All creation flows from the 'inside out' - from the spiritual or inner dimensions to the physical or outer dimensions of the universe. This is the realm of modern science that sorts through the almost limitless actualisations or manifestations of this 'downward flow'.
In parallel, spiritual evolution flows from the 'outside in' - from the physicality of the world that is progressively refined to return to its source. This is the realm of esotericism, mysticism and true religion that navgiates the possibilities or potentialities of this 'upward flow'.
In the begining of the Bible, it was God who created Heaven and Earth - but it was humanity's egoism that created Hell. Ever since, God has been trying to save us from ourselves - sometimes kicking and screaming, and sometimes lovingly - but God cannot do this without our cooperation. Therein lies the spiritual drama, centred firmly on the hazards of 'Free Will'.
If there is sufficient conscious work to enable Soul formation, we can be a 'crucible' where the creative and spiritual realms meet and exchange in order to provide a perpetual source of 'collaborative conflict' that makes the life of the universe possible.
Without such work, the nascent Soul begins to leak, crack and finally disintegrate under its own pressure, where sustaining a relationship between the two realms is rendered inert.
In a way, the forming Human Soul is naturally assigned as a 'gatekeeper' between worlds - a dimensional membrane that can selectively allow or disallow energies flowing from one side to another.
The Desert Fathers of the Philokalia call us to become self-initated soliders engaged in true Spiritual Warfare. Forever keeping watch, and fighting the good fight, the solider's eternal struggle is between their inner forces flowing into the world and back again, sustained in rightful balance. Without this struggle, there is nothing to protect one world from the consequences of the other.