Heaven and Hell - Swedenborg Foundation

HEAVEN AND HELL 344
Heaven, too, is enclosed on all sides; and there is no passage
open to any heavenly society except by a narrow way, the
entrance to which is also guarded. These outlets and entrances
are what are called in the Word the gates and doors of hell and
of heaven.
429. The world of spirits appears like a valley between
mountains and rocks, with windings and elevations here and
there. The gates and doors of the heavenly societies are visible
to those only who are prepared for heaven; others cannot find
them. There is one entrance from the world of spirits to each
heavenly society, opening through a single path which
branches out in its ascent into several. The gates and doors of
the hells also are visible only to those who are about to enter, to
whom they are then opened. When these are opened gloomy
and seemingly sooty caverns are seen tending obliquely
downwards to the abyss, where again there are many doors.
Through these caverns nauseous and fetid stenches exhale,
which good spirits flee from because they abominate them, but
evil spirits seek for them because they delight in them. For as
everyone in the world has been delighted with his own evil, so
after death he is delighted with the stench to which his evil
corresponds. In this respect the evil may be likened to
rapacious birds and beasts, like ravens, wolves, and swine,
which fly or run to carrion or dunghills when they scent their
stench. I heard a certain spirit crying out loudly as if from
inward torture when struck by a breath flowing forth from
heaven; but he became tranquil and glad as soon as a breath
flowing forth from hell reached him.
430. With every man there are two gates; one that leads to
hell and that is open to evils and their falsities; while the other
leads to heaven and is open to goods and their truths. Those
that are in evil and its falsity have the gate to hell opened in
them, and only through chinks from above does something of
light from heaven flow into them, and by that inflowing they
are able to think, to reason, and to speak; but the gate to
heaven is opened in those that are in good and its truth. For