Transformation through expression the truth of who you are.
The Seventh Week
מלכות
Malchut
Kingship; Actualisation, Sovereignty
Transformation through Self-Expression
Sovereignty - the last of the seven attributes - is different than the previous six. It is a state of being rather than an activity.
Leadership is a passive expression of human dignity which has nothing of its own except that which it receives from the other six emotions.
On the other hand, Malchut manifests and actualizes the character and majesty of the human spirit. It is the very fibre of what makes us human. When love, discipline, compassion, endurance and humility are properly channelled into the psyche through bonding—the result is Malchut. Bonding nurtures us and allows our sovereignty to surface and flourish.
Malchut is a sense of belonging. Knowing that you matter and that you make a difference. That you have the ability to be a proficient leader in your own right. It gives you independence and confidence. A feeling of certainty and authority. When a mother lovingly cradles her child on her bosom, the child receives the message that I am wanted and needed in this world. I have a comfortable place where I will always be loved. I have nothing to fear. I feel like a king in my heart. This is Malchut, kingship.
Sovereign self-expression
In moments of quiet this week I explore more fully my current experience in the world. Without trying to change anything, I allow myself to accept and open to where and what I am now in the life I am living.
The Sefirah on the Tree of Life
Malchut represents the “kingdom” in which we live. It is the level of the Tree which receives from all others. Energies from the higher sefirot manifest here, but they are hidden. Malchut is the sefirah in which we lose ourselves, but it is also the place we must begin to find ourselves.
The focus this week is to open more fully to the wonders of the kingdom in which we are living right now. Seek moments of quiet during which to give attention to the myriad of impulses with which each moment is filled. In this quiet space of receptivity, release yourself more fully to the experience of life, breathing slowly, and releasing all resistance. Everything is simply as it is right now – the present.
Through this expansion of attention, become aware of the reflections and influence of each of the other sefirot. We become more aware of the intimate entanglement between ourselves and our universe through awakening fully in each unique moment.
Malchut can be a place of stuckness or a place of movement. The more willing we are to simply honour our experience, to explore it without resistance, the more able we are to discover the possibilities which are otherwise hidden from us.
We have focused on the flow of energies on the Tree, the unfolding of Creation. Now we arrive at the most complex of manifestations – the world in which we live. This is Malchut, the Kingdom, and it receives energies from all the other sefirot. This is the place in which we can easily be lost. Paradoxically, it is the place in which we can be most easily found as well.
The shape of our Malchut, the shape of our current reality, reflects the energies that make it up, so we can understand a great deal from a clearer examination of our world. As always, allowing ourselves to experience with deep compassion opens the gateways to greater awarenesses. It is always our resistance that keeps us locked up, that keeps our current Malchut in a place of stuckness. Resistance to stuckness enhances that very stuckness.
Malchut is the place we are given and in which we create opportunities for awakening. It is here we prepare ourselves to stand at Sinai, as we strive to understand more fully the nature of our current reality.
In Malchut we can become lost even to ourselves. As we identify more fully with the particulars of Malchut, we forget the self beyond those identifications. We identify with power, with position, with person, with possession, with fame, with money... this list is endless. Yet it is through this very process of identifications that we discover ourselves. To honour where we are, and then to move behind how we are currently experiencing ourselves and our world, allows us to expand the potentials of our Malchut. For this Kingdom is the place in which the Greater Being seeks us.
The Name of G-d
at Malchut
is Adonai
אֲדֹנָי
Adonai literally means “Lord”, and is the word we read as a replacement for the Tetragrammaton, the unspoken four-lettered Name of G-d. Here Adonai is spelled as it sounds. On a higher level, it will be the name spoken as a reflection of that Name which is beyond speech.
Adonai open my lips, that my mouth may declare your glory.
-- (Prayerbook – Psalm 51:17)
During your meditations this week, become more aware of your surroundings. In moments of quiet, allow yourself to notice more of what is going on both outside as well as inside yourself. Begin to release the resistance to aspects of your world which you are finding difficult to handle. Let be what is.
Take Adonai as your focus. Explore the sound, the letters, the “sense” of that name.
At Malkhut, it is necessary to awaken to levels which are hidden, so even the Name of G-d reflects a place of possible alienation. Yet it may be through this very alienation and limitation that we can most directly awaken to the deeper whispers moving through this dimension of reality.