387. And with death. That this signifies the consequent extinction of spiritual life, is plain from the signification of death, as denoting the extinction of spiritual life (concerning which see above, n. 78, 186). That this is here signified by death is plain from the series of things in the internal sense; for it is said that power was given unto them to kill with the sword, with famine, and with death: and by the sword is signified falsity destroying truth; by famine, the deprivation of the knowledges of truth and good; whence by death is signified the extinction of spiritual life, for where falsity reigns, and where there are no knowledges of truth and good, there is no spiritual life; for it is acquired by the knowledges of truth and good applied to the uses of life. For man is born into all evil and the falsity thence, therefore he is also born entirely ignorant of all spiritual knowledges; in order, therefore, that he may be led from the evils and the falsities thence, into which he is born, and be led into the life of heaven, and be saved, it is necessary that he should learn the knowledges of truth and good, by which he can be introduced [into spiritual life] and become spiritual. From this series of things in the internal sense it is evident, that by death is here signified the extinction of spiritual life; this also is signified by spiritual death.

5259. 'And Pharaoh spoke to Joseph' means thought expressed by the natural but belonging to the celestial of the spiritual. This is clear from what has been stated above in 5151. Where the same words occur, except that there it says that Pharaoh said to Joseph, here that he spoke to him; for 'said' means perception, whereas 'spoke' means thought, 2271, 2287, 2619. The reason 'Pharaoh spoke to Joseph' means thought which is expressed by the natural but belongs to the celestial of the spiritual, and not the other way round, is that when thought is going on in what is exterior, the source of such thought does not lie there but in what is interior. Or what amounts to the same, when thought is going on in what is lower, nothing else than what is higher is the source of it. Even so, while the thought belonging to what is interior or higher is going on in what is exterior or lower, it does seem as though the exterior or lower is itself the source of the thought going on in it. But that is an illusion. It is like a person who sees some object in a mirror but does not know that the mirror is there. He supposes that the object exists where it appears to do so, but in reality it does not exist there.

[2] Now because the celestial of the spiritual is interior or higher, and the natural is exterior or lower, 'Pharaoh spoke to Joseph' therefore means in the internal sense thought expressed by the natural but belonging to the celestial of the spiritual. In short, nothing in a lower position possesses anything self-derived whatsoever. Any ability it possesses comes from what is higher, which being so it plainly follows that the Highest one of all, that is, the Divine, is the source of everything. Consequently the source of a person's thought proceeding from his understanding and of his activity proceeding from his will is the Highest one or the Divine. If however a person thinks false ideas and acts in evil ways, this is due to the form he has stamped on his own character; but if he thinks right ideas and acts in ways that are good, it is due to the form he has received from the Lord. For it is well known that one and the same power and force produces differing movements which are determined by the ways in which the intermediate and outermost parts are structured, so that in the human being life from the Divine produces differing thoughts and actions, determined by the forms existing there.