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Title: The symbolism of colour
Author: Ellen Conroy McCaffery
Release date: July 1, 2025 [eBook #76422]
Language: English
Original publication: London: William Rider & Son, 1921
Credits: Peter Becker, BlueDiamondHead and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)
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THE SYMBOLISM OF COLOUR
THE SYMBOLISM OF
COLOUR
BY
ELLEN CONROY, M.A.
“Speak to the earth and it shall teach you.”--JOB.
LONDON
WILLIAM RIDER & SON, LIMITED
8 PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C. 4
1921
CONTENTS
CHAP. PAGE
1. COLOUR A TRUE SYMBOL 1
2. THE OLD LANGUAGE OF RED 6
3. THE OLD LANGUAGE OF YELLOW 14
4. THE OLD LANGUAGE OF GREEN 21
5. THE OLD LANGUAGE OF BLUE 27
6. THE OLD LANGUAGE OF PURPLE 36
7. THE OLD LANGUAGE OF WHITE 40
8. THE OLD LANGUAGE OF BLACK 46
9. THE OLD LANGUAGE OF BROWN AND GREY 50
10. THE OLD LANGUAGE OF THE RAINBOW 53
APPENDICES--
1. SCHOOLS OF COLOUR 61
2. THE COLOURS OF THE PLANETS 62
3. CHROMATICS OF THE SKY 64
4. YELLOW 64
5. COLOUR AND FORM 65
6. THE GROWTH OF PLANTS UNDER COLOURED RAYS 65
THE SYMBOLISM OF COLOUR
CHAPTER I
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,[1] 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.
[1] 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.[2] 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.[3] The meteorologist[4]
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.
[2] See Appendix V.
[3] See Appendix VI.
[4] 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 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.
In art the martyrs are often clothed in red as a sign that they have
suffered, and also as a sign that they had the enthusiasm for the
cause, so that the sorrows and cruelties they endured were accounted
by them nothing; for red is pre-eminently the colour of enthusiasm, of
the fire which inspires a man to fight his way through all obstacles
or perish in the attempt. It is thus most fitting that Moses should
receive his life work when near the burning bush, which is surely
the most appropriate symbol of the quality necessary before one can
become the leader of a nation or change it from one of slaves to one
of freemen. Red is the colour of the leader, the colour of the kingly
robes.[5] Then we may remember that pretty legend of the Christmas
Rose, when the shepherd’s little daughter, having no other gift to
offer the infant Christ, gave him a fragrant white rose, which was
no sooner touched by the Babe than it became a deep glorious red,
emblematic of his future suffering.
[5] In ancient Wales red robes showed honourable rank.
Red is also the colour of the flame of love. As Robert Burns sings
gaily:--
“Oh, my Love is like a red, red rose,
That’s newly sprung in June.”
Perhaps you remember that picture of Rossetti called “Dante’s Dream,”
where Beatrice lies cold and still, clad in white, while Love is seen
clothed in rose-red robes leading Dante to her side:--
“Then Love said, ‘Now shall all things be made clear;
Come and behold our lady where she lies.’”
Based on very much the same thought there was an old legend that a
red carbuncle was placed at the prow of Noah’s ark to give light and
guidance. This legend no doubt grew out of the appropriateness of red
as a symbol for the burning love that directed the boat and brought it
safely to Ararat, and also from the fact that the carbuncle gives off a
faint phosphorescent glow in the dark. Psychics see this very clearly
indeed, but it is visible also to persons of normal vision.
Among nearly all primitive nations red berries, such as those of the
mountain ash, symbolise the Spirit of God. They have been called by
such names as “holy seed” or “fructifying honey dew.”
In front of the high altar of a church or cathedral is seen the red
lamp burning perpetually as a sign of the deep, intense, sacrificial,
all-enduring love of the Creator.
The communion wine also partakes of this mystic symbolism, when the
joy, the fervour, and the uplift of the spiritual life is imparted to
man. There is a beautiful passage in Tennyson’s “Holy Grail,” when this
mystic cup is seen by Sir Percival’s sister floating down into her
convent cell on a shaft of silver light, making wondrous melody in its
passage:--
“And down the long beam stole the Holy Grail,
Rose-red with beatings in ’t, as if alive,
Till all the white walls of my cell were dyed
With rosy colours leaping on the wall;
And then the music faded, and the Grail
Passed, and the beam decayed, and from the walls
The rosy quiverings died into the night.”
Or we may like to call to mind the esoteric order of Rosicrucians, in
which all the glorious symbolism of the Rose and the Cross blended.
Or again, we may think of the red carnelian buckle of Isis which was
attached to the neck of the deceased while these words were chanted:--
“The blood of Isis, and the strength of Isis, and the words of power
of Isis shall be mighty to act as powers to protect this great and
divine being, and to guard him from him that would do unto him
anything that he holdeth in abomination.”
* * * * *
You will find that in all symbolism there is an exalted meaning given
to the symbol and a debased meaning; _e.g._ a dog may mean all that is
noble and full of devotion, or it may give the meaning of all that is
mean, low, and despicable.
In the case of red it may, as we have seen, be the sign of the
sublime, strong love of the Creator; but at the same time it can refer
to debased love and carnal passion, _i.e._ love without the sacrificial
element. Thus we have in Revelation xvi. 3 “the great red dragon who
seeks to destroy the woman clothed with the sun,” _i.e._ the woman
or soul who is clothed with the Sun of Righteousness. The dragon is
frustrated in his attempt by Michael, whose name means “Like unto God,”
for what is ignoble must ever yield to the noble.
Sometimes red may be used as a sign of exuberant animal spirits, _e.g._
in the expression “to paint the town red.”
Lastly, let us remember that the name Adam means red, and so he
symbolises man unregenerate, _i.e._ of the earth, earthy.
* * * * *
Perhaps it would be wise to consider the colour pink next. Pink is
hardly a colour so much as a tint; but as it has a definite symbolism,
I have placed it next to red. It is a most useful colour in healing. In
the human aura it often denotes the healer. Certainly in its esoteric
meaning it denotes the man who wishes to use his life for the healing
of others, and the man who receives inspiration how he can help to
uplift humanity. Unfortunately, our poets do not often use the word
because of its ugly sound.
When Buddha sat under his Bo-tree (_Ficus religiosa_) to meditate
how he could save the world, it is said that his whole body became
enveloped in a most radiant blush-rose colour. Edwin Arnold describes
this scene:--
“There flew
High overhead that hour five Holy Ones
Whose free wings faltered as they passed the tree.
‘What power superior draws us from our flight?’
They asked,--for spirits feel all force divine,
And know the sacred presence of the pure.
Then looking downward, they beheld the Buddh
Crowned with a rose-hued aureole, intent
On thoughts to save; while from the grove a voice
Cried, ‘Rishis! this is he shall help the world.
Descend and worship.’ So the Bright Ones came
And sang a song of praise, folding their wings;
Then journeyed on, taking good news to God.”
The colour pink is said to be the esoteric colour of the mystic number
five, which is the number of power, inspiration, and love-healing;
_e.g._ five is the number of points in King Solomon’s seal, which was
a talisman of power and inspiration. The Pool of Bethesda, we may
remember, had five porches, and it was there that the sick were healed.
We see from this connection that similar truths are wrapped up in other
groups of symbols. In fact, we find that whether we take colours, or
numbers, or trees, or animals, or mountains, or rivers, we learn the
same deep truths. The mystics knew that each was an expression of the
heavenly mind:--
“Earth’s crammed with heaven
And every common bush afire with God,
But only he who sees takes off his shoes.”[6]
[6] E. B. B., _Aurora Leigh_.
Carlyle used pink in its debased sense when he speaks “of the rose-pink
hue of sentimentality,” meaning a hue that lacks full virility.
* * * * *
When we come to the colour orange, however, we find that the ancients
hardly ever refer to it. If it had very much red in it, it came under
the symbolism of red. If it had very much yellow in it, then the
symbolism of yellow was considered to embrace it. They did not know it
as a primary colour.
CHAPTER III
THE OLD LANGUAGE OF YELLOW
“Into the yellow of the Rose Eternal ...
Me Beatrice drew.”--DANTE.
Yellow is one of the most interesting colours. Being the colour of the
sun, all the attributes of the sun were given to it.
Like red it was considered a masculine colour, while green, blue,
and violet were thought of as feminine. Like red, too, it is used by
healers as a tonic. As it is of such healing value to the brain, we
are not surprised to find that amber has been used as an antidote to
insanity. Yellow stones are said to bring happiness to their owners,
for yellow was said to be the colour of unity--unity in affection,
unity with the spiritual powers of the universe, unity with the Sun of
Righteousness who comes with healing in his wings.
This old meaning of the colour yellow was well known and understood in
the old Roman Catholic Church. Therefore Dante, who wrote much of his
great _Divine Comedy_ consciously or unconsciously to interpret these
old ideas and to enshrine them in poetry for evermore, says when he
has reached the highest part of heaven and is once more with Beatrice:--
“Into the yellow of the Rose Eternal ...
Me Beatrice drew.”
The Pope (on the fourth Sunday in Lent) presents a golden rose of
jewels to any person greatly beloved by the Church.
One can notice in the world at present a deep and increasing love for
all yellow colours,[7] for it is a colour that gives the appearance of
sunlight to the most cheerless rooms. May we not also hope that it is
a sign that the world is now striving after unity, and the desire to
understand the other person’s point of view?
The yellow robe donned by the Buddhist is a symbol that he is now on
the path that is to lead to spirituality. The _Light of Asia_ tells
us that Buddha taught his supreme truths “to his own, them of the
yellow robe.” He taught them to practise “yoga.” What is “yoga”? To
the Western mind it usually means a kind of magic--even charlatanism,
but the real meaning of the word is “union.” The belief of these
yellow-robed men is that they have within them a spark of the Godhead,
and that, by suppressing the bodily desires and by concentrating their
whole mental and psychic energies towards trying to understand this
higher part of their nature, they will become united with the Supreme
Spirit and will understand how to do many things and see many things
that the ordinary man cannot do or see.
[7] See Appendix IV.
Vishnu is clad in yellow for the same reason. In the vision of Ezekiel,
God is seen in the colour amber; at least, the amber colour is the
outward sign of the presence of God.
In the ceremony of making a child become a Brahmin a piece of saffron
cloth is bound to his arm with a yellow cord. The Mexicans gave the
name Kan to the god who supported the sky. The same word meant yellow.
Yellow is the royal colour of China, and the privilege of wearing
yellow is most jealously guarded, for does it not show that its
possessor is a Son of the Sun? Similarly the saffron robes of the
ancient Irish nobility were a sign of their rank.
Yellow is the marriage colour in India, and the bride stains her hands
yellow as a sign of the happiness and unity she expects in her married
life. The Roman bride wore a crocus-coloured veil and yellow shoes.
Among the Jews marriage may be performed under the Talis, an orange
silk robe stretched on four posts. The bride and her maids walk round
it seven times, which is said to be in memory of the siege of Jericho.
It might also be noted, in Calderon’s picture of Ruth and Naomi, that
Ruth, who wishes ever to be with Naomi, wears a yellow robe--perhaps
by chance, perhaps by design, or perhaps by intuition.
Among the Mayas and Egyptians the great serpent of the universe (who
symbolises Eternity and Wisdom) was said to be blue in colour but
to have yellow scales. In China the golden cock proclaims the dawn.
The golden hawk, the golden eagle, the golden ass,[8] and the golden
calf were all symbols of deity. Athena, who represented union with
the mind of Zeus, had a robe called the “peplus,” a crocus-coloured
garment with figures woven into it of the gods conquering the giants.
It was suspended to the mast of a ship when it was to be carried in
procession, being too holy to be carried by hands.
The mundane egg which is to be met with in nearly all ancient
religions, whether of India, Egypt, Phœnicia, Japan, or the South Sea
Islands, was said to have been a golden one--that is, it represents the
sun or deity. Probably our children’s tale of the goose that lays the
golden eggs is a survival of one of these ancient beliefs.
We must remember, too, that the colour of gold not only partook of
the meaning of the colour yellow, but also of the symbolism of the
metal gold, which is the metal of the sun. Thus the colour began to
mean all that was pure, all that had been refined, and hence glory and
wisdom. Thus the halo of saints and of God is often made of gold leaf.
Similarly the gates and doors of heaven are nearly always represented
as being of gold.
[8] Read the _Golden Ass_ of Apuleius, where the hero only regains his
real shape by eating roses, which are symbols of prayer.
We may remember, too, that among the emblems attached to St John
are the eagle and the River Pison. This River Pison is mentioned in
Genesis as flowing through Havilah, where there is much gold. It
therefore became the river of inspiration and the wisdom of God; and
since St John received the greatest vision, it was considered his most
appropriate emblem.
The ladder which Jacob saw in his dream at Bethel or the House of God
is described by Dante as being of gold:--
“I saw reared up,
In colour like to sun-illumined gold,
A ladder, which my ken pursued in vain,
So lofty was the summit.”
For it is by the ladder of wisdom that we attain wisdom and receive
inspiration.
The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood made it their particular joy to replace
this beautiful symbolism into art. Thus Dante Gabriel Rossetti speaks
very beautifully in “The Blessed Damozel” of a golden thread of life
that is woven into the robes of the spirits who arrive in the next
world after having lived during earth life in unity with God:--
“We two, she said, will seek the groves
Where the Lady Mary is,
With her five handmaidens, whose names
Are five great symphonies:--
Cecily, Gertrude, Magdalen,
Margaret and Rosalys.
Circle-wise sit they with bound locks
And bosoms covered,
Weaving the golden thread
To fashion the birth-robes for them
Who are just born, being dead.”
This golden thread is spoken of by the mystic Blake:--
“I give you the end of a golden string,
Only wind it into a ball;
It will lead you in at heaven’s gate,
Built in Jerusalem’s wall.”
The Greeks also had a legend of a golden thread by which Jupiter drew
up souls to heaven. Here we might mention the Golden Bough given to
Æneas in order that he may visit the dead and yet retain his life
(_Æneid_, bk. vi. 29).
In the Kalevala, the great Finnish epic, Ilmater is invoked:--
“Ancient daughter of Creation,
Come in all thy golden beauty.”
And as Ilmater stands for wisdom, we are not surprised that
Ecclesiasticus should say, “Get wisdom, and get much gold by her.” So
also Keats writes:--
“Much have I travelled in the realms of gold.”
In Babbit’s book on colour there is an illustration of the aura seen
round the head of a man. Above the top part of the head is seen the
colour yellow. Now, the phrenologist locates this as the seat of
spirituality; thus we see that once more two studies agree in their
conclusions. Yellow was thus to the ancients the greatest of all the
colours, and had the most exalted meaning.
* * * * *
It is perhaps to be expected, then, that in its degraded meaning it
is the saddest of all colours, for we recognise the deceitful Judas
very often in ancient pictures from the fact that he is given dingy
yellow robes. The Jews in Venice formerly had to wear yellow hats, to
show the scorn in which the Venetians held them. Yellow is the colour
of decaying vegetable life, of the poorness of life. Thus it means
separation instead of unity.
CHAPTER IV
THE OLD LANGUAGE OF GREEN
“Hope rules a land for ever green.”--WORDSWORTH.
“Hope rules a land for ever green,” says Wordsworth. He means a land
where nothing dies, for green is the colour of plant life, the colour
of spring and of all that is fresh and young and joyous.
When looking at Watts’ picture of Hope, we see that she sits almost
like a picture of Despair, but she is trying to obtain music from
her one last string. We notice that the green Watts uses is of a
particularly hard, bluish character, so unlike the joyous green of
spring. When Rossetti in “Dante’s Dream” depicts the two maidens
lifting the veil from the face of Beatrice, we notice what a full
rich green he uses for their robes, for he wishes to make his colour
proclaim the fact that he feels no despair, but a sublime Hope and
Faith which will go with him until the time that Beatrice will draw him
into the “yellow of the Rose Eternal.”
Shelley understood that green meant hope and gladness, for he wrote:--
“Many a green isle needs must be
In the deep, wide sea of Misery,
Or the mariner worn and wan
Never thus could journey on
Day and night, and night and day,
Drifting on his weary way,
With the solid darkness black
Closing round his vessel’s track:
Whilst above, the sunless sky
Big with clouds hangs heavily;
And behind, the tempest fleet,
Hurries on with lightning feet,
Riving sail, and cord, and plank,
Till the ship has almost drank
Death from the o’er-brimming deep,
And sinks down, down, like that sleep
When the dreamer seems to be
Weltering through eternity.”
Among the ancient Druids of Wales, green was the colour of the robes
of the “ovates,” that is, the men who were hoping to become bards or
Druids later.
The colour green was used by the people of the East with a much deeper
significance, however. The Hindoos said that Om, the Sun, drove across
the sky in a chariot drawn by a green horse with seven heads, and
preceded by Aruna, the Dawn. As we have no green horses in nature,
the statement must be highly symbolic. Horses are always a sign of
knowledge.[9] In the old Hindoo zodiacs, instead of the constellation
Aries or the Ram, we often have a horse. Aries is the sign governing
the head or mentality. The horse is used in exactly the same way.
The number seven means what is complete in both body and spirit, for
it contains the basic four (which is the number of man, who has to
perfect his fourfold nature--body, mind, soul, and spirit), and also it
contains the three, which is the perfection of the Trinity, for every
great religion has contained a Trinity. Thus we see that seven refers
to perfection in all things, whether of heaven or of earth. What, then,
do we mean by a seven-headed _green_ horse? This--that the knowledge
and wisdom of Om are eternal, everlasting, all-enduring, and that they
comprehend the whole universe.
[9] _Cf._ Sanskrit “harit” = (1) a horse, (2) the light, bright,
shining. _Cf._ Pegasus, the winged horse of the Muses, in poetical
imagination.
In Palestine St George is sometimes called “the everlasting green one,”
for the fight between good and evil is never-ending, but to the true St
George the victory is ever assured.
Time was addressed by the Egyptians as the “everlasting green one,” for
the main experiences of life are the same to everyone, whether born now
or hundreds of years ago. External circumstances alter, but each person
has the same lessons to learn. The Fortunate Isles of the Greeks and
the Islands of the Blessed of the North American Indians are said to
have been green. Nearly all evergreen plants were considered especially
sacred. Edgar Allan Poe addressed his love as
“A green isle in the sea.”
The Hindoos say that the emerald gives the gift of knowledge and
memory. It also gives the ability to tell the future, even as the green
laurel tree of Apollo did. The emerald also confers immortality on the
soul, and enables it to gain faith. This belief will surely explain why
greenstone amulets are so common in the tombs of the Egyptians, for
faith would bring them safely to the Fields of Peace, where immortality
was enjoyed.
Isis, the goddess of the crescent moon, which often mystically means
the pure soul, is sometimes called the “Lady of the Emerald”--that is,
she whose soul is pure enough to gain immortality.
When Pizarro went to Mexico he found that a goddess there was
worshipped as the Goddess of the Emerald.
The emerald is often seen on the breastplates of Pallas and of Minerva,
for both these goddesses stand for the Divine mind--the all-enduring
Wisdom. The Virgin Mary is often represented clothed in a green mantle
and standing on the crescent moon. She has faith and hope until the
Day-star awakes in her heart. The walls of the New Jerusalem are seen
by John in Revelation to be made of jasper. The New Jerusalem, like
the Ark and the Temple, is said by mystics to be a soul symbol; hence,
how appropriate that the green jasper should be the material of which
it is said to be made! Among the Chinese, Tao is said to have been
miraculously born of “the excellent Virgin of Jasper.”
Green is sometimes said to be the colour of the planet
Mercury,[10] which is the planet governing the mind and conferring
knowledge--knowledge not only of the kind essential to material
success, but also inspirational knowledge and celestial wisdom. The god
Mercury had assigned to him nearly all the main attributes of Hermes,
just as Hermes in the same way received the main characteristics of
Thot and his companion Anubis. The “green hill of Anubis,” where the
good souls were directed, is the hill of everlasting life and of
Eternal Wisdom. Thot also had green hills dedicated to him. It is
probably due to the Phœnicians that we have place names perpetuating
this fact, _e.g._ Toot’s Hill in Epping Forest, Tothill Street,
Tooting, and Tewkesbury. In Christian times the archangel Michael
was given the work and attributes of these gods; and surely it is
marvellous the number of hills and rocks sacred to St Michael, while in
ancient pictures we often see him conducting the souls of the departed
to the green hill of Zion.
[10] See Appendix II.
When we think of the great gifts symbolised by green, how full of
meaning seems the green turban of the Mohammedan who has visited Mecca!
We can also realise what great truths could have been taught, and no
doubt were, in the “Green Schools”[11] of the Persian sufis.
[11] See Appendix I.
* * * * *
Green in its degraded sense gives us “the green-eyed monster
jealousy,” which is the direct opposite of celestial wisdom, for
jealousy is always due to the intrusion of the desires of the self,
while celestial wisdom wishes to give rather than to receive. The
colour green is often said to forebode death. This idea may be a
survival of the ancient worship of Mercury, and even of St Michael[12]
in Christian times, both of whom were messengers of death.
[12] See picture of St Michael presenting taper of death to the Virgin
(Fra Filippo Lippi).
CHAPTER V
THE OLD LANGUAGE OF BLUE
“Blue, ’tis the colour of heaven!”--KEATS.
In the spectrum we ought to be able to recognise both blue and indigo,
though many people find difficulty in recognising the indigo ray. Blue
belongs to the cooling end of the spectrum, and thus it is right and
fitting that symbolically it should be the colour of Truth, which is
the result of calm reflection and never of heated argument. Even in
everyday language we speak of “true-blue.”
Blue is the colour of the heavens--that is, blue is the colour of the
abode of God:--
“Then went up Moses, and Aaron, and Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of
the elders of Israel; and they saw the God of Israel: and there was
under his feet as it were a paved work of sapphire stone, and as it
were the very heaven for clearness.”[13]
[13] Exodus xxiv. 9-11.
Ezekiel has very much the same vision, not because he copied from an
older version, but because it is given to every great seer to realise
for himself any real basic truth, such as that God dwells in Truth.
Clairvoyant visions often repeat themselves to different people in
different countries and in different ages.
“And above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of
a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone: and upon the likeness
of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon
it. And I saw as the colour of amber.”[14]
[14] Ezekiel i. 26.
A wonderful vision truly that within Truth dwells the amber of unity
and the divine Spirit.
The Egyptian judges wore a breastplate of blue covered with symbolic
figures. The blue was to show that they would reverence truth in their
judgments and not stoop to bribery.
Moses was commanded to make the robe of the ephod of blue, and on the
skirts of it were to be pomegranates of blue. This was to symbolise
that the true priest of God was to abound in Truth--not in mere facts
and formalities. Truth is ever greater than mere facts. Facts may
sometimes give the appearance of an untruth, but Truth is ever one and
indivisible. As said previously, it contains unity.
Again Moses was commanded to--
“Speak unto the children of Israel, and bid them that they make
them fringes in the borders of their garments, throughout their
generations, and that they put upon the fringe of the borders a
ribband of blue ... that ye may remember, and do all my commandments,
and be holy unto your God.”[15]
[15] Numbers xv. 38.
Here we might mention that the Rabbins considered that blue was the
colour of the two stones on which the Commandments were written. Plato
tells us that the robes of the priests of Atlantis were blue.
The Buddhists say, “Sapphire produces peace of mind and equanimity. It
chases out evil thoughts by establishing healthy circulation. It opens
barred doors to the spirit. It produces a desire for prayer. It brings
peace, but he who would wear it must lead a pure and holy life.”
Surely, if all this is true, it is almost essential that we should
follow the advice of colour healers and have our ceilings always of
blue.
Blue is often called the colour of devotion, but we must remember that
devotion is not an end in itself; it is the striving after eternal
Truth and Wisdom that matters.
So much did the Hindoos think of the colour that their gods are
addressed by the epithet “narayan,” and they are said to be born of
the sea which ever reflects the blue of heaven. In Egypt the gods were
often painted blue to show their heavenly origin; _e.g._ Kneph the
Creator, the great Mind, wears blue robes. Mummies were shrouded in
blue beads to show that they were united with the soul of Truth.
Odin, the wise All-Father of the Scandinavians, is nearly always spoken
of as wearing blue robes. The blue pines near the homes of Philemon and
Baucis were sacred to Jupiter. Sin, the Assyrian god, is said to have
had a blue beard. Our conception of blue beard has taken on the debased
meaning of cruelty.
Isis is often called the Lady of the Turquoise, while Osiris is god
of the turquoise and the lapis lazuli. The Virgin Mary is often clad
in a blue robe, for the same reason that she is often represented as
standing by the Well of Truth, as in Arthur Hacker’s “Annunciation.”
The Hindoo Mariama is addressed as “Holy Nari Mariama, mother of
perpetual fecundity.”
In both Mexico and Chaldea blue was worn as mourning, being a token of
the joy that the soul realised in the Fields of Peace.
The turquoise and the lapis lazuli seem to have had in them the two
blues that appealed most to the ancients. In the “Burden of Isis” we
have these words in praise of Osiris, who is identified with the spirit
of the departed:--
“With turquoise is thy hair twined, and with lapis lazuli, the finest
of lapis lazuli. Lo, the lapis lazuli is above thy hair.”
There is another similar incantation in the Festival Songs of Isis and
Nephthys:--
“Thy hair is like turquoise as thou comest from the Fields of
Turquoise; thy hair is like unto the finest of lapis lazuli, and
thou thyself art more blue than thy hair. Thy skin and body are like
southern alabaster, and thy bones are of silver. The perfume of thy
hair is like unto new myrrh, and thy skull is of lapis lazuli.”
Since hair is not blue, the statement must be symbolic, and means that
the spirit of the departed has now become one with Eternal Truth.
Surely we cannot read the above passages without thinking of the Song
of Solomon, where the bridegroom is compared to “bright ivory overlaid
with sapphires.”
There is another such song in praise of Amen-Ra:--
“Praise to Amen-Ra,
To the bull of Heliopolis, to the chief of all the gods,
To the beautiful and beloved god,
Who giveth life by all manner of warmth,
By all manner of fair cattle.
* * * * *
Amen, bull fair of face,
Beloved in Thebes;
He fashioneth earth, the silver and the gold,
Real lapis lazuli for those who love him.”
The same imagery is used by the Buddhists. When Buddha sat under the
Bo-tree on his throne of knowledge, all truths were revealed to him. To
symbolise this we are told that he saw the great white cosmic umbrella,
and also the Fields of Lapis Lazuli, where all the preceding Buddhas
dwelt in ecstasy:--
“He hath overthrown the flag of pride,
He hath obtained the triple knowledge.
* * * * *
The King of Physicians
With his heavenly Amrita[16]
Will dull all human pain
And lead all flesh to Nirvana.
Having entered the City of Omniscience,
And become one with the Buddhas,
He is now indivisible.”
[16] Amrita, bread of life.
This last word gives us the key to the whole situation that in the
Fields of Lapis Lazuli there dwell the pure spirits who have become
the soul of Truth, inseparable from Divine Truth, indivisible from the
Spirit of God.
When we consider the Greeks we remember that Homer always speaks of
Pallas, the Goddess of Wisdom, as “the blue-eyed maid” for is she not
the goddess who teaches the will of Zeus and the truths of Zeus? The
heroine of almost every fairy tale in the world is blue-eyed, as a sign
that she is the true, good, and lovable maiden who is the object and
reward of the quest and labour of the prince.
In the epic of the Finns, Ilmater is invoked in these words:--
“Rise up, O water-mother,
Raise thy blue cap from the billows.”
And this makes us think of Venus rising from the blue ocean.
We must recollect that blue was the colour of the robes of the Druidic
bards. The bards were men who had been “ovates” and had worn the
green. They were still to retain in themselves all that was meant by
the green, but blue is symbolically a higher colour, even as it is
physically.
Many people think that red would have been a better colour for the
bards, because this symbolises the enthusiasm that is so necessary in
song and poetry; but the bards were to have more than enthusiasm--they
were to have the gift of looking beyond the world and of obtaining
great Truths to uplift humanity. They were to be Masters of Wisdom.
They were to get beyond mere passion and look into the cooler, calmer
regions beyond, whence they could draw these great and deep truths. It
makes us think instinctively of Wordsworth’s definition of poetry as
“Passion recollected in tranquillity.”
From the great Triads of the Druids we learn the duties of the bards:--
1. To make a country habitable.
2. To civilise the people.
3. To promote science.
Blake had the same belief in the duty of a poet, which he expresses
very beautifully:--
“I will not cease from mental strife
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand
Till we have built Jerusalem
In England’s green and pleasant land.”
The work and duty, as given in the first two parts of the Triad,
recalls J. Russell Lowell’s wonderful lines:--
“He who would be the tongue of this wide world
Must string his harp with cords of banded iron
And strike it with a toil-embrownèd hand.”
In our own time, Maurice Maeterlinck has written a little play called
_The Blue Bird_. The playbills tell us that the quest of the Blue Bird
is the quest for happiness, but it seems to be far more than this. A
bird often symbolises spirit. Thus the quest of the Blue Bird is really
the quest for spiritual truths.[17] The children in their journey first
appeal to their dead grandparents for the bird. By this Maeterlinck
means us to ask ourselves whether the past was able to know Truth, and
the fact that the children do not find the bird there shows us that
Maeterlinck thinks Truth is of the future.
[17] See Henry Rose, _The Blue Bird_.
Still, the children have grown by appealing to the past, as is shown
when the grandparents measure the children against the door. They have
also another great fact to learn--that there are no dead.
Next the children ask the Trees if they have the Blue Bird. These
Trees, who think they are the rightful custodians of the Blue Bird,
and resent the intrusion of the children, represent the persecuting
churches of the world who have become stereotyped and hate progress.
So the children are in great danger and are only saved when the dog
(or human common sense) bursts his bonds and Fairy Light comes to the
rescue.
The children never find the Blue Bird, for is it possible to obtain
universal Truth and put it in a cage? When a man says vaingloriously
that he has all Truth, it is a sign that he is very far from his
statement. Still Mytyl and Tyltyl are better children for going on
their journey, showing that it is the quest that is the great thing.
* * * * *
Blue in its lowest meaning signifies depression and despair. We
have such expressions as “a fit of the blues.” Or again it may mean
hardness, coldness, or cruelty, even, as in such an expression as
“steel-blue eyes” or “Bluebeard.” A blue-stocking means someone who has
cultivated intellect and left out affection.
CHAPTER VI
THE OLD LANGUAGE OF PURPLE
“And they put upon him a robe of purple.”--ST JOHN.
The next and highest colour of the spectrum is violet. Like green and
blue, it is calming and soothing in its influence. Like green and blue,
it is said by the mystics to be a feminine colour. It seems as though
the ancient people used the term purple to include violet, and in fact
any tint made up of blue and red in whatever proportions. Pliny tells
us that the colour of the amaranth is a far more beautiful purple that
any the dyers can obtain. This, however, does not help us much, for the
amaranth can be almost any shade from red to blue. Even to-day we see
how carelessly the word purple is used when we have in a great writer’s
book the phrase, “the purple rainbow.”
The symbolism of purple partakes of the Red of Love and Self-sacrifice
and the blue of Truth; hence it was considered symbolic of Wisdom,
and is mentioned as being the colour of the canopy[18] of Solomon’s
chariot. Purple was considered the most glorious of colours, for
the purple dye was so costly that it became part of the insignia of
royalty. In England it is used as the sign of royal mourning.
[18] Song of Solomon iii. 10.
Before we really comprehend the symbolism of purple, however, we must
reflect that purple was said by the Egyptians to be the colour of the
earth. At evening, in some parts of the world, looking across the
ploughed fields that seem so red in the daylight, we see that they
appear tinged with purple. Our painters of landscape show this purple
colour, while our poets speak of purple shadows.
Thus the colour became symbolic of the basic qualities in our nature
that form a sure foundation on which to build the very highest
qualities--patience, endurance, perseverance, ability to be long
suffering and slow to anger. All these qualities are a _sine qua non_
to the evolved soul. This is why the suffering Christ was given a
purple robe before His crucifixion. It is to show that the King of
kings is also the lowliest and most gentle of all beings--that He had
such humility as was expressed in the washing of the disciples’ feet.
As He Himself said: “He who would be the chief among you, let him be
your servant.” How we think here of the humble, fragrant violet.
We remember the story of Sir Gareth in the _Idylls of the King_.
“And Gareth bowed himself
With all obedience to the king, and wrought
All kind of service with a noble ease
That graced the lowest act in doing it.”
The Egyptians often made their soldiers talismans of amethyst because
they said that this stone could give them the necessary calmness of
mind to ensure victory. The Magi of Persia said that amethyst was
born of the Sun and of the Moon, which confirms us in the belief that
purple has all the symbolism of the red and of the blue, the masculine
and feminine forces, the spirit and the soul. It evidently seems
to have been used in this way by the Finns, for in the “Kalevala,”
Wainomoinem sails over the “blue back of the waters” till he “gains the
purple-coloured harbour” of the next world. Here purple is used of a
greater realm than that of the ocean.
Many old rosaries were made of amethyst, because its effect was to make
the wearer withdraw from all the trials of the world and worship in a
holy calm.
In King’s _Ancient Gnostic Gems_ we are given a translation of a poem
by Marbodus:--
“On high the amethyst is set
In colour like the violet,
With flames as if of gold it shows
And far it purple radiance throws;
The humble heart it signifies
Of him, who in the Saviour dies.”
So we see why the martyrs are often represented as being clad in
purple. This ability to endure for the truth brings them the fullest
reward in the love of the Saviour.
When we see the angels with purple robes it signifies that they partake
of the sorrows of Christ and desire to help men with loving messages
to attain the heavenly home beyond the blue firmament. In some of
the ancient orders of nuns the women wore purple veils as a sign of
repentance and of faith in the divine love of God.
Shakespeare, in _A Midsummer Night’s Dream_, speaks of the
“Flower of purple dye
Hit with Cupid’s archery”
--a flower that we now consider to be the pansy, the name of which is
probably derived from “Pensez à moi,” and emblematic of humility and
sweet, loving thoughts.
* * * * *
Purple in its debased meaning gives us over-weening pride, pomp, and
vanity. It is the colour of the rich man who has no love in his heart
for Lazarus, and no belief in anything but the things of the world.
CHAPTER VII
THE OLD LANGUAGE OF WHITE
“Oh! what a power has white simplicity.”--KEATS.
It is to be remembered in studying ancient colour symbolism that it
was not realised that white was the sum of the seven colours of the
rainbow. To us, because we know this fact, white is more naturally the
colour of unity than yellow. Thus Shelley writes:--
“Life like a dome of many-coloured glass
Stains the white radiance of eternity.”
White, in fact, symbolised not so much unity as purity, innocence, and
the great joy of the man who has fought the good fight and attained
the spiritual life. It is to symbolise this joy that the souls of the
Redeemed in Revelation are clad in white robes. For the same reason
Dante sees the souls of the blessed in Paradise in form of a white
rose:--
“In form then of a white rose
Displayed itself to me the saintly host
Whom Christ in His own blood had made His bride;
Faces had they all of living flame,
And wings of gold, and all the rest so white,
No snow unto that beauty can attain.”
Tennyson, in “St Agnes’ Eve,” uses white in the same way to convey the
ecstasy of St Agnes:--
“Make Thou my spirit pure and clear
As are the frosty skies,
Or this first snowdrop of the year
That in my bosom lies.”
The Archangel Gabriel is usually known in pictures from the fact
that his emblem is the lily--sometimes called the “lily of the
annunciation,” as a sign that a pure soul is necessary before Christ
can take possession of it. Gabriel is usually said to be the Angel of
the Moon, to which the colour white and the metal silver were given by
astrologers and mystics.
It was the custom of Roman ladies to wear white. The wearing of
bright colours was looked upon as portraying a lack of virtue. The
word “candidate” tells us that integrity was expected of all persons
desiring office.
Hesiod the poet sees Modesty and Justice in white robes:--
“And those fair forms in snowy raiment bright
Leave the broad earth, and heavenward soar from sight;
Justice and Modesty, from mortals driven,
Rise to th’ immortal family of heaven.”
Hermas sees the Church as a virgin in white:--
“Behold there met me a certain virgin, well-adorned, and as if she
had just come out of her bride-chamber--all in white, having on white
shoes, and a veil down her face, and her head covered with shining
hair. Now, I knew by my former visions that it was the church.”
The Japanese use white as symbol of death, and a bride wears white as
her parents consider her dead to them and belonging only to her husband.
In Revelation there is a curious statement: “To him that overcometh
will I give the white stone.” It was the custom to give the victor in
the games a white stone, so that the sentence seems a truism, as “To
him that overcometh will I give the sign of victory”; but when we dig
more deeply into the meaning of the white stone we find that it is a
sign of deity, of the Spirit of God marking out His chosen one. In the
Amaravati tope at the British Museum Buddha is seen sitting on the
white stone, and sometimes the white stone is used in place of Buddha.
In Ireland, until recent times, white stones were placed in a coffin
and called “God’s stones.” Hence “To him that overcometh will I give
the white stone” means that to the victor shall be given the joy of the
presence of God, the joy of harmony, the music of the spheres--
“When the morning stars sang together,
And all the sons of God shouted for joy.”
There was a similar idea among the Egyptians. In the papyrus of Ani
you will note that when he is justified he is shown with white hair.
Similarly, Christ in Revelation has hair[19] as white as wool.
[19] Revelation i. 14.
In Revelation Christ rides on the white horse. St George is nearly
always depicted on a white horse. Castor and Pollux were said to ride
on white horses. A horse, as I have said before, means knowledge. Thus
to ride on the white horse means to have all heavenly counsel to aid
you in gaining the victory and in obtaining the reward. It is said that
there will be one more incarnation of Vishnu, when he will carry the
sword of justice and ride the white horse, like Christ in Revelation.
We must remember that the horse was used by the Hindoos instead of
the Ram. Now as Aries or the Ram is the constellation in which the
sun starts his zodiacal journey each year, the ram or horse means the
opener of new thought, the dawn of a new era. Hence to ride the white
horse means to begin a new kingdom on earth of joy and happiness and
purity. When Mahomet comes again he will ride the white horse Alborac.
In ancient Rome the white horse was sacred to Jupiter, and once a year
the consul, clad in white robes, rode to the Capitol to adore Jupiter
as the Sun-god.
Buddha is said to have been borne to earth on a white elephant, _i.e._
on Divine Wisdom or the Holy Ghost. In some of the old Buddhist zodiacs
the elephant takes the place of the sign Capricorn or the goat.
Capricorn is the sign governing from 21st December to 19th January, and
this is the time during which all world-saviours are said to have been
born.
Osiris and Zeus are spoken of as white bulls, for the bull betokens
cosmic energy and creative force. When Yasôdhara dreams that Siddartha
or Buddha is escaping from the palace, she sees “a white bull with
wide branching horns.”
The Druids proper of Wales wore white robes. It may be mentioned that
it took twenty years to train a Druid, so that surely the white robe in
their case was a sign that the wearer had laboured much and conquered
many things. The work of a Druid is given in the Triads:--
1. To keep his word.
2. To keep his secret.
3. To keep the peace.
It must be remembered that he was a bard previous to being a Druid.
Druidship was the last stage of initiation, and what he learnt in this
was not to be given out directly to the world but to be expressed only
in the inward power that accrued to him. He kept the peace because he
knew that the arts flourish in times of peace and are destroyed during
war. Still we must remember that when war came he was ever ready to
lead the people, and many a Druid died in the forefront of the battle,
for to him death was the gate of life and the entrance to the joy of
the Mighty Hu.
The symbolism of silver is related to that of white, for silver is the
colour of the moon, of chastity, and the ability to radiate purity and
joy, however dark the night and difficult the circumstances. Artemis
and Diana are both virgin goddesses of the moon, punishing evil deeds
and immorality.
Solomon speaks of the “silver cord.” It is the bond between the mortal
and the everlasting: when it is loosed then the soul is released and
regains the music of the spheres.
Sir Walter Raleigh writes:--
“My soul like quiet palmer
Travelleth toward the land of heaven,
Over the silver mountains
Whence spring the nectar fountains.”
In the Paradise of the Brahmins, Brahma has his being in the heart of
a silver rose (Tamura Pua); that is, in the heart of all fragrance,
sweetness, beauty, purity, and joy there is God.
* * * * *
In its opposite symbolism white means lack of courage and sometimes
deceitfulness--_e.g._ “whited sepulchres.”
CHAPTER VIII
THE OLD LANGUAGE OF BLACK
“Upon all the glory shall be a defence.”--ISAIAH.
Although science does not now consider black as a colour, yet it
is still considered so by the public and was considered so by the
ancients. To them it was the colour of mystery and of the mysterious
ways and wisdom of God.
In Egypt, Kneph the Creative Mind was sometimes addressed as “Thrice
unknown darkness transcending all intellectual perception,” for
certainly the wisdom of God is beyond the comprehension of human
intellect. One of our modern mystics, Henry Vaughan, seems to arrive
at the same thought when he says, “There is in God a deep and dazzling
darkness”; meaning that the mysteries of God are unfathomable but
glorious. Black was considered the colour of wisdom, and Milton, who is
so accurate in his symbolism, uses it as such:--
“Goddess staid and holy,
Whose saintly visage is too bright
To hit the sense of human sight;
And therefore to our weaker view
O’erlaid with black, staid wisdom’s hue.”
Black also symbolised eternity; thus Night, the mother of all things,
was sometimes portrayed by the Greeks in a starry veil, holding
two children--one white and the other black--to symbolise Time and
Eternity. Osiris and also Horus are sometimes painted white and
sometimes black, to show that they manifested themselves in time though
they were eternal.
Black also meant silence--the things that are not to be revealed to
everyone--the thoughts that lie too deep for tears--the innermost and
most sacred experiences of life. It is not that we ought to be selfish
with our knowledge--far otherwise:--
“Give all thou canst; high heaven rejects the lore
Of nicely-calculated less or more.”[20]
[20] Wordsworth, “Within King’s College Chapel.”
It is that certain experiences can only be comprehended by a person
having similar experiences. In olden times a black rose was used as
the symbol of the silence of an initiate, such a silence as that
comprehended by St Paul when speaking of the man who was caught up into
heaven and heard[21] unspeakable things which it is not lawful for any
man to utter. The great promise[22] to every initiate is, “I will give
thee the treasures of darkness.”
[21] 2 Corinthians xii. 4.
[22] Isaiah xlv. 3.
As the old proverb says, “If you would know more you must be more.”
Until then there is a veil[23] and a defence[24] upon the face of
all knowledge. This is no doubt the meaning of the veil of Isis. This
is the reason why so much of the ancient belief is wrapped up in
symbolism, and why the ancient pictures are so full of symbols, for
in them an initiate could tell at a glance how much the artist knew
of the inner mysteries; for example, one often sees the ornamental
broken pavement in ancient pictures. This was one of the many hints
to look well into the picture and ponder much, for it represented
not historical fact but mystic truth. The almond-shaped aura or
_vesica piscis_ was used in much the same way. Many pictures of the
Ascension of Christ and of the Assumption of the Virgin contain the
_vesica piscis_ to show that if you did not believe these events to
be historically true yet they are deep truths relating to the spirit
and soul of every man--that the spirit and soul do ascend when their
labours are done. The architects, too, were versed in these hidden
truths, so that we may truly say that our great cathedrals and churches
represent the sum-total of all the architect knew. They are really
“frozen religion.” The ordinary person sees a great and stately edifice
but the initiate sees worlds on worlds unfold.
[23] Exodus xxxiv. 35.
[24] Isaiah iv. 5.
Black to us of the West is merely the sombre colour of mourning, a sign
that our lives have been bereft of the joy of the presence of a loved
one. It is perhaps the most depressing of all colours, physically,
mentally, and morally, and surely if people believed in their religion
they would never wear such a colour; but unfortunately few people have
the courage to go against custom, and to openly rejoice that their
loved ones are in a better land. We may remember how the Lady Olivia’s
grief was reproved by the Clown in _Twelfth Night_:--
_Clown_: Good madonna, why mournest thou?
_Olivia_: Good fool, for my brother’s death.
_Clown_: I think his soul is in hell, madonna.
_Olivia_: I know his soul is in heaven, fool.
_Clown_: The more fool you, madonna, to mourn for your brother’s soul
being in heaven.
Of course black used with other colours often gives beautiful effects
and throws these colours into relief. It is a most useful decorative
colour when used in moderation, but when totally unrelieved, it is an
abomination. By shutting out the light rays of the sun it lays the
whole system open to disease. In the human aura it is evidence of the
deepest depths of human wickedness.
Black in its lowest symbolism means this wickedness and foulness, and
hatred of the light of the healing sun. The black angels are the evil
angels. Black magic was occult art used for selfish purposes and very
often requiring blood sacrifice, even of human blood, in the performing
of it.
CHAPTER IX
THE OLD LANGUAGE OF BROWN AND GREY
“Beauty is never lost,
God’s colours are all fast.”--WHITTIER.
We next consider the colour brown--the symbol of autumn and decay. The
autumn may indeed be a beautiful season of mellow fruitfulness, and
the rich red-brown hues may delight us, but for all this, the brown is
a sign that the life is surely, though gently, passing away from the
leaves. Yet because the tree does not die merely because the leaves
perish, brown takes on the meaning of the still quietness that is
necessary before the next period of effort. We have the expression “to
be in a brown study,” that is, in a calm state of mind, oblivious to
external facts and objects for the time being, yet really working out
some deep problem that has to be solved before physical effort is of
any value. There is a softness and gentleness about brown which calms
our restless minds.
Browns and other sombre “useful” colours are usually tabooed by healers
because they tend to depression. If rest is needed, this is better
given by blues and purples since they are quietening in effect. In
ordinary household decoration, golden browns may be used with the most
restful and helpful effect.
In the human aura, however, the presence of much brown indicates an
unprogressed character--one who needs to make his life more spiritual.
Grey eyes are considered by many the best for expressing tenderness
and sadness, but as a rule grey denotes what is hard and unfeeling.
Still there are such a number of shades of grey that probably this last
meaning is only appropriate to the shades having much blue in them.
Tennyson writes:--
“Break, break, break,
On thy cold _grey_ stones, O sea,
And I would that my tongue could utter
The thoughts that arise in me.”
Kingsley writes:--
“’Tis the hard _grey_ weather
Breeds hard Englishmen.
* * * * *
Sends our English hearts of oak
Seaward round the world.”
W. S. Cary, in “Heraclitus,” writes:--
“They told me, Heraclitus, they told me you were dead;
They brought me bitter news to bear, and bitter tears to shed.
I wept as I remembered how often you and I
Had tired the sun with talking and sent him down the sky.
And now that thou art lying, my dear old Carian guest,
A handful of _grey_ ashes, long, long ago at rest,
Still are thy pleasant voices, thy nightingales awake,
For Death, he taketh all away, but them he cannot take.”
W. E. Henley, in his “Song of the Sword,” sings:--
“Follow, O follow me,
Till the waste places
All the _grey_ globe over
Ooze, as the honeycomb
Drops, with the sweetness
Distilled of my strength.”
Again we must contrast this modern symbolism with the ancient. Grey
was the union of black and white, and so partook of the symbolism of
each. Christ in grey robes was not a cheerless Christ. His grey robes
symbolised resurrection--the triumph of life over death; they symbolise
the joy of white over the despair of black, of the joy of knowledge of
future and everlasting life over the dark, inscrutable ways of apparent
death.
The grey friars wore grey robes to portray Christ risen, still alive
and working for the people of earth.
CHAPTER X
THE OLD LANGUAGE OF THE RAINBOW
“Be thou the rainbow to the storms of life.”--BYRON.
We have come to the end of our survey of the inner meanings of separate
colours, showing us how “The invisible things of God from the creation
of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things which are
made.”[25]
[25] Romans i. 20.
However, we should not properly complete our task if we did not
consider the rainbow and the deep symbolic meaning attached to it.
Since every ray gives out some great truth and blessing, the rainbow
stood for all blessing, the sign of the presence of God’s love. In
Greece, Iris (who is sometimes regarded as the rainbow itself, or a
goddess clothed with the rainbow, or dwelling in the rainbow, or making
a rainbow path to earth) is the messenger of the gods. She is not
mentioned in the _Odyssey_ but very often in the _Iliad_. She has some
of the functions of Hermes, but unlike Hermes has little or nothing
to do with the pale realms of Pluto. She is generally looked upon as
Juno’s chief messenger, and confers blessings on those whom Juno loves.
In the _Æneid_, book iv., we have a beautiful description of Iris
coming to release the suffering soul of Dido, the luckless Queen of
Carthage:--
“Then Juno, pitying her agony
Of lingering death, sent Iris down with speed
Her struggling soul from clinging limbs to free.
* * * * *
So down to earth came Iris from on high
On saffron wings all glittering with the dew.
A thousand tints against the sunlit sky
She flashed from out her rainbow as she flew.”
The Scandinavians believed that on the rainbow arch the souls of the
heroes were able to march in triumph to the great wassail in Valhalla.
Curiously enough this rainbow is spoken of as “treble-hued.” It would
be interesting to know which three main colours of the rainbow they
thought of.
“Over all swept the magnificent arch of Bifröst,[26] the treble-hued
rainbow, and Odin turned and said: ‘See, children, how Bifröst bids
us climb yet higher, humbly to learn of the holy Nornir (the Fates)
and drink in wisdom from the fountain of Urd (Norn of the Past).
Let us mount and ride.’ And the glorious procession took its way
across the plain to the luminous trembling end of the bridge, where
golden-toothed Heimdal (the sleepless guardian of Bifröst) stood on
guard. With a smile of welcome he threw open the gate, and they swept
proudly on, singing a song of joyous thanksgiving for the beauty and
peace of all around them; but, when great Thor would have set his foot
on the bridge, Heimdal barred the way with his spear.”[27]
[26] Bif-rost--the wave-rest, _i.e._ the resting place of the waves.
[27] _Asgard._ K. F. Boult.
So of all the gods Thor might not tread the rainbow; still, he was
allowed to make his journey into the council of the gods by other paths.
The rainbow is said to have been given to Noah as a sign that there
should be no more flood or no more sea of trouble, for the sea or
the salt water stands mystically for the troubles, the trials, and
the suffering which the soul has to surmount before it receives
blessing and peace. How this makes us think of the meaning of Bifröst.
The promise that there shall be no more sea does not stand for the
drying-up of actual oceans but is a promise given to every true
navigator of the soul--such as Noah was--if only the ark or soul is
constructed according to divine instructions and has its little window
above into which light may shine.
In the “Kalevala,” Wainomoinem builds a magic boat, but forgets the
last three words of his enchantment, and so he cannot complete the
boat. He journeys over the whole world to find these words, and when he
does eventually find them he finishes the boat and gives it as a dowry
to the Maid of Beauty:--
“Sitting on the arch of heaven
On the bow of many colours.”
Among the Peruvians the rainbow was worshipped under the name of
Chucychu.
Ezekiel[28] sees the rainbow beautiful and bright around his vision
of God and the Cherubim. St John[29] also has a vision of Christ
manifesting within a rainbow glory.
[28] Ezekiel i. 28.
[29] Revelation iv. 3.
We should naturally expect from the above that the opal should have
much the same meaning as the rainbow. We certainly do find that in the
East it was considered a most sacred stone, and it was said to contain
the Spirit of Truth.
The Greeks were probably responsible for our belief that it brings
ill-luck in love affairs; but we must remember that they considered it
capable of giving the gift of prophecy, provided that the gift was used
for the benefit of others. If this was not so, then bad fortune came to
the seer.
Joseph’s coat of many colours has been said to have been a sign of
all-blessing, but we must remember that there is considerable doubt
concerning the context of this passage, Still we do know that in many
nations certain variously coloured garments have been considered
garments of honour. Thus the ancient Irish bards had robes striped
with the following colours as a sign of their noble and honourable
calling--white, blue, green, black, and red.
Modern symbolism speaks in very beautiful language of the fact that the
seven rays of the spectrum give white light, but we must remember that
this symbolism is essentially modern. Thus, as I have said previously,
white represents unity; while to the ancients, yellow, the sun colour,
was the colour of unity. The seven rays have been likened to the seven
gifts of the Holy Spirit, and sometimes they are likened to the Elohim.
In the spectrum we have three main rays, sometimes given as red,
yellow, and blue, and sometimes as red, green, and blue. These are said
mystically to stand for the Trinity or God in Three--that is, God in
manifestation; while the white ray would represent God in Unity or the
One Supreme Cause--God Unmanifest--God ever changeless.
Sometimes the seven rays are likened to the various ways and methods of
approach to spiritual vision, for few people receive this vision in the
same way or under the same conditions. Some people receive inspiration
through work, others in quiet meditation, or by concentrating their
energies on some great truth. Thus the Zoroastrians and Parsees have
concentrated on the virtue of Purity, and they realise that all that
is unclean, whether of the body or of the soul, is forever separate
from God. This is a great and basic truth that must be enshrined in the
heart of every worshipper:--
“Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God”
--a wonderful promise, hardly to be comprehended except by the saints,
the seers, and the exalted ones.
Then the Buddhists lay stress on the Brotherhood of Man, and so charity
and the virtue of giving willingly and freely has been exalted to one
of supreme importance in India.
The Christians lay stress on the Love of God--the highest conception so
far; but one that must include the other truths or it becomes degraded
and debasing, as in the belief of the person who holds that the more
wickedly he lives, the more God will have to forgive, and therefore the
more love God will have for him.
So all Truths are necessary in order to form the white ray. As James
Russell Lowell says:--
“God sends His teachers into every land,
To every clime and every race of men,
With revelation fitted for their growth
And shape of mind, nor gives the realm of Truth
Into the keeping of one single race.
* * * * *
All nations have their message from on high,
Each the Messiah of some central thought
For the fulfilment and delight of man;
One has to teach that Labour is divine,
Another Freedom and another Mind;
And all, that God is open-eyed and just,
The happy centre and calm heart of all.”
This wonderful study of symbolism sheds new light on many old customs
and myths. From it, we are able to penetrate to the heart of things,
and to see that every nation has aspired earnestly to understand the
universe, and to realise that the Creator is manifest in His works.
Unfortunately the modern world in its haste has for many generations
cast aside this desire to know more deeply these inner truths. The
Puritan saw that symbolism had degenerated into image-worship and into
corrupt and unworthy practices, and so his mission was to destroy this
dragon of false priests and to give simplicity and reality. Almost too
well he seems to the artist-minds to have done his work, but we must
remember that it was an age of “No compromise.”
Now, however, there seem to be signs all over the world that people
would once again love to have these beautiful symbols, for just as the
mathematician can reach greater truths by means of his symbols, so the
mystic by his can attain to the highest realms of ecstasy. He becomes
one of the uplifting forces of the world; one who gives light. His
eyes and face reveal the inward light, and so he becomes a star. Mere
knowledge, mere intellect, without the inner vision, never makes the
star soul--“He whose face gives no light can never become a star.” To
such a one the object can never enslave. He has become, as the Hindoos
say, “A King of the Zodiac”; that is, he has learnt all his lessons,
journeyed through the twelve great constellations, performed his
appointed labours, and is able to receive the great reward. What is the
great reward? To see the spiritual significance burn through from all
the objects of Nature and so to obtain communion with the Maker, and
thus enter into the golden yellow petals of the Eternal Rose.
You ask me lastly why I think it is that the nations should agree so
well in choosing the inner meanings of colours. It seems to me that
in olden times the gift of being able to see the human aura was one
well known to the prophets and seers. Now, once a person has this gift
it is very easy to connect the type of person exhaling the aura with
particular qualities. When another aura is seen containing one of the
same colours the quality it shows would ever after be connected with
that colour, and so there would grow up a colour symbolism differing
little all over the world. Many of the most successful colour healers
of to-day see the human aura, and according to the beauty of the
colours they see the beauty of the Mind, and according to the lack of
beautiful coloration they see illness and wrong-doing. Still it must
be borne in mind that the wrong-doer even in health cannot attain so
beautiful or refined an aura as the good man. In sickness the colours
of the latter are greyish in value, whereas the colours of the evil man
are muddy-looking.
It is indeed a great subject, proving that the physicians of the future
must minister to the soul as well as the body. The world awaits them.
APPENDICES
APPENDIX I
SCHOOLS OF COLOUR (p. 25)
In these ancient schools of colour the students of seership
concentrated for, sometimes, years on the truths coming to them from
a given colour. Of the Persian Sufis there are said to have been four
colours:--
1. Gold School.--Where all the beauty and majesty of the inner
symbolism of the sun colour was to glorify their souls.
2. Green School.--Where they learnt of immortality, and the need of
ever serving the Maker.
3. Black School.--Where they pondered on the mysteries of God and
learnt wisdom thereby.
4. White School.--Where as full initiates they knew the joy of God.
There have also been rosaries of symbolic colours. Roses and prayers
seem to have some connection in nearly all great religions, hence
the colour of the rose was to denote a prayer or deep desire for the
quality symbolised by the rose.
APPENDIX II
THE COLOURS OF THE PLANETS (p. 25)
This is a subject on which research gives variable results. In recent
years Mr. Alan Leo, perhaps the greatest modern exponent of astrology,
assigned the following colours to the planets:--
Sun orange
Moon violet
Mercury yellow
Venus blue
Mars red
Jupiter indigo
Saturn green
A list perhaps more in harmony with the ancient beliefs is the one
given below:--
Sun yellow or gold
Moon white or silver
Mercury green
Venus blue (turquoise or lapis lazuli)
Mars red
Jupiter purple (or lapis lazuli)
Saturn black (sometimes black with orange flecks).
Saturn, it may be said, is the planet of mystery and the mysterious
ways of God. He is like the god Chronos or the Angel Oriphel; he makes
the person wait till his appointed hour before gifts are given. Still,
as he often, by means of waiting and suffering, causes the person to
develop some of the very highest gifts, he is sometimes given the
yellow flecks.
Minnie Theobald, in an explanation of a Passion play entitled _The
Descent of the Light Spark_, writes on the colours worn by the Planets
in her play. I quote at some length:--
“These seven principles are represented in my drama as the seven
planets, which in the ancient mode of consciousness typified different
modes of consciousness and substance.... Neptune and Uranus are the
two planets of regeneration and rebirth, they are connected with
cosmic consciousness; and so in the colour scheme either iridescence
or all colour must be present to indicate their connection with
wholeness.... Red typifies life and consciousness, and suggests the
power of the Father, the Lord of Fire, reappearing in the lower
worlds. Blue indicates the mother element or the substance into which
life enters; yellow stands for the personality or child. _Colour is
language; any planet may be represented by any colour_; it depends
upon the particular activity of the particular planetary spirit to be
portrayed. In this drama Mercury or Memory, the messenger between Time
and Eternity, wears red, for he is carrying life and consciousness
down to the cross of matter. He is the representative in the lower
regions of the Light Spark; he is the flame hidden within each one
of us, giving us memory of our divine origin. Next comes Venus, our
fundamental soul-substance, the medium between the ego and personal
mind; she is clad in blue. Jupiter, personal mind, follows next, clad
in yellow. Then we have Mars. Our soul-substance, blue, has become
mingled with personal mind, yellow, and so we get green. Red, cosmic
life becomes green, personal life, for after the birth of the personal
mind everything becomes reversed. Our personal life-current is the
complementary mode of activity to the crucified cosmic life-current.
This personal life and passion is the field of activity of Mars, and
so shows his complementary colour, green. Finally, black or Saturn
marks the limit of the fall. Here we have the negation of the life of
Eternity, black or dense matter being the inversion of the pure white
light of spirit.”
This last quotation will show how modern mysticism uses colours.
APPENDIX III
CHROMATICS OF THE SKY. By J. S. DYASON (p. 4)
The following is a tabulation of his observations:--
Copper at sunset presages wind or rain.
Bright yellow ” wind.
Pale yellow ” wet.
Rosy sky ” fine.
Pale green ” wind or rain.
Indian red ” wind.
Grey in the morning ” fine.
Red ” wind or rain.
Dark blue ” wind.
Bright blue ” fine.
A high dawn ” wind.
A low dawn ” fine.
APPENDIX IV
YELLOW (p. 15)
Yellow is still a non-canonical colour in the church. Blue is also
non-canonical.
The five canonical colours are (1) white used at Easter, Christmas,
Circumcision, and Epiphany; (2) red at Exaltation and Invention of
Cross, Pentecost, and Feasts of Martyrs; (3) violet on Ash Wednesday,
Lent, Septuagesima, Quinquagesima, and Advent; (4) black on Good
Friday; (5) green on ordinary Sundays and week days.
APPENDIX V
COLOUR AND FORM (p. 4)
Since colour is vibration, it is easy to see that it must also give
form. Some of the most beautiful designs in the world have been
produced by vibration. In his great book on _Colour_, Babbit takes red,
yellow, and blue and gives them the forms of the triangle, the hexagon,
and the circle. The triangle has the sharpest corners, thus it is
appropriate to the energising fiery red. The circle, with no corners,
represents the calm indwelling blue; and the yellow, which has energy
and yet peace, partakes of the hexagon, which still has angles but yet
approaches the shape of the circle.
APPENDIX VI (p. 4)
M. Camille Flammarion has made many interesting experiments on the
growth of plants under different coloured rays. In one experiment he
took young lettuces from the same plot of ground, and all the same
size. His results showed that--
Under red glass lettuce grows four times as quickly as in direct
sunlight.
” green ” ” slightly quicker than in sunlight.
” blue ” becomes very stunted.
In another experiment he worked with Indian corn.
In sunlight one plant grew to 25 inches.
Under red glass ” ” ” 18 ”
” green ” ” ” 8 ”
” blue ” ” ” 6 ”
Beans flourished under white and red glass.
” perished ” green ” blue ”
From the above it seems that blue glass is bad for plants; but this is
not always so, as is seen from the experiments of General Pleasanton,
where he grew the best grapes in his district by using alternate
white and blue glass in his greenhouses. Babbit states that blue
light develops germination of plants, while red and yellow develop
animalculæ. Yellow rays cause carbon to deposit from the air, and
so form the woody fibre of plants. Red and yellow cause seeding and
fruitage.
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