Queen
Scale of Colour

Briah is the Creative World of Archangelic consciousness.  It corresponds to the element of Water and the second letter of the Tetragrammaton: Heh. In Tarot it is represented by the Queens, and the suit of Cups.

Generally speaking the Queen Scale colours are derived from “reflected light.” They are also the most commonly seen colours for the Sephiroth. This is more fully explained in a remarkable document from the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn called Hodos Chamelionis (The Path of the Rainbow). (See the Golden Dawn page for a bit more detail).

If an initiate passed the 5=6 grade, they were shown a diagram called the Minutum Mundum sive Fundamental Coloris (the Small Universe or Foundation of Colour). “Treasure it in thy heart,” they were told, “and mark it well, seeing that herein is the Key of Nature.”

The text explains the colour choices of the Sephiroth in Briah: “…Kether is the highest of all, and herein scintillates the Divine White Brilliance, concerning which it is not fitting that I should speak more fully. Chokmah is Grey, the mixture of colours. Binah is darkness, the absorption of colours.  And thus is the Supernal Triad completed.”

Then it details the “reflected” colours: “In Kether is the root of the Golden Glory, and thence is the yellow reflected into Tiphareth.  In Chokmah is the root of Blue, and this is reflected into Chesed; in Binah is the root of Red, and this is reflected into Geburah. And thus is the first reflected Triad completed. 

“The beams of Chesed and Tiphareth meet in Netzach and yield Green.  The beams of Geburah and Tiphareth meet in Hod and yield a tawny Orange.  The beams of Chesed and Geburah fall in Yesod and yield Purple.  And thus is the Third Triad completed. 

“And from the rays of the Third Triad are these three colours shown in Malkuth, together with a fourth which is the synthesis. For from the Orange Tawny of Hod and the Greening Nature of Netzach is reflected a certain Greenish Citrine – Citron; from the Orange Tawny mixed with the Puce of Yesod proceedeth a red russet Brown -Russet; and from the Green and the Puce cometh a certain other darkening green – Olive. The synthesis of all these is blackness and bordereth on the Qlippoth.”

The Minitum Mundum document also notes: “…The Tree of Life for the use of an Adeptus Minor [which is the 5=6 Grade. Before reaching that attainment the colour scheme was not explained] is compounded of the first two scales. The Sephiroth are in the feminine, passive, or Queen Scale.  The Paths are in the masculine, active, or King Scale. It thus represents the forces of Atziluth in the Paths uniting the Sephiroth as reflected in the Briatic World…”