hurch is signified by the Garden of Eden; the Lord in
respect to divine providence is signified by the tree of life, and man in
respect to his own prudence is meant by the tree of knowledge; his
sensuous life and his proprium, which in itself is self-love and pride in
one's own intelligence, and thus is the devil and satan, is signified by
the serpent; and the appropriation of good and truth with the thought
that they are not from the Lord and are not the Lord's, but are from man
and are his, is signified by eating of the tree of knowledge. Inasmuch as
good and truth are what is divine with man (for everything of love is
meant by good, and everything of wisdom by truth), if man claims them as
his, he cannot but believe that he is as God. Therefore the serpent said:

In the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be as
God, knowing good and evil (Ge 3:5).

So do those in hell believe, who are in self-love and thence in the pride
of their own intelligence.

[3] Condemnation of self-love and self-intelligence is meant by the
condemnation of the serpent; the condemnation of the volitional proprium
is meant by the condemnation of Eve and the condemnation of the
intellectual proprium by the condemnation of Adam; sheer falsity and evil
are signified by the thorn and thistle which the earth would produce for
Adam; the loss of wisdom is signified by the expulsion from the Garden;
the Lord's care lest holy things of the Word and the church be violated
is meant by guarding the way to the tree of life; moral truths, veiling
men's self-love and conceit, are signified by the fig leaves with which
Adam and Eve covered their nakedness; and appearances of truth, in which
alone they were, are signified by the coats of skin with which they were
later clothed. Such is the spiritual understanding of these particulars.
Let him who wishes remain in the sense of the letter, only let him know
that it is so understood in heaven.

314. The nature of those who are infatuated with their own intelligence
can be seen from their fancies in matters of interior judgment, as, for
example, about influx, thought and life. Their thinking about influx is
inverted. They think that the sight of the eye flows into the internal
sight of the mind or into the understanding, and that the hearing of the
ear flows into the internal hearing, which also is the understanding.
They do not perceive that the understanding from the will flows into the
e