The Symbolism of Colour

CHAPTER I. Colour a True Symbol

COLOUR A TRUE SYMBOL

“The great below clenched by the great above.”--E. B. B.

“God made the country; man made the town,” says William Cowper, and almost everyone will agree that it is the deprivation of the colour of the country that makes our towns so sadly depressing, for nearly all people appreciate colour, though perhaps in a general way. They realise that colour helps to beautify the world.

Other people, however, look upon colour as one of the greatest joys in life. The colour of the woods, the flowers, the sunrise, and the sunset are sources of the very deepest emotion, exalting them above mere interest in external things into the very highest realms of vision and beauty. The colours of an artist like Titian make them realise the joy of living. Even the word-pictures of the poets do the same, so that they become firm believers in the poetic fallacy that what is beautiful in nature reflects what is beautiful in the mind of man. Thus Buddha watching the sun rise seems to clothe Nature with his own luminous soul, which is striving to make a new age begin on the earth.

Edwin Arnold, in his Light of Asia, tells us that the Buddha rose just before the False Dawn and stood--

“Watching the sleeping earth with ardent eyes And thoughts embracing all its living things; While o’er the waving fields that murmur moves Which is the kiss of Morn waking the lands, And in the East that miracle of Day Gathered and grew. At first a dusk so dim Night seems still unaware of whispered dawn, But soon--before the jungle-cock crows twice-- A white verge clear, a widening, brightening white, High as the herald star, which fades in floods Of silver, warming into pale gold, caught By topmost clouds, and flaming on their rims To fervent golden glow, flashed from the brink With saffron, scarlet, crimson, amethyst; Whereat the sky turns splendid to the blue, And, robed in raiment of glad light, the King Of Life and Glory cometh.”

As we read the passage the whole scene arises before us, of the lonely watcher and the glorious Eastern sky. In other versions of the same event, however, we have more definite teaching concerning these beautiful sunrise hues. The Buddha plays his vina and the colour of the sky changes according to his seven notes--yellow, blue, violet, green, pink, white, and cream; not colours given by chance, but of deep esoteric meaning.

Did we but know it, no doubt the seven strings on the lute of Apollo had once the same significance; and though we know these seven strings had other meanings as well, yet we must not therefore dismiss our theory, for “Is not God able to say many things in one?” That is the whole essence of the understanding of symbolism, that there are planes of interpretation.

There has always existed a belief in the essential connection between colour and sound. That is why in everyday language we say “a colour clashes” or “a colour harmonises”--both terms from the sister art of music. The scientist has now worked out this connection, so that we have the following facts:--

Vibrations per second. A tenor voice produces 400 Red light ” 400,000,000,000,000 A soprano voice ” 700 Violet light ” 700,000,000,000,000

Thus light gives a finer vibration than sound to the extent of a million million times, and this is one reason why, when the mind is so tired that even music seems wearisome, it can be healed by means of colour. Professor Wallace Rimington of King’s College made a colour organ in which colours were thrown on a screen when the organ was played.

Dr Mount Bleyer of New York invented the vibrograph to give the connection between colour and sound.

Few people recognise that colours are powers, forces, vitalities, and vibrations. Yet such they are, and on the physical plane we are now learning to enlist them in all kinds of occupations, as varied as that of the physician, the gardener, the brewer, and the baker. Every year we are finding out more clearly how we can use these vibrations for the benefit of man. Every year new hospitals are being opened for colour healing. Every year we are finding out how we can obtain better crops by means of the application of coloured rays. The meteorologist has taken up the colour of the sky as an indication of weather, and is making exhaustive tabulation of facts in order to make more definite the lore which we learnt as children in such rhymes as:--

“Evening red and morning grey Sets the traveller on his way; Evening grey and morning red Brings down rain upon his head.”

When we think of colours and read into them some of the wonderful truths with which they have been associated for many centuries, we are astonished to find that there is a direct correspondence between the value apportioned to a colour on the physical plane and the value given symbolically. Swedenborg was continually insisting that there was no true symbolism without a direct correspondence. Thus, if we take the lions at the base of Nelson’s column and substitute any other animals, our minds would be instinctively offended. Why? Because Nelson and his men had in them the same quality or qualities that we associate with the lion.

See Appendix V.

See Appendix VI.

See Appendix III.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning grips this great truth and expresses it in her poem of Aurora Leigh:--

“Verily I was wrong, And verily many thinkers of this age, Ay, many Christian teachers, half in heaven, Are wrong in just my sense, who understand Our natural world too insularly, as if No spiritual counterpart completed it, Consummating its meaning, rounding all To justice and perfection, line by line, Form by form, nothing single or alone; The great below clenched by the great above.”

CHAPTER II. The Old Language of Red

THE OLD LANGUAGE OF RED

“The Holy Grail, rose-red, with beatings in ’t, as if alive.”

TENNYSON.

Considering first the colour red as being the lowest in the spectrum, how is this correspondence manifest? Red is the colour of the blood; hence, is it surprising that red is the colour denoting life and action, cheerfulness and enthusiasm? Red is used by healers as a powerful stimulant and tonic, thus it has the meaning of health and vigour. This is why nearly all red stones are said to have health-giving and disease-preventing properties. The ruby in China and Japan is said to give long life, health, and happiness. All the imperial decrees of China have to be written or printed in red as a sign that there is the power behind to force them to be carried out. Children’s clothing must contain some part of red. Usually this consists of a piece of red material twisted together with a pig’s-tail, thus making a talisman of great power against sickness.

In India and Persia the garnet is said to bring deep, abiding health to its possessor. The Romans used the red coral as a talisman to protect their children from all manner of diseases; while in India, China, and Japan it is used to-day as a safeguard against cholera. The red carnelian was used by the Hebrews to prevent attacks of plague, and in China it is worn to prevent stomach troubles.

Again, we find the healthy man is inclined to be more cheerful than the sickly man; so we instinctively think of Mr Greatheart as a man with rosy cheeks. The garnet has nearly always been said to bestow the gift of cheerfulness upon its wearer.

Then we find that the healthy man is usually more courageous and daring than the weakling; hence red often means courage. In fact, the lack of red in the face is taken as a sign of the lack of courage--as in Macbeth, where the page-boy is told:

“Go prick thy face and over-red thy fear, Thou lily-livered boy.”

Courage was said to be the gift of Mars, the god of war; hence red is the colour of war, whether in its most barbaric, cruel form or in its chivalrous form.

Astrologers assign this colour to the planet Mars from its symbolic value, and not merely because Mars looks red in the heavens. Mr Alan Leo writes thus:

“The planet Mars, which is known by its red colour, is said to be hot and exhaustive in its influence. It presides over all adventure, enterprise, and heroic acts. It makes the mind daring, combative, courageous, fearless, and venturesome. In everything where pluck, force, and energy are required, the Mars man will be foremost. He will be first in any acts of bravery, and often regardless of his life and of the consequences of any noble act where courage is required.”

So it is that the brave man is known as the man of self-sacrifice. Thus the colour of red takes on this added meaning of self-sacrifice, sorrow, or suffering, which at first seem contradictory meanings to those of enthusiasm, life, and cheerfulness.

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