6432. With blessings of the breasts. That this signifies with the affections of good and truth, is evident from the signification of the “breasts,” as being the affections of good and truth. That the “breasts” denote the affections of good and truth, is because they communicate with the organs of generation, and thereby also belong to the province of conjugial love (of which province see above, n. 5050-5062); and conjugial love corresponds to the heavenly marriage, which is the marriage of good and truth; for conjugial love descends from this marriage (n. 2618, 2728, 2729, 2803, 3132, 4434, 4835, 6179); hence by the “breasts” are signified the affections of good and truth. The same is also evident from the fact that infants are nourished by means of the breasts, and through this affection the “breasts” signify the conjunction of conjugial love with love toward offspring.

[2] These affections are also signified by the “breasts” in Isaiah:

Thou shalt suck the milk of the nations, and shalt suck the breasts of kings. For brass I will bring gold, and for iron silver (Isaiah 60:16-17);

“to suck the breasts of kings” denotes good from truth, for by “kings” are signified truths (see n. 1672, 2015, 2069, 3009, 3670, 4575, 4581, 4966, 5044, 5068, 6148). That by the “milk of the nations,” and by the “breasts of kings,” there is signified something hidden which is spiritual, is manifest, for otherwise they would be words without meaning; that good and truth are signified is plain from what follows: “for brass I will bring gold, and for iron silver”; “brass” being natural good (n. 425, 1551), “gold” celestial good (n. 113, 1551, 1552, 5658), “iron” natural truth (n. 425, 426), and “silver” spiritual truth (n. 1551, 2954, 5658, 6112).

[3] And in Ezekiel:

As to the increase I made thee as the bud of the field, whence thou didst increase and grow up, and thou attainedst to ornament of ornaments; thy breasts were made firm, and thy hair grew (Ezekiel 16:7);

this is said of Jerusalem, by which is here signified the Ancient Spiritual Church; the “breasts” being “made firm” denotes interior affections of good and truth; “thy hair grew” denotes exterior affections which are of the natural (that “hair” is the natural as to truth, see n. 3301, 5247, 5569-5573). That in these words there is a spiritual sense which does not appear in the letter, is plain; for without that sense what could be meant by saying of Jerusalem that “her breasts were made firm, and her hair grew?”

[4] In the same:

There were two women the daughters of one mother who committed whoredoms in Egypt; they committed whoredoms in their youth, there were their breasts pressed, and there they touched the teats of their virginity (Ezekiel 23:2-3).

That the “two women” are Jerusalem and Samaria, is there said, by whom in the internal sense are signified churches; by their “committing whoredoms in their youth with Egypt,” is signified that they falsified the truths of the church by means of memory-knowledges (that “to commit whoredom” is to falsify truths, see n. 2466, 4865; and that “Egypt” is memory-knowledge, n. 1164, 1165, 1186, 1462, 5700, 5702); hence “their breasts were pressed” denotes that the affections of good and truth were perverted by means of falsifications. That such things are signified by the “whoredom of the women,” and by the “pressing of their breasts,” is evident to those who look into the meaning of the description of these women.

[5] In Hosea:

Plead ye with your mother, let her put away her whoredoms from her faces, and her adulteries from between her breasts, lest I strip her naked, and make her as a wilderness, and set her as a land of drought, and slay her with thirst (Hos. 2:2-3);

“mother” denotes the church (n. 289, 2691, 2717, 3703, 4257, 5581); “whoredoms” denote falsifications of truth (n. 2466, 4865); “adulteries,” adulterations of good (n. 2466, 2729, 3399); hence “adulteries from between the breasts” denote the affections of good and truth adulterated; “to strip naked” denotes to deprive of all truth (n. 1073, 4958, 5433); “to make her as a wilderness, to set her as a land of drought, and to slay her with thirst” denotes to extinguish all truth.

[6] Again:

Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts (Hos. 9:14); where “dry breasts” denote affections not of truth and good. And in Isaiah:

Stand still ye women that are secure, hear my voice; ye daughters that are confident, with your ears perceive my discourse; strip and make thyself bare, and gird upon the loins; they smite themselves upon the breasts for the fields of pure wine and the fruitful vine (Isaiah 32:9, 11-12); where “daughters” denote affections (n. 2362, 3024, 3963); “to be made bare” denotes to be deprived of truth (n. 1073, 4958, 5433); “to gird themselves upon the loins” denotes to be in grief on account of lost good; “to smite upon the breasts,” denotes to be in grief on account of lost good of truth; and because these things are signified, it is said “for the fields of pure wine and the fruitful vine;” for a “field” denotes the church as to good, thus the good of the church (n. 2971, 3196, 3310, 3766), and a “vine” denotes the spiritual church, consequently the good of truth (n. 5113, 6375, 6376).

[7] In Revelation:

I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the seven lampstands one like the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girded about at the breasts with a golden girdle (Revelation 1:12-13).

The “golden lampstands” denote the truths of good; the “Son of man” denotes the Divine truth; “girded about at the breasts with a golden girdle” denotes the good of love. That these things seen by John involve such things as are of the Lord’s kingdom and His church, everyone may conclude from the sanctity of the Word; for what sanctity would there be in making predictions about the kingdoms of this world? Hence it may be seen that heavenly things are signified by the “lampstands,” and by the “Son of man being clad with a garment down to the feet, and being girded about at the breasts with a golden girdle.”

[8] In Luke:

A certain woman from the people lifted up her voice and said concerning Jesus, Blessed is the womb that bare Thee, and the breasts which Thou hast sucked. But Jesus said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the Word of God and keep it (Luke 11:27-28);

from the Lord’s answer it is plain what is signified by a “blessed womb,” and what by “breasts,” namely, those who hear the Word of God and keep it; thus the affections of truth which those have who hear the Word of God; and the affections of good which those have who keep or do it.

5700. And for the Egyptians, who did eat with him, alone. That this signifies the separation of the memory-knowledges which are in inverted order, is evident from the representation of the Egyptians, as being memory-knowledges that are in inverted order (of which hereafter); and from the signification of “who did eat with him alone,” as being separation (as just above, n. 5699). By the Egyptians “who did eat with him” are meant the Egyptians who ate at Joseph’s house; that they did not eat with Joseph is plain, because they ate alone. By “Egypt” or the “Egyptians” in a good sense are signified the memory-knowledges of the church (see n. 1462, 4749, 4964, 4966); but in the opposite sense are signified the memory-knowledges which are in inverted order, thus which are contrary to the truths of the church (n. 1164, 1165, 1186). In this sense “Egypt” is mentioned in many passages of the Word. That “Egypt” signifies these memory-knowledges, is because the memory-knowledges of the Ancient Church, which were representative and significative of celestial and spiritual things, and which were cultivated among the Egyptians more than among others, were turned by them into magic; whereby they completely inverted the memory-knowledges of the representative church.

[2] Memory-knowledges are said to be in inverted order when men abuse heavenly order to do evil; for heavenly order is that good be done to all. Hence it comes to pass that when they have thus inverted heavenly order, they at last deny Divine things, the things of heaven, and consequently those of charity and faith. They who become such know how to reason acutely and skillfully from memory-knowledges, because they reason from the senses, and to reason from these is to reason from such things as are external, that is, from such as are of the body and the world, which take direct hold of man’s senses and feelings. Unless such things have been illumined by the light of heaven, and thereby arranged in an entirely different order, they put the man in so great an obscurity as to heavenly things that he not only comprehends none of them, but even wholly denies, and at last rejects them, and then as far as he may, blasphemes them. When memory-knowledges are in order, they are arranged by the Lord in the form of heaven; but when they are in inverted order, they are arranged in the form of hell, and then things most false are in the midst, and those which confirm them are at the sides, while truths are without, and because they are without they can have no communication with heaven where truths reign; and therefore interior things are closed to such persons; for heaven is open by means of things interior.