8858. A person's whole character is determined by the nature of whatever dominates his life; this is what marks him off from others. His heaven is formed in accordance with it if he is good, or his hell if he is bad. For it constitutes his true will and so the true being of his life, which is unchangeable after death. From all this one may see what the life is like in a person who has been regenerated, and what it is like in one who has not been regenerated.

8865. How to understand 'reigning universally' becomes clear from what has been stated and shown above in 8853-8858. What reigns universally with a person is that which is present in every idea of his thought and every desire of his will, consequently which constitutes his actual mind or life. That which reigns universally within a person should be the Lord, for that which reigns universally within the angels in heaven is the Lord, and they are for this reason said to be 'in the Lord'. The Lord starts to reign in a person when he not only believes that everything good and everything true comes from Him but also loves it to be so. Angels not only truly believe but also perceive it to be so, and that is why their life is the Lord's life within them. The life of their will is the life of love coming from the Lord, and the life of their understanding is the life of faith coming from the Lord. All this shows what is meant when it is said that the Lord is the All in all of heaven, and that He is heaven. When the Lord reigns universally with a member of the Church, as He does with angels in heaven, the Lord is within every truth and good of faith residing with him, just as the heart is within all the blood vessels, since they derive from it their origin, and the blood which is their life.

[2] In addition it should be recognized that the kind of spirits or the kind of angels who are present with a person is determined by the nature of what reigns universally in him. The reason for this is that what reigns universally is the being (esse) of anyone's life, 8853, 8858. All the cheerfulness and all the contentment a person has, even when thinking about other matters, springs from it. For in it the angels and spirits present with him reside and so to speak have a dwelling-place; their gladness enters the person and creates the cheerfulness and contentment. The person does not realize that they are the source of it because a person does not know that his life flows in, or that what reigns universally constitutes his life, or that when something touches this core of his life the effect is like that which visual objects have on the pupil of the eye, that is, pleasure when they are beautiful and pain when they are not beautiful. The term 'universally' is used because it implies every single thing within the whole, so that what reigns universally is that which exists in each individual part, see 1919 (end), 5949, 6159, 6338, 6482, 6483, 6571, 7648, 8067.

6571. 'And you thought evil against me' means that the things which have become alienated intend nothing but evil. This is clear from the representation of the sons of Jacob, to whom 'you refers here, as the things which have become alienated from truth and good, dealt with above in 6557, for when the brothers contemplated evil against Joseph they represented things which have become alienated; and from the meaning of 'thinking evil against me' as intending evil, for evil that is contemplated against someone is evil that is intended. And since things which have become alienated cannot intend what is good, it is therefore said that they intend nothing but evil. What is implied when it is said that the things which have become alienated from truth and good intend nothing but evil is this: A person who has become alienated from good and truth intends nothing but evil, since he cannot intend good; and what he intends reigns in him and is therefore present in all his thoughts, and in every smallest part of his being. For that which is a person's intention or end in view constitutes his actual life, that end in view being his love, and that love his life. What is more, a person's essential character is exactly like the end he holds in view; and the image of him seen in the light of heaven is also exactly like it. And what will perhaps astonish you, as is the image that he presents overall, so is the image presented in every smallest feature of his will. This means that a person is wholly and completely identifiable with his end in view.

[2] From this it may be seen that a person who is in himself an evil end cannot possibly be among those who are good ends, that is, one who is in hell cannot possibly be in heaven; for these ends conflict with each other, though the good ends triumph because they are from the Divine. From this it may also be seen that those people do not think correctly who believe that anyone at all can be admitted into heaven solely through an act of mercy. If one who is in himself an evil end comes into heaven, he finds it difficult to stay alive, like one in mortal agony, and is grievously tormented, quite apart from the fact that he looks like a devil there in the light of heaven. From this it is evident that those who have become alienated from truth and good cannot help contemplating what is evil. This is so in the smallest details of their thought and will, as is plainly evident from the sphere that emanates from people like this when a long way off. For one detects from that sphere what they are like; that sphere is so to speak a spiritual vapour appearing out of every detail of their life.