§151 the four quarters 83
f. The east in the Word means love clearly perceived: 1250 , 3708. The west means love dimly per-
ceived: 3708 , 9653. The south means a state of light of wisdom and intelligence: 1458 , 3708 , 5672 ;
and the north means that state dimly perceived: 3708.
g. The identity and nature of the people called demons, and the identity and nature of the ones
called spirits: 947 , 5035 , 5977 , 8593 , 8622 , 8625.
h. People who are absorbed in love for themselves and for the world turn away from the Lord:
10130 , 10189 , 10420 , 10702. Love for the Lord and thoughtfulness toward one’s neighbor make
heaven, and love for oneself and for the world make hell, because they are opposites: 2041 , 3610 ,
4225 , 4776 , 6210 , 7366 , 7369 , 7490 , 8232 , 8678 , 10455 , 10741 – 10745.
This is why the cardinal directions in heaven mean the qualities of 150
the people who live there. The east means love and its good clearly per-
ceived, the west the same dimly perceived, the south wisdom and intel-
ligence in clear light, and the north the same in dim light. Further, since
the directions have these meanings, they mean similar things in the inner
or spiritual meaning of the Word,f since the inner or spiritual meaning
of the Word is in complete accord with the way things are in heaven.
The opposite holds for the people who are in the hells. The people there 151
do not focus on the Lord as the sun or the moon, but look away from the
Lord toward that dark object that occupies the place of our world’s sun and
the gloomy object that occupies the place of the earth’s moon. The ones
called demons look toward the dark object in our sun’s place, and the ones
called spirits toward the gloomy object in our moon’s place.g As explained
in § 122 above, the sun of our world and the earth’s moon are not visible in
the spiritual world, but in place of our sun there is something dark opposite
heaven’s sun and something gloomy opposite heaven’s moon. This means
that hell’s inhabitants have directions opposite to those of heaven. Their
east is where they see that dark or gloomy object and their west is where
heaven’s sun is. Their south is to their right and their north to their left, no
matter which way they turn their bodies. Nothing else is possible for them,
because the whole tendency of their deeper natures, their whole orientation
therefore, aims and strives in this direction. On the fact that love is what
determines the tendency of our deeper natures and therefore the orientation
of everyone’s actions in the other life, see § 143. The love of people in the
hells is a love for oneself and for the world, these loves being what is meant
by the sun of this world and the earth’s moon (see § 122 ). Further, these
loves are opposite to love for the Lord and love for one’s neighbor.h This is
why they turn toward the darkness, away from the Lord.
The people who are in the hells also live arranged according to the
cardinal directions. The ones who are obsessed with evils that arise from
love for themselves are along the east-west axis, and the ones who are