'Land' in the Word, denotes the church, for the things which signify the church also signify the things relating to the church, for these constitute the church. The reason why 'land' denotes the church in the Word is because the land of Canaan was the land in which the church had been since the most ancient times. Hence, when 'land' is named in the Word, it means the land of Canaan, which then means the church. For when the expression 'the land' appears there, people in the spiritual world do not concern themselves with the idea of a land, only with the idea of the nation inhabiting it. And yet not with an idea of that nation but with an idea of the essential nature of it.

'Land' or 'earth,' as in Genesis 20:15, signifies the doctrine of love and charity.

'Land' signifies the celestial principle of love in Genesis 24:4.

In Genesis 26:12, 'land' signifies rational things.

In Genesis 28:13, this signifies the good of the natural.

The 'land' represents the divine of the rational principle in Genesis 30:25.

(References: Arcana Coelestia 5577)

4050. A certain face was first of all visible to me above a skylight and then presently withdrew inside. At that point I saw a little star around the region of the left eye, after that many little stars that were ruddy and were glittering with white. Then I saw some walls without a roof, the walls being on the left side only, and lastly I saw what looked like a starry sky. And because these things were seen in a place where those present were evil, I supposed that something hideous would be displayed for me to see. But shortly the wall disappeared, and also the starry sky, and a well appeared from which a brilliant cloud or vapour emerged. Something else also seemed to be pumped out of the well.

[2] I asked what those things meant and represented, and was told that it was a representation of the infundibulum within the brain, above which was the brain itself, meant by the sky. And what I had seen after that was the vessel meant by the well and called the infundibulum, while the cloud or vapour which emerged from it was the lymph which passes through and is pumped out of it. I was also told that there were two kinds of this lymph - that which is mingled with the vital substances, which belongs among the useful lymphs, and that which is mingled with serous substances, which belongs among the excrementitious lymphs.

[3] I was shown after this the nature of those who belong to this province, though only those of the baser sort, whom I also saw running about this way and that, devoting themselves to those they saw, paying attention to everything, and reporting to others the things they heard. They were disposed to be suspicious, impatient, and restless, just like that lymph which is within and is carried to and fro. Their reasonings are the fluids there which they represent. But these belong to an intermediate sort.

[4] Those however who correlate with the excrementitious lymphs there are those spirits who bring spiritual truths down to earthly things and there defile them. For example, when they hear anything to do with conjugial love they apply it to acts of whoredom and adultery, and in so doing bring what belongs to conjugial love down to these. So in everything else. These spirits were visible in front, some way out on the right. But those who belong to the good sort are like those referred to just above in 4049.