5. 1. What the spiritual meaning is. The spiritual meaning is not the sense that shines from the literal one when one is studying the Word and interpreting it in order to confirm some dogma of the church. This sense is the Word’s literal sense. Rather its spiritual meaning is one not apparent in the literal one. The spiritual meaning lies within the literal one, like the soul within the body, like thought within the eyes, and affection within the face, which operate in concert, like cause and effect.

That spiritual meaning is what principally causes the Word to be spiritual, not only for people, but also for angels. Consequently that meaning is the means by which the Word communicates with the heavens.

56. One may believe that a doctrine of genuine truth can be acquired by means of the Word’s spiritual sense, which is obtained through a knowledge of correspondences. But doctrine is not acquired by means of that sense, but is only illustrated and corroborated by it. For as we said in no. 26 above, no one arrives at the spiritual sense through correspondences unless he first possesses genuine truths from doctrine. If he does not possess genuine truths first, a person may falsify the Word by applying some correspondences that he knows and connecting them and interpreting them to support something lodged in his mind from a preconceived premise.

In addition, the spiritual sense is granted to a person only by the Lord, and He protects it, as He protects heaven, inasmuch as heaven is present in it.

It is better, therefore, for a person to study the Word in its literal sense. That alone is the source of doctrine.