{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_76422/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_76422","id":"gutenberg_76422","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/76422","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Symbolism of colors"],"text":"TRANSCRIBER\u2019S NOTE\n\n  Italic text is denoted by _underscores_.\n\n  Bold text is denoted by =equal signs=.\n\n  Footnote anchors are denoted by [number], and the footnotes have\n  been placed below the paragraph containing the anchor.\n\n  The tables in this book are best viewed using a monospace font.\n\n  Some minor changes to the text are noted at the end of the book.\n\n\n\n\nTHE SYMBOLISM OF COLOUR\n\n\n\n\n  THE SYMBOLISM OF\n  COLOUR\n\n  BY\n  ELLEN CONROY, M.A.\n\n  \u201cSpeak to the earth and it shall teach you.\u201d--JOB.\n\n\n  LONDON\n  WILLIAM RIDER & SON, LIMITED\n  8 PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C. 4\n  1921\n\n\n\n\n  CONTENTS\n\n\n  CHAP.                                                 PAGE\n  1. COLOUR A TRUE SYMBOL                                  1\n\n  2. THE OLD LANGUAGE OF RED                               6\n\n  3. THE OLD LANGUAGE OF YELLOW                           14\n\n  4. THE OLD LANGUAGE OF GREEN                            21\n\n  5. THE OLD LANGUAGE OF BLUE                             27\n\n  6. THE OLD LANGUAGE OF PURPLE                           36\n\n  7. THE OLD LANGUAGE OF WHITE                            40\n\n  8. THE OLD LANGUAGE OF BLACK                            46\n\n  9. THE OLD LANGUAGE OF BROWN AND GREY                   50\n\n  10. THE OLD LANGUAGE OF THE RAINBOW                     53\n\n  APPENDICES--\n\n  1. SCHOOLS OF COLOUR                                    61\n\n  2. THE COLOURS OF THE PLANETS                           62\n\n  3. CHROMATICS OF THE SKY                                64\n\n  4. YELLOW                                               64\n\n  5. COLOUR AND FORM                                      65\n\n  6. THE GROWTH OF PLANTS UNDER COLOURED RAYS             65\n\n\n\n\nTHE SYMBOLISM OF COLOUR\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I\n\nCOLOUR A TRUE SYMBOL\n\n    \u201cThe great below clenched by the great above.\u201d--E. B. B.\n\n\n\u201cGod made the country; man made the town,\u201d says William Cowper, and\nalmost everyone will agree that it is the deprivation of the colour of\nthe country that makes our towns so sadly depressing, for nearly all\npeople appreciate colour, though perhaps in a general way. They realise\nthat colour helps to beautify the world.\n\nOther people, however, look upon colour as one of the greatest joys\nin life. The colour of the woods, the flowers, the sunrise, and the\nsunset are sources of the very deepest emotion, exalting them above\nmere interest in external things into the very highest realms of vision\nand beauty. The colours of an artist like Titian make them realise\nthe joy of living. Even the word-pictures of the poets do the same,\nso that they become firm believers in the poetic fallacy that what\nis beautiful in nature reflects what is beautiful in the mind of man.\nThus Buddha watching the sun rise seems to clothe Nature with his own\nluminous soul, which is striving to make a new age begin on the earth.\n\nEdwin Arnold, in his _Light of Asia_, tells us that the Buddha rose\njust before the False Dawn and stood--\n\n    \u201cWatching the sleeping earth with ardent eyes\n    And thoughts embracing all its living things;\n    While o\u2019er the waving fields that murmur moves\n    Which is the kiss of Morn waking the lands,\n    And in the East that miracle of Day\n    Gathered and grew. At first a dusk so dim\n    Night seems still unaware of whispered dawn,\n    But soon--before the jungle-cock crows twice--\n    A white verge clear, a widening, brightening white,\n    High as the herald star, which fades in floods\n    Of silver, warming into pale gold, caught\n    By topmost clouds, and flaming on their rims\n    To fervent golden glow, flashed from the brink\n    With saffron, scarlet, crimson, amethyst;\n    Whereat the sky turns splendid to the blue,\n    And, robed in raiment of glad light, the King\n    Of Life and Glory cometh.\u201d\n\nAs we read the passage the whole scene arises before us, of the\nlonely watcher and the glorious Eastern sky. In other versions of the\nsame event, however, we have more definite teaching concerning these\nbeautiful sunrise hues. The Buddha plays his vina and the colour of the\nsky changes according to his seven notes--yellow, blue, violet, green,\npink, white, and cream; not colours given by chance, but of deep\nesoteric meaning.\n\nDid we but know it, no doubt the seven strings on the lute of Apollo\nhad once the same significance; and though we know these seven strings\nhad other meanings as well, yet we must not therefore dismiss our\ntheory, for \u201cIs not God able to say many things in one?\u201d That is the\nwhole essence of the understanding of symbolism, that there are planes\nof interpretation.\n\nThere has always existed a belief in the essential connection between\ncolour and sound. That is why in everyday language we say \u201ca colour\nclashes\u201d or \u201ca colour harmonises\u201d--both terms from the sister art of\nmusic. The scientist has now worked out this connection,[1] so that we\nhave the following facts:--\n\n                              Vibrations per second.\n  A tenor voice produces                         400\n  Red light         \u201d            400,000,000,000,000\n  A soprano voice   \u201d                            700\n  Violet light      \u201d            700,000,000,000,000\n\nThus light gives a finer vibration than sound to the extent of a\nmillion million times, and this is one reason why, when the mind is so\ntired that even music seems wearisome, it can be healed by means of\ncolour. Professor Wallace Rimington of King\u2019s College made a colour\norgan in which colours were thrown on a screen when the organ was\nplayed.\n\n[1] Dr Mount Bleyer of New York invented the vibrograph to give the\nconnection between colour and sound.\n\nFew people recognise that colours are powers, forces, vitalities, and\nvibrations.[2] Yet such they are, and on the physical plane we are now\nlearning to enlist them in all kinds of occupations, as varied as that\nof the physician, the gardener, the brewer, and the baker. Every year\nwe are finding out more clearly how we can use these vibrations for the\nbenefit of man. Every year new hospitals are being opened for colour\nhealing. Every year we are finding out how we can obtain better crops\nby means of the application of coloured rays.[3] The meteorologist[4]\nhas taken up the colour of the sky as an indication of weather, and is\nmaking exhaustive tabulation of facts in order to make more definite\nthe lore which we learnt as children in such rhymes as:--\n\n    \u201cEvening red and morning grey\n    Sets the traveller on his way;\n    Evening grey and morning red\n    Brings down rain upon his head.\u201d\n\nWhen we think of colours and read into them some of the wonderful\ntruths with which they have been associated for many centuries, we are\nastonished to find that there is a direct correspondence between the\nvalue apportioned to a colour on the physical plane and the value given\nsymbolically. Swedenborg was continually insisting that there was no\ntrue symbolism without a direct correspondence. Thus, if we take the\nlions at the base of Nelson\u2019s column and substitute any other animals,\nour minds would be instinctively offended. Why? Because Nelson and his\nmen had in them the same quality or qualities that we associate with\nthe lion.\n\n[2] See Appendix V.\n\n[3] See Appendix VI.\n\n[4] See Appendix III.\n\nElizabeth Barrett Browning grips this great truth and expresses it in\nher poem of _Aurora Leigh_:--\n\n              \u201cVerily I was wrong,\n    And verily many thinkers of this age,\n    Ay, many Christian teachers, half in heaven,\n    Are wrong in just my sense, who understand\n    Our natural world too insularly, as if\n    No spiritual counterpart completed it,\n    Consummating its meaning, rounding all\n    To justice and perfection, line by line,\n    Form by form, nothing single or alone;\n    The great below clenched by the great above.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II\n\nTHE OLD LANGUAGE OF RED\n\n    \u201cThe Holy Grail, rose-red, with beatings in \u2019t, as if alive.\u201d\n\n    TENNYSON.\n\n\nConsidering first the colour red as being the lowest in the spectrum,\nhow is this correspondence manifest? Red is the colour of the blood;\nhence, is it surprising that red is the colour denoting life and\naction, cheerfulness and enthusiasm? Red is used by healers as a\npowerful stimulant and tonic, thus it has the meaning of health\nand vigour. This is why nearly all red stones are said to have\nhealth-giving and disease-preventing properties. The ruby in China\nand Japan is said to give long life, health, and happiness. All the\nimperial decrees of China have to be written or printed in red as\na sign that there is the power behind to force them to be carried\nout. Children\u2019s clothing must contain some part of red. Usually this\nconsists of a piece of red material twisted together with a pig\u2019s-tail,\nthus making a talisman of great power against sickness.\n\nIn India and Persia the garnet is said to bring deep, abiding health to\nits possessor. The Romans used the red coral as a talisman to protect\ntheir children from all manner of diseases; while in India, China,\nand Japan it is used to-day as a safeguard against cholera. The red\ncarnelian was used by the Hebrews to prevent attacks of plague, and in\nChina it is worn to prevent stomach troubles.\n\nAgain, we find the healthy man is inclined to be more cheerful than the\nsickly man; so we instinctively think of Mr Greatheart as a man with\nrosy cheeks. The garnet has nearly always been said to bestow the gift\nof cheerfulness upon its wearer.\n\nThen we find that the healthy man is usually more courageous and daring\nthan the weakling; hence red often means courage. In fact, the lack\nof red in the face is taken as a sign of the lack of courage--as in\n_Macbeth_, where the page-boy is told:\n\n    \u201cGo prick thy face and over-red thy fear,\n    Thou lily-livered boy.\u201d\n\nCourage was said to be the gift of Mars, the god of war; hence red is\nthe colour of war, whether in its most barbaric, cruel form or in its\nchivalrous form.\n\nAstrologers assign this colour to the planet Mars from its symbolic\nvalue, and not merely because Mars looks red in the heavens. Mr Alan\nLeo writes thus:\n\n \u201cThe planet Mars, which is known by its red colour, is said to be\n hot and exhaustive in its influence. It presides over all adventure,\n enterprise, and heroic acts. It makes the mind daring, combative,\n courageous, fearless, and venturesome. In everything where pluck,\n force, and energy are required, the Mars man will be foremost. He\n will be first in any acts of bravery, and often regardless of his life\n and of the consequences of any noble act where courage is required.\u201d\n\nSo it is that the brave man is known as the man of self-sacrifice.\nThus the colour of red takes on this added meaning of self-sacrifice,\nsorrow, or suffering, which at first seem contradictory meanings to\nthose of enthusiasm, life, and cheerfulness.\n\nIn art the martyrs are often clothed in red as a sign that they have\nsuffered, and also as a sign that they had the enthusiasm for the\ncause, so that the sorrows and cruelties they endured were accounted\nby them nothing; for red is pre-eminently the colour of enthusiasm, of\nthe fire which inspires a man to fight his way through all obstacles\nor perish in the attempt. It is thus most fitting that Moses should\nreceive his life work when near the burning bush, which is surely\nthe most appropriate symbol of the quality necessary before one can\nbecome the leader of a nation or change it from one of slaves to one\nof freemen. Red is the colour of the leader, the colour of the kingly\nrobes.[5] Then we may remember that pretty legend of the Christmas\nRose, when the shepherd\u2019s little daughter, having no other gift to\noffer the infant Christ, gave him a fragrant white rose, which was\nno sooner touched by the Babe than it became a deep glorious red,\nemblematic of his future suffering.\n\n[5] In ancient Wales red robes showed honourable rank.\n\nRed is also the colour of the flame of love. As Robert Burns sings\ngaily:--\n\n    \u201cOh, my Love is like a red, red rose,\n    That\u2019s newly sprung in June.\u201d\n\nPerhaps you remember that picture of Rossetti called \u201cDante\u2019s Dream,\u201d\nwhere Beatrice lies cold and still, clad in white, while Love is seen\nclothed in rose-red robes leading Dante to her side:--\n\n    \u201cThen Love said, \u2018Now shall all things be made clear;\n    Come and behold our lady where she lies.\u2019\u201d\n\nBased on very much the same thought there was an old legend that a\nred carbuncle was placed at the prow of Noah\u2019s ark to give light and\nguidance. This legend no doubt grew out of the appropriateness of red\nas a symbol for the burning love that directed the boat and brought it\nsafely to Ararat, and also from the fact that the carbuncle gives off a\nfaint phosphorescent glow in the dark. Psychics see this very clearly\nindeed, but it is visible also to persons of normal vision.\n\nAmong nearly all primitive nations red berries, such as those of the\nmountain ash, symbolise the Spirit of God. They have been called by\nsuch names as \u201choly seed\u201d or \u201cfructifying honey dew.\u201d\n\nIn front of the high altar of a church or cathedral is seen the red\nlamp burning perpetually as a sign of the deep, intense, sacrificial,\nall-enduring love of the Creator.\n\nThe communion wine also partakes of this mystic symbolism, when the\njoy, the fervour, and the uplift of the spiritual life is imparted to\nman. There is a beautiful passage in Tennyson\u2019s \u201cHoly Grail,\u201d when this\nmystic cup is seen by Sir Percival\u2019s sister floating down into her\nconvent cell on a shaft of silver light, making wondrous melody in its\npassage:--\n\n    \u201cAnd down the long beam stole the Holy Grail,\n    Rose-red with beatings in \u2019t, as if alive,\n    Till all the white walls of my cell were dyed\n    With rosy colours leaping on the wall;\n    And then the music faded, and the Grail\n    Passed, and the beam decayed, and from the walls\n    The rosy quiverings died into the night.\u201d\n\nOr we may like to call to mind the esoteric order of Rosicrucians, in\nwhich all the glorious symbolism of the Rose and the Cross blended.\n\nOr again, we may think of the red carnelian buckle of Isis which was\nattached to the neck of the deceased while these words were chanted:--\n\n \u201cThe blood of Isis, and the strength of Isis, and the words of power\n of Isis shall be mighty to act as powers to protect this great and\n divine being, and to guard him from him that would do unto him\n anything that he holdeth in abomination.\u201d\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nYou will find that in all symbolism there is an exalted meaning given\nto the symbol and a debased meaning; _e.g._ a dog may mean all that is\nnoble and full of devotion, or it may give the meaning of all that is\nmean, low, and despicable.\n\nIn the case of red it may, as we have seen, be the sign of the\nsublime, strong love of the Creator; but at the same time it can refer\nto debased love and carnal passion, _i.e._ love without the sacrificial\nelement. Thus we have in Revelation xvi. 3 \u201cthe great red dragon who\nseeks to destroy the woman clothed with the sun,\u201d _i.e._ the woman\nor soul who is clothed with the Sun of Righteousness. The dragon is\nfrustrated in his attempt by Michael, whose name means \u201cLike unto God,\u201d\nfor what is ignoble must ever yield to the noble.\n\nSometimes red may be used as a sign of exuberant animal spirits, _e.g._\nin the expression \u201cto paint the town red.\u201d\n\nLastly, let us remember that the name Adam means red, and so he\nsymbolises man unregenerate, _i.e._ of the earth, earthy.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nPerhaps it would be wise to consider the colour pink next. Pink is\nhardly a colour so much as a tint; but as it has a definite symbolism,\nI have placed it next to red. It is a most useful colour in healing. In\nthe human aura it often denotes the healer. Certainly in its esoteric\nmeaning it denotes the man who wishes to use his life for the healing\nof others, and the man who receives inspiration how he can help to\nuplift humanity. Unfortunately, our poets do not often use the word\nbecause of its ugly sound.\n\nWhen Buddha sat under his Bo-tree (_Ficus religiosa_) to meditate\nhow he could save the world, it is said that his whole body became\nenveloped in a most radiant blush-rose colour. Edwin Arnold describes\nthis scene:--\n\n                                    \u201cThere flew\n    High overhead that hour five Holy Ones\n    Whose free wings faltered as they passed the tree.\n    \u2018What power superior draws us from our flight?\u2019\n    They asked,--for spirits feel all force divine,\n    And know the sacred presence of the pure.\n    Then looking downward, they beheld the Buddh\n    Crowned with a rose-hued aureole, intent\n    On thoughts to save; while from the grove a voice\n    Cried, \u2018Rishis! this is he shall help the world.\n    Descend and worship.\u2019 So the Bright Ones came\n    And sang a song of praise, folding their wings;\n    Then journeyed on, taking good news to God.\u201d\n\nThe colour pink is said to be the esoteric colour of the mystic number\nfive, which is the number of power, inspiration, and love-healing;\n_e.g._ five is the number of points in King Solomon\u2019s seal, which was\na talisman of power and inspiration. The Pool of Bethesda, we may\nremember, had five porches, and it was there that the sick were healed.\nWe see from this connection that similar truths are wrapped up in other\ngroups of symbols. In fact, we find that whether we take colours, or\nnumbers, or trees, or animals, or mountains, or rivers, we learn the\nsame deep truths. The mystics knew that each was an expression of the\nheavenly mind:--\n\n    \u201cEarth\u2019s crammed with heaven\n    And every common bush afire with God,\n    But only he who sees takes off his shoes.\u201d[6]\n\n[6] E. B. B., _Aurora Leigh_.\n\nCarlyle used pink in its debased sense when he speaks \u201cof the rose-pink\nhue of sentimentality,\u201d meaning a hue that lacks full virility.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nWhen we come to the colour orange, however, we find that the ancients\nhardly ever refer to it. If it had very much red in it, it came under\nthe symbolism of red. If it had very much yellow in it, then the\nsymbolism of yellow was considered to embrace it. They did not know it\nas a primary colour.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III\n\nTHE OLD LANGUAGE OF YELLOW\n\n    \u201cInto the yellow of the Rose Eternal ...\n    Me Beatrice drew.\u201d--DANTE.\n\n\nYellow is one of the most interesting colours. Being the colour of the\nsun, all the attributes of the sun were given to it.\n\nLike red it was considered a masculine colour, while green, blue,\nand violet were thought of as feminine. Like red, too, it is used by\nhealers as a tonic. As it is of such healing value to the brain, we\nare not surprised to find that amber has been used as an antidote to\ninsanity. Yellow stones are said to bring happiness to their owners,\nfor yellow was said to be the colour of unity--unity in affection,\nunity with the spiritual powers of the universe, unity with the Sun of\nRighteousness who comes with healing in his wings.\n\nThis old meaning of the colour yellow was well known and understood in\nthe old Roman Catholic Church. Therefore Dante, who wrote much of his\ngreat _Divine Comedy_ consciously or unconsciously to interpret these\nold ideas and to enshrine them in poetry for evermore, says when he\nhas reached the highest part of heaven and is once more with Beatrice:--\n\n    \u201cInto the yellow of the Rose Eternal ...\n    Me Beatrice drew.\u201d\n\nThe Pope (on the fourth Sunday in Lent) presents a golden rose of\njewels to any person greatly beloved by the Church.\n\nOne can notice in the world at present a deep and increasing love for\nall yellow colours,[7] for it is a colour that gives the appearance of\nsunlight to the most cheerless rooms. May we not also hope that it is\na sign that the world is now striving after unity, and the desire to\nunderstand the other person\u2019s point of view?\n\nThe yellow robe donned by the Buddhist is a symbol that he is now on\nthe path that is to lead to spirituality. The _Light of Asia_ tells\nus that Buddha taught his supreme truths \u201cto his own, them of the\nyellow robe.\u201d He taught them to practise \u201cyoga.\u201d What is \u201cyoga\u201d? To\nthe Western mind it usually means a kind of magic--even charlatanism,\nbut the real meaning of the word is \u201cunion.\u201d The belief of these\nyellow-robed men is that they have within them a spark of the Godhead,\nand that, by suppressing the bodily desires and by concentrating their\nwhole mental and psychic energies towards trying to understand this\nhigher part of their nature, they will become united with the Supreme\nSpirit and will understand how to do many things and see many things\nthat the ordinary man cannot do or see.\n\n[7] See Appendix IV.\n\nVishnu is clad in yellow for the same reason. In the vision of Ezekiel,\nGod is seen in the colour amber; at least, the amber colour is the\noutward sign of the presence of God.\n\nIn the ceremony of making a child become a Brahmin a piece of saffron\ncloth is bound to his arm with a yellow cord. The Mexicans gave the\nname Kan to the god who supported the sky. The same word meant yellow.\n\nYellow is the royal colour of China, and the privilege of wearing\nyellow is most jealously guarded, for does it not show that its\npossessor is a Son of the Sun? Similarly the saffron robes of the\nancient Irish nobility were a sign of their rank.\n\nYellow is the marriage colour in India, and the bride stains her hands\nyellow as a sign of the happiness and unity she expects in her married\nlife. The Roman bride wore a crocus-coloured veil and yellow shoes.\nAmong the Jews marriage may be performed under the Talis, an orange\nsilk robe stretched on four posts. The bride and her maids walk round\nit seven times, which is said to be in memory of the siege of Jericho.\n\nIt might also be noted, in Calderon\u2019s picture of Ruth and Naomi, that\nRuth, who wishes ever to be with Naomi, wears a yellow robe--perhaps\nby chance, perhaps by design, or perhaps by intuition.\n\nAmong the Mayas and Egyptians the great serpent of the universe (who\nsymbolises Eternity and Wisdom) was said to be blue in colour but\nto have yellow scales. In China the golden cock proclaims the dawn.\nThe golden hawk, the golden eagle, the golden ass,[8] and the golden\ncalf were all symbols of deity. Athena, who represented union with\nthe mind of Zeus, had a robe called the \u201cpeplus,\u201d a crocus-coloured\ngarment with figures woven into it of the gods conquering the giants.\nIt was suspended to the mast of a ship when it was to be carried in\nprocession, being too holy to be carried by hands.\n\nThe mundane egg which is to be met with in nearly all ancient\nreligions, whether of India, Egypt, Ph\u0153nicia, Japan, or the South Sea\nIslands, was said to have been a golden one--that is, it represents the\nsun or deity. Probably our children\u2019s tale of the goose that lays the\ngolden eggs is a survival of one of these ancient beliefs.\n\nWe must remember, too, that the colour of gold not only partook of\nthe meaning of the colour yellow, but also of the symbolism of the\nmetal gold, which is the metal of the sun. Thus the colour began to\nmean all that was pure, all that had been refined, and hence glory and\nwisdom. Thus the halo of saints and of God is often made of gold leaf.\nSimilarly the gates and doors of heaven are nearly always represented\nas being of gold.\n\n[8] Read the _Golden Ass_ of Apuleius, where the hero only regains his\nreal shape by eating roses, which are symbols of prayer.\n\nWe may remember, too, that among the emblems attached to St John\nare the eagle and the River Pison. This River Pison is mentioned in\nGenesis as flowing through Havilah, where there is much gold. It\ntherefore became the river of inspiration and the wisdom of God; and\nsince St John received the greatest vision, it was considered his most\nappropriate emblem.\n\nThe ladder which Jacob saw in his dream at Bethel or the House of God\nis described by Dante as being of gold:--\n\n                          \u201cI saw reared up,\n    In colour like to sun-illumined gold,\n    A ladder, which my ken pursued in vain,\n    So lofty was the summit.\u201d\n\nFor it is by the ladder of wisdom that we attain wisdom and receive\ninspiration.\n\nThe Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood made it their particular joy to replace\nthis beautiful symbolism into art. Thus Dante Gabriel Rossetti speaks\nvery beautifully in \u201cThe Blessed Damozel\u201d of a golden thread of life\nthat is woven into the robes of the spirits who arrive in the next\nworld after having lived during earth life in unity with God:--\n\n    \u201cWe two, she said, will seek the groves\n      Where the Lady Mary is,\n    With her five handmaidens, whose names\n      Are five great symphonies:--\n    Cecily, Gertrude, Magdalen,\n      Margaret and Rosalys.\n    Circle-wise sit they with bound locks\n      And bosoms covered,\n      Weaving the golden thread\n    To fashion the birth-robes for them\n      Who are just born, being dead.\u201d\n\nThis golden thread is spoken of by the mystic Blake:--\n\n    \u201cI give you the end of a golden string,\n      Only wind it into a ball;\n    It will lead you in at heaven\u2019s gate,\n      Built in Jerusalem\u2019s wall.\u201d\n\nThe Greeks also had a legend of a golden thread by which Jupiter drew\nup souls to heaven. Here we might mention the Golden Bough given to\n\u00c6neas in order that he may visit the dead and yet retain his life\n(_\u00c6neid_, bk. vi. 29).\n\nIn the Kalevala, the great Finnish epic, Ilmater is invoked:--\n\n    \u201cAncient daughter of Creation,\n    Come in all thy golden beauty.\u201d\n\nAnd as Ilmater stands for wisdom, we are not surprised that\nEcclesiasticus should say, \u201cGet wisdom, and get much gold by her.\u201d So\nalso Keats writes:--\n\n    \u201cMuch have I travelled in the realms of gold.\u201d\n\nIn Babbit\u2019s book on colour there is an illustration of the aura seen\nround the head of a man. Above the top part of the head is seen the\ncolour yellow. Now, the phrenologist locates this as the seat of\nspirituality; thus we see that once more two studies agree in their\nconclusions. Yellow was thus to the ancients the greatest of all the\ncolours, and had the most exalted meaning.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIt is perhaps to be expected, then, that in its degraded meaning it\nis the saddest of all colours, for we recognise the deceitful Judas\nvery often in ancient pictures from the fact that he is given dingy\nyellow robes. The Jews in Venice formerly had to wear yellow hats, to\nshow the scorn in which the Venetians held them. Yellow is the colour\nof decaying vegetable life, of the poorness of life. Thus it means\nseparation instead of unity.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV\n\nTHE OLD LANGUAGE OF GREEN\n\n    \u201cHope rules a land for ever green.\u201d--WORDSWORTH.\n\n\n\u201cHope rules a land for ever green,\u201d says Wordsworth. He means a land\nwhere nothing dies, for green is the colour of plant life, the colour\nof spring and of all that is fresh and young and joyous.\n\nWhen looking at Watts\u2019 picture of Hope, we see that she sits almost\nlike a picture of Despair, but she is trying to obtain music from\nher one last string. We notice that the green Watts uses is of a\nparticularly hard, bluish character, so unlike the joyous green of\nspring. When Rossetti in \u201cDante\u2019s Dream\u201d depicts the two maidens\nlifting the veil from the face of Beatrice, we notice what a full\nrich green he uses for their robes, for he wishes to make his colour\nproclaim the fact that he feels no despair, but a sublime Hope and\nFaith which will go with him until the time that Beatrice will draw him\ninto the \u201cyellow of the Rose Eternal.\u201d\n\nShelley understood that green meant hope and gladness, for he wrote:--\n\n    \u201cMany a green isle needs must be\n    In the deep, wide sea of Misery,\n    Or the mariner worn and wan\n    Never thus could journey on\n    Day and night, and night and day,\n    Drifting on his weary way,\n    With the solid darkness black\n    Closing round his vessel\u2019s track:\n    Whilst above, the sunless sky\n    Big with clouds hangs heavily;\n    And behind, the tempest fleet,\n    Hurries on with lightning feet,\n    Riving sail, and cord, and plank,\n    Till the ship has almost drank\n    Death from the o\u2019er-brimming deep,\n    And sinks down, down, like that sleep\n    When the dreamer seems to be\n    Weltering through eternity.\u201d\n\nAmong the ancient Druids of Wales, green was the colour of the robes\nof the \u201covates,\u201d that is, the men who were hoping to become bards or\nDruids later.\n\nThe colour green was used by the people of the East with a much deeper\nsignificance, however. The Hindoos said that Om, the Sun, drove across\nthe sky in a chariot drawn by a green horse with seven heads, and\npreceded by Aruna, the Dawn. As we have no green horses in nature,\nthe statement must be highly symbolic. Horses are always a sign of\nknowledge.[9] In the old Hindoo zodiacs, instead of the constellation\nAries or the Ram, we often have a horse. Aries is the sign governing\nthe head or mentality. The horse is used in exactly the same way.\nThe number seven means what is complete in both body and spirit, for\nit contains the basic four (which is the number of man, who has to\nperfect his fourfold nature--body, mind, soul, and spirit), and also it\ncontains the three, which is the perfection of the Trinity, for every\ngreat religion has contained a Trinity. Thus we see that seven refers\nto perfection in all things, whether of heaven or of earth. What, then,\ndo we mean by a seven-headed _green_ horse? This--that the knowledge\nand wisdom of Om are eternal, everlasting, all-enduring, and that they\ncomprehend the whole universe.\n\n[9] _Cf._ Sanskrit \u201charit\u201d = (1) a horse, (2) the light, bright,\nshining. _Cf._ Pegasus, the winged horse of the Muses, in poetical\nimagination.\n\nIn Palestine St George is sometimes called \u201cthe everlasting green one,\u201d\nfor the fight between good and evil is never-ending, but to the true St\nGeorge the victory is ever assured.\n\nTime was addressed by the Egyptians as the \u201ceverlasting green one,\u201d for\nthe main experiences of life are the same to everyone, whether born now\nor hundreds of years ago. External circumstances alter, but each person\nhas the same lessons to learn. The Fortunate Isles of the Greeks and\nthe Islands of the Blessed of the North American Indians are said to\nhave been green. Nearly all evergreen plants were considered especially\nsacred. Edgar Allan Poe addressed his love as\n\n    \u201cA green isle in the sea.\u201d\n\nThe Hindoos say that the emerald gives the gift of knowledge and\nmemory. It also gives the ability to tell the future, even as the green\nlaurel tree of Apollo did. The emerald also confers immortality on the\nsoul, and enables it to gain faith. This belief will surely explain why\ngreenstone amulets are so common in the tombs of the Egyptians, for\nfaith would bring them safely to the Fields of Peace, where immortality\nwas enjoyed.\n\nIsis, the goddess of the crescent moon, which often mystically means\nthe pure soul, is sometimes called the \u201cLady of the Emerald\u201d--that is,\nshe whose soul is pure enough to gain immortality.\n\nWhen Pizarro went to Mexico he found that a goddess there was\nworshipped as the Goddess of the Emerald.\n\nThe emerald is often seen on the breastplates of Pallas and of Minerva,\nfor both these goddesses stand for the Divine mind--the all-enduring\nWisdom. The Virgin Mary is often represented clothed in a green mantle\nand standing on the crescent moon. She has faith and hope until the\nDay-star awakes in her heart. The walls of the New Jerusalem are seen\nby John in Revelation to be made of jasper. The New Jerusalem, like\nthe Ark and the Temple, is said by mystics to be a soul symbol; hence,\nhow appropriate that the green jasper should be the material of which\nit is said to be made! Among the Chinese, Tao is said to have been\nmiraculously born of \u201cthe excellent Virgin of Jasper.\u201d\n\nGreen is sometimes said to be the colour of the planet\nMercury,[10] which is the planet governing the mind and conferring\nknowledge--knowledge not only of the kind essential to material\nsuccess, but also inspirational knowledge and celestial wisdom. The god\nMercury had assigned to him nearly all the main attributes of Hermes,\njust as Hermes in the same way received the main characteristics of\nThot and his companion Anubis. The \u201cgreen hill of Anubis,\u201d where the\ngood souls were directed, is the hill of everlasting life and of\nEternal Wisdom. Thot also had green hills dedicated to him. It is\nprobably due to the Ph\u0153nicians that we have place names perpetuating\nthis fact, _e.g._ Toot\u2019s Hill in Epping Forest, Tothill Street,\nTooting, and Tewkesbury. In Christian times the archangel Michael\nwas given the work and attributes of these gods; and surely it is\nmarvellous the number of hills and rocks sacred to St Michael, while in\nancient pictures we often see him conducting the souls of the departed\nto the green hill of Zion.\n\n[10] See Appendix II.\n\nWhen we think of the great gifts symbolised by green, how full of\nmeaning seems the green turban of the Mohammedan who has visited Mecca!\nWe can also realise what great truths could have been taught, and no\ndoubt were, in the \u201cGreen Schools\u201d[11] of the Persian sufis.\n\n[11] See Appendix I.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nGreen in its degraded sense gives us \u201cthe green-eyed monster\njealousy,\u201d which is the direct opposite of celestial wisdom, for\njealousy is always due to the intrusion of the desires of the self,\nwhile celestial wisdom wishes to give rather than to receive. The\ncolour green is often said to forebode death. This idea may be a\nsurvival of the ancient worship of Mercury, and even of St Michael[12]\nin Christian times, both of whom were messengers of death.\n\n[12] See picture of St Michael presenting taper of death to the Virgin\n(Fra Filippo Lippi).\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V\n\nTHE OLD LANGUAGE OF BLUE\n\n    \u201cBlue, \u2019tis the colour of heaven!\u201d--KEATS.\n\n\nIn the spectrum we ought to be able to recognise both blue and indigo,\nthough many people find difficulty in recognising the indigo ray. Blue\nbelongs to the cooling end of the spectrum, and thus it is right and\nfitting that symbolically it should be the colour of Truth, which is\nthe result of calm reflection and never of heated argument. Even in\neveryday language we speak of \u201ctrue-blue.\u201d\n\nBlue is the colour of the heavens--that is, blue is the colour of the\nabode of God:--\n\n \u201cThen went up Moses, and Aaron, and Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of\n the elders of Israel; and they saw the God of Israel: and there was\n under his feet as it were a paved work of sapphire stone, and as it\n were the very heaven for clearness.\u201d[13]\n\n[13] Exodus xxiv. 9-11.\n\nEzekiel has very much the same vision, not because he copied from an\nolder version, but because it is given to every great seer to realise\nfor himself any real basic truth, such as that God dwells in Truth.\nClairvoyant visions often repeat themselves to different people in\ndifferent countries and in different ages.\n\n \u201cAnd above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of\n a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone: and upon the likeness\n of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon\n it. And I saw as the colour of amber.\u201d[14]\n\n[14] Ezekiel i. 26.\n\nA wonderful vision truly that within Truth dwells the amber of unity\nand the divine Spirit.\n\nThe Egyptian judges wore a breastplate of blue covered with symbolic\nfigures. The blue was to show that they would reverence truth in their\njudgments and not stoop to bribery.\n\nMoses was commanded to make the robe of the ephod of blue, and on the\nskirts of it were to be pomegranates of blue. This was to symbolise\nthat the true priest of God was to abound in Truth--not in mere facts\nand formalities. Truth is ever greater than mere facts. Facts may\nsometimes give the appearance of an untruth, but Truth is ever one and\nindivisible. As said previously, it contains unity.\n\nAgain Moses was commanded to--\n\n \u201cSpeak unto the children of Israel, and bid them that they make\n them fringes in the borders of their garments, throughout their\n generations, and that they put upon the fringe of the borders a\n ribband of blue ... that ye may remember, and do all my commandments,\n and be holy unto your God.\u201d[15]\n\n[15] Numbers xv. 38.\n\nHere we might mention that the Rabbins considered that blue was the\ncolour of the two stones on which the Commandments were written. Plato\ntells us that the robes of the priests of Atlantis were blue.\n\nThe Buddhists say, \u201cSapphire produces peace of mind and equanimity. It\nchases out evil thoughts by establishing healthy circulation. It opens\nbarred doors to the spirit. It produces a desire for prayer. It brings\npeace, but he who would wear it must lead a pure and holy life.\u201d\n\nSurely, if all this is true, it is almost essential that we should\nfollow the advice of colour healers and have our ceilings always of\nblue.\n\nBlue is often called the colour of devotion, but we must remember that\ndevotion is not an end in itself; it is the striving after eternal\nTruth and Wisdom that matters.\n\nSo much did the Hindoos think of the colour that their gods are\naddressed by the epithet \u201cnarayan,\u201d and they are said to be born of\nthe sea which ever reflects the blue of heaven. In Egypt the gods were\noften painted blue to show their heavenly origin; _e.g._ Kneph the\nCreator, the great Mind, wears blue robes. Mummies were shrouded in\nblue beads to show that they were united with the soul of Truth.\n\nOdin, the wise All-Father of the Scandinavians, is nearly always spoken\nof as wearing blue robes. The blue pines near the homes of Philemon and\nBaucis were sacred to Jupiter. Sin, the Assyrian god, is said to have\nhad a blue beard. Our conception of blue beard has taken on the debased\nmeaning of cruelty.\n\nIsis is often called the Lady of the Turquoise, while Osiris is god\nof the turquoise and the lapis lazuli. The Virgin Mary is often clad\nin a blue robe, for the same reason that she is often represented as\nstanding by the Well of Truth, as in Arthur Hacker\u2019s \u201cAnnunciation.\u201d\nThe Hindoo Mariama is addressed as \u201cHoly Nari Mariama, mother of\nperpetual fecundity.\u201d\n\nIn both Mexico and Chaldea blue was worn as mourning, being a token of\nthe joy that the soul realised in the Fields of Peace.\n\nThe turquoise and the lapis lazuli seem to have had in them the two\nblues that appealed most to the ancients. In the \u201cBurden of Isis\u201d we\nhave these words in praise of Osiris, who is identified with the spirit\nof the departed:--\n\n \u201cWith turquoise is thy hair twined, and with lapis lazuli, the finest\n of lapis lazuli. Lo, the lapis lazuli is above thy hair.\u201d\n\nThere is another similar incantation in the Festival Songs of Isis and\nNephthys:--\n\n \u201cThy hair is like turquoise as thou comest from the Fields of\n Turquoise; thy hair is like unto the finest of lapis lazuli, and\n thou thyself art more blue than thy hair. Thy skin and body are like\n southern alabaster, and thy bones are of silver. The perfume of thy\n hair is like unto new myrrh, and thy skull is of lapis lazuli.\u201d\n\nSince hair is not blue, the statement must be symbolic, and means that\nthe spirit of the departed has now become one with Eternal Truth.\n\nSurely we cannot read the above passages without thinking of the Song\nof Solomon, where the bridegroom is compared to \u201cbright ivory overlaid\nwith sapphires.\u201d\n\nThere is another such song in praise of Amen-Ra:--\n\n    \u201cPraise to Amen-Ra,\n    To the bull of Heliopolis, to the chief of all the gods,\n    To the beautiful and beloved god,\n    Who giveth life by all manner of warmth,\n    By all manner of fair cattle.\n\n           *       *       *       *       *\n\n    Amen, bull fair of face,\n    Beloved in Thebes;\n    He fashioneth earth, the silver and the gold,\n    Real lapis lazuli for those who love him.\u201d\n\nThe same imagery is used by the Buddhists. When Buddha sat under the\nBo-tree on his throne of knowledge, all truths were revealed to him. To\nsymbolise this we are told that he saw the great white cosmic umbrella,\nand also the Fields of Lapis Lazuli, where all the preceding Buddhas\ndwelt in ecstasy:--\n\n    \u201cHe hath overthrown the flag of pride,\n    He hath obtained the triple knowledge.\n\n           *       *       *       *       *\n\n    The King of Physicians\n    With his heavenly Amrita[16]\n    Will dull all human pain\n    And lead all flesh to Nirvana.\n    Having entered the City of Omniscience,\n    And become one with the Buddhas,\n    He is now indivisible.\u201d\n\n[16] Amrita, bread of life.\n\nThis last word gives us the key to the whole situation that in the\nFields of Lapis Lazuli there dwell the pure spirits who have become\nthe soul of Truth, inseparable from Divine Truth, indivisible from the\nSpirit of God.\n\nWhen we consider the Greeks we remember that Homer always speaks of\nPallas, the Goddess of Wisdom, as \u201cthe blue-eyed maid\u201d for is she not\nthe goddess who teaches the will of Zeus and the truths of Zeus? The\nheroine of almost every fairy tale in the world is blue-eyed, as a sign\nthat she is the true, good, and lovable maiden who is the object and\nreward of the quest and labour of the prince.\n\nIn the epic of the Finns, Ilmater is invoked in these words:--\n\n    \u201cRise up, O water-mother,\n    Raise thy blue cap from the billows.\u201d\n\nAnd this makes us think of Venus rising from the blue ocean.\n\nWe must recollect that blue was the colour of the robes of the Druidic\nbards. The bards were men who had been \u201covates\u201d and had worn the\ngreen. They were still to retain in themselves all that was meant by\nthe green, but blue is symbolically a higher colour, even as it is\nphysically.\n\nMany people think that red would have been a better colour for the\nbards, because this symbolises the enthusiasm that is so necessary in\nsong and poetry; but the bards were to have more than enthusiasm--they\nwere to have the gift of looking beyond the world and of obtaining\ngreat Truths to uplift humanity. They were to be Masters of Wisdom.\nThey were to get beyond mere passion and look into the cooler, calmer\nregions beyond, whence they could draw these great and deep truths. It\nmakes us think instinctively of Wordsworth\u2019s definition of poetry as\n\u201cPassion recollected in tranquillity.\u201d\n\nFrom the great Triads of the Druids we learn the duties of the bards:--\n\n  1.  To make a country habitable.\n  2.  To civilise the people.\n  3.  To promote science.\n\nBlake had the same belief in the duty of a poet, which he expresses\nvery beautifully:--\n\n    \u201cI will not cease from mental strife\n      Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand\n    Till we have built Jerusalem\n      In England\u2019s green and pleasant land.\u201d\n\nThe work and duty, as given in the first two parts of the Triad,\nrecalls J. Russell Lowell\u2019s wonderful lines:--\n\n    \u201cHe who would be the tongue of this wide world\n    Must string his harp with cords of banded iron\n    And strike it with a toil-embrown\u00e8d hand.\u201d\n\nIn our own time, Maurice Maeterlinck has written a little play called\n_The Blue Bird_. The playbills tell us that the quest of the Blue Bird\nis the quest for happiness, but it seems to be far more than this. A\nbird often symbolises spirit. Thus the quest of the Blue Bird is really\nthe quest for spiritual truths.[17] The children in their journey first\nappeal to their dead grandparents for the bird. By this Maeterlinck\nmeans us to ask ourselves whether the past was able to know Truth, and\nthe fact that the children do not find the bird there shows us that\nMaeterlinck thinks Truth is of the future.\n\n[17] See Henry Rose, _The Blue Bird_.\n\nStill, the children have grown by appealing to the past, as is shown\nwhen the grandparents measure the children against the door. They have\nalso another great fact to learn--that there are no dead.\n\nNext the children ask the Trees if they have the Blue Bird. These\nTrees, who think they are the rightful custodians of the Blue Bird,\nand resent the intrusion of the children, represent the persecuting\nchurches of the world who have become stereotyped and hate progress.\nSo the children are in great danger and are only saved when the dog\n(or human common sense) bursts his bonds and Fairy Light comes to the\nrescue.\n\nThe children never find the Blue Bird, for is it possible to obtain\nuniversal Truth and put it in a cage? When a man says vaingloriously\nthat he has all Truth, it is a sign that he is very far from his\nstatement. Still Mytyl and Tyltyl are better children for going on\ntheir journey, showing that it is the quest that is the great thing.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nBlue in its lowest meaning signifies depression and despair. We\nhave such expressions as \u201ca fit of the blues.\u201d Or again it may mean\nhardness, coldness, or cruelty, even, as in such an expression as\n\u201csteel-blue eyes\u201d or \u201cBluebeard.\u201d A blue-stocking means someone who has\ncultivated intellect and left out affection.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI\n\nTHE OLD LANGUAGE OF PURPLE\n\n    \u201cAnd they put upon him a robe of purple.\u201d--ST JOHN.\n\n\nThe next and highest colour of the spectrum is violet. Like green and\nblue, it is calming and soothing in its influence. Like green and blue,\nit is said by the mystics to be a feminine colour. It seems as though\nthe ancient people used the term purple to include violet, and in fact\nany tint made up of blue and red in whatever proportions. Pliny tells\nus that the colour of the amaranth is a far more beautiful purple that\nany the dyers can obtain. This, however, does not help us much, for the\namaranth can be almost any shade from red to blue. Even to-day we see\nhow carelessly the word purple is used when we have in a great writer\u2019s\nbook the phrase, \u201cthe purple rainbow.\u201d\n\nThe symbolism of purple partakes of the Red of Love and Self-sacrifice\nand the blue of Truth; hence it was considered symbolic of Wisdom,\nand is mentioned as being the colour of the canopy[18] of Solomon\u2019s\nchariot. Purple was considered the most glorious of colours, for\nthe purple dye was so costly that it became part of the insignia of\nroyalty. In England it is used as the sign of royal mourning.\n\n[18] Song of Solomon iii. 10.\n\nBefore we really comprehend the symbolism of purple, however, we must\nreflect that purple was said by the Egyptians to be the colour of the\nearth. At evening, in some parts of the world, looking across the\nploughed fields that seem so red in the daylight, we see that they\nappear tinged with purple. Our painters of landscape show this purple\ncolour, while our poets speak of purple shadows.\n\nThus the colour became symbolic of the basic qualities in our nature\nthat form a sure foundation on which to build the very highest\nqualities--patience, endurance, perseverance, ability to be long\nsuffering and slow to anger. All these qualities are a _sine qua non_\nto the evolved soul. This is why the suffering Christ was given a\npurple robe before His crucifixion. It is to show that the King of\nkings is also the lowliest and most gentle of all beings--that He had\nsuch humility as was expressed in the washing of the disciples\u2019 feet.\nAs He Himself said: \u201cHe who would be the chief among you, let him be\nyour servant.\u201d How we think here of the humble, fragrant violet.\n\nWe remember the story of Sir Gareth in the _Idylls of the King_.\n\n    \u201cAnd Gareth bowed himself\n    With all obedience to the king, and wrought\n    All kind of service with a noble ease\n    That graced the lowest act in doing it.\u201d\n\nThe Egyptians often made their soldiers talismans of amethyst because\nthey said that this stone could give them the necessary calmness of\nmind to ensure victory. The Magi of Persia said that amethyst was\nborn of the Sun and of the Moon, which confirms us in the belief that\npurple has all the symbolism of the red and of the blue, the masculine\nand feminine forces, the spirit and the soul. It evidently seems\nto have been used in this way by the Finns, for in the \u201cKalevala,\u201d\nWainomoinem sails over the \u201cblue back of the waters\u201d till he \u201cgains the\npurple-coloured harbour\u201d of the next world. Here purple is used of a\ngreater realm than that of the ocean.\n\nMany old rosaries were made of amethyst, because its effect was to make\nthe wearer withdraw from all the trials of the world and worship in a\nholy calm.\n\nIn King\u2019s _Ancient Gnostic Gems_ we are given a translation of a poem\nby Marbodus:--\n\n    \u201cOn high the amethyst is set\n    In colour like the violet,\n    With flames as if of gold it shows\n    And far it purple radiance throws;\n    The humble heart it signifies\n    Of him, who in the Saviour dies.\u201d\n\nSo we see why the martyrs are often represented as being clad in\npurple. This ability to endure for the truth brings them the fullest\nreward in the love of the Saviour.\n\nWhen we see the angels with purple robes it signifies that they partake\nof the sorrows of Christ and desire to help men with loving messages\nto attain the heavenly home beyond the blue firmament. In some of\nthe ancient orders of nuns the women wore purple veils as a sign of\nrepentance and of faith in the divine love of God.\n\nShakespeare, in _A Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream_, speaks of the\n\n    \u201cFlower of purple dye\n    Hit with Cupid\u2019s archery\u201d\n\n--a flower that we now consider to be the pansy, the name of which is\nprobably derived from \u201cPensez \u00e0 moi,\u201d and emblematic of humility and\nsweet, loving thoughts.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nPurple in its debased meaning gives us over-weening pride, pomp, and\nvanity. It is the colour of the rich man who has no love in his heart\nfor Lazarus, and no belief in anything but the things of the world.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII\n\nTHE OLD LANGUAGE OF WHITE\n\n    \u201cOh! what a power has white simplicity.\u201d--KEATS.\n\n\nIt is to be remembered in studying ancient colour symbolism that it\nwas not realised that white was the sum of the seven colours of the\nrainbow. To us, because we know this fact, white is more naturally the\ncolour of unity than yellow. Thus Shelley writes:--\n\n    \u201cLife like a dome of many-coloured glass\n    Stains the white radiance of eternity.\u201d\n\nWhite, in fact, symbolised not so much unity as purity, innocence, and\nthe great joy of the man who has fought the good fight and attained\nthe spiritual life. It is to symbolise this joy that the souls of the\nRedeemed in Revelation are clad in white robes. For the same reason\nDante sees the souls of the blessed in Paradise in form of a white\nrose:--\n\n    \u201cIn form then of a white rose\n    Displayed itself to me the saintly host\n    Whom Christ in His own blood had made His bride;\n    Faces had they all of living flame,\n    And wings of gold, and all the rest so white,\n    No snow unto that beauty can attain.\u201d\n\nTennyson, in \u201cSt Agnes\u2019 Eve,\u201d uses white in the same way to convey the\necstasy of St Agnes:--\n\n    \u201cMake Thou my spirit pure and clear\n      As are the frosty skies,\n    Or this first snowdrop of the year\n      That in my bosom lies.\u201d\n\nThe Archangel Gabriel is usually known in pictures from the fact\nthat his emblem is the lily--sometimes called the \u201clily of the\nannunciation,\u201d as a sign that a pure soul is necessary before Christ\ncan take possession of it. Gabriel is usually said to be the Angel of\nthe Moon, to which the colour white and the metal silver were given by\nastrologers and mystics.\n\nIt was the custom of Roman ladies to wear white. The wearing of\nbright colours was looked upon as portraying a lack of virtue. The\nword \u201ccandidate\u201d tells us that integrity was expected of all persons\ndesiring office.\n\nHesiod the poet sees Modesty and Justice in white robes:--\n\n    \u201cAnd those fair forms in snowy raiment bright\n    Leave the broad earth, and heavenward soar from sight;\n    Justice and Modesty, from mortals driven,\n    Rise to th\u2019 immortal family of heaven.\u201d\n\nHermas sees the Church as a virgin in white:--\n\n \u201cBehold there met me a certain virgin, well-adorned, and as if she\n had just come out of her bride-chamber--all in white, having on white\n shoes, and a veil down her face, and her head covered with shining\n hair. Now, I knew by my former visions that it was the church.\u201d\n\nThe Japanese use white as symbol of death, and a bride wears white as\nher parents consider her dead to them and belonging only to her husband.\n\nIn Revelation there is a curious statement: \u201cTo him that overcometh\nwill I give the white stone.\u201d It was the custom to give the victor in\nthe games a white stone, so that the sentence seems a truism, as \u201cTo\nhim that overcometh will I give the sign of victory\u201d; but when we dig\nmore deeply into the meaning of the white stone we find that it is a\nsign of deity, of the Spirit of God marking out His chosen one. In the\nAmaravati tope at the British Museum Buddha is seen sitting on the\nwhite stone, and sometimes the white stone is used in place of Buddha.\nIn Ireland, until recent times, white stones were placed in a coffin\nand called \u201cGod\u2019s stones.\u201d Hence \u201cTo him that overcometh will I give\nthe white stone\u201d means that to the victor shall be given the joy of the\npresence of God, the joy of harmony, the music of the spheres--\n\n    \u201cWhen the morning stars sang together,\n    And all the sons of God shouted for joy.\u201d\n\nThere was a similar idea among the Egyptians. In the papyrus of Ani\nyou will note that when he is justified he is shown with white hair.\nSimilarly, Christ in Revelation has hair[19] as white as wool.\n\n[19] Revelation i. 14.\n\nIn Revelation Christ rides on the white horse. St George is nearly\nalways depicted on a white horse. Castor and Pollux were said to ride\non white horses. A horse, as I have said before, means knowledge. Thus\nto ride on the white horse means to have all heavenly counsel to aid\nyou in gaining the victory and in obtaining the reward. It is said that\nthere will be one more incarnation of Vishnu, when he will carry the\nsword of justice and ride the white horse, like Christ in Revelation.\nWe must remember that the horse was used by the Hindoos instead of\nthe Ram. Now as Aries or the Ram is the constellation in which the\nsun starts his zodiacal journey each year, the ram or horse means the\nopener of new thought, the dawn of a new era. Hence to ride the white\nhorse means to begin a new kingdom on earth of joy and happiness and\npurity. When Mahomet comes again he will ride the white horse Alborac.\nIn ancient Rome the white horse was sacred to Jupiter, and once a year\nthe consul, clad in white robes, rode to the Capitol to adore Jupiter\nas the Sun-god.\n\nBuddha is said to have been borne to earth on a white elephant, _i.e._\non Divine Wisdom or the Holy Ghost. In some of the old Buddhist zodiacs\nthe elephant takes the place of the sign Capricorn or the goat.\nCapricorn is the sign governing from 21st December to 19th January, and\nthis is the time during which all world-saviours are said to have been\nborn.\n\nOsiris and Zeus are spoken of as white bulls, for the bull betokens\ncosmic energy and creative force. When Yas\u00f4dhara dreams that Siddartha\nor Buddha is escaping from the palace, she sees \u201ca white bull with\nwide branching horns.\u201d\n\nThe Druids proper of Wales wore white robes. It may be mentioned that\nit took twenty years to train a Druid, so that surely the white robe in\ntheir case was a sign that the wearer had laboured much and conquered\nmany things. The work of a Druid is given in the Triads:--\n\n  1. To keep his word.\n  2. To keep his secret.\n  3. To keep the peace.\n\nIt must be remembered that he was a bard previous to being a Druid.\nDruidship was the last stage of initiation, and what he learnt in this\nwas not to be given out directly to the world but to be expressed only\nin the inward power that accrued to him. He kept the peace because he\nknew that the arts flourish in times of peace and are destroyed during\nwar. Still we must remember that when war came he was ever ready to\nlead the people, and many a Druid died in the forefront of the battle,\nfor to him death was the gate of life and the entrance to the joy of\nthe Mighty Hu.\n\nThe symbolism of silver is related to that of white, for silver is the\ncolour of the moon, of chastity, and the ability to radiate purity and\njoy, however dark the night and difficult the circumstances. Artemis\nand Diana are both virgin goddesses of the moon, punishing evil deeds\nand immorality.\n\nSolomon speaks of the \u201csilver cord.\u201d It is the bond between the mortal\nand the everlasting: when it is loosed then the soul is released and\nregains the music of the spheres.\n\nSir Walter Raleigh writes:--\n\n    \u201cMy soul like quiet palmer\n      Travelleth toward the land of heaven,\n    Over the silver mountains\n    Whence spring the nectar fountains.\u201d\n\nIn the Paradise of the Brahmins, Brahma has his being in the heart of\na silver rose (Tamura Pua); that is, in the heart of all fragrance,\nsweetness, beauty, purity, and joy there is God.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIn its opposite symbolism white means lack of courage and sometimes\ndeceitfulness--_e.g._ \u201cwhited sepulchres.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII\n\nTHE OLD LANGUAGE OF BLACK\n\n    \u201cUpon all the glory shall be a defence.\u201d--ISAIAH.\n\n\nAlthough science does not now consider black as a colour, yet it\nis still considered so by the public and was considered so by the\nancients. To them it was the colour of mystery and of the mysterious\nways and wisdom of God.\n\nIn Egypt, Kneph the Creative Mind was sometimes addressed as \u201cThrice\nunknown darkness transcending all intellectual perception,\u201d for\ncertainly the wisdom of God is beyond the comprehension of human\nintellect. One of our modern mystics, Henry Vaughan, seems to arrive\nat the same thought when he says, \u201cThere is in God a deep and dazzling\ndarkness\u201d; meaning that the mysteries of God are unfathomable but\nglorious. Black was considered the colour of wisdom, and Milton, who is\nso accurate in his symbolism, uses it as such:--\n\n              \u201cGoddess staid and holy,\n    Whose saintly visage is too bright\n    To hit the sense of human sight;\n    And therefore to our weaker view\n    O\u2019erlaid with black, staid wisdom\u2019s hue.\u201d\n\nBlack also symbolised eternity; thus Night, the mother of all things,\nwas sometimes portrayed by the Greeks in a starry veil, holding\ntwo children--one white and the other black--to symbolise Time and\nEternity. Osiris and also Horus are sometimes painted white and\nsometimes black, to show that they manifested themselves in time though\nthey were eternal.\n\nBlack also meant silence--the things that are not to be revealed to\neveryone--the thoughts that lie too deep for tears--the innermost and\nmost sacred experiences of life. It is not that we ought to be selfish\nwith our knowledge--far otherwise:--\n\n    \u201cGive all thou canst; high heaven rejects the lore\n    Of nicely-calculated less or more.\u201d[20]\n\n[20] Wordsworth, \u201cWithin King\u2019s College Chapel.\u201d\n\nIt is that certain experiences can only be comprehended by a person\nhaving similar experiences. In olden times a black rose was used as\nthe symbol of the silence of an initiate, such a silence as that\ncomprehended by St Paul when speaking of the man who was caught up into\nheaven and heard[21] unspeakable things which it is not lawful for any\nman to utter. The great promise[22] to every initiate is, \u201cI will give\nthee the treasures of darkness.\u201d\n\n[21] 2 Corinthians xii. 4.\n\n[22] Isaiah xlv. 3.\n\nAs the old proverb says, \u201cIf you would know more you must be more.\u201d\nUntil then there is a veil[23] and a defence[24] upon the face of\nall knowledge. This is no doubt the meaning of the veil of Isis. This\nis the reason why so much of the ancient belief is wrapped up in\nsymbolism, and why the ancient pictures are so full of symbols, for\nin them an initiate could tell at a glance how much the artist knew\nof the inner mysteries; for example, one often sees the ornamental\nbroken pavement in ancient pictures. This was one of the many hints\nto look well into the picture and ponder much, for it represented\nnot historical fact but mystic truth. The almond-shaped aura or\n_vesica piscis_ was used in much the same way. Many pictures of the\nAscension of Christ and of the Assumption of the Virgin contain the\n_vesica piscis_ to show that if you did not believe these events to\nbe historically true yet they are deep truths relating to the spirit\nand soul of every man--that the spirit and soul do ascend when their\nlabours are done. The architects, too, were versed in these hidden\ntruths, so that we may truly say that our great cathedrals and churches\nrepresent the sum-total of all the architect knew. They are really\n\u201cfrozen religion.\u201d The ordinary person sees a great and stately edifice\nbut the initiate sees worlds on worlds unfold.\n\n[23] Exodus xxxiv. 35.\n\n[24] Isaiah iv. 5.\n\nBlack to us of the West is merely the sombre colour of mourning, a sign\nthat our lives have been bereft of the joy of the presence of a loved\none. It is perhaps the most depressing of all colours, physically,\nmentally, and morally, and surely if people believed in their religion\nthey would never wear such a colour; but unfortunately few people have\nthe courage to go against custom, and to openly rejoice that their\nloved ones are in a better land. We may remember how the Lady Olivia\u2019s\ngrief was reproved by the Clown in _Twelfth Night_:--\n\n _Clown_: Good madonna, why mournest thou?\n\n _Olivia_: Good fool, for my brother\u2019s death.\n\n _Clown_: I think his soul is in hell, madonna.\n\n _Olivia_: I know his soul is in heaven, fool.\n\n _Clown_: The more fool you, madonna, to mourn for your brother\u2019s soul\n being in heaven.\n\nOf course black used with other colours often gives beautiful effects\nand throws these colours into relief. It is a most useful decorative\ncolour when used in moderation, but when totally unrelieved, it is an\nabomination. By shutting out the light rays of the sun it lays the\nwhole system open to disease. In the human aura it is evidence of the\ndeepest depths of human wickedness.\n\nBlack in its lowest symbolism means this wickedness and foulness, and\nhatred of the light of the healing sun. The black angels are the evil\nangels. Black magic was occult art used for selfish purposes and very\noften requiring blood sacrifice, even of human blood, in the performing\nof it.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX\n\nTHE OLD LANGUAGE OF BROWN AND GREY\n\n    \u201cBeauty is never lost,\n    God\u2019s colours are all fast.\u201d--WHITTIER.\n\n\nWe next consider the colour brown--the symbol of autumn and decay. The\nautumn may indeed be a beautiful season of mellow fruitfulness, and\nthe rich red-brown hues may delight us, but for all this, the brown is\na sign that the life is surely, though gently, passing away from the\nleaves. Yet because the tree does not die merely because the leaves\nperish, brown takes on the meaning of the still quietness that is\nnecessary before the next period of effort. We have the expression \u201cto\nbe in a brown study,\u201d that is, in a calm state of mind, oblivious to\nexternal facts and objects for the time being, yet really working out\nsome deep problem that has to be solved before physical effort is of\nany value. There is a softness and gentleness about brown which calms\nour restless minds.\n\nBrowns and other sombre \u201cuseful\u201d colours are usually tabooed by healers\nbecause they tend to depression. If rest is needed, this is better\ngiven by blues and purples since they are quietening in effect. In\nordinary household decoration, golden browns may be used with the most\nrestful and helpful effect.\n\nIn the human aura, however, the presence of much brown indicates an\nunprogressed character--one who needs to make his life more spiritual.\n\nGrey eyes are considered by many the best for expressing tenderness\nand sadness, but as a rule grey denotes what is hard and unfeeling.\nStill there are such a number of shades of grey that probably this last\nmeaning is only appropriate to the shades having much blue in them.\n\nTennyson writes:--\n\n    \u201cBreak, break, break,\n    On thy cold _grey_ stones, O sea,\n    And I would that my tongue could utter\n    The thoughts that arise in me.\u201d\n\nKingsley writes:--\n\n    \u201c\u2019Tis the hard _grey_ weather\n      Breeds hard Englishmen.\n\n           *       *       *       *       *\n\n    Sends our English hearts of oak\n      Seaward round the world.\u201d\n\nW. S. Cary, in \u201cHeraclitus,\u201d writes:--\n\n    \u201cThey told me, Heraclitus, they told me you were dead;\n    They brought me bitter news to bear, and bitter tears to shed.\n    I wept as I remembered how often you and I\n    Had tired the sun with talking and sent him down the sky.\n    And now that thou art lying, my dear old Carian guest,\n    A handful of _grey_ ashes, long, long ago at rest,\n    Still are thy pleasant voices, thy nightingales awake,\n    For Death, he taketh all away, but them he cannot take.\u201d\n\nW. E. Henley, in his \u201cSong of the Sword,\u201d sings:--\n\n    \u201cFollow, O follow me,\n    Till the waste places\n    All the _grey_ globe over\n    Ooze, as the honeycomb\n    Drops, with the sweetness\n    Distilled of my strength.\u201d\n\nAgain we must contrast this modern symbolism with the ancient. Grey\nwas the union of black and white, and so partook of the symbolism of\neach. Christ in grey robes was not a cheerless Christ. His grey robes\nsymbolised resurrection--the triumph of life over death; they symbolise\nthe joy of white over the despair of black, of the joy of knowledge of\nfuture and everlasting life over the dark, inscrutable ways of apparent\ndeath.\n\nThe grey friars wore grey robes to portray Christ risen, still alive\nand working for the people of earth.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X\n\nTHE OLD LANGUAGE OF THE RAINBOW\n\n    \u201cBe thou the rainbow to the storms of life.\u201d--BYRON.\n\n\nWe have come to the end of our survey of the inner meanings of separate\ncolours, showing us how \u201cThe invisible things of God from the creation\nof the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things which are\nmade.\u201d[25]\n\n[25] Romans i. 20.\n\nHowever, we should not properly complete our task if we did not\nconsider the rainbow and the deep symbolic meaning attached to it.\nSince every ray gives out some great truth and blessing, the rainbow\nstood for all blessing, the sign of the presence of God\u2019s love. In\nGreece, Iris (who is sometimes regarded as the rainbow itself, or a\ngoddess clothed with the rainbow, or dwelling in the rainbow, or making\na rainbow path to earth) is the messenger of the gods. She is not\nmentioned in the _Odyssey_ but very often in the _Iliad_. She has some\nof the functions of Hermes, but unlike Hermes has little or nothing\nto do with the pale realms of Pluto. She is generally looked upon as\nJuno\u2019s chief messenger, and confers blessings on those whom Juno loves.\n\nIn the _\u00c6neid_, book iv., we have a beautiful description of Iris\ncoming to release the suffering soul of Dido, the luckless Queen of\nCarthage:--\n\n    \u201cThen Juno, pitying her agony\n    Of lingering death, sent Iris down with speed\n    Her struggling soul from clinging limbs to free.\n\n           *       *       *       *       *\n\n    So down to earth came Iris from on high\n      On saffron wings all glittering with the dew.\n    A thousand tints against the sunlit sky\n      She flashed from out her rainbow as she flew.\u201d\n\nThe Scandinavians believed that on the rainbow arch the souls of the\nheroes were able to march in triumph to the great wassail in Valhalla.\nCuriously enough this rainbow is spoken of as \u201ctreble-hued.\u201d It would\nbe interesting to know which three main colours of the rainbow they\nthought of.\n\n \u201cOver all swept the magnificent arch of Bifr\u00f6st,[26] the treble-hued\n rainbow, and Odin turned and said: \u2018See, children, how Bifr\u00f6st bids\n us climb yet higher, humbly to learn of the holy Nornir (the Fates)\n and drink in wisdom from the fountain of Urd (Norn of the Past).\n Let us mount and ride.\u2019 And the glorious procession took its way\n across the plain to the luminous trembling end of the bridge, where\n golden-toothed Heimdal (the sleepless guardian of Bifr\u00f6st) stood on\n guard. With a smile of welcome he threw open the gate, and they swept\n proudly on, singing a song of joyous thanksgiving for the beauty and\n peace of all around them; but, when great Thor would have set his foot\n on the bridge, Heimdal barred the way with his spear.\u201d[27]\n\n[26] Bif-rost--the wave-rest, _i.e._ the resting place of the waves.\n\n[27] _Asgard._ K. F. Boult.\n\nSo of all the gods Thor might not tread the rainbow; still, he was\nallowed to make his journey into the council of the gods by other paths.\n\nThe rainbow is said to have been given to Noah as a sign that there\nshould be no more flood or no more sea of trouble, for the sea or\nthe salt water stands mystically for the troubles, the trials, and\nthe suffering which the soul has to surmount before it receives\nblessing and peace. How this makes us think of the meaning of Bifr\u00f6st.\nThe promise that there shall be no more sea does not stand for the\ndrying-up of actual oceans but is a promise given to every true\nnavigator of the soul--such as Noah was--if only the ark or soul is\nconstructed according to divine instructions and has its little window\nabove into which light may shine.\n\nIn the \u201cKalevala,\u201d Wainomoinem builds a magic boat, but forgets the\nlast three words of his enchantment, and so he cannot complete the\nboat. He journeys over the whole world to find these words, and when he\ndoes eventually find them he finishes the boat and gives it as a dowry\nto the Maid of Beauty:--\n\n    \u201cSitting on the arch of heaven\n    On the bow of many colours.\u201d\n\nAmong the Peruvians the rainbow was worshipped under the name of\nChucychu.\n\nEzekiel[28] sees the rainbow beautiful and bright around his vision\nof God and the Cherubim. St John[29] also has a vision of Christ\nmanifesting within a rainbow glory.\n\n[28] Ezekiel i. 28.\n\n[29] Revelation iv. 3.\n\nWe should naturally expect from the above that the opal should have\nmuch the same meaning as the rainbow. We certainly do find that in the\nEast it was considered a most sacred stone, and it was said to contain\nthe Spirit of Truth.\n\nThe Greeks were probably responsible for our belief that it brings\nill-luck in love affairs; but we must remember that they considered it\ncapable of giving the gift of prophecy, provided that the gift was used\nfor the benefit of others. If this was not so, then bad fortune came to\nthe seer.\n\nJoseph\u2019s coat of many colours has been said to have been a sign of\nall-blessing, but we must remember that there is considerable doubt\nconcerning the context of this passage, Still we do know that in many\nnations certain variously coloured garments have been considered\ngarments of honour. Thus the ancient Irish bards had robes striped\nwith the following colours as a sign of their noble and honourable\ncalling--white, blue, green, black, and red.\n\nModern symbolism speaks in very beautiful language of the fact that the\nseven rays of the spectrum give white light, but we must remember that\nthis symbolism is essentially modern. Thus, as I have said previously,\nwhite represents unity; while to the ancients, yellow, the sun colour,\nwas the colour of unity. The seven rays have been likened to the seven\ngifts of the Holy Spirit, and sometimes they are likened to the Elohim.\n\nIn the spectrum we have three main rays, sometimes given as red,\nyellow, and blue, and sometimes as red, green, and blue. These are said\nmystically to stand for the Trinity or God in Three--that is, God in\nmanifestation; while the white ray would represent God in Unity or the\nOne Supreme Cause--God Unmanifest--God ever changeless.\n\nSometimes the seven rays are likened to the various ways and methods of\napproach to spiritual vision, for few people receive this vision in the\nsame way or under the same conditions. Some people receive inspiration\nthrough work, others in quiet meditation, or by concentrating their\nenergies on some great truth. Thus the Zoroastrians and Parsees have\nconcentrated on the virtue of Purity, and they realise that all that\nis unclean, whether of the body or of the soul, is forever separate\nfrom God. This is a great and basic truth that must be enshrined in the\nheart of every worshipper:--\n\n    \u201cBlessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God\u201d\n\n--a wonderful promise, hardly to be comprehended except by the saints,\nthe seers, and the exalted ones.\n\nThen the Buddhists lay stress on the Brotherhood of Man, and so charity\nand the virtue of giving willingly and freely has been exalted to one\nof supreme importance in India.\n\nThe Christians lay stress on the Love of God--the highest conception so\nfar; but one that must include the other truths or it becomes degraded\nand debasing, as in the belief of the person who holds that the more\nwickedly he lives, the more God will have to forgive, and therefore the\nmore love God will have for him.\n\nSo all Truths are necessary in order to form the white ray. As James\nRussell Lowell says:--\n\n    \u201cGod sends His teachers into every land,\n    To every clime and every race of men,\n    With revelation fitted for their growth\n    And shape of mind, nor gives the realm of Truth\n    Into the keeping of one single race.\n\n           *       *       *       *       *\n\n    All nations have their message from on high,\n    Each the Messiah of some central thought\n    For the fulfilment and delight of man;\n    One has to teach that Labour is divine,\n    Another Freedom and another Mind;\n    And all, that God is open-eyed and just,\n    The happy centre and calm heart of all.\u201d\n\nThis wonderful study of symbolism sheds new light on many old customs\nand myths. From it, we are able to penetrate to the heart of things,\nand to see that every nation has aspired earnestly to understand the\nuniverse, and to realise that the Creator is manifest in His works.\n\nUnfortunately the modern world in its haste has for many generations\ncast aside this desire to know more deeply these inner truths. The\nPuritan saw that symbolism had degenerated into image-worship and into\ncorrupt and unworthy practices, and so his mission was to destroy this\ndragon of false priests and to give simplicity and reality. Almost too\nwell he seems to the artist-minds to have done his work, but we must\nremember that it was an age of \u201cNo compromise.\u201d\n\nNow, however, there seem to be signs all over the world that people\nwould once again love to have these beautiful symbols, for just as the\nmathematician can reach greater truths by means of his symbols, so the\nmystic by his can attain to the highest realms of ecstasy. He becomes\none of the uplifting forces of the world; one who gives light. His\neyes and face reveal the inward light, and so he becomes a star. Mere\nknowledge, mere intellect, without the inner vision, never makes the\nstar soul--\u201cHe whose face gives no light can never become a star.\u201d To\nsuch a one the object can never enslave. He has become, as the Hindoos\nsay, \u201cA King of the Zodiac\u201d; that is, he has learnt all his lessons,\njourneyed through the twelve great constellations, performed his\nappointed labours, and is able to receive the great reward. What is the\ngreat reward? To see the spiritual significance burn through from all\nthe objects of Nature and so to obtain communion with the Maker, and\nthus enter into the golden yellow petals of the Eternal Rose.\n\nYou ask me lastly why I think it is that the nations should agree so\nwell in choosing the inner meanings of colours. It seems to me that\nin olden times the gift of being able to see the human aura was one\nwell known to the prophets and seers. Now, once a person has this gift\nit is very easy to connect the type of person exhaling the aura with\nparticular qualities. When another aura is seen containing one of the\nsame colours the quality it shows would ever after be connected with\nthat colour, and so there would grow up a colour symbolism differing\nlittle all over the world. Many of the most successful colour healers\nof to-day see the human aura, and according to the beauty of the\ncolours they see the beauty of the Mind, and according to the lack of\nbeautiful coloration they see illness and wrong-doing. Still it must\nbe borne in mind that the wrong-doer even in health cannot attain so\nbeautiful or refined an aura as the good man. In sickness the colours\nof the latter are greyish in value, whereas the colours of the evil man\nare muddy-looking.\n\nIt is indeed a great subject, proving that the physicians of the future\nmust minister to the soul as well as the body. The world awaits them.\n\n\n\n\nAPPENDICES\n\n\n\n\nAPPENDIX I\n\nSCHOOLS OF COLOUR (p. 25)\n\n\nIn these ancient schools of colour the students of seership\nconcentrated for, sometimes, years on the truths coming to them from\na given colour. Of the Persian Sufis there are said to have been four\ncolours:--\n\n 1. Gold School.--Where all the beauty and majesty of the inner\n symbolism of the sun colour was to glorify their souls.\n\n 2. Green School.--Where they learnt of immortality, and the need of\n ever serving the Maker.\n\n 3. Black School.--Where they pondered on the mysteries of God and\n learnt wisdom thereby.\n\n 4. White School.--Where as full initiates they knew the joy of God.\n\nThere have also been rosaries of symbolic colours. Roses and prayers\nseem to have some connection in nearly all great religions, hence\nthe colour of the rose was to denote a prayer or deep desire for the\nquality symbolised by the rose.\n\n\n\n\nAPPENDIX II\n\nTHE COLOURS OF THE PLANETS (p. 25)\n\n\nThis is a subject on which research gives variable results. In recent\nyears Mr. Alan Leo, perhaps the greatest modern exponent of astrology,\nassigned the following colours to the planets:--\n\n  Sun         orange\n  Moon        violet\n  Mercury     yellow\n  Venus       blue\n  Mars        red\n  Jupiter     indigo\n  Saturn      green\n\nA list perhaps more in harmony with the ancient beliefs is the one\ngiven below:--\n\n  Sun          yellow or gold\n  Moon         white or silver\n  Mercury      green\n  Venus        blue (turquoise or lapis lazuli)\n  Mars         red\n  Jupiter      purple (or lapis lazuli)\n  Saturn       black (sometimes black with orange flecks).\n\nSaturn, it may be said, is the planet of mystery and the mysterious\nways of God. He is like the god Chronos or the Angel Oriphel; he makes\nthe person wait till his appointed hour before gifts are given. Still,\nas he often, by means of waiting and suffering, causes the person to\ndevelop some of the very highest gifts, he is sometimes given the\nyellow flecks.\n\nMinnie Theobald, in an explanation of a Passion play entitled _The\nDescent of the Light Spark_, writes on the colours worn by the Planets\nin her play. I quote at some length:--\n\n \u201cThese seven principles are represented in my drama as the seven\n planets, which in the ancient mode of consciousness typified different\n modes of consciousness and substance.... Neptune and Uranus are the\n two planets of regeneration and rebirth, they are connected with\n cosmic consciousness; and so in the colour scheme either iridescence\n or all colour must be present to indicate their connection with\n wholeness.... Red typifies life and consciousness, and suggests the\n power of the Father, the Lord of Fire, reappearing in the lower\n worlds. Blue indicates the mother element or the substance into which\n life enters; yellow stands for the personality or child. _Colour is\n language; any planet may be represented by any colour_; it depends\n upon the particular activity of the particular planetary spirit to be\n portrayed. In this drama Mercury or Memory, the messenger between Time\n and Eternity, wears red, for he is carrying life and consciousness\n down to the cross of matter. He is the representative in the lower\n regions of the Light Spark; he is the flame hidden within each one\n of us, giving us memory of our divine origin. Next comes Venus, our\n fundamental soul-substance, the medium between the ego and personal\n mind; she is clad in blue. Jupiter, personal mind, follows next, clad\n in yellow. Then we have Mars. Our soul-substance, blue, has become\n mingled with personal mind, yellow, and so we get green. Red, cosmic\n life becomes green, personal life, for after the birth of the personal\n mind everything becomes reversed. Our personal life-current is the\n complementary mode of activity to the crucified cosmic life-current.\n This personal life and passion is the field of activity of Mars, and\n so shows his complementary colour, green. Finally, black or Saturn\n marks the limit of the fall. Here we have the negation of the life of\n Eternity, black or dense matter being the inversion of the pure white\n light of spirit.\u201d\n\nThis last quotation will show how modern mysticism uses colours.\n\n\n\n\nAPPENDIX III\n\nCHROMATICS OF THE SKY. By J. S. DYASON (p. 4)\n\n\nThe following is a tabulation of his observations:--\n\n  Copper at sunset       presages wind or rain.\n  Bright yellow             \u201d     wind.\n  Pale yellow               \u201d     wet.\n  Rosy sky                  \u201d     fine.\n  Pale green                \u201d     wind or rain.\n  Indian red                \u201d     wind.\n\n  Grey in the morning       \u201d     fine.\n  Red                       \u201d     wind or rain.\n  Dark blue                 \u201d     wind.\n  Bright blue               \u201d     fine.\n\n  A high dawn               \u201d     wind.\n  A low dawn                \u201d     fine.\n\n\n\n\nAPPENDIX IV\n\nYELLOW (p. 15)\n\n\nYellow is still a non-canonical colour in the church. Blue is also\nnon-canonical.\n\nThe five canonical colours are (1) white used at Easter, Christmas,\nCircumcision, and Epiphany; (2) red at Exaltation and Invention of\nCross, Pentecost, and Feasts of Martyrs; (3) violet on Ash Wednesday,\nLent, Septuagesima, Quinquagesima, and Advent; (4) black on Good\nFriday; (5) green on ordinary Sundays and week days.\n\n\n\n\nAPPENDIX V\n\nCOLOUR AND FORM (p. 4)\n\n\nSince colour is vibration, it is easy to see that it must also give\nform. Some of the most beautiful designs in the world have been\nproduced by vibration. In his great book on _Colour_, Babbit takes red,\nyellow, and blue and gives them the forms of the triangle, the hexagon,\nand the circle. The triangle has the sharpest corners, thus it is\nappropriate to the energising fiery red. The circle, with no corners,\nrepresents the calm indwelling blue; and the yellow, which has energy\nand yet peace, partakes of the hexagon, which still has angles but yet\napproaches the shape of the circle.\n\n\n\n\nAPPENDIX VI (p. 4)\n\n\nM. Camille Flammarion has made many interesting experiments on the\ngrowth of plants under different coloured rays. In one experiment he\ntook young lettuces from the same plot of ground, and all the same\nsize. His results showed that--\n\n  Under red glass lettuce grows four times as quickly as in direct\n                                sunlight.\n    \u201d   green        \u201d      \u201d   slightly quicker than in sunlight.\n    \u201d   blue         \u201d    becomes very stunted.\n\nIn another experiment he worked with Indian corn.\n\n  In sunlight      one plant grew to 25 inches.\n  Under red glass   \u201d    \u201d     \u201d     18    \u201d\n    \u201d   green       \u201d    \u201d     \u201d      8    \u201d\n    \u201d   blue        \u201d    \u201d     \u201d      6    \u201d\n  Beans flourished under white and red glass.\n    \u201d   perished    \u201d    green  \u201d  blue  \u201d\n\nFrom the above it seems that blue glass is bad for plants; but this is\nnot always so, as is seen from the experiments of General Pleasanton,\nwhere he grew the best grapes in his district by using alternate\nwhite and blue glass in his greenhouses. Babbit states that blue\nlight develops germination of plants, while red and yellow develop\nanimalcul\u00e6. Yellow rays cause carbon to deposit from the air, and\nso form the woody fibre of plants. Red and yellow cause seeding and\nfruitage.\n\n\nPRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY NEILL AND CO., LTD., EDINBURGH.\n\n\n\n\nRIDER\u2019S PUBLICATIONS.\n\n\n =THE NEW SCIENCE OF COLOUR.= By BEATRICE IRWIN. Crown 8vo, cloth, 144\n pp., with coloured frontispiece, 3s. 6d. net.\n\nCONTENTS.--Introduction--Colour-Science--The Necessity for\na Colour-Theatre and College--Colour and Decoration--Colour\nand Evolution--Modern Science and Colour--Colour as a Medium\nof Expression--Colour Systems--The Development of Colour\nSense--Therapeutic Powers of Colour--Colour Stimuli and Colour\nExercises--The Dawn of the Colour Age.\n\n \u201cA thoughtful, interesting, and well reasoned, if sometimes\n fantastic-seeming little treatise, on a subject concerning which\n too little is yet known, and which opens up promising vistas of\n inquiry.\u201d--_Scotsman._\n\n\n =THE ROSE IMMORTAL.= By A. BOTHWELL GOSSE, Author of \u201cThe Knights\n Templars,\u201d \u201cThe Civilization of the Ancient Egyptians,\u201d etc.\n Parchment, 5\u00bd \u00d7 4\u00bd, 64 pp., 1s. 6d. net.\n\nCONTENTS.--The Path--The Goal--The Red Rose of Sorrow--The White Rose\nof Joy--The Golden Rose of Union--The Little Black Rose of Silence.\n\n \u201cWithin the narrow compass of these few pages it has been the aim\n of the author to trace the evolution of this beautiful symbol\n among the different faiths of mankind, and to show how its varying\n interpretation has served to bring out the meaning underlying the\n mysticism of all religions.\u201d--From the Foreword by RALPH SHIRLEY.\n\n\n =PROBLEMS OF THE BORDERLAND.= An explanatory rendering of the\n introductory chapters of \u201cThe Book of the Elements.\u201d By J. 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This book can be cordially commended to all\n lovers of these engrossing subjects.\u201d--_The Ladies\u2019 Field._\n\n\n =THE GIFT OF THE SPIRIT.= A Selection from the Essays of PRENTICE\n MULFORD. Third Edition. Crown 8vo, cloth, 5s. net.\n\n\n =THE GIFT OF UNDERSTANDING.= A further selection from the Works of\n PRENTICE MULFORD. Crown 8vo, cloth, 5s. net.\n\n\n =ESSAYS OF PRENTICE MULFORD.= Third Series. Crown 8vo, cloth, 5s. net.\n\n\n =ESSAYS OF PRENTICE MULFORD.= Fourth Series. Crown 8vo, cloth, 5s. net.\n\nThese four volumes constitute the cheapest and best edition of the\nEssays of Prentice Mulford published in the English language.\n\n\n =SCIENCE AND THE INFINITE, or Through a Window in the Blank Wall.= By\n SYDNEY T. KLEIN. Crown 8vo, 183 pp., cloth, 4s. 6d. net.\n\n \u201cThis book is of an importance which I think it would be hard to\n overrate. The two main religious tendencies of to-day are towards\n Science and Mysticism. Mr Klein unites the two.\u201d--_English Review._\n\n\n =MASTER KEYS OF LIFE AND DEATH.= By Captain CAREY, R.N. Crown 8vo, 3s.\n 6d. net.\n\n\u201cMaster Keys\u201d explains in simple English the occult teachings of\nTheosophy and Spiritualism concerning Life and Death.\n\n\n  WILLIAM RIDER & SON, LIMITED\n  8 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON, E.C. 4\n\n\n\n\nTRANSCRIBER\u2019S NOTE\n\n  Page 2: \u201csame event, whoever,\u201d changed to \u201csame event, however,\u201d.","title":"The symbolism of colour","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":14940}