52. As long as someone is a spiritual man, the dominion over him runs from external man to internal man, as is said here, 'They will have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air', and over the beasts, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth'. When however he becomes celestial and does what is good out of love, then the dominion over him runs from internal man to external man. This is how the Lord describes Himself, and so simultaneously the celestial man, who is a likeness of Him, in David,

You have given him dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet, flocks and all cattle, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, ¹ and the fish of the sea, and that crossing the paths of the seas. Psalms 8:6-8.

Here therefore the beasts are mentioned first, the birds next, and the fish of the sea after that, for the reason that the celestial man starts with love which resides in the will. With the spiritual man it is different. With him fish and birds, which have to do with the understanding, the domain of faith, come first, while beasts come afterwards.

Footnotes:

2194. 'And behold, Sarah your wife will have a son' means the Rational that was to be Divine. This is clear from the meaning of 'a son', also of 'Sarah', and of 'Isaac' as well, who was to be born to her. Both 'a son' and 'Sarah', and 'Isaac' too, mean that which is a feature of the Lord's Rational; for '5011' means truth, see 489, 491, 533, 1147, 'Sarah' rational truth, 2173, and 'Isaac' the Divine Rational, 1893, 2066, 2083. With everyone the human has its beginnings in the inmost part of the rational, as stated in 2106, so that the Lord's Human too had its beginnings there. That which was above it was Jehovah Himself, which is not the case with anyone else at all. Since the human has its beginnings in the inmost part of the rational, and since the Lord made the whole of the human with Him Divine, He first made the rational itself Divine from the inmost. And that rational, having been made Divine, is represented and meant, as has been stated, by 'Isaac'.