68 HEAVEN and HELL §121
h. Our world’s sun is not visible to angels, but instead something dim behind them, opposite to
heaven’s sun or the Lord: 7078 , 9755. In its opposite meaning, the sun means love for oneself:
2441 ; and in this meaning “worshiping the sun” means worshiping things that are contrary to
heavenly love, or to the Lord: 2441 , 10584. For people in the hells, heaven’s sun is darkness: 2441.the place where their appearance is focused or delineated, even though
this is very far from the place where they themselves actually are. This
presence is called “a presence of inner sight,” and will be discussed fur-
ther below.
Then too I have seen the Lord outside the sun in an angelic form
overhead, a little below the sun, and also nearby in a similar form—once
even among some angels, looking like a fi ery ray of light.122 To angels, our world’s sun looks like something murky opposite to
heaven’s sun, and our moon like something dim opposite to heaven’s
moon, consistently. This is because our world’s fi re corresponds to a love
for ourselves, and the light it emits corresponds to the distortion that
arises from that love. Love for oneself is the absolute opposite of divine
love, and the distortion that arises from it is the absolute opposite of
divine truth. Anything that is opposed to divine love and truth is dark-
ness to angels.
This is why in the Word, worshiping our world’s sun and moon and
bowing down to them means loving oneself and the distortion that
arises from self-love, and why these are to be abolished (Deuteronomy
4 : 19 ; 18 : 3 – 5 [ 17 : 3 – 5 ]; Jeremiah 8 : 1 – 2 ; Ezekiel 8 : 15 , 16 , 18 ; Revelation 16 : 8 ;
Matthew 13 : 6 ).h
123 Since the Lord does appear in heaven as a sun because of the divine
love that is in him and from him, all the people there constantly turn
toward him. The inhabitants of the heavenly kingdom turn toward him
as the sun, while the inhabitants of the spiritual kingdom turn toward
him as the moon. In contrast, the inhabitants of hell turn toward the
darkness and dimness that are on the opposite side, and therefore turn
away from the Lord. This is because all the people who are in the hells
are caught up in love for themselves and the world and are therefore
opposed to the Lord. The ones who turn toward the darkness that stands
for our world’s sun are at the back of the hells and are called “demons,”
while the ones who turn toward the dimness that stands for our moon
are in the front of hell and are called “spirits.” This is why people in the
hells are described as being in darkness and people in the heavens as
being in light. “Darkness” means falsity arising from evil, and “light”
means truth arising from good.