6726. 'And put him in the weed at the bank of the river' means that at first it was among false factual knowledge. This is clear from the meaning of 'the weed' as factual knowledge, dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'the river of Egypt' as falsity, dealt with in 6697. For what this really means, that those who are introduced into God's truth are at first put among falsities, see just above in 6724. The reason why 'the weed' means factual knowledge is that every small plant mentioned in the Word means some type of factual knowledge. 'The weed' which grows at the bank of a river is inferior factual knowledge, as also in Isaiah,

The rivers will recede, and the streams of Egypt will dry up; reed and weed will wither. Isaiah 19:6.

'The rivers' stands for matters of intelligence, 2702, 3051; 'the streams of Egypt will dry up' stands for matters of knowledge; 'reed and weed' stands for the lowest forms of factual knowledge, which are sensory impressions. 'The weed' stands for false factual knowledge in Jonah,

The waters surrounded me, even to my soul, the deep closed around me, weed was wrapped about my head. Jonah 2:5.

This prophecy describes a state of temptations. The waters which surrounded him, even to his soul, are falsities, 'deluges of water' being temptations and desolations, see 705, 739, 790, 5725. The deep which closed around him is the evil of falsity. The weed that was wrapped about his head stands for false factual knowledge that beset truth and goodness. This is how it is in a state of desolations.

6698. I have in addition talked to spirits about how a person may come to believe that the universe contains more than one terrestrial world from the fact that the visible universe is lit by such a countless number of stars and is so vast, and yet is solely a means serving the ultimate end of creation, that end in view being the heavenly kingdom in which the Divine can dwell. For the visible universe exists as the means for planets to come into being and have people on them from whom the heavenly kingdom may be formed. How can anyone ever think that so vast a means has been created for an end so small and limited as it would be if only one planet were inhabited and heaven were formed from this alone? What use would this be to the Divine, who is Infinite, to whom thousands, indeed tens of thousands of planets, and all of them full of inhabitants, would be little and scarcely anything? Furthermore the angelic heaven is so vast that it has correspondence with every detail in the human being; tens of thousands correspond to any one of the members, organs, or viscera. I have also been allowed to know that heaven cannot possibly exist complete with all its correspondences unless it draws on inhabitants from a large number of planets.