6400. Biting the horse’s heels. That this signifies fallacies from lowest nature, is evident from the signification of “biting,” as being to adhere, and thereby do harm to; and from the signification of a “horse’s heel,” as being fallacies from lowest nature; for the “heel” denotes the lowest natural and corporeal (see n. 259, 4938-4952), and a “horse,” the intellectual (n. 2761, 2762, 3217, 5321, 6125); here a “horse” denotes fallacies, because it denotes the intellectual of the lowest natural or sensuous. That they who are in truth and not yet in good are in fallacies from lowest nature, may be seen from the fact that truth is not in any light unless good is with it, or in it; for good is like a flame which emits light from itself; and when good meets with any truth, it not only illuminates it, but also brings it to itself into its own light. They therefore who are in truth and not yet in good, are in shade and darkness; because truth has no light from itself, and the light which they have from good is faint, like a light which is going out; and therefore when these persons think and reason about truth, and from truth about good, they are like those who see phantasms in the dark, and believe them to be real bodies; or who see marks on a wall in a shady place, and in fancy make of them the image of some man or animal; and yet when the light comes, they are seen to be mere marks without any form; and it is the same with truths with those here treated of, for they see as truths those things which are not truths, and which are rather to be likened to phantasms, and to marks on a wall. Moreover all the heresies in the church have arisen from those who have been in some truth from the Word, but not in good; to them heresy has appeared exactly like truth; and in like manner the falsities in the church. That they who have promulgated these have not been in good, may be seen from the fact that they have rejected the good of charity far behind the truth of faith, and have in part devised such things as do not at all agree with the good of charity.

[2] It is said that they who are in truth and not yet in good reason about good and truth from fallacies from lowest nature, and therefore it is necessary to say what fallacies are. Take for example the life after death. They who are in fallacies from lowest nature, as are those who are in truth and not yet in good, do not believe that there is anything alive in man except his body, nor that when man dies he can rise again unless he again receives his body. If they are told that there is an interior man who lives in the body, and who is raised up by the Lord when the body dies, and that the man when raised has a body such as spirits or angels have, and that he sees, hears, speaks, is in company with others, and appears to himself exactly like a man, just as does a man in this world, they cannot apprehend it. Fallacies from lowest nature make them believe such things to be impossible, chiefly because they do not see them with the eyes of their body.

[3] Moreover when such persons think about the spirit or soul, they have no idea whatever about it except such as they have of the invisible things in nature, whence they make it either a mere breath, or aerial, or ethereal, or like a flame; some a mere thinking power which has scarcely any vitality until it is again joined to the body. The reason why they think in this way is that to them all interior things are in shade and darkness, and only outward things are in light, which shows how easily they may fall into error; for if they think only of how the body is to be put together again; of the destruction of the world, and that this has been vainly awaited for so many ages; of brute animals having a life not unlike the life of man; and that none of the dead appear and make known the state of their life-when they think these and other such things, they easily recede from belief in the resurrection; and so in many other cases. The reason is that they are not in good, and through good in light. Such being their state, it is also said, “and his rider shall fall backward; I wait for Thy salvation, O Jehovah.” By this is signified that hence comes a receding unless the Lord brings aid.

2762. That a “horse” signifies the faculty of understanding is from no other source than the representatives in the other life. Often there, in the world of spirits, horses are seen, and this with great variety, and those also that sit on them; and whenever they are seen they signify the faculty of understanding. There are such representatives continually with spirits. It is from the representation of the horse, as being the understanding, that when horses are mentioned in the Word, the spirits and angels with man at once know that the understanding is what is treated of. It is also from this that when spirits from a certain distant world on being imbued with intelligence and wisdom are taken up from the world of spirits into heaven, there appear to them horses shining as with fire; which also I have seen when they were taken up.

[2] From this I could see what is signified by the chariot of fire and horses of fire seen by Elisha when Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven; as also what is signified by the exclamation of Elisha then: “My Father, my Father, the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof” (2 Kings 2:11-12); and by Joash king of Israel saying the same to Elisha when he was dying: “My Father, my Father, the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof” (2 Kings 13:14). That by Elijah and Elisha was represented the Lord as to the Word, will of the Lord’s Divine mercy be told elsewhere; the doctrine of love and charity from the Word being meant by the “chariot of fire,” and the doctrine of faith therefrom by the “horses of fire.” The doctrine of faith is the same as the understanding of the Word as to its interiors, or as to its internal sense.

[3] That chariots and horses are seen in the heavens with spirits and angels, is evident from the fact of their being seen by the prophets, as by Zechariah (Zechariah 1:8-10; 6:3-7), and by others, and also by Elisha’s servant, as thus described in the book of Kings:

Jehovah opened the eyes of Elisha’s boy, and he saw; and behold the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha (2 Kings 6:17).

Moreover, where the abode of the intelligent and wise is, in the world of spirits, chariots and horses appear continually; for the reason as said that by chariots and horses are represented the things of wisdom and of intelligence. Resuscitated persons after death, who are entering into the other life, see represented to them a young man sitting upon a horse, and then alighting from the horse; and by this is signified that they are to be instructed in the knowledge of good and truth before they can come into heaven (see Part First,n. 187-188).

[4] That chariots and horses signified these things, was well known in the Ancient Church, as also is evident from the book of Job, which is a book of that Church, where are these words:

God hath made her to forget wisdom, and hath not imparted to her intelligence; what time she lifteth up herself on high she scorneth the horse and his rider (Job 39:17-19).

From the Ancient Church the signification of the horse, as being the faculty of understanding, was extended to the wise round about, even into Greece. From this it came to pass that when they described the sun (by which was signified love, n. 2441, 2495), they placed in it the god of their wisdom and intelligence, and gave him a chariot and four horses of fire; and that when they described the god of the sea, because by the sea were signified knowledges in general (n. 28, 2120), they gave horses also to him; and that when they described the rise of knowledges from the understanding, they represented a flying horse which with his hoof broke open a fountain, where dwelt the virgins that were the sciences; and by the Trojan horse nothing else was signified than a contrivance of their understanding for destroying city walls.

Even at this day the intellect is often described, according to the custom received from those ancient people, under the figure of a flying horse, or Pegasus; and learning is described as a fountain; but scarcely anyone knows that a horse, in the mystic sense, signifies the understanding, and a fountain truth; still less that these significatives were handed down to the Gentiles from the Ancient Church.