Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 10711

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10711. These spirits like to be bearded and appear aged, because they always choose some aged person with a beard to be in charge over them; he is so to speak their king and high priest. The common people also worship him and love to live as he is accustomed to do, and they go so far as to think that his life is communicated to them; but those of them who have greater understanding worship God. One such bearded old man who had been their high priest was among all the others present with me. Because he accepted the Divine worship offered him by spirits who had been common people and he led them to think that his life was communicated to them, he underwent severe punishment, which took the form of being rolled up in a cloth, whirled round and round, and then hurled into a hell near his own planet.


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