In Genesis 37:25, 'spices, resin, and myrrh' signify interior natural truths joined to good in the natural level. Among the ancients, they used things with sweet smells and fragrance in their sacred worship. This is where their incenses and perfumes came from. Similar things were also mixed in the oils used for anointing. In the present day, it is not known where this ritual originated. This is because we do not know that the things used in ancient worship originate in spiritual and celestial things, in heaven, and correspond to them. People have removed themselves so far from these things, and immerse in natural, worldly, and bodily things, that they are in obscurity, and many in a negativity regarding the existence of anything spiritual and celestial. The basis and reason why the ancients used incenses and perfumes for sacred purposes was because 'odor' corresponds to perception, 'a fragrant odor,' such as spices of various kinds, signify a gracious and pleasant perception, like truth based in good, or faith grounded in charity.

(Odkazy: Arcana Coelestia 4748)