414. So that a third of the day did not shine, and likewise the night. This symbolically means that they no longer have in them any spiritual truth or natural truth from the Word serviceable for doctrine and life.

The day's not shining means that they had no light from the sun, and "likewise the night" means that they had no light from the moon and stars. Light in general symbolizes Divine truth, which is truth from the Word. The light of the sun symbolizes spiritual Divine truth, and the light of the moon and stars symbolizes natural Divine truth, both acquired from the Word. Divine truth in the spiritual sense of the Word is like the light of the sun during the day, and Divine truth in the natural sense of the Word is like the light of the moon and stars at night. The spiritual sense of the Word, moreover, flows into its natural sense, as the sun does with its light to the moon, and this reflects the light of the sun indirectly.

In this way also does the spiritual sense of the Word enlighten people, even people who know nothing of that sense, when they read the Word in its natural sense. However, it enlightens a spiritual person as light from the sun does his eye, but a natural person as light from the moon and stars does his eye. Everyone is enlightened in accordance with his spiritual affection for truth and goodness, and at the same time in accordance with the genuine truths by which he has opened his rational faculty.

[2] Day and night also have this meaning in the following places:

God said, "Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night...." Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule by day, and the lesser light to rule by night. He made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth, and to rule by day and by night, and to divide the light from the darkness. (Genesis 1:14-19)

(Jehovah) made great lights..., the sun to rule by day..., the moon and stars to rule by night... (Psalms 136:7-9)

The day is Yours, (O Jehovah,) the night also is Yours; You have prepared the light and the sun. (Psalms 74:16)

...Jehovah... gives the sun for a light by day, the ordinances of the moon and the stars for a light by night... (Jeremiah 31:35)

If you can break My covenant with the day and My covenant with the night, so that there will not be day and night in their season, then My covenant also may be broken with David My servant... If I have not appointed My covenant with day and night, the ordinances of heaven and earth, I also will reject the offspring of Jacob and David... (Jeremiah 33:20-21, 25-26)

I cite these passages to make known that the darkening of both kinds of light is meant.

936. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. This symbolizes the resulting rational truths by which people caught up in evils and the accompanying falsities are brought to think sanely and to live decently.

The leaves of the tree symbolize rational truths, as will be seen below. Nations symbolize people governed by goods and the accompanying truths, and in an opposite sense people caught up in evils and the accompanying falsities (no. 483). Here they symbolize people caught up in evils and the accompanying falsities, because we are told that the leaves were for healing them, and people caught up in evils and the accompanying falsities cannot be healed by the Word, because they do not read it. However, if they have the judgment, they can be healed by rational truths.

The same symbolic meanings found in this verse are found in the following verses in Ezekiel:

Behold, there was water, flowing from under the threshold of the temple (which turned into a river), along (whose) bank... were very many trees (good for food) on one side and the other..., (whose) leaves do not fall, and whose fruit is not consumed. They bear fruit again every month..., (on which account) their fruit is good for food, and their leaves for healing. (Ezekiel 47:1, 7, 12)

The subject there is also a new church.

Leaves symbolize rational truths because a tree symbolizes a person (nos. 89, 400), and every part of the tree - its branches, leaves, flowers, fruits, and seeds - then symbolizes accordant elements in the person. The branches symbolizes a person's sensory and natural truths, the leaves his rational truths, the flowers the first spiritual truths in his rational mind, the fruits the goods of love and charity, and seeds the final elements in the person and also the first.

[2] That leaves symbolize rational truths is clearly apparent from things seen in the spiritual world. For trees are also seen there, with leaves and fruits. Gardens and parks are found there that consist of trees. In the case of people possessing goods of love and at the same time truths of wisdom, fruit trees are seen with an abundance of beautiful leaves. But in the case of people who possess the truths of some wisdom, and who speak in accordance with reason, but lack goods of love, the trees appear full of leaves, but without any fruits. And in the case of people without any goods or truths of wisdom, the only trees seen are bare of any leaves, like trees in winter in the world. An irrational person is just such a tree.

[3] Rational truths are truths which most readily welcome spiritual truths, for a person's rational mind is the first receptacle of spiritual truths. Indeed, seated in a person's rational mind is his perception of truth in a form that the person does not himself see by deliberation, as he does the ideas that reside beneath his rational mind in a lower level of thought that is connected with his outer sight.

Leaves also symbolize rational truths in Genesis 3:7; 8:11; Isaiah 34:4; Jeremiah 8:13; 17:8; Ezekiel 47:12; Daniel 4:12, 14; Psalm 1:3; Leviticus 26:36; Matthew 21:19, 24:32; Mark 13:28. However, their symbolic meanings vary according to the kinds of trees. The leaves of the olive tree and grape vine symbolize rational truths seen as a result of celestial and spiritual light; the leaves of the fig tree symbolize rational truths seen as a result of a natural sight, and the leaves of the fir tree, poplar, oak, and pine symbolize rational truths seen a a result of a sensual sight. The leaves of the latter strike terror in the spiritual world when blown to and fro by a strong wind. These are the leaves meant in Leviticus 26:36 and Job 13:25. However, not so the leaves of the former.