1001. There is a great deal of evidence for the symbolism of blood as neighborly love. ¹ As a result, blood symbolizes a new will that the spiritual person who has been reborn receives from the Lord. This new will is the same thing as neighborly love, because the new will is formed of that love. Charity — love — is the vital essence itself of the will, or the life of the will. The only possible reason for saying we will something is that we favor or love it. We might say we think something, but that is not the same as willing it, unless the will lies behind the thought.

This new will, which is neighborly love, is the blood. The new will is not ours but is the Lord's in us. And since it is the Lord's, it must never be mixed together with the promptings of our own will, which again are quite foul. That is why the representative church had this proscription against eating flesh in its soul, that is, in its blood, meaning that people were not to mix the two together.

[2] Because blood symbolized charity, it symbolized what was holy; and because flesh symbolized human will, it symbolized what was profane. Since the two, being opposites, are separate, people were forbidden to eat blood. The reason was that the eating of flesh together with blood in those days presented to heaven a picture of profanation, or the intermingling of something sacred and something profane. Such a picture could not help striking the angels of the time with horror. In those days, everything that was happening among members of the church was being turned into a corresponding spiritual representation among the angels, in accord with its inner-sense symbolism.

Since meanings always depend on the individual they apply to, so does the symbolism of blood. In relation to a regenerate spiritual person, blood symbolizes charity, or love for one's neighbor. In relation to a regenerate person of heavenly character, it symbolizes love for the Lord. In relation to the Lord, however, it symbolizes his core human essence and therefore Love itself, that is, his mercy toward the human race. Since blood, then, symbolizes love and anything connected with love, in general it symbolizes heavenly traits, which are the Lord's alone. So in relation to humans, it symbolizes heavenly qualities that we receive from the Lord. The heavenly qualities that a regenerate spiritual person receives from the Lord are heavenly-spiritual ones (discussed elsewhere, by the Lord's divine mercy). ²

[3] This fact — that blood symbolizes heavenly qualities and that in the highest sense it symbolized the Lord's core human essence and so love itself, or his mercy toward the human race — can be seen from the holiness that the representative Jewish religion was commanded to accord blood. On that account it was called the blood of the covenant and was spattered on the people. Along with the anointing oil, it was also spattered on Aaron and his sons. ³ And the blood of every burnt offering and sacrifice was spattered on and around the altar. On these subjects, see Exodus 12:7, 13, 22-23; 24:6, 8; Leviticus 1:5, 11, 15; 4:6-7, 17-18, 25, 30, 34; 5:9; 16:14-15, 18-19; Numbers 18:17; Deuteronomy 12:27. ⁴

[4] The reason the eating of blood was so strictly forbidden was that blood was considered this holy and human will is this profane, and the practice represented the profanation of something holy. Moses says, for instance:

It is an eternal statute throughout your generations, everywhere you live: you shall not eat any fat or any blood. (Leviticus 3:17)

Fat stands for heavenly life, and blood (in this verse) for heavenly-spiritual life.

(A heavenly-spiritual entity is something spiritual that develops out of something heavenly. For example, love for the Lord was the heavenly trait belonging to people in the earliest church, because it was planted in their will. Their heavenly-spiritual possession was the faith that grew out of it, as described in §§30-38, 337, 393, 398. With spiritual people, on the other hand, a heavenly attribute is not possible, since love for others is planted in their intellectual side; they can have only a heavenly-spiritual dimension.)

In the same author:

Any from the house of Israel or from among the immigrants residing in your midst who may have eaten any blood — I will set my face ⁵ against the souls eating blood, and I will cut them off from the midst of their people, because the soul of the flesh is in the blood. And I have given it to you [for use] on the altar, to make atonement over your souls, because the blood itself must atone for the soul. The soul of all flesh is its blood; everyone eating it will be cut off. (Leviticus 17:10-11, 14)

This says explicitly that the soul of flesh is in the blood and that the soul of flesh is the blood — the heavenly aspect, the sacred element, the Lord's possession.

[5] In the same author:

Set yourself firmly against eating blood, because the blood itself is the soul, and you shall not eat the soul with the flesh. (Deuteronomy 12:23, 24, 25)

These verses again show that blood is being called the soul, that is, heavenly life, or a heavenly quality, as represented by the burnt offerings and sacrifices of that religion. The prohibition in Exodus 23:18 and 34:25 against offering the blood of a sacrifice on top of yeast bread ⁶ also represented a ban on mingling any heavenly aspect, which belongs to the Lord — and only what belongs to him is heavenly and sacred — with any distinctly human aspect, which is profane. Anything containing yeast symbolized what was corrupt and tainted.

[6] The reason blood is called soul and symbolizes the holiness of charity, and the reason it represented the holiness of love in the Jewish religion, is that it constitutes the life of the body. Since blood constitutes the life of the body, it is the body's outermost soul, so that we can call it the physical soul, or the vehicle of our physical life. ⁷ And since external objects represented inner attributes in the representative churches, blood represented the soul, or heavenly life.

脚注:

1577. Please, let us not have strife between me and you means that there should be no discord between the two, as can be seen from previous statements. ¹

The subject of the harmony or union between the inner and the outer self involves more secrets than can ever be told. The inner and outer selves in any individual never become one, and never have been or will be able to. They can do so only in the Lord, which is why he came into the world.

When we have been reborn, it seems as though they exist united in us, but they are the Lord's. Anything harmonious is the Lord's, whereas anything discordant is ours.

[2] The inner self has two elements: a heavenly one and a spiritual one. These two elements form a single whole when the spiritual element comes from the heavenly one. To put the same thing another way, the inner self has two elements: goodness and truth. These two elements form a single whole when truth comes from goodness. Or to put it yet another way, the inner self has two elements: love and faith. These two elements form a single whole when faith comes from love. Or to put it yet again another way, the inner self has two elements: will and intellect. These two elements form a single whole when the intellect comes from the will.

The situation here can be grasped still more plainly by comparison with light from the sun. If light from the sun holds both warmth and illumination, as it does in springtime, it causes everything to grow and flourish. But if light from the sun holds no warmth, as it does in wintertime, it causes everything to droop and die.

[3] This shows what constitutes the inner self; what constitutes the outer self is evident as a consequence. Everything in the outer self is earthly. Our outer self is actually the same thing as our earthly self. Our inner self is said to unite with our outer self when the heavenly-spiritual dimension of the inner self exerts an influence on the earthly dimension of the outer self, causing them to join forces. The earthly dimension too becomes heavenly and spiritual as a result, but on a lower plane. Or, what is the same, the outer self too becomes heavenly and spiritual as a result, but in a more superficial way.

[4] The inner self and outer self are absolutely distinct from each other, because heavenly and spiritual stimuli are what affect the inner self, but earthly stimuli are what affect the outer self. However, even though they are distinct, they still become one, which they do when the heavenly-spiritual dimension of the inner self acts on the earthly dimension of the outer self and organizes it as its own.

Only in the Lord did the inner self become one with the outer. They have not become one in any other person except to the extent that the Lord has united and is uniting them. Love and charity, or goodness, is the only thing that unifies, and no love or charity at all — no goodness — exists unless it comes from the Lord.

This kind of union is what is aimed at in Abram's words here: "Please, let us not have strife between me and you, and between my herders and your herders; because we are men who are brothers."

[5] The case with the words between me and you, and between my herders and your herders is this: The inner self has two aspects, heavenly and spiritual, that form a unit, as noted. Just as the inner self has these aspects, the outer self does too. Its heavenly aspect is called earthly good, and its spiritual aspect is called earthly truth. Let us not have strife between me and you has to do with what is good, that is, with preventing good in the inner self from parting ways with good in the outer self. Let us not have strife between my herders and your herders has to do with truth, that is, with preventing truth in the inner self from parting ways with truth in the outer self.

脚注: