865. And he sent forth a raven, and it went forth, going and returning. That by this is signified that falsities still made disturbance, is evident from the signification of a raven and of “going forth, going and returning” concerning which more will be said hereafter. In this passage is described the second state of the man who is to be regenerated, after temptation, when the truths of faith, like the first dawning of light, begin to appear. Such is the nature of this state that falsities are continually making disturbance, so that it resembles the morning twilight, while somewhat of the obscurity of night still remains, as is here signified by a “raven.” Falsities with the spiritual man, especially before his regeneration, are like the dense spots of a cloud. The reason is that he can know nothing of the truth of faith except from what is revealed in the Word, where all things are stated in a general way; and generals are but as the spots of a cloud, for every general comprehends in it thousands and thousands of particulars, and each particular thousands and thousands of singulars, all generals being illustrated by the singulars of the particulars. These have never been so revealed to man, because they are both indescribable and inconceivable, and so can neither be acknowledged nor believed in; for they are contrary to the fallacies of the senses in which man is, and which he does not easily permit to be destroyed.

[2] It is altogether otherwise with the celestial man, who possesses perception from the Lord; for in him particulars and singulars of particulars can be insinuated. For example: that true marriage is that of one man with one wife; and that such marriage is representative of the heavenly marriage, and therefore heavenly happiness can be in it, but never in a marriage of one man with a plurality of wives. The spiritual man, who knows this from the Word of the Lord, acquiesces in it, and hence admits as a matter of conscience that marriage with more wives than one is a sin; but he knows no more. The celestial man however perceives thousands of things which confirm this general, so that marriage with more wives than one excites his abhorrence. As the spiritual man knows generals only, and has his conscience formed from these, and as the generals of the Word have been accommodated to the fallacies of the senses, it is evident that innumerable falsities, which cannot be dispersed, will adjoin and insinuate themselves into them. These falsities are here signified by “the raven which went forth, going and returning.”