76. (Verse 17) And when I saw him. That this signifies the presence of the Divine majesty, is evident from those things which precede concerning the Son of man, which all pertain to the Divine majesty, as is clear from the explanation of them in the internal sense. As, that He was clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the breasts with a golden girdle, by which is signified that Divine truth and Divine good proceed from Him; that His head and His hairs were white, as white wool, as snow, by which is signified the Divine in primaries and in ultimates; that His feet were like unto fine brass as if they burned in a furnace, by which is signified that His Human, even in ultimates, was full of Divine love; that His voice was as the voice of many waters, by which is signified that all Divine truth is from Him; that He had in His right hand seven stars, by which is signified that thence are all the goods and truths of heaven and of the church; that out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, by which is signified that by Him all falsities are dispersed; that His face was as the sun shineth in His power, by which is signified that from His Divine love were all things of heaven; that these things are Divine, and were seen full of Divine majesty, is clear.

[2] That to see, in this place, signifies the presence of those things, and now the inmost presence, is evident from its being also said before that he saw those things (verse 12), from which sight also they are described; and that now again it is said, I saw Him; and that from this vision he fell at His feet as dead. This is why by seeing is here signified the presence of the Divine majesty; this presence was granted to John, when he saw His face as the sun in his power, for therefrom he was enlightened and filled with astonishment on account of the Divine; for from the Lord, as a Sun, is all Divine light; and Divine light passes into the interiors; such therefore as is the Divine presence, such also is the impletion (as is evident from what is adduced in the work, Heaven and Hell, respecting the Lord as a sun, n. 116-225; respecting the light and heat thence in heaven, n. 126-140; and respecting turning to Him, n. 17, 123, 144, 145, 151, 255, 272, 510, 548, 561). Moreover it must be observed that man has two forms of seeing, one from thought-faith, and the other from love. Whilst he sees only from thought-faith, his seeing is without astonishment on account of the Divine majesty; but when the seeing is from love, then it is attended with astonishment at the Divine majesty; the reason being that it is then turned to Him, for love turns it, but thought-faith without love does not (as is evident from the passages above quoted concerning turning to the Lord, from the work, Heaven and Hell). That this is the case is very well known in the spiritual world. It is therefore clear that by "I saw him," the second time, is signified the presence of the Divine majesty.

123. Since the Lord does appear in heaven as a sun because of the divine love that is in him and from him, all the people there constantly turn toward him. The inhabitants of the heavenly kingdom turn toward him as the sun, while the inhabitants of the spiritual kingdom turn toward him as the moon. In contrast, the inhabitants of hell turn toward the darkness and dimness that are on the opposite side, and therefore turn away from the Lord. This is because all the people who are in the hells are caught up in love for themselves and the world and are therefore opposed to the Lord. The ones who turn toward the darkness that stands for our world's sun are at the back of the hells and are called "demons," while the ones who turn toward the dimness that stands for our moon are in the front of hell and are called "spirits." This is why people in the hells are described as being in darkness and people in the heavens as being in light. "Darkness" means falsity arising from evil, and "light" means truth arising from good.

The reason people turn in this way is that in the other life we all look toward what rules in our deeper natures - toward our own loves, then; and these deeper natures form the faces of angels and spirits. Further, in a spiritual world the cardinal points are not fixed the way they are in a natural world. Instead, they are determined by the way people face.

We ourselves, in spirit, are also turning in the same fashion - away from the Lord if we are caught up in self-love and love of the world, and toward him if we are in a love for him and for our neighbor. We are unaware of this, though, because we are in a natural world where the cardinal points are determined by the sun's rising and setting. Since it is hard for people to grasp this, examples will be given below where we deal with the cardinal points and with space and time in heaven.