AR 412, 413
Then the fourth angel sounded,
and a third of the sun was struck,
a third of the moon,
and a third of the stars,
and a third of them was darkened.(Revelation 8:12)
A third means, symbolically, all.
The moon symbolizes intelligence and faith.
The stars symbolize
concepts of truth and goodness from the Word.
To be darkened means, symbolically,
to be unseen and unknown
because of evils springing from falsities
and falsities springing from evils.
Evils springing from falsities are found in people
who adopt falsities having to do with religion
and defend them to the point that they appear to be true.
Then, when they live in accordance with them,
they do evils as a result of the falsities,
or the evils of falsity.
On the other hand,
On the other hand,
falsities springing from evils are found in people
who do not regard evils as being sins,
and still more in people
who employ reasonings issuing from their natural self,
and moreover from the Word,
so establish in themselves that evils are not sins.
Their very arguments are falsities springing from evils,
and what we call the falsities of evil.
AR 414
Light in general symbolizes Divine truth,
which is truth from the Word.
The light of the sun symbolizes spiritual Divine truth,
and the light of the moon and stars
symbolizes natural Divine truth,
both acquired from the Word.
. . . The spiritual sense of the Word . . .
flows into its natural sense,
as the sun does with its light to the moon,
and this reflects the light of the sun indirectly.
In this way also
does the spiritual sense of the Word enlighten people,
even people who know nothing of that sense,
when they read the Word in its natural sense.
However, it enlightens a spiritual person
as light from the sun does his eye,
but a natural person
as light from the moon and stars does his eye.
Everyone is enlightened in accordance with
his spiritual affection for truth and goodness,
and at the same time
in accordance with the genuine truths
by which he has opened his rational faculty.
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