Throughout the Bible, we repeatedly encounter people and animals in caves, holes, or the cleft of a rock. On the surface, this might seem like simple shelter or escape. But Neville Goddard teaches that these stories describe inner states, not outer locations. Animals represent feelings, moods, and emotional movements of the mind, while people represent states of awareness interacting with imagination. The cleft of the rock is where imagination rests, and the creatures and humans around it illustrate how consciousness and feelings engage—or block—that creative power.
In other words, the Bible is a map of consciousness. Every person, animal, and place is a symbol for something happening inside your mind. The dove, the serpent, and the cleft of the rock are all part of the story of imagination—hidden, divided, and ultimately awakened.
The Rock and the Cleft: Mind and Imagination
The Bible often uses the “head as the house” allegory. In this framework, the “rock” is the human mind (the skull), and a “cleft,” “hole,” or “tomb” carved into it represents the place where imagination rests, unnoticed and dormant. People enter these clefts—figuratively—to access inner states, while animals in these stories represent the emotional and mental currents present in those states.
When imagination is not consciously engaged, life feels reactive. Circumstances seem to control you. This is not because imagination is weak, but because it is unrecognised. The Law of Assumption begins the moment you realise imagination is the cause of experience. To assume a state—to feel it as already true—is to awaken what has been resting in the cleft of the rock.
Scriptural Examples, Psychologically Understood
Exodus 33:22
“I will put thee in a cleft of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by.”
This is not God hiding Moses from danger. It describes awareness turning inward. Consciousness withdraws from the senses and rests in imagination, quietly forming a new assumption before it expresses outwardly. The cleft is the resting place where imagination, previously dormant, begins its work.
Song of Solomon 2:14
“O my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock… let me see thy face, let me hear thy voice.”
The dove represents peaceful imagination—gentle awareness that is resting and receptive. Hidden in the cleft, it is quiet, calm, and waiting to act. In this allegory, the cleft is the resting place of imagination, and the dove shows the state of inner peace that allows creation to flow. This also ties to the meaning of Solomon’s name, which is associated with peace; the goal of imagination is not just power, but peaceful alignment with creation.
The dove moves within the mind, flying where peace is needed, in contrast to judgement that divides and distracts. It shows that imagination thrives in a state of rest, not in reaction or comparison.
Golgotha — The Place of the Skull
“And when they came to a place called Golgotha, which means the Place of the Skull…”
This is not a geographic location; it is psychology. Jesus represents imagination, and Golgotha is the mind itself. The crucifixion shows the fixing of an assumption, while the burial illustrates imagination temporarily denied or forgotten. When the stone is rolled away, imagination awakens, and a new state is assumed, which then shapes the outer world.
The Serpent: Judgement, the Sneakiest Feeling
Animals in biblical allegory represent feelings and moods. The serpent is described as the subtlest and sneakiest of all. It represents judgement—the inner critic, the feeling that divides consciousness.
Judgement slips in unnoticed. It questions, compares, and evaluates. It whispers, “Is this really true?” or “You should be more than you are.” This subtle feeling divides the mind into observer and observed, worthy and unworthy. This is the fall into sin, into the pattern of double-mindedness symbolised by the tree of knowledge of good and evil, where imagination cannot express freely.
Genesis 3:14
“Upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life.”
This is descriptive, not punitive. Judgement feeds on appearances (“dust”), reacting to the surface of life rather than assuming from within. When imagination submits to judgement, it is bound to the senses instead of directing them.
Raising the Serpent = Ending Judgement
“As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.” (John 3:14)
Raising the serpent is the act of lifting awareness above judgement. When judgement is silenced, imagination can operate freely. Assumption replaces reaction, feeling replaces evaluation, and the mind aligns with the peace of the dove. This is resurrection—the Law of Assumption in action: consciously assuming a state as already true and letting it manifest outwardly.
Putting It All Together
- The rock is the mind (the skull).
- The cleft or tomb is imagination at rest.
- Animals, including the serpent and the dove, represent inner feelings and moods influencing imagination.
- The dove shows peaceful, receptive imagination—the aim of Solomon and the goal of creation.
- The serpent represents subtle judgement—the feeling that divides the mind.
- Jesus in the tomb is imagination temporarily denied or forgotten.
- Resurrection is consciously assuming a new state, free from judgement, where imagination and peace are unified.
The Bible is not about God versus man. It is about awareness learning to stop judging, stop reacting, and begin assuming. When you assume from within—without judgement—the stone rolls away, and the peace of imagination flies freely like the dove.