900. The symbolism of the second month as all the stages that precede rebirth can be seen from the symbolism of two in the Word. Two symbolizes the same thing as six, which is the fighting and hard work that come before rebirth. So here it means all the stages we go through before becoming regenerate.

The longest and shortest intervals in the Word are generally split in three or in seven and are called days, weeks, months, years, or "ages." ¹ Three and seven are holy; two and six, being just one less, are not holy but relatively profane, as shown before (§720).

Three and seven also mean something sacrosanct, each because of its connection with the Last Judgment, predicted as coming on the third or else the seventh day. ² Every person — both collectively and individually — has a last judgment when the Lord comes. There was a last judgment when the Lord came into the world. There will be a last judgment when he enters into his glory. There is a last judgment when he comes individually to each person. There is also a last judgment for each person who dies. This last judgment is the third day and the seventh day, which is holy for those who have lived good lives but unholy for those who have lived evil lives. Consequently, a third day and a seventh is predicted for those judged worthy of death and for those judged worthy of life, so that the numbers symbolize what is unholy for those with a verdict of death but what is holy for those with a verdict of life.

Two and six, the numbers just before three and seven, bear a relationship to them and symbolize in general every preceding stage. This is the meaning of the numbers two and six, and the meaning adapts to the subject at hand and to whatever the subject applies to, which the numbers describe.

All of this will become clearer from the discussion of the number twenty-seven in the next section.

Footnotes:

719. The symbolism of an animal that is not clean as negative emotions can be seen from statements made and supported above about clean animals [§§45-46, 142, 143, 246, 714-715].

The term clean applies to animals that are tame, well behaved, and useful. Unclean animals are the opposite: savage, evil, and useless. They come in different genera and species and in the Word are exemplified by wolves, bears, foxes, swine, and many others, symbolizing various types of craving and malice.

Why does this verse say that unclean animals — wicked feelings — were to be brought into the ark? The situation is this: The present passage is characterizing the people in this church in terms of the ark and its contents, that is, what was brought into it — in other words, what existed in those people before they were reborn. They did have the true ideas and good impulses that the Lord supplied and granted to them before they underwent regeneration, since without a fund of truth and goodness no one could ever regenerate. Here mention is made of the evil in them, symbolized by the unclean animals.

When we are being reborn, there are evils that have to be dispelled, or rather pried loose and tempered, by means of good. None of the evil that we have committed or inherited can ever be removed to the point of complete abolition. It lurks within and is merely loosened and mitigated by the good we receive from the Lord, to the point where it becomes harmless and invisible. This secret has not yet come into common knowledge.

It is the evil we have actually committed that relaxes its grip on us and softens, not so much the evil we have inherited. This too is a matter unknown.