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Zohar I 019b [translated by Gershom Scholem] – The Universe shell and kernel

When King Solomon "penetrated into the depths of the nut garden," as it is written, "I descended into the garden of nuts" {Cant. 6:11}, he took up a nut shell and, studying it, he saw an analogy in its layers with the spirits which motivate the sensual desires of humans, as it is written  "and the delights of the sons of men {are from} male and female demons" {Eccles. 2:8}.

The Holy One, be blessed, saw that it was necessary to put into the world all of these things so as to make sure of permanence, and of having, so to speak, a brain surrounded by numerous membranes. The whole world, upper and lower, is organized on this principle, from the primary mystic centre to the very outermost of all the layers. All are coverings, the one to the other, brain within brain, spirit inside of spirit, shell within shell.

The primal centre is the innermost light, of a translucence, subtlety, and purity beyond comprehension. That inner point extended becomes a "palace" which acts as an enclosure for the centre, and is also of a radiance translucent beyond the power to know it.

The "palace" vestment for the incognisable inner point, while it is an unknowable radiance in itself, is nevertheless of a lesser subtlety and translucency than the primal point. The "palace" extends into a vestment for itself, the primal light.

From then outward, there is extension upon extension, each constituting a vesture to the one before) as a membrane to the brain. Though membrane first, each extension becomes brain to the next extension.

Likewise does the process go on below; and after this design, man in the world combines brain and membrane, spirit and body, all to the more perfect ordering of the world.

When the moon was conjoined with the sun, she was luminous, but when she went apart from the sun and was given governance of her own hosts, her status and her light were reduced, and shell after shell was fashioned for investing the brain, and all was for its good.