In general, men are driven by intellect and women by affections, and because of this men in the Bible generally represent knowledge and truth and women generally represent love and the desire for good. This generally carries over into marriage, where the man's growing knowledge and understanding and the woman's desire to be good and useful are a powerful combination. In many cases in the Bible, then, "husband" refers to things of truth and understanding, much as "man" does. Magnificent things can happen in a true marriage, though, when both partners are looking to the Lord. If a husband opens his heart to his wife, it's as though she can implant her loves inside him, transforming his intellectual urges into a love of growing wise. She in turn can grow in her love of that blooming wisdom, and use it for joy in their married life and in their caring for children and others in their life. Many couples, even in heaven, stay in that state -- called "Spiritual" -- growing deeper and deeper to eternity. There is the potential, though, for the couple to be transformed: through the nurturing love of his wife the husband can pass from a love of growing wise to an actual love of wisdom itself, and the wife can be transformed from the love of her husband's wisdom into the wisdom of that love -- the actual expression of the love of the Lord they have built together. In that state -- called "Celestial" -- the husband represents love and the desire for good, and the wife represents truth and knowledge.

441. It has been shown that "the tribe of Asher" signifies charity towards the neighbor, which is the spiritual internal itself of those who are in the second or middle heaven, and that "the tribe of Manasseh" signifies the good of life, which is the spiritual external that flows from their spiritual internal; while temptation, which is signified by "the tribe of Naphtali," is the uniting medium, for the internal and external are united by means of temptations. This makes clear what these three tribes involve in their order. It is to be known, that there must be with man and with angel, that they may be in heaven, both an internal and an external in accord with each other. It is impossible for anyone to be in only one of these and be in heaven; that is, in the internal only or in the external only; for the internal is like the soul, and the external like the body; the soul can effect nothing except by means of the body, nor can the body effect anything except from the soul; so the internal, unless the external corresponds or is correspondently concordant, lies powerless and as it were lifeless, for there must be an external in ¹ and through which the internal must work, as the soul works in and through its body; likewise the external, unless there is an internal corresponding to it, lies as if dead, for there must be an internal from which the external must work. This has been said to make known that "Asher" signifies the internal, and "Manasseh" the corresponding external; as also above, "Judah" signifies the internal, and "Gad" the corresponding external. ² It is similar in everything; therefore in man there is an internal and an external, an internal called his spiritual, and an external called his natural, one conjoining itself with the other by correspondences; therefore of what quality the one is such is the other, and everything that does not make one with the other by correspondences is dissipated and perishes.

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