Wine played a key role in the ancient world, where safe, reliable water sources were scarce. It could be stored for long periods of time; if lightly fermented it was rich in sugar content; it was high in mineral content; it tasted good and generally had intoxicating qualities. Thus it was a valuable commodity and treated with reverence.

Wine is, of course, made from grapes. Grapes – sweet, juicy, nutritious and full of energy-rich fructose – represent the Lord's own exquisite desire to be good to us. That's powerful stuff! But grapes have a short shelf life; you might eat a bunch for a burst of energy, but you can't exactly carry them around with you for long-term sustenance. And so it is with desires for good: They tend to come to us in energizing bursts, but fade away fairly quickly. We need something more stable and lasting.

At some point in the distant past people figured out that if you squeeze the juice from the grapes and let it ferment, the result is a liquid that offers that stability: wine. The spiritual meaning works the same way; if we examine our desires for good, try to understand and think about how to apply them, what we will get are concepts about what good really is, how to recognize it and how to make it happen. And just like the wine, these ideas offer stability and portability. For instance, finding a wallet full of cash on the sidewalk might severely test our desire to be honest, but the idea that "you shall not steal" is pretty hard to shake.

Wine, then, on the deepest level represents divine truth flowing from divine goodness – the true principles that arise from the fact that the Lord loves us and desires everything good for us.

Wine comes in many varieties, though, and is used in many ways. Depending on context it can represent truth that arises from a desire for good on much more mundane levels. You want your children to be healthy so you make them brush their teeth even though they complain and it's a pain in the neck; the truth that brushing their teeth is good for them is wine on a very day-to-day level.

In some cases wine can also actually represent good things that arise from true ideas, something of a reverse from its inmost meaning. This happens when we are in transitional stages, setting higher ideas and principles above our less-worthy desires in an effort to reshape our actions. In that case our principles are the things being squeezed, with good habits the result.

There is also, of course, a darker side to wine. There is a good deal of debate about just how much alcohol wine had in Biblical times, and some of it may indeed have been more like concentrated grape juice. But there are also many references to wine and drunkeness, so some of it, at least, was fairly potent.

On a spiritual level, getting drunk on wine represents relying too much on our ideas, taking logic to such an extreme that we forget the good things we were trying to achieve in the first place.

(References: Apocalypse Explained 376 [1-40], 1152; Apocalypse Revealed 316, 635; Arcana Coelestia 1071 [1-5], 1727, 3580 [1-4], 5117 [7], 6377, 10137 [1-10]; The Apocalypse Explained 329 [2-4]; The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine 219)

606. 13:17 So that no one can buy or sell if he does not have the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of its name. This symbolically means that no one is allowed to teach from the Word, or consequently to be inaugurated into the priesthood, to be accorded the badge of the teaching office, to be granted the doctor's cap, and called orthodox, but one who acknowledges that doctrine and swears to a belief in it and love for it, and to such as is in conformity with it, or such as does not conflict with it.

To buy and to sell mean, symbolically, to acquire concepts, in this case concepts having to do with that doctrine, and to teach them, as shown below. The mark of the beast symbolizes an acknowledgment that one is a Reformed Christian, and a confession that one is such (no. 605). The name of the beast symbolizes the character of the doctrine, a name symbolizing character (nos. 81, 122, 165, 584), and the beast symbolizing the doctrine accepted by the laity, thus by the general populace (no. 567). Moreover, because the verse says "or the name of the beast," it symbolizes its character or such as is in conformity with it. A number symbolizes the character of a thing (no. 448), and because the verse says "or the number of its name," it symbolizes the character of the doctrine or such as does not conflict with it.

It is stated so, because the doctrine symbolized by the dragon and its beast is not the same throughout the kingdoms in which Reformed Protestants are found, though it is the same in respect to this postulate or principal tenet of the doctrine, that faith justifies and saves apart from works of the law.

[2] That to buy and to sell mean, symbolically, to acquire concepts for oneself and to teach them, and so likewise to market, trade, and make a profit, is clear from the following passages:

Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money... (Isaiah 55:1)

You have sold yourselves for nothing; (therefore) you shall not be redeemed with money. (Isaiah 52:3)

With your wisdom and your understanding you have gained riches for yourself...; by your great wisdom in your trading you have increased your riches... (Ezekiel 28:4-5)

Since Tyre symbolized the church in respect to its concepts of goodness and truth, therefore we are told the following concerning Tyre:

All the ships of the sea... were... to market your merchandise... Tarshish was your trader...(in) silver... Javan, Tubal, and Meshech were your merchants. With human life... they carried on your trading... Syria was your trader... with chrysoprase... Your riches, your wares, and your merchandise..., ...those carrying on your trade..., will fall into the midst of the seas on the day of your ruin. (Ezekiel 27:9, 12-13, 16, 27)

Wail, you ships of Tarshish! For (Tyre) is laid waste..., whose merchants are princes, and whose traders are the honored of the earth? (Isaiah 23:1-8)

Trading has the same meaning in the Lord's parable about a man traveling to a far country, who gave his servants talents to trade with and make a profit (Matthew 25:14-30). In another parable about a man who gave his servants ten minas for them to do business with (Luke 19:12-26). In the parable regarding a treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid, who sold all that he had and bought the field (Matthew 13:44). And in the one about a man seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he had found one precious one, sold all that he had and bought it (Matthew 13:45-46).

Such have they become..., your merchants from your youth; they shall wander each one from his region, not saving you. (Isaiah 47:15)

And so on elsewhere.