When 'islands' are contrasted to 'earth' or 'mountains,' they signify the truths of faith, because they are in the sea. They signify doctrinal things which are rituals. 'Islands' signify peoples who are more remote from the worship of God. People who are steeped in the internal sense of the Word, such as angels, do not know what islands are, because they no longer have any concept of such places. Instead they have a perception of more remote worship, like the gentiles outside the church.

'Islands,' in Ezekiel 27:6, signify people in the church in a natural, materially-oriented state but still rational.

(références: Apocalypse Explained 406; Isaiah 1, Isaiah 49, 49:1)

5118. 'And Pharaoh's cup was in my hand' means an influx of the interior natural into the exterior natural, and the beginning of reception. This is clear from the representation of 'Pharaoh' as the interior natural, dealt with above in 5080, 5095; from the representation of 'the cupbearer' as the exterior natural, dealt with in 5077, 5082 - 'my hand' being the cupbearer's; from the meaning of 'cup' as that which contains, and also at the same time that which is contained in it, dealt with below in 5120. From these meanings and from the train of thought in the internal sense 'Pharaoh's cup was in my hand' means the influx of the interior natural into the exterior natural, and the beginning of reception there. What the interior natural and the exterior natural are has been stated already - the interior natural is that which communicates with the rational and into which the rational enters, while the exterior natural is that which communicates with the senses, that is, through the senses with the world, and so that which the world flows into.

[2] As regards influx, this begins with the Lord and extends continuously through the rational into the interior natural and then through this into the exterior natural; but what flows through undergoes change and is converted according to the way it is received. With those who are not regenerate all good is converted there into evil, and all truth into falsity; but with those who are regenerate all good and truth presents itself there as in a mirror. For the natural is nothing else than a face so to speak that is representative of spiritual characteristics of the internal man; and the face becomes representative when exteriors correspond to interiors. From this one may gain some idea of what is meant by an influx of the interior natural into the exterior natural, and the beginning of reception there.