10178. 'With pieces of shittim wood you shall make it' means from love that is Divine. This is clear from the meaning of 'shittim wood' as the good of merit and of righteousness, which is the Lord's alone, dealt with in 9472, 9486, 9715. The reason why love as well is meant is that when the Lord was in the world He was motivated by Divine Love to fight against all the hells and overcome them, and in so doing to save the human race, as a result of which He alone has earned merit, and has become righteousness, see 9486, 9715, 9809, 10019, 10152; and the good of merit which is the Lord's is therefore His Divine Love. The reason why 'shittim wood' has so profound a meaning is that all things which exist in earth's three kingdoms - the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms - serve to mean spiritual and celestial realities, or else their opposites. (For the whole natural order is a theatre representative of the Lord's kingdom, see the places referred to in 9280.) And 'wood' means in general the good of love, and in particular the good of merit, 2784, 2812, 3720, 4943, 8354, 8740. So it is that in the highest sense 'wood' means Divine Good; for all things serving in the internal sense to mean aspects of the Church and of heaven serve in the highest sense to mean Divine realities.

1514. Spheres are also made perceptible to the senses by means of odors, which spirits smell far more keenly than men do; for, remarkably, odors correspond to spheres. With people who have given themselves up to the practice of deceit and have as a consequence acquired a deceitful disposition, there is a stink of vomit when their sphere is converted into an odor. With those who have studied how to speak eloquently so that it may all lead to self-admiration, their sphere when converted into something odoriferous is like the smell of burnt bread. With those who have given themselves up to the pursuit of mere pleasure and with whom no charity or faith has existed, the odor of their sphere is that of excrement. It is similar in the case of those who have gone through life committing adultery, whose odor is even more obnoxious. With those who have led lives of intense hatred, of revenge, and of practicing cruelty their sphere, when converted into odors, is the stench of a corpse. From those who have been disgustingly avaricious the stench of mice is given off, and the stench of house-lice or bugs comes from those who persecute the innocent. These odors cannot be detected by anyone unless his interior senses have been opened in such a way that he is at the same time in the company of spirits.