In the Christmas story, the wise men bring gifts to the Lord: gold, frankincense and myrrh.

The gold is listed first, because it is the inmost - signifying good, e.g. the good that we do when we love the Lord and the neighbor.

The frankincense is next. It signifies rational truth, which is the set of true ideas that we know, not about external things like cars or cooking, but about what is really good, and what is really true.

These rational truths are built on earlier knowledges that we learn, before we have really made them our own. Those early knowledges about spiritual things - often learned in childhood - are represented by the myrrh.

In a way, these gifts are really a reciprocation. We can't actually give them to the Lord until the Lord has given them to us. We necessarily start out by learning and doing the Lord's law (myrrh). The Lord can then call up those memories to become rational truths (frankincense). Then, over time, and with effort, those truths can be transformed into good (gold). The wise men from the East had gone through this process of learning and becoming vessels that could receive truths and goods. They were able to perceive the Lord's birth, and find him, and bring gifts to him.

5622. 'Pistachio nuts and almonds' means forms of the good of life that agree with those truths. This is clear from the meaning of 'pistachio nuts' as forms of the good of life that agree with the truths of exterior natural good, meant by 'resin', dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'almonds' as forms of the good of life that agree with the truths of interior natural good, meant by 'aromatic wax and stacte'. Those nuts have that meaning because they are fruits, and 'fruits' in the Word means deeds - fruits produced by useful trees meaning good deeds, or what amounts to the same, forms of the good of life, since these, so far as the use they serve is concerned, are good deeds. The reason 'pistachio nuts' means forms of the good of life that agree with the truths of exterior natural good is that they are the fruit borne by an inferior kind of tree, and things of an exterior nature are meant by objects of an inferior kind, for the reason that essentially exterior things are not so specific as interior ones since they are the general appearances produced by large numbers of inner components.

[2] The reason 'almonds' means forms of the good of life that agree with the truths of interior natural good is that the almond is a superior kind of tree. In the spiritual sense the tree itself means a perception of interior truth derived from good, its blossom means interior truth derived from good, while its fruit means the good of life resulting from that truth. The word 'almond' is used with this meaning in Jeremiah,

The word of Jehovah came [to me], saying, What do you see, Jeremiah? And I said, A rod of almond do I see. Then Jehovah said to me, You have seen well, ¹ for I am watching over My word to perform it. Jeremiah 1:11-12.

'A rod' stands for power, 'almond' for a perception of interior truth; and because this rod is said to be Jehovah's it stands for a watching over that truth -'word' standing for truth.

[3] The almonds which blossomed on Aaron's rod for the tribe of Levi also mean the good deeds of charity or forms of the good of life. They are described in Moses as follows,

It happened the next day, when Moses went into the tent of meeting, that behold, Aaron's rod for the house ² of Levi had blossomed, and had produced buds, ³ so that it flowered and produced almonds. Numbers 17:8.

This was the sign that that tribe had been chosen for the priesthood; for charity was meant by that tribe, 3875, 3877, 4497, 4502, 4503, and charity is the essential characteristic of the spiritual Church.

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