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:

5307. 'Shall we find a man like this, in whom is the spirit of God?' means regarding an influx of truth containing good received from within, and so containing the celestial of the spiritual. This is clear from the meaning of 'a man' as truth, dealt with in 3134, 3309, 3459, and from the meaning of 'the spirit of God' as good received from within, thus from the Divine. The spirit of God is that which goes forth from the Divine, and so from absolute good; for the Divine is absolute Good. That which goes forth from this is truth containing good, and it is this truth that is meant in the Word by 'the spirit of God'. Actually the spirit does not go forth, only truth containing good, which is holy truth. The spirit is the instrument by means of which it is brought forth. This truth containing good is the celestial of the spiritual, represented by 'Joseph'.

[2] Within the Church it is well known that in a spiritual sense 'Joseph' is the Lord, which also explains why the Lord is called the heavenly Joseph. But no one knows which aspect of the Lord is represented by 'Joseph'. For the Lord is represented by Abraham, also by Isaac, and by Jacob too. He is represented as well by Moses and Elijah, by Aaron, and also by David, in addition to many others in the Word. But each one nevertheless represents Him in a different way from any other. The aspect that Abraham represents is the Divine itself, 'Isaac' the Divine Rational, 'Jacob' the Divine Natural, 'Moses' the Law or historical part of the Word, 'Elijah' the prophetical part, 'Aaron' His priesthood, and 'David' His kingship. But what aspect is represented by 'Joseph' may be seen in 3969, 4286, 4585, 4592, 4594, 4669, 4723, 4727, 4963, 5249 - that aspect which 'Joseph' represents being the celestial of the spiritual deriving from the rational. No other description than this can be used, for the celestial is good received from the Divine, the spiritual is truth received from that good, making it the truth of good received from His Divine Human. This was what the Lord was when He lived in the world. But once He had glorified Himself, He rose up above it; even His Human was made absolute Divine Good, or Jehovah.

[3] Nothing more specific can be stated regarding this arcanum than the following: Joseph came to Egypt, where first of all he served in the house of Potiphar, the chief of the attendants, then was held in custody, and after that was made the governor over Egypt, so that the way might be represented in which the Lord by progressive stages made the Human within Himself Divine, and so that all this might be written about in a Word that would contain matters of a Divine nature in its internal sense. This sense was intended to serve angels primarily, whose wisdom - which is beyond understanding or description when compared with human wisdom - is concerned with such Divine matters. It was intended at the same time to serve men who prefer historical to any other descriptions, in which, as men turn such descriptions over in their minds, angels can perceive - through an influx from the Lord - the matters of a Divine nature.