We are engaging the energies of the sefirot as they flow into Malchut, the sefirah of this final week of this Omer journey. Into Malchut, this Kingdom, we bring Yesod, the place of our ego. Yesod is the Foundation of our lesser “i” with which we interact with each other and with our world. The channel of Light is experienced between the genital area and the base of the spine.

It is possible, all too possible, to exist at Malchut without ever awakening to Yesod, eventually forgetting our fuller ego-self. The ego itself is an awakening of self-consciousness, without which we live with no perception of purpose beyond the fulfilment of material needs, and meaning beyond the identification with role, person or pattern in Malchut.

Ego is a link between our Higher Self and this world. With its light and its shadow, its joy and its sorrow, its yearnings and its accomplishments, its failures and its victories, our ego allows us to stand firm in the world. It is our vehicle for orientating thought, feeling, and action toward greater purpose.

With all its struggles, all its difficulties, our lesser self carries its own wisdom and power into the world of Malchut. It allows our unique point of view, through which we can understand and operate in the world with insight and with vision. Today, we seek to more fully awaken this self within our Kingdom, that we might be able to see our own responsibilities more clearly than ever before.

Our identity at Yesod is called nefesh, our animal soul, yet it has great possibilities. Only through the nefesh can we make sense out of the Malchut we encounter. Let us seek to honour that identity, and celebrate its energies in our world. It is the space in which we first open our “i’s”.