Sefirot

I was on my way to part 3 of the Vessel Story, in which the light has fallen like dust onto the earth. I made and remade a bowl with light pouring into it and flowing out. It wasn’t working. I went back to the myth.

Rabbi Isaac Luria of Safed, known as the Ari (1534-1572) conceived of the myth, which traveled quickly around the Meditteranean to Jews who had had to flee Spain and found themselves adrift after the Spainish Inquistion of 1492.. For some 500 years Jews, Moors and Christians had lived in harmony and the myth that found them in N. Africa, in the Netherlands, and in the Balkins helped provide some meaning and comfort. In the myth, the concept of Tikkun Olam, to gather in the light helped to provided a reason that they could cling to. They were there to gather in the light, to do good deeds and maintain a Jewish life.

On the other hand, Daniel Matt in his teachings of the Kabbalah and the mystical Zohar has a very different interpertation, and rather than try to continue to make a bowl that contained and released. I was inspired to create a Sefirot, a tree of life and light. The composition was inspired by a painting by Gustav Klimpt. The gold above and below is inspired by Islamic tiles.

The words I’ve painted on the Sefirot
1. emanation
2. ain sof
3. love
4. clarity
5. pardes
6. light
7. I am here
8. beauty