581. For their tails were like unto serpents, and had heads.- That this signifies that they reason craftily from sensual scientifics, which are fallacies, is evident from the signification of tails, here the tails of horses, as denoting the scientifics which are called sensual, because they are the ultimates of the understanding (see above, n. 559); and from the signification of serpents, as denoting the craftiness of the sensual man, of which in what follows; and from the signification of having heads, as denoting to reason by means of those scientifics. For the head signifies intelligence, therefore to have a head signifies to be intelligent. Reasoning by means of those scientifics, is meant, because "head," when used in reference to the sensual man, signifies knowledge (scientia), and illusory thought thence, as may be seen above (n.577:2), consequently also reasoning by means of sensual scientifics. From these things it is evident that by the tails of the horses being like serpents, and having heads, is signified, that they reason craftily from sensual scientifics, which are fallacies. It is said, that they are fallacies, because sensual scientifics become fallacies when man reasons from them concerning spiritual things; as for example, that dignities and wealth are real blessings; that the glory possessed by the great in the world is heavenly blessedness; and that the Lord desires adoration from man for the sake of His own glory; with other things of a similar nature, and these are fallacies, when they are applied to spiritual things. For the sensual man, not being endued with intelligence, thus thinks, for he cannot possibly know otherwise.

[2] That serpents, in the Word, signify the craftiness and prudence of the sensual man, is evident from the following passages. In Moses:

"The serpent was more subtle than any wild beast of the field which Jehovah God had made" (Genesis 3:1).

Here the serpent does not mean a serpent, but the sensual man, and in a general sense, the Sensual itself, which is the ultimate of the human understanding. The man and his wife, signify the Most Ancient Church, which fell away when the men of that Church began to reason concerning Divine things from sensual scientifics, and such reasoning is signified by their eating of the tree of knowledge (scientia); their craftiness in reasoning concerning Divine things from the Sensual, is described by the reasoning of the serpent with the wife of Adam, by which they were deceived. The reason why the serpent was said to be more subtle than any wild beast of the field, is that it is poisonous, and its bite therefore deadly, and that it conceals itself in hiding places. Poison signifies craft and treachery, and thence the bite of the serpent, deadly hurt; and the lurking places from which it bites, and in which it conceals itself, signify craftiness.

[3] It must be observed, that all beasts signify affections pertaining to man, and serpents signify the affections of the sensual man, because they move over the ground upon the belly just like the Sensual of man, for this is in the lowest place, and as it were creeps upon the ground beneath the rest [of the faculties]. Sensual men also, in the spiritual world, dwell in the lower parts, for they cannot be elevated towards the higher, since they are in externals, and form their judgments and conclusions about everything from externals. The evil also, who are in the hells, are mostly sensual, and many of them crafty, wherefore when they are seen from the light of heaven, they appear like serpents of various kinds, and hence it is, that the devil is called a serpent. The reason why the infernals are also crafty, is, that evil conceals in itself every kind of craftiness and cunning, just as good conceals every kind of prudence and wisdom. More may be seen upon this subject in Heaven and Hell 576-581), where the cunning and wicked arts of infernal spirits are treated of.

[4] Hence now it is that the devil or hell is called a serpent in the following passages.

In the Apocalypse:

"The dragon, the old serpent, called the devil, and satan, which deceiveth the whole world" (12:9, 14, 15; 20:2).

And in David:

"They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent; the poison of an asp is under their lips" (Psalm 140:3).

These words signify their crafty and treacherous deception.

Again:

"Their poison is like the poison of a serpent," (Psalm 58:4).

And in Job:

"He shall suck the poison of asps; the viper's tongue shall slay him" (20:16).

And in Isaiah:

"They hatched eggs of an asp, and wove the spider's web; he that eateth of their eggs dieth, and when any one crusheth it there breaketh out a viper" (59:5).

This is said of evil men, who by treachery and craft seduce others in spiritual things. The secret evils to which they allure by their craftiness, are signified by the eggs of the asp, which they are said to hatch; their treacherous falsities are signified by the spider's web which they are said to weave; the deadly hurt which they cause if they are received, is signified by "he that eateth of their eggs dieth, and when any one crusheth it there breaketh out a viper."

[5] Because the Pharisees were of such a character, therefore they are called by the Lord, "serpents, a generation of vipers" (Matthew 23:33). That the craftiness and cunning of such could inflict no injury upon those whom the Lord protects, is signified by the following words in Isaiah:

"The sucking child shall play on the hole of the viper, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the basilisk's den" (11:8).

The sucking child and the weaned child in these words signify those who are in the good of innocence, that is, those who are in love to the Lord. The hole of the viper and the den of the basilisk mean hells where treacherous and crafty spirits are, and the entrances into them also appear like dusky holes, and within, like dens.

[6] That the craftiness and cunning of infernal spirits should not hurt those whom the Lord protects, is also signified by the words of the Lord, that He would give them power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy (Luke 10:19); also that they should take up serpents; and if they drank any deadly thing, it should not hurt them (Mark 16:18). To tread on serpents, signifies to despise and make light of the treacheries, craft, and wicked arts of the infernal crew; therefore it is also said, "and over all the power of the enemy," the enemy denoting the infernal crew, and his power, craftiness.

[7] The cunning and craftiness of infernal spirits, who are called collectively the devil and satan, are also meant by serpents in the following passages.

Thus in Moses:

Jehovah God "led thee through that great and terrible wilderness, of the serpent, the fiery flying serpent, and scorpion" (Deuteronomy 8:15).

The journeyings of the sons of Israel in the wilderness, represented, and thence signified, the temptations of the faithful; the infestations which then take place from the hells by means of evil spirits and genii, are signified by the serpents, fiery flying serpents, and scorpions.

[8] Again in Isaiah:

"Rejoice not thou, whole Philisthea, that the rod of him that smote thee is broken; for out of the serpent's root shall come forth a basilisk, and his fruit shall be a fiery flying serpent" (14:29).

Philisthea here signifies faith separated from charity; the turning aside of many by the deceptive arguments by which that faith is confirmed, is signified by out of the serpent's root shall come forth a basilisk, and his fruit shall be a flying fiery serpent.

Again in Jeremiah:

"Behold, I send serpents, basilisks, among you, which will not be charmed, and they shall bite you" (8:17).

Again:

"The voice thereof shall go like a serpent" (46:22).

And in Amos:

"Though they be hid from my sight in the bottom of the sea, thence will I command the serpent, and he shall bite them" (9:3).

Craftiness is also signified in Isaiah by "Leviathan, that crooked serpent" (27:1).

[9] That serpents, in the Word, signify the craft, and also the prudence of sensual men, is evident from the words of the Lord in Matthew:

"Be ye prudent (wise) as serpents, and harmless as doves" (10:16).

Those who are in good are called prudent, and those who are in evil, are called crafty, for prudence is of truth from good, and craftiness is of falsity from evil; and since these words were spoken to those who were in truths from good, therefore by serpents, in this place, is meant prudence. Because the craftiness of the evil is diabolical, therefore those who practise it are said to eat the dust.

[10] Thus in Moses:

It was said to the serpent," Thou art cursed above every beast, and above every wild beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life" (Genesis 3:14).

And in Isaiah:

"Dust shall be the serpent's bread" (Isaiah 65:2 5).

And in Micah:

"They shall lick the dust like a serpent" (7:17).

Dust signifies what is cursed; and going upon the belly signifies the Sensual, which is the ultimate of the life of man; and since it is the ultimate of the life, it therefore does not possess intelligence and wisdom, but craft and cunning, which are contrary to intelligence and wisdom.

[11] Again, in Moses:

"Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an arrow-serpent on the path, biting the horse's heels, and its rider shall fall backwards" (Genesis 49:17).

No one can know the signification of this prophecy concerning Dan unless he understand the signification of a horse and its heels, and also of a serpent. A horse signifies the understanding of truth, and a rider, intelligence; a serpent signifies the Sensual, which is the ultimate of the intellectual life; the heels of a horse signify truths in ultimates, which are sensual scientifics. That the Sensual, by reasonings from fallacies, hurts the understanding and leads it astray, is signified by the serpent biting the heels of the horse, and the horseman falling backwards. These things are said concerning Dan, because the tribe named after him was the last of the tribes, and therefore signified the ultimates of truth and good, consequently the ultimates of the church, as may be seen in Arcana Coelestia 1710, 3923, 6396, 10335), where this prophecy is explained.

[12] The Sensual, which is the ultimate of the intellectual life, is also signified by the crooked serpent, in Isaiah (27:1); Job (26:13); also by the serpent into which the rod of Moses was turned (Exodus 4:3, 4; 7:9-12); see in the Arcana Coelestia 6949, 7293). The sensual things also, which are the ultimates of the life of man, are signified by "the fiery flying serpents" sent amongst the people, who desired to return to Egypt; but the healing of the wound made by such serpents by the Divine Sensual of the Lord, is signified by the "brazen serpent," placed upon a pole, at the sight of which they revived (Num. 21:5-9). It is said the Divine Sensual of the Lord, because the Lord, when in the world, glorified, that is made Divine, His whole Human, even to the ultimate thereof, as is evident from this fact, that He left nothing in the sepulchre, and that He said unto His disciples, that He had flesh and bones, which a spirit had not (Luke 24:39). The ultimate Sensual, which the Lord also glorified or made Divine, is signified by the brazen serpent set upon a pole, of which the Lord Himself thus spoke in John:

"As Moses lifted up the serpent, even so must the Son of man be lifted up; that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life" (3:14, 15).

The Lord was represented by this sign before the Israelitish and Jewish people, because they were utterly sensual, and the sensual man cannot raise his thought, when directed to the Lord, beyond and above the Sensual. For every one looks at the Lord according to the elevation of his understanding; the spiritual man looks to the Divine Rational, and so on. It is evident from these considerations, that the brazen serpent also signifies the Sensual, but the glorified or Divine Sensual of the Lord.

559. And they had tails like unto scorpions.- That this signifies sensual scientifics, which are persuasive, is evident from the signification of tails, as denoting sensual scientifics, concerning which in what follows; and from the signification of scorpions, as denoting things persuasive, infatuating, and suffocating (see above, n. 544). Hence tails like unto scorpions signify sensual scientifics, which are persuasive. Tails signify sensual scientifics, because the tails which the animals of the earth have, are continuations of the spine of the back, which is called the spinal marrow, and this is a continuation of the brain, and the brain like the head, signifies intelligence and wisdom, because intelligence and wisdom reside there in their beginnings, and because tails are the ultimates of it, they signify sensual scientifics, for these are the ultimates of intelligence and wisdom.

[2] Sensual scientifics are those scientifics which enter from the world through the five senses of the body, and hence, viewed in themselves, are material, corporeal, and worldly, as compared with those which are more interior. All those who are in the love of self, and have confirmed themselves against Divine and spiritual things, are sensual men, and when they think in their spirit, as is the case when they are left to themselves, they think concerning things Divine and spiritual things from sensual scientifics, and therefore they reject Divine and spiritual things as not worthy of belief, because they do not see them with their eyes, or touch them with their hands, and they apply their own scientifics, which they have made sensual and material, for the purpose of destroying them.

Take for example, learned men of this kind who are skilled in natural philosophy, anatomy, botany, and the other branches of human learning; when such persons see the wonderful things that exist in the animal and vegetable kingdoms, they say in their hearts that all these things are from nature, and not from the Divine, because they believe in nothing but what they can see with their eyes, and touch with their hands. For they cannot raise their minds, and thus see those things from the light of heaven, this light being thick darkness to them, but they keep their minds fixed on earthly things, almost like the animals of the earth, with which they also compare themselves. In a word, with such persons, all knowledges (scientiae) become sensual. For as is the man himself, such are all things pertaining to his understanding and will. If the man is spiritual, all things become spiritual; if he is only natural, all things become natural and not spiritual; if he is sensual, all things become sensual, and this is the case, however learned and scholarly he may appear to be before the world. But since all men have the faculty of understanding truths and perceiving goods, they are able to speak, by virtue of this faculty, as though they were spiritual-rational, but still they are sensual as to the spirit, for when such persons speak before the world, they do so not from the spirit, but from the memory which pertains to the body. These things are stated in order that it may be known what sensual scientifics are.

[3] The reason why these are exceedingly persuasive is, that they are the ultimates of the understanding; for the understanding terminates therein, as in its ultimates, and these captivate the vulgar, because they are appearances arising from such things as they see with their eyes in the world; and as long as the thought adheres in them, the mind cannot be disposed to think interiorly or above them, until they are removed. For the interior things of the mind all terminate in ultimates, and rest upon them as a house upon its foundation, wherefore [sensual scientifics] are exceedingly persuasive, but only in the case of those whose minds cannot be elevated above sensual things. But with those who are in the light of heaven from the Lord, the mind is elevated above these things, and the light of heaven dissipates them. Spiritual men therefore rarely think from sensual things, for they think from things rational and intellectual, while sensual men, who have confirmed themselves in falsities against things divine and spiritual, think only from things sensual when they are left to themselves.

[4] That tails signify sensual scientifics, is evident from the following passages.

Thus in Isaiah:

"Jehovah will cut off from Israel head and tail, branch and rush. The old man and honourable, he is the head; but the prophet that teacheth lies, he is the tail" (9:14, 15).

These words mean that all intelligence and wisdom are about to perish, and all the knowledge (scientia) of truth. By the head are signified intelligence and wisdom, therefore it is said, "the old man and honourable, he is the head," for an old man signifies the intelligence of truth, and the honourable, the wisdom of good. But by the tail is signified sensual knowledge (scientificum), which is the ultimate of intelligence and wisdom; when this is not conjoined with spiritual intelligence, it becomes false knowledge, or knowledge applied to confirm falsities, which is sensual knowledge like that of the sensual man, who sees nothing from the understanding. Hence the prophet that teacheth a lie is called the tail; for a prophet signifies the doctrine of truth, and therefore the knowledge (scientia) of truth, but in this case the doctrine and knowledge (scientia) of falsity. For a lie signifies falsity, and the teacher of a lie, him who teaches falsity by applying scientifics from the sense of the letter of the Word to confirm falsities.

[5] Again, in the same prophet:

"Neither shall there be any work for Egypt, which may make the head and tail, branch and rush" (19:15).

Here Egypt signifies the knowledge (scientia) of both spiritual and natural things. By there being no work for it which may make the head and tail, is signified, that it possesses neither spiritual things, nor natural things that confirm the spiritual, the head there denoting the cognitions of spiritual things by means of which comes intelligence, and the tail denoting natural scientifics, which are serviceable to spiritual things as means of intelligence. Similar things are signified by the branch and the rush, the branch denoting spiritual truth, and the rush, the sensual scientific, which is ultimate truth; for if the prior and the posterior, or the first and ultimate, do not make one in man, then he has not the head and the tail.

[6] So in Moses:

"Thus Jehovah shall make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath, if that thou hearken unto the commandments of thy God" (Deuteronomy 28:13).

"To make the head" signifies to make [a man] spiritual and intelligent, so that he may be elevated out of the light of the world into the light of heaven; and to make the tail, denotes to make [a man] sensual and foolish, so that he looks not to heaven but to the world; therefore it is said, "and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath." To be above denotes to be elevated by the Lord so as to look to heaven, and to be beneath denotes not to be elevated by the Lord, but from self, and man from self looks only to the world. For the interiors of man which pertain to thought and affection are raised to heaven by the Lord, when he is in good of life and thence in truths of doctrine, but if he is in evil of life, and consequently in falsities, then lower things look downwards, thus only to his own body and to such things as are in the world, and thus to hell, whence he puts off the nature which is truly human, and puts on the nature of a beast; for beasts look downwards, and to such things only as they meet with in the world and upon the earth. Elevation into the light of heaven by the Lord is an actual elevation of the interiors of man to the Lord, and depression or casting down to such things as are beneath and outside of the eyes, is an actual depression and casting down of the interiors, and when this is the case, then all the thought of his spirit is immersed in the ultimate Sensual.

[7] Again, in Moses:

"The sojourner who is in the midst of thee shall ascend high above thee more and more, but thou shalt descend downwards more and more. He shall lend to thee, but thou shalt not lend to him; he shall be the head, but thou shalt be the tail" (Deuteronomy 28:43, 44).

These words must be similarly understood. To be the head signifies to be spiritual and intelligent, and to be the tail signifies to be sensual and foolish; therefore it is also said, "he shall lend to thee, but thou shalt not lend to him," by which is signified, that he shall teach thee truths, but thou shalt not teach him.

[8] So in Isaiah:

"Say unto him, Take heed, and be quiet; fear not, neither be fainthearted, for the two tails of smoking fire-brands, for the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria, and of the son of Remaliah" (7:4).

Rezin and Syria signify the Rational perverted, and the son of Remaliah the king of Israel, also called Ephraim, signifies the Intellectual perverted. It is the Intellectual in relation to the Word that is signified by the king of Israel and by Ephraim, while it is the Rational in relation to confirmatory knowledges (scientiae) that is signified by Rezin and Syria. For a man must have a Rational in order that he may understand the Word. When these two are perverted, they look only downwards to the earth, and outward to the world, as sensual men do who are in the falsities of evil; therefore they are called tails. A smoking fire-brand signifies the lust (concupiscentia) of falsity, and thence wrath against the truths and goods of the church.

[9] So again, in Moses:

"Jehovah said unto Moses, Put forth thy hand, and take the serpent by the tail. And he put forth his hand, and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand" (Exodus 4:4).

That here also by tail is meant the Sensual, which is the ultimate of the natural, may be seen in the Arcana Coelestia 6951-6955). Since tails signify the ultimates of intelligence and wisdom, which are sensual scientifics, and since all the details of the sacrifices signified celestial and spiritual Divine things, therefore also it was commanded that they should remove the tail near the spine of the back, and also should sacrifice it with other parts there mentioned (Leviticus 3:9; 8:25; 9:19; Exodus 29:22). That the burnt-offerings and sacrifices signified celestial and spiritual Divine things, which are the internals of the church, and from which worship is performed, may be seen in the Arcana Coelestia 2180, 2805, 2807, 2830, 3519, 6905, 8936). Because tails signify sensual scientifics, which, when separated from interior things which are spiritual - that is, when they do not with the interiors, look inwards and upwards, but outwards and downwards - signify falsities confirmed by scientifics, therefore also in the following parts of the Apocalypse, where falsities from that source are treated of, it is said that the tails of the horses seen in the vision were like serpents, having heads with which they do hurt (9:19); and afterwards that the dragon drew with his tail the third part of the stars of heaven, and cast them upon the earth (12:3, 4). These things may be seen explained below.