Spiritual Meaning of Basket

Spiritual Meaning of

Basket

That baskets are things of the will is because they are vessels to hold food; and also because food signifies celestial and spiritual goods, and these are of the will; for all good pertains to the will, and all truth to the understanding. As soon as anything comes forth from the will, it is perceived as good. In what precedes, the sensuous subject to the intellectual part has been treated of, which was represented by the butler; what is now treated of is the sensuous subject to the will part, which is represented by the baker (AC 5077, 5078, 5082).

[2] What is successive or continuous in intellectual things was represented by the vine, its three shoots, its blossoms, clusters, and grapes; and finally the truth which is of the intellect was represented by the cup (AC 5120); but what is successive in the things of the will is represented by the three baskets on the head, in the uppermost of which there was of all food for Pharaoh, the work of the baker. By what is successive in the things of the will is meant what is successive from the inmosts of man down to his outermost, in which is the sensuous; for there are steps or degrees as of a ladder, from inmosts to outermosts (AC 5114). Into the inmost there flows good from the Lord, and this through the rational into the interior natural, and thence into the exterior natural or sensuous, in a distinct succession, as by the steps of a ladder; and in each degree it is qualified according to the reception. But the further nature of this influx and its succession will be shown in the following pages.

[3] Baskets signify the things of the will in so far as goods are therein, in other passages of the Word, as in Jeremiah:--

Jehovah showed me, when behold two baskets of figs set before the temple of Jehovah; in one basket exceedingly good figs, like the figs that are first ripe; but in the other basket exceedingly bad figs, which could not be eaten for badness (Jer. 24:1, 2);

here basket is expressed in the original by a different word, which signifies the will part in the natural; the figs in the one basket are natural goods; while those in the other are natural evils.

[4] In Moses:--

When thou art come into the land which Jehovah thy God will give thee, thou shalt take of the first ripe of all the fruit of the land, which thou shalt bring in from thy land, and thou shalt put it in a basket, and shalt go unto the place which Jehovah shall choose. Then the priest shall take the basket out of thy hand, and set it before the altar of Jehovah thy God (Deut. 26:1, 2, 4);

here basket is expressed by still another word that signifies a new will part in the intellectual part; the first ripe of the fruit of the earth are the goods thence derived.

[5] In the same:--

For the sanctifying of Aaron and his sons, Moses was to take unleavened bread, and cakes unleavened mingled with oil, and wafers unleavened anointed with oil; of fine wheaten flour shalt thou make them. And thou shalt put them upon one basket, and bring them near in the basket. Aaron and his sons shall eat the flesh of the ram, and the bread in the basket, at the door of the tent of meeting (Exod. 29:2, 3, 32);

basket here is expressed by the same term as in the present chapter, signifying the will part in which are the goods signified by bread, cakes, oil, wafers, Sour, and wheat; by the will part is meant the containant; for goods from the Lord flow into the interior forms of man, as into their vessels, which forms, if disposed for reception, are the baskets in which these goods are contained.

[6] Again:--

When a Nazirite was being inaugurated he was to take a basket of unleavened things of fine flour, cakes mingled with oil, and unleavened wafers anointed with oil, with their meat-offering, and their drink-offerings; a ram also he shall make a sacrifice of peace-offerings to Jehovah, besides the basket of unleavened things; and the priest shall take the boiled shoulder of the ram, and one unleavened cake out of the basket, and one unleavened wafer, and shall put them upon the hand of the Nazirite, and the priest shall wave them with a waving before Jehovah (Num. 6:16, 17, 19, 20);

here also basket denotes the will part as the containant; the cakes, the wafers, the oil, the meat-offering, the boiled shoulder of the ram, are celestial goods which were being represented; for the Nazirite represented the celestial man (AC 3301).

[7] At that time such things as were used in worship were carried in baskets; as was also the kid of the goats by Gideon, which he brought forth to the angel under the oak (Judges 6:19); and this for the reason that baskets represented the containants, and the things in the baskets, the contents.

from AC 5144

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Author: E. Swedenborg (1688-1772).

Design: I.J. Thompson, Feb 2002.