154. Nothing evil or false can possibly exist that is not our own and the product of our "autonomy." Human selfhood is wickedness itself, and consequently a human being is nothing but evil and falsity.
This fact has stood out whenever I have seen people's intrinsic characteristics presented visually in the world of spirits. 1 The sight is as ugly as any a painter could paint — with variations, according to the nature of the particular personality involved. It is so hideous that the individual whose traits are being displayed shudders at herself or himself and wants to run, as if from the Devil. 2
When the Lord gives life to our intrinsic characteristics, though, they look lovely and beautiful — with variations, depending on the particular life involved and the heavenly quality the Lord can add to it. Those provided with charity, or enlivened by it, look like boys and girls with strikingly beautiful faces. Those for whom the quality is innocence look like toddlers, naked but decked out in different ways, with flower garlands around their chests or tiaras on their heads, living at play in diamond-bright air, attuned to the happiness that wells up from deep within.
Footnotes:
1. Here Swedenborg alludes to a striking feature of the spiritual world: the characteristics, moods, and thoughts of individuals may be represented around them in any of a vast variety of displays (see also notes 1 in §18, 1 in §41). For example, a hypocrite is said to create a display like a snake shedding its skin (Spiritual Experiences [Swedenborg 1998-2002] §4351), and those who think obscene things actually project obscene displays around them (Spiritual Experiences [Swedenborg 1998-2002] §1695). The displays emanating from good people, however, may be extremely beautiful (Spiritual Experiences [Swedenborg 1998-2002] §2350). Spirits are said to actually use such projections as adjuncts to their speech (Secrets of Heaven 1641:2) or as complete substitutes for it (§1764); and as tools to educate children in the next world (§2299). [SS]
2. Swedenborg here casually mentions "the Devil," which readers might take to mean one supreme "Satan," or "Lucifer," that is, an angel who was cast down and became the ruler of hell (a concept based on Isaiah 14:12; see also note 1 in §254), or else a single evil force opposite God. Both conceptions were general among Christians in Swedenborg's times; but in fuller discussions elsewhere, Swedenborg asserts that they are false. In his usage, "the Devil" is a collective term for hell (see §251:2 of the present work; Heaven and Hell 311, 544; Last Judgment 14). His terminology for those who dwell in hell is flexible. He sometimes uses the term "evil spirits" to apply to all those in hell; but at other times he speaks of two classes of people in hell, one called "evil spirits," or "satans," and the other called "devils," or "demons." The distinction is outlined in Divine Love and Wisdom 273 and Divine Providence 310:3, and mentioned in Heaven and Hell 311:2 and True Christianity 281:12. Where Swedenborg makes the distinction, "evil spirits" are associated with false thoughts, love for the world, and justification of obsessions with evil, whereas "demons" are associated with demonic loves, love for oneself, and acting out obsessions with evil. In these cases he consistently describes "devils" or "demons" as more profoundly wicked than "evil spirits" or "satans." [JSR]
