10044. 'On the ram's head' means, to the whole of it. This is clear from the meaning of 'the head' as the whole person, thus the whole [of the good of innocence in the internal man], dealt with in 10011. The reason why 'the head' means the whole is that it is highest and holds the inmost part of a person within it; and what is highest is the fountainhead of everything below it, just as what is inmost is the hub of everything outside it. For what lies outside or below is dependent on that which is inmost or highest. What is inmost in the human being is his will and understanding; these have their beginnings in the head. What flows from these inner powers is activity, that is, effects which they generate in the body. When therefore will and understanding are mentioned the whole person should be understood, for it is by virtue of these that a person is a person. The actions performed by the body also owe their entire nature to the will; and this is why a person is not regarded from the point of view of bodily actions or deeds but from that of the will within them. This being so, soul is used in the Word to mean the whole person, and a person is called a soul, as in Leviticus 4:27; 5:1, 4, 17; 6:2; 17:10, 15, and elsewhere.

[2] There are two things that mean the whole, namely the highest and the lowest. The reason why the lowest or last also has this meaning is that all interior things, beginning with the first or highest, terminate in those that are lowest and exist together there, see 9828, 9836. So it is that the highest by means of the lowest holds all the interior or intermediate things in connection and form, in order that they may all have the same end in view, 9828. The fact that the lowest also means the whole is clear from very many places in the Word, such as those which speak of the whole person as 'flesh', for example, Genesis 6:12; Numbers 16:22; 27:16; Isaiah 40:5; Zechariah 2:13, and elsewhere.

[3] Since the last things also mean all or the whole, the hair on the head, hair on the body, and the beard, which are last or outermost things growing out of a person's body, are used to mean those things, as also are the feet, or rather the toes on them, and the fingers on the hands. The fact that the hair on the head, hair on the body, and the beard have this meaning is clear in Isaiah,

On that day the Lord will shave with a razor - by means of the king of Asshur - the head, the hair of the feet, and also the beard. Isaiah 7:20.

'The king of Asshur' means reasoning, the kind that is used by people to destroy Divine things, 1186. 'Shaving the head, the hair of the feet, and the beard' means taking lowest things away, for when these have been taken away those within fall apart and perish. This also was why a priest was forbidden to shave his head, Leviticus 21:10, as was a Nazirite, whose hair according to Numbers 6:7 was called the Naziriteship of God, 6437, 9407, and is what 'the crown of the head of the Nazirite among [his] brothers', Genesis 49:25-26; Deuteronomy 33:16, should be taken to mean. Therefore also it says in Matthew 10:30 that the hairs of one's head are all numbered, meaning that every single thing in a person is so 'numbered', and in Luke 21:18 that not a hair on one's head will perish.

[4] The fact that the feet, the toes on them, and the fingers on the hands mean all things and so the whole is clear in John,

Peter said, Lord, You shall not wash my feet only, but also my hands and head. Jesus said to him, He who has been washed has no need except to wash his feet, and the whole person is clean. John 13:9-10.

'Feet' are the natural, which is last, 2162, 3147, 4938-4952, 9406. And in the following words of the present chapter,

You shall put some of the ram's blood on the tip of Aaron's ear, and on the thumb of the right hand, and on the big toe of the right foot. Verse 20.

That is, it was to be put on every single thing, meant by 'ear', 'hand', and 'foot'.

[5] Since highest and lowest, or what amounts to the same thing, first and last, equally mean every single thing, or the whole with all its parts, the Lord's Omnipotence and Omniscience is described by the words stating that He is the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End, the Alpha and the Omega, Revelation 1:8; 21:6; 22:13; Isaiah 41:4.

[6] The situation in which all things are held in connection and stand together, from that which is first or highest through to those that are last or lowest, is described in the following words in Isaiah,

I am the First and I am the Last, indeed My hand laid the foundation of the earth, and My right hand measured out heaven. I am summoning them; they stand together. Isaiah 48:12-13.

Jehovah's or the Lord's 'hand' and 'right hand' mean His almighty power, 'the earth' which He laid the foundation of is that which is last, 'heaven' which He stretched out is that which is between the first and the last, 'summoning them, that they may stand together' is holding all the interior things in connection and in form by means of what is last, that they may have a single end in view. This single end to be held in view is He who is the First and the Last. That this is the Lord is clear in Isaiah,

Thus said Jehovah, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, I am the First and I am the Last. Isaiah 44:6.

'The King of Israel' is the Lord, John 18:37, and so, as is self-evident, is 'his Redeemer'. And in the Book of Revelation,

These things says the First and the Last, who was dead and came to life. Revelation 2:8.

[7] The truth that what is first holds all things in connection by means of what is last may be recognized from the Word and from humanness. In the case of the Word its last and lowest things are its literal sense; that which is first and highest is the Lord; and the interior things within it are its internal sense, which the heavens perceive and which causes those who are there to have the same end in view, namely the Lord. Regarding this arcanum, see 9360, 9824.

[8] As to humanness, this as it exists in the things that are last is the Church on earth; as it exists in that which is first it is the Lord; and as it exists in the interior things it is heaven. For in the Lord's sight the Church and heaven are like one human being; therefore heaven is called the Grand Man, which has been the subject at the ends of a number of chapters, see the places referred to in 10030 (end). There is an unbroken connection, and an influx in keeping with that connection, of all things from the Lord through the heavens to the Church on earth. By the heavens the angels who are there should be understood; by the Church people who are true members of the Church; and by humanness as it exists in that which is first the Lord in respect of His Divine Human. The truth that what is first by means of what is last holds all things in connection and makes them stand as one is meant by the Lord's words in Isaiah quoted above,

I am the First and I am the Last, indeed My hand laid the foundation of the earth, and My right hand measured out heaven. I summoning them, they stand together. Isaiah 48:12-13.

The fact that 'the earth' is used in the Word to mean the Church has also been shown on many occasions, see the places referred to in 9325.

[9] An idea of this matter may be had from what is last or outermost with a person and what is inmost. His outermost is the skin, his inmost the heart, while the things in between or his interiors are the organs of the body. From the heart all the way to the skin by way of the organs there is an unbroken connection through blood vessels; for these emanate from the heart and end in the skin. The skin is self-evidently the last or outermost part holding the interior things in connection, for when the skin has been taken away the interiors fall apart.

[10] From all this it may be seen why it is that just as what is highest or inmost means every single thing, so too does what is lowest or last. Also evident from it all is the arcanum of why the Lord also glorified His Human right down to its last and lowest levels, called the bones and flesh, which explains why the Lord told His disciples, who thought that they were seeing a spirit,

See My hands and My feet, that it is I; handle Me and see; for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see Me having. Luke 24:37, 39.

It is well recognized that Divinity itself was the First in Him, for He was conceived from Jehovah, and what is conceived from the father is pre-eminently first in a person. The truth that the Lord also glorified the last and lowest levels of His Human in which they co-exist is evident from His words recorded in those verses, and also from the fact that He left nothing of His Human in the tomb. It is true of spiritual things as well that interior things terminate and come to rest in last and lowest ones in which they co-exist, and that the last hold the interior ones in connection, see 9216, 9828. Therefore the lowest things have might and power within them, 9836, and for the same reason have holiness within them, 9824; and revelations are made and answers are given in them, 9905.

3993. 'Removing from it every speckled and spotted member of the flock' means that everything good and true that is meant by 'Laban' and which - when mingled with evil, meant by 'speckled', or mingled with falsity, meant by 'spotted' - will be separated. This is clear from the meaning of 'removing' as separating, and from the meaning of 'member of the flock', in this case she-goats and lambs, as goods and truths, dealt with in 1824, 3519. The fact that these details and those that follow in this chapter hold arcana within them may be recognized from the consideration that for the most part they would not be worth mentioning in the Divine Word if they did not include any deeper arcana than those to be seen in the letter, such as the following: For his wages Jacob asked for the speckled and the spotted among the she-goats and for the black among the lambs; and after this, in the runners he placed rods - which he had peeled down to the white and which were of hazel and of plane - in front of Laban's flocks when these came on heat, and in the case of the lambs he set the faces of the flock towards the variegated and the black in Laban's flock, thereby making himself rich not by the use of a good skill but of an evil one. These details do not seem to hold anything Divine within them, and yet the Word is Divine in every single part, even to the smallest part of a letter. And what is more, knowing all these details does not contribute one tiny bit to a person's salvation, yet being Divine the Word does not contain within itself anything else than such things as lead to salvation and eternal life.

[2] From these details and others like them elsewhere anyone may come to the conclusion that some arcanum is concealed within them, and that although in the literal sense they are the kind of facts that are not worth mentioning, those details - every single one - are pregnant with ideas much more Divine. But what exactly these ideas may be cannot possibly be seen by anyone except from the internal sense, that is, unless he knows the way in which angels perceive these matters; for they perceive the spiritual sense when man sees the historical natural sense. How remote these two senses seem to be from each other when in fact they are closely linked to one another may become quite evident from the historical details explained above and from all other such details. The actual arcanum present within the details here and in those after them in this chapter may, it is true, be known to some extent from what has been stated already about Laban and Jacob - about 'Laban' meaning the kind of good by means of which genuine goods and truths are able to be introduced, while 'Jacob' means the good of truth. Yet few know what natural good corresponding to spiritual good is, even fewer what spiritual good is and that a correspondence ought to exist between the two, and fewer still that a type of good which merely looks like good is the means for introducing genuine goods and truths. This being so, the arcana which describe these matters cannot be explained easily and intelligibly since they fall within the poorly lit parts of the understanding. It is rather like someone talking in a foreign language, in that no matter how clearly the thing is explained in that language the hearer does not understand. Even so, because what is concealed in the internal sense of the Word is to be made known, the actual arcanum within the details here has to be discussed.

[3] In the highest sense the subject at this point is how the Lord made His own Natural Divine, and in the representative sense how the Lord regenerates the natural as it exists with man and brings it into correspondence with his interior man, that is, with that which is going to live after the death of the body. At that point it is called man's spirit which, when released from the body, takes with it every part of the external man except the flesh and bones. If the correspondence of the internal man with the external has not been effected in the temporal state, that is, during a person's life in the body, it is not effected after that. The Lord's joining of the two together through regeneration is the subject in the internal sense here.

[4] Previous sections have dealt with the general truths which a person ought to receive and acknowledge before he can be regenerated, those truths being meant by Jacob's ten sons by Leah and the servant-girls; then they deal - after he has received and acknowledged them - with the joining of the external man to the interior, that is, of the natural man to the spiritual, which was meant by 'Joseph'. Now in the sequence of ideas the subject is the fruitfulness of good and the multiplication of truth which begin to occur once the rational man has been joined to the spiritual, and in the measure that they are so joined. These are the considerations meant by the flock which Jacob acquired to himself by means of Laban's flock. 'Flock' here means good and truth, as it does many times elsewhere in the Word. 'Laban's flock' means the good that is represented by 'Laban', the nature of which has been stated above; 'Jacob's flock' means the genuine good and truth which is acquired by means of that good represented by Laban.

[5] It is the way in which genuine goods and truths are acquired that is described here. Yet this cannot by any means be comprehended unless one knows what is meant in the internal sense by 'speckled', 'spotted', 'black' and 'white', and therefore these must first be dealt with here. That which is speckled or that which is spotted consists of black and of white. In general 'black' means that which is evil, in particular man's proprium since this is nothing but evil. 'Dark' however means that which is false, and in particular false assumptions. 'White' in the internal sense means truth; strictly speaking it means the Lord's Righteousness and Merit, and from this the Lord's righteousness and merit as these exist with man. This whiteness is called bright because it shines from the light that radiates from the Lord. But 'white' in the contrary sense means self-righteousness or one's own merit. Indeed truth devoid of good has such merit within it, for when any good action performed by a person does not stem from the good of truth that person always desires something in return since he acts for the sake of himself. But when good lies behind the truth that a person carries into effect, that truth is enlightened by the light which radiates from the Lord. From this one may see what is meant by 'spotted', namely truth with which falsity has been mingled, and what by 'speckled', namely good with which evil has been mingled.

[6] Actually visible in the next life are colours so beautiful and bright that they defy description, 1053, 1624. They are the product of the variegation of light and shade within white and black. But although it appears before the eyes as light, the light there is unlike the light in the world. The light in heaven includes intelligence and wisdom, for Divine Intelligence and Wisdom from the Lord manifest themselves there as light and also light up the whole of heaven, 2776, 3138, 3167, 3190, 3195, 3222, 3223, 3225, 3339-3341, 3485, 3636, 3643, 3862. Shade likewise in the next life, although it appears as shade, is unlike shade in the world, since the shade in that life is the absence of light and as a consequence the lack of intelligence and wisdom. So because the white and the black are in the next life a product of light which has intelligence and wisdom within it, and a product of the shade which is the lack of these, it is evident that white and black mean such things as have been stated above. Consequently, since colours are the modifications of light and shade within surfaces consisting of white and black, it is the variegations produced by those modifications that are called colours, 1042, 1043, 1053.

[7] From all this one may see what is meant by speckled, or marked and dotted with black and white specks, namely good with which evil has been mingled, and also what is meant by spotted, namely truth with which falsity has been mingled. These are the things that were taken from 'Laban good' to serve in the introducing of genuine goods and truths. But in what way they are able to serve is an arcanum which can indeed be presented clearly to those who see in the light of heaven because this light, as has been stated, holds intelligence within it, but not to those who see in the light of the world unless their light of the world is lit up by the light of heaven, as it is with those who are regenerate. For every regenerate person sees goods and truths within his own natural light from the light of heaven, because the light of heaven brings sight to his understanding even as the inferior light of the world gives him natural sight.

[8] But all this needs to be taken a little further. No pure good, or good with which evil is not mingled, exists with anyone. Neither does any pure truth, or truth with which falsity is not mingled, exist with him. This is because man's will is nothing but evil, from which falsity is constantly passing into his understanding; for as is well known, he possesses by inheritance the evil that has been accumulated consecutively by his forefathers. From this inheritance he brings out evil into his own actions and makes it his own, adding further evil from himself to the inheritance. But the evils residing with man are of various kinds. There are evils with which goods cannot be mingled and there are evils with which they can. And the same applies to falsities. If this were not so nobody could ever have been regenerated. The evils and falsities with which goods and truths cannot be mingled are ones that are contrary to love to God and love towards the neighbour - forms of hatred, revenge, and cruelty, and consequent contempt for others in comparison with oneself, and also consequent false persuasions. But the evils and falsities with which goods and truths can be mingled are ones that are not contrary to love to God and love towards the neighbour.

[9] Take for example anyone who loves himself more than others and because of that love strives to excel others in private life and in public life, to excel them in knowledge and doctrine, and to be promoted to positions of greater importance than others, and also to greater affluence than others. If at the same time he acknowledges and adores the Lord, from the heart performs acts of kindness to the neighbour, and from conscience behaves justly and fairly, the evil that belongs to his self-love is such that good and truth can be mingled with it. For this is an evil which belongs to a person as his own and into which he is born by heredity. And to take that away from him suddenly would be to put out the fire of life that burns in him at first. But in the case of someone who loves himself more than others and because of that love despises others in comparison with himself, hates those who do not hold him in esteem and so to speak adore him, and therefore enjoys the feelings of hatred that are present in revenge and cruelty, the evil of that love is such that good and truth cannot be mingled with it because they are contraries.

[10] Take as another example anyone who believes that he is pure from sins, and so is cleansed like somebody from whom dirt has been washed away by means of much water, once he has repented and carried out the prescribed penances, or after he has made his confession and heard the confessor declare him free from sins, or after he has been to the Holy Supper. If he leads a new life, being stirred by an affection for good and truth, that falsity is such that good can be mingled with it. But if he goes on leading a carnal and worldly life as before, it is in that case a falsity with which good cannot be mingled. Also, with anyone who believes that man is saved by virtue of believing what is good and not of willing it, and yet who does will what is good and therefore does it, that falsity is such that good and truth can be attached to it. But not so if he does not will what is good and therefore does not do it.

[11] Take yet another example. If anyone does not know that man rises again after death and consequently does not believe in the resurrection, or else if anyone who does know but nevertheless doubts or practically denies it, and yet each one leads a life of truth and goodness, good and truth can be mingled with that falsity also. But if a person leads a life of falsity and evil they cannot be mingled with that same falsity because they are contraries. The falsity destroys the truth, and the evil destroys the good.

[12] And still another example. Pretence and shrewdness which have a good end in view, whether the good of the neighbour, or of one's country, or of the Church, constitute prudence. The evils that are mixed up with them can be mingled with good by reason of and for the sake of the end in view. But presence and shrewdness which have an evil end in view do not constitute prudence but trickery and deceit. Good cannot possibly be joined to these, for deceit which goes with an evil end in view brings what is of hell into every single part of a person, sets evil in the middle, and casts good away to the circumferences. This order is the order itself of hell. And so with countless other examples that could be taken.

[13] The fact that there are some evils and falsities to which goods and truths can be attached may be seen merely from the consideration that so many different dogmas and teachings exist, many of them totally heretical, and yet subscribing to each one there are people who are saved. The same may also be seen from the consideration that among gentiles outside of the Church there is another Church that is the Lord's, and that those are saved who lead charitable lives, even though falsities exist with them, 2589 2604. This could by no means be the case if there were no evils with which goods can be mingled, and no falsities with which truths can be mingled. For the evils with which goods are mingled, and the falsities with which truths are mingled, are wonderfully arranged into order by the Lord. For they are not combined with one another, still less are they made into one, but lie adjacent to and touch one another, so that in fact the goods together with the truths occupy the middle, at the central point so to speak, while the evils and falsities occupy positions radiating outwards to the surrounding areas or circumferences. Consequently the evils and falsities receive light from the goods and truths, and are variegated like patches of white and black created by light radiating from the middle or centre. This constitutes heavenly order. These are the things meant in the internal sense by 'speckled' and 'spotted'.