5206. 'And the cows bad in appearance and thin-fleshed devoured.....' means that falsities which were not expressions of faith and were not embodiments of charity would banish..... This is clear from the meaning of 'devouring' as consuming, dealt with in 5149, 5157, here as banishing because truths present in the natural, before they have received life through the celestial of the spiritual and so have been regenerated, have been so to speak banished by falsities; from the meaning of 'cows bad in appearance' as things which are not expressions of faith, dealt with just above in 5203; and from the meaning of 'thin-fleshed' as things which are not embodiments of charity, also dealt with above, in 5204.

5157. 'And the birds will eat your flesh from upon you' means that falsity originating in evil will consume every one of those sensory impressions. This is clear from the meaning of 'eating' as consuming, dealt with above in 5149; from the meaning of 'the birds' as falsity, also dealt with above in 5149; from the meaning of 'flesh' as good, dealt with in 3812, 3813, and therefore in the contrary sense as evil (for most things in the Word also have a contrary sense, which is discerned from their meaning in the genuine sense); and from the meaning of 'from upon you as from the sensory impressions subject to the will part, since those impressions are represented by 'the baker', 5078, 5082. The fact that these were evil and had therefore to be cast aside is clear from what has gone before.

[2] The significance of all this - that the sensory impressions subject to the understanding part, which are represented by 'the cupbearer', were retained, whereas those subject to the will part, which are represented by 'the baker', were cast aside - is an arcanum that is completely unintelligible unless it has light shed on it. Let the following serve to shed some such light. By sensory impressions are meant those known facts and those delights which have been introduced through the five external or bodily senses into a person's memory and into his longings, and which together constitute the exterior natural, by virtue of which a person is called one governed by the senses. The facts are subject to the understanding part of his mind, whereas the delights are subject to the will part. Also, the facts link up with the truths which belong to the understanding, while the delights link up with the forms of good which belong to the will. The former are represented by 'the cupbearer' and were retained, but the latter are represented by 'the baker' and were cast aside.

[3] The reason those known facts were retained is that in time they were able to accord with ideas in the understanding; but the reason the delights were cast aside is that they were by no means able to accord with what was in the will. For the will within the Lord, who is the subject in the highest internal sense, was from conception Divine and was the Divine Good itself; but the will received through His birth from His mother was evil and therefore had to be cast aside, and a new will had to be acquired in place of it. This new will was to be acquired from the Divine Will through the [Divine] Understanding, that is, from Divine Good through Divine Truth, and so was acquired by His own power. This is the arcanum which is described here in the internal sense.