476. That 'male and female' means the marriage of faith and love has been stated and shown already. That is to say, 'male' or man (vir) means the understanding and what belongs to the understanding, and so what belongs to faith, while 'female' means the will, or what belongs to the will, and so what belongs to love. This also is why she was called Eve, from a word meaning life, which belongs to love alone. 'Female' therefore also means the Church, as also shown already, and 'male' the man (vir) of the Church. At present the subject is the state of the Church at the time it was spiritual and shortly to become celestial, which is why the word 'male' comes first, as it does also in 1:26-27. Furthermore the expression 'to create' has regard to the spiritual man. As soon however as that marriage has taken place, that is, the Church has become celestial, it is no longer called 'male and female' but 'Man' (Homo) who by virtue of the marriage means both. Consequently 'and He called their name Man', which means the Church, follows next.

9931. 'And engrave on it, [like] the engraving of a signet' means what is everlasting and has been imprinted on their hearts in accord with a heavenly sphere. This is clear from the meaning of 'engraving' as imprinting on the memory, 9841, 9842, thus also on the heart (for what is imprinted on the interior memory, or on one's life, is said to have been imprinted on the heart), and since this remains forever, what exists everlastingly is also meant; and from the meaning of 'the engraving of a signet' as a heavenly sphere, dealt with in 9846. The expression 'what has been imprinted on their hearts in accord with a heavenly sphere' is used because things which have been imprinted on the memory - in particular on the interior memory, which is 'the book of life', 2474 - have been imprinted in accord with a heavenly sphere. For a person governed by the good of love resulting from the truths of faith resembles heaven, indeed he is heaven in the smallest form it takes, see the places referred to above in 9279, 9632. This being so, the heavenly pattern resides in him; for all the communities in heaven have been arranged according to the heavenly pattern, because all affections for good and consequently thoughts of truth flow in accordance with that pattern, 9877. All factual knowledge too is arranged into the heavenly pattern when a person is governed by heavenly love, love being that which so arranges it, see 6690.