9474. 'Spices for the anointing oil' means internal truths belonging to the good that consecrates. This is clear from the meaning of 'spices' as interior truths, which are the truths of internal good, dealt with below; from the meaning of 'oil' as the good of love, as above in 9473; and from the meaning of 'anointing' as consecrating to serve as a representative sign. For objects which were to represent realities that were holy were anointed with oil smelling sweetly of spices and thereby consecrated, as is clear from these words later on in Exodus,

Take for yourself the chief spices - best myrrh, sweet-smelling cinnamon, sweet-scented cane, cassia, olive oil. Afterwards you shall make it a holy anointing oil, a perfect ointment; ¹ a holy anointing oil it shall be. With it you shall anoint the tent, the ark of the Testimony, the table and all its vessels, the lampstand and its vessels, the altar of incense, the altar of burnt offering and all its vessels, and the laver and its base. Thus shall you sanctify them, that they may be most holy. ² And you shall anoint Aaron and his sons. Exodus 30:23-31.

The reason why objects were holy when they had been anointed was that they then represented realities that were holy; and from this it is evident that the anointing of something was the consecration of it to serve as a representative sign.

[2] The reason why oil was used for anointing was that oil was the sign of celestial good, and celestial good is the good of love received from the Lord, and consequently is the good of love to the Lord. This good is the indispensable element within every single aspect of heaven and eternal life. Sweet-smelling spices were used to make that oil sweet-scented, to the end that what was delightful might be represented; for 'odour' means perception, and 'a pleasant and sweet odour' means a delightful perception, see 925, 1514, 1517-1519, 3577, 4624-4634, 4748. And since every perception of good comes through truth, spices were used, by which interior truths are meant, 4748, 5621.

[3] Something more must be stated briefly about why the anointing oil and also the incense were to be made sweet-smelling. As stated above, 'oil' means the good of love, and 'spice' internal truth. But the good of love cannot come to be perceived except through truths; for truth bears witness to good, indeed is the revealer of it, and may be called the outward form of good. This is like the situation with human will and understanding, in that the will cannot make itself known except through the understanding. For the understanding takes to itself and reveals the good of the will; also the understanding is the outward form of the will, in addition to which truth belongs to the understanding and good to the will. From all this it becomes clear why the anointing oil was made to smell sweetly of spices, as also was the incense. But the difference between them is that the spicy smell of the anointing oil means the delightfulness of internal perception, whereas the spicy smell of incense means the delightfulness of external perception. For the spicy smell of the anointing oil was given off without any smoke, and so presented a sweet odour without any external appearance, whereas the spicy smell of incense was given off with the smoke.

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7324. 'And over their pools' means against the factual knowledge subservient to them. This is clear from the meaning of 'pools' as factual knowledge subservient to truths constituting religious teachings, and in the contrary sense factual knowledge subservient to falsities constituting religious teachings. When 'pools' are mentioned in the Word intelligence based on cognitions of goodness and truth is meant in the spiritual sense, for one takes 'pools' in the Word to refer to gatherings of water, or lakes, and gatherings of water and lakes are cognitions which, when concentrated together, contribute to intelligence, as in Isaiah,

Waters will break forth in ¹ the wilderness, and streams in the plain of the wilderness; and the dry place will become a pool and the thirsty ground wellsprings of water. Isaiah 35:6-7.

[2] In the same prophet,

I will open streams on the sloping heights, and I will place springs in the midst of valleys; I will make the wilderness into a pool of water, and the dry land into well springs of water. Isaiah 41:18.

Here 'making the wilderness into a pool of water' stands for providing cognitions of goodness and truth, and therefore imparting intelligence, where they had not existed before. In the same prophet,

I will lay waste mountains and hills, and dry up every plant; and I will make streams into islands, and dry up pools. Isaiah 42:15.

'Pools' stands for much the same. Likewise in David,

Jehovah turns rivers into a wilderness, and streams of waters into a dryness. He turns a wilderness into a pool of water, and parched land into streams of water. Psalms 107:33-35.

In the same author,

At the presence of the Lord, you are in labour, O earth; at the presence of the God of Jacob, who turns the rock into a pool of water, the flint into a fountain of water. Psalms 114:7-8.

[3] In Isaiah,

The rivers of Egypt will diminish and dry up. Therefore the fishermen will mourn, and all who cast a hook into the river. Therefore its foundations will be broken to pieces - all those making their wages out of pools of the soul. Isaiah 19:6, 8, 10.

'Pools of the soul' stands for the things that constitute intelligence when it is based on cognitions; but since these verses refer to Egypt 'pools of the soul' are the things constituting intelligence when it is based on the facts known to the Church. For 'Egypt' is those facts, and known facts are cognitions, but a lower level of them.

[4] The meaning of 'pools of water' in the contrary sense as evils arising out of falsities, and consequent insanity, is evident in Isaiah,

I will cut off from Babel the name and residue, and son and grandson, and I will turn it into the inheritance of the duck, and into pools of water. Isaiah 14:21, 23.

Since 'pools' are in the contrary sense evils arising out of falsities, and consequent forms of insanity, the hell where such things reign is also meant by them. But in this case a pool is called 'a pool of fire' and 'a pool burning with fire and brimstone', as in Revelation 19:20; 20:10, 14-15; 21:8. 'Fire and brimstone' stands for self-love and the desires that spring from it, for self-love and its desires are nothing other than fire, not elemental fire but the kind of fire that derives from spiritual fire; and this fire - spiritual fire - makes a person a living being. The fact that different types of love are life-giving fires is evident to anyone who thinks about it. These fires are what are meant by the holy fires that burn in heaven and by the fires of hell. Elemental fire does not exist in those places.

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