Posts Tagged ‘W. Wynn Westcott

11
Jun
10

Malkuth: The Resplendent Intelligence

Malkuth, the Tenth Sephirah, is associated with ‘the Resplendent Intelligence’ – the term comes from the Sefer Yetzirah (‘Book of Creation’ or ‘Book of Fomration’), or to be more precise I believe, Westcott’s 1887 translation of this early Kabbalist text:

‘The Tenth Path is the Resplendent Intelligence, because it is exalted above every head, and sits on the throne of BINAH (the Intelligence spoken of in the Third Path). It illuminates the splendor of all lights, and causes a supply of influence to emanate from the Prince of countenances’.

When I meditate on the Resplendent Intelligence, I think of the dazzling splendour of the natural world (the terrain of Malkuth) – of kingfishers, butterflies, flowers, salmon, leopards, antelope… In the human context, I think of dressing up, glamour, make up, dandyism… Not an illusion that must be stripped away, but a delight in appearance that expresses a joy in living.