4697. 'And the eleven stars' means cognitions of good and truth. This is clear from the meaning of 'stars' as cognitions of good and truth. The reason 'stars' in the Word means those cognitions is that they are tiny sources of light shining in the night, which send out flickers of light at that time into our sky, even as cognitions transmit glimmers of goodness and truth. This meaning of 'stars' as those cognitions may be seen from many places in the Word, as in Jeremiah,

[Thus] said Jehovah who gives the sun for light by day and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for light by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar. Jeremiah 31:35.

This refers to a new Church. 'Giving the sun for light by day' means good flowing from love and charity, and 'the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for light by night' means truth and cognitions.

[2] Similarly in David,

Jehovah who made the great lights, the sun to have dominion by day, the moon and stars to have dominion by night. Psalms 136:7-9.

Anyone unacquainted with the internal sense of the Word will presume that here 'the sun' is used to mean the sun of this world, and 'the moon and stars' to mean the moon and the stars, but no spiritual and heavenly meaning comes out of that presumption. Yet the Word in every individual part is heavenly. From this it is also evident that it is the goods of love and charity, and the truths of faith, together with cognitions of these, that are meant.

[3] This is similar to what occurs in Chapter 1 of Genesis, where the new creation of the heavenly man is the subject,

God said, Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens, to make a distinction between the day and the night; and they will be for signs, and for set times, and for days and for years. And they will be for lights in the expanse of the heavens, to give light upon the earth; and it was so. And God made the two great lights, the greater light to have dominion over the day, and the lesser light to have dominion over the night, and the stars. And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth, and to have dominion over the day and the night, and to make a distinction between the light and the darkness. Genesis 1:14-18.

See [in Volume One, paragraphs] 30-38.

[4] In Matthew,

Immediately after the affliction of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Matthew 24:29.

Here 'the sun' and 'the moon' mean love and charity, or good and truth, while 'stars' means cognitions - see 4060; and because the last day or last state of the Church is the subject here, 'the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light' means that at that time the good of love and charity will perish, and 'the stars will fall from heaven' means that the cognitions of good and truth will perish too. That these things are meant is evident from the prophetical parts of the Word where similar descriptions occur regarding the day or state of the Church.

[5] As in Isaiah,

Behold, the day of Jehovah will come, cruel, to make the earth a waste, and He will destroy sinners from it. For the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not shine with their light. The sun will be obscured in its rising, and the moon will not give its light. Isaiah 13:9-10.

In Joel,

The day of Jehovah is near. The sun and the moon have been darkened, and the stars have withdrawn their shining. Joel 3:14-15.

In Ezekiel,

When I have blotted you out, I will cover the heavens and darken their stars, I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon will not give its light. All the bright lights in heaven I will make dark over you, and I will put darkness over your land. Ezekiel 32:7-8.

And in John,

The fourth angel sounded, and a third part of the sun was struck, and a third part of the moon, and a third part of the stars, so that a third part of them was darkened and the day did not shine for a third part of it; and the night likewise. Revelation 8:12.

[6] This meaning of 'stars' as cognitions of good and truth is in addition evident from the following places: In Daniel,

Out of one horn of the he-goat of the she-goats there grew one small-sized horn and it grew exceedingly towards the south, and towards the east, and towards the glorious [land]; and it grew even towards the hosts of heaven, and it cast down to the earth some of the host, and of the stars, and trampled on them. Daniel 8:9-10.

And in John,

The great dragon drew with his tail a third part of the stars of heaven and cast them down to the earth. Revelation 12:4.

Clearly the actual stars are not meant here, the subject in Daniel and John being the state of the Church in the last times.

[7] Similarly in David,

Jehovah counts the number of stars; He gives names to them all. Psalms 147:4.

In the same author,

Praise Jehovah, sun and moon; praise Him, all stars of light. Psalms 148:3.

In John,

A great sign was seen in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. Revelation 12:1.

[8] Since cognitions of good and truth are meant by 'stars', the teachings of the Church are meant too, since these are cognitions. Teaching to do with faith separated from charity in the last times is described as 'a star' in the following verses in John,

The third angel sounded, and a great star fell from heaven, burning like a torch, and It fell onto a third part of the rivers, and onto the fountains of waters. The name of the star is called Wormwood; and a third part of the waters became wormwood, and many people died in the waters, because they were made bitter. Revelation 8:10-11.

'The waters' which were made bitter by that star are truths, and 'the rivers' and 'the fountains of waters' are intelligence imparted by those truths, and wisdom from the Word. For 'waters' meaning truths, see 2702, 3058, 3424; for 'rivers' intelligence, 3051; and for 'fountains' wisdom from the Word, 2702, 3424.

3665. 'To the home of Bethuel your mother's father, and take for yourself from there a wife from the daughters of Laban your mother's brother' means a parallel external good, and the truth which sprang from this good and was to be joined [to the good of the natural]. This is clear from the representation of 'Bethuel' as good existing with those who make up a first group of gentiles, dealt with in 2865; from the representation of 'Laban' as the affection for good in the natural man, that is, the affection for external good, strictly speaking a parallel good that springs from a common stock, dealt with in 3129, 3130, 3160, 3612; and from the meaning of 'taking a wife from his daughters' as being brought into association with or joined to affections for truth from that source. For 'taking a wife', as is self-evident, means being joined to, and 'daughters' means affections, see 568, 2362, 3024. From this it is clear what those words mean, namely that the good of the natural represented here by 'Jacob' was to be joined to truths which came from a parallel external good.

[2] The implications of this are that when a person is being regenerated the Lord leads him first of all as an infant, then as a child, after that as a young person, and at length as an adult. The truths which he learns as a small child are totally external and bodily, for he is not yet capable of grasping more interior things. Those truths are no more than cognitions of such things as inmostly contain Divine things within them. For there are some cognitions of things which do not inmostly contain anything Divine and there are other cognitions which do. Cognitions that do contain the Divine inmostly are such that they can receive interior truths into themselves, increasingly so, one after another in their proper order, whereas cognitions that do not contain the Divine are such that they do not so receive them but spurn them. For the cognitions of external and bodily good and truth are like the soil which, depending on its own particular nature, receives into itself one kind of seed but not another, and is productive of one variety of seed but is destructive of another. Cognitions which inmostly contain the Divine receive spiritual and celestial truth and good into themselves, for it is by virtue of the Divine within, bringing order to them, that makes them what they are. But cognitions that do not contain the Divine receive only falsity and evil, such being their nature. Those cognitions of external and bodily truth which do receive spiritual and celestial truth and good are meant here by 'the daughters of Laban from the home of Bethuel', while those that do not receive them are meant by 'the daughters of Canaan'.

[3] The cognitions which people learn from infancy onwards into childhood are like very general vessels, which exist to be filled with goods. And as they are filled a person is enlightened. If the vessels are such that they can contain genuine goods within them, the person is in that case enlightened, step by step and increasingly so from the Divine that is within them. But if they are such that they cannot contain genuine goods within them he is not in that case enlightened. He may indeed give the appearance of being enlightened, but this comes about from the illusory light that goes with falsity and evil. Indeed those cognitions place him all the more in obscurity as regards good and truth.

[4] Such cognitions are manifold, so manifold that one can hardly count even the genera of them, let alone identify their species. For they derive in their multiplicity from the Divine and then pass by way of the rational into the natural. That is to say, certain of them flow in directly by way of the good of the rational, and from there into the good of the natural, and also into the truth that goes with that good, and again from there into the external or bodily natural, where also they depart into various channels; but others flow in indirectly by way of the truth of the rational into the truth of the natural, and also into the good that goes with this truth, and again from there into the external or bodily natural, see 3573, 3616. All this is like nations, families, and houses, in which there are blood relatives and relatives by marriage; that is to say, there are those in the direct line of descent from the chief ancestor and there are those belonging to an increasingly indirect or parallel line. In the heavens these things are quite distinct and separate, for all the communities there are distinguished according to genera and species of good and truth, and so according to how near they are in relation to one another, 685, 2508, 2524, 2556, 2739, 3612. The most ancient people, being celestial, also represented those communities by their dwelling as distinct and separate nations, families, and houses, 470, 471, 483, 1159, 1246. This was also the reason why members of the representative Church were commanded to contract marriages within the families which made up their own nation; for by so doing they could represent heaven and the interconnection of its communities as regards good and truth. That representation is exemplified here by Jacob's going to the home of Bethuel his mother's father and his taking a wife for himself from there from the daughters of Laban his mother's brother.

[5] As regards cognitions themselves of external or bodily truth which come from a parallel good and, as has been stated, contain the Divine and so are able to receive genuine truths within them, they are like cognitions present with small children who at a later time undergo regeneration. They are in general such as those that are found in the historical narratives of the Word, for example, in what is said there about Paradise, about the first human being in Paradise, about the tree of life in the middle of it, and about the tree of knowledge where the deceiving serpent was. These are cognitions which contain the Divine and which receive spiritual and celestial goods and truths into themselves because they represent and mean these. Such cognitions also constitute all the other descriptions in historical narratives of the Word, for example, those in the Word concerning the Tabernacle, concerning the Temple, and concerning the construction of these; likewise what is said about Aaron's vestments and those of his sons; also about the feasts of tabernacles, of first fruits, and of unleavened bread, and about other matters of a similar nature. When these and similar details are known and thought about by a small child, the thoughts of the angels residing with him at that time are concerned with the Divine things which they represent and mean. And because the angels are stirred by an affection for these things, that affection is communicated. This produces the joy and delight that the child gets out of them, and it prepares his mind for the reception of genuine truths and goods. These and very many others are the cognitions of external and bodily truth that come from a parallel good.