559. Verse 10. And they had tails like scorpions, signifies sensual knowledges [scientifica] that are persuasive. This is evident from the signification of "tails," as meaning sensual knowledges [scientifica] (of which presently); and from the signification of "scorpions," as being an infatuating and suffocating persuasiveness (of which see above, n. 544; therefore "tails like scorpions" signify sensual knowledges which are persuasive. "Tails" signify sensual knowledges because the tails that protrude outwardly from animals of the earth are the continuations of the spinal cord, which is called the spinal marrow, and this is a continuation of the brain, and the "brain" in like manner as the "head," signifies intelligence and wisdom, because intelligence and wisdom in their beginnings have their seat there; and as tails are the ultimates of the brain they signify sensual knowledges, since these are the ultimates of intelligence and wisdom.

[2] Sensual knowledges are such knowledges as enter from the world through the five bodily senses, and thence viewed in themselves are more material, corporeal, and worldly than those that are interior. All who are in the love of self and have confirmed themselves against Divine and spiritual things are sensual men, and when they are left to themselves and think in their spirit, they think about Divine and spiritual things from sensual knowledges, and consequently they reject Divine and spiritual things as not to be believed, because they do not see them with their eyes or touch them with their hands; and they apply their knowledges, which they have made sensual and material, to the destruction of these. For example, men who are learned in this kind of knowledge, who are skilled in physics, anatomy, botany, and other branches of human learning, when they see the wonderful things in the animal and vegetable kingdoms say in their hearts that all these things are from nature, and not from the Divine, and this because they believe in nothing that they do not see with their eyes and touch with their hands; for they are unable to elevate their minds upward so as to see these things from the light of heaven, for that light is thick darkness to them; but they detain their minds in earthly things, much the same as the animals of the earth do, with which indeed they compare themselves. In a word, with such all knowledges [scientiae] are made sensual; for such as the man himself is, such are all things of his understanding and will; if the man is spiritual all things become spiritual; if he is merely natural all things become natural and not spiritual; if the man is sensual all things become sensual, and this however learned and erudite he may seem to the world to be. But as every man has the faculty to understand truths and perceive goods, such men are able from that faculty to talk about these things like those who are spiritual-rational, although in respect to their spirit they are sensual; for when such men speak before others they do not speak from the spirit but from the bodily memory.

[3] All this has been said to make known what sensual knowledges are. These are what especially persuade, or are especially persuasive, because they are the ultimates of the understanding; for into these as into its ultimates the understanding closes, and these captivate the common people because they are appearances drawn from such things as they see in the world with their eyes; and so long as the thought clings to these it is impossible to dispose the mind to think interiorly or above them until they are put away; for the interior things of the mind all close into ultimates and rest upon them, as a house upon its foundation; consequently these are especially persuasive, but only with those whose minds cannot be elevated above sensual things; and the mind is elevated above them with those who are in the light of heaven from the Lord, for the light of heaven dissipates them. For this reason spiritual men rarely think from things sensual, for they think from things rational and intellectual; but sensual men, who have confirmed themselves in falsities against Divine and spiritual things, when they are left to themselves think only from sensual things.

[4] That "tails" signify sensual knowledges [scientifica] can be seen from the following passages. In Isaiah:

Jehovah will cut off from Israel head and tail, branch and rush. The old man and the honorable, he is the head; but the prophet, the teacher of lies, he is the tail (Isaiah 9:14, 9:16).

This means that all intelligence and wisdom and all knowledge [scientia] of truth will perish; the "head" signifies intelligence and wisdom, wherefore it is said "the old man and the honorable, he is the head," for the "old man" signifies the understanding of truth, and the "honorable" the wisdom of good; but the "tail" signifies sensual knowledge [scientificum], which is the ultimate of intelligence and wisdom; when this is not joined to spiritual intelligence it becomes false knowledge, or knowledge applied to confirm falsities, which is sensual knowledge, like that of the sensual man who sees nothing from the understanding. This is why "the prophet who teacheth lies" is called the "tail," a "prophet" signifying the doctrine of truth, and thence the knowledge of truth, but here doctrine and the knowledge of falsity, for a "lie" signifies falsity, and the "teacher of a lie" one who teaches falsity by applying knowledges from the sense of the letter of the Word to confirm falsities.

[5] In the same:

Neither shall there be for Egypt any work that may make head or tail, branch or rush (Isaiah 19:15).

"Egypt" signifies knowledge [scientia] both of spiritual and of natural things; "no work for it that may make head or tail" signifies that it has no spiritual things, neither natural things by which spiritual things are confirmed, the "head" signifies here the cognitions of spiritual things which are means of intelligence, and the "tail" natural knowledges [scientifica] which are serviceable to things spiritual for intelligence; "branch and rush" have a similar signification, "branch" being spiritual truth, and "rush" sensual knowledge, which is ultimate truth; for if what is prior and what is posterior, or what is first and what is last, do not make one in man, he has no "head and tail."

[6] In Moses:

Thus Jehovah shall make thee as the head, and not as the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath, if thou shalt hearken unto the commandments of thy God (Deuteronomy 28:13).

"To make as the head" means to make spiritual and intelligent, and thus to elevate out of the light of the world into the light of heaven; and "to make as the tail" means to make sensual and foolish, so as not to look to heaven but only to the world; therefore it is said "and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath," "to be above" meaning to be elevated by the Lord so as to look to heaven, and "to be beneath" meaning not to be elevated by the Lord, but by self, and man by self looks only to the world. For man's interiors which belong to his thought and affection are elevated to heaven by the Lord when man is in the good of life and thence in the truths of doctrine; but when he is in the evil of life and thence in falsities, his lower things look downward, thus only to his body and to such things as are in the world, and thus to hell. Thus man puts off his truly human nature and puts on a beastly nature, for beasts look downward and to such things only as are met with in the world and upon the earth. Elevation into the light of heaven by the Lord is an actual elevation of man's interiors to the Lord; and a depression or casting down to such things as are below and outside the eyes is an actual depression and casting down of the interiors, and when this takes place, all the thought of the spirit is immersed in the ultimate sensual.

[7] In Moses:

The sojourner who is in the midst of thee shall ascend above thee higher and higher, but thou shalt come down lower and lower. He shall lend to thee, and thou shalt not lend to him; he shall be as the head, and thou shalt be as the tail (Deuteronomy 28:43, 44).

This must have a like meaning; "to be as the head" signifying to be spiritual and intelligent, and "to be as the tail" to be sensual and stupid; therefore it is added "he shall lend to thee, and thou shalt not lend to him," which signifies that he shall teach thee truths, but thou shalt not teach him.

[8] In Isaiah:

Say unto him, Take heed, and be quiet; fear not, neither let thine heart be soft because of the two tails of smoking firebrands, for the glowing anger of Rezin and Syria, and of the son of Remaliah (Isaiah 7:4).

"Rezin and Syria" signify the perverted rational, and "the son of Remaliah," king of Israel, who is also called "Ephraim," signifies the perverted intellectual; it is the intellectual in respect to the Word that is signified by "the king of Israel" and "Ephraim;" and it is the rational in respect to the knowledges [scientiae] that confirm that is signified by "Rezin and Syria," for a man in order to have an understanding of the Word must have a rational, and when these two are perverted they look only downward to the earth, and outward to the world, as sensual men do who are in the falsities of evil; therefore they are called "tails." A "smoking firebrand" signifies the lust of falsity and consequent wrath against the truths and goods of the church.

[9] In Moses:

Jehovah said unto Moses, Put forth thine hand and take hold of the tail of the serpent. And he put forth his hand and took hold of it, and it became a staff in his hand (Exodus 4:4).

That here, too, "tail" means the sensual which is the ultimate of the natural may be seen in the Arcana Coelestia 6951-6955). Because "tails" signify the ultimates of intelligence and wisdom, which are sensual knowledges [scientifica], and because all the processes attending the sacrifices signified Divine celestial and spiritual things, therefore:

It was commanded that they should take away the tail hard by the backbone, and should sacrifice it with the other parts there mentioned (Leviticus 3:9; 8:25; 9:19; Exodus 29:22).

(That the burnt-offerings and sacrifices signified Divine celestial and spiritual things, which are the internals of the church, of which worship consists, see Arcana Coelestia 2180, 2805, 2807, 3830, 3519, 6905, 8936.) Because "tails" signify sensual knowledges [scientifica], and when these knowledges are separated from things interior which are spiritual, and in consequence do not with things interior look inward and upward but look outward and downward, they signify falsities confirmed by knowledges. Therefore also in what follows in Revelation, where falsities from that origin are treated of, it is said:

That the tails of the horses seen in vision were like unto serpents, and that they had heads with which they did hurt (Revelation 9:19).

And afterwards:

That the dragon with his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and cast them to the earth (Revelation 12:3, 4);

which things may be seen explained below.

9595. 'Ten curtains' means all the truths of which it consists. This is clear from the meaning of 'ten' as all, dealt with in 4638, so that 'a tenth part', which is one curtain, means a sufficient amount, 8468, 8540; and from the meaning of 'curtains' as the interior truths of faith which belong to the new understanding. For 'the dwelling-place' means the middle or second heaven, which is heaven by virtue of its reception of Divine Truth emanating from the Lord's Divine Good, as shown above in 9594; consequently the curtains of which it was assembled and which enveloped it are the truths of faith belonging to the new understanding. They are interior truths, because exterior truths are meant by the curtains made from [the hair of] goats for the tent going all the way round, which are also dealt with in the present chapter.

[2] The fact that 'curtains' are the truths of faith which those in the Lord's spiritual kingdom possess is clear from places in the Word where they are mentioned, as in Isaiah,

Sing, O barren one that did not bear; for the sons of her that is desolate will be more than the sons of her that is married. Enlarge the place of your tent, and let them stretch out the curtains of your dwelling-places. Lengthen the ropes, because you will break out to the right and to the left, and your seed will inherit the nations. Isaiah 54:1-3.

This refers to the Church to be established among the gentiles, which is called 'a barren one that did not bear' because it lacks truths from the Word, 9325. It says that 'her sons will be more than those of her that is married' because it will have more truths than the devastated former Church had; for 'sons' are truths, 489, 491, 533, 1147, 3373, 3704. 'Enlarging the place of the tent' stands for the holiness of worship springing from the good of love, 3312, 4391, 4599, 'stretching out the curtains of dwelling-places' for the holiness of worship springing from the truths of faith.

[3] In Jeremiah,

The whole land has been laid waste. Suddenly My tents have been laid waste, My curtains in a moment. Jeremiah 4:20.

'A land laid waste' stands for the Church, 9325, 'tents laid waste' for the holiness of worship springing from the good of love, 'curtains laid waste' for holy worship springing from the truths of faith.

[4] In the same prophet,

My tent has been laid waste, and all My ropes torn away. My sons have gone away from Me, and they are not. There is no one stretching out My tent any more, and setting up My curtains. For the shepherds have become stupid. Jeremiah 10:20-21.

Here the meaning is similar. In the same prophet,

Arise and go up against Arabia, and lay waste the sons of the east. They will take their tents and flocks, their curtains and all their vessels, and bear their camels away for themselves. Jeremiah 49:28-29.

'Arabia' and 'the sons of the east' stand for those with cognitions or knowledge of goodness and truth, 3249; 'taking tents and flocks' stands for taking the Church's forms of interior good, 8937, 'taking curtains' for taking the Church's interior truths, 'their vessels' the Church's exterior truths, 3068, 3079, 'camels' general facts, 3048, 3071, 3143, 3145. In Habakkuk,

Below Aven I saw the tents of Cushan; the curtains of Midian shook. Habakkuk 3:7.

'The curtains of Midian' stands for the truths with those governed by simple good, 3242, 4756, 4788, 6773, 6775.

[5] All this shows what is meant by the following in David,

O Jehovah, You have put on glory and honour - He who covers Himself with light, as if with a garment; He stretches out the heavens like a curtain. Psalms 104:1-2.

'Covering Himself with light, as if with a garment' stands for Divine Truths. Truth is meant by 'light', see 9548, and also by 'a garment', 4545, 4763, 5319, 5954, 9093, 9212, 9216; therefore 'stretching out the heavens like a curtain' means enlarging the heavens by means of an influx of God's truth, from which come intelligence and wisdom. 'Stretching and spreading out the heavens' has reference to the new or regenerated understanding part of the mind, see at the end of the very next paragraph, 9596.