“The eyes are the windows of the soul.” That’s an ideas that has become cliché because it is both poetic and obviously true. We feel that if we can look in someone’s eyes, we can truly know what they are inside.
And it’s not just the eyes; really it is the face as a whole that conveys this. As Swedenborg puts it, the face is “man’s spiritual world presented in his natural world” (Heaven and Hell, No. 91). Our faces reveal our inner thoughts and feelings in myriad ways, which is why psychologists, poker players and criminal investigators spend so much time studying them.
It makes sense, then, that people’s faces in the Bible represent their internal selves, the thoughts, loves and desires they hold most deeply. We turn our faces to the ground to show humility when we bow in worship; we turn them to the mountains when seeking inspiration; we turn them toward our enemies when we are ready to battle temptation. When things are hard, we need to “face facts,” or accept them internally.
When the topic is the Lord’s face, it represents the Lord’s interiors, which are perfect love and perfect mercy. Swedenborg says that love and mercy are unwavering, constant, beaming even of the most evil of people. Yet in the Bible the Lord is often described as “hiding his face.” How could that be?
The answer is as simple as a sunset. When we stand outside and watch the sun go down over the horizon, it appears that the sun is changing, moving away from us. We all know, of course, that in reality the sun is constant and the Earth is turning; it looks the way it does to us because we’re standing on the surface of the Earth.
It is, according to Swedenborg, the same with the Lord. His love is constant, shining like the sun, but we are so locked into our own perspective that when we turn away, it looks to us like the Lord is turning away.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 358
358. ‘The face* falling’ means change taking place as to interiors. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the face’ and from the meaning of ‘falling’. Among the ancients the face meant internal things, for it is through the face that internal things shine forth. What is more, people in most ancient limes were such that the face was in complete accord with internal things, so that anyone could see from another person’s face the character of his disposition or mind (animus aut mens). They considered it something monstrous to express one thing in the face and to be thinking another; pretence and deceit in those times were abhorrent. Consequently the face meant things that were internal. When charity shone out of the face, theface was said to be ‘lifted up’, but when the reverse happened the face was said to ‘fall’. This also explains why the Lord is referred to as lifting up His face upon man, as in the Blessing in Num. 6:26 and Ps. 4:6, which means the Lord’s gift of charity to man. What ‘the falling of the face’ means is clear in Jeremiah,
I will not cause My face to fall upon you, for I am merciful, said Jehovah. Jer. 3:12.
By ‘Jehovah’s face’ is meant mercy. When He ‘lifts up His face’ on anyone, He is from His mercy imparting charity to him. The reverse is the case when He ’causes His face to fall’, that is, when man’s face falls.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 1999
1999. That ‘Abram fell on his face’* means adoration is clear without explanation. Falling on one’s face’ was the reverent way in which the Most Ancient Church, and as a consequence the ancients, expressed adoration. The reason they expressed it in this way was that ‘the face’ meant the inward parts, and ‘falling on one’s face’* represented a state of humiliation of those inward parts; and from this it became in the Jewish representative Church an act of reverence.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 2219
2219. ‘They looked towards the face of Sodom’ means the state of the human race. This is clear from the meaning of ‘looking towards the face’, here ‘towards the faceof Sodom’. In the Word ‘the face’ means all man’s interiors – evil as well as good – for the reason that these shine out of the face, as shown in Volume One, in 358. Here therefore, because ‘the face’ is used in reference to Sodom, it is interior evils, which are those of self-love, that are meant; for interior evils in general are meant by ‘Sodom’, as will be evident from what follows in the next paragraph. The reason the worst evils of all originate in self-love is that self-love is destructive of human society, as shown above in 2045, and destructive of heavenly society, 2057. And since the perversity of the human race is recognized from that love, here ‘the face of Sodom’ means the state of the human race.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 4299
4299. ‘For I have seen God face to face, and my soul is delivered’ means that He suffered the severest temptations, seemingly attributable to the Divine. This is clear from the meaning of ‘seeing God’ as going closer to Him by means of interior things, that is to say, by means of goods and truths, and consequently as presence, dealt with in 4198; and from the meaning of ‘the face’ as interior things, dealt with in 1999, 2434, 3527, 3573, 4066, and so as thoughts and affections, for affections and thoughts are interior things because they belong to the disposition and mind (animus et mens) and reveal themselves in the face; and from the meaning of ‘my soul is delivered’ as suffering God’s presence.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 5585
5585. ‘Saying, You will not see my face’ means that no compassion will show itself. This is clear from the meaning of ‘face’, when used in reference to a person, as his interiors, that is to say, his affections and consequent thoughts, dealt with in 358, 1999, 2434, 3527, 3573, 4066, 4796, 4797, 5102. But when used in reference to the Lord, for the Lord is represented in the highest sense by ‘Joseph’, ‘face’ means mercy and compassion, and therefore ‘not seeing his face’ means a lack of mercy or absence of compassion. Not that the Lord lacks any compassion, for He is pure mercy; but when the intermediary that effects the joining to Him is not present it does seem to a person as though there is no compassion in the Lord. The reason for this is that if no intermediary effecting the joining together is present, no acceptance of good takes place. And if there is no acceptance of good, evil is present instead. If at this time the person calls out to the Lord because evil prompts him to do so, thus for selfish reasons in defiance of anyone else’s needs, he is not heard, in which case it seems as though no compassion shows itself.
[2] As regards ‘Jehovah’s (or the Lord’s) face’ meaning mercy, this is evident from the Word; for understood properly ‘Jehovah’s (or the Lord’s) face’ is Divine love itself, and being Divine love it is the face of mercy since mercy is the expression of love towards the human race set in such miseries. The truth that ‘Jehovah’s (or the Lord’s) face’ is Divine Love may be seen from the Lord’s face when He was transfigured in the presence of Peter, James, and John; that is, when He displayed His Divinity to them,
His face shone like the sun. Matt. 17:2.
It has been shown already that ‘the sun’ is Divine Love, see 30-38, 1521, 1529-1531, 2441, 2495, 3636, 3643, 4060, 4321 (end), 4696. The Lord’s actual Divinity had never previously appeared in any face; but His Divine Human had so appeared, through which, seemingly within which, Divine Love – which in relation to the human race is Divine Mercy – showed itself. This Divine Mercy within the Divine Human is called ‘the angel of His face’ in Isaiah,
I will cause the mercies of Jehovah to be remembered. He has rewarded* them according to His mercies, and according to the abundance of His mercies; and He became their Saviour. And the angel of His face saved them; in His love and in His pity He redeemed them. Isa. 63:7-9.
The expression ‘the angel’ is used because ‘angels’ in the Word means in the internal sense some attribute of the Lord, 1925, 2821, 4085, in this case His mercy, which is why the phrase ‘the angel of His face’ is used.
[3] ‘Jehovah’s (or the Lord’s) face’ is not only mercy but also peace and goodness since these are attributes of mercy, as may also be seen from the following places: In the Blessing,
Jehovah make His face shine upon you and be merciful to you. Jehovah lift up His face upon you and give you peace. Num. 6:25, 26.
Here it is quite evident that ‘making His face shine’ means showing mercy, and ‘lifting up His face’ means granting His peace. In David,
God be merciful to us and bless us, and make His face shine upon us. Ps. 67:1.
Here also ‘face’ stands for mercy. In the same author,
Turn us back, O God, and make Your face shine, that we may be saved. Ps. 80:3, 7, 19.
Here the meaning is similar. In the same author,
Deliver me from the hand of my enemies and my pursuers. Make Your face shine upon Your servant. Ps. 31:15, 16.
Likewise in Ps. 119:134, 135. In Daniel,
Hear, our God, the prayer of Your servant, and his supplications, and make Yourface shine upon Your sanctuary that has been made desolate. Dan. 9:17.
Here also ‘making His face shine’ stands for showing mercy.
[4] In David,
Many are saying, Who will cause us to see good? Lift up the light of Your faceupon us. Ps. 4:6, 7.
‘Lifting up the light of His face’ stands for His imparting good because of His mercy. In Hosea,
Let them seek My face; when they are in distress, in the morning let them seek Me. Hosea 5:15.
In David,
Seek My face! Your face, O Jehovah, will I seek. Ps. 27:8, 9.
In the same author,
Seek Jehovah and His strength; seek His face continually. Ps 105:4.
‘Seeking Jehovah’s face’ stands for seeking His mercy. In the same author,
I, in righteousness, shall see Your face. Ps. 17:15.
And in Matthew,
See that you do not despise any of these tiny ones; for I say to you that their angels in heaven always see the face of My Father who is in heaven. Matt. 18:10.
‘Seeing God’s face’ stands for the enjoyment of peace and good because of His mercy.
[5] But the contrary of this is the hiding or concealment and also the turning away of the face, by which showing no compassion is meant, as in Isaiah,
In an overflowing of My anger I hid My face from you for a moment; but with eternal mercy I will have mercy on you. Isa. 54:8.
‘An overflowing of anger’ stands for temptation in which, because the Lord does not seem to show mercy, the words ‘I hid My face from you for a moment’ are used. In Ezekiel,
I will turn My face away from them. Ezek. 7:22.
In David,
How long, O Jehovah, will You forget me [as if] for ever? How long will You hide Your face from me? Ps. 13:1
In the same author,
Do not hide Your face from me; do not cast aside Your servant in anger. Ps. 17:8, 9.
In the same author,
Why, O Jehovah, do You abandon my soul? Why do You hide Your face from me? Ps. 88:14.
In the same author,
Make haste, answer me, O Jehovah. MY spirit is consumed. Do not hide Yourface from me, lest I become like those going down into the pit. Cause me to hear Your mercy in the morning. Ps. 143:7, 8.
And in Moses,
My anger will flare up against this people on that day, so that I forsake them, and I will hide My face from them, and they will be devoured. I will certainly hide Myface on that day, because of all the evil which they have done. Deut. 31:17, 18.
‘Anger flaring up’ stands for turning oneself away, 5034, and ‘hiding one’s face’ for not showing any compassion.
[6] These actions are attributed to Jehovah or the Lord, for the reason that although He is never angry and never turns away or hides His face He is said to do so because that is how it seems to someone under the influence of evil. For the person under the influence of evil turns himself away and hides the Lord’s facefrom himself; that is, he removes His mercy from himself. The fact that it is the evils present with a person that do this is also clear from the Word, as in Micah,
Jehovah will hide His face from them at that time, inasmuch as they have rendered their deeds evil. Micah 3:4.
In Ezekiel,
Because they transgressed against Me, therefore I hid My face from them. According to their uncleanness and according to their transgressions I have dealt with them and have hidden My face from them. Ezek. 39:23, 24.
In particular in Isaiah,
Your iniquities are what separate you from your God, and your sins what cause. His face to hide from you. Isa. 59:2.
From these and many other places one may see the internal sense, which shows itself in various places and is discovered by one who is looking for it.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 10554
10554. ‘And Jehovah spoke to Moses face to face’ means Divine things in the Word that are joined together. This is clear from the meaning of ‘speaking face toface’ as being joined together, for ‘the face’ means the interiors, and when these turn towards one another and each sees a similarity, they join themselves together. This is what ‘speaking face to face’ means when it applies to Jehovah talking to Moses, by whom the Word is meant. ‘Speaking’ means perceiving, and ‘face toface’ mutually, so that each one’s perception exists in the other, which constitutes a joining together of them.
Heaven and Hell (Harley) n. 91
91. What correspondence is, may be seen from the human face. In a face which has not been taught to dissemble, all the affections of the mind come to view in a natural form as in their image. This is why the face is said to be the index of the mind; that is, it is man’s spiritual world presented in his natural world. In the same way, the things pertaining to the understanding present themselves in speech, and those pertaining to the will present themselves in the movements of the body. All things, therefore, that are done in the body, whether in the face, in speech or in bodily movements, are called correspondences.
Apocalypse Explained (Whitehead) n. 412
412. And hide us from the face of Him that sitteth upon the throne, and from the anger of the Lamb, signifies lest they should suffer direful things from the influx of Divine good united to the Divine truth proceeding from the Lord. This is evident from the signification of “hide us,” when it is said by those in whom the goods and truths of the church are destroyed by evils of life and falsities therefrom, as being lest they should suffer direful things (of which presently); also from the signification of “from the face of Him that sitteth upon the throne,” as being the Lord in respect to Divine good in heaven; that “face,” in reference to the Lord, means the Divine love, from which is Divine good in heaven, will be evident from the passages in the Word that will be cited presently; and that “He that sitteth upon the throne” means the Lord in respect to Divine good in heaven may be seen above (n. 297, 343). Also from the signification of “the anger of the Lamb,” as being the casting into hell by the influx of Divine truth proceeding from the Lord.
That “the anger of Jehovah” or of the Lord signifies this, can be seen from passages in the Word to be cited in the following article. Moreover it may be seen above (n. 297, 343) that the Lord alone is meant by “Him that sitteth upon the throne,” and by “the Lamb;” the Lord in respect to Divine good by “Him that sitteth upon the throne,” and the Lord in respect to Divine truth by “the Lamb.” The expression “the anger of the Lamb” does not mean that the Lord (who is meant by “Him that sitteth upon the throne” and by “the Lamb”) is angry, for He is Divine good itself, and that cannot be angry, for anger has nothing to do with good itself; but it is so expressed in the sense of the letter of the Word, for reasons explained elsewhere; let it be merely shown here that “the face” of Jehovah, or of the Lord, signifies the Divine love, and thence Divine good in heaven and in the church; and in the contrary sense “to set His face against anyone,” and “to hide or conceal His face,” has a similar meaning as “wrath” and “anger;” also that “theface,” in reference to man, means in both senses the interiors that belong to his mind and affection.
“SEEING THE FACE OF THE FATHER.” Rev. RICHARD DE CHARMS 1903
THE face of the Father or the Lord may be seen in finite conception by viewing thoughtfully the teaching concerning the meaning of the face of a man. A man’sface is the effigy of his interiors, thus of his affection and thought. His love and thought shine forth from his face, and are expressed in varying forms of evil or good affection and thought, as his interiors are excited and moved to some generous, unselfish, sincere and noble end, purpose, motive or resolve, or are moved by the baleful fires of selfish, lustful and gainful ends and purposes. It is true, indeed, that a man may hide the face of his spirit, veiling it over with the bodily mask of dissimulation, hypocrisy and feigned goodness, but it is nevertheless true that his face does express his interiors so far as his spirit is concerned, which after all is his real self, and the part of himself about which he should be most concerned, and most solicitous to have what it ought to be. In the other life, he will have such a face, and only such a face as is an exact image of his interiors of love and thought, beautiful and comely if his interiors are innocent and good, and ugly, deformed and monstrous if his interiors are evil and false. No amount of insincerity, deceit and hypocrisy will avail him there, no hereditary beauty of face or form will stay those inexorable changes by which, slowly, perhaps, but surely and certainly, his externals will be changed to conform in the minutest details of face and form with his interiors, until he becomes the exact picture of his ruling love.
If we could but believe, acknowledge and realize in our hearts the truth of this lesson of the face, and so perceive clearly how every evil passion born of hatred, revenge, jealousy, envy, contempt of others, sordid gain and avarice, dishonesty, untruthfulness, insincerity and deceitfulness must mar and scar and deform and render ugly our spiritual faces and forms, how anxious we would be to avoid and shun these evils as sins, and cultivate those inward graces of innocent affection and thought whereby our spirits might put on the enduring semblances of grace and beauty. Do not, indeed, these and other evils mar and scar, and deform the bodily faces and forms of men?
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How much more then their spirits! Do not the virtues of mercy, kindness, unselfish love, sincerity and truthfulness, whenever they truly move the interiors, beam from the face, and give beauty to homely features, and serve to mitigate what is of bodily awkwardness and deformity, so that we forget the latter because so affected by the former,–the grace and beauty of the spirit?
As the face of man is the index of his interiors, so the face of the Father, or the Lord, is the divine index, effigy and image of the divine interiors. In the Divine Human of the Lord they are displayed in a conception more or less elevated and glorious according to the state of each one, and are seen as the divine love and wisdom in a divine human form. Infinite and divine love, innocence, mercy, goodness, compassion, and all that our highest, purest and holiest conceptions can give to these divine attributes, shine within the ineffable and divine glory of the divine truth out of the face of the Lord. As we ascend in spirit with Peter, James and John into the mountain of our holiest thought and affection, we may behold something of that transfigured face of our Lord and Master, and see it in the radiant heat and light of the sun of infinite love, and His raiment white and glistening with the light of infinite and divine truths.
But while it is permitted at times for angels and men to behold the face of the Lord, with the eyes of the spirit, there are other ways of seeing His face, which concern us more nearly, because they point out that necessary state of spirit, and hence that absolutely necessary state of our love and thought, which alone make possible our beholding the Face of the Father which is in Heaven. In the teachings of the Church those who are good, and have received in heart and life something of the divine truth in which is the divine good, turn their faces to the Lord, and are enabled to see His face; while those who are evil, and have confirmed themselves in evils and falsities of the will and life, turn from the Lord, turn their backs upon Him, and are unable to see the Lord’s face as it really is, but only through the perverted media of their own evils and falsities, which reveal Him in the false light of their reflected evils as an evil God, hard and stern, with a face flaming with anger and ever ready to punish and cast into Hell those who do not obey Him and His laws. If, then, our ability to see the face of the Father in Heaven depends upon the presence and activity in us of states of innocence and good and truth from the Lord, and our evils and falsities prevent us from seeing His face, how plain it is that if we wish to see the face of the Father in Heaven we must dispel this dark and perverted veil of evil with us by shunning our evils and falsities, and receive in heart and life the divine truth and come into the states of innocent thought, in affection and life which the truth will reveal to us.
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So will we learn not to despise one of these little ones, which is the same as learning to shun our evils and falsities as sins against the Lord, which alone cause us to despise the little ones of innocence; and as the clouds of evil and falsity are thus parted, we will see shining through their rifts in all the splendor of infinite love and wisdom the face of the Father which is in Heaven. Can this be doubted? It is said in the teaching of the Church, that the divine truth is the face of the Father or the Lord, and truly and manifestly this is so. For the divine truth is but the manifested form of the divine love, and brings it forth to view; and the face of the Father is the divine love with its mercy, innocence and goodness. Here again it must be noted that since the face of the Father is the divine truth, and consequently shines only in the light of the divine truth, we cannot see that face, except as we are in the truth and see it in the light of truth. If, therefore, we would see the faceof the Father we must admit the divine truth into our minds.
We are also taught that the face of the Lord is the Word. This, too, is a manifest truth to those who can see the Word aright. The Word is the divine love and wisdom in lowest correspondential form. Seen in the light of its spiritual sense, the very letter glows with a light which reveals the face of the Lord; and written across its every page in letters of gold, we read: Love the Lord above all things and thy neighbor as thyself, that your eyes may be opened to see its hidden glories of wisdom and love, that you may regard it as the Lord Himself revealing to you the things of eternal life, that you may hear out of its bosom the Lord’s voice, teaching you the things you must shun and do; so may men see the face of the Father which is in Heaven in the Word, and, seeing, turn to Him and accept His gracious offer to lead them by the things of His Word into states of innocence from Him, into obedience to His commandments, and so out of the toils, enslavements and miseries of their evils and falsities into the innocence and peace and joy and useful activities which will enable them to always behold the face of the Father which is in Heaven.
HUMAN GESTURES: THE EXTREMITY OF INFLUX Rev. ERIK E. SANDSTROM 1986
Introduction
Everyone knows that the face is the index of the mind. The affections, thoughts, feelings and ideas of the mind find a ready and pliable outlet in the facial expressions and bodily gestures. How many facial features or grimaces are there? As many as there are affections. How about shades of expression using only the eyes? As many as ideas we hold. The actor or actress learns to portray human states of mind, and in a way we are all actors or actresses on the stage of life. But life is short. The question arises, How can man be judged to heaven or to hell after just a few years on earth? It is difficult to answer, because it is difficult to demonstrate everything that happens on earth. What does happen is that all adults make up their minds for heaven or for hell in just one lifetime. All people follow the laws of Divine Providence even without knowing it. When they wake up after death, they will eventually discover to their own satisfaction where they wish to enter. And everyone who then enters heaven knows that but for the Lord’s mercy, he has not deserved it. He or she may then ask, “What on earth have I done to deserve this?” or “What have I done on earth to deserve heaven?” So we ask a similar question here and now: How can we tell the presence of heaven here on earth? To what extent can we examine our own state of regeneration?
The answer, amazingly, lies in part in human gestures and facial expressions. For the spiritual world dwells in the natural, and the spirit of man dwells in the body. In our normal behaviour, there are countless gestures which express spiritual things on the level of the world. We read: “Unless spiritual things were presented representatively in the natural, thus by such things as are in the world, they would not be apprehended at all” (AC 5373:3). In other words, without physical gestures, nothing spiritual would be understood.
Influx Down to the Extremity
The Heavenly Doctrine provides some penetrating insights on this subject. We can learn about ourselves and others by reflecting on our gestures. There is even quite a basis for a sound New Church approach to the subject of psychology that is, learning something helpful about why we behave the way we do. However, too much introspection is detrimental.
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And this address on human gestures is only meant as a positive and pleasant insight into ourselves.
One main teaching on human gestures reads as follows: “The Divine order, and the heavenly order derived from it, are not terminated except in man, and what is of the body, namely his gestures, actions, looks, speech and external sensations and their delights. These are the extremes of order, and the extremes of influx which are then terminated” (AC 3632).
Now, if in hearing this quote you have raised an eyebrow, you might as well wonder why you should make such a facial expression to begin with!
The reason for the body and its actions being the extreme receptacle of all influx, we read, is that the influx does not “stop midway, but goes on to its outmosts” (HH 304). There is nothing in heaven that can terminate an influx, and so the Divine order never stops midway (see HH 315). Everything keeps going down through each heaven, and it does not stop until it reaches the “sensuous and bodily of man, which receives the influx last” (AC 7270:2).
This, incidentally, is why everything on earth is permanent, whereas in heaven everything can change in an instant, and things can be created or made to disappear.
Now to understand this further, we have to remember that everything of life inflows from the Lord. All forms of life on earth-vegetable, animal and human-are receptacles of life. The way everything was created to live is the way they continue to receive life.
But one condition for receiving life is that the receptacle has to be quite dead. For example, the inorganic earth is dead; so are our bodies dead. But we call something alive as long as the spiritual life can inflow and activate the dead natural receptacle. Life activates the soil and germinates the seeds which then extract inorganic elements and turn them into organic life. or organisms. So also the soul activates a body which is quite dead. We move our arms, and wave our hands, and say, “See, I am alive.” But it is our spirit which lives, and the spirit is the real person which moves the body. When someone dies, therefore, although to the observer someone’s life has come to an end, to the person who dies it is quite different: when you die, you in effect step out of your body, as though it were an overcoat. You then first notice your spiritual body. Every spiritual body survives every death of every natural body. All our facial and bodily gestures here on earth thus originate from our spiritual body, which lives after death.
So that is why the influx has to come down to extremes, namely the physical which lives from the spiritual. Natural human gestures are consequently the extremities of our spiritual life.
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The Face
Let us see how this works. We read: “the things of the mind beam forth from the face and are manifest in its expressions.” The “more interior affections,” we are told, “are seen from and in the eyes. When the things of the face act as one with those of the mind, they are said to correspond. The very expressions of the face represent and are representatives” (AC 2988).
And that is why we always look people in the eye: the interior affections actually are represented for our view. And the same Is the case with our gestures, which manifest what man is thinking and willing. We read on: “The gestures and actions themselves represent the things of the mind, and as they are in agreement, they are correspondences” (ibid.). Consequently, every interior affection has a bodily gesture which corresponds to it (see AC 2153). Just think: the interior affection you feel, say, when you have a silver wedding anniversary, or when you have just been honored or promoted, or when your affections have been powerfully moved, say by some news such as the liberation of a nation from servitude-all these affections have gestures, as well as looks of the eyes which represent them to view. The range of facial expressions and gestures is indefinite.
Suppose we make a gesture of impatience: a sudden move of the shoulder or head, which says in effect, “I am impatient; I can’t stand this situation much longer.” We all know what impatience feels like, and we have seen it in others. The question is, can we tell what is going on? Can we interpret people’s gestures?
Of course we can. We read: “Something similar occurs with men, who can sometimes know from another’s gestures, looks or speech what he is thinking even though it is contrary to what he saps; this knowledge is natural to man” (AC 1388).
Not only can we interpret each other’s gestures correctly, but it is an inborn ability. This knowledge is natural to man. We can even tell that a gesture does not go with the words. A gesture might say, “I am impatient,” whereas the mouth is saying. “How interesting!” We can therefore be talking with someone who has to catch a bus, and although we don’t know that fact, we feel impelled to say, “Well, I suppose we could talk all day, but I am sure you have better things to do,” but in our thought say, “I wish you had a bus to catch, so I could watch TV.”
In spite of being able to interpret gestures almost automatically, there is nonetheless a great gap between the gesture and the thought or feeling it represents. We read, “Thoughts and affections are not such as they appear in the representative speech and action, but they are on a spiritual plane, and in their own nature” (AC 2959).
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This means that although the thought appears in the words of speech, or the love is seen in the action of the body (see AC 738 1:2), nevertheless the thought itself is completely different from the words used to express it; the love as it is in itself is different from the action used to present it. It is therefore a constant miracle that we can communicate at all! We actually see spiritual things on a spiritual level, and gestures and looks are only the natural means of transferring them from mind to mind.
It is consequently possible to mistake the meaning of gestures or expressions. We cannot make rash judgments, or be sure. Sometimes you just cannot tell exactly what is going on from a mere gesture.
Take as an example: the universal shoulder shrug, with lips turned down, which to everyone means, “That’s the way it goes; what can I do?” But what lies behind it? It could be “Well, I tried,” or “I don’t care,” or, “I don’t know what to do!”
That leads on to a further complication. We add to our consideration the fact that in most western cultures there is a sophistication which hides our thoughts and feelings from view. We read, “Man is accustomed from childhood to maintain a semblance of friendship, benevolence, and sincerity, and to conceal the thoughts of his own will, thereby living a moral and civil life from habit in externals, whatever he may be like internally” (HH 492).
Is this not a bit of an indictment? We learn to dissemble, almost without being taught. As a result, we read on, “from this habit man scarcely knows what his interiors are, and gives little thought to them” (ibid.). This is what makes self-examination so important.
Does this apply also to the New Church? Perhaps it does. However, the Writings now give a very important clarification, namely that even good people have a so-called mental “deputy,” which as it were monitors his mental life, and guards lest anything of imprudence should come out in the open. This deputy is called in the Writings the “love of means.” We all have a love of means, which really refers to our ability to pretend and to simulate. We do this, do we not? If you feel grouchy, you just can’t go and hit a stranger. And when in public, we simulate for good ends. And so we manifest gestures which normally mean good things, but these really camouflage our selfish intentions.
Evil people have such a deputy just for the sake of escaping detection. Such people are the hypocrites-priests who care nothing for the neighbor and do not fear God, judges who take bribes and pervert the cause of justice, merchants who use fraud, and adulterers who talk about chastity (see DP 109).
But how do good people use this deputy or love of means? Is it right and proper for good people to dissemble?
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If Auntie, as the story goes, appears with a perfectly monstrous contraption on her head, and you are asked to comment, is it proper to say, “It becomes you very well”? Would that be hypocritical?
The answer is no, it would not be hypocritical. For the love of means of a good person also acts as a deputy, teaching and leading him to act from prudence. In fact, the love of means of a good person is prudence. Prudence is a deputy which provides clothing for man’s life’s love. It is to use prudence in revealing your true interiors (see DP 110). When we observe someone’s gestures and speech, we therefore may be observing his love of means, guarding lest his interiors be too readily revealed! We see his “deputy” guarding the real person.
We all know, for example, that if a stranger gets too familiar, we instinctively shy away from closer contact. Human prudence as a deputy clothes the real love, and ensures that we appear to each other in appropriate spiritual costume. The purpose is not to deceive, but to make ourselves appear attractive and becoming to each other. Human prudence does use subterfuges, but with good intentions.
In heaven such things are no longer necessary. There, man is truly spirit, and his face and body correspond so completely to his internals that “when he is looked upon, his character is at once known, not only from the face and body, but also from his speech and movements” (HH 552). Man’s gestures then come into their own. And because dissembling is no longer necessary, and yet people are different, all who are the same dwell together, and so have nothing to hide. Nevertheless, there are states of privacy, things which not even friends share.
To sum up this section: we can tell what people mean by their gestures and expressions; but we can also conceal our real thoughts and loves, either in a hypocritical way, which most people see through, or in a legitimate prudent manner of clothing our loves. It is an accommodation of face and gesture to the circumstances. But above and within all gestures, the thoughts and affections are in their own form and nature, which is different from the way they are represented. In heaven there may be a whole new set of gestures not possible here on earth, which portray our spiritual life in its true form. The Writings talk about angelic speech which is mixed with representatives, and gestures which express the same things as the words (see HH 244). So we have that to look forward to.
Historical View
Historically, modern man has veered far from the true order found in Most Ancient times. In those days, they could in one minute communicate by very slight lip movements what today takes an hour to express verbally (see AC 1118, 607).
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This communication was more complete, clear and full than verbal speech today (see AC 607). Such was the first type of communication on earth (and every earth): namely by facial expressions, using mostly the eyes and lips (see AC 8249).
But today our lips are locked up in comparison. The layers and layers of muscles in the lips-well known to science-are not as versatile today. This is because of deception. We read, “Whatever man wishes to conceal contracts his face” (AC 4799). When people thus began to think one thing and speak another, the face became silent and dissembling (see EU 54). That is how we have inherited our modern or “civilized” face, where our normal resting position is a face largely drained of emotion, the so-called “poker face” which does not show what cards you are holding.
Such a serious looking face is now normal, because even the nerves have been altered in their connections in the brain. Today, there is hardly any involuntary expression left in the face (see AC 4326:2). In other words, hardly anything of our mental life shows involuntarily on the face any more: all our expressions have to be put there consciously. There are a few exceptions, however, which we now deal with. Let us take some examples.
Laughter. The origin of laughter is simply the love of truth (see AC 2072). We all enjoy a good laugh. Laughter is of course voluntary, but there are times when we just can’t help it. Well, angels in “celestial or spiritual good do not laugh but express their delight and cheerfulness in face, speech and gesture in another way. It is a cheerfulness of mind, which produces something similar to laughter” (AC 2216). [Angels, of course, do laugh. Ed.]
We can’t practice that one right now! But we know the difference between the type of laughter which shares its cheerfulness, and the type which is at someone’s expense.
We also enjoy the cheerfulness of mind which perhaps giggles rather than laughs-sometimes not even audibly, just a quiet moment of good cheer.
Kneeling and Prostration. Another bodily gesture is kneeling. Humility of the mind produces a correspondential kneeling of the body. Greater humility produces prostration of the body (see AC 4215; cf. 7596). Since the influx which terminates in the body also terminates in the dead substances in the earth (see AC 6077), consequently lying prostrate on the ground becomes an act of supreme humility, or rather, abject humility. Some spirits in the other life did this: they would have remained prostrate indefinitely except the Lord bade them rise up. So much did they delight in humiliating themselves. Witnesses of this were extremely moved by it (see EU 91). Similarly, bowing is a gesture both of humiliation and joy (see AC 2927e).
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The Hands. From the face and knees we move to the hands. The spreading of our hands is a universally known gesture, originating from Most Ancient times. It represents the supplication of the heart (see AC 7596). And is it not true that we spread our hands as it were to implore friendship, forgiveness and love of the neighbor? It is a supplication from the heart that says in effect, “Since we feel this way, what need is there to say any more?” It means a turning away from words and thoughts to gestures and feelings. It is the heart’s supplication.
Other Examples. Other gestures are well known to us: joyful shouting and singing, as when we welcome celebrities or royalty, or singing songs from the heart. Such gestures are produced by gladness-e.g., shouts of “Bravo,” “Encore,” “Hosanna,” “Hurrah.”
Weeping and wailing, on the other extreme, are produced by sadness. And both in singing and weeping there is a spontaneous element. When we find ourselves going around singing or humming, we can be sure we are glad about something. We weep rather seldom compared with singing: but a deep perception of truth sometimes moves us to tears rather than laughter. There is perhaps a connection here with the Fact that the most beautiful music is often sad. Again, we think of those spirits who delighted in prostrating themselves. Were they sad or glad in their humility? The deepest affections perhaps give birth to both joy and sadness, both singing and repentance, elation and humility (see AC 2153).
Kissing and Embracing. Having come to deeper mental states, we now consider the gesture of kissing. Kissing, we are taught, represents conjunction from a spiritual affection. Since kissing involves the sense of touch, it belongs to conjugial love. A spiritual affection shared between one man and one woman is therefore properly expressed in kissing, which is thus the origin of this gesture. All kissing can therefore be seen to relate to marriage. For all kinships of family ties stem from marriage. We tend to kiss all those in the extended family. But spiritual kinships of course go beyond natural family; so we have friendships which also are honored, as it were, by the gesture of kissing. But underlying this gesture there is a respect for marriage.
We are warned, however, that even the kiss can be for our own sake, for honor and gain. It can be as deceptive as Judas’ kiss of betrayal, meant for evil rather than good (at least so it would appear).
A deeper affection, namely for good, produces the further gesture of embracing (see AC 6260, 6261; cf. 4215). Since the affection of good is more closely connected with the whole body, the embrace is as it were similar to the greater humility involved in prostration. There is fuller body contact with a loved person.
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It is an appropriate gesture for more intimate and genuine friendships, both with men and men, and with women and women, as well as adults and children, and so forth. But as with kissing, the embrace refers to the conjugial and the ideal of marriage.
Since the embrace is a gesture which brings into ultimates the conjugial influx, which is universal in its scope, therefore the embrace between a husband and wife expresses the conjunction given by the Creator, from which the human race is also procreated. Since the heavens of angels came from the human race, and every angel was once born a squalling infant on earth, we can see how complete a gesture the embrace is, and the respect that has to attend its use.
Men and Women. We turn now logically to the gestures of men and women. Because of the distinction between them, men’s gestures are said to be stronger, firmer and more unrestrained, while women’s gestures are weaker and more elegant (see CL 218). But there is more to it than that.
Single men and women looking to marriage search each others’ faces for those telltale signs of mutual harmony of affection and thought. The ways to communicate such signs-as everyone who has been in love knows-is by means of the eyes and the lips (see AC 8249). Perhaps those slight lip movements which say more in a minute than in an hour-long speech are still possible between those seeking legitimate marriage. Also, the eyes give off the light of the mind (see AC 7361) and thus picture forth what the mind thinks and wills (see AC 8249).
So the reason why men and women are conjoined by looking each other in the eyes is thus because the conjugial expresses itself through the face. Man sees in a woman’s face the very thing he loves to give her, namely his own wisdom; and a woman sees in a man’s face what she gives him, namely her love. For man is inmostly love, covered with wisdom, and woman is inmostly the wisdom of the male, covered with love (see CL 32). Consequently, a man is inmostly what the woman appears to be outwardly, namely love. This is why men love the beauty and grace of women and why the love of truth-which is a male love-was in the Ancient Church depicted by statues of beautiful maidens. And a woman is inmostly what the male appears to be outwardly, namely wisdom, which is why women love men who show rational and moral wisdom.
Being so created, each strives to give to the other exactly what the other loves. It is two-way traffic on two levels. This explains why men appear sterner, harsher and stronger than women, and why they grow beards, whereas inmostly they are gentle men-“softies” who are easily moved by deeply rooted loves, and why women appear of beautiful and elegant form and feminine in manners, but conceal within themselves the wisdom gained the hard way by males.
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This wisdom she takes into herself by means which are perhaps so secret that she does not even know them herself (at least not until she is an angel in heaven).
Now this admirable arrangement allows the wife to transfer to herself the love that man, on his own, would give to his own intelligence. And so the wife loves the husband’s wisdom for him, and he can love her for it, without loving himself. That is the secret of Eve created from Adam’s rib while he slept.
We are therefore taught that a husband and wife are conjoined as to will and understanding by merely looking each other in the face (see HH 369). It is a gesture belonging to marriage, coming from heaven. It all comes back to the eyes and lips; and it certainly applies to all romantic love as well; and also to respect for each other. For all people gain from each other’s faces what belongs to marriage.
The Lord and Man’s Face. To conclude, we consider why all this is so. It is, we read, because “the Lord wills that all goods be communicable, so that all may be affected by mutual love, and so be happy” (AC 1388). We are human, and able to communicate by facial expressions ” and bodily gestures, because the Lord created us that way. Love and life beam forth from the Lord’s face, and we merely pass on our versions of them to others.
The Lord is the face of Jehovah (see AC 10579), that is, the face of love itself. We worship one God, Jehovah, and His face is the Lord Jesus Christ. Jehovah came on earth to show mankind His face, that is, the face of Divine Love and Wisdom, of peace and mercy (see AC 222). He came to face mankind, and to let mankind come face-to-face with their God.
There is one time when every individual comes face-to-face with his Maker. Yes, it is the time when we usually say we have to face our Maker, namely when we die. That is when we are the most helpless, thus in a state of total innocence. When man is in this most helpless state, the Lord sends His inmost angels to be with him: they are present, sitting around man’s head, and sharing their thoughts with the dead person. They do this, we read, “by inducing their own face on him” and by “looking into his face” (AC 173; HH 449). When man’s face responds to the angels’ facial movements-those fine lip movements of the Most Ancients which are no longer possible with us-then the angels know that man can be extracted from the body.
Through the celestial angels, we come face-to-face with the Lord. For only the Lord has power to extract the soul from the body. The angels as it were pass on the Lord’s face, and the dead person’s face is moved by the Lord’s face.
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The influx descends and is terminated in the lowest extremity, which is now lacking the physical body; so it is the spiritual body which now responds.
Thus when Moses came face-to-face with Jehovah-meaning the Lord on earth-it involves the Word, which of course is open for all to see in clear light of day (see AC 10554). As we study and hear the Word, and are regenerated by living according to the Word, our facial expressions and gestures, whether spontaneous or formal, can communicate good to each other, for the sake of mutual love and happiness.
Conclusion
We have considered just a few gestures mentioned in the Writings. The range of gestures knows no limits. We do, however, have a habit of concealing our loves; yet we can instinctively penetrate to what people actually feel, even though it is at variance with their words. But we also can use prudence, to clothe our real loves for the welfare of society. So we have to be charitable in our observations of each other’s behavior. For there is also the influx from hell to consider.
We can also know that when man speaks by facial expressions and by bodily gestures. it is potentially angelic speech. For the influx does not stop midway in heaven, but passes through heaven, taking something of heaven with it, and comes to rest nowhere else than in the extreme receptacles of human gestures and facial expressions. It is consequently honorable to will well to others from the heart, and it is decorous to testify in speech and gesture heavenly affections and thoughts, which as always remain in our minds in their own form (see AC 4574). Heaven thus descends on earth, and we are blessed also here. We learn to sympathize and harmonize on a spiritual level.
And if we all knew the Most Ancient way to communicate by slight lip and eye movements, this paper would have taken just one minute!