Spiritual Meaning of

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Night in the spiritual sense signifies a state of shade brought on by falsity from evil (AR 1712, 2353), thus also obscurity, namely, of the mind. The obscurity of night in the world is natural obscurity; but the obscurity of night in the other life is spiritual obscurity. The former arises from the absence of the sun of this world and the deprivation of light therefrom, but the latter from the absence of the sun of heaven which is the Lord, and the deprivation of light (that is, of intelligence) therefrom. This deprivation does not arise from the sun of heaven setting, like the sun of the world, but from a man or spirit being in falsity from evil, and removing himself, and thus bringing obscurity upon himself. from the mere idea of night and its obscurity in both senses, it is evident how the spiritual sense stands relatively to the natural sense of this same thing. Moreover spiritual obscurity is threefold, one kind being from the falsity of evil, the second from ignorance of truth, and the third is that of exterior things relatively to interior things, thus of the sensuous things of the external man relatively to the rational things of the internal man. All these kinds of obscurity however, arise from the fact that the light of heaven (or intelligence and wisdom from the Lord) is not received; for this light is continually flowing in, but it is rejected, suffocated, or perverted by the falsity of evil; is but little received by ignorance of truth; and is dulled by being made general by the sensuous things of the external man.

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