It may seem strange at first to read and be told that the hair of the head and the beard correspond to the Word in its outmost aspects. This correspondence, however, draws its origin from the fact that every element of the Word corresponds to an element of heaven, and every element of heaven to an element of the human form. For heaven as a whole is, in the Lord's sight, like a single person. (Concerning this correspondence, see the book Heaven and Hell, nos. 87-102.)

[2] I have been given to perceive that every element of the Word corresponds to an element of heaven from the discovery that individual chapters in the prophetic books of the Word correspond to individual societies of heaven. For once, when I ran through the prophetic books of the Word from Isaiah to Malachi, I was given to see that societies of heaven were stirred one by one in turn, and that they perceived the spiritual meaning corresponding to themselves. Consequently, on the basis of this and other evidence, it became apparent to me that there is a correspondence of the whole of heaven with the Word in its series. Now, because there is such a correspondence of the Word with heaven, and because heaven in whole and in part corresponds to the human form, therefore it comes to pass that the outmost aspect of the Word corresponds to the outmost features of a person. The outmost aspect of the Word is its literal meaning, and the outmost features of a person are the hairs of his head and beard.

[3] For this reason, people who have loved the Word even in respect to its outmost aspects, after death, when they become spirits, appear with attractive hair. So do angels. When these same people become angels, they also let their beards grow. On the other hand, all those who have held the literal meaning of the Word in disdain, after death, when they become spirits, appear bald. This is moreover a sign that they are lacking in truths. Consequently they also cover their heads with turbans, so as not to be a scandal to others.

[4] Inasmuch as hair and beards symbolize the outmost aspects of heaven and so also the outmost aspects of Divine truth or the Word, therefore the Ancient of Days is described in Daniel 7:9 as having the hair of His head like pure wool. Likewise the Son of Man, or the Lord in relation to the Word, in Revelation 1:14. For the same reason Samson's strength lay in his hair, on the cutting of which he became weak.* And the hair of a Nazirite was consecrated,** because a Nazirite represented the Lord in regard to His outmost aspects, thus also heaven in its outmost aspects. That was why the forty-two boys were torn apart by she-bears for calling Elisha a baldhead (2 Kings 2:23,24).

[5] Elisha, like Elijah and the rest of the prophets, represented the Lord in relation to the Word, and the Word is not the Word apart from its outmost meaning, which is the meaning of the letter. For the literal meaning of the Word is like a decanter filled with fine wine. If therefore the decanter is broken, all the wine is lost. Or the literal meaning of the Word is like the bones and skin of a person. If these are taken away, the whole person disintegrates. This is the reason that the integrity, indeed, the power of the whole Word lies in its outmost meaning, which is the meaning of the letter. For this meaning sustains and contains all the Divine truth within.

[6] Since baldness symbolizes a lack of truth, because its outmost form is missing, therefore those of the Jewish Church, when they left Jehovah and rejected the Word, are called bald. In Jeremiah, for example:

... every head shall be bald, and every beard shaved. (Jeremiah 48:37)

In Isaiah:

On ... their heads will be baldness, and (the) beard shaved. (Isaiah 15:2)

In Ezekiel:

(That he was to shave his head and beard with a razor.) (Ezekiel 5:1)

Also in Ezekiel:

Shame will be on all faces, and baldness on all their heads. (Ezekiel 7:18)

Again in Ezekiel:

Every head was made bald.... (Ezekiel 29:18)

So also in other places, as in Amos 8:10, and Micah 1:16.

[7] Nevertheless, the meaning of the Word called the sense of the letter corresponds to the hair of the head only in its outmost aspects. In other respects it corresponds to various parts of the human body-such as the head, breast, loins, and feet. However, when such correspondent forms occur in the literal meaning, the Word is as if clothed, and the literal meaning then corresponds to the clothing of these parts. For garments in general symbolize truths, and also actually correspond to them. But still, many things in the literal meaning of the Word are naked, unclothed so to speak, and these correspond to a person's face, and also to his hands-parts that are bare. These things in the Word are serviceable for the doctrine of the church, because they are in themselves spiritual truths on a natural plane. Consequently it can be seen that there is nothing to prevent a person from finding and seeing naked truths even in the literal sense of the Word. [Marginal Note] That the outmost meaning of the Word, from the correspondence of natural things with spiritual things, is meant by the twelve precious stones of which the foundations of the wall of the New Jerusalem consisted.... * See Judges 16:16-19. ** See Numbers 6:5, 7, 9, 11, 18, 19; Judges 13:5.