Arcana Coelestia volume 7 - Swedenborg Foundation

ARCANA COELESTIA 3728are of the will; for all good pertains to the will, and all truth to theunderstanding. As soon as anything comes forth from the will, it isperceived as good. In what precedes, the sensuous subject to theintellectual part has been treated of, which was represented by thebutler; what is now treated of is the sensuous subject to the willpart, which is represented by the baker (see n. 5077–5078, 5082).[2] What is successive or continuous in intellectual things wasrepresented by the vine, its three shoots, its blossoms, clusters, andgrapes; and finally the truth which is of the intellect wasrepresented by the cup (see n. 5120); but what is successive in thethings of the will is represented by the three baskets on the head, inthe uppermost of which there was of all food for Pharaoh, the workof the baker. By what is successive in the things of the will is meantwhat is successive from the inmosts of man down to his outermost,in which is the sensuous; for there are steps or degrees as of aladder, from inmosts to outermosts (see n. 5114). Into the inmostthere flows good from the Lord, and this through the rational intothe interior natural, and thence into the exterior natural orsensuous, in a distinct succession, as by the steps of a ladder; and ineach degree it is qualified according to the reception. But thefurther nature of this influx and its succession will be shown in thefollowing pages.[3] “Baskets” signify the things of the will insofar as goods aretherein, in other passages of the Word, as in Jeremiah:Jehovah showed me, when behold two baskets of figs set before thetemple of Jehovah; in one basket exceedingly good figs, like the figs thatare first ripe; but in the other basket exceedingly bad figs, which couldnot be eaten for badness (Jer. 24:1–2);here “basket” is expressed in the original by a different word, whichsignifies the will part in the natural; the “figs” in the one basket arenatural goods, while those in the other are natural evils.[4] In Moses: