become a desert. The reason it so appeared was that dragons mean the falsities of such a religion, and their home means a desert following overthrow (as in Jeremiah 9:12, 10:22, 49:33; Malachi 1:3).

[4] Some were also seen having what looked like a millstone round their left arm; this representation showed that they had proved their unspeakable dogmas from the Word. Such is the meaning of a millstone; so it was plain what these words in Revelation mean:

An angel picked up a stone like that of a large mill and threw it into the sea, saying, So shall Babylon, that great city, be sent hurtling down, and it shall be found no more. Revelation 18:21.

[5] However, as for those who were in the Council chamber, in the same quarter but further to the east, where debates were held about methods of extending their rule and of keeping the people in ignorance and so in blind obedience (on this Council chamber see 58 above), they were not thrown into the black sea, but into a chasm which opened up lengthwise and to a great depth beneath and around them. This is how the Last Judgment took place on the Babylonians in the southern quarter.

[6] The Last Judgment on those who lived forward in the western quarter and on those in the northern quarter, where the large city was, happened like this. After huge earthquakes which convulsed everything there to its foundations (these are the earthquakes meant in the Word, Matthew 24:7; Luke 21:11; and similar ones in Revelation 6:12; Revelation 8:5; Revelation 11:13; Revelation 16:18, and in the prophetic books of the Old Testament - not earthquakes on this earth), an east wind swept from the south through the west to the north, and stripped that whole region bare. It hit first the forward region in the western quarter, where those who had lived in the Dark Ages had their underground dwellings, and then the large city which extended from that quarter right through the north as far as the east. As they were laid bare all their contents were to be seen. But because there were not such large treasures stored there, there was no volcanic eruption with its sulphurous fire to burn up the treasures; there was only an overthrow and destruction, with everything finally going up in smoke. It was the east wind which swept to and fro, overthrowing, destroying and carrying everything away.

[7] The monks together with the common people were brought out in tens of thousands, and some were thrown into the black sea on the side facing west, some into the great southern rift (mentioned above), some into the western chasm, some into the hells of the heathen.

For some of the people from the Dark Ages were idolaters like the heathen. Smoke was seen rising from there, reaching as far as the sea and drifting over it, and forming a black coating on it. For the part of the sea into which they were thrown had a hard covering of dust and smoke, into which their dwellings and riches dissolved.

So the sea was no longer to be seen, and its place was taken by a piece of black ground, underneath which was their hell.

[8] The Last Judgment on those who lived on the mountains in the eastern quarter (on whom see above 58) took place like this. The mountains were seen to sink into the depths and all on them were swallowed up. The one who had been placed on one of the mountains and proclaimed to be God, turned black and then fiery, and he was hurled headlong into hell along with them. For the monks of various orders who were on those mountains claimed that he was God and they were themselves Christ; and wherever they went, they took with them the shocking persuasion that they were Christ.

[9] Finally a judgment took place on those who lived further out in the western quarter on the mountains there, the people meant by the woman mounted on the scarlet beast, having seven heads which are seven mountains (she was mentioned above, 58). Their mountains too were seen, some split open in the middle forming a huge chasm spiralling downwards, and those on the mountains were thrown into it. Some of the mountains were torn up by the roots and so turned upside down that their summits were at the bottom. The people from the plains there were deluged with a kind of flood and covered over. But those among them who were from other quarters were thrown into chasms. The present remarks are but a small part of all that I saw; more will be given in the explanation of Revelation. These events happened and were completed at the beginning of the year 1757.

[10] As for the chasms into which all were thrown except those who ended up in the black sea, there are many of them. Four were shown to me: a large one towards the east of the southern quarter; a second towards the south in the western quarter; a third towards the north in the western quarter; a fourth further out in the corner between west and north. The chasms and the sea are their hells. This much I saw, but there was much more which I did not see. The hells of the Babylonian people are kept apart to match the different ways in which they profane spiritual things, which relate to the church's good and truth.