4580. 'Jacob set up a pillar in the place where He talked to him, a stone pillar' means the holiness of truth within that Divine state. This is clear from the meaning of 'a pillar' as the holiness of truth, dealt with below, and from the meaning of 'in the place where He talked to him' as within that state, dealt with just above in 4578.

First, let something be said about the origin of erecting pillars in those times, of pouring out drink-offerings onto them, and of pouring wine onto them.

[2] The pillars which were erected in ancient times were set up to serve either as a sign, or as a witness, or for worship. Those set up for worship used to be anointed with oil and were thereby made holy; and in these places, people also held their worship - in temples, in groves, under trees in forests, and in other places. This practice of erecting pillars owed its representative nature to the fact that in most ancient times stones were set up on the boundaries between families of nations, to stop them crossing those boundaries to do one another any harm, as with the pillar set up by Laban and Jacob, Genesis 31:51. Not crossing them to do harm was the law of nations among those people. And because those stones were on the boundaries, whenever the most ancient people saw them as boundary stones they thought of the truths which exist in the ultimate degree of order; for those people saw in every object on earth the spiritual or celestial reality to which it corresponded. Their descendants however, who saw less of what was spiritual and celestial within the same objects and more of what was worldly, began to regard these in a holy way merely because they were objects venerated from of old. At length those descendants of the most ancient people who lived immediately before the Flood, and who no longer saw anything spiritual or celestial in earthly and worldly things as objects, began to make the actual stones holy, pouring out drink-offerings onto them and anointing them with oil. These were now called pillars and were used for worship. The position remained the same after the Flood - in the Ancient Church which was a representative Church - though with this difference, that pillars served these people as a means enabling them to offer internal worship. For infants and children were taught by parents what those pillars represented, and in this way they were led to know holy objects and to have an affection for the things which these represented. This explains why the ancients had pillars for worship in their temples, groves, and forests, also on hills and mountains.

[3] But once the internal existence of worship had perished completely in the Ancient Church and people began to regard external objects as being holy and Divine and in so doing began to worship those objects in an idolatrous manner, they erected pillars to particular deities. And because the descendants of Jacob were very inclined towards idolatrous practices, they were forbidden to erect pillars or have groves. They were not even allowed to offer any worship on mountains or hillsides, but were required to meet in one particular place - where the Ark was, and later on where the Temple stood, thus in Jerusalem. Otherwise each family would have had its own external objects and idols which it would have worshipped, and so no representative of the Church could have been established among that nation. See what has been shown already about pillars in 3727.

From all this one may see how the erecting of pillars originated, and what they were signs of, and that when they were used for worship, holy truth was represented by them, for which reason the expression 'a stone pillar' is also used, 'stone' meaning truth in the ultimate degree of order, 1298, 3720, 3769, 3771, 3773, 3789, 3798. It should be recognized in addition that holiness is a particular attribute of Divine Truth, for Divine Good exists within the Lord, while Divine Truth proceeds from that Good, 3704, 4577, and is called holiness.

2715. Two arcana exist here, the first being that, compared with the good of the celestial man, that of the spiritual man is obscure, the second that this obscurity is brightened by light from the Lord's Divine Human. As regards the first of these - that the good residing with the spiritual man is obscure compared with the celestial man's - this may be seen from what has been stated above in 2708 about the state of the spiritual man in comparison with that of the celestial man. From a comparison of the two states the fact of that obscurity is quite evident. With those who are celestial good itself exists implanted in the will part of their mind, and from there light enters the understanding part. But with those who are spiritual the whole of the will part is corrupted, so that they have no good at all from there, and therefore the Lord implants good in the understanding part of their mind, see 863, 875, 895, 927, 928, 1023, 1043, 1044, 2124, 2256. The will part is, in the main, the part of man's mind that possesses life, whereas the understanding part receives life from the will. Since therefore the will part in the case of the spiritual man is so corrupted as to be nothing but evil, and yet evil is flowing in from there unceasingly and constantly into the understanding part, that is, into his thought, it is clear that the good there is obscure compared with the celestial man's good.

[2] As a consequence those who are spiritual do not have love to the Lord, as those who are celestial do; nor therefore does that humility exist with them which is essential in all worship and by means of which good can flow in from the Lord; for a heart that is haughty is not at all receptive, only one that is humble. Nor do those who are spiritual have love towards the neighbour, as those who are celestial do, because self-love and love of the world are constantly flowing in from the will part of their mind, bringing obscurity into the good that goes with that love towards the neighbour. This may also become clear to one who reflects from the fact that when he helps another he does so for worldly reasons; thus though he may not consciously have it in mind he is nevertheless thinking about what he will get in return either from those he helps or in the next life from the Lord, which being so his good is still defiled with merit-seeking. It may also become clear to him from the fact that when he has done anything good and is able to speak about it to others and so set himself up above others, he is in his element. But those who are celestial love the neighbour more than they love themselves, and do not ever think about repayment or in any way set themselves up above others.

[3] The good residing with those who are spiritual is in addition made obscure by persuasive beliefs that are the product of various assumptions, which likewise have their origin in self-love and love of the world. For the nature of their persuasive beliefs even in matters of faith, see 2682, 2689 (end). This too is a product of the influx of evil from the will part of their mind.

[4] It may in addition become clear that the good residing with the spiritual man is obscure compared with the celestial man's, from the fact that he does not know what truth is, as those who are celestial do, from any perception. Instead he knows what truth is from what he has learned from parents and teachers, and also from the doctrine into which he was born. And when he adds to this anything from himself and from his own thinking, it is for the most part the senses and the illusions of the senses, also the rational and the appearances present within the rational, that predominate, and these make it barely possible for him to acknowledge any pure truth like that acknowledged by those who are celestial. But in spite of this, within things that are seemingly true the Lord implants good, even though these truths are mere illusions or else appearances of truth. But this good is made obscure by such truths, for it derives its specific nature from the truths to which it is joined. It is like the light of the sun falling upon objects. The nature of the objects receiving the light causes the light to be seen within those objects in the form of colours, which are beautiful if the nature of the recipient form and the manner of its receiving are fitting and correspondent, hideous if the nature of the recipient form and the manner of its receiving are not fitting and so not correspondent. In the same way good itself acquires a specific nature from the truth [to which it is joined].

[5] The same arcanum is also evident from the fact that the spiritual man does not know what evil is. He scarcely believes that any other evils exist than actions contrary to the Ten Commandments. Of evils present in affection and thought, which are countless, he has no knowledge nor does he reflect on them or call them evils. All delights whatever that go with evil desires and pleasures he does not regard as other than good; and the actual delights that are part of self-love he both pursues, approves of, and excuses, without knowing that such things have an effect on his spirit and that he becomes altogether such in the next life.

[6] From this it is in a similar way clear that although the whole of the Word deals with scarcely any other matter than the good which goes with love to the Lord and love towards the neighbour, the spiritual man does not know that that good is the sum and substance of faith, nor even what the essential nature of love and charity is. It is also clear that though something which is a matter of faith may be known to him - faith being considered by him to be essential in itself - he nevertheless discusses whether it is true, unless he has been confirmed by much experience of life. Those who are celestial do not discuss the same because they know and have a perception that it is true hence the Lord's statement in Matthew,

Let your words be, Yes, yes; No, no; anything beyond this is from evil. ¹ Matthew 5:37.

For those who are celestial are immersed in the truth itself about which those who are spiritual dispute. Consequently because those who are celestial are immersed in the truth itself, they are able to see from it numberless facets of that truth, and so from light to see so to speak heaven in its entirety. But those who are spiritual, because they dispute whether it is true, cannot - so long as they do so - arrive at the remotest boundary of the light existing with those who are celestial, let alone behold anything from their light.

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