5146. And in the uppermost basket. That this signifies the inmost of the will part, is evident from the signification of a “basket” as being the will part (of which above, n. 5144); and from the signification of “the uppermost,” as being the inmost (n. 2148, 3084, 4599). The reason why the “uppermost” denotes the inmost is that with man who is in space, interior things appear as higher things, and exterior things as lower ones; but when the idea of space is put off, as is the case in heaven and also in the interior thought of man, there is then put off the idea of what is high and what is low; for height and depth come from the idea of space. Nay, in the interior heaven there is no idea of things interior and exterior, because something of space adheres to this idea also; but there is the idea of more perfect or more imperfect state; for interior things are in a more perfect state than exterior ones, because interior things are nearer the Divine, and exterior things are more remote from it. This is the reason why what is uppermost signifies what is inmost.

[2] Nevertheless no one can apprehend what the interior is relatively to the exterior unless he knows how the case stands with degrees (in regard to which see above, n. 3691, 4154, 5114, 5145). Man has no other conception of what is interior and hence more perfect than as of what is purer in continual diminution; but the purer and the grosser are possible in one and the same degree, both according to the expansion and the contraction, and according to the determinations, and also according to the insertions of things homogeneous or heterogeneous. As such an idea prevails about the interior of man, it is quite impossible to avoid the notion that the exteriors are continuously coherent with the interiors, and thus act with them absolutely as a one. But if a genuine idea about degrees is formed, it is then possible to see how the interiors and the exteriors are distinct from one another, and that they are so distinct that the interiors can come into existence and subsist without the exteriors, but by no means the exteriors without the interiors. It is also then possible to see how the case stands with the correspondence of the interiors in the exteriors, and also how the exteriors can represent the interiors. This is the reason why the learned can treat hypothetically only of the interaction between the soul and the body; nay, this is also the reason why many of them believe life to be in the body, so that when the body dies, they believe that they will die as to the interiors also, on account of the coherence of these with the body, when yet it is only the exterior degree that dies, the interior then surviving and living.

4154. And he went out of Leah’s tent, and came into Rachel’s tent. That this signifies the holy of that truth, is evident from what has just been said. The case with truths (as with goods) is that they are exterior and interior; for there is an internal man and an external. It is the goods and truths of the internal man that are called internal goods and truths, and the goods and truths of the external man are called external goods and truths. The goods and truths of the internal man are of three degrees, such as there are in the three heavens. The goods and truths of the external man are also of three degrees and they correspond to the internal ones; for there are goods and truths midway between the internal and external man (that is, mediating ones); for without middle or mediating goods and truths no communication is possible. There are goods and truths proper to the natural man, which are called external goods and truths; and there are also goods and truths of the senses which are of the body, and thus outermost ones. These last mentioned goods and truths of three degrees belong to the external man, and as before said they correspond to as many goods and truths of the internal man; concerning which of the Lord’s Divine Providence elsewhere.

[2] The goods and truths of each degree are most distinct from one another, and are by no means confused together. Those which are more interior are component, and those which are more exterior are composite. Although these goods and truths are most distinct from one another, they nevertheless do not appear to man as distinct. The sensuous man sees no otherwise than that all interior things, nay, internal things themselves, are only sensuous, for he sees from sensuous things, thus from outermost ones. Interior things cannot be seen from outermost things, but outermost things can be seen from interior things. He who is a natural man (that is, who thinks from memory-knowledges) knows no otherwise than that the natural things from which he thinks are inmost, when in fact they are external. The interior man, who judges and concludes from analytic principles that have been disclosed by virtue of natural memory-knowledges, believes in like manner that these are the inmost things which man possesses, because they appear as the inmost to him; and yet these are below his rational things, so that relatively to genuine rational things they are exterior or lower. Such is the case with man’s apprehension. The things just spoken of are those of the natural or external man in three degrees; but as before said those of the internal man are also in three degrees such as there are in the three heavens.

[3] From all that has been said it may now be seen how the case is with the truths signified by the “teraphim,” in that they were not found in the tents of Jacob, Leah, or the handmaids, but in Rachel’s tent, that is, in the holy of the affection of interior truth. All the truth that is from the Divine is in that which is holy, for it cannot be otherwise, because the truth that is from the Divine is holy. It is said to be holy from the affection (that is, from the love) which flows in from the Lord, and causes the man to be affected with the truth.