586. That they should not adore demons.- That this signifies that they should not worship their own disorderly desires, is evident from the signification of worshipping, and from the signification of demons, as denoting evil desires. The reason why demons denote evil desires, is, that by demons are meant infernal spirits, and all the spirits in the hells are nothing but evil desires. For all the spirits in the hells, and all the angels in the heavens, are from the human race, and every man after death becomes such as the quality of his life was in the world, consequently the quality of his affection, so that after death man is entirely his own affection, a good man the affection for good and truth, and an evil man the affection for evil and falsity. Every man, also, after death, thinks, wills, speaks, and acts, according to his own affection. The affection for evil and falsity, is what is called desire, and is signified by "demon." But what is meant by worshipping demons shall also be briefly explained.
[2] Every man is in association with spirits, for without such association and conjunction no one can live, and the spirits attendant on man are in accordance with the quality of his affections or desires. Therefore when man, in his worship, does not look to the Lord or to his neighbour, but to himself and to the world, that is, when he worships God for the sole end of being exalted to honours, and of gaining wealth, or that he may do injury to others, he worships demons; for the Lord is not then present in his worship, but infernal spirits, who are in association with him. These spirits also are so insane as to believe that they are gods, and to be worshipped. For every spirit, as well as every man, who is in the love of self, seeks to be worshipped as a god, and for this reason men after death, on becoming demon-spirits are possessed with that insane desire; this, therefore, is the signification of adoring demons.
[3] This worship is also understood by sacrificing to demons.
Thus in Moses:
"They provoked him to wrath with strange [gods], with abominations provoked they him to anger. They sacrifice to demons, not to God; to gods whom they knew not" (Deut. xxxii. 16, 17).
Again:
The sons of Israel shall sacrifice at the door of the tent, and "they shall no more offer their sacrifices unto demons, after whom they go awhoring" (Levit. xvii. 7).
The sacrifices which were offered at the door of the tent represented the worship of the Lord, because the altar, and also the tabernacle, represented heaven, where the Lord is present; but the sacrifices which they offered elsewhere, represented worship where the Lord was not present, thus the worship of demons; for all things at that time were representative.
[4] So in David:
"They sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto demons" (Psalm cvi. 37).
This was utterly infernal; but, in the spiritual sense, sacrificing their sons and daughters, signified by means of their evil desires to pervert and destroy the truths and goods of the church; for sons signify the truths of the church, and daughters its goods.
[5] So in Isaiah:
"The tziim shall also meet with the ijim, and the wood demon shall meet his fellow; the bird of night shall also rest there, and find for herself a place of rest" (xxxiv. 14).
Here the subject treated of is the total devastation of the church through corporeal and purely natural lusts (concupiscentiae), from which flow forth evils and falsities of every kind; these lusts are signified by the tziim, and the ijim, and also by the bird of night and the wood demon, or satyr.
[6] Again, in like manner:
"The tziim shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of ochim; and the daughters of the bird of night shall dwell there, and the wood demons shall dance there" (xiii. 21).
These things are spoken of Babylon. That such merely natural and corporeal lusts (concupiscentiae) are possessed by those meant by Babylon, and constitute the life of their mind, is signified by their houses being filled with such things, and by their dwelling and dancing there. By house is signified the internal or external mind [mens seu animus] of man, with the things contained therein; daughters of the bird of night signify falsities, and wood demons or satyrs, merely corporeal desires.
Similar language is used respecting Babylon in the Apocalypse:
"Babylon is become the habitation of demons, and the hold of every unclean spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird" (xviii. 2).
The demons cast out by the Lord, by which many were at that time obsessed, signify falsities of every kind, with which the church was infested, and from which it was liberated by the Lord (as in Matt. viii. 16, 28; ix. 32, 33; x. 8; xii. 22; xv. 22; Mark i. 32-34; Luke iv. 33-38, 41; viii. 2, 26-40; ix. 1, 37-44, 49, 50; xiii. 32, and elsewhere).