The Zohar (I have to look for everything that I read in this book within myself): And the Creator (the general force of bestowal, as much as I can imagine it) said to Noah (my inner desire to become like the Creator): “I have placed My rainbow in the cloud.” “I have placed” alludes to having placed it even earlier, because the rainbow is a “cornerstone.” And the cornerstone was placed in its place before even the world’s creation, for the world is founded upon it, and therefore it is written: “I have placed,” in the past tense.

It is written: “Above the firmament.” Of what exists above the firmament it is written: “And I shall hear the sound of their wings.” These are the four largest and highest of holy animals upon which the firmament stands. Their wings connect, concealing their torsos. The firmament is the border of the second restriction, called Parsa. It stands upon four large animals: Hesed, Gevura, Tifferet, and Malchut.

Within us there are forces called Hessed, Gevurah, Tifferet, and Malchut, or four animals on the animate level. There is the “firmament,” which separates these forces from other forces. But they are all just that – forces.

All that we presently feel is depicted for us by these forces on our inner screen. Our goal is to shift from the external images on the screen to the forces themselves. Then we will be able to attain the root of our reality, begin to change it, and come to the Source.

The spiritual world is a world of forces. It is only when we exist in the corporeal world that we imagine these forces as corporeal images. However, ultimately this whole imagined reality dissipates into nothingness.

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