Spiritual Meaning of

Back to Words index

Back to Housing words index

The signification of the posts of a door, is the truths of the natural; and the signification of the lintel, is its goods. The posts and the lintel have this signification because by a house is signified man himself, or his mind, and by those things which belong to a door are signified the things which serve to introduce. That these are the truths and the goods of the natural is evident; for the natural man is instructed before the rational, and the things which the man then learns are natural things, in which are successively insinuated spiritual things, 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 signification to the forehead and hands with man. Angelic ideas are of such a nature that natural things bear relation to such things as belong to man. The reason is that the spiritual world or heaven is in the form of a man, and all things of that world, that is, all spiritual things, which are truths and goods, bear relation to this form, as has been shown at the end of many chapters in treating of correspondences. And whereas in angelic ideas natural things become spiritual, so also does a house, which to the angels is the mind of man; 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.

[2] That the posts and the lintel have a like signification to the forehead and hands with man, appears from these words in Moses:--

because they involve a similar meaning, both are mentioned.

[3] 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 signified the spiritual church. Posts and lintels are there frequently mentioned, and they are also measured, which would never have been done unless they had signified something of the church and of heaven, that is, something spiritual; as in the following passages in that prophet:--

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

[4] 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 (Ezek. 40:9, 10, 14, 26, 24; 41:21, 25), which measuring would have been of no importance unless the lintels, and likewise the numbers, signified some thing of the church. Because the posts and the lintels signified the truths and goods in the natural which serve for introduction, therefore in that new temple they were made square in prospect (Ezek. 41:21); and therefore in the temple of Solomon the posts were made of olive wood (1 Kings 6:31, 33). Olive wood signified the good of truth, or the good which is of the spiritual church.

Back to Words index, Back to Housing words index