5110. 'And the chief of the cupbearers told his dream to Joseph' means that the celestial of the spiritual discerned what the outcome would be for the sensory impressions subject to the understanding part of the mind, which until then were cast aside. This is clear from the representation of 'Joseph' as the celestial of the spiritual, dealt with in 4286, 4585, 4592, 4594, 4963; from the meaning of 'a dream' as foresight and consequently the outcome, dealt with above in 5091, 5092, 5104, and so as foresight or discernment of the outcome; and from the meaning of 'the chief of the cupbearers' as the powers of the senses in general that are subject to the understanding part, dealt with in 5077, 5082, a casting aside being meant by being in custody, 5083, 5101. All this shows that the internal sense of the words used here is as has been stated, in addition to which it is clear from what follows below that 'Joseph', representing the celestial of the spiritual, discerned what the outcome would be.

[2] When the expression 'the celestial of the spiritual' is used, the Lord is meant by it. But it may also be used to refer to an abstract quality in Him, for He is the Celestial itself and the Spiritual itself, that is, He is Good itself and Truth itself. No one, it is true, can have any conception of an abstract quality separate from an actual person because what is natural enters into every individual idea present in his thought. But even so, if one holds in mind the idea that everything within the Lord is Divine and that the Divine transcends one's entire thought, altogether transcending even what angels can comprehend; and if as a consequence one removes from one's mind everything comprehensible, one is left with the idea of pure Being (Esse) and the Manifestation (Existere) of that Being. That is to say, one then has an idea of the Celestial itself and the Spiritual itself, which are Good itself and Truth itself.

[3] However, the human being is such that he cannot form in his mind any idea at all of abstract realities unless he associates with them some natural imagery that has come to him from the world through his senses; for without any such imagery his thought becomes lost so to speak in an abyss and is dissipated. Therefore to prevent the idea of the Divine becoming lost in the case of a person immersed in bodily and worldly interests, and to prevent the defilement of this idea, and at the same time of everything celestial or spiritual from the Divine, by foul thoughts in the case of anyone with whom it remained, Jehovah has been pleased to make Himself known as He exists essentially and as He manifests Himself in heaven, namely as a Divine Man. For the whole of heaven combines together and presents itself in the human form, as may be seen from what has been shown at the ends of chapters dealing with the correspondence of all parts of the human being with the Grand Man, which is heaven. This Divine, that is, Jehovah's manifestation of Himself in heaven, is the Lord from eternity. It is also the appearance assumed by the Lord when He glorified, that is, made Divine, the Human within Him, as is also quite evident from the form in which He appeared before Peter, James, and John at His transfiguration, Matthew 17:1-2, and in which He appeared on a number of occasions to prophets. All this being so, anyone can think of the Divine itself as Man, and at the same time of the Lord in whom the entire Divine and perfect Trinity dwell; for within the Lord the Divine itself is the Father, the Divine that manifests itself in heaven is the Son, and the Divine proceeding from these is the Holy Spirit - from which it is clear that these three are one, as He Himself teaches.

4249. 'And Jacob was exceedingly afraid, and was distressed' means the state when it is being changed. This is clear from the fact that fear and distress are the first stage in temptations, and that they are precursors to the turning round or the change taking place within a state. The arcana which lie deeper still within these details - that is to say, Esau's coming to meet Jacob with four hundred men, and Jacob's consequent fear and distress - cannot be explained easily and intelligibly since they are rather more internal ones. Let just this one be brought forward here. When good takes up the first position and subordinates truths to itself, as happens when a person undergoes spiritual temptations, the good which flows in from the interior is accompanied by very many truths which have been stored away in the person's interior man. Those truths cannot come into focus and be seen by him until good is playing the leading role, for when this happens the natural starts to receive light from good, and it is apparent to him which things in the natural agree and which ones do not. And this is what gives rise to the fear and distress that are the precursors to spiritual temptation. For spiritual temptation acts upon the conscience, which is an attribute of the interior man, and therefore when entering such temptation a person does not know the origin of his fear and distress. But the angels present with him know it full well. Indeed temptation has its origin in angels' maintenance of the person in goods and truths, while evil spirits maintain him in evils and falsities.

[2] The things that occur among the spirits and angels present with a person are perceived by him purely as things going on within himself. For while he lives in the body and does not believe that everything within him flows in from somewhere other than himself, he imagines that the causes of the things that go on within him do not lie outside himself but that all causes lie within him and are his own - which is not in fact the case. For whatever a person thinks and what he wills, that is, all his thought and all his affection, originate either in hell or in heaven. When he thinks and wills anything evil and as a consequence takes delight in falsities, let him realize that his thoughts and affections originate in hell; but when he thinks and wills anything good and as a consequence takes delight in truths, let him realize that these originate in heaven, that is, in the Lord by way of heaven. But the person's thoughts and affections more often than not take on a different outward appearance. A conflict between evil spirits and angels, for example, arising from the things in one who is to be regenerated, takes on the different outward appearance of fear and distress, and of temptation.

[3] These matters are bound to seem paradoxes to man, for almost every member of the Church at the present day believes that all the truth he thinks, and the good he wills and does, originate in himself, even though he says something other than that when speaking from doctrine taught by faith. Indeed his nature is such that if anyone told him that spirits from hell exist who flow into his thought and will when he thinks and wills anything evil, and angels from heaven when he thinks and wills anything good, he would be dumbfounded at anyone putting forward such an idea, for he would say that he can feel the life within himself and that he thinks from himself and wills from himself. His belief is based on that feeling and not on what doctrine teaches. Yet that doctrine is true and such feeling deceptive. This I have been allowed to know from almost uninterrupted experience lasting several years now, and to know it in such a way as to leave me in no doubt whatsoever.