AC 7847 - Posts and the Lintel; AC 7848 - Houses and Minds

AC 7847 - Posts and the Lintel

. . . the natural person is instructed before the rational,
and the things which the person then learns
are natural things,
in which spiritual things are successively instilled,
which are interior.
From this it is evident how the natural
in respect to truths and goods
serves to introduce.
Moreover, the lintel and the posts have a like meaning
to the forehead and hands with a person.
Angelic ideas are of such a nature
that natural things bear relation
to such things as belong to a person.
The reason is that the spiritual world or heaven
is in the form of a person,
and all things of that world, that is, all spiritual things,
which are truths and goods,
bear relation to this form . . ..
And whereas in angelic ideas
natural things become spiritual,
so also does a house,
which to the angels is the mind of a person;
the bedchambers and inner rooms
being the interiors of the mind;
and the windows, the doors, the posts, and the lintels,
the exteriors of the mind, which introduce.
As angelic ideas are of such a nature,
they are also living;
and so when the things in the natural world
which are dead objects,
pass into the spiritual world,
they become living objects;
for everything spiritual is living,
because it proceeds from the Lord.

That the "posts" and the "lintel" have a like meaning
to the forehead and hands with a person,
appears from these words in Moses:

Thou shalt love Jehovah thy God from thy whole heart,
and from thy whole soul, and from all thy forces;
thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thy hand,
and they shall be for frontlets between thine eyes;
and thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house,
and on thy gates
(Deuteronomy 6:5, 8-9; 11:13, 18, 20);

because they involve a similar meaning, both are mentioned.

That in the spiritual sense the "lintel and posts"
denote the goods and truths of the natural
through which there is introduction to spiritual things,
is evident from the description of the new temple in Ezekiel,
by which is meant the spiritual church.
"Posts and lintels" are there frequently mentioned,
and they are also measured,
which would never have been done
unless they had meant something
of the church and of heaven,
that is, something spiritual;
as in the following passages in that prophet:

The priest shall take of the blood of the sin-offering,
and shall put it upon the post of the house,
and upon the four corners of the projection of the altar,
and upon the post of the gate of the inner court,
on the first day of the month.
(Ezekiel. 45:18-19)

The prince shall enter by way of the porch without,
and shall stand by the post of the gate,
and the priests shall prepare his burnt-offering;
then shall he adore upon the threshold of the gate
(Ezekiel 46:2);

that by the "temple" here is not meant a temple,
but the church of the Lord,
everyone can know;
for such things as have there been described
in many chapters
never came to pass, nor will come to pass.

That in the supreme sense by "temple"
is meant the Lord as to the Divine Human,
He Himself teaches in John 2:19-22.
Therefore in the representative sense
by a "temple" is meant His church.
That an angel measured the lintels of that new temple,
see Ezekiel 40:9-10, 14, 16, 24; 41:21, 25,
which measuring would have been of no importance
unless the lintels, and likewise the numbers,
meant some thing of the church.
Because the "posts" and the "lintels"
mean the truths and goods in the natural
which serve for introduction,
therefore in that new temple
they were made square in prospect (Ezekiel 41:21);
and therefore in the temple of Solomon
the posts were made of olive wood (1 Kings 6:31, 33).
"Olive wood" mean the good of truth,
or the good which is of the spiritual church.

AC 7848 - Houses and Minds

The reason why by a "house" is also meant the will,
is that by it
is meaning a person,
and a person is a person chiefly from his will.
Moreover, whether we speak of a person,
or of his mind, it is the same;
for a person is not a person from the form of his body,
but from his mind;
and a person is such as his mind is,
that is, such as his understanding and will are,
especially such as his will is.