The Dictionary of Symbols
Colour symbolism is one of the most universal of all types of
symbolism, and has been consciously used in the liturgy, in heraldry, alchemy, art
and literature. There are a great many considerations bearing upon the meaning of
colour which we can here do little more than summarize. To begin with, there is
the superficial classification suggested by optics and experimental psychology.
The first group embraces warm ‘advancing’ colours, corresponding to processes
of assimilation, activity and intensity (red, orange, yellow and, by extension,
white), and the second covers cold, ‘retreating’ colours, corresponding to processes of dissimilation, passivity and debilitation (blue, indigo, violet and, by
extension, black), green being an intermediate, transitional colour spanning the
two groups. Then there are the subtle uses to which colour may be put in emblematic designs. The serial order of the colour-range is basic, comprising as it
does (though in a somewhat abstract sense) a kind of limited set of definitive,
distinct and ordered colours. The formal affinity between, on the one hand, this
series of six or seven shades of colour—for sometimes it is difficult to tell blue
from indigo, or azure from ultramarine—and, on the other hand, the vowelseries—there being seven vowels in Greek—as well as the notes of the musical
scale, points to a basic analogy between these three scales and also between them
and the division of the heavens, according to ancient astrobiological thought, into
seven parts (although in fact there were sometimes said to be nine). Colour symbolism usually derives from one of the following sources: (1) the inherent
characteristic of each colour, perceived intuitively as objective fact; (2) the relationship between a colour and the planetary symbol traditionally linked with it;
or (3) the relationship which elementary, primitive logic perceives. Modern psychology and psychoanalysis seem to place more weight upon the third of these
formulas than even upon the first (the second formula acting as a bridge between
the other two). Thus, Jolan de Jacobi, in her study of Jungian psychology, says
in so many words: ‘The correspondence of the colours to the respective functions varies with different cultures and groups and even among individuals; as a
general rule, however, . . . blue, the colour of the rarefied atmosphere, of the clear
sky, stands for thinking; yellow, the colour of the far-seeing sun, which appears
bringing light out of an inscrutable darkness only to disappear again into the
darkness, for intuition, the function which grasps as in a flash of illumination the
origins and tendencies of happenings; red, the colour of the pulsing blood and of
fire, for the surging and tearing emotions; while green, the colour of earthly,
tangible, immediately perceptible growing things, represents the function of sensation’ (30). The most important of the symbols derived from the foregoing
principles are these: red is associated with blood, wounds, death-throes and
sublimation; orange with fire and flames; yellow with the light of the sun, illumination, dissemination and comprehensive generalization; green with vegetation,
but also with death and lividness (green is therefore the connecting-link between
black—mineral life—and red—blood and animal life—as well as between animal
life and discomposition and death); light blue with the sky and the day, and with
the calm sea; dark blue with the sky and the night, and with the stormy sea; brown
and ochre with the earth; and black with the fertilized land. Gold corresponds to
the mystic aspect of the sun; silver to that of the moon. The different conclusions
reached by psychologists and by traditional, esoteric thinkers, apparent in the
above summaries, can be explained by the fact that in the psychologists’ view,
symbolic impressions formed in the mind may be merely fortuitous, whereas
according to esoteric theory, the three series (of shades of colour, of component
elements and natural appearances, and of feelings and reactions) are the outcome
of a single, simultaneous cause working at the deepest levels of reality. It is for
this reason that Ely Star, and others, maintains that the seven colours are severally analogous to the seven faculties of the soul, to the seven virtues (from a
positive point of view), to the seven vices (from a negative viewpoint), to the
geometric forms, the days of the week and the seven planets (55). Actually this is
a concept which pertains more to the ‘theory of correspondences’ than to the
symbolism of colour proper. Many primitive peoples intuitively sense that close links exist between all the different aspects of the real world: the Zuni Indians of
Western America, for example, make a yearly offering to their priests of ‘corn of
seven colours’, each colour pertaining to a planetary god. Nevertheless, it is
worth while bearing in mind the most essential of these correspondences. For
example: fire is represented by red and orange; air by yellow; both green and
violet represent water; and black or ochre represent earth. Time is usually symbolized by a sheen as of shot silk. About the various shades of blue, ranging from
near black to clear sapphire, there has been a great deal of speculation. The most
relevant comments in our opinion are the following: ‘Blue, standing for the vertical’—and the spatial, or the symbolism of levels—’means height and depth (the
blue sky above, the blue sea below)’ (32). ‘Colour symbolizes an upward-tending
force in the pattern of dark (or gloom and evil) and light (or illumination, glory and
good). Thus, dark blue is grouped with black, and azure, like pure yellow, is
coupled with white’ (14). ‘Blue is darkness made visible.’ Blue, between white
and black (that is, day and night) indicates an equilibrium which ‘varies with the
tone’ (3). The belief that colours may be grouped in respect of their basic essentials, and within the general tendency to place phenomena in antithetical groups,
according to whether they are of positive value (associated with light) or of
negative (linked with darkness), is echoed even in present-day aesthetics, which
bases the colour-system not upon the three primary colours of red, yellow and
blue but upon the implied antithesis of yellow (or white) and blue (or black),
taking red as the indirect transition between these two colours (the stages being:
yellow, orange, red, violet, blue) and green as the direct (or summational) transition, this being the view of Kandinsky and Herbin. To sum up, those interpretations of colour symbolism which in our view have most importance: blue (the
attribute of Jupiter and Juno as god and goddess of heaven) (56) stands for
religious feeling, devotion and innocence (59); green (the colour pertaining to
Venus and Nature) betokens the fertility of the fields (56), sympathy and adaptability (59); violet represents nostalgia and memories, because it is made up from
blue (signifying devotion) and red (passion) (59); yellow (the attribute of Apollo,
the sun-god) indicates magnanimity, intuition and intellect (56, 59); orange, pride
and ambition (56, 59); red (the attribute of Mars), passion, sentiment and the lifegiving principle (56, 59); grey, neutralization, egoism, depression, inertia and
indifference—meanings derived from the colour of ashes (56, 59); purple (the
colour of the imperial Roman paludament, as well as the Cardinal’s) provides a
synthesis comparable with, yet the inverse of, violet, representing power, spirituality and sublimation (56, 59); pink (the colour of the flesh), sensuality and the
emotions (56, 59). One could go on with such interpretations ad infinitum, giving more and more exact meanings to more and more precise shades of colour, but to
do so would be to fall into one of the traps of symbolism, that is, the temptation
to evolve a hard-and-fast system of allegories. It is important, nevertheless, to
bear in mind the analogy between the tone (that is, the intensity of a colour, or the
degree of its brightness—its place on the scale between the opposite poles of
black and white) and its corresponding level-symbolism. It must also be borne in
mind that the purity of a colour will always have its counterpart in the purity of
its symbolic meaning. Similarly, the primary colours will correspond to the primary emotions, whilst the secondary or tertiary colours will express symbols of
like complexity. Children instinctively reject all mixed or impure colours, because
they mean nothing to them. Conversely, the art of very advanced and refined
cultures has always thrived upon subtle tones of yellowish mauve, near-violet
pink, greenish ochres, etc. Let us now consider some of the practical applications
of colour-symbolism, by way of clarification of the above. According to Beaumont, colour has a very special significance in Chinese symbolism, for it is
emblematic of rank and authority; yellow for instance, because of its association
with the sun, is considered the sacred privilege of the royal family (5). For the
Egyptians, blue was used to represent truth (4). Green predominates in Christian
art because of its value as a bridge between the two colour-groups (37). The
mother goddess of India is represented as red in colour (contrary to the usual
symbolism of white as the feminine colour), because she is associated with the
principle of creation and red is the colour of activity per se (60). It is also the
colour of blood, and for this reason prehistoric man would stain with blood any
object which he wished to bring to life; and the Chinese use red pennons as
talismans (39). It is for this reason too that when a Roman general was received in
triumph he was carried in a chariot drawn by four white horses which were clad
in gilt armour (as a symbol of the sun), and his face was painted red. Schneider,
considering the essential bearing of the colour red upon alchemic processes, concludes that it is to be related to fire and purification (51). Interesting evidence of
the ominous and tragic character of orange—a colour which in the view of Oswald
Wirth is actually a symbol for flames, ferocity, cruelty and egoism—is forthcoming in the following passage taken from Heinrich Zimmer, the orientalist: ‘After
the Future Buddha had severed his hair and exchanged his royal garments for the
orange-yellow robe of the ascetic beggar (those outside the pale of human society
voluntarily adopt the orange-yellow garment that was originally the covering of
condemned criminals being led to the place of execution) . . .’ (60). To wind up
these observations upon the psychic significance of colour, let us point to some
correspondences with alchemy. The three main phases of the ‘Great Work’ (a symbol of spiritual evolution) were (1) prime matter (corresponding to black),
(2) mercury (white) and (3) sulphur (red), culminating in the production of the
‘stone’ (gold). Black pertains to the state of fermentation, putrefaction, occultation and penitence; white to that of illumination, ascension, revelation and pardon; red to that of suffering, sublimation and love. And gold is the state of glory.
So that the series black—white—red—gold, denotes the path of spiritual ascension. The opposite or descending series can be seen in the scale beginning with
yellow (that is, gold in the negative sense of the point of departure or emanation
rather than the point of arrival), blue (or heaven), green (nature, or immediate
natural life), black (that is, in the sense of the neoplatonic ‘fall’) (33). In some
traditions, green and black are seen as a composite expression of vegetation
manure. Hence, the ascending series of green—white—red, formed the favourite
symbol of the Egyptians and the Celtic druids (54, 21). René Guénon also points
to the significant fact that Dante, who knew his traditional symbology, has Beatrice
appear in clothes coloured green, white and red, expressive of hope, faith and
charity and corresponding to the three (alchemic) planes which we have already
mentioned (27). The complex symbolism of mixed colours is derived from the
primary colours of which they are composed. So, for example, greys and ochres
are related to earth and vegetation. It is impossible to give any idea here of all the
many notions which may be derived from a primal meaning. Thus, the Gnostics
evolved the idea that, since pink was the colour of flesh-tints, it was also the
colour of resurrection. To come back to the colour orange, the beautiful explanation of some allegorical figures in the alchemic Abraham the Jew contains a reference to orange as the ‘colour of desperation’, and goes on: ‘A man and a woman
coloured orange and seen against the background of a field coloured sky-blue,
signifies that they must not place their hopes in this world, for orange denotes
desperation and the blue background is a sign of hope in heaven.’ And finally, to
revert to green, this is a colour of antithetical tendencies: it is the colour of
vegetation (or of life, in other words) and of corpses (or of death); hence, the
Egyptians painted Osiris (the god of vegetation and of the dead) green. Similarly,
green takes the middle place in the everyday scale of colours.
