AC 1860 - Darkness & Thick Darkness; AC 1861 - The Appearance of the Lord

AC 1860

In the Word "darkness" signifies falsities,
and "thick darkness" evils.
There is "darkness"
when falsity is in the place of truth;
and there is "thick darkness"
when evil is in the place of good,
or what is precisely the same,
when hatred is in the place of charity.
When hatred is in the place of charity,
the thick darkness is so great
that the man is quite unaware that it is evil,
still less that it is so great an evil
as in the other life
to thrust him down to hell,
for they who are in hatred perceive a kind of delight
and as it were a kind of life in it,
and this delight and life themselves
cause him scarcely to know but that it is good,
for whatever favors a man's pleasure and cupidity,
because it favors his love,
he feels as good,
and this to such a degree
that when he is told that it is infernal
he can scarcely believe it,
still less when he is told that such delight and life
are in the other life
turned the stench of excrement and cadavers.
And still less does he believe
that he is becoming a devil and a horrible image of hell;
for hell consists of nothing but hatreds
and such diabolical forms. 

AC 1861 [15]

For Jehovah, or the Lord,
appears to everyone according to his quality --
to celestial angels as a Sun,
to spiritual angels as a Moon,
to all the good as a Light of varied delight and pleasantness,
but to the evil as a smoke and as a consuming fire.