Lecture on the Four Scales of Colour

By G.H. Chief M.C. 6=5

You have in the Order notes a list of the 7 rainbow colours and their corresponding notes in the Scale, but I would like to suggest that while the King Scale of Colour is cognate to the Major Scale of sound, the Queen Scale is akin to the Minor, and the Prince to the chromatic. That leaves the Princess unaccounted for unless we seek out the half or quarter tones of the East; are they not related to the flecked and rayed colours of the princess, blurred let us say, one imposed on the other.

In actually depicting this Scale the colours are represented as sharply divided, but if you consider them clairvoyantly you will see that they waver and mingle as the colours of moving water shift and blend as you look at them, or as lights interplay with the movement of clouds.

So on a windy day in Spring have you seen colours interchange in a wood as the young leaves fustle, and the shadows play over a mass of wild hyacinths or primroses.

The Princess must always be taken as something changing, unstable, evanescent; the flecked and rayed colours should actually be so cunningly interwoven that they would change with each movement of the canvas like shot silk.

Now as you consider the Four Scales of Colour, passing imperceptibly from one to another, so must you also learn to pass from one Plane to another, gradually raising and transmuting that upon which thoughts and desires dwell.

As the colours of the Princess Scale are mingled, and those of the Prince clear, the Queen Scale soft and negative, but those of the King deep and rich, so it is with other things. If, for instance, you concentrate on Love, you will see how mixed and doubtful a thing earthly love is. But if you raise it up through the aspects of loyalty and devotion, you presently become aware that above all these lies the pure and selfless ardour of Divine Love.

Of the Four Trees you must further consider that two are positive, two negative, two masculine, two feminine. Therefore it follows that two correspond to the waking consciousness, two to the sleeping. But while at the first glance that seems perfectly simple and clear, a little reflection will show you that it is less so than you thought.

We have already seen that the Princess Scale which belongs to the lowest of the four, is negative, must therefore belong to the sleeping consciousness.

Let us examine this statement more clearly, closely. The Princess in the Taro is represented as a young person; but a young person from the Occult standpoint is one who is yet unawakened, therefore the Princess Scale and lowest Tree must correspond to one who is as yet immersed in the material.

From that it will follow that the Scale of the Prince signifies one who has awakened, how are we to interpret the Queen Scale? This takes us a step farther into psychology. An ordinary undeveloped man dreams very little, his dreams are fragmentary; they have no spiritual significance. But when a man awakens to the underlying realities of life, he becomes sensitised, his soul is set free, and he begins to stretch out groping hands in search of guidance.

The responses comes through dreams, and though he may be unable to bring through clear consecutive memories of his sleep experiences to the physical brain, yet he can and does receive as much teaching as he can assimilate. This is the vitalising of the Queen Scale.

Therefore when you wish to receive teaching on a particular subject during sleep, it is a good plan to dwell upon the appropriate Sephirah or path in the Tree of the Queen.

Of the King Scale it is more difficult to speak, for it belongs to the region of pure light, the source of all colour and music. To that region only the Initiate has access, and that which he receives is in the nature of light and life.

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