The more we think from the Word the less the appearances of the sense will impact us – with meaning we can endure anything (10 mins)

10/04/2025 9 min
The more we think from the Word the less the appearances of the sense will impact us – with meaning we can endure anything (10 mins)

Listen "The more we think from the Word the less the appearances of the sense will impact us – with meaning we can endure anything (10 mins)"

Episode Synopsis

Arcana Coelestia 7385. And Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt. That this signifies the effect of the power of internal truth through external truth against falsities, is evident from the representation of Aaron, as being the doctrine of truth and good, thus external truth (see n. 6998, 7009, 7089); from the signification of “hand,” as being power (n. 878, 4931-4937), here the power of internal truth through external (as above, n. 7382); and from the signification of “the waters of Egypt,” as being falsities (n. 6693, 7307). The effect is signified by “stretching out the hand and the frogs coming up.” From all this it is evident that by “Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt,” is signified the effect of the power of internal truth through external truth against falsities.



7381. Say unto Aaron. That this signifies the influx of the internal law into the external law, is evident from the representation of Moses, as being the law Divine (see n. 6723, 6752); and from the representation of Aaron, as being the doctrine of good and truth (n. 6998, 7089); the doctrine of good and truth which Aaron represents is nothing else than the external law coming forth from the internal law, that is, through the internal law from the Divine; and from the signification of “saying,” as being influx (n. 6152, 6291, 7291). That “to say” here denotes influx is because Moses was to say to Aaron, and Moses is the internal law, and Aaron the external, and influx from the Divine takes place through the internal into the external. The internal law is the truth Divine itself such as it is in heaven, and the external law is the truth Divine such as it is on earth; thus the internal law is truth accommodated to angels, and the external law is truth accommodated to men.



[2] As the internal law which Moses represents is truth accommodated to angels, and the external law which Aaron represents is truth accommodated to men, I may here say something about them. Truth accommodated to angels is for the most part incomprehensible to men, as is evident from the fact that things are seen and said in heaven such as eye has never seen, nor ear has ever heard. The reason is that the things said among the angels are spiritual things which have been abstracted from natural things, and consequently are remote from the ideas and expressions of human speech; for man has formed his ideas from the things in nature, and indeed in grosser nature, that is, from those which he has seen in the world and upon the earth, and has touched by sense, which things are material. The ideas of interior thought with man, although they are above material things, nevertheless terminate in material things, and where they terminate, there they appear to be, and from this he perceives that which he is thinking. Hence it is evident how the case is with that truth of faith, and what is its quality, which falls into the thought of man, and is called the external law, and is represented by Aaron.



[3] To illustrate this by an example: man cannot possibly think without the idea of time and space, which idea adheres to almost everything which he thinks; if idea from time and space were taken away from man, he would not know what he is thinking; and scarcely whether he is thinking. But in the ideas of the angels there is nothing from time and space, but instead of these there are states, and this because the natural world is distinguished from the spiritual world by time and space. The reason why there are time and space in the natural world, and instead of these there are states in the spiritual world, is that in the natural world the sun seems by apparent revolutions to make days and years, and to divide the days into four times, night, morning, noon, and evening; and the years also into four times, winter, spring, summer, and autumn; and also to do this by means of variations of light and shade, and of heat and cold.

More episodes of the podcast Logopraxis