6949. 'And it was made into a serpent' means the sensory and bodily level of a person's mind separated from the internal. This is clear from the meaning of 'a serpent' as a person who engages in reasoning based on sensory evidence, dealt with in 195-197, 6398, 6399, thus the sensory level of a person's mind. And since 'a serpent' means the sensory level it means the bodily also, for the sensory level acquires its perceptions from the bodily senses. And since the sensory level regarded in itself is such as is described immediately above in 6948, 'a serpent', which is the sensory level, also means all evil in general, 251, 254, 257. The use of 'a serpent' here to mean the sensory and bodily level of a person's mind separated from the internal or rational level is evident from the fact that Moses fled from before it, meaning a feeling of horror caused by it, as well as from the fact that this sign describes the state of those who belonged to the spiritual Church if they were not in possession of faith; for in that case their internal would be closed and no more of the light of heaven would flow in than would be sufficient to enable them to think on that separated sensory level and therefore speak on that level. This level, separated [from the internal], is the one on which all people think who defend falsities in opposition to truths, and evils in opposition to forms of good, in short all who in life pursue what is evil and who are consequently devoid of any faith since those who lead an evil life have no belief at all. People like this have greater ability than others to engage in reasoning and to convince others, especially the simple, because when they speak they draw on the illusions of the senses and worldly appearances. They also know how to demolish truths or hide them from view by means of illusions, on account of which cunning and deceitfulness are also meant by 'serpents'. When however the sensory level has become joined to the internal or has been made properly subordinate to the rational, 'a serpent' means shrewdness and circumspection, 197, 4111, 6398.

6398. 'Dan will be a serpent on the road' means their reasoning regarding truth, since good does not as yet lead them. This is clear from the representation of 'Dan' as those guided by truth but not as yet by good, dealt with above in 6396; from the meaning of 'a serpent' as reasoning based on sensory evidence, dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'the road' as truth, dealt with in 627, 2733. Thus 'Dan is a serpent on the road' means their reasoning regarding truth, since good does not as yet lead them. The nature of that reasoning and the nature of the truth resulting from it will be stated below.

[2] The reason why 'a serpent' means reasoning based on sensory evidence is that the interiors of a person are represented in heaven by living creatures of various kinds, and therefore in the Word similar things are meant by those same creatures. A person's sensory powers have come to be represented by serpents because they are the lowest of his mental powers. Compared with other mental powers those of the senses are on the ground so to speak, crawling around there, as may also be recognized from the forms that sensory impressions adopt when they enter in, which will in the Lord's Divine mercy be dealt with elsewhere. This explains why those sensory powers have come to be represented by 'serpents', so much so that the Lord's Divine sensory perception was represented by the bronze serpent in the wilderness, 4211 (end).

[3] True shrewdness and circumspection - qualities that reveal themselves in external affairs - were also meant by 'serpents', in Matthew,

Be shrewd as serpents and simple as doves. Matthew 10:16.

But in the case of a person who is governed by his senses and is far removed from what is internal - as those people are who are guided by truth but not as yet by good - and who speaks as his senses tell him, 'a serpent' means false reasoning. This therefore is why here, where Dan is the subject, reasoning regarding truth because good does not as yet lead him is meant. In other contexts ill-will, deceitfulness, and trickery are also meant by 'serpents', though in those places they are poisonous serpents - such as vipers and the like - whose reasoning is their poison.

'A serpent' is reasoning based on sensory evidence, see 195-197.

'A serpent' is all evil in general, and evils are distinguished from one another by different kinds of serpents, 251, 254, 257.