Stewardship and 'the Malkut Pot'

Coming down to earth - an ancient yew tree in a graveyard on the Dartington Estate

In our final sessions of the summer, we both drew to a conclusion much of our earlier work over the last year and began to prepare for a new stage of exploration. From these sessions and from the Autumn term onwards over the next few years (God willing!) we shall be slowly making our inner way through the individual sefirot of the psychological Tree of Life and the paths that connect them. We might think of this as another take on a masters degree in psychology... from a practical and esoteric, rather than an academic, perspective.

For these two sessions on the 17th and 31st July we focussed on the Malkut of Yetzirah/Formation, exploring ideas and practices around physical awareness and our responsibilities and stewardship of our bodies, our homes, families, communities and environment.

In our first session we created a virtual collective 'wisdom pot' of everything we had understood about Malkut over the last year or longer. This was a rich brew of ideas, images and impressions which I'll try to give a taste of here:

Images for Malkut included that of a seed or acorn, of the earth and its core, of a stone with starlight in it, of a treehouse and of a cauldron...

Ideas included a sense of connection and of bindings, the earth as being like a library of knowledge, the importance of taking care of the body, of valuing our past, our ancestors and family - those whose shoulders we stand on and the soil we grow in, of the Malkut of Yetzirah being like standing in our hearts and it being a cosmic catflap between the body and psyche...

Key words included the traditional translation of Malkhut as kingdom and also related words such as commonwealth, the commons, sovereignty and stewardship.

We also experimented with a practical exercise in speculative Kabbalah by considering how a whole Tree of Life could be placed within Malkut. In our final session at the very end of July, we returned to the theme of stewardship and related this to a 'Tree in Malkut'.

In meditation we returned again to simple breath and 'Tree in the Body' meditations but with more discipline in our stillness and in finding an aware balance of relaxation and clear focus. Our meditations over the year have increasingly dwelt in finding our feet, our ground and our sense of place as a starting point. Of the importance of befriending the body and inviting it to be an ally in the meditative journey. Also on working with subtlety in listening to the natural rhythm of the breath rather than forcing the breathing into controlled exercises and similarly to see developing concentration as a deepening process of intimacy rather than a tight focus. Body Tree meditations have focussed on the four main centres at feet, pelvic base, heart and crown on the Middle Pillar, with a gentle, steady and honest awareness of these areas of the body and growing a sense of holding an awareness of the whole earth to heaven experience.

To conclude these sessions, each of us chose our own practical 'Malkut task' to be working on.