We all know that the sun does not shut off at night — it’s still shining, but it’s dark and cold because we’re on the part of the earth that is turned away from it.
It is, according to Swedenborg, similar with the Lord. The Lord is love itself, a love that extends to everyone, good and evil — a love that shines no matter what, just as the sun shines no matter what. The thing that matters is us: Are we turned toward the Lord, receiving love (warmth) and wisdom (light)? Or are we turned away, receiving only what is reflected off objects around us?
So it makes sense that Swedenborg says “turning” in the Bible generally refers to a change in spiritual state. Are people turning themselves toward the Lord and things coming from the Lord? Or are they turning away?
Passages from Swedenborg
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 3614
- ‘Until your brother’s wrath turns back’ means until the state changes; and ‘until your brother’s anger turns back from you’ means the subsequent stage of the state with natural good. This is clear from the meaning of ‘wrath’ and of ‘anger’ as states that are antagonistic to each other, dealt with below. And when these states become such that they cease to be antagonistic any longer and begin to join together, wrath is said to turn back and anger to turn back. Consequently ‘until your brother’s wrath turns back’ means until the state changes, and ‘until your brother’s anger turns back’ means the subsequent stage of the state with natural good. ‘Wrath’ implies something different from ‘anger’, as may be seen from the fact that in addition to their being similar expressions it is a pointless repetition to say, ‘Until your brother’s wrath turns back’ and then ‘until your brother’s angerturns back’. What each implies is evident from the general explanation and also from that to which wrath and anger are each used to refer. ‘Wrath’ is used in reference to truth, in this case to the truth of good, represented by ‘Esau’, while ‘anger’ is used in reference to that good itself.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 4816
- ‘And turned aside [even] to a man, an Adullamite’ means a turning to falsity. This is clear from the meaning of ‘turning aside’ as a departure into perversity, forturning aside, like going down, is used to refer to a retreat from good to evil, and from truth to falsity
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 6836
- ‘I will turn aside therefore, and see this great sight’ means reflection on this revelation. This is clear from the meaning of ‘turning aside and seeing’ as reflecting, for in the spiritual sense ‘turning aside’ is turning away from the thought at present in one’s mind, while ‘seeing’ is perceiving, so that the two together is reflecting; and from the meaning of ‘sight’ as a revelation, dealt with in 6000.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 10420
- ‘For your people have corrupted themselves’ means that they have turnedthemselves away altogether from the Divine. This is clear from the meaning of ‘corrupting themselves’, when their worship is the subject, as turning themselves away from the Divine; for all corruption and deviation in worship is a departure and turning away from the Divine. Since the expression ‘turning away’ is used, what is implied by it must be stated briefly. Those whose interest lies in external things separated from what is internal all turn themselves away from the Divine; for they look in an outward and downward direction, and not in an inward and upward one. For a person looks inwards or upwards when his internal is open, thus when it is in heaven, but he looks outwards or downwards when his internal is closed and only his external is open; for his external is located in the world. Consequently when the external has been separated from the internal the person cannot be raised upwards; for the part on which heaven must act is unavailable, because it has been closed off. This explains why for those people all things of heaven and the Church dwell in thick darkness, as a result of which also they do not believe in the existence of those things. Indeed in their heart they deny the existence of them, some doing so with their lips as well.
[2] When heaven acts on a person, which happens when the internal is open, it leads him away from self-love and love of the world, and from the falsities welling up from them. When the internal is raised, so too is the external; for the viewpoint of the external is similar to that of the internal when it is subordinate to the internal. But when the internal cannot be raised because it is closed, the external looks in no other direction than towards self and the world, since self-love and love of the world reign. This is also called looking downwards because it involves looking towards hell, this being the place where those loves reign; and a person ruled by those loves lives in company with those inhabiting hell, though he is not conscious of doing so. Also inwardly he in actual fact turns himself away from the Lord; for he turns his back on Him and faces towards hell. This cannot be seen within a person while he lives in the body; but since his thought and will are what do this it is his spirit that so turns itself around, the spirit being that which thinks and wills within a person. [3] It is plainly apparent in the next life that this is so; there spirits turn around as their loves direct them. Those who love the Lord and the neighbour look constantly towards the Lord; indeed, amazingly, they are facing Him whichever way they turn their body. For in the spiritual world no direction or quarter exists as in the natural world. The direction that anyone in the spiritual world faces is determined by his love causing him to turn around. But those who love themselves and the world above all things turn their face away from the Lord and turn themselves towards hell. And there each one turns towards those ruled by a love similar to his, and this too is so whichever way they turntheir body.
Apocalypse Revealed (Rogers) n. 42
42.�Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. (1:12) This symbolizes aturning around of the state of those people who possess goodness of life, in respect to their perception of the truth in the Word, when they turn to the Lord.
John says that he heard the voice behind him (verse 10), and now that he turned to see the voice, and secondly, that having turned he saw seven lampstands. From this it is apparent that he heard the voice in back of him, and that he turned to see where it was coming from.
Clearly in this lies an arcanum. The secret to it is that before a person turns to the Lord and acknowledges Him as God of heaven and earth, he cannot see the Divine truth in the Word. That is because God is one both in person and in essence, in whom is the Trinity, that God being the Lord. People who accept a trinity of persons, therefore, look primarily to the Father, and some to the Holy Spirit, but rarely to the Lord; and if they do look to the Lord, they think of His humanity in the same way that they do an ordinary person. When a person does this, he can by no means be enlightened in the Word, for the Lord embodies the Word, since it comes from Him and has Him as its subject. Therefore people who do not turn to the Lord alone regard Him and His Word as being behind them and not before them, or as being in back of them and not in front of them.
This is the secret that lies concealed in these words, that John heard the voice behind him, that he turned to see the voice, and that having turned he saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of them the Son of Man. For the voice that he heard came from the Son of Man, who is the Lord.
Heaven and Hell (Ager) n. 143
- It is still more difficult to comprehend in the world that in every turning of their face and body the angels have the east before the face, since man according as he turns, has every quarter before his face. This shall also be explained. Although angels, like men, turn and direct their faces and bodies in every direction, they nevertheless have the east always before their eyes. But the turningsof angels are unlike the turnings of men, because they are from a different origin. They appear alike, but they are not. The origin of these turnings is their ruling love, and from this all directions with angels and spirits are determined, for, as just said, their interiors are actually turned towards their common center, which in heaven is the Lord as a sun; consequently their ruling love is always before their face, because their love is always before their interiors, and the face has existence from the interiors, for it is their outward form; and in the heavens this love is the Lord as a sun because it is from Him that they have their love.# And as the Lord Himself is in angels in His love, it is the Lord who causes them to look to Him whithersoever they turn.
Divine Love and Wisdom (Dole) n. 138
- This turning toward the Lord is an active turning–it is a kind of lifting up. We are actually lifted into heaven’s warmth and light, and this is accomplished by an opening of our inner reaches. When these have been opened, love and wisdom flow into the deeper reaches of our minds and heaven’s warmth and light flow into the deeper reaches of our bodies. This results in a lifting, as though we were brought out of the mist into clear air, or out of the air into the ether. Further, love and wisdom, together with their warmth and light, are the Lord with us, the Lord who, as already noted [130], turns us toward himself.
The opposite holds for people who are not engaged in love and wisdom, and all the more for people who resist love and wisdom. The deeper reaches of their minds and bodies alike are closed; and when they are closed, then their outer natures resist the Lord because this is their inherent nature. This is why such people turn away from the Lord, and this “turning away” is a turning toward hell.