Afterlife: A Guided Tour of Heaven and Its Wonders - Swedenborg ...

Hell
clearly from their communities in the hells, which will be
described below.
In broad terms, the evils characteristic of people
focused on love for themselves are contempt for others;
envy; enmity toward anyone who is not on their side, and
a consequent hostility; various kinds of hatred; venge -
fulness; craft; deceit; callousness; and cruelty. In religious
matters, this extends not only to a contempt for the
Divine and for the divine gifts that are the true and good
elements of the church; it extends also to anger at such
things, an anger that turns into hatred when we become
spirits. Then not only can we not stand hearing about
these matters, we blaze with hatred against everyone who
acknowledges and worships the Divine.
As for love of the world, it is not so intensely opposed to
heavenly love, because there are not so many evils latent
in it.
Love of the world is wanting to divert the wealth of
others to ourselves by any means available. It is setting our
heart on wealth and allowing the world to distract us from
the spiritual love that is love for our neighbor and there -
fore from heaven and the Divine.
This love takes many forms, though. We may love
wealth in order to be raised to exalted rank simply because
we love exalted rank. We may love exalted rank and high
position for the sake of wealth. We may love wealth for
the sake of the various pleasures it offers in the world. We
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