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FEET >> Natural Heaven

FT226  The feet have many points of resemblance to the hands; their general structure is similar, with some modifications, so that in cases of necessity they are taught to do in some   degree the work of hands, and the hands are degraded to the work of the feet. But they are not formed for so great a variety of motions; their solid part is larger and firmer, and the movable divisions are shorter and with much less capacity for varied and quick movements. Their thumbs, also, or great toes, are not intended to meet and assist the individual motions of the other toes, but step squarely with them, bearing a great part of the burden, and merely balancing the others. As to touch, again, though the feet are perhaps more sensitive than the hands to impressions from without, they have far less power of examining and individualizing the sources of those impressions. It is enough for them to know quickly that they are there, and, if injurious, must be avoided or removed. They leave it to the hands to examine into the nature of them and do the work of removing. Their work is to support the body, and carry it firmly from place to place. They are not intended to express and communicate what is in us, nor to operate upon objects outside of ourselves. They are simply to carry ourselves forward, feeling the ground as they go, and stepping firmly.

Swedenborg makes a curious statement in regard to the sensitiveness of the feet, which ought to be presented here. He says,—

“I wish also to add that those papillae or glands which provide the sole of the foot with an acute sense of touch, appear to be woven of fibres from the cerebrum itself, which flow down the length of the spinal cord, even to its extremity, and afterwards go off in the nerves; so that the sense of touch of the sole itself communicates more immediately with the cerebrum than the touch of other parts of the body, whence there is a more acute sense in the papillae, and their changes of state are instantly presented to the cerebrum; thus also the lasts are connected with the firsts in the corporeal system.” (AK. Part vii. P. 27)

In treating of the correspondence of the hands and the feet, Swedenborg says that “the hands signify the interiors of the natural, and the feet the exteriors of it ” (AC 7442); also, “To lift the hand signifies power in spiritual things; and to lift the foot signifies power in natural things,” and he explains, “By spiritual is meant that in the natural which is of the light of heaven, and by natural that which is of the light of the world.” (AC 5328)

In describing the position of the heavens in the Greatest Man, he states that “the highest heaven forms the head even to the neck, the second or middle heaven forms the breast to the loins and the knees, and the lowest or first heaven forms the feet even to the soles, and also the arms to the fingers ” (HH 65). To this he adds, “The church on earth corresponds to the soles of the feet” (AE 606). And again, “The church not conjoined to the church in the heavens is meant by ‘under the feet '; but when it is conjoined it is meant by the feet.” (AR 533)

In explaining the words concerning the Two Witnesses, that the Spirit of Life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet, he says,—

“By the Spirit of Life from God is signified spiritual life, and by standing upon the feet is signified natural life agreeing with spiritual, and thus vivified by the Lord. That this is signified is because by the Spirit of Life is meant the internal of man, which is called the internal man, which regarded in itself is spiritual; for the spirit of man thinks and wills, and to think and to will in itself is spiritual. By standing upon the feet is signified the external of man, which also is called the external man, which in itself is natural for the body speaks and does what its spirit thinks and wills, and to speak and do is natural.... Every man who is reformed is first reformed as to his internal man, and afterwards as to the external; the internal man is not reformed by merely knowing and understanding the truths and goods by which man is saved, but by willing them and loving them; but the external man by speaking and doing the things which the internal man wills and loves; and as far as it does this, so far the man is regenerated. That he is not regenerated before is because his internal is not before in effect, but only in cause, and the cause unless it be in the effect is dissipated. It is like a house built upon the ice, which falls to the bottom when the ice is melted by the sun; in a word, it is like a man without feet upon which he can stand and walk; such is the internal or spiritual man unless it is founded in the external or natural.” (AR 510)

The two witnesses were the acknowledgment of the Divine Human of the Lord, and a life according to the Commandments; and they stood upon their feet full of the spirit of life from God when these two essentials of the New Church were fully received b Swedenborg and the angels associated with him, and were brought down into the world in his life. (See AE 665)

In general, to walk is to live; and, in a good sense, it is to live in the Lord's ways, and to carry the spirit into the new states to which His ways lead. As the hands, therefore, are the love of communicating and doing good, the feet are the love of obeying and of doing right.

The provinces from the knees to the feet are in this love of obedience; and men on earth are in conjunction with them and live with their power when they love above all things to live the Commandments from the Lord. Through this love the Lord leads the race into new states and conditions of life. In the heavens the experiences acquired here are better understood, and attain fuller development; but here the advance is made into the new conditions and applications of truth, which is appropriately done by those in the province of the feet.

If we may trust Swedenborg's statement about the connection between the sensitive soles of the feet and the cerebrum, we should infer that not only are they who love the commandments living unity with the lowest heaven, but they receive also the immediate attention and care of the angels with whom the Lord is most sensibly present, the wisest of the angels, who thus are enabled to care for their state with all the resources of the heavens, especially by commanding for their service the provinces of the hands and arms and legs and feet.

I will add only a word in regard to the difference between the right and the left sides. The things which are on the right side,” Swedenborg tells us, “correspond to good from which are truths, and the things of the left side correspond to truths by which is good.” (AC 10061)

The right hand, therefore, responds to the call of the will, and expresses the power of the will; but the motions of the left are made with thought and comparative difficulty, and are also weaker.

But in walking, the left foot is by common usage made the leading foot, and Swedenborg declares that evil spirits turn their bodies about from right to left, but good spirits from left to right. (DLW 270) The cause of this he ascribes to the direction of the heavenly gyres in the good, and the contrary direction in the evil.

But the cause of this may be that it is good and heavenly for the will to be guided by the understanding and to learn to love what is true and right; but it is infernal for the will to compel the understanding to think from and to confirm the natural desires and impulses.

Author: JOHN WORCESTER 1889

Foot17 They in the Grand Man who correspond to the feet, the soles of the feet, and the heels, are they who are natural; wherefore by "feet" in the Word are signified natural  things (n. 2162, 3147, 3761, 3986, 4280), by "soles of the feet" lower natural things, and by "heels" the lowest natural things. For in the Grand Man celestial things constitute the head, spiritual the body, and natural the feet; and they follow in this order. Celestial things also, which are highest, terminate in spiritual, which are middle; and spiritual in natural, which are last. [AC4938]

Once when I was elevated into heaven, it appeared to me as if I were there with my head, and below with my body, but with my feet still lower. And from this it was perceived how the higher and lower things in man correspond to those which are in the Grand Man, and how the one flows into the other, namely, that the celestial, which is the good of love and the first in order, flows into the spiritual, which is the truth thence derived and the second in order, and finally into the natural, which is the third in order. From this it is evident that natural things are like the feet, on which the higher things rest. Nature also is that in which the spiritual world and heaven terminate. Thence it is that universal nature is a theater representative of the Lord's kingdom, and that everything in it is representative (n. 2758, 3483); and that nature subsists from influx according to this order, and that without such influx it could not subsist even for a moment. [AC4939]

At another time when, encompassed with an angelic column, I was let down into the places of lower things, it was given me sensibly to perceive that they who were in the earth of lower things correspond to the feet, and to the soles of the feet. Moreover, these places are under the feet and the soles of the feet. I also conversed with the spirits there. They are such as have been in natural, and not in spiritual delight. (Concerning the lower earth see above, n. 4728.) [AC4940]

 In these places also are they who have ascribed all things to nature, and but little to the Divine. I conversed with them there, and when the conversation turned on the Divine providence, they attributed everything to nature. Nevertheless when those who have led a good moral life have been detained there for a time, they successively put off such principles, and put on principles of truth. [AC4941]

While I was there, I heard in one of the rooms a noise as if there were some persons on the other side of the wall trying to break in. Those in the room were terrified at the sound, believing that it was thieves; and I was told that they who are there are kept in such fear in order that they may be deterred from evils, because fear is to some a means of amendment. [AC4942]

In the lower earth, under the feet and the soles of the feet, are also those who have placed merit in good deeds and in works. Some of them appear to themselves to cut wood. The place where they are is rather cold, and they seem to themselves to acquire warmth by their labor. With these also I conversed, and it was given me to ask them whether they wished to come out of that place. They replied that they had not yet merited it by their labor. But when this state has been passed through, they are taken out thence. These also are natural, because the desire to merit salvation is not spiritual; and moreover, they regard themselves as superior to others, and some of them even despise others. If such persons do not receive more joy than others in the other life, they are indignant against the Lord; and therefore when they cut wood there sometimes appears as it were somewhat of the Lord under the wood, and this from their indignation. But as they have led a pious life, and have acted in this way from ignorance, in which there was something of innocence, therefore angels are occasionally sent to them who console them. And sometimes there appears to them from above on the left as it were a sheep, at the sight of which they also receive consolation. [AC4943]

They who come out of the world from Christendom, and who have led a good moral life, and have had something of charity toward the neighbor, but have had little concern about spiritual things, are for the most part sent into the places under the feet and the soles of the feet; and are kept there until they put off the natural things in which they have been, and become imbued with spiritual and heavenly things insofar as they can be in accordance with their life; and when they have become imbued with these, they are elevated thence to heavenly societies. I have at times seen them emerging, and beheld their gladness at coming into heavenly light. 4944.
 In what situation the places under the feet are, it has not yet been given me to know. There are very many of them, and all most distinct from one another. In general they are called the earth of lower things. [AC4945]

There are some who in the life of the body have become imbued with the idea that man ought not to be concerned about those things which are of the internal man, thus about spiritual things, but only about those which are of the external man, or that are natural, for the reason that interior things disturb the delights of their life, and produce discomfort. They acted upon the left knee, and a little above the knee in front, and also upon the sole of the right foot. I conversed with them in their place of abode; and they said that they had been of opinion in the life of the body that only external things are living, and that they did not understand what internal things are, consequently that they knew what is natural, but not what the spiritual is. But it was given me to tell them that by this means they had shut out from themselves innumerable things which might have flowed in from the spiritual world if they had acknowledged interior things, and thus had admitted them into the ideas of their thought. And it was also given to tell them that in every idea of thought there are innumerable things which to man, especially the natural man, appear merely as a single uncompounded thing; when yet there are indefinite things in it which flow in from the spiritual world, and in a spiritual man produce superior insight, by which he can see and also perceive whether anything is true or not. And because they were in doubt in regard to this, it was shown them by living experience. There was represented to them a single idea, which they saw as one simple idea, and thus as an obscure point (by a mode of representation very easy in the light of heaven); but when that idea was unfolded, and at the same time their interior sight opened, there was then manifested as it were a universe leading to the Lord; and it was said that so it is with every idea of good and truth, namely, that it is an image of the whole heaven, because it is from the Lord, who is the all of heaven, or that itself which is called heaven. [AC4946]

 Under the soles of the feet are they also who in the life of the body have lived for the world and their own pleasure, being delighted with such things as are of the world, and have loved to live in splendor, but only from external cupidity or that of the body, not from internal desire or that of the mind; for they have not been proud in spirit - setting themselves before others - though in stations of honor; thus in so living they have acted from the body, and therefore have not rejected the teachings of the church, still less confirmed themselves against them, but at heart have said of them that it is so, because those who study the Word know it. In some who are of this character, the interiors are open toward heaven, and into them are successively inseminated heavenly things, such as justice, uprightness, piety, charity, and mercy; and they are afterward taken up into heaven. [AC4947]

Those, however, who in the life of the body have from within thought and taken interest in nothing else than what relates to self and the world, have closed to themselves every way or every influx from heaven; because the love of self and the world is opposite to heavenly love. Those of them who have lived at the same time in pleasures, or in a luxurious life conjoined with interior cunning, are under the sole of the right foot, but at a great depth there, thus beneath the earth of lower things, where is the hell of such spirits. In their dwellings is nothing but filth; they also seem to themselves to carry filth, for it corresponds to such a life. The stench of different kinds of filth is smelled there according to the genera and species of their life. Many have their abode there who have been among the more celebrated in the world. [AC4948]

There are some who have abodes under the soles of the feet, with whom I have occasionally conversed. I have seen some of them endeavoring to ascend, and it was also granted me to feel their endeavor, and this even to the knees; but they fell back again. In this manner is it represented to the sense when any are desirous of ascending from their own abodes to higher ones, as these were of ascending to the abodes of those who are in the province of the knees and thighs. I was told that such are they who have despised others in comparison with themselves; for which reason also they wish to emerge, and not only through the foot into the thigh, but also if possible above the head; yet still they fall back again. They are in a kind of stupidity; for such arrogance extinguishes and suffocates the light of heaven, and consequently intelligence. Wherefore the sphere which surrounds them appears like thick dregs. [AC4949]

Under the left foot, a little to the left, are such as have attributed all things to nature, but yet have made a confession of an Ens of the universe from which come all the things of nature. Exploration was made as to whether they had believed in any Ens of the universe, or Supreme Deity, that had created all things; but it was perceived from their thought communicated to me, that what they had believed in was like something inanimate, in which there was nothing of life; and from this it was evident that they had not acknowledged a Creator of the universe, but nature. They also said that they could have no idea of a living Deity. [AC4950]

 Under the heel, somewhat farther back, is a hell at a great depth, the intermediate space appearing empty. In this hell are the most malicious, who secretly explore minds for the purpose of doing harm, and secretly lay snares in order to destroy, this having been the delight of their life. I have frequently observed them; they pour out the poison of their malice to those who are in the world of spirits, and stir them up by various wiles. They are interiorly malicious. They appear as it were in cloaks, and sometimes otherwise. They are often punished, and are then let down to a greater depth, and veiled as it were with a cloud, which is the sphere of malice exhaling from them. Out of that depth at times a tumult is heard as of a slaughter. They can move others to tears, and can also strike terror. This habit they have acquired in the life of the body, by having been with the sick and simple for the purpose of obtaining wealth, whom they constrained to weep and so moved to pity; and if they did not obtain their ends in this way, they inflicted terror. They are for the most part such as in this manner plundered many houses for the benefit of monasteries. Some were also observed at a middle distance, but appearing to themselves to be sitting in a room and consulting together. These also are malicious, but not in the same degree. [AC4951]

Some of those who are natural have said that they know not what to believe, because a lot awaits everyone according to his life, and also according to his thoughts from confirmed principles; but it was answered them that it would have sufficed if they had believed that it is God who governs all things, and that there is a life after death; and especially if they had lived not as a wild beast, but as a man, that is, in love to God and in charity toward the neighbor; and thus in truth and in good, but not contrary to them. But they said that they had so lived; but again it was answered that in externals they had appeared to do so, when nevertheless had not the laws opposed, they would have invaded everyone's life and property with more fury than wild beasts. They again said that they did not know what charity toward the neighbor is, nor what the internal is; but it was answered them that they could not know these things because the love of self and of the world, and external things, had engrossed the whole of their thought and will. [AC4952]

Wash ye your feet. That this signifies that [the Divine] should put on something natural, in order that, in the state in which the Lord then was, He might the better perceive, may be seen from the signification of "feet," as being natural things, and also likewise from the series of things. That arcana here lie hidden may to some extent be seen from the fact that Abraham prayed the three men to take a little water and wash their feet, and to recline under a tree; when yet he knew that it was the Lord or Jehovah; and also from the fact that otherwise such things would not have been mentioned.

[2] That "feet" signify natural things, is evident from the representatives in the other life, and from the derivative representatives among the most ancient people, and thus in the Word. Celestial and spiritual things are represented by the head and its belongings; rational things and their belongings, by the breast and its belongings; natural things and their belongings, by the feet and their belongings. Hence it is that the "sole" and the "heel" of the foot signify the lowest natural things (concerning which see n. 259); and a "shoe" the lowest things of all, which are unclean (concerning which see n. 1748).

[3] Similar things are signified by the representations in the dreams and visions in the Prophets-as by the statue seen by Nebuchadnezzar,

The head of which was good gold, the breast and arms of silver, the belly and thighs of brass, the legs of iron, the feet part of iron and part of clay (Dan. 2:32-33),

where the "head" signifies celestial things, which are inmost, and are "gold" (as shown, n. 113, 1551, 1552); the "breast and arms" spiritual or rational things, which are "silver" (as shown, n. 1551); but the "feet" are the lower things, which are natural, the truths of which are signified by "iron," and the goods by "clay" [argillum seu lutum]. That "iron" denotes truth, may be seen above (n. 425, 426); also that "clay" denotes good (n. 1300); in the present case both being natural. Such is the order of succession in the Lord's kingdom in the heavens, and in the church which is the Lord's kingdom on earth, and also in everyone who is a kingdom of the Lord.

[4] The case is similar with the vision that Daniel saw, of which it is said:

I lifted up mine eyes, and saw, and behold a man clothed in linen, and his loins were girded with gold of Uphaz; his body also was like the beryl [tarshish], and his face as the appearance of lightning, and his eyes as lamps of fire, and his arms and his feet like the brightness of burnished brass (Dan. 10:5-6).

Specifically, by these words are signified the interiors of the Word as to goods and truths; the "arms" and "feet" are its exteriors, which are the sense of the letter, because natural things are therein, for the exterior things of the Word are taken from natural things. What each part signifies besides, namely, the loins, body, face, eyes, and the many other things of man, is evident from the representatives in the other life, concerning which, of the Lord's Divine mercy more will be said when we come to treat of the Grand Man, which is the Lord's heaven, and of the derivative representatives in the world of spirits.

[5] That which we read concerning Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and the seventy elders-that "they saw the God of Israel, under whose feet there was as it were a work of sapphire stone, and as it were the substance of heaven as to purity" (Exod. 24:9, 10)-signifies that they saw only the externals of the church represented in natural things; and also the literal sense of the Word, in which likewise external things are represented by natural things-as before said-which are the "feet under which was as it were a work of sapphire stone, and as it were the substance of heaven." That it was the Lord who was seen by them, but only in those lower or natural things, is evident, for He is called "the God of Israel," whom all things of the church represented, and all things of the Word in the internal sense signified. For the Lord is presented to view in accordance with the things which are at the time signified-in John, as a Man upon a white horse, when He signified the Word, as is plainly said (Rev. 19:11, 13).

[6] The animals seen by Ezekiel, which were cherubs, are described as to celestial and spiritual things-among other representatives-by their faces and wings, but as to natural things, as follows:
Their feet, a straight foot; and the sole of their feet as the sole of a calf's foot; and they glittered like the brightness of burnished brass (Ezek. 1:7).

The feet (that is, the natural things) are said to have "glittered like burnished brass," for the reason that "brass" signifies natural good (n. 425, 1551). It was much the same with the Lord's appearance to John as the "Son of man:"
Whose eyes were as a flame of fire, and His feet like unto burnished brass (Rev. 1:14-15; 2:18).
[7] That the "feet" signify natural things, may be further evident from the passages that now follow. In John:

I saw a strong angel coming down out of heaven, encompassed with a cloud, and a rainbow about his head, and his face as the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire; and he had in his hand a little book open; and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left upon the earth (Rev. 10:1-2).
By this angel there is in like manner signified the Word; the quality of which in the internal sense is signified by the "rainbow about his head," and by "his face being as the sun;" but the external sense, or that of the letter, by the "feet." The "sea" denotes natural truths, the "earth" natural goods, which shows what is signified by his putting "his right foot upon the sea, and his left upon the earth."
[8] A "footstool" is mentioned in various passages of the Word; but it is not known what it signifies in the internal sense. As in Isaiah:

Jehovah said, The heavens are My throne, and the earth is My footstool. Where is that house which ye will build unto Me? and where is that place of My rest? (Isa. 66:1).

The "heavens" are the celestial and spiritual things (thus the inmost things) of both the Lord's kingdom in the heavens, and of the Lord's kingdom on the earth, that is, in the church, and also in every man who is a kingdom of the Lord or a church; thus they also denote celestial and spiritual things as regarded in themselves, which are those of love and charity and of the derivative faith; and thus are all things which are of internal worship, and in like manner all things which are of the internal sense of the Word: these are the "heavens," and are called the Lord's "throne." But the "earth" is all lower things that correspond to these-as the lower rational and natural things, whereof also things celestial and spiritual are predicated from correspondence; such as are the things which are in the lower heavens, also those in the church and in external worship, and in the literal sense of the Word; in short, all such things as proceed from things internal and are presented in things external-these, being natural things, are called the "earth" and the Lord's "footstool." (What "heaven and earth" denote in the internal sense, may be seen above, n. 82, 1733; also what the "new heaven and the new earth" denote, n. 2117, 2118 end; and that man is a little heaven, n. 911, 978, 1900.)

[9] In like manner in Jeremiah:

The Lord covereth the daughter of Zion with a cloud in His anger; He hath cast down from the heavens unto the earth the beauty of Israel, and hath not remembered His footstool in the day of His anger (Lam. 2:1).

Also in David:

Exalt ye Jehovah our God, and bow yourselves down at His footstool, Holy is He (Ps. 99:5). And again:
We will enter into His tabernacles, we will bow down at His footstool (Ps. 132:7).
In the Representative Church-thus among the Jews-it was supposed that the house of God and the temple were His footstool, for they knew not that external representative worship was signified by the house of God and the temple; and what the internals of the church were (which were signified by "heaven," or God's "throne"), they were utterly ignorant of.

[10] Again:

The saying of Jehovah unto my Lord: Sit Thou at My right hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool (Ps. 110:1; Matt. 22:42-45; Mark 12:36; Luke 20:42, 43).

Here in like manner a "footstool" signifies natural things, both those which are sensuous, and those of memory-knowledge, and the derivative rational things of man, which are called "enemies" when they pervert worship, and do this from the literal sense of the Word, so that there is worship solely in externals, and either no internal worship, or else that which is filthy (see n. 1094, 1175, 1182). When things natural and rational are thus perverted and defiled, they are called "enemies;" but because, regarded in themselves, they have reference to internal worship-when this is restored, they become as before said a "footstool," whether they are things of external worship, or of the literal sense of the Word.

[11] In Isaiah:

The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee, the fir-tree, the pine, and the box together, to beautify the place of My sanctuary, and I will make the place of My feet honorable (Isa. 60:13),

where the subject is the Lord's kingdom and church, the celestial-spiritual things of which are the "glory of Lebanon" (that is, the cedars), and its celestial natural things are the "fir-tree, the pine, and the box" (as also in the Word elsewhere), and thus the things which are of external worship; of which it is said, "I will make the place of My feet honorable;" and this cannot be made honorable by the fir, the pine, and the box, but by the things which they signify.

[12] That the "feet" signify these things, is evident also from the representatives in the Jewish Church-as from Aaron and his sons washing their hands and their feet before entering into the tabernacle (Exod. 30:19-20; 40:31, 32). No one can fail to see that arcana were thus represented, for what is the washing of the hands and feet but an external affair which is of no avail unless the internal is clean and pure? Nor can the internal be cleaned and purified by such a washing. But as all the rites of that church were significative of internal things, which are celestial and spiritual, such is the case here also: it is cleanness of external worship that is here signified, and external worship is clean when there is internal worship within it. Hence their lavers were of brass, and also that great laver that was called the brazen sea, and the ten smaller lavers of brass around the temple of Solomon (1 Kings 7:23, 38); because "brass" represented the good of external worship, which is the same as natural good (concerning which signification of "brass," see n. 425, 1551).

[13] In like manner it was a representative that,

A man of the seed of Aaron in whom there was a fracture of the foot or a fracture of the hand, should not approach to offer the offering made by fire to Jehovah (Lev. 21:19, 21).
By those who had a "fracture" in the feet or hands were represented such as are in perverted external worship.

[14] That "feet" signify natural things, is further evident in other passages that occur in the Prophets, as in these propheticals in Moses:

Blessed be Asher above sons; let him be accepted of his brethren, and let him dip his foot in oil; the iron and brass of thy shoe (Deut. 33:24, 25).

No one can understand these words unless it is known what "oil," the "foot," "iron," "brass," and a "shoe" signify in the internal sense. That "foot" is the natural, and "shoe" the still lower natural, such as is the corporeal sensual, may be seen above (n. 1748); also that "oil" is the celestial (n. 886), "iron" natural truth (n. 425, 426), and "brass" natural good (n. 425, 1551), which shows what these words involve.
[15] In Nahum:

The way of Jehovah is in the storm and tempest, and the clouds are the dust of His feet (Nahum 1:3),
where the "dust of the feet" signifies the natural and corporeal things with man, whence come the "clouds." The same also is signified by these words in David:

Jehovah bowed the heavens, and came down, and thick darkness was under His feet (Ps. 18:9).

[16] When the goods and truths of faith are perverted by means of natural light, as it is called, this is described in the Word by the "feet" and "hoofs" of a beast, whereby waters are disturbed, and food is trampled upon. As in Ezekiel:

Thou hast come forth into the rivers, and hast troubled the waters with thy feet; and trampled the streams thereof. I will destroy every beast thereof from off many waters; and the foot of man shall not trouble them any more, nor the hoof of beast (Ezek. 32:2, 13).

Egypt is here treated of, by which are signified memory-knowledges [scientiae] (as has been shown, n. 1164, 1165, 1462); so that by the "feet" and "hoofs" by which the streams and waters are troubled are signified memory-knowledges [scientifica] derived from sensuous and natural things, from which they reason about the arcana of faith; nor do they believe until these arcana are comprehended by means of such knowledges; and this is not to believe at all, for the more such persons reason, the less do they believe (see n. 128-130, 215, 232, 233, 1072, 1385). From all this it is now evident that by "feet" in the Word are signified natural things; but what more is signified, is evident from the series of things. [AC2162]

Author: EMANUEL SWEDENBORG  (1688-1772)

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