Babylon was an ancient city built on the Euphrates river in what is now southern Iraq. It once was the capital of a great empire which at one point conquered the land of Judah as mentioned in the second book of Kings and in Daniel. But the river changed its course and the city was abandoned long ago. Both the historic city in Mesopotamia and the parable city with its tower, mentioned in Genesis, represent the same thing, a worship that appears holy in externals, while the internals are profane. This representation expands to mean a church whose leaders use this kind of worship to gain dominion over others for their own gain and for the gain and power of the church. The city itself is the doctrinal structure that supports this kind of worship and dominion.

(References: Apocalypse Explained 1029; Arcana Coelestia 1283, 1302, 1304, 1310, 1311)

In the physical world, the places we inhabit and the distances between them are physical realities, and we have to get our physical bodies through the physical space between to get from one physical place to another physical place. In the spiritual world, however, the "places" we inhabit and the “distances” between them are spiritual realities, which means they are reflections of our thoughts and affections. "Going" from one place to another, then, is a change in spiritual state -- exploring different thoughts and embracing different feelings. Since the Bible is a spiritual book, "going" there also indicates a change or progression in spiritual state, from one mode of thinking and feeling to another mode of thinking and feeling. Obviously, this makes the precise meaning of "go" in the Bible highly dependent on context: Who is going? Where are they going? Why are they going there? Are they following someone or something? Those questions are crucial to the precise meaning. Used on its own, though, "going" represents the normal progression of life, moving through spiritual states as the Lord intends. This has its roots in early Biblical times, when people were nomadic and moved from place to place in a regular progression of life.