6406. 'And he will ravage the heel' means consequent disorder in the natural. This is clear from the meaning of 'ravaging' as dislodging him from a state of truth, as immediately above in 6405, thus upsetting order or creating disorder; and from the meaning of 'the heel' as the lowest part of the natural, dealt with in 259, 4938-4952. From this it is evident that 'he will ravage the heel' means disorder in the natural. people performing works motivated by truth but not as yet by good inevitably introduce disorder into their natural, since works have an effect on the natural; and as a consequence they cannot help closing their interiors to the extent that they perform such works, since the natural forms the base on which the interiors rest. But if there is disorder in the natural, the things that flow in from the interiors become disordered too; and these things that disordered lack light and are in gloom. This being so, those people cannot see what the truth is, but in that gloom and lack of light they seize on as the truth what is not in fact the truth, and this is what then motivates them in their performance of works. Furthermore works are absolutely vital, for they are charity and faith when put into effect and expressed in life. Who fails to see that without works charity does not exist? Works are nothing else than actual goodness and truth expressed in an outward form; for when good which exists in the will and truth which exists in the understanding are put into action they are called works. From this it is evident that the nature of the goodness and truth determines that of the works.

259. 'The heel' is used to mean the lowest part of the natural, which is the bodily. This cannot be known unless one knows how the most ancient people looked on the things that are in man. Celestial and spiritual things within him they associated with the head and face. The things that sprang from these, such as charity and mercy, they associated with the breast. Natural things however they associated with the foot, lower natural things with the sole of the foot, and the lowest natural and bodily with the heel. Not only did they associate things within man with parts of the body, they also called them such. The lowest things of reason, namely facts, were also meant by what Jacob prophesied concerning Dan,

Dan will be a serpent on the road, an asp on the path, biting the horse's heels; and its rider falls backwards. Genesis 49:17.

And the statement in David,

The iniquity of my heels has surrounded me. Psalms 49:5.

A similar statement is made in reference to Jacob whose hand, as he was being born, was grasping Esau's heel, which was why he was called Jacob, Genesis 25:26. The name Jacob derives from the word for a heel, for the Jewish Church, meant by Jacob, was to bruise the heel.

[2] The serpent is capable of harming only the lowest natural things in man, but not, unless they are types of vipers, the interior natural, still less the spiritual, and least of all the celestial. These the Lord preserves, and stores away in man without his awareness. The things which the Lord stores away are in the Word called 'remnants'. But how the serpent through sensory-mindedness and self-love destroyed those lowest things with people before the Flood; how it destroyed them with the Jews by means of sensory judgements, traditions, and things of no importance, as well as by self-love and love of the world; and how today it is destroying them and has destroyed them by means of sensory judgements, material facts, and philosophical arguments, along with the same self-love and love of the world, will in the Lord's Divine mercy be discussed later on.