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:

10189. 'On its two ribs' means with truths lying in one direction, that is to say, a joining together with them and preservation by means of them. This is clear from the meaning of 'the ribs', when used to mean the sides, as truths; for the sides that are called 'the ribs' face the south and the north, and 'the south' means truth dwelling in light, 9642, while 'the north' means truth dwelling in shade, 3708. But by 'the sides' which are properly the sides good is meant since these face the east and the west, and 'the east' means good set in clearness and 'the west' good set in obscurity, 3708, 9653. Therefore it says here,

Two rings of gold you shall make for it under the rim; on its two ribs you shall make them, on its two sides.

The fact that the sides which are properly the sides face the east and the west, whereas the sides which are called 'the ribs' face the south and the north is evident in Exodus 26:13, 26-27, 35 ¹ . Furthermore since the ribs serve to reinforce the chest truths giving support to good are meant by them.

[2] In heaven however the layout is such that to the right there are those who dwell in the light of truth, thus who are in the south, but to the left those who dwell in the shade of truth, thus who are in the north. Before one's face there are those whose perception of good is clear, thus who are in the east, but behind one's back there are those whose perception of good is dim, thus who are in the west. These angels dwelling in the regions of good constitute the Lord's celestial kingdom, but the others dwelling in the regions of truth constitute the Lord's spiritual kingdom. This is how the angels there, whichever way they turn, see everything to be laid out; for angels have the Lord, who is the East, unceasingly in front of their face. But the contrary is so with those in hell, for they have the Lord unceasingly behind their back.

[3] In the next life the four quarters are not determined, as they are in the world, by where fixed regions lie, but by ruling loves that remain fixed.

[4] For his love makes an angel or a spirit what he is, and where that love is, in that direction he turns. Those in whom love to the Lord and charity towards the neighbour reign, and therefore in whom faith is present, behold the Lord in front of themselves whichever way they turn their face and body. For the Lord turns them towards Himself; He enters them by the way from the east and keeps them fixed unceasingly on Himself. As a consequence - since their outward sight is under the control of the inward sight belonging to their understanding, and this inward sight is under the control of the love belonging to their will - their outward sight looks in the direction in which that love bears it. It is similar with people in the world so far as their interiors, which constitute their spirit, are concerned. Also, all in the next life are identified, every one, by the direction in which they turn.

As regards things of a spatial nature and locations in the next life, that they are of the same nature as those described above, and that they therefore mean states, see 2625, 2837, 3356, 3387, 4321, 4882, 5605, 7381, 9440, 9967, 10146.

Bilješke: