2163. 'Recline under the tree' means towards the perception of the state through which He was passing. This is clear from the meaning of 'a tree' as perception, dealt with in 103. The whole train of thought shows that this is the real meaning here. 'Trees' means perceptions, and the reason for this was that the celestial man was compared and likened to the paradise or garden in Eden, and therefore the perceptions of celestial things with that man to the trees that were there.

2987. REPRESENTATIONS AND CORRESPONDENCES

Few are aware of what representations and of what correspondences are. Nor can anyone know what they are unless he knows that there is a spiritual world and that this is distinct and separate from the natural world. For between spiritual things and natural things correspondences exist, and the manifestations of spiritual things within natural are representations. They are called correspondences because they correspond, and representations because they represent.