Apocalypse Revealed (Coulsons) n. 837

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837. 'And all the birds were satiated with their flesh' signifies that the infernal genii are nourished as it were upon the lusts of their evil, which are their own (propria). By 'the birds' are signified the untruths that are out of hell, and because in those untruths are the infernal genii who are together with men in the untruths that are of [each] man's love, therefore these are here signified by 'the birds'. A man also who is in those untruths becomes such an [infernal] genius after death. That by unserviceable and hurtful birds, especially the unclean and rapacious ones that derive nourishment from carrion, are signified falsities that are of the love, may be seen above (n. 757). By 'flesh' here are signified the evils of the lusts that are a man own (propria) (n. 748). By 'to be satiated with them' is signified to be as it were nourished by them and attracted to them with delight; for the infernal genii who are in similar lusts of evil greedily inhale and fill their nostrils, and thence their life, with the lusts exhaled from the thoughts and aspirations of such men for which reason they also live and dwell together.


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