9671. 'From violet and purple and twice-dyed scarlet and fine twined linen' means the forms of the good of love and faith that are joined together there. This is clear from the meaning of 'violet' as the celestial love of truth, dealt with in 9466; from the meaning of 'purple' as the celestial love of good, dealt with in 9467; from the meaning of 'twice-dyed scarlet' as spiritual good, dealt with in 4922, 9468; and from the meaning of 'fine twined linen' as truth from a celestial origin, dealt with in 9469. From all this it is evident that those four mean forms of the good of love and faith that are joined together within the uniting intermediary. The implications of this are that those in heaven who belong to the uniting intermediary represented by the veil have forms of the good of love and forms of the good of faith joined together within themselves. Through the forms of the good of love they are joined to celestial angels who are in the inmost heaven, and through the forms of the good of faith to the spiritual ones who are in the middle heaven. For the good of love to the Lord is called celestial good, and the good of faith in Him is called spiritual good.

[2] Those in heaven who belong to the uniting intermediary are called celestial-spiritual and spiritual-celestial, the former being represented in the Word by Joseph, the latter by Benjamin. For the meaning of Joseph in the representative sense as the celestial-spiritual, see 4286, 4592, 4963, 5249, 5307, 5331, 5332, 5417, 5869, 5877, 6224, 6526, and Benjamin as the spiritual-celestial, 3969, 4592. Joseph is accordingly the internal uniting intermediary and Benjamin the external uniting intermediary, 4585, 4592, 4594, 5411, 5413, 5443, 5639, 5686, 5688, 5689, 5822. What the celestial-spiritual and the spiritual-celestial are, see 1577, 1824, 2184, 4585, 4592, 4594.

[3] The difference between those in the heavens who are celestial and those who are spiritual may also be recognized from their opposites in the hells. Those in the hells who are the opposites of celestial angels are called genii, while those in them who are the contraries of spiritual angels are called spirits. The genii, the opposites of celestial angels, are at the back, whereas the spirits, the opposites of spiritual ones, are at the front; and those between genii and spirits are at the sides. Being the opposites of celestial angels the genii are steeped in evil more internal than that present with spirits. Regarding spirits and genii, see what has been said about them from experience in 5977, 8593, 8622, 8625. The hell of genii has been set completely apart from the hell of spirits, so completely that those in one cannot pass over into the other. For there are intermediate spirits there who link the two together; and these spirits are the opposites of the intermediate angels in the heavens.

3509. 'And Rebekah said to Jacob her son - she said' means the Lord's perception from Divine Truth concerning natural truth. This is clear from the representation of 'Rebekah' as the Divine Truth of the Lord's Divine Rational, dealt with in 3012, 3013, 3077; from the meaning of 'saying' as perceiving, dealt with in 1791, 1815, 1819, 1822, 1898, 1919, 2080, 2506, 2515, 2552, 2619; and from the representation of 'Jacob' as the Lord's Natural as regards truth, dealt with in 3305. From this it is evident that 'Rebekah said to Jacob her son' means the Lord's perception from Divine Truth concerning natural truth. For on the one hand the Lord wished to acquire truth from the Divine Good of the Divine Rational, represented by 'Isaac', through the good of the Natural, represented by 'Esau', by means of which truth He would glorify, or make Divine, the Natural. But on the other hand the Lord wished to acquire truth from the Divine Truth of the Divine Rational, represented by 'Rebekah', through the truth of the Natural, represented by 'Jacob', by means of which truth He would glorify, or make Divine, the Rational. But these two wishes of His cannot be grasped unless light is thrown on the subject from what happens with man when being regenerated or made new by the Lord. And even then it cannot be grasped unless one knows the situation with the rational as regards good and as regards truth there. So let this matter be discussed briefly.

[2] The rational mind is distinguished into two separate mental powers, one called the will, the other the understanding. That which goes forth from the will when someone is being regenerated is called good, and that which goes forth from the understanding is called truth. Until a person has been regenerated the will does not act in unison with the understanding. Instead the will desires good whereas the understanding desires truth; and so different is each desire from the other that the effort of the will is perceived to be quite distinct and separate from that of the understanding. This is perceived however only by those who stop to reflect, knowing what the will is and the things that constitute this, and what the understanding is and the things that constitute that. But it is not perceived by those who do not know those things and therefore do not stop to reflect. And there is the added reason that the natural mind is regenerated by way of the rational mind, see 3493, and indeed according to order as follows: The good of the rational does not pass directly into the good of the natural and regenerate it but by way of truth which belongs to the understanding, thus giving the appearance that it enters in from the truth of the rational. These are the matters which this chapter deals with in the internal sense; for 'Isaac' is the rational mind as regards good present in the will, 'Rebekah' as regards truth present in the understanding. 'Esau' is the good of the natural springing from the good of the rational, 'Jacob' the truth of the natural springing from the good of the rational by way of the truth there.

[3] These considerations show the kind of arcana contained in the internal sense of the Word; yet there are very few which can be described in a way intelligible to the human mind. The number of those which are beyond man's comprehension and defy description is unlimited. For the more deeply the Word goes, that is, the more interiorly into heaven, the more unlimited and also the more indescribable do they become not only to man but also to angels of the lower heaven. And when it reaches the inmost heaven the angels there perceive that the arcana are infinite and, being Divine are quite beyond their comprehension. Such is the nature of the Word.