As I have been reading Zohar for some months, there is a piece of text I would like to share from there which is relevant to this topic:
As Rabbi Simeon ceased speaking the students rose up to depart, but ere they left he himself stood up and said: "I have still a few further remarks to make before going, on two passages of scripture, which seemingly are somewhat contradictory in expression to each other. The first is, 'The Lord thy God is a consuming fire' (Deuter iv. 24); the other is, 'but ye that cleaved unto the Lord your God are alive every one of you this day'" (Deuter. iv. 4).
"If the Lord be a consuming fire as here stated, how could the children of Israel on becoming joined unto the Lord escape from being consumed, and continue to lived? It has been explained how the Divine Being is a fire that consumes every other kind of fire, for there are flames of fire more intense in their nature than others. To this statement I wish to add a few supplementary remarks. Whoever wishes to understand the mystery of union with the Divine will do well to reflect and meditate upon the flame proceeding from a lighted candle or a burning coal, in which may be recognized two kinds of flame or light, one white and the other dark or bluish in color. The white flame ascends upwards in a straight line, the dark or blue part of the flame, being below it and forming its basis. Though these be conjoined together, the white flame is always seen clearly and distinctly, and of the two is the most valuable and precious. From these observations we may gather somewhat of the occult meaning of the thekheloth (blue fringes) mentioned in scripture. The dark or blue flame is connected and conjoined with that above it, namely, the white, and also below it with the candle or coal in a state of combustion. It becomes sometimes red, whilst the superior white flame never varies in color and remains invariably the same. Furthermore, it is noticeable that the dark or blue flame consumes and wastes the substance of the coal or candle whence it emanates, but the white pure light consumes nothing and never varies. Therefore, when Moses proclaimed the Lord to be a consuming fire, he alludes to the astral fluid or flame that consumes everything similar to the dark flame that wastes and destroys the substance of the candle or coal. In using the term thy God, not our God, Moses refers to the white or Divine light which destroys nothing, in which he himself had been and came down from Mount Sinai out of it uninjured and intact. This is the case with everyone who lives in the Divine light of the higher life. He lives, then, the true or real life, and the astral light of the lower earthly life cannot harm or injure him. Therefore, to the children of Israel who had sanctified themselves and attained to this life, Moses could truly say: 'ye cleaved unto the Lord, your God, and are alive as at this time.' Above the white flame there is yet another arising out of it, yet unseen and unrecognizable by human sight and has reference to the greatest of mysteries, dim gleamings and notions of which are revealed to us by the different flames of a lighted candle or a burning coal."
As Rabbi Simeon ceased speaking, Rabbi Pinchus embraced him, exclaiming: "The Lord be praised! the Merciful One, who has led me hither." Rabbi Simeon, along with his students, went and accompanied Rabbi Pinchus on his journey for three leagues, and then bidding him adieu returned homewards.
SAID Rabbi Simeon: What I have discoursed on has reference to the secret doctrine and its teachings of the mystery of the divine wisdom united with the divine essence. Thus the final H in the tetragrammaton corresponds to the51a-51b dark or blue flame united with the three letters preceding it, I H V, making the white flame a light. Sometimes the dark is designated by the letter D, and other times by H. When Israel below is not living the divine life, it is characterized by D; but when it becomes conjoined with the white light, then it takes on itself the letter H; as it is written, 'If a damsel, a virgin, be betrothed' (Deuter. xxii-23). The word Naarah (damsel) is here written without the feminine termination H contrary to grammatical rule, naar being the male and naarah the female. Wherefore is it so written? Because she has not as yet come into union with the union with the male, and whenever this is the case the final H is found wanting. For a similar reason the dark or blue flame is designated by the letter Daleth, or D. When, however, it becomes conjoined with the white flame above it, it is represented by the letter He or H, for then a perfect union is effected in this sense, that the two become blended together (symbolizing thus the union of the lower and higher nature).
"Similar is the occult meaning of the smoke ascending from altars whereon sacrifices are offered up. It provokes into flame the blue light beneath it which, when it flashes forth and burns, becomes conjoined with the white flame above it and then as in the flame of a candle becomes or forms one whole and perfect light, and as it is the nature of the blue flame to consume that from which it emanates so does it consume the sacrifices placed on the altar; as it is written, 'When the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice' (I Kings, xviii-38). From the appearance of a perfect light or flame we may gather that the blue and white portions of it have become united into a whole when the grease of the sacrifices and burnt offerings has been consumed and then priests, levites, and all the rest of Israel becoming united with it join in the singing and chanting of hymns and psalms, and the world above and the world below are again united and blended as the flame of a candle and become blessed in the one great Divine Light of the universe. Such is the mystical meaning of the words: 'But ye that cleaved unto the Lord your God are alive,--every one of you--this day.' But wherefore doth scripture say 'but you' (veathem) and not 'you' (athem)? It is to show that whilst the sacrifices are consumed as soon as the blue flames touch them, yet Israel (living the divine life) though attached to it is not consumed, but are preserved in life unto this day.
"All colors seen in dreams are of good omen, except blue; because, as in the flame, we have observed it consumes and destroys the body beneath it. It is the upas or deadly tree that overshadows the world, and is lethal to everything beneath it. If it be objected that there are angelic beings on high who, along with mankind are equally under the blue flame and yet are not consumed, our reply is that they, as existent beings, are celestial in their essence and, therefore, different from human existences who are to the blue flame what the candle is to the light.
"In space there are forty-five divisions or directions, each of which is distinguished by different colors. The seven colors of the white light penetrate the seven abysses. and by the effect of their vibrations upon the rocks therein, cause water to flow forth, which is an allotrophic form of the air contained in the white light; light and darkness are really the producers of air and water according as the essential part or element of matter unites with one or the other. Light in passing from its primal state descends into this material world through sixty-five channels or avenues through which, when it courses, a voice is heard that makes the abysses tremble and shake, exclaiming, "Oh, matter! let light pass through thee!" as it is written, 'deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts (or channels)' (Ps. xlii-8). Below these there are three hundred and sixty-five smaller channels or rivulets, some of which in their color are white, some dark and others red. Each of these rivulets, of which there are seventeen, as it meanders in its course, resembles
a rose in its outlines with its layers of petals. Of these rivulets rose-like in form, two are like streams of iron and two, like copper. On the right and left of them, in the eastern and western quarters of the world, are two thrones connected and communicating with each other by means of these intermediate rivulets and channels. These thrones form each of them a heaven, that on the right being dark colored and that on the left being variegated in hue. As the light passes from one to the other throne through the various channels between them, it becomes more powerful and stronger in its circulatory course, similar to the blood in the veins of the body. Such is the region on high that gives rise to the seven different colors which, in their totality and blending, constitute the great mystery of that unknown something termed light. There are also seven other different colored lights, which, on flowing together and thus becoming blended, form one great ocean of light which then streams forth from its seven different outlets; as it is written, 'and he shall smite it in its seven streams' (Is. xi-15.). Each of the seven outlets or streams becomes divided and forms into seven reservoirs, and each of these into the source or fount of seven rivers and which subdivide again and form seven brooklets; thus forming a vast circulatory system by which the waters of each separate and then meet again and become blended together."
I am sorry that I had to take the whole chapter, in order to be able to give the whole picture of the relevance to the topic here. The chapter is Rabbi Simeon's Analogies of the Divine Life in Man.