1081. And shall make her desolate and naked, signifies rejection of its falsities, which are falsified truths, and then the manifestation that they were without any truth. This is evident from the signification of "making desolate and naked," as being to reject its falsities, which are falsified truths; and when these have been rejected it is manifest that there is no truth, this also is signified. "To be desolate and naked" signifies to be without any truth, for spiritual vastation and nakedness are signified; and spiritual vastation is like that in a desert where there is no grain and no fruit trees, and spiritual nakedness is like that of a man who has no garments. "Grain and fruit trees" signify knowledges of truth and good, and "garments" signify truths investing; therefore to be without these means to be without any truth. That "nakedness" means deprivation of truth may be seen (n. 240, 1008); and that "vastation," such as exists in a desert, means where there is no truth may be seen (n. 730).
(Continuation respecting the Word)
[2] What the Word is as to influx and correspondences can now be illustrated. It is said in John:
He hath blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they should see with their eyes and understand with their heart, and should turn themselves and I should heal them (John 12:40). The "eyes" that are blinded signify the understanding of truth and the belief in it; the "heart" that is hardened signifies the will and the love of good; and "to be healed" signifies to be reformed. They were not permitted "to turn themselves and be healed" lest they should commit profanation; for an evil man who is healed and who returns to his evil and falsity commits profanation; and so it would have been with the Jewish nation. [3] In Matthew:
Blessed are your eyes, for they see; and your ears, for they hear (Matt. 13:16). Here, too, the "eyes" signify the understanding of truth and the belief in it; so "to see" signifies to understand and believe, and the "ears" signify obedience, thus a life according to the truths of faith, and "to hear" signifies to obey and live. For no one is blessed because he sees and hears, but because he understands, believes, obeys, and lives. [4] In the same:
The lamp of the body is the eye; if the eye be sound the whole body is lucid; if the eye be evil the whole body is darkened. If, therefore, the light [lumen] is darkness, how great is the darkness (Matt. 6:22-23). Here, again, the "eye" signifies the understanding of truth and the belief in it, which is called a lamp from the light of truth that man has from understanding and belief. And because a man becomes wise from understanding and believing in truth, it is said "if the eye be sound the whole body is lucid." The "body" means the man, and "to be lucid" means to be wise. But it is the reverse with the "evil eye," that is, understanding and believing in falsity. "Darkness" means falsities, "if the light [lumen] be darkness" signifies if the truth be false or falsified, and because truth falsified is worse than any other falsity, it is said, "If the light [lumen] be darkness, how great is the darkness." [5] These few examples make clear what correspondence is and what influx is, namely, that the eye is a correspondence of the understanding and faith, the heart a correspondence of the will and love, the ears a correspondence of obedience, the lamp and light [lumen] correspondences of truth, and darkness a correspondence of falsity, and so on; and as the one is spiritual and the other natural, and the spiritual acts into the natural and forms it to an image of itself that it may appear before the eyes or before the world, therefore that action is influx. Such is the Word in each and every particular.
This page is part of 
© 2000-2001 The Academy of the New Church