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:

5686. 'His brother, his mother's son' means the internal born from the natural as its mother. This is clear from the representation of Benjamin, to whom 'brother' and 'mother's son' refer here, as the internal, dealt with in 5469. And since this is the intermediary it comes into being from the celestial of the spiritual, represented by 'Joseph', as its father, and from the natural as its mother; for it must have its beginning in both these if it is to serve as an intermediary. So this is what is meant by the internal born from the natural as its mother. Also because the celestial of the spiritual, which is 'Joseph', had come into being in a similar way from the natural as its mother, but from the Divine as its father, 'Benjamin' is therefore called, as he was in actual fact by birth, 'his brother, his mother's son'; and in what immediately follows he is also addressed as 'son'. The name 'brother' is used by the Lord, who is meant here in the highest sense by 'Joseph', to refer to everyone who has any good of charity which he has received from the Lord. He is also referred to as 'his mother's son', but in this case 'mother' is used to mean the Church.