10107. And the bread that is in the basket. That this signifies the appropriation of celestial good from the Lord, is evident from the signification of “eating,” here bread, as being appropriation (as just above, n. 10106); from the signification of “bread,” as being the good of love and charity (n. 2165, 2177, 3464, 3478, 3735, 3813, 4217, 4735, 4976, 5915, 6118, 9323, 9545); and from the signification of a “basket,” as being the external sensuous (n. 9996). From this it is plain that by “eating the bread that was in the basket” is signified the appropriation of good from the Lord in externals. The breads which were in the basket were unleavened breads, unleavened cakes, and unleavened wafers, and by these are signified goods purified, both internal and external (n. 9992-9994). When therefore “bread in the basket” is spoken of, there are signified all these goods in the external sensuous, and the external sensuous is the ultimate of man’s life, containing all the interior things together in itself. (That the external sensuous is the ultimate of man’s life, see n. 5077, 5081, 5094, 5125, 5128, 5767, 6183, 6311, 6313, 6318, 6564, 7645, 9212, 9216, 9730, 9996; and that, being the ultimate, it contains all the interior things, see n. 6451, 6465, 9216, 9828, 9836, 10044)

7645. That one shall not be able to see the land. That this signifies the consequent darkening of the whole natural mind, is evident from the signification of “not being able to see,” as being a darkening, that is, no perception of truth; and from the signification of the “land of Egypt,” as being the natural mind (as ab ove, n. 7644). How the case herein is, that from the vastation of the extremes or outermost things in the natural the whole natural mind is darkened, shall be briefly told. The interiors in man terminate in his ultimates, that is, in his outermost things, and there the successive things in him are together. When there is nothing but falsity and evil in the ultimates, then the truths and goods which flow in from the interiors into the ultimates, flow there into evils and falsities, and consequently are there turned into such things, and for this reason there appears nothing but what is false and evil in the whole natural. This is meant by the darkening of the whole natural mind which is signified by “not being able to see the land.” From this also it is that when infernal spirits have been devastated they are in the outermost things of the natural; nor is their light, which is called intellectual light, unlike that of this world, which in the other life becomes thick darkness in the presence of the light of heaven. As the outermost of the natural, which is called the sensuous, is replete with fallacies and the falsities thence derived, and with pleasures and the evils thence derived (see n. 6844, 6845), and as the hells are in this light, therefore when a man is being regenerated he is endowed by the Lord with the capacity of being elevated from this sensuous toward more interior things (n. 6183, 6313, 7442).