The Bible

 

Genesis 1:30

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30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.

Commentary

 

Six

  

Like most numbers in the Bible, "six" can have various meanings depending on context, but has a couple that are primary. When used in relation to time -- six days, six hours, six years, etc. -- six generally represents a state of labor, struggle and conflict, especially the conflict involved with spiritual growth. The six days of creation, for instance, represent the stages we go through in our lives, working toward the peaceful seventh day, in which our evil desires are removed from us and we can rest. In most other references, six represents all desires for good and all the true ideas that come from those desires for good -- or in the contrary sense, all evil and all the resulting false thinking.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #4047

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4047. Others also appeared overhead whose collective action, inflowing above the head, was passing in a crosswise manner from the front backwards, and others again whose inflowing action was passing from both temples towards the middle of the brain. I perceived that they were spirits who belonged to the province of the pia mater, which is another covering and which surrounds the cerebrum and cerebellum more closely and communicates with them by means of fine cords sent out from itself. I was allowed to know the character of these spirits from their speech, for they talked to me. They were the same as they had been in the world, in that they did not have much confidence in their own thinking, and so did not commit themselves to any definite thought about holy things, but relied on what others believed without testing it to see whether it was true. This particular nature of theirs was also shown to me by an influx of their perception into the Lord's Prayer when I was reciting it. For the particular natures of all spirits and angels, however many these may be, may be known from the Lord's Prayer - through the influx of the ideas comprising their thought and affections into the contents of that prayer. From this also I perceived that such was the particular nature of these spirits, and in addition that they were able to serve angels as intermediaries. For there are intermediate spirits between the heavens through whom communication is effected. Their ideas were not closed but capable of being opened, and so they permitted things to happen to them by allowing an easy entry to influx from the angels and welcoming it. What was more, those spirits were unassuming and peaceable; and they said they were in heaven.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.