Air" in the Bible represents thought, but in a very general way – our capacity to perceive ideas and the way we tend to think, rather than our specific ideas about specific things. We see the world around us through the air, and seeing corresponds to understanding. We hear through the air, and hearing corresponds to being taught and obeying. Birds fly in the air, and they represent specific thoughts and ideas. And breathing itself – taking in air and passing oxygen to the blood – represents our understanding of true spiritual ideas.

In Genesis 1:26, when used with fowls or birds of the air refers to the air we breathe, but sky, or heavens where are stars, and together these terms refer to both the spiritual and natural man, and to their food, or goods and truths. (Arcana Coelestia 57, 58)

In Genesis 3:8, the only Old Testament reference to air is in the phrase "cool of the day" (at the time of the evening breeze) which signifies the period when the church still had some spiritual perception. (Arcana Coelestia 221)

In Revelation 9:2; 16:17, air signifies the divine truth, darkened by infernal falsities. (Apocalypse Explained 541, Apocalypse Revealed 423)

In Revelation 16:17, everyone in the spiritual world breathes air according to his faith. (Apocalypse Revealed 708, Apocalypse Explained 1012, Apocalypse Revealed 708)

5817. 'And so it was, when we went up to your servant my father' means a raising up to spiritual good. This is clear from the meaning of 'going up' as a raising up, dealt with below; and from the representation of Israel, to whom 'father' refers here, as spiritual good from the natural, dealt with in 4286, 4598. A raising up of the kind meant here by 'going up is a movement towards more internal things; here it is a raising up from the truths in the natural, which are represented by 'Jacob's ten sons', to spiritual good from the natural, represented by 'Israel'. For there is an exterior natural and there is an interior natural, 5497, 5649. The interior natural holds spiritual good, which is 'Israel', while the exterior natural holds the truths known to the Church, which are 'Jacob's sons', and therefore 'going up to their father' means a raising up of these to spiritual good.