A coat of many colours

In Session 4 on June 15th 2011, we took the next step in our journey through the Seven Halls of Kabbalah and focussed on the second sefirah of Yesod. We related this to the personality level of our being and tried to acknowledge its beauties, as well as its limitations. Here is an excerpt from our notes for this session:

"In Kabbalah the ego is sometimes represented by the biblical character of Joseph with his coat of many colours and I’ve found this image helpful. Joseph is someone who passes through loss and pain and suffering to become a creative and effective personality, able to use his gifts and talents to both improve his own life and that of others. The ‘coat of many colours’ is a fine metaphor for this psychological outer layer of our being and expresses well, I feel, that our personality can be both a unique and beautiful creation and yet is also only an outer surface that we wear for a while over the deeper, eternal aspects of being. Having watched a beloved family member die of Alzheimer’s at a relatively young age, I’ve come to feel that a healthy and robust ego is something to celebrate and be grateful for, while also recognising that it is not all that we are.

Yesod is sometimes described as the ‘non luminous mirror’ and can also be imagined like a pool of water. When you look at the Tree of the Psyche, you can see how around this mirror or pool are arranged a great triad of the sefirot of Malkhut, Hod and Nezah, which at this psychological level we can imagine simply as representing physical sensations, thoughts and feelings. We can experience this when we focus awareness within ourselves, which can be like looking into a pool or mirror in which we see the endless play of sensations, thoughts and feelings that make up our moment to moment sense of self.

Sometimes the pool is calm and clear, sometimes muddy and disturbed and usually we are completely and fairly unconsciously focused upon it and identified with what we see within it. Like the Queen in Snow White, we look into the mirror of ourselves and are preoccupied with how we and the things reflected around us appear....and at our most basic we want to look good and be in control!

But the mirror, of course, shows only what we present to it, what we want to see and show to others. In this sense the ego is a mask, behind which, pushed into the shadow of unconsciousness are all the aspects of the psyche which we have learnt to hide. This is unique to each of us. ‘Anger’ for example may be a vital colour in the ego coat of a gang member but is generally pushed into the shadow of a woman priest! The content is not the issue...it’s just as important to be conscious of anger as it is of compassion. Awakening is not a process of crafting a nice ‘spiritual ego’...it’s about becoming aware of the full range of what it means to be human, to be alive and to have a real capacity for conscious choice...for the times when anger is actually the more skilful response than compassion for example.

Mythic and ‘fairy’ tales are a wonderful source of psychological insight. Just as Snow White and her dark step mother show dark and light aspects of the self, so similarly do the characters of Beauty and the Beast. In this latter story we see how the bright self is able to move through its fears of its hidden side, into a loving relationship with that which is wounded and shadowed within. 

But our folk teaching stories also show us something about the limitations of the ego and its need at times for death and transformation. With honesty we each become aware at times of inner and outer patterns that don’t well serve us or those around us and that we need to change, restrain or, like that dark queen, simply put an end to. There are also times in life when it seems we are reminded that our coat of many

colours is just a temporary creation and that while it’s good to appreciate it, it’s also good not to get too attached! Losses, redundancies and other unexpected changes remind us that our identities are impermanent and we need at times to let them die and be reborn in new forms. What appears ‘beautiful’ is sometimes simply familiar, while the ‘beastly’ is sometimes simply a new stage of self that we haven’t got to know yet!

Starting to more consciously observe the mirror of ourselves and to recognise, appreciate and constructively use and lose our masks, coats or bright selves is part of the work of the second Hall. With time and the help of others we may also start to glimpse and embrace a wider range of self as we start to integrate shadow material, but this takes us further on the path of awakening and towards the third and fourth Halls, which we will touch on more in the next session.