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.

9736. 'And the poles shall be on the two sides of the altar' means the power of the good from which truth springs, and that of the truth which springs from the good. This is clear from the meaning of 'the poles' as power, as immediately above; and from the meaning of 'the two sides' as the good from which truth springs, and the truth that springs from the good, thus a marriage of good to truth and of truth to good. The reason for this is that things on the right side in a human being have connection with the good from which truth springs, and those on the left side with the truth that springs from the good, see 9604, and that by their being joined together the marriage of good and truth is therefore meant, 9495. So it is then that like things are meant by 'the sides of the altar' where the poles went; for all representatives on the natural level resemble the human form and have the same meaning as the parts of it they resemble, 9496.