In a broad sense, there are two things we get from our food. One is energy, in the form of carbohydrates and fats. The other is building material – the proteins our bodies use to build new fibers, and the vitamins that help make our bodies function correctly. Swedenborg says that on a spiritual level, that energy represents a desire for good; the proteins and vitamins represent the ideas and concepts necessary to turn that desire into useful work.
Fire, meanwhile, also represents desire, an emotional state of wanting something. This is easy to see in modern language: We might “burn” with passion or feel the “flame” of desire. This can obviously be good or bad depending on our desires, just as fire can be a powerful force for good and also one of the most destructive forces we know.
Baking is a way of using the massive but unfocused energy of that fire to prepare food for the body. If we have a strong underlying drive to be good, we can use it to turn our ideas and good intentions into effective, well-planned action.
It’s also worth noting that baked food is often starchy – bread, cakes and other high-energy foods. So baking is focused more on the on the desire for good, while other forms of cooking have other meanings.
Passages from Swedenborg
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 7356
‘And into your ovens, and into your kneading bowls’ means into delights belonging to evil desires. This is clear from the meaning of ‘ovens’, since they are what bread is baked in, as forms of exterior good (forms of exterior good being those which exist in the natural and are as a general rule called delights; for when forms of interior good, which are offshoots of [heavenly] kinds of love and resulting affections, pass into the natural they are experienced as delights there, and these delights are meant in a good sense by ‘ovens’) or in the contrary sense, in which ‘ovens’ is used here, as delights belonging to evil desires, that is, delights springing from hellish kinds of love, which are self-love and love of the world; and from the meaning of ‘kneading bowls’ too as delights belonging to evil desires in the natural, but even more external ones since kneading bowls are the vessels in which the dough is prepared when bread is made.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 7978
‘And they baked the dough which they brought out of Egypt – unleavened cakes’ means that from the truth of good further good was produced that had no falsity at all in it. This is clear from the meaning of ‘baking’ – when used in reference to the truth of good, meant by ‘the dough’ – as producing; from the meaning of ‘the dough’ as the truth of good, dealt with above in 7966; and from the meaning of ‘unleavened cakes’ as forms of good that have no falsity at all in them, since ‘unleavened’ means without falsity, see 2342, 7906. This is the second state of truth from good that they passed through when they were delivered, see above in 7966, 7972. The reason why ‘cakes’ means forms of good is that they are cakes of bread, and ‘bread’ in the internal sense is the good of love, dealt with in 276, 680, 2165, 2177, 3464, 3478, 3735, 3813, 4211, 4217, 4735, 4976, 5915. But bread in the form of cakes is distinguished from bread in general, in that bread in the form of cakes means the good of love towards the neighbour, which is spiritual good, while bread in general means the good of love to the Lord, which is celestial good. Such spiritual good was meant by ‘the minchah’ which was offered and burned with the sacrifice on the altar; for ‘the minchah’ was baked into cakes and into wafers, as is made clear in Exod. 29:2, 3, 23, 24, 32; Lev. 2:2 and following verses; 6:20, 21; Num. 6:15, 19; 15:18-21.
[2] Something similar was meant by ‘the twelve leaves of the presence which too were baked into cakes, described in Moses as follows,
You shall take fine flour and bake it into twelve cakes; two-tenths [of an ephah] shall there be in one cake. And you shall place them in two rows, six in a row, on the clean table before Jehovah. And you shall put pure frankincense on each row, and it shall be leaves of bread serving as a memorial, a fire-offering to Jehovah. Lev. 24:5-9.
From these instructions it becomes clear that ‘the leaves’ meant what was holy, for such instructions would never have been issued but for that reason. And since they meant what was holy they were also called in verse 9 of the same chapter ‘holiness of holinesses.’* But these leaves meant the good of celestial love, and their being baked into cakes meant forms of the good of spiritual love. From these verses and from those in the references given above it becomes clear that something similar is meant by the bread in the Holy Supper.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 8496
‘Bake what you will bake’ means preparing good to be joined; ‘and boil what you will boil’ means preparing truth to be joined. This is clear from the meaning of ‘baking’, since it was done by means of fire, as preparing good to be joined; and from the meaning of ‘boiling’, since it was done by means of water, as preparing truth to be joined – ‘water’ meaning the truth of faith, 2702, 3058, 3424, 4976, 5668, and ‘fire’ meaning the good of love, 934, 5215, 6314, 6832, 6834, 6849, 7324, 7852. The fact that preparing them to be joined is meant is self-evident, for what was being baked and boiled was being prepared for the following sabbath day, by which a joining together is meant, as shown immediately above. They were forbidden to kindle fire on the sabbath day, Exod. 35:3, so they could not bake or boil anything then. The word ‘bake’ is used in connection with bread and the minchah, which was made by means of fire, see Isa. 44:15, 19; 1 Sam. 28:24; Ezek. 46:20; Lev. 6:17; while ‘boil’ is used in connection with flesh, which was cooked in water, Exod. 29:31; Lev. 6:28; 1 Sam. 2:13, 15.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 8497
‘And all that is left over put aside for yourselves to keep until the morning’ means the enjoyment of all goodness and truth then as if from what was their own. This is clear from the meaning of ‘putting aside what is left over till the morning’ as enjoyment on the sabbath day, the reason why the enjoyment of goodness and truth is meant being that they were to put aside what was left over from the things they baked and boiled and to eat it on that day (‘baking’ means the preparation of good, and ‘boiling’ the preparation of truth, as has been shown immediately above in 8496, and ‘eating’ means enjoying and making one’s own, 3168, 3513 (end), 3596, 3832, 4745, 7849); and from the meaning of ‘for yourselves to keep’ as, as if it – the enjoyment – was from what was their own.
Apocalypse Explained 555 (Tansley)
[12] So in Moses:
“I will break for you the staff of your bread, that ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver you your bread again by weight; and ye shall eat and not be satisfied” (Levit. xxvi. 26).
These words in the spiritual sense, mean that truth from good, by which men are spiritually nourished, shall fail; for bread signifies every kind of spiritual food that is for the nourishment of the man of the church. Women signify those of the church who are in the affection for truth. By ten women baking bread in one oven, is signified, that they shall search for truth that may be conjoined to good, but shall only find a very little; for to bake signifies to prepare and conjoin so as to serve for the use of life. To deliver the bread by weight, signifies that it is rare; and to eat and not be satisfied, signifies, because truth from good is so scanty and rare, as scarcely to yield any spiritual nourishment for the soul.