9632. And a covering of badgers’ skins above. That this signifies outside of this, namely the circumference from the truths which are from external good, is evident from the signification of “the covering,” as being the circumference (as just above, n. 9630); from the signification of “skins,” as being external truths (n. 9471); and from the signification of “badgers,” as being goods (also n. 9471). It is needless to further unfold the things thus far said concerning the Habitation, the Tent, and the two coverings of the latter, because they are of such a nature as by reason of ignorance would fall with difficulty into the idea of thought; for where there is ignorance there is blindness, thus no reception of light, and consequently no idea of the subject. For few if any know that heaven is represented and thus described by the Habitation, and its external by the Tent with its two coverings. The reason why these things are unknown, is that scarcely anyone knows that heavenly things are signified by all those which are in the Word, thus that there is an internal sense which is spiritual in each thing therein; and that this sense does not appear in the letter, but only from the letter to those who have been instructed about correspondences, and who while they read the Word are in enlightenment from the Lord.

[2] Nay, scarcely anyone knows that the man who is in the good of love and of faith is a heaven in the least form, and that such a man, both as to his interiors and his exteriors, corresponds to heaven (n. 9276). If these things had been known, the well-informed in the Christian world, who have acquired some knowledge of the forms of the human body, might have been in some intellectual light, and consequently in some idea about heaven, and then might have apprehended what things in heaven are represented by the ark, its propitiatory [mercy seat], and the cherubs over it; what by the table upon which were the breads of faces, and by the lampstand, and by the golden altar of incense; also what things are represented by the Habitation, its curtains, planks, and bases; and further by the Tent and its two coverings; for like things occur with man, in his internals and in his externals, and they are also presented in a material form in his body, to which these internal things exactly correspond. For unless the external things which are of the body exactly corresponded to the internal things which are of the understanding and the will, there would not be any life in the body, and consequently there would not be any corresponding acts.

[3] It is said that like things occur in the tabernacle as in man, because the representatives in nature bear relation to the human form, and have a signification according to their relation to it (n. 9496). There are four coverings in man’s external things that encompass and enclose all the interior things, and which are called coats and skins. To what internal things these correspond may be seen from experience (n. 5552-5559, 8980). Similar things were represented in the coverings which constituted the expanse of the tabernacle. From this the understanding may borrow some light concerning the forms of heaven; and yet this light would be extinguished with all those who have not a distinct knowledge of the things that are in the human body, and who have not at the same time a distinct knowledge of the spiritual things of faith and the celestial things of love, to which these things correspond. As with most people both the latter and the former things are in shade, nay, in thick darkness, not only from the lack of knowledge, but also from lack of faith, it is needless to unfold them further; for, as before said, they would not fall into any idea, because of the lack of intellectual light on such subjects.