9684. 'And the lampstand across from the table, at the side of the dwelling-place towards the south' means the enlightenment of the spiritual kingdom by means of the Divine Truth emanating from the Lord's Divine Human to those who are governed by good. This is clear from the meaning of 'the lampstand' as the Lord in respect of Divine Truth, thus as Divine Truth emanating from His Divine Human, and the enlightenment given to His spiritual kingdom, dealt with below; from the meaning of 'the table', on which the loaves of the Presence were laid and which the lampstand was 'across from', as the Lord in respect of celestial good, thus that very good from which and through which the Lord flows into the spiritual kingdom or middle heaven, also dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'at the side of the dwelling-place towards the south' as in the heaven where the Divine Truth emanating from the Lord's Divine Human dwells in the greatest light. For the dwelling-place outside the veil, where the lampstand was, is the middle heaven, 9594, and 'the south' is where Divine Truth dwells in its own light, 9642. The instructions that the lampstand in the dwelling-place, and also the table on which the loaves of the Presence were laid, were to be positioned close to the veil, the lampstand however at the side of the dwelling-place towards the south, but the table at the side towards the north, are arcana of heaven which cannot be properly brought to light unless it is known that the dwelling-place represented heaven, and the objects in the dwelling-place the celestial and spiritual realities which exist in heaven. What the lampstand represented has been shown already in 9548, and what the table on which the loaves of the Presence were laid represented in 9527, 9545. What 'the south' means has been shown in 9642, and what 'the north' in 3708. From all this it becomes clear that 'the lampstand at the side of the dwelling-place towards the south' means the enlightenment of the spiritual kingdom by means of Divine Truth emanating from the Lord's Divine Human.

[2] But to lay bare those actual arcana, something must be stated about the whole situation in heaven. The Lord appears to those who belong to the celestial kingdom as the Sun, but to those who belong to the spiritual kingdom as the Moon. The Lord as the Sun appears mid-way above the horizon, before the right eye, and as the Moon also mid-way above the horizon, before the left eye. It is from the Lord as the Sun that angels in His celestial kingdom derive their light, and from the Lord as the Moon that those in the spiritual kingdom derive theirs; regarding those two kingdoms, see the places referred to in 9277. The light in the heavens is Divine Truth emanating from the Lord's Divine Human; and when that truth has been received by angels belonging to the spiritual kingdom it is called the truth of faith springing from the good of charity towards the neighbour. This good together with that truth constitute the middle heaven, called the spiritual heaven. The lampstand in the dwelling-place represented the Moon from which those belonging to the spiritual kingdom derive their light; it accordingly represented the Lord's presence there as Divine Truth, since, as has been stated, the Lord appears to those who belong to that kingdom as the Moon. From all this it now becomes clear why the lampstand was placed 'towards the south', for the south is where Divine Truth dwells in light, 9642; also why the table on which the loaves of the Presence were laid was placed 'towards the north', for the north is where Divine Truth dwells in obscurity, 3708, as at the same time does Divine Good, meant by 'the loaves' laid on that table. That good becomes spiritual good through the reception of Divine Truth, like the reception of light from the moon. These are the arcana that are meant by the lampstand and its position 'towards the south', and by the table on which the loaves of the Presence were laid and its position 'towards the north'.

[3] The fact that 'the lampstand' means Divine Truth emanating from the Lord's Divine Human is clear from the Book of Revelation,

I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the seven lampstands one like the Son of Man, clothed with a long robe, and surrounded by a golden girdle around the breasts. Revelation 1:12-14.

'The Son of Man' is the Lord in respect of Divine Truth emanating from His Divine Human, 2803, 2813, 3704. And elsewhere in the same book,

The glory of God will give light to the holy city Jerusalem, and its lamp is the Lamb. Revelation 21:23.

'The glory of God' is Divine Truth emanating from the Lord, 9429. 'The lamp' which is 'the Lamb', that is, the Lord, is the faith and consequently the intelligent understanding of truth and wise discernment of good which come from the Lord alone, 9548. The new Jerusalem is the Lord's New Church, 2117.

[4] The Lord is the Sun to those who are in the celestial kingdom and appears as the Moon to those who are in the spiritual kingdom, see 1053, 1521, 1529-1531, 3636, 3643, 5097, 7083, 7173, 7270, 8644, 8812. Consequently in the Word the Lord in respect of celestial good is meant by 'the sun', and the Lord in respect of spiritual good by 'the moon', 1529, 1530, 2441, 2495, 4060, 4696, 7083, 8644. The Lord as the Sun appears mid-way above the horizon, before the right eye, and as the Moon also mid-way above the horizon, before the left eye, 1531, 4321 (end), 7078, 7171.

So it is that the east in heaven is where the Lord appears as the Sun, and the south where the Lord appears as the Moon.

The light from the Lord as the Sun and Moon is Divine Truth emanating from His Divine Human, 1053, 1521-1533, 1619-1632, 2776, 3094, 3138, 3167, 3190, 3195, 3222, 3223, 3337, 3339, 3341, 3636, 3643, 3862, 3993, 4060, 4180, 4302, 4408, 4414, 4415, 4419, 4527, 4598, 5400, 6032, 6313, 6315, 6608, 6907, 7174, 8644, 8707, 8861, 9399, 9407.

Since the light from the Lord as the Sun and the Moon is Divine Truth emanating from Him, the heat from the Lord as the Sun there is the Divine Good of His Divine Love, 3338, 3339, 3636, 3643, 5215, 6032.

[5] All this goes to show the nature of the difference between the Lord's celestial kingdom and His spiritual kingdom so far as the reception of Divine Truth is concerned. That is to say, it is like the difference between light from the sun and light from the moon.

Those in the spiritual kingdom, in comparison with the others, dwell in obscurity so far as the truth of faith and the good of charity are concerned, 2708, 2715, 2718, 2831, 2849, 2935, 2937, 3241, 3833, 6289, 6500, 6945, 7233. These primarily are the ones to have been saved by the Lord's Coming into the world, 2661, 2716, 3969, 6372, 6854, 6914, 7035, 7091, 7828, 7932, 8018, 8054, 8159, 8321, 9596; and the enlightenment they have is in the Lord's Divine Human, 2716, 2833, 2834.

But those belonging to the spiritual Church are saved who lead a good life based on the truths of faith, 2954, 6435, 6647, 6648, 7977, 7992, 8643, 8648, 8658, 8685, 8690, 8701.

3993. 'Removing from it every speckled and spotted member of the flock' means that everything good and true that is meant by 'Laban' and which - when mingled with evil, meant by 'speckled', or mingled with falsity, meant by 'spotted' - will be separated. This is clear from the meaning of 'removing' as separating, and from the meaning of 'member of the flock', in this case she-goats and lambs, as goods and truths, dealt with in 1824, 3519. The fact that these details and those that follow in this chapter hold arcana within them may be recognized from the consideration that for the most part they would not be worth mentioning in the Divine Word if they did not include any deeper arcana than those to be seen in the letter, such as the following: For his wages Jacob asked for the speckled and the spotted among the she-goats and for the black among the lambs; and after this, in the runners he placed rods - which he had peeled down to the white and which were of hazel and of plane - in front of Laban's flocks when these came on heat, and in the case of the lambs he set the faces of the flock towards the variegated and the black in Laban's flock, thereby making himself rich not by the use of a good skill but of an evil one. These details do not seem to hold anything Divine within them, and yet the Word is Divine in every single part, even to the smallest part of a letter. And what is more, knowing all these details does not contribute one tiny bit to a person's salvation, yet being Divine the Word does not contain within itself anything else than such things as lead to salvation and eternal life.

[2] From these details and others like them elsewhere anyone may come to the conclusion that some arcanum is concealed within them, and that although in the literal sense they are the kind of facts that are not worth mentioning, those details - every single one - are pregnant with ideas much more Divine. But what exactly these ideas may be cannot possibly be seen by anyone except from the internal sense, that is, unless he knows the way in which angels perceive these matters; for they perceive the spiritual sense when man sees the historical natural sense. How remote these two senses seem to be from each other when in fact they are closely linked to one another may become quite evident from the historical details explained above and from all other such details. The actual arcanum present within the details here and in those after them in this chapter may, it is true, be known to some extent from what has been stated already about Laban and Jacob - about 'Laban' meaning the kind of good by means of which genuine goods and truths are able to be introduced, while 'Jacob' means the good of truth. Yet few know what natural good corresponding to spiritual good is, even fewer what spiritual good is and that a correspondence ought to exist between the two, and fewer still that a type of good which merely looks like good is the means for introducing genuine goods and truths. This being so, the arcana which describe these matters cannot be explained easily and intelligibly since they fall within the poorly lit parts of the understanding. It is rather like someone talking in a foreign language, in that no matter how clearly the thing is explained in that language the hearer does not understand. Even so, because what is concealed in the internal sense of the Word is to be made known, the actual arcanum within the details here has to be discussed.

[3] In the highest sense the subject at this point is how the Lord made His own Natural Divine, and in the representative sense how the Lord regenerates the natural as it exists with man and brings it into correspondence with his interior man, that is, with that which is going to live after the death of the body. At that point it is called man's spirit which, when released from the body, takes with it every part of the external man except the flesh and bones. If the correspondence of the internal man with the external has not been effected in the temporal state, that is, during a person's life in the body, it is not effected after that. The Lord's joining of the two together through regeneration is the subject in the internal sense here.

[4] Previous sections have dealt with the general truths which a person ought to receive and acknowledge before he can be regenerated, those truths being meant by Jacob's ten sons by Leah and the servant-girls; then they deal - after he has received and acknowledged them - with the joining of the external man to the interior, that is, of the natural man to the spiritual, which was meant by 'Joseph'. Now in the sequence of ideas the subject is the fruitfulness of good and the multiplication of truth which begin to occur once the rational man has been joined to the spiritual, and in the measure that they are so joined. These are the considerations meant by the flock which Jacob acquired to himself by means of Laban's flock. 'Flock' here means good and truth, as it does many times elsewhere in the Word. 'Laban's flock' means the good that is represented by 'Laban', the nature of which has been stated above; 'Jacob's flock' means the genuine good and truth which is acquired by means of that good represented by Laban.

[5] It is the way in which genuine goods and truths are acquired that is described here. Yet this cannot by any means be comprehended unless one knows what is meant in the internal sense by 'speckled', 'spotted', 'black' and 'white', and therefore these must first be dealt with here. That which is speckled or that which is spotted consists of black and of white. In general 'black' means that which is evil, in particular man's proprium since this is nothing but evil. 'Dark' however means that which is false, and in particular false assumptions. 'White' in the internal sense means truth; strictly speaking it means the Lord's Righteousness and Merit, and from this the Lord's righteousness and merit as these exist with man. This whiteness is called bright because it shines from the light that radiates from the Lord. But 'white' in the contrary sense means self-righteousness or one's own merit. Indeed truth devoid of good has such merit within it, for when any good action performed by a person does not stem from the good of truth that person always desires something in return since he acts for the sake of himself. But when good lies behind the truth that a person carries into effect, that truth is enlightened by the light which radiates from the Lord. From this one may see what is meant by 'spotted', namely truth with which falsity has been mingled, and what by 'speckled', namely good with which evil has been mingled.

[6] Actually visible in the next life are colours so beautiful and bright that they defy description, 1053, 1624. They are the product of the variegation of light and shade within white and black. But although it appears before the eyes as light, the light there is unlike the light in the world. The light in heaven includes intelligence and wisdom, for Divine Intelligence and Wisdom from the Lord manifest themselves there as light and also light up the whole of heaven, 2776, 3138, 3167, 3190, 3195, 3222, 3223, 3225, 3339-3341, 3485, 3636, 3643, 3862. Shade likewise in the next life, although it appears as shade, is unlike shade in the world, since the shade in that life is the absence of light and as a consequence the lack of intelligence and wisdom. So because the white and the black are in the next life a product of light which has intelligence and wisdom within it, and a product of the shade which is the lack of these, it is evident that white and black mean such things as have been stated above. Consequently, since colours are the modifications of light and shade within surfaces consisting of white and black, it is the variegations produced by those modifications that are called colours, 1042, 1043, 1053.

[7] From all this one may see what is meant by speckled, or marked and dotted with black and white specks, namely good with which evil has been mingled, and also what is meant by spotted, namely truth with which falsity has been mingled. These are the things that were taken from 'Laban good' to serve in the introducing of genuine goods and truths. But in what way they are able to serve is an arcanum which can indeed be presented clearly to those who see in the light of heaven because this light, as has been stated, holds intelligence within it, but not to those who see in the light of the world unless their light of the world is lit up by the light of heaven, as it is with those who are regenerate. For every regenerate person sees goods and truths within his own natural light from the light of heaven, because the light of heaven brings sight to his understanding even as the inferior light of the world gives him natural sight.

[8] But all this needs to be taken a little further. No pure good, or good with which evil is not mingled, exists with anyone. Neither does any pure truth, or truth with which falsity is not mingled, exist with him. This is because man's will is nothing but evil, from which falsity is constantly passing into his understanding; for as is well known, he possesses by inheritance the evil that has been accumulated consecutively by his forefathers. From this inheritance he brings out evil into his own actions and makes it his own, adding further evil from himself to the inheritance. But the evils residing with man are of various kinds. There are evils with which goods cannot be mingled and there are evils with which they can. And the same applies to falsities. If this were not so nobody could ever have been regenerated. The evils and falsities with which goods and truths cannot be mingled are ones that are contrary to love to God and love towards the neighbour - forms of hatred, revenge, and cruelty, and consequent contempt for others in comparison with oneself, and also consequent false persuasions. But the evils and falsities with which goods and truths can be mingled are ones that are not contrary to love to God and love towards the neighbour.

[9] Take for example anyone who loves himself more than others and because of that love strives to excel others in private life and in public life, to excel them in knowledge and doctrine, and to be promoted to positions of greater importance than others, and also to greater affluence than others. If at the same time he acknowledges and adores the Lord, from the heart performs acts of kindness to the neighbour, and from conscience behaves justly and fairly, the evil that belongs to his self-love is such that good and truth can be mingled with it. For this is an evil which belongs to a person as his own and into which he is born by heredity. And to take that away from him suddenly would be to put out the fire of life that burns in him at first. But in the case of someone who loves himself more than others and because of that love despises others in comparison with himself, hates those who do not hold him in esteem and so to speak adore him, and therefore enjoys the feelings of hatred that are present in revenge and cruelty, the evil of that love is such that good and truth cannot be mingled with it because they are contraries.

[10] Take as another example anyone who believes that he is pure from sins, and so is cleansed like somebody from whom dirt has been washed away by means of much water, once he has repented and carried out the prescribed penances, or after he has made his confession and heard the confessor declare him free from sins, or after he has been to the Holy Supper. If he leads a new life, being stirred by an affection for good and truth, that falsity is such that good can be mingled with it. But if he goes on leading a carnal and worldly life as before, it is in that case a falsity with which good cannot be mingled. Also, with anyone who believes that man is saved by virtue of believing what is good and not of willing it, and yet who does will what is good and therefore does it, that falsity is such that good and truth can be attached to it. But not so if he does not will what is good and therefore does not do it.

[11] Take yet another example. If anyone does not know that man rises again after death and consequently does not believe in the resurrection, or else if anyone who does know but nevertheless doubts or practically denies it, and yet each one leads a life of truth and goodness, good and truth can be mingled with that falsity also. But if a person leads a life of falsity and evil they cannot be mingled with that same falsity because they are contraries. The falsity destroys the truth, and the evil destroys the good.

[12] And still another example. Pretence and shrewdness which have a good end in view, whether the good of the neighbour, or of one's country, or of the Church, constitute prudence. The evils that are mixed up with them can be mingled with good by reason of and for the sake of the end in view. But presence and shrewdness which have an evil end in view do not constitute prudence but trickery and deceit. Good cannot possibly be joined to these, for deceit which goes with an evil end in view brings what is of hell into every single part of a person, sets evil in the middle, and casts good away to the circumferences. This order is the order itself of hell. And so with countless other examples that could be taken.

[13] The fact that there are some evils and falsities to which goods and truths can be attached may be seen merely from the consideration that so many different dogmas and teachings exist, many of them totally heretical, and yet subscribing to each one there are people who are saved. The same may also be seen from the consideration that among gentiles outside of the Church there is another Church that is the Lord's, and that those are saved who lead charitable lives, even though falsities exist with them, 2589 2604. This could by no means be the case if there were no evils with which goods can be mingled, and no falsities with which truths can be mingled. For the evils with which goods are mingled, and the falsities with which truths are mingled, are wonderfully arranged into order by the Lord. For they are not combined with one another, still less are they made into one, but lie adjacent to and touch one another, so that in fact the goods together with the truths occupy the middle, at the central point so to speak, while the evils and falsities occupy positions radiating outwards to the surrounding areas or circumferences. Consequently the evils and falsities receive light from the goods and truths, and are variegated like patches of white and black created by light radiating from the middle or centre. This constitutes heavenly order. These are the things meant in the internal sense by 'speckled' and 'spotted'.