The whole of hell is awash with filth, and the source of all of it is indecent and obscene scortatory love; its pleasures are turned into such filth. Who could believe that every pleasure of love is made visible in the spiritual world in various sights, made perceptible in various smells, and clearly to be viewed in the form of various animals and birds? The kinds of thing which portray the wantonness of scortatory love in hell are dung and mud; the smells which make them perceptible there are stenches and foulness; and the forms of animals and birds which make them clear to view are pigs, snakes, and the birds called ochim and tziim.*

On the other hand the chaste pleasures of conjugial love are portrayed in heaven by gardens and flowery meadows; the smells which make them perceptible are the aroma of fruits and the fragrance of flowers; and the forms of animals which make them clear to view are lambs, kids, doves and birds of paradise. The reason why the pleasure of loves are turned into these and similar forms is that all the things that come into existence in the spiritual world are correspondences. The inward levels of the minds of the people there are turned into these forms as they pass through and become outward, so as to be grasped by the senses. But it should be known that there are countless varieties of uncleanness, into which the wantonness of fornication is turned as it passes into corresponding forms. These varieties are classified into genera and species, which will be seen in the following sections, where adultery and its degrees are discussed. But such uncleanness does not emerge from the pleasures of the love of those who have come to their senses, because they have been washed clean of them in the world. * Birds mentioned in the Old Testament, e.g. Isa. 13:21; Jer. 50:39, Ps. 74:14; see TCR 45:2.