develop flowers and fruit, which are in turn blessings to animals. Physical
heat has this effect because it corresponds to spiritual heat, which is love.
In fact, even among various substances of the mineral kingdom there
are representations of divine love at work. Allegories of divine love appear
in the processes for refining these substances to increase their usefulness
and value.45 From this description of divine love’s essence, you can also see what
the essence of diabolical love is like; it becomes visible by contrast.
Diabolical love is a love for oneself. This is called love, but seen in its
own right it is really hatred. It does not love anyone outside itself. It does
not want to form a partnership with others in order to bless them; it
wants to bless only itself. From deep inside, it constantly strives to domi-
nate all others and to own the good things they have.
Eventually it wants to be adored as God. This is why those who are
in hell do not acknowledge God. Instead they acknowledge as gods those
who have power over others. From hell’s point of view, then, there are
lower and higher gods, or lesser and greater gods, according to the reach
of each one’s power. Because all who are in hell carry love for themselves
in their heart, they burn with hatred against their “god.”
The “gods” in turn burn with hatred against all who are under their
thumb; they think of them as vile slaves. They manage to speak softly to
them as long as their followers keep showing adoration. They openly
rage against all others. Inwardly or at heart, they rage against their fol-
lowers as well.
Love for oneself is the same love you see among thieves, who kiss
each other when they are on a job together, but later each burn with a
desire to kill the others and take their share.
In hell, love for oneself is the dominant force. It causes the people
there and their selfish lusts to appear at a distance as various species of
wild animal. Some people there look like foxes and leopards, some like
wolves and tigers, some like crocodiles and venomous snakes. Their love
for themselves also causes the deserts they live in to consist of mere piles
of stones and bare gravel, with swamps here and there that contain croak-
ing frogs. Over their huts fly miserable screeching birds. These animals
and birds are the same as the owls, the wild beasts of the desert, and the
jackals mentioned in the prophetical books of the Word in reference to
the love of dominating that comes from love for oneself (Isaiah 13 : 21 ; Jer-
emiah 50 : 39 ; Psalms 74 : 14 ).