5146. And in the uppermost basket. That this signifies the inmost of the will part, is evident from the signification of a “basket” as being the will part (of which above, n. 5144); and from the signification of “the uppermost,” as being the inmost (n. 2148, 3084, 4599). The reason why the “uppermost” denotes the inmost is that with man who is in space, interior things appear as higher things, and exterior things as lower ones; but when the idea of space is put off, as is the case in heaven and also in the interior thought of man, there is then put off the idea of what is high and what is low; for height and depth come from the idea of space. Nay, in the interior heaven there is no idea of things interior and exterior, because something of space adheres to this idea also; but there is the idea of more perfect or more imperfect state; for interior things are in a more perfect state than exterior ones, because interior things are nearer the Divine, and exterior things are more remote from it. This is the reason why what is uppermost signifies what is inmost.

[2] Nevertheless no one can apprehend what the interior is relatively to the exterior unless he knows how the case stands with degrees (in regard to which see above, n. 3691, 4154, 5114, 5145). Man has no other conception of what is interior and hence more perfect than as of what is purer in continual diminution; but the purer and the grosser are possible in one and the same degree, both according to the expansion and the contraction, and according to the determinations, and also according to the insertions of things homogeneous or heterogeneous. As such an idea prevails about the interior of man, it is quite impossible to avoid the notion that the exteriors are continuously coherent with the interiors, and thus act with them absolutely as a one. But if a genuine idea about degrees is formed, it is then possible to see how the interiors and the exteriors are distinct from one another, and that they are so distinct that the interiors can come into existence and subsist without the exteriors, but by no means the exteriors without the interiors. It is also then possible to see how the case stands with the correspondence of the interiors in the exteriors, and also how the exteriors can represent the interiors. This is the reason why the learned can treat hypothetically only of the interaction between the soul and the body; nay, this is also the reason why many of them believe life to be in the body, so that when the body dies, they believe that they will die as to the interiors also, on account of the coherence of these with the body, when yet it is only the exterior degree that dies, the interior then surviving and living.

4599. And spread his tent beyond the tower of Eder. That this signifies the interior things thereof, is evident from the signification of “spreading a tent,” as being the advancement of what is holy, here toward interior things (that a “tent” denotes what is holy may be seen above, n. 414, 1102, 2145, 2152, 3312, 4391); from the signification of “beyond the tower,” as being into interior things (of which in what follows); and from the signification of “Eder,” as being the quality of the state, namely, of the advancement of what is holy toward interior things. From ancient times this tower had this signification, but as it is mentioned nowhere else in the Word, except in Joshua 15:21, this cannot be confirmed from parallel passages, as is the case with other names. The reason why “beyond the tower” denotes toward interior things, is that the things which are interior are expressed by things lofty and high, thus by mountains, hills, towers, the roofs of houses, and the like. The reason is, that to minds which derive their ideas from the natural things of the world through the external senses, interior things appear as higher (n. 2148).

[2] That “towers” signify interior things may be seen also from other passages in the Word, as in Isaiah:

My well beloved had a vineyard in a horn of the son of oil, which he fenced round and cleared of stones, and planted it with a noble vine, and built a tower in the midst of it (Isaiah 5:1-2).

The “vineyard” denotes the spiritual church; the “noble vine,” spiritual good; the “tower built in the midst of it,” the interior things of truth. In like manner also in the Lord’s parable in Matthew:

A man a householder planted a vineyard, and set a hedge about it, and digged a winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen. (Matthew 21:33; Mark 12:1).

[3] In Ezekiel:

The sons of Arvad and thine army were upon thy walls round about, and the Gammadim were in thy towers, they hung their shields upon thy walls round about; these have perfected thy beauty (Ezekiel 27:11);

treating of Tyre, by which are signified the knowledges of good and truth, or those who are in these knowledges; the “Gammadim in its towers” denote the knowledges of interior truth.

[4] In Micah:

Jehovah shall reign over them in Mount Zion from now and to eternity; and thou tower of the flock, the hill of the daughter of Zion, unto thee shall it come, and the former kingdom shall return, the kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem (Micah 4:7-8); where is described the Lord’s celestial kingdom; its inmost which is love to the Lord, by “Mount Zion;” its derivative which is mutual love, by the “hill of the daughter of Zion,” which love in the spiritual sense is called charity toward the neighbor; its interior truths of good by the “tower of the flock;” that from this comes the spiritual of the celestial kingdom is signified by the “kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem.”

In David:

Let Mount Zion be glad, let the daughters of Judah exult because of Thy judgments; encompass ye Zion, and gird it around, count the towers thereof (Psalms 48:11-12); where the “towers” denote the interior truths which defend what is of love and charity.

[5] In Luke:

Whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after Me, cannot be My disciple; for which of you, desiring to build a tower, sitteth not down first and counteth the cost, whether he have wherewith to complete it? Or what king, going to make war with another king, doth not first sit down and consult whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand (Luke 14:27-28, 31, 33);

he who does not know the internal sense of the Word must suppose that the Lord here spoke by comparisons, and that by building a tower and making war nothing further is meant, not knowing that all the comparisons in the Word are significative and representative, and that “to build a tower” is to procure for one’s self interior truths, and that “to make war” is to combat from these; for the subject here treated of is the temptations undergone by those who are of the church, and who are here called the Lord’s “disciples.” These temptations are signified by the “cross” which they must carry; and that they by no means conquer from themselves or from what is their own, but from the Lord, is signified by “whosoever renounceth not all that he hath, he cannot be My disciple.” Thus do all these things cohere; whereas if the things that are related of the tower and the war are understood only comparatively, without an interior sense, they do not cohere. From this it is manifest what light there is from the internal sense.

[6] The interiors of those who are in the love of self and the world, thus the falsities from which they combat, and by which they confirm their religiosity, are also expressed in the opposite sense by “towers,” as in Isaiah:

The loftiness of men shall be brought low, and Jehovah Zebaoth shall be exalted above everyone proud and high, and upon everyone that is lifted up, and he shall be humbled; and upon all the cedars of Lebanon that are high and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of Bashan, and upon all the high mountains, and upon all the hills that are lifted up, and upon every lofty tower, and upon every fortified wall (Isaiah 2:11-15); where the interiors and the exteriors of these loves are described by the “cedars,” “oaks,” “mountains,” “hills,” “tower,” and “wall” (interior falsities by the “tower”), thus also interior things by those which are high, with the difference that they who are in evils and falsities believe themselves high and above others, but they who are in goods and truths believe themselves less and below others (Matthew 20:26-27; Mark 10:44). Nevertheless goods and truths are described by high things, because in heaven they are nearer the Highest, that is, the Lord. Moreover “towers” in the word are predicated of truths, but “mountains” of goods.