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?

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 (as was shown above, 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.

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.