457. When we first enter the world of spirits (which happens shortly after the reawakening just described), our spirit has a similar face and tone of voice as it did in the world. This is because at that point we are in the state of our external concerns, with our deeper concerns not yet uncovered. This is our initial state after decease. Later, though, our face changes and becomes quite different. It comes to look like the ruling affection in which the deeper reaches of our minds were engaged in the world, the kind of affection characteristic of the spirit within our body, because the face of our spirit is very different from the face of our body. We get our physical face from our parents and our spiritual face from our affection, which it images. Our spirit takes on this face after our physical life is over, when the outer coverings have been removed. This is our third state.

I have seen some newcomers from the world and have recognized them by their faces and voices; but when I saw them later, I did not recognize them. People who were engaged in good affections had lovely faces, while people who were engaged in evil affections had ugly ones. Seen in its own right, our spirit is nothing but our affections, whose outward form is our face.

The reason our faces change is that in the other life no one is allowed to pretend to affections they do not really have, so we cannot put on a face that is contrary to the love we are engaged in. We are all refined down to a state in which we say what we think and manifest in expression and act what we intend. This is why our faces all become forms and images of our affections; and this is why all the people who have known each other in the world still recognize each other in the world of spirits, but not in heaven or hell, as already noted (427). ¹

Notes de bas de page:

121. (Verse 10) Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer. That this signifies that they should not grieve on account of such persecution is evident from the signification of fear when said of those who are about to suffer persecutions, as being that they should not grieve in mind, for such fear is also grief; and from the signification of those things which thou shalt suffer from those who are in all kinds of falsity, as being that these are about to persecute. The persecution of those who are in the spiritual affection of truth, by those who are in falsities, is now treated of. This is particularly evident from those who are of such a character in the world of spirits (concerning which world see what is said in the work, Heaven and Hell 421-535); for there the quality of every one as to the interiors of his thought and intention is made evident, because every one there is in himself, because he is a spirit, and it is the spirit which thinks and intends. All spirits there are conjoined either with the hells or with the heavens.Those who are conjoined with the hells, as soon as they perceive any one who is in the spiritual affection of truth, begin to burn with hatred, and endeavour to destroy him; they cannot even endure the sight of him. When most of these perceive only slightly the delight of the spiritual affection of truth, which is the essential delight of heaven, they become insane, as it were, and nothing is then more delightful to them than to endeavour to extinguish it. It is evident from this, that all in the hells are in opposition, to the spiritual affection of truth, and all in the heavens are in that affection. It would be similar on earth among men, if they had the perception which spirits have; but because this is not the case, and hence they do not know those who are in spiritual affection, they remain quiet, and act amicably, according to the delights of the world.

This disposition, however, manifests itself in the churches, among those who study religious dogmas, and also among those who are in that spiritual affection, by this circumstance, that falsities break out in their thoughts, striving to extinguish their desire, and the delight thence derived. Such falsities are from hell; for everything that a man thinks is either from hell or heaven (as was said above, n. 120).

5695. 'And he washed his face' means that it took steps to ensure this. This is clear from the meaning of 'washing his face' here as taking steps to ensure that it remained unseen; for Joseph's face was washed, and so steps were taken by him to ensure that his tears remained unseen. The full implications of this will in the Lord's Divine mercy be stated further on; but let something be said at this point about the correspondence of a person's face with his interiors. His face is what is external serving to represent his interiors. For the face has been designed in such a way that a person's interiors may be seen there as if in a mirror that reflects things in a representative fashion; it has been so designed that another may know its owner's attitude of mind towards himself, so that the owner reveals his sentiments when he speaks not only through his speech but also through his face. This was the kind of face possessed by the most ancient people who belonged to the celestial Church, and it is the kind that all angels have. Angels have no wish to conceal from others anything they think, for they think solely of their neighbour's well-being. Nor do they have any thought hidden away which desires their neighbour's well-being for some selfish reason of their own.

[2] But those in hell, as long as they are not seen in the light of heaven, have a face other than the one that corresponds to their interiors. The reason for this is that during their lifetime they bore witness by means of their face to charity towards the neighbour solely for the sake of their own position and gain; they did not desire their neighbour's well being except insofar as it was identical with their own. Consequently the expression on their face is at variance with their interiors. Sometimes that variance is so great that feelings of enmity, hatred, and revenge, and the desire to murder are inwardly present, yet their face is set in such a way that love towards their neighbour is beaming from it. From this one may see how far people's interiors disagree at the present day with their exteriors, and why they resort to those kinds of practices to serve their own interests.