There are kinds and species of those who are snakes, or who had been deceitful in the life of the body and in the other life are called snakes. Their being called snakes comes from the fact that before the eyes of the angels they appear as snakes. For when angels examine them, they seem to turn into snakes before the eyes of spirits. This was clearly shown to me earlier, so that I thought they had been turned entirely into a mass of serpentine forms. They then not only appear as such to spirits, but also to themselves. For angels see their inward qualities, and then their deceits appear just like reptiles to the eyes of spirits, to whom they are such creatures because snakes have venom, which in nature depicts deceits.