Arcana Coelestia (Potts) n. 5102

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5102. Saying, Wherefore are your faces evil today? That this signifies from what affection was this sadness, is evident from the signification of "faces," as being the interiors (see n. 358, 1999, 2434, 3527, 4066, 4796, 4797), thus the affections. For the interiors of man from which come the thoughts which are also interiors, are the affections; because as these are of his love, they are of his life. It is known that with those who are in innocence the affections are presented visibly in the face; and as the affections are so presented, so also are the thoughts in general, for these are the forms of the affections. Hence regarded in itself the face is nothing else than a representative image of the interiors. To the angels all faces appear thus, and not otherwise; for the angels do not see the faces of men in their material form, but in their spiritual form, that is, in the form which the affections and the derivative thoughts present. These are what make the very face of man, as may be known from the fact that when the face is deprived of them it is a mere dead thing, and that the face has life from them, and is pleasing according to them. The sadness of the affection, or "from what affection is it," is signified by his saying, "Wherefore are your faces evil today?"


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