ANGELS TURN THEIR FACES CONSTANTLY TO THE LORD AS A SUN, AND THUS HAVE THE SOUTH TO THE RIGHT, THE NORTH TO THE LEFT, AND THE WEST BEHIND THEM

DLW 129. All that is here said of angels, and of their turning to the Lord as a sun, is to be understood also of man, as regards his spirit. For man in respect to his mind is a spirit, and if he be in love and wisdom, is an angel; consequently, after death, when he has put off his externals, which he had derived from the natural world, he becomes a spirit or an angel. And because angels turn their faces constantly toward the sun in the east, thus toward the Lord, it is said also of any man who is in love and wisdom from the Lord, that "he sees God," that "he looks to God," that "he has God before his eyes," by which is meant that he lives as an angel does. Such things are spoken of in the world, because they actually take place (existunt) both in heaven and in the spirit of man. Who does not look before himself to God when he prays, to whatever quarter his face may be turned?

DLW 130. Angels turn their faces constantly to the Lord as a sun, because they are in the Lord, and the Lord in them; and the Lord interiorly leads their affections and thoughts, and turns them constantly to Himself; consequently they cannot do otherwise than look towards the east where the Lord appears as a sun; from which it is evident that angels do not turn themselves to the Lord, but the Lord turns them to Himself. For when angels think interiorly of the Lord, they do not think of Him otherwise than as being in themselves. Real interior thought does not cause distance, but exterior thought, which acts as one with the sight of the eyes; and for the reason that exterior thought, but not interior, is in space; and when not in space, as in the spiritual world, it is still in an appearance of space. But these things can be little understood by the man who thinks about God from space. For God is everywhere, yet not in space. Thus He is both within and without an angel; consequently an angel can see God, that is, the Lord, both within himself and without himself; within himself when he thinks from love and wisdom, without himself when he thinks about love and wisdom. But these things will be treated of in detail in treatises on The Lord's Omnipresence, Omniscience, and Omnipotence. Let every man guard himself against falling into the detestable false doctrine that God has infused Himself into men, and that He is in them, and no longer in Himself; for God is everywhere, as well within man as without, for apart from space He is in all space (n. 7-10, 69-72); whereas if He were in man, He would be not only divisible, but also shut up in space; yea, man then might even think himself to be God. This heresy is so abominable, that in the spiritual world it stinks like carrion.

DLW 131. The turning of angels to the Lord is such that at every turn of their bodies they look toward the Lord as a sun in front of them. An angel may turn himself round and round, and thereby see the various things that are about him, still the Lord as a sun appears constantly before his face. This may seem wonderful, yet it is the truth. It has also been granted me to see the Lord thus as a sun. I see Him now before my face; and for several years I have so seen Him, to whatever quarter of the world I have turned.

DLW 132. Since the Lord as a sun, consequently the east, is before the faces of all angels of heaven, it follows that to their right is the south; to their left the north; and behind them the west; and this, too, at every turn of the body. For all quarters in the spiritual world are determined from the east; therefore those who have the east before their eyes are in these very quarters, yea, are themselves what determine the quarters; for the quarters are not from the Lord as a sun, but from the angels according to reception (n. 124-128).

DLW 133. Now since heaven is made up of angels, and angels are of such a nature, it follows that all heaven turns itself to the Lord, and that, by means of this turning, heaven is ruled by the Lord as one man, as in His sight it is one man. That heaven is as one man in the sight of the Lord, see (HH n. 59-87). Also from this are the quarters of heaven.

DLW 134. Since the quarters are thus inscribed as it were on the angel, as well as on the whole heaven, an angel, unlike man in the world, knows his own home and his own dwelling-place wherever he goes. Man does not know his home and dwelling-place from the spiritual quarter in himself, because he thinks from space, thus from the quarters of the natural world, which have nothing in common with the quarters of the spiritual world. But birds and beasts have such knowledge, for it is implanted in them to know of themselves their homes and dwelling-places, as is evident from abundant observation; a proof that such is the case in the spiritual world; for all things that have form (existunt) in the natural world are effects, and all things that have form in the spiritual world are the causes of these effects. There does not take place (existit) a natural that does not derive its cause from a spiritual.

Divine Love and Wisdom

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Author:  E. Swedenborg (1688-1772).

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