458. 'That they should not adore demons' signifies that thus they are in the evils of their own lusts, and make one with their like in hell. By 'demons' are signified the lusts of evil arising from love of the world. This is because in hell those who are in those lusts are called demons; and men also who are in the same become demons after death. There is also a conjunction between such men and them; for every man is conjoined with spirits as to his affections to such an extent that they make one. From these considerations it is plain that 'to adore demons' is to appease those lusts because of a love of them. Therefore he who invokes faith alone as the head of his religion or as his idol remains in evil, because he does not search out any evil with himself which he terms a sin, and therefore he does not will to remove it by repentance; and as every evil is made up of lusts and is nothing else but a bundle of lusts, it follows that he who does not search out any evil with himself and flee from it as a sin against God, which is done solely by repentance, after death becomes a demon. [2] Nothing else but such lusts are signified by the 'demons' and 'demoniacs' in the following passages:-
They sacrifice to demand, not to God Deut. xxxii 17.
The sons of Israel shall no more offer sacrifices unto the demons, after whom they have gone a whoring Lev. xvii 7; Ps. cvi 37.
The ziim shall meet with the ijim, and the demon of the wood shall meet his companion Isa. xxxiv 14.
The ziim shall lie there, and their houses shall be full of ochim, and the daughters of the owl shall dwell there, and the demons of the woods shall dance there Isa. xiii 21.
By 'ziim', 'ijim', 'ochim' and 'daughters of the owl' are signified various lusts. 'Demons of the woods' are such lusts as pertain to priapuses and satyrs.
Babylon has become the habitation of demons, and the hold of every unclean spirit Rev. xviii 2.
The 'demons' that the Lord cast out were such lusts when they lived in the world, concerning which [see] Matt. viii 16, 28; ix 32, 33; x 8 xii 22; xv 22, Mark i 32-34; Luke iv 33-37, 41; viii 2, 26-40; ix 1, 37-42, 49; xiii 32.
This page is part of 
© 2000-2001 The Academy of the New Church