4098. Zijn wij niet vreemden van hem geacht, omdat hij ons heeft verkocht; dat dit betekent dat het hen vervreemd heeft, zodat zij er niet langer toe behoorden, staat vast uit de betekenis van ‘als vreemden geacht worden’, namelijk vervreemd worden; en uit de betekenis van verkopen, namelijk zozeer vervreemden dat zij er niet langer toe behoren.

47. FROM THE ARCANA COELESTIA.

Of the internal and the external with man.

It is known in the Christian world, that man has an internal and an external, or an internal man and an external man; but it is little known what is the quality of the one and of the other (n. 1889, 1940). The internal man is spiritual, and the external is natural (n. 978, 1015, 4459, 6309,9701-9709). How the internal man which is spiritual is formed to the image of heaven; and the external which is natural to the image of the world; and man was therefore called by the ancients a microcosm (n. 3628, 4523-4524, 6057, 6314, 9706, 10156, 10472). Thus in man the spiritual world and natural world are conjoined (n. 6057, 10472). Thence man is such that he can look up towards heaven, and down towards the world (n. 7601, 7604, 7607). When he looks upwards, he is in the light of heaven and sees thence; but when he looks downwards, he is in the light of the world and sees thence (n. 3167, 10134). There is given with man a descent from the spiritual world into the natural (n. 3702, 4042).

The internal man which is spiritual, and the external man which is natural, are altogether distinct (n. 1999, 2018, 3691, 4459). The distinction is such as exists between cause and effect, and between prior and posterior, and there is no continuity (n. 3691, 4154, 5145-5146, 5711, 6275, 6284, 6299, 6326, 6465, 8603, 10076, 10099, 10181). Consequently that the distinction is like that between heaven and the world, or between the spiritual and the natural (n. 4292, 5032, 5620, 5639). The interiors and exteriors of man are not continuous, but distinct according to degrees, and each degree is terminated (n. 3691, 4145, 5114, 6326, 6465, 8603, 10099). He who does not perceive the distinctions of the interiors and the exteriors of man according to degrees, and does not understand the quality of those degrees, cannot comprehend the internal and the external of man (n. 5146, 6465, 10099, 10181). The things of a higher degree are more perfect than those of a lower degree (n. 3405). There are three degrees in man answering to the three heavens (n. 4154).

The exteriors are more remote from the Divine with man, and therefore they are respectively obscure, and of a general nature (n. 6451). And they are also respectively not in order (n. 996, 3855). The interiors are more perfect, because nearer to the Divine (n. 5146-5147). In the internal there are thousands and thousands of things, which in the external appear as one general thing (n. 5707). Thence thought and perception is clearer in proportion as it is interior (n. 5920). Hence it follows that man ought to be in internals (n. 1175, 4464).

The interiors of the mind, with the man who is in love and charity, are actually elevated by the Lord, and otherwise they would look downwards (n. 6952, 6954, 10330). Influx and enlightenment from heaven with man, is an actual elevation of the interiors by the Lord (n. 7816, 10330). Man is elevated when he advances to spiritual things (n. 9922). As far as man is elevated from externals towards interiors, so far he comes into light, consequently into intelligence; and this is what is meant by being withdrawn from sensual things, according to the saying of the ancients (n. 6183, 6313). Elevation from the external to the interiors, is like that from mist into light (n. 4598).

Influx from the Lord is through the internal man into the external (n. 1940, 5119). Interiors can flow into exteriors, but not the contrary; consequently that influx is spiritual and not physical, namely, from the spiritual man into the natural, and not from the natural man into the spiritual (n. 3219, 5119, 5259, 5427-5428, 5477, 6322, 9109-9110). The Lord from the internal, where there is peace, governs the external, where there is turbulence (n. 5396).

The internal can see all things in the external, but not the reverse (n. 1914, 1953, 5427-5428, 5477). When man lives in the world, he thinks from the internal in the external, consequently his spiritual thought flows into his natural, and there presents itself naturally (n. 3679). When man thinks well, it is from the internal or spiritual in the external or natural (n. 9704-9705, 9707). The external man thinks and wills according to conjunction with the internal (n. 9702-9703). There is an interior and an exterior thought; the quality of the one and the other (n. 2515, 2552, 5127, 5141, 5168, 6007). The thought and affection in the internal is not perceived by man during his life in the world, but only that which is in the external therefrom (n. 10236, 10240). But in the other life externals are taken away, and man is then let into his own internals (n. 8870). It then becomes manifest what is the quality of his internals (n. 1806-1807).

The internal produces the external (n. 994-995). And the internal then invests itself with such things as enable it to produce its effects in the external (n. 6275, 6284, 6299); and by which it may live in the external (n. 1175, 6275). The Lord conjoins the internal or spiritual man to the external or natural man, when He regenerates him (n. 1577, 1594, 1904, 1999). The external or natural man is then reduced into order through the internal or spiritual man, and is subordinated (n. 9708).

The external must be subordinate and subject to the internal (n. 5077, 5125, 5128, 5786, 5947, 10272). The external is so created, that it may serve the internal (n. 5947). The internal must be lord, and the external its minister, and in a certain respect its servant (n. 10471).

The external ought to be in correspondence with the internal, that there may be conjunction (n. 5427-5428, 5477). What the quality of the external is when it corresponds with the internal, and what when it does not correspond (n. 3493, 5422-5423, 5427-5428, 5477, 5511). In the external man there are things which correspond and agree with the internal, and there are things which do not correspond and agree (n. 1563, 1568).

The external has its quality from the internal (n. 9912, 9921-9922). How great the beauty of the external man is, when it is conjoined with the internal (n. 1590). And how great its foulness when not conjoined (n. 1598). Love to the Lord and charity towards the neighbor conjoin the external man with the internal (n. 1594). Unless the internal man be conjoined with the external, there is no fructification (n. 3987).

The interiors successively flow into the exteriors, even into the extreme or ultimate, and they there exist and subsist together (n. 634, 6239, 9215-9216). They not only flow in successively, but also form in the ultimate what is simultaneous, in what order (n. 5897, 6451, 8603, 10099). All the interiors are held in connection from the first, through the ultimate (n. 9828). Thence also in the ultimates are strength and power (n. 9836). And therefore responses and revelations were made from the ultimates (n. 9905, 10548). Thence also the ultimate is more holy than the interiors (n. 9824). Hence also in the Word, "first and last" signify all and every particular, thus the whole (n. 10044, 10329, 10335).

The internal man is open to him who is in Divine order, but shut to him who is not in Divine order (n. 8513). There is no conjunction of heaven with the external man without the internal (n. 9380). Evils and the falsities of evil shut the internal man, and cause man to be only in externals (n. 1587, 10492). Especially evils from the love of self (n. 1594). The interiors are shut even to the sensual, which is the ultimate, if the Divine is denied (n. 6564). With the intelligent and learned of the world, who from the sciences confirm themselves against the things of heaven and the church, the internal is shut more than with the simple (n. 10492).

Because the internal man is in the light of heaven, and the external in the light of the world, therefore they who are in the external without the internal, that is, they with whom the internal is shut, do not care for the internal things of heaven and the church (n. 4464, 4946). In the other life they cannot at all endure internal things (n. 10694, 10701, 10707). They believe nothing (n. 10396, 10400, 10411, 10429). They love themselves and the world above all things (n. 10407, 10412, 10420). Their interiors, or the things which are of their thought and affection, are vile, filthy, and profane, howsoever they may appear in externals (n. 1182, 7046, 9705, 9707). The ideas of their thought are material, and not at all spiritual (n. 10582). The quality further described of those whose internal that looks heavenward is shut (n. 4459, 9709, 10284, 10286, 10429, 10472, 10492, 10602, 10683).

So far as the internal, which is spiritual, is opened, so far truths and goods are multiplied; and so far as the internal, which is spiritual, is shut, so far truths and goods vanish (n. 4099). The church is in the internal spiritual man, because that is in heaven, and not in the external without it (n. 10698). Hence the external church with man is nothing without the internal (n. 1795). External worship without internal worship is no worship (n. 1094, 1175). Concerning those who are in the internal of the church, of worship, and of the Word; of those who are in the external in which is the internal; and of those who are in the external without the internal (n. 10683). The external without the internal is hard (n. 10683).

The merely natural man is in hell, unless he be made spiritual by regeneration (n. 10156). All who are in the external without the internal, or with whom the spiritual internal is shut, are in hell (n. 9128, 10483, 10489).

The interiors of man are actually turned according to his loves (n. 10702). In each and all things there must be an internal and an external that they may subsist (n. 9473).

"Above" and "high" in the Word, signifies the internal (n. 1725, 2148, 4210, 4599). Thence in the Word higher is interior, and lower is exterior (n. 3084).

6952. 'Put out your hand and take hold of the tail' means the power of raising something from the last part of the sensory level. This is clear from the meaning of 'hand' as power, dealt with above in 6947; and from the meaning of 'the serpent's tail' as the lowest part of the sensory level - 'a serpent' is the sensory level, see above in 6949, so that 'its tail' is the last or lowest part of it. Raising something is meant by 'putting out and taking hold', for a person who puts out his hand and takes hold of some creature crawling on the ground raises it up. Since 'a serpent' means the separated sensory level and the resulting reasoning based on the illusions of the senses regarding the truths of faith, 'the serpent's tail' means falsity itself, for this falsity constitutes the last and lowest part. A person ruled by falsity, thus by what is last and lowest, looks altogether downwards and outwards, that is, in a worldly and earthly direction, not upwards and inwards, that is, to heaven and the Lord.

[2] The fact that these kinds of things are meant by 'the serpent's tail' is clear in John,

The locusts had tails like scorpions, and stings were in their tails, and their power, in order that they might do people harm. Revelation 9:10.

'Tails like scorpions' and 'stings in the tails' are artful reasonings based on falsities by means of which they can convince and thereby damage people; and this is why it says that the power they have is 'to do people harm'.

[3] In the same author,

The horses' tails were like serpents, having heads; and by means of them they do harm. Revelation 9:19.

Here likewise 'tails like serpents' stands for reasonings based on falsities by means of which they cause harm, especially as it is said that such tails were those of horses and had heads. For 'horses' and also 'head' mean the area of understanding in the mind, and therefore 'tails' here means the more artful kinds of reasonings against truths that are based on illusions and consequent falsities. These reasonings are the lowest, for the more artful the reasonings against truths are, the lower they are.

[4] In the same author,

The dragon's tail drew a third part of the stars of heaven and cast them down to the earth. Revelation 12:4.

'The dragon's tail' stands in a similar way for reasonings based on falsities. 'The stars of heaven' stands for cognitions of goodness and truth, 'casting them down to the earth' for destroying them. The dragon is the serpent which uses reasonings based on falsities to lead people astray and which led astray in paradise 'the mother of living ones', who was Eve, because of the tree of knowledge, that is, by means of factual knowledge based on sensory evidence, thus on illusions. This is also made plain in John,

The great dragon was cast out, the serpent of old, who is called the devil and satan, who leads the whole world astray. Revelation 12:9.

[5] The fact that 'the tail' in general is the separated sensory level of the mind which does not look upwards but downwards, thus not in a heavenly but an earthly direction, and that consequently it means falsity is clear in Isaiah,

Jehovah will cut off from Israel head and tail, the branch and the bulrush. The old and the honourable [in face] is the head, but the prophet, the teacher of a lie, is the tail. Isaiah 9:14-15.

Here 'tail' plainly stands for falsity, which the Word calls 'a lie'. In the same prophet,

There will not be for Egypt [any] work which the head and tail, branch and bulrush, may do. Isaiah 19:15.

'Bulrush' stands for that which is lowest. In Moses,

So Jehovah will give you to be the head, and not to be the tail, in order that you may be tending only upwards, but not be tending downwards, when you obey the commandments of your God. Deuteronomy 18:13.

[6] 'The tail' stands for the lowest part which looks downwards or outwards, that is, in a worldly and earthly direction and not towards heaven and the Lord. For the interior parts of the human mind together with sensory levels are raised upwards by the Lord when a person is governed by the good of faith and charity. But if he is governed by evil and falsity, then the interior parts together with the sensory levels look downwards and so solely to things in the world. As a consequence he sheds his human nature and assumes a beast-like nature, for wild beasts look downwards or solely to things on earth. The person who looks downwards wills what is evil and thinks what is false, but one whom the Lord raises upwards wills what is good and thinks what is true. A raising by the Lord does in actual fact take place and therefore a removal from evils and falsities. Angels have the actual feeling of being raised up; it is like the force drawing things towards the centre of attraction, the centre being where the Lord is within His Sun. Angels have their heads raised in this direction, but those in hell their feet, so that the angels look upwards but those in hell downwards, 3641, 3643. In the same book,

The foreigner who is in the midst of you will rise above you, upwards more and more, but you will go down, downwards more and more; he will be the head, but you will be the tail. Deuteronomy 28:43, 44.

Here the meaning is similar. In Isaiah,

Say to him, Beware, and be quiet; do not fear, and do not let your heart become soft on account of the two tails of these smoking firebrands, on account of the blazing anger of Rezin and Syria, and the son of Remaliah. Isaiah 7:4.

'Rezin king of Syria' stands for cognitions or knowledge of what is evil, 'Syria' meaning cognitions of what is good, see 1232, 1234, 3680, and so in the contrary sense cognitions of what is evil; and 'the son of Remaliah king of Samaria' stands for knowledge or cognitions of what is false. The latter and the former kinds of cognitions are 'tails' because they constitute what is lowest. 'Smoking firebrands' stands for blazing anger.