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:

5645. 'And the man brought the men to Joseph's house' means the first introduction into good coming from the celestial of the spiritual. This is clear from the meaning of 'bringing to' as an introduction, as above in 5641; from the meaning of 'the sons of Jacob' as truths known to the Church that are present within the natural, dealt with in 5403, 5419, 5427, 5428, 5512; from the meaning of 'the house' as good, dealt with in 3652, 3720, 4982, on account of which 'the house' is also the Church, 3720, for the Church is the Church by virtue of good; and from the representation of 'Joseph' as the celestial of the spiritual, often dealt with already. From all this it is evident that 'the man brought the men to Joseph's house' means that truths in the natural were introduced into good coming from the celestial of the spiritual. The reason why a first introduction is meant is that at this point they merely ate with Joseph but did not recognize who he was. By this is meant a general joining together, which is a first introduction; for at this point there is a general inflow of truth from the Divine, but it is not recognized. When however a discernment of that inflowing truth does exist a second joining together is effected, and this is meant by Joseph revealing who he was to his brothers, dealt with further on in Chapter 45.