5962. 'And he sent his brothers away, and they went' means a concealment from view. This is clear from the meaning of 'sending away as removing them from himself, consequently his ceasing for that reason to be present with them any longer; and from the meaning of 'going' or going away as living, also living further away from, and abandoning too, dealt with in 3335, 3416, 3690, 4882, 5493, 5696, thus becoming concealed from view. The fact that a removal from the internal celestial and so a concealment of it is referred to now is clear from what follows in the internal sense.

[2] Anyone who does not know the nature of the state of life experienced by spirits and angels in heaven cannot know why a concealment of truth and good is referred to now, when immediately before this they had had the light of truth and good shining on them. The heavenly state is such that spirits and angels pass through morning, midday, and evening, also twilight and morning again, and so on. For them it is morning when the Lord is present, blessing them with evident happiness; and at this time they enjoy a perception of good. Midday has come when they dwell in the light of truths; and it is evening when they are removed from them, in which case the Lord seems to them to be more remote and to be concealed from them. All in heaven undergo and pass through these alternating states; without them they cannot be led to ever greater perfection. For those alternating states establish contrasts for them, and from those contrasts they gain more perfect perception, for from those contrasts they know what does not constitute happiness since they know from them what is not good and what is not true.

[3] It is astonishing, and rightly so, that one state never is or ever will be exactly like another, also that one spirit or angel does not pass through changes of state that are the same as those of another, for the reason that with respect to good and truth one spirit or angel is not exactly like another, even as no one person's face is identical to another's. Even so the Lord makes a unified whole out of those varying individuals. It is a general rule that every whole which has any specific character is made up of varying parts which are brought, as if through agreement and harmony with one another, into such a state of unanimity that they all present themselves as a unified whole. In heaven the unified whole which results or rather the process of being unified is effected by means of love and charity; see also 3241, 3267, 3744, 3745, 3986, 4005, 4149, 5598. In the Word the concealment meant by 'Joseph sent away his brothers, and they went' is called evening, which among the angels has come when they do not perceive that the Lord is present. For heaven possesses a constant perception of the Lord's presence; but when angels pass through a state in which they lack that perception they do not, as before, feel an affection for good or see truth. This causes them distress, but shortly after that, twilight comes, and so morning.

3743. People however in whom love to the Lord and love towards the neighbour are not present, nor consequently the life of good and truth, are incapable of acknowledging that but one life alone flows in, let alone that this life comes from the Lord. But all such persons are incensed, indeed they are repelled, when told that they do not live of themselves. Self-love is what causes this. And what is amazing, although those people are shown by actual experiences in the next life that they do not live of themselves and at those times say that they are convinced of the truth of it, they nevertheless subsequently cling to their same old opinion and imagine that if they did live from another and not from themselves every joy of their life would melt away - unaware that quite the contrary is the case.

[2] Consequently the evil make evil their own because they do not believe that evils originate in hell; and they are incapable of making good their own because they believe that good begins in themselves and not from the Lord. Even so, the evil, as also those in hell, are recipient forms of life from the Lord, but they are forms such as either reject, or stifle, or pervert what is good and true; and so with them goods and truths, which come with the Lord's life, are turned into evils and falsities. It is like the light of the sun. Although that light is one alone and white it is nevertheless made varied as it strikes different objects, that is, flows into them, producing colours that are beautiful and pleasant, and also those that are hideous and unpleasant.