10071. And the tail. That this signifies all truth there, is evident from the signification of "the tail of the ram," as being truth. That "the tail" denotes truth is because it is the ultimate thing, and truth is in the ultimates (see n. 6952). Moreover, the tail is the ultimate of the cerebrum and cerebellum, for these are continued into the spinal marrow, and this also terminates in the tail, which thus is their ultimate appendix. Therefore it is said that in the sacrifices the tail was to be removed hard by the backbone (Lev. 3:9). That "the tail" signifies truth in ultimates, and in the opposite sense falsity, is evident from the following passages. In Isaiah:
Jehovah shall cut off from Israel head and tail. The old man and the honored is the head, and the prophet, the teacher of a lie, is the tail (Isa. 9:13, 14);
in the spiritual sense to "cut off the head and the tail" denotes to cut off good and truth, for the subject treated of is the church, on the devastation of which, the "head" signifies evil, and the "tail" falsity. (That the "head" denotes good, see n. 4938, 4939, 5328, 9913, 9914; in like manner an "old man," n. 6524, 9404; that a "prophet" denotes one who teaches truth, thus abstractedly truth, n. 2534, 7269.) In the opposite sense therefore the "head" denotes evil, in like manner the "old man" and the "honored" who do this; and the "tail" denotes falsity, in like manner the "prophet," whence he is called "the prophet of a lie," for a "lie" denotes falsity. In the same:
There shall not be work for Egypt, which may make head and tail (Isa. 19:15);
"Egypt" denotes those who by reasonings from memory-knowledges wish to enter into the truths and goods of faith, and not from what is revealed, thus not from faith in what is revealed (n. 1164, 1165, 1186); that there is "no work which makes the head and the tail," denotes that they have neither good nor truth. That the "tail" denotes truth in ultimates is plain from its signification in the opposite sense, in which the "tail" denotes falsity, as in John:
The locusts had tails like unto scorpions, and stings were in their tails, and their power was to hurt men (Rev. 9:10);
"tails like scorpions, and stings in the tails," denote cunning reasonings from falsities by which they persuade, and thereby do injury, and therefore it is said that "their power is to hurt men" (that a "locust" also denotes falsity in the extremes, see n. 7643). In the same:
The tails of the horses were like serpents, having heads, and with them they do hurt (Rev. 9:19);
"tails like serpents" here also denote reasonings from falsities, whereby injury is done. In the same:
The tail of the dragon drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and cast them to the earth (Rev. 12:4);
"the tail of the dragon" denotes truths falsified, especially by application to evils; the "stars" denote the knowledges of truth and good falsified; "to cast to the earth" denotes to destroy.
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