8156. 'All Pharaoh's chariot-horses, and his horsemen, and his army' means everything composing the falsity belonging to a perverted understanding. This is clear from the meaning of 'horses' as the power of understanding, dealt with in 2761, 2762, 3217, 5321, 7024, 8029, at this point a perverted understanding, such as that which exists in people who are steeped in evil, and in falsity arising from it; from the meaning of 'chariots' as doctrinal teachings, dealt with in 2760, 5321, 5945, 8146; from the meaning of 'horsemen' as things connected with the understanding, dealt with in 6534, at this point false reasonings belonging to a perverted understanding; and from the meaning of 'army' as falsities, dealt with above in 8138. From all these meanings it is evident that 'Pharaoh's chariot-horses, and his horsemen, and his army' means the factual knowledge, reasonings, and falsities belonging to a perverted understanding, thus everything composing the falsity there.

8029. From what has been mentioned several times already about a person's state after death it is clear that those who go straight to heaven when they enter the next life are few. Instead people stay for some time beneath heaven, in order that the defilements of earthly and bodily kinds of love, which they have brought with them from the world, may be wiped away, and in that way they may be prepared and enabled to be integrated among angels. This kind of experience is undergone by people belonging to all planets. That is to say, after death they are first below heaven among spirits; but subsequently, when they have undergone preparation, they become angels. I was allowed to see what happened when spirits belonging to that planet became angels. Bright horses as if of fire appeared, and these took them away in the same manner as Elijah was taken, the bright horses as if of fire serving to mean an enlightened understanding. In the Word horses mean the power of understanding, see 2760-2762, 3217, 5321, 6125, 6534; and 'the fiery horses' and 'the fiery chariots' that took Elijah away mean an understanding of the inner contents of the Word, 2761.