Scarlet, flecked gold. This is a colour of intense, blood-red punctuated by metallic flecks of gold; a hue that burns and flashes. Neither the plain deep red of a cloth nor the mere sparkle of a separate substance, it is a red which is itself impregnated with the gold of spirit. In Latin, scarlatum derives from the Persian saqirlat, referring to a fine wool dyed with kermes insects—a precious, costly red. The flecked gold elevates this raw power into a vehicle of the divine.

Position on the Tree of Life

This colour corresponds to Path 31 (the letter Shin, Fire, Spirit), the 31st step of the Serpent’s ascent. Path 31 connects Hod (Splendour, intellect) with Netzach (Victory, passion), running just below the Abyss. It is the path of the Tanist, the Desired One, a transforming fire. At the Qabalistic level of the Emperor Scale, the colour is not the common red of Geburah (the wrath of the King) but the red of the crown and the sword—the royal power that has passed through the furnace and been purified.

Astrological and planetary correspondence

The Emperor Scale is the scale of the element Fire. Path 31 is the Path of the letter Shin, the letter of the Holy Spirit (Ruach Elohim), of the element Fire itself. Astrologically, Shin is sometimes correlated with the fixed star of the Sun in its most spiritual aspect, or to the element of Fire as a whole, not a specific planet. The colour thus embodies the fire of the will made perfect—a burning, sovereign power that is also filled with the gold of spirit, of eternal consciousness.

Historical context

In the Qabalah of the Golden Dawn, the Emperor Scale of Colour (Scale of the King) is the most potent and active colour scale, associated with the element Fire and the Sephirah of the King upon his throne. It is a scale of pure, unmixed colours. The colour “Scarlet, flecked gold” appears here as the colour of Malkuth when placed at the level of the King’s Scale—the material world seen as if it were the King’s domain, the very dust of the Earth transmuted by the fire of Spirit. In the Sepher Yetzirah, the letter Shin is the letter of the head, of fire, and of the crown. Historically, this colour was not merely a visual fancy but a technical reality: the production of a true, fast scarlet (kermes) was a closely guarded art, and its application to cloth was a sign of royalty. The flecks of gold would be actual gold thread or pigment, a materialisation of the divine spark within the material. The colour thus represents the ultimate truth of the Path: that the lowest (Malkuth) is capable of becoming the highest, receiving the fire of the King and becoming as a living flame, flecked with the gold of the Spirit.

In Liber 777

In the table of Liber 777, at the 31st step of the Emperor Scale of Colour, the object is precisely this: Scarlet, flecked gold. It is the colour of the Malkuth of the King’s Scale, the final Sephirah of the material world as seen through the pure fire of the King. It is the colour of the Savour, the Crown, the Fire of the Spirit made manifest in the dust of the Earth.