243. And white garments, that thou mayest be clothed, signifies genuine truths and intelligence therefrom. This is evident from the signification of "white garments," as being genuine truths, for garments signify truths (See above, n. 195), and "white" signifies what is genuine, and is predicated of truths (See above, n. 196); also from the signification of "to clothe," as being to acquire intelligence for oneself therefrom, for by means of genuine truths all intelligence is acquired; for the human understanding is formed to receive truths, therefore it becomes such as the truths are out of which it is formed. It is supposed that understanding is also the ability to reason from thought and to speak from falsities, and to confirm falsities by many arguments; but this is not understanding, it is only a faculty granted to man with the memory to which it is adjoined, and of which it is an activity. Yet by means of this faculty the understanding is born and formed, so far as man receives truths from affection; but genuine truths it is not possible for any man to receive from affection except only from the Lord, since they are from Him; consequently, to receive understanding, or to become intelligent, is not given to any man, except only from the Lord, but it is given to everyone who applies himself to receive (according to what was said above, n. 239. This, therefore, is signified by "I counsel thee to buy of Me white garments, that thou mayest be clothed."

123. Since the Lord does appear in heaven as a sun because of the divine love that is in him and from him, all the people there constantly turn toward him. The inhabitants of the heavenly kingdom turn toward him as the sun, while the inhabitants of the spiritual kingdom turn toward him as the moon. In contrast, the inhabitants of hell turn toward the darkness and dimness that are on the opposite side, and therefore turn away from the Lord. This is because all the people who are in the hells are caught up in love for themselves and the world and are therefore opposed to the Lord. The ones who turn toward the darkness that stands for our world's sun are at the back of the hells and are called "demons," while the ones who turn toward the dimness that stands for our moon are in the front of hell and are called "spirits." This is why people in the hells are described as being in darkness and people in the heavens as being in light. "Darkness" means falsity arising from evil, and "light" means truth arising from good.

The reason people turn in this way is that in the other life we all look toward what rules in our deeper natures - toward our own loves, then; and these deeper natures form the faces of angels and spirits. Further, in a spiritual world the cardinal points are not fixed the way they are in a natural world. Instead, they are determined by the way people face.

We ourselves, in spirit, are also turning in the same fashion - away from the Lord if we are caught up in self-love and love of the world, and toward him if we are in a love for him and for our neighbor. We are unaware of this, though, because we are in a natural world where the cardinal points are determined by the sun's rising and setting. Since it is hard for people to grasp this, examples will be given below where we deal with the cardinal points and with space and time in heaven.