17. All experience in heaven testifies to the Divine going forth from the Lord, which affects the angels and makes heaven, being love. For all who are there are forms of love and charity, and appear in ineffable beauty with love shining forth from their faces, their speech and every particular of their life. ¹ Moreover, there are, emanating from and surrounding every angel and every spirit, spiritual spheres of life by which their qualities, in respect of the affections of love, are known, sometimes at a considerable distance. For those spheres flow forth from the life of any one's affection and consequent thought, or from the life of his love and consequent faith. The spheres that go forth from angels are so full of love as to affect the inmost things of life of those with whom they are. They have frequently been perceived by me and they have so affected me. ² That it is from love that angels have their life was further evident from the fact that, in the other life, everyone turns himself in accordance with his love. Those who are in love to the Lord and in love towards the neighbour constantly turn themselves to the Lord, while those who are in the love of self turn themselves constantly away from the Lord. This takes place in every turning of their body. For, in the other life, spaces conform to the states of their interiors, and so do the quarters, which are not determined as in the world but are determined according to which way they are looking. Yet it is not the angels who turn themselves to the Lord, but the Lord Who turns to Him those who love to do the things that are from Him. ³ But more will be written on these matters in the following pages where the quarters in the other life [are described].

Poznámky pod čarou:

5199. 'Beautiful in appearance' means which are expressions of faith. This is clear from the meaning of 'beauty' and 'appearance'. Spiritual 'beauty' is essentially an affection for interior truth, while spiritual 'appearance' is essentially faith, so that 'beautiful in appearance' means an affection for the truth of faith, see 553, 3080, 3821, 4985. The reason spiritual beauty is an affection for interior truth is that truth is the outward form taken by good. The good which they receive in heaven from the Divine provides angels with the life they possess; but the outward form taken by that life is provided by the truths springing from that good. The truth of faith however does not provide the beauty but the affection itself present within the truths of faith springing from good. Beauty that is provided solely by the truth of faith is like the beauty of a face seen in a painting or a sculpture, but the beauty provided by an affection for truth springing from good is like the beauty of a real face full of life imparted to it by heavenly love; for as is the love - that is, as is the affection - which shines out of the form provided by the face, so is the beauty seen there. This being so, the outward appearance of the angels is indescribably beautiful. Their faces are radiant with the good of love passing through the truth of faith, which good and truth not only present themselves visually but can also be felt from the spheres that emanate from them.

[2] The reason why this is the source of beauty is that heaven in its entirety is the Grand Man and has a correspondence with every single part of the human being. Everyone therefore who has the good of love and for that reason the truth of faith present in him has the form which heaven possesses present within him; and as a consequence of this there is also imparted to him the beauty which heaven possesses, heaven being a place where the Divine going forth from the Lord is the All in all. This also explains why those in hell, being the opposite of what is good and true, are horribly ugly, and in the light of heaven do not look like human beings but like monsters. The reason why spiritual appearance (aspectus) is faith is that in the internal sense 'looking at (aspicere) and seeing' means understanding, and in a sense more internal than this having faith is meant, see 897, 2150, 2315, 2807, 3863, 3869, 4403-4421.