10071. 'And the tail' means all truth there. This is clear from the meaning of 'the ram's tail' as truth. 'The tail' means truth because it comes last, and truth resides in last or lowest things, 9959 ¹ . The tail is also the last part of the cerebrum and cerebellum, for these extend into the spinal cord, and this also terminates in the tail, which is for that reason the appendage at the end of all three. Therefore Leviticus 3:9 says that in sacrifices the tail should be removed next to the backbone. The fact that 'the tail' means truth in last or lowest things, and in the contrary sense falsity, is clear from the following places: In Isaiah,

Jehovah will cut off from Israel head and tail. The old and the honourable [in face] is the head, but the prophet, the teacher of a lie, is the tail. Isaiah 9:14-15.

In the spiritual sense 'cutting off head and tail' means severing good and truth; for the subject is the Church, and when this has been laid waste 'the head' means evil and 'the tail' falsity. 'The head' means good, see 4938, 4939, 5328, 9913, 9914, as does 'the old', 6524, 9404; and 'the prophet' means a teacher of truth, and so in the abstract sense [without reference to persons] truth itself, 2534, 7269. In the contrary sense therefore 'the head' means evil, as do 'the old' and 'the honourable' who will perform it, while 'the tail' means falsity, as does 'the prophet', who is for that reason called 'the prophet of a lie'; for 'a lie' means falsity. In the same prophet,

There will not be for Egypt [any] work which the head and tail may do. Isaiah 19:15.

'Egypt' stands for those who, desiring to enter into the truths and forms of the good of faith, use reasonings based on factual knowledge, and not on revealed truths, thus not on belief in these, 1164, 1165, 1186. The lack of 'work which the head and tail may do' stands for the fact that they have neither good nor truth. The fact that 'the tail' means truth in last or lowest things is evident from its meaning in the contrary sense, in which 'the tail' means falsity. In John,

The locusts had tails like scorpions, and stings were in their tails, and they had power to harm people. Revelation 9:10.

'Tails like scorpions, and stings in their tails' are cunning reasonings based on falsities which they use to convince and thereby damage someone, which is why it says that they had power to harm people. Furthermore falsity in outermost things is meant by 'locust', see 7643. In the same book,

The horses' tails were like serpents, having heads; and by means of them they do harm. Revelation 9:19.

'Tails like serpents' here also stands for reasonings based on falsities which are used to cause harm. In the same book,

The dragon's tail drew a third part of the stars of heaven, and cast them down to the earth. Revelation 12:4.

'The dragon's tail' stands for truths that have been falsified, in particular through the application of them to evils; 'the stars' are cognitions or knowledge of truth and good which has been falsified; and 'casting them down to the earth' means destroying them.

Poznámky pod čarou:

9914. 'And its hole shall have a border round about' means that it is bounded and enclosed on every side. This is clear from the meaning of 'a border', or edging, around the hole or opening on the upper part of the robe, as being bounded and enclosed on every side; for that border or edging which went all round served to bound and enclose. The words here and those following immediately after describe the course which the inflow of celestial good into spiritual good takes. What is involved in this inflow is similar to the course taken by the forces flowing from a person's head through the neck into the body, as is clear from what has been stated regarding correspondence in the paragraph immediately above.

[2] The nature of this influx must also be stated briefly. All the chief things that belong to the head, that is to say, to the cerebrum and cerebellum, are assembled into bundles of fibres and tiny nerves there, and so assembled pass down through the neck into the body. Within the body they spread out in every direction and move its parts altogether as the will, which begins in the brain, desires. Similar to all this is the flow of powers and forces down from the celestial kingdom, which is the head in the Grand Man or heaven, into the spiritual kingdom, which is so to speak the body there. This inflowing is also what is meant and described by 'the robe's hole for the head in the middle', and the limits of it by 'a border round about'. This then is why a boundary and enclosure on every side is meant by 'the border' which that hole possessed. The actual boundary is described next.