...For through them we may know how the Shechinah (God’s Indwelling Presence) needs to govern for the sake of the matter (represented in a given image). Through understanding the images of prophecy in general – how the form of the creatures in the lower worlds is bound up with Malchut and its unique qualities – we can know how the levels and powers of Malchut are bound together to produce the thing in question.
...and to bring it down to the level of the lower realms. Malchut’s power to depict things through images stands in the middle, between the flow of spiritual sustenance from the higher Sefirot and the receiving of that sustenance by the lower worlds. On their own intrinsic level up above, the sustaining powers (the higher Sefirot) are simple. However, when they descend in order to send spiritual sustenance into the lower worlds, the Shechinah must forge a bond of connection between the two. This is done by “translating” the simple light of the higher Sefirot into a form in which it can be received in the lower worlds through various “contractions”, and the light can then go forth in this manner to its place in the lower worlds.