The Lord is life itself. We are recipients of life. We give life unique forms because of our unique shapes as receptacles, and through free will we can choose how fully we will receive life. But we don't have life of our own. It follows from this that the more we turn toward the Lord and receive life, the more alive we will be; and the more we turn away the more dead we will be. It also follows that believing life is our own – with all the loves, the thoughts and the power that entails – is actually the antithesis of life.

This is the state of those in the deepest hells, who reject everything of the Lord, even His existence, and claim all life as their own. They are, in fact, only alive because the Lord forces life on them in the amount necessary to sustain existence.

This is, in a sense, what is represented by the rib – which is human, and is alive, but only in the most limited way. When the people of the Most Ancient Church (Adam) wanted to lead themselves and sense life as their own, the Lord had to use that most dead aspect of them to grant their wish. He had to use that bone, which represents our most hellish potential, what we would be if we were to reject the Lord completely.

But then the Lord did something miraculous. He turned that bone into living flesh, into a new person: the woman Eve. This represents that the Lord built that most dead, most hellish aspect of us up into something which felt life as its own, but could acknowledge that life actually came from the Lord, and could thus again be a recipient of life. It wasn't quite as pure as before; people could no longer commune directly with the Lord. But they had what they wanted instead: a sense of self.

The Writings call this – both the rib and the woman – by the Latin word proprium, essentially meaning "as of self." The rib represents the proprium on its own, which is hellish. The woman represents the proprium given life by the Lord.

(références: Arcana Coelestia 151, 152, 153, 154, 155)

3576. 'And he blessed him' means conjunction thereby. This is clear from the meaning of 'being blessed' as conjunction, dealt with in 3504, 3514, 3530, 3565. From these details which refer to Esau and Jacob it becomes clear that the good of the rational joined itself inmostly to the good of the natural, and then through the good of the natural to the truth there. For 'Isaac' represents the rational as regards good, 'Rebekah' the rational as regards truth, while 'Esau' represents the good of the natural and 'Jacob' the truth of the natural. The idea that the rational as regards good, which is 'Isaac', joined itself inmostly to the good of the natural, which is 'Esau', but not to the truth of the natural, which is 'Jacob', except indirectly, is evident from the consideration that Isaac had Esau in mind when pronouncing the blessing on Jacob. At that time he was not thinking of Jacob but of Esau. When anyone pronounces a blessing he is blessing the person of whom he is thinking, not someone of whom he is not thinking. All blessing comes forth from something interior, for though pronounced with the lips it receives its life from the will and the thought of the person pronouncing it. It belongs essentially therefore to the individual to whom he wishes to impart it and of whom he is thinking. If anyone intercepts it and so makes it his own it is like something stolen which ought to be restored to the other person. The fact that Isaac, when pronouncing the blessing, was thinking of Esau and not of Jacob becomes clear from every single detail that goes before this - from verses 18-19, where Isaac said to Jacob,

Who are you, my son? And Jacob said to his father, I am Esau your firstborn.

Then from verses 21-23,

Isaac said to Jacob, Come near now, and I will feel you, my son, whether you are my son Esau, or not.

And after feeling him he said, The voice is Jacob's voice, and the hands Esau's hands; and he did not recognize him.

Also from verse 24,

And he said. Are you my very son Esau? And he said, I am.

And at length, when kissing him,

He smelled the odour of his clothes.

That is to say, he smelled Esau's clothes, at which point he blessed him and said,

See, the odour of my son.

From all this it is clear that by the son whom he blessed he meant none other than Esau. This also was why when he heard from Esau that it had been Jacob,

Isaac trembled very greatly. Verse 33.

And he said, Your brother came in deceitfully. Verse 35.

The reason why Jacob retained the blessing however, according to what is said in verses 33-37, was that truth represented by 'Jacob' would from the point of view of time apparently have dominion, as shown frequently above.

[2] But once the time of reformation and regeneration is completed good itself which has been Lying hidden in the inmost parts and from there has been disposing every single thing which seemed to be a matter of truth, that is, which truth had ascribed to itself, comes to the fore and openly has dominion. And this is what Isaac's words addressed to Esau mean,

By your sword you will live, and you will serve your brother. And it will be when you have dominion over him, that you will break his yoke from above your neck, Verse 40.

The internal sense of these words is that all the time truth is joined to good, good appears to be in the lower position but will eventually be in the higher. At this point there will be a joining together of the rational with the good of the natural, and through the good of the natural with the truth. Truth will thus become the truth of good. In this case 'Esau' will consequently represent the good itself of the natural and 'Jacob' the truth of the natural, both joined to the rational. Accordingly in the highest sense they will represent the Lord's Divine Natural - 'Esau' as regards the Divine Good there and 'Jacob' as regards the Divine Truth.