Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 956

Previous Number Next Number Next Translation See Latin 

956. For those who are bent on revenge and who imagine they are superior to everybody else, rating all others as worthless in contrast to themselves, the punishment is that of being lacerated, as follows: They are disfigured in face and body until scarcely anything human remains to be seen. The face comes to be like a wide round cake. The arms look like rags; and with these stretched out, the one to whom they belong is whirled around on high, all the time upwards into the sky, while his character is declared in the presence of all, until shame seizes him to the core. In this condition, now a suppliant, he is compelled to plead for deliverance, and in terms dictated to him. After that he is taken away to the muddy stagnant pond near the filthy Jerusalem, in which he is rolled and plunged to become a picture of mud. And this is repeated several times until such desire for revenge is removed. In this muddy pond there are noxious women from the province of the bladder.


This page is part of the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg

© 2000-2001 The Academy of the New Church