Philosophy
of Color
Cosmic manifestations of the One Life-Principle are
sent forth in the form of Light-waves, and surround us all
in a symphony of color, as the visible expression of our
Creator and the Divine Mind.
Each of these super-physical Rays of Great White
Light which emanate forth from Eternal Being holds within
itself all the range of color-vibrations.
These in turn act as streams of vital force of
immeasurable and infinite power, each having both a
particular and a general function.
Color is a quality of light, a mode of
light-vibration, defined as luminous radiant energy, and
does not exist apart from light.
In the Cosmic Force are light rays of a much higher
order and power than those reflections which are visible to
us in the form of colors, though color is itself a cosmic
force of certain power.
Radiating as it does from the Central Sun like a
great ocean of light, it has been called the Soul of the
Universe.
On the spiritual level, all the potentialities of the
Higher Being are said to dwell within Seven Rays, which
break forth from the pure White Light of the Divine Mind
made manifest. These
are called the seven spirits of Light, and each ray has its
subordinate rays.
The seven major color-rays fill space and permeate
the soul and being. They
are the manifestation of the seven great cosmic periods,
corresponding as well to the seven major glandular centers
in the body. The
color rays are also related to the seven planes of
manifestation. There
is both an esoteric and exoteric meaning to the outward and
visible rays of light comprising the spectrum..
The sun radiates white light-waves capable of being
resolved into seven main constituent parts of different wave
lengths. The
white light of the Spiritual Sun enters the consciousness of
the soul through the aura and is diffused into its seven
component colors, each one infusing the appropriate
soul-center with power and vitality.
The rays are forces of infinite power and purpose,
emanating from the great White Light of the Supreme Source,
and guided and directed by all-powerful intelligences.
Color is thus a seven-fold force branching out into
numerous channels and currents.
Each wave projected through space creates a certain
rhythm and harmonious vibration, so that different wave
lengths excite different color sensations.
A wave length of light is not a color; rather it is
related to a sensation of color.
Color has seven aspects, seven primary rays, each of
which in its own way heals, enlightens, inspires, animates,
vitalizes, and supplies or fulfills.
The first is the red ray which mainly influences the
physical body, while at the other end is the spiritual color
violet, and its purest ray, amethyst.
The three primary colors symbolize:
red – body; Yellow – soul, or mind; Blue –
spirit of man.
Philosophy
of Color, page 2
The so-called warm of “advancing” colors – red,
orange, and yellow – are said to deal with processes of
assimilation, activity, and intensity.
The second group of blue, indigo, and violet are
called cold or “retreating” colors, and these correspond
with processes of dissimulation, passivity, and
debilitation. Between
the two groups, and spanning them, is the intermediate,
transitional color, green.
Applications and aspects of color are: 1) in their
medical or healing aspect, dealing with color treatment and
ray-therapy; 2) their psychological aspect – the study of
the influence of color on mind and emotion; 3) the esoteric
aspect, symbology and attributes of colors, or the color
aspects of the aura.
Used for healing, the color vibrations work through
the charkas or cosmic centers of the body.
The color-healing is not just a psychological
process.
All flow of color-forces are consciously regulated
and absorbed as needed. The use of color soon becomes a
subconscious functioning, color being one of the fundamental
elements in the universe which acts directly on the
subconscious mind. This
is turn strongly affects the health, vitality, and harmony
of life.
There are two views as to how light affects or
influences the body. One
states that a permeation of the cells takes place, as in
ordinary osmosis. A
more favored view is that light and color influence the body
by arousing sympathetic vibrations within the organism.
Light and color work according to the Law of
Attraction and need or assimilation through the vital body.
If an opposite rate of vibration is used to that
which the body can conduct, or if the incoming current of
power is too strong, an abnormal reaction may occur which
may produce reaction. It
is important that the counselor know the nature of the light
or color he uses, as to quality, quantity, or intensity.
Color balance is intended to cause certain molecular
reactions in the organism or vital centers, through the
medium of the rays.
Part of the success of color treatment depends on the
principle that all healing is a change of mental attitude or
belief. The
subconscious mind aided by the restorative vibration of
color carries into outward manifestation the ideas impressed
upon it, although color treatment is on a spiritual plane.
Color treatment uplifts the physical, structural
vibration and creates a fitting atmosphere, but must be done
under direction.
William Blake wrote: “what is now proven was once
only imagined.” To
reach the highest part of the spectrum, the blue, we must
transcend the red of physical action, the yellow of mental
reasoning, and enter the realm of feeling.
Thought and imagination are not the same thing, for
the one implies reasoning and the other a degree of emotion.
It is hard to write (a yellow function) of this
plane, for we must leave science and turn to art – music,
poetry, love and faith, all of which must be felt to be
appreciated. A
symphony, a
Philosophy
of Color, page 3
poem, a prayer, a look are the
“words” in the language of feeling.
Here belongs, especially in the highest, the violet
end of the spectrum, “The Voice in the Silence,” the
inner eye which is the bliss of solitude, the individual
matter of meditation – prose cannot describe poetry.
To function on any plane of consciousness one must
use the medium of that plane: one cannot think with one’s
hands, nor write a letter without them.
Physical and mental expression demand physical and
mental medium, and to express one’s feelings is often the
problem of conveying the inconveyable, a task that sorely
besets every lover, artist or man of God.
This is a test of individual evolution.
Happiness depends on the complete control of the
individual spectrum, the higher colors controlling the
lower, the linking together of all planes.
Unhappiness is the reverse.
Generally we suffer a lack of coordination of colors:
we can think of something but not do it (yellow-red), feel
something but not express it.
It is those who can feel, express and put into
action, who are equipped to forge ahead in history in
whatever field is theirs, be it to a prominent place in the
arts, philosophy, statesmanship or the unsung magnificence
of a quiet, good life of brotherly service.
Mastering the spectrum is the preliminary discipline
of all who seek to make themselves prisms of the Light.
The test comes when the Divine Ego or Will takes
over, for the Power can be used for good or evil.
We have dealt so far with the three primary colors,
which ascend to white. The
function of the secondary colors – orange, green and
violet – is equally significant, for these constitute the
lines between the planes.
Green, being a blend of feeling and thought, is
the color of self-revelation and growth.
We vibrate to green when we become conscious of
motive, and test ourselves, often to our dissatisfaction.
Violet, the mixture of feeling and action, is the
spiral’s turn, when the highest does service to the
lowest: Its rays are the shortest, the closest to the light.
This fact is recognized by many churches, whose
ceremonies incidentally are filled with color symbolism.
The gorgeous cathedral windows are an example.
Royal purple, a physical counterpart, was originally
the color symbolizing not only power, but service and
devotion to the people.
The primary colors tell of the resurrection of the
light of spirit from the physical through discipline.
The secondary colors tell of the descent of the light
of spirit to the physical through application.
This action and reaction involve the self and evolve
the Universe.
It shall be remembered that all color is an aspect of
Light. The
spectrum in proper proportions produces White.
Color
Preferences
Individual
and General
There is a modern hunger for color as seen in
textiles, clothing, furnishings, advertising and many other
mediums. Many
are turning to painting as a field of delight for their own
satisfaction even in later years.
Sir Winston Churchill is perhaps one of the most
notable of these. He
has said of color, “I cannot pretend to be impartial about
color. I rejoice
with the brilliant ones and am genuinely sorry for the poor
browns. When I
get to heaven I mean to spend the first million years in
painting and so get to the bottom of the subject.
But I shall require a still gayer palette than I get
here below. I
expect orange and vermilion will be the darkest, dullest
colors upon it and beyond them there will be a whole range
of wonderful new colors which will delight the celestial
eye.”
Sir Winston should recognize the celestial eye as a
possession here and now, not just after death.
The eye of the spirit is possessed by all at least in
germ, if we would but learn to use it.
Utilitarian education tends to starve out the
creative faculties, but everywhere there are individual
awakenings. Sometimes
these come from therapy to treat an illness due to starved
soul-life which was given no expression in the arts.
Illnesses affecting the breathing such as asthma,
hysteria can be helped most through the arts; through color,
music, rhythmic movement and rhythmic occupations such as
color weaving, speech or rhythmic breathing.
Health is a mobile condition in which all these
systems have to find and keep their balance.
The soul must balance between head and metabolism,
thinking and will, light and darkness, past and future.
But out of healing an illness may come a new
consciousness that re-establishes its balance in health.
Life radiates color.
The
Four Temperaments and Color
There are four temperaments in relation to color:
sanguine, melancholy, phlegmatic and choleric.
One who is decidedly of any of these temperaments
will not be able to stand much of the color indicated by
that temperament.
The choleric temperament is red and generally
rejoices in seeing fiery red colors.
The complementary color will develop tranquility.
The phlegmatic temperament may have muddy and dull
colors.
The melancholy temperament enjoys the deep blue and
violet, sympathizing with fellow-suffers, and should employ
some bright cheering color accents in his surroundings.
The sanguine temperament restlessly enjoys all the
colors from time to time flitting from one to another in
indetermination.
Color Preferences, Individual and
General, page 2
The colors worn in dress and used in surroundings
should be selected according to our temperament type and our
soul needs. Each
person can help his own well-being by giving regard to these
color frequencies, and finding his own color.
Each human body, even though it is an aggregate of
many radiations and vibrations of energies of the Cosmic,
has its own specific frequency or vibration.
Just as each tuning fork has a natural vibratory
rate; that is, a rate of vibration to which it responds
particularly and white constitutes its pitch, so has the
body. This
particular vibratory rate, which we each have, corresponds
to some hue of color in the vast spectrum of colors.
That there are such colors which correspond to the
vibratory rate of our being is a discovery the individual
makes himself by the effects which the specific hue of color
has upon him. When
he is in its presence, he finds it very beneficial,
soothing, quieting, and rejuvenating.
Each of us as a vibrating unit of matter in this
universal cell of existence has a natural color value which
is our individual color, just as each of us has a definite
musical note and a definite polarity of vibration.
A color might seem to harmonize with the coloring of
our hair and eyes, more with our objective appearance than
another, and yet another color may be preferred because of
its salutary effect upon our inner self.
When you select a color or hue that harmonizes with
your inner self in this manner, you are really fitting
yourself into the great Cosmic spectrum, in the same manner
that the bands in the spectrum of light are all in proper
order and relationship, making for a harmonious whole which
manifests as personal satisfaction and imperturbability.
It is difficult for an individual to discover which
is his color except from experience.
All of us sooner or later learn the color, or the
precise shade of color, which is not only most attractive to
us but most pleasing, satisfying, and helpful.
Every woman has discovered that a certain shade of
color is best for her clothing because it makes her feel
more vital, soothes her nerves, gives added contentment and
in many other ways is most appropriate for her.
Of course, she has to seek for modifications or even
opposites of this color because she cannot wear one color
continuously.
In a more general way, psychologists have shown that
most individuals of the same sex have about the same
favorite choices in colors, and there is really very little
difference in the choices of the sexes.
This information is now being used by industry to
make the surroundings of people at work as pleasant as
possible. Color
preference have been found generally in the following order
beginning with the favorite:
Men:
1. Blue, 2.
Red, 3. Purple,
4. Green, 5.
Women:
1. Red, 2.
Purple, 3. Blue,
4. Green, 5.
Color Preferences, Individual and
General, page 3
The nerves of the eye can be shocked by color as
readily as the nerves of the ear by sound.
Poor color-schemes can shock the nerves of the eye,
and fatigue results. Too
strong color often irritates.
Nature expresses the greatest harmony of colors.
Color can truly become a part of living environment.
The artful use of this knowledge contributes a
powerful influence upon vital forces.
Color can be used in business to arouse interest,
create atmosphere, stimulate action, bring social contacts,
when scientifically applied.
The poorly considered use of color may cause
physical, mental and emotional reactions that affect
personality through fear, worry, anxiety or inferiority
complex.
Red, yellow and orange fatigue and irritate sooner
than the other colors. They
are heat producing and exciting. A quiet, relaxed person
will be excited or irritated by bright colors not properly
handled.
Blue, green and purple are cool and soothing.
A nervous, quick moving person is calmed by blues,
greens, purples.
Anglo-Saxons and light races generally prefer subdued
color. Latin and
dark races generally respond to bright color.
This may stem too from the fact that they look better
dressed in such hues.
The eye demands balance of color.
Color has force, action, positiveness or passivity,
warmth or coolness, and weight.
Advancing colors, which make a room seem smaller, are
orange, red and yellow.
Receding colors, making a room appear larger, are
blue, green, violet.
Blue can be a real emotional sedative.
Some hospitals have found that patients recover more
quickly if they are placed in blue rooms following major
surgery. Blue
rooms are sometimes used to quiet violent inmates of mental
hospitals.
The right shade of yellow can produce a sensation of
sunlight and warmth, but just a slight change in shading can
cause a feeling of nausea.
Commercial airlines many years ago abandoned interior
decorations in yellow because certain shades encouraged
air-sickness. For
the same reason yellow foods should be avoided during air or
ocean voyages. Yellow
is an excellent color, however, where food for thought” is
concerned. Research
has shown that the grades of school children rose noticeably
when their study rooms were redecorated in yellow.
Whether we realize it or not, color can lower our
sales resistance, make us feel hot or cold, gloomy or gay.
It can affect a man’s personality and mental
outlook quite as definitely as a sleepless night, a cold in
the head or a good square meal.
Color Preferences, Individual and
General, page 4
There is the story of a
The importance of color in business and industry was
shown when a
Green and red seem to have psychological effects.
Dr. Gilbert Brighouse of
Most people tend to overestimate the passage of time
under the influence of red and underestimate it under the
influence of green or blue.
The athletic director of the
Studies have shown that dark-colored objects will
almost invariable be adjudged heavier than light-colored
objects.
Selecting the proper colors to suit your changing
personal moods is a more difficult matter. Suppose you feel
depressed and in need of a bright environment for an
emotional life? Then
suppose by tomorrow you’re brimming over with exciting
plans that require the sedative effect of pale blue?
Blue is
more visible at night; red is more visible in the daytime.
