353. 'Fat' means the celestial itself, which also is the Lord's. The celestial consists in everything that is an aspect of love. Faith too is celestial when it has its origin in love. Charity is the celestial, and all good stemming from charity is celestial. All of these were represented by 'the fat' in sacrifices, especially by the fat on the liver or omentum, by the fat on the kidneys, by the fat covering the entrails, and by that actually on the entrails. These were consecrated and burnt on the altar, Exodus 29:13, 22; Leviticus 3:3-4, 14; 4:8-9, 19, 26, 31, 35; 8:16, 25, and were consequently called 'the bread offered by fire for an odour of rest' for Jehovah, ¹ Leviticus 3:15-16. For this reason the Jewish people were forbidden to eat any of the fat from animals, and this was called 'a perpetual statute throughout their generations', Leviticus 3:17; 7:23, 25. They were forbidden to do so because that Church was such that it did not acknowledge anything internal, still less anything celestial.

[2] That 'fat' means celestial things and goods that flow from charity is clear in the Prophets, as in Isaiah,

Why do you weigh out silver for ² that which is not bread, and your labour on that which does not satisfy? Hearken diligently to Me, and eat what is good, and your soul will find its delight in fatness. Isaiah 55:2.

In Jeremiah,

I will fill the soul of the priests with fat, and My people will be satisfied with My goodness. Jeremiah 31:14.

Here it is quite clear that 'fat' is not used to mean fat but celestial-spiritual good. In David,

They will be filled with the fat of Your house, and You givest them drink from the river of Your delights; for with You is the fountain of life, in Your light do we see light. Psalms 36:8-9.

Here 'fat' and 'the fountain of life' stand for the celestial, which consists in love, and 'river of delights' and 'light' stand for the spiritual, which consists in faith deriving from love. In the same author,

My soul will be satisfied with fat and fatness, and my mouth will praise You with joyful lips. ³ Psalms 63:5.

Here similarly 'fat' stands for the celestial, 'joyful lips' ³ for the spiritual. It is quite clear that the celestial is meant for the reason that 'the soul will be satisfied'. And first-fruits, which were the firstborn of the earth, are for the same reason called 'fat' in Numbers 18:12.

[3] Since there are countless genera of celestial things, and still more countless species of them, they are described in general in the words of the song which Moses recited to the people,

Butter from the cattle, and milk from the flock, with the fat of lambs and rams, the breed ⁴ of Bashan, and of goats, with the kidney-fat of wheat; and of the blood of the grape you will drink unmixed wine. Deuteronomy 32:14.

Nobody can possibly know what these expressions mean except from the internal sense. Without the internal sense nobody is able to know what butter from the cattle means, or milk from the flock, or the fat of lambs, or the fat of rams and of goats, or the breed ⁴ of Bashan, or the kidney-fat of wheat, or the blood of the grape. Without the internal sense they would be mere words and nothing more. In reality every single thing mentioned there means the genera and species of celestial things.

V:

118. That the Lord is actually seen in heaven as a sun I have not only been told by angels, but it has occasionally been granted me to see it; and therefore what I have heard and seen respecting the Lord as a sun I shall be glad to tell in a few words. The Lord is seen as a sun, not in heaven, but high above the heavens; and not directly overhead or in the zenith, but before the faces of the angels at a middle height. He is seen at a considerable distance, in two places, one before the right eye and the other before the left eye. Before the right eye He is seen exactly like a sun, as it were, with a glow and size like that of the sun of the world. But before the left eye He is not seen as a sun, but as a moon, glowing white like the moon of our earth, and of like size, but more brilliant, and surrounded with many little moons, as it were, each of them of similar whiteness and splendor. The Lord is seen so differently in two places because every person sees the Lord in accordance with the quality of his reception of the Lord, thus He is seen in one way by those that receive Him with the good of love, and in another by those that receive Him with the good of faith. Those that receive Him with the good of love see Him as a sun, fiery and flaming, in accordance with their reception of Him; these are in His celestial kingdom; while those that receive Him with the good of faith see Him as a moon, white and brilliant in accordance with their reception of Him, and these are in His spiritual kingdom. ¹ This is so because good of love corresponds to fire; therefore in the spiritual sense fire is love; and the good of faith corresponds to light, and in the spiritual sense light is faith. ² And the Lord appears before the eyes because the interiors, which belong to the mind, see through the eyes, from good of love through the right eye, and from good of faith through the left eye; ³ since with angels and also with men all things at the right correspond to good from which truth is derived, and all at the left to truth that is from good. ⁴ Good of faith is in its essence truth from good.

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