10292. 'Stacte' means an affection for truth on the level of the senses. This is clear from the meaning of 'stacte' as truth on the level of the senses, an affection for that truth being meant on account of the sweet smell this spice has. For an odour means perception, a sweet odour meaning perception that is pleasing, a foul and stinking odour perception that is displeasing; and any pleasure or displeasure that perception brings is attributable to and in keeping with the affection belonging to love, see 925, 1514, 1517-1519, 3577, 4624-4634, 4748, 5621, 10054. It should be remembered in general that all things whatever in the vegetable kingdom, both those which woodlands yield and those which gardens, fields, and plains produce, such as trees, crops, flowers, grass, and vegetables, mean spiritual and celestial realities generally and specifically. The reason why this should be so is that the whole natural order is a theatre representative of the Lord's kingdom, see in the places referred to in 9280.

[2] 'Stacte' means an affection for truth on the level of the senses because it is mentioned first; for there are four spices from which the incense was made, even as there are four spices from which the anointing oil was prepared. And the one that is mentioned first is the most external, as was that mentioned first in the preparation of the anointing oil, namely the best myrrh, by which the perception of truth on the level of the senses is meant, see 10252 above.

[3] The reason why four spices were used in the preparation of both the oil and the incense was that they meant levels of truth in their proper order, from outward to inmost; and in a person they follow one another in that same order. For a person has an external, called the external man, and an internal, called the internal man; and in each of these there is a more external level and a more internal one. The most external level is called that of the senses; this therefore is what is meant by 'stacte'. What the level of the senses is and what it is like, see 9996, 10236.

[4] The fact that 'stacte' means an affection for truth on the level of the senses cannot be corroborated from other places in the Word because it is not mentioned anywhere else. Yet another kind of stacte, for which also a different word is used in the original language, is mentioned among those spices which were taken down into Egypt, Genesis 37:25; 43:11; and by those commodities which were taken down to Egypt such things as exist in the external or natural man are implied. This is because 'Egypt' means factual knowledge, which belongs to the natural man, see in the places referred to in 9391.

5621. 'Wax and stacte' means the truths of interior natural good. This is clear from the meaning of 'wax', in this case aromatic wax, as the truth of good, dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'stacte' too as truth derived from good, dealt with in 4748. The truths of interior natural good are meant because these spices are purer substances than resin or honey, and for that reason the mention of them comes second. For in the Word order determines the way in which such substances are listed. 'Wax' is not used here to mean ordinary wax but an aromatic kind, such as storax. This kind of wax is what the word in the original language is used to describe; and the same word is used for spice. From this one may see why this aromatic wax means the truth of good; for all spices, because they are sweet smelling, mean in the internal sense truths that are derived from good.

[2] This may be recognized from the consideration that in heaven truths derived from good are perceived with the same pleasure as sweet scents in the world. Also, when angels' perceptions are converted into odours, which in the Lord's good pleasure happens frequently, they are therefore detected as fragrances coming from spices and from flowers. This is why frankincense and incense were prepared from odiferous substances and put to a sacred use, and also why aromatic substances were mixed with oil for anointing. Anyone who does not know that the cause behind those practices lay among the perceptions enjoyed by those in heaven may suppose that they were practices enjoined solely to make external worship pleasant and that they held nothing of heaven and nothing holy at all within them, consequently that such religious practices held nothing Divine within them. See what has been shown already on these matters:

Frankincense and incense, as well as the fragrant substances in oil for anointing, were representative of spiritual and celestial things, 4748.

Spheres of faith and love are converted into pleasant odours; and therefore pleasant and sweet-smelling odours, also aromatic ones, mean the truths of faith which are derived from the good of love, 1514, 1517-1519, 4618.