1001. That the “blood” signifies charity, is evident from many things. Thus it signifies the new will part which the regenerate spiritual man receives from the Lord, and which is the same as charity, for the new will is formed of charity. Charity or love is the very essential or life of the will, for no one can say that he wills anything, except from choosing or loving it. To say that one thinks a thing is not to will it, unless willing is in the thought. This new will which is of charity is here the “blood” and this will is not the man’s, but the Lord’s in the man. And because it is the Lord’s, it is never to be mingled with the things of man’s will, and which are so foul, as has been shown. For this reason it was commanded in the representative church that they should not eat flesh with the soul or blood thereof, that is, should not mingle the two together.
[2] The “blood” because it signified charity, signified what is holy; and the “flesh” because it signified man’s will, signified what is profane. And because these things are separate, being contrary, they were forbidden to eat blood; for by eating flesh with the blood was then represented in heaven profanation, or the mingling of what is sacred with what is profane; and this representation in heaven could not then but strike the angels with horror; for at that time all things existing with the man of the church were turned, among the angels, into corresponding spiritual representations, in accordance with the signification of the things in the internal sense. As the nature of all things is determined by that of the man of whom they are predicated, so also is the signification of “blood.” Relatively to the regenerate spiritual man, “blood” signifies charity, or love toward the neighbor; relatively to the regenerate celestial man it signifies love to the Lord; but relatively to the Lord it signifies all His Human essence, consequently Love itself, that is, His mercy toward the human race. Hence “blood” in general, because it signifies love and what is of love, signifies celestial things, which are of the Lord alone; and thus relatively to man the celestial things which he receives from the Lord. The celestial things which the regenerate spiritual man receives from the Lord, are celestial spiritual—of which, by the Divine mercy of the Lord, elsewhere.
[3] That “blood” signifies what is celestial, and in the supreme sense signified the Human essence of the Lord, thus love itself, or His mercy toward the human race, is evident from the sanctity in which it was commanded that blood should be held in the Jewish representative church. For this reason blood was called the blood of the covenant, and was sprinkled upon the people, as also upon Aaron and his sons, together with the anointing oil; and the blood of every burnt offering and sacrifice was sprinkled upon and around the altar (see Exodus 12:7, 13, 22-23; 24:6, 8; Leviticus 1:5, 11, 15; 4:6-7, 17-18, 25, 30, 34; 5:9; 16:14-15, 18-19; Numbers 18:17; Deuteronomy 12:27).
[4] And because blood was held so sacred and man’s will is so profane, the eating of blood was severely prohibited, on account of its representation of the profanation of what is holy.
As in Moses:
It shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations in all your dwellings, that ye shall eat neither fat nor blood (Leviticus 3:17).
“Fat” here denotes celestial life, and “blood” celestial spiritual life. The celestial spiritual is the spiritual which is from the celestial; as in the Most Ancient Church love to the Lord was their celestial, because implanted in their will; their celestial spiritual was the faith therefrom, of which see above n. 30-38, 337, 393, 398). With the spiritual man, however, the celestial does not exist, but the celestial spiritual, because charity has been implanted in his intellectual part.
Again in Moses:
Whosoever of the house of Israel, or of the sojourner sojourning among them, eateth any manner of blood, I will set My faces against that soul that eateth blood, and will cut him off from among his people; for the soul of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it to you upon the altar, to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that maketh atonement for the soul. The soul of all flesh, it is the blood thereof; whosoever eateth it shall be cut off (Leviticus 17:10-11, 14).
Here it is plainly shown that the soul of the flesh is in the blood, and that the soul of the flesh is the blood, or the celestial, that is, the holy, which is the Lord’s.
[5] Again:
Be sure that thou eat not the blood; for the blood is the soul, and thou shalt not eat the soul with the flesh (Deuteronomy 12:23-25).
From this passage also it is evident that the blood is called the soul, that is, celestial life, or the celestial, which was represented by the burnt offerings and sacrifices of that church. And in the same way, that what is celestial, which is the Lord’s Own [Domini Proprium]—which alone is celestial and holy—was not to be commingled with that which is man’s own—which is profane—was also represented by the command that they should not sacrifice or offer the blood of the sacrifice on what was leavened (Exodus 23:18; 34:25). What was leavened signified what is corrupt and defiled. That blood is called the soul and signifies the holy of charity, and that the holy of love was represented in the Jewish Church by blood, is because the life of the body consists in the blood. And as the life of the body consists in the blood, this is its ultimate soul, so that the blood may be said to be the corporeal soul, or that in which is the corporeal life of man; and inasmuch as in the representative churches internal things were represented by external, the soul or celestial life was represented by the blood.
