18. 'The face ¹ of the deep' is that person's desires and resulting falsities, of which he consists and in which he is completely absorbed; and because he has no light at all he is like the deep, or something thoroughly obscure. Throughout the Word such people are also called 'the deep' and 'the depths of the sea' which are dried up or laid waste until a person's regeneration starts, as in Isaiah,

Awake as in the days of antiquity, the generations of long ago. Was it not You that did dry up the sea, the waters of the great deep; making the depths of the sea a road for the redeemed to go across? Let the ransomed of Jehovah return. Isaiah 51:9-11.

Furthermore, when looked at from heaven, this kind of person resembles a darkened mass with no life to it. The same expressions embody within them in general the vastation in man, described many times by the Prophets, which precedes regeneration. For before a person can know what truth is, or be moved by good, the things that hinder and offer resistance must be removed. Thus the old man must die before the new one can be conceived.

Footnotes:

There are two aspects to the life of each person. We might call them "heart" and "mind," a part of us that wants and feels and a part of us that thinks and knows. The Writings usually refer to these as the "will" and the "understanding." They are reflections, and receptacles, of the Lord's infinite love and infinite wisdom. Of the two, the heart or will is ultimately the most important. Who we actually are is determined by what we love, and the things in our heart ultimately determine our place in heaven (or hell). But the will is beyond our control; we can't force ourselves to want something good or to not want something bad; we can control our actions, but not our feelings. Because of this power, the Lord works subtly and carefully in our hearts, in ways we can't sense. Most of the work and interaction goes on in our minds through the working of what the Writings call "Divine Truth," which is essentially the Lord's entire essence expressed in a form that is compatible with our minds. When the Bible talks about the Lord's "spirit," it represents this operation of Divine Truth in our minds, the way he reaches out and embraces us, and invites us to embrace him back. And when the Bible talks about people having "spirit," it is talking about our minds when we embrace Divine Truth.