517. And there fell from heaven a great star burning as a lamp, signifies the truth of the Word falsified by self-love. This is evident from the signification of "stars," as being the knowledges of truth and good, likewise the truths and goods of knowledges from the Word (See above, n. 72, 402); also from the signification of "burning as a lamp," as being to be falsified by self-love; "to burn" is predicated of self-love because this love is signified by "fire" (See above, n. 504, and a "lamp" signifies the truth of the Word, of doctrine, and of faith (See also above, n. 274. From this it can be seen that "there fell from heaven a great star burning as a lamp" signifies the truth of the Word falsified by self-love.

[2] It is to be noted that all those who are in the love of self, if they study the Word, falsify its truths, for the reason that all truth is out of heaven from the Lord, and nothing of it from what is man's own [proprium], and those who are in the love of self are immersed in what is their own [proprium], and from that they obtain every idea of thought respecting the truths of the Word. In consequence of this they falsify these truths, not in respect to the sense of the letter of the Word, but in respect to the understanding of the truth that is in it; for to understand words otherwise than according to their true sense is to falsify them.

[3] There are two states of man's thoughts, one when from the Lord he is in thought respecting truths, the other when from himself. When from the Lord he is in thought respecting truths his mind is elevated even into the light of heaven, from which he has illustration and right perception of truth; but when from himself he is in thought respecting truths, his mind falls into the light of the world; and that light, in respect to things spiritual, or the things of heaven and the church, is thick darkness, in which man sees only such things as shine from the fire or the love of self and of the world, and these in themselves are falsities that are opposites of truths.

995. Verse 12. And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates, signifies the state of the church manifested as to things rational, and intelligence therefrom. This is evident from the signification of "the angel pouring out the vial," as being the state of the church manifested (as often above); also from the signification of "Euphrates," as being the rational (See above, n. 569), which is called "a great river" from the intelligence that man has from the rational, for "river" signifies intelligence (See n. 518). All the intelligence of the natural man is from his rational, for the rational is the medium between the spiritual and the natural; and because it is the medium, it first receives influx from the spiritual world and transfers it into the natural. From this it follows that before the spiritual mind, which is called the spiritual man, can be opened, and through it influx into the natural mind be given, the rational must be cultivated, which is done by means of knowledges [scientifica], which are natural and moral truths, and by means of cognitions [cognitiones] of truth and good from the Word. Through these the rational mind is opened from below. But as soon as the spiritual mind has been opened, and there is influx from that, the rational mind is opened from above; and thus the rational, as an intermediate, furnishes a passage; and then through it the natural mind, which contains knowledges and cognitions [scientifica et cognitiones, is subordinated to the spiritual mind, and thus to heaven and the Lord.

(Continuation respecting the Sixth Commandment)

[2] True conjugial love is from the Lord alone. It is from the Lord alone because it descends from the Lord's love for heaven and the church, and thus from the love of good and truth; for good is from the Lord, and truth is in heaven and the church; and from this it follows that true conjugial love in its first essence is love to the Lord. And from this it is that no one can be in true conjugial love and its pleasantnesses, delights, happiness, and joys, unless he acknowledges the Lord alone, that is, that the trinity is in Him. He who approaches the Father as a person by Himself, or the Holy Spirit as a person by Himself, and these not in the Lord, can have no conjugial love. The genuine conjugial is given especially in the third heaven, because the angels there are in love to the Lord, they acknowledge Him alone as God, and they do His commandments. To them doing the commandments is loving the Lord. To them the Lord's commandments are the truths in which they receive Him. There is conjunction of the Lord with them, and of them with the Lord; for they are in the Lord because they are in good, and the Lord is in them because they are in truths. This is the heavenly marriage, from which true conjugial love descends.