When Jacob had his famous dream, of a staircase leading to heaven, he named the place "Bethel," which is Hebrew for "the house of God."

That literal meaning is reflected in the spiritual meaning: The Writings tell us that "Bethel" represents the knowledge and understanding we can have about the Lord's divine love, the perfect love which He has for all of us, the perfect love which is His essence. When we know about the Lord's love and have some understanding of it, that gives it a "house" inside us, a way for it to grow inside us and affect our own loves.

In Genesis 28:17, Bethel signifies the Lord's kingdom in the lowermost order. (Arcana Coelestia 3720)

In Amos 3:14, Bethel signifies the divine good. (Arcana Coelestia 2832[10])

"Bethel" has the opposite sense later in the Old Testament, after Jeroboam set up golden calves there and made it a center of idol-worship. Then it represented worship springing from evil loves.

3695. 'And placed it as his headrest' means a very general communication with the Divine. This is clear from the meaning of 'headrest' or pillow as communication with external things, and so a very general communication. For the neck or collar means the communication of interior things with exterior, or what amounts to the same, of higher things with lower, and consequently means a joining together of them, see 3542, 3603. This being so, that which goes underneath the neck or collar, that is, the pillow, here means the communication of innermost or Divine things with outermost, a communication which is also very general. For in relation to what is internal that which is external is general, and that which is outermost is very general; for the individual parts constituting interior things are seen in exterior as a single whole and so as something general. These are also what is represented and meant by the stairway set up on the earth with its top reaching up to heaven and the angels of God going up and coming down on it, dealt with further on.