Arcana Coelestia (Elliott): AC 991

Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 991

991. 'All fish of the sea' means facts. This is clear from the meaning of 'a fish'. In the Word fish mean facts that spring from sensory evidence, for there are three types of facts - intellectual, rational, and sensory. All are implanted in the memory - or rather, in the memories ^a - and in someone who is regenerate are summoned from there by the Lord by way of the internal man. These facts which come from sensory evidence enter a person's consciousness or perception during his earthly life, for they are the basis of his thinking. The rest, which are more interior, do not do so until he has shed the body and enters the next life. On the point that fish or creeping things which the waters produce mean facts, see what has been said already in 40; and that sea-monsters or whales mean general sources of facts, see 42. These points become additionally clear from the following places in the Word: In Zephaniah,

I will cause man and beast to cease, I will cause the birds of the air and the fish of the sea to cease. Zeph 1:3.

Here 'birds of the air' stands for rational concepts, 'fish of the sea' for rational concepts of a lower order, that is, for human thought from factual knowledge derived through the senses.

[2] In Habakkuk,

You will make man like the fish of the sea, like creeping things that have no ruler. Hab 1:14.

'Making man like the fish of the sea' stands for making him dependent solely on the senses. In Hosea,

The land will mourn, and every inhabitant will languish, even the wild animal of the field, and the birds of the air,^b and even the fish of the sea will all be gathered together. Hosea 4:3.

Here 'fish of the sea' stands for factual knowledge derived through the senses. In David,

You have put all things under His feet, the beasts of the fields, the flying things of the air,^c and the fish of the sea, and that crossing the paths of the seas. Ps 8:6-8.

This refers to the Lord's dominion over man. 'Fish of the sea' stands for facts. That 'seas' means a gathering of facts or cognitions, see what has appeared already in 28. In Isaiah,

The fishermen will lament, and all who cast a hook into the river will mourn, and those who spread nets over the face'^d of the waters will languish. Isa 19:8.

'Fishermen' stands for people who rely on sensory evidence alone and hatch falsities out of it, the subject being Egypt, or factual knowledge.

Notes

^a i.e. in the interior memory and in the exterior memory. See 2469 and following paragraphs
^b lit. bird of the heavens (or the skies)
^c lit. the flying thing of the heavens (or the skies)
^d lit. the faces

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