5339. 'And in the seven years of abundance of corn the land yielded bunches' means initial states when series of truths were multiplied. This is clear from the meaning of 'seven years' as initial states (for seven years in which there was an abundance of corn came first, followed by seven years in which there was famine - 'years' meaning states, see 482, 487, 488, 493, 893); from the meaning of 'an abundance of corn' as a multiplication of truth, dealt with in 5276, 5280, 5292 ('the land yielded' meaning that this multiplication took place in the natural - 'the land' here being the natural, as immediately above in 5338); and from the meaning of 'bunches' as series.

The role which the series meant by 'bunches' play is this: With a person who is undergoing reformation general truths are introduced first, then the particular aspects of those general truths, and after that the specific details of these particular aspects. Particular aspects are ranged in order beneath general truths, and specific details beneath particular aspects, 2384, 3057, 4269, 4325 (end), 4329 (middle), 4345, 4383, 5208.

[2] These arrays or ordered arrangements of truths are meant in the Word by bundles, which at this point are called handfuls or 'bunches'. They are nothing else than truths which have been multiplied and are then arrayed in or arranged into series. With people who are regenerate these series follow the same ordered patterns as those in which the communities in heaven exist; but in the case of those who are not regenerate and are incapable of becoming such they follow the patterns in which the communities in hell exist. Consequently a person who is governed by evil, and by falsity rooted in evil, is a miniature hell, whereas one who is governed by good, and by truth rooted in good, is a miniature heaven. But more, in the Lord's Divine mercy, will be stated elsewhere about these series.

5292. 'In the seven years of abundance of corn means which are instilled during the times when truths along with forms of good have been multiplied. This is clear from the meaning of 'years' as states, and from these as periods of time, dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'abundance of corn' as the multiplication of truth, or truth that has been multiplied, dealt with above in 5276, 5278, 5280. Here therefore truths which, along with forms of good, have been multiplied are meant because truths are nothing unless they are accompanied by forms of good; nor are any truths stored away within the interior man - dealt with immediately above in 5291 - other than those which have been joined to forms of good. The reason 'years' means not only states but also periods of time is that in the internal sense 'years' means entire states, that is, periods in their entirety from the start to the finish of a state. No expression other than periods of time exists to describe such states; nor have the inhabitants of [space and] time any other way of understanding them than as periods of time. For 'days' and 'years mean both states and periods of time, see 23, 487, 488, 493, 893, 2906.