3302. And they called his name Esau. That this signifies its quality, namely, the quality of the natural as to good, is evident from the signification of “calling a name,” or of “calling by name,” as being to know what the thing is, thus its quality (see n. 144, 145, 440, 768, 1754, 1896, 2009, 2724, 3237); and from the fact that all names whatever in the Word in the internal sense denote actual things (n. 1224, 1888); and such is the case with the name Esau. That “Esau” signifies the Lord’s Divine natural as to Divine good when first conceived, is evident from what has been already said, and from what follows concerning Esau, as also from other parts of the Word; but as Esau and Edom have nearly the same signification, with the difference that “Edom” is the Divine natural as to good to which are adjoined the doctrinal things of truth, therefore at verse 30, where Esau is called “Edom,” of the Lord’s Divine mercy this will be confirmed by passages from the Word.

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].

Bilješke:

4464. 'Only on this [condition] will we consent to you: If you will be as we are' means acceptance of their semblance of religion. This is clear from the meaning of 'consenting' as acceptance, and from the meaning of 'being as they are' as being interested only in external things and not in internal ones, for they would in that case have been as they were, see just above in 4459. There it was shown - in 4459 - what an interest only in external things is and what an interest in internal ones is. Here the reason why a person ought to be interested in internal ones is going to be stated. Anyone who reflects may see that man has communication with heaven by means of internal things, for the whole of heaven dwells within internal things. Unless a person is in heaven as regards his thoughts and affections, that is, as regards the thoughts in his understanding and the affections in his will, he cannot go to heaven after death, since he has no communication with it at all. During his lifetime a person secures that communication by means of truths in his understanding and goods in his will, and unless he secures it then he cannot do so subsequently, since his mind cannot be opened after death to interior things if it has not been opened to them during his lifetime.

[2] Man is not immediately conscious of the fact that a spiritual sphere surrounds him, the nature of which is determined by the life of his affections. That sphere the angels are able to perceive more clearly than any aroma reaching the keenest sense of smell in the world. If in his life he has been interested only in external things, that is to say, in the pleasures that are gained from hatred against the neighbour, from consequent revenge and cruelty, from committing adultery, from self-aggrandizement and consequent contempt for others, from unseen acts of robbery, from avarice, from deceit, and from luxuriousness, and other vices like these, the spiritual sphere which surrounds him is as offensive as the aroma in the world coming from dead bodies, dung, stinking refuse, and other things such as these. Anyone who has been leading a life like this takes that sphere with him after death; and being entirely surrounded by that sphere he cannot exist anywhere else than in hell where such spheres belong. Concerning spheres in the next life and their origins, see 1048, 1053, 1316, 1504-1519, 1695, 2401, 2489.

[3] People however who are interested in internal things - that is to say, who have taken delight in expressing good-will and charity towards the neighbour, and most of all who have found blessedness in love to the Lord - have a pleasing and lovely sphere surrounding them, which is the heavenly sphere itself; and for that reason they are in heaven. All the spheres which are perceived in the next life have their origin in the loves and in the affections deriving from those loves which have governed them. Such spheres have their origins as a consequence in their life, for their loves and affections derived from these loves constitute their life itself. And because they have their origins in their loves and affections derived from these they have their origins in the intentions and the ends in view which cause a person to will and to act in the way he does. For everyone has as his end in view that which he loves, and therefore a person's ends determine what his life is and constitute the essential nature of it; and this is the main source of the sphere around him. That sphere is perceived most perfectly in heaven the reason being that the sphere emanating from ends in view exists throughout the whole of heaven. These considerations show what someone is like whose interest is in internal things and what someone is like whose interest is in external ones, and why a person ought not to be interested only in external things but to be interested in internal ones also.

[4] But someone who is interested only in external things pays no attention to internal ones - no matter how skillful he may be in the conduct of public affairs and no matter how great a reputation he has earned for being learned - because he is the kind of person who does not believe in the existence of anything which he does not see with his eyes or feel by touch, and therefore does not believe in heaven or in hell. And if he were told that he was going to enter the next life immediately after death, where he will see, hear, speak, and enjoy a sense of touch more perfectly than when in the body he would reject it as an absurdity or sheer fantasy, when in actual fact that happens to be the truth. His reaction would be the same if anyone were to tell him that the soul or spirit which lives after death is the real person and not the body which he carries around in the world.

[5] From this it follows that those who are interested only in external things pay no attention at all to what is said concerning internal things, when yet it is these that make people blessed and happy in the kingdom which they are going to enter and in which they are going to live for ever. Such unbelief is present in most Christians, as I have been allowed to know from those to whom I have spoken who have entered the next life from the Christian world. For in the next life they are not able to conceal what they have thought since thoughts are laid completely bare there; nor are they able to conceal what ends they have had in view, that is, what they have loved, for this reveals itself through the sphere surrounding them.