DLW 271 - Opposites; DLW 273 - The Devil and Satan

DLW 271

Evils and falsities stand in complete opposition
to goods and truths,
because evils and falsities are diabolical and hellish,
while goods and truths are Divine and heavenly.
Everyone on hearing it
acknowledges that evil and good are opposites,
and likewise the falsity accompanying evil
and the truth accompanying good.
But because people who are caught up in evil
have no other sensation
and so no other perception
than that evil is good -
for evil delights their senses,
especially the senses of sight and hearing,
and consequently delights their thoughts
and so perceptions as well -
therefore, even though they acknowledge
that evil and good are opposites,
still when they are caught up in evil,
they are moved by the delight of it to say
that evil is good, and good evil.

No one can see good when he is caught up in evil,
but a person prompted by good can see evil.
Evil lies below as though in a cave.
Good sits above as though on a mountain.

DLW 273 [2-4]

. . . in hell the love of ruling from the love of self
is the dominant love.
This love is there called the devil,
and the affections for falsity arising from that love
with their accompanying thoughts are called his crew.
It is the same in every society of hell,
with diversities like the diversities found
in species of the same genus.

In the same form, too, is the natural mind
which is caught up in evils and their resulting falsities.
Consequently the natural person
who is of such a character
comes also after death into a society of hell like him,
and he then acts in concert with it
in each and every thing that he does.
For he comes into his own form,
that is, into the states of his own mind.

Subordinate to the first love called the devil
is another love as well, called Satan.
This is a love of possessing the goods of others
by any evil art whatever.
Clever malicious practices and cunning devices
are its crew.

People who are in this latter hell
are in general called satanic spirits,
while people in the first hell
are in general called devils;
and those who do not act there
in a clandestine manner do not deny their name.
It is in consequence of this
that the hells collectively are called
the devil and Satan.

The natural mind which is a hell
stands in complete opposition to the spiritual mind,
which is a heaven.