In the Christmas story, the wise men bring gifts to the Lord: gold, frankincense and myrrh.

The gold is listed first, because it is the inmost - signifying good, e.g. the good that we do when we love the Lord and the neighbor.

The frankincense is next. It signifies rational truth, which is the set of true ideas that we know, not about external things like cars or cooking, but about what is really good, and what is really true.

These rational truths are built on earlier knowledges that we learn, before we have really made them our own. Those early knowledges about spiritual things - often learned in childhood - are represented by the myrrh.

In a way, these gifts are really a reciprocation. We can't actually give them to the Lord until the Lord has given them to us. We necessarily start out by learning and doing the Lord's law (myrrh). The Lord can then call up those memories to become rational truths (frankincense). Then, over time, and with effort, those truths can be transformed into good (gold). The wise men from the East had gone through this process of learning and becoming vessels that could receive truths and goods. They were able to perceive the Lord's birth, and find him, and bring gifts to him.

10291. 'Take for yourself sweet spices' means the affections for truth springing from good which must be present in the worship of God. This is clear from the meaning of 'spices' as perceptions of and affections for truth and good, dealt with in 10254. The reason why they are the ones that must be present in the worship of God is that 'the incense' that was made from them means the worship of God, which is the subject in what follows. The spices that are mentioned now are of an entirely different kind from the spices from which the anointing oil was prepared, which were the subject above in verses 23-24. Those too are called spices, though a different word is used in the original language. The spices from which the anointing oil was prepared mean perceptions of and affections for truth and good, in the same way as the present spices do; but the difference is that the earlier truths belong to the celestial group, whereas the later ones belong to the spiritual group. That those earlier truths belong to the celestial group may be seen in 10254; that these later ones belong to the spiritual group will be seen in what follows below.

[2] Something more must be stated briefly to show what belonging to the celestial group and belonging to the spiritual group imply. It has often been stated that heaven is divided into the celestial kingdom and the spiritual kingdom. The two kingdoms have different kinds of truth, as they do of good, the good of the celestial kingdom being the good of love to the Lord, and the good of the spiritual kingdom the good of charity towards the neighbour. All good has its own truths; celestial good has its own and spiritual good its own, and these are entirely different from each other. The nature of that difference becomes clear from what has been shown regarding both kingdoms in the places referred to in 9277.

[3] The reason why all good has its own truths is that good is given form by truths, see 10252, 10266, and also reveals itself through truths. Such good and truths are like a person's will and understanding, in that his will is given form by and also reveals itself through his understanding. What belongs to the will is called good, and what belongs to the understanding is called truth.