AC 6844, 6845 - "Take off your shoes from upon your feet"

AC 6844

Take off your shoes from upon your feet'
(Exodus 3:5)

means that the powers of the senses,
which form the external levels of the natural,
should be removed.
This is clear from the meaning of 'shoes'
as the powers of the senses
forming the external levels of the natural;
and from the meaning of 'feet' as the natural.
'Taking off' plainly means removing
since one is talking about the powers of the senses.
Particular expressions have to be used
in application to the actual matter to which they refer;
thus 'being taken off' is applied to shoes,
and 'being removed' to the powers of the senses.
The implications of all this need to be stated.
Everyone can see that shoes here represent
something that was not in agreement with the holy Divine,
and thus that to pull off the shoes
was representative of the removal of such things
Without this representation
what would it matter to the Divine
whether a person drew near in shoes or in bare feet,
provided that inwardly he is the kind of person
who can draw near the Divine in faith and love?
Therefore the powers of the senses
are meant by 'shoes',
and those powers,
which form the external levels of the natural,
are by nature such that they cannot remain
when one thinks with reverence about the Divine.
Consequently because it was a time
when representatives had to be observed,
Moses was not allowed to draw near with his shoes on.

The reason why the powers of the senses
that form the external levels of the natural
are by nature such that they cannot receive the Divine
is that they are steeped in ideas
of worldly, bodily, and also earthly things
because they are the first to receive them.
Therefore sensory impressions
contained in the memory as a result of
the activity of the senses
draw their nature from the light and heat of the world,
and hardly at all from the light and heat of heaven.
As a consequence they are the last things
that can be regenerated, that is,
receive something of the light of heaven.
This explains why,
when a person is ruled by his senses
and sensory impressions control his thinking,
he inevitably thinks of the Divine
as he does of earthly things.
If also he is ruled by evil
those impressions make him think in ways
altogether contrary to the Divine.
When therefore a person thinks
about the kinds of things that have to do with
faith and love to God he is raised,
if he is governed by good,
from the powers of the senses
which form the external levels of the natural
to more internal levels,
consequently from earthly and worldly things
nearer to celestial and spiritual ones.

This is something people do not know about,
the reason being that they do not know
that internal levels distinct and separate from external ones
are present within them,
or that thought exists on increasingly internal levels
as well as on more external ones.
And unaware of these things
a person cannot reflect on them.
But see what has been stated already
about thought ruled by sensory impressions:

-- People whose thought is ruled by sensory impressions
have little wisdom.

-- A person may be raised above the level of the senses,
and when he is raised he comes into a quite gentle light;
and this happens especially to those
who are being regenerated.

AC 6845

Consequently when a person is about to receive the Divine,
that is, matters of faith and love,
he is raised from the powers of the senses;
and once he has been raised from them,
the Divine no longer flows in there,
into the external level of the senses,
but into the more internal level
to which the person has been raised.