9478. Verses 8-9 And they are to make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst. In accordance with all that I show you, the pattern of the dwelling-place and the pattern of all its vessels, just so you shall make it.

'And they are to make Me a sanctuary' means a representative of the Lord, and so of heaven. 'That I may dwell in their midst' means the Lord's presence as a result in the representative Church. 'In accordance with all that I show you, the pattern of the dwelling-place' means a representative of heaven where the Lord is. 'And the pattern of all its vessels' means a representative of all the celestial and spiritual realities that He is the source of. 'Just so you shall make it' means a definite and true representative.

Bones are strong and supportive, providing a framework for our bodies and making motion and action possible. They are also the least "alive" part of our bodies, with much of their structure made up of a mineral matrix. As such, they represent a strong, supportive, functional but innately nearly dead part of our spiritual makeup: the "proprium."

The proprium is the part of us that feels life as our own, that perceives our loves and our thoughts as originating within ourselves. If we simply follow the proprium without looking to the Lord, it will lead us to a hellish state, in which we believe ourselves to be all-powerful and deny the existence of the Lord altogether.

Bones, on their own, will go dry, brittle and completely dead. If, however, we acknowledge the Lord and follow him, that's like putting flesh on the bones and being alive. In that case the bones – strong, supportive, protective and as alive as they can be – represent the proprium in relation to intellect, the part of us that perceives our thoughts as our own but turns them toward the Lord.