If we turn ourselves toward the Lord, we can get the full inflowing of His wisdom and love; if we turn away from Him we cast ourselves into cold and shadow -- we turn ourselves toward hell. In the Bible, "turning" generally refers to a change in spiritual state, as people turn themselves toward the Lord or away from the Lord.

138. This turning toward the Lord is an active turning--it is a kind of lifting up. We are actually lifted into heaven's warmth and light, and this is accomplished by an opening of our inner reaches. When these have been opened, love and wisdom flow into the deeper reaches of our minds and heaven's warmth and light flow into the deeper reaches of our bodies. This results in a lifting, as though we were brought out of the mist into clear air, or out of the air into the ether. Further, love and wisdom, together with their warmth and light, are the Lord with us, the Lord who, as already noted [130], turns us toward himself.

The opposite holds for people who are not engaged in love and wisdom, and all the more for people who resist love and wisdom. The deeper reaches of their minds and bodies alike are closed; and when they are closed, then their outer natures resist the Lord because this is their inherent nature. This is why such people turn away from the Lord, and this "turning away" is a turning toward hell.