AE 1174 - Lord leads him as if by the hand

AE 1174 [2]
The affections of a person,
from which are his thoughts,
have extension into societies in the spiritual world on every side,
into more or fewer of them
according to the amount and quality of the affection.
A person, as to his spirit, is within these societies,
and to them he is attached as it were with extended cords,
which determine the space where he can walk.
As he passes from one affection into another,
so he passes from one society into another,
and the society he is in, and the place where he is in the society,
is the center from which the affection and its thought
extends to other societies as circumferences,
and these are thus in unbroken connection
with the affection at the center,
and from that affection a person then thinks and speaks.

A person acquires this sphere,
which is the sphere of his affections and thoughts therefrom,
while he is in the world;
from hell if he is evil,
from heaven if he is good.
Of this a person is ignorant,
because he does not know that such things exist.
Through these societies a person, that is, a person's mind,
although bound walks free;
but he is led by the Lord,
and he takes no step into which and from which the Lord does not lead;
and yet the Lord grants continually
that a person shall have no other thought
than that he goes of himself in full liberty;
and he is permitted to persuade himself of this
because it is according to a law of the Divine providence
that a person shall go wherever his affection wills.
If his affection is evil he is conveyed through infernal societies;
and if he does not look to the Lord
he is carried into these societies more interiorly and deeply.
And yet the Lord leads him as if by the hand,
permitting and withholding as far as a person is willing to follow in freedom.
But if a person looks to the Lord
he is led forth from these societies gradually,
according to the order and connection in which they stand,
which order and connection no one knows but the Lord only,
and thus he is brought by continual steps out of hell
up towards heaven and into heaven.