Color Psychology And Color Therapy; A Factual Study Of The Influence of Color On Human Life

Faber Birren

• Publisher: Hauraki Publishing
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781786258663
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: History & Theory in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

A detailed study of the various sources and biological and emotional uses of color in all phases of human existence by a leading researcher in the field.

PART 1—THE HISTORICAL ASPECTS

CHAPTER 1—The Inspired Mystics

NEARLY ALL of early color expression concerned mysticism and the enigmas of life and death. It is perhaps a mistaken notion that man in his love of color was impelled by some æsthetic urge. The greatest weight of evidence points to the fact that color was involved with the supernatural and therefore had significance that went beyond what might be thought of as mere sensuous delight.

Man at the dawn of civilization recognized that sunlight was essential to life. Color, being a manifestation of light, held divine meaning. Historical records of color show little interest in the physical nature of color, nor yet in its abstract beauty, but in a symbolism that attempted to resolve the strange workings of creation and give it personal and human meaning.

THE EYE OF GOD

In the Zoroastrian scriptures one reads: “We sacrifice unto the undying, shining, swift-horsed Sun. When the light of the sun waxes warmer, when the brightness of the sun waxes warmer, then up stand the heavenly Yazatas, by hundreds and thousands: they gather together its glory, they make its glory pass down, they pour its glory upon the earth made by Ahura, for the increase of the world of holiness, for the increase of the creatures of holiness, for the increase of the undying, shining swift-horsed Sun.”

Sun worship is as old as antiquity. The Egyptian Ra, self-created, once dwelt upon earth. Driven into the sky through man’s iniquity, his eye became the sun.

In many instances the sun represented the masculine virtues of the deity and the moon the feminine. The Egyptians, in truth, had an expressive color symbolism which pervaded all their art and culture. The hues of the rainbow were as significant as language and were generally a part of hieroglyphics. Temples, talismans and charms, burial trappings, all were rich in the color tokens prescribed by the magicians who themselves wore breastplates of blue to mark the sacredness of their judgments.

The Greeks likewise identified color with universal harmony. In the conception of a god, his body was his virtue and his garments his achievement. Athena wore a golden robe. The red poppy was sacred to Ceres. In presenting The Odyssey, purple was worn to signify the sea wanderings of Ulysses. When reciting The Iliad, scarlet was worn as a token of the bloody encounter mentioned in the poem.

The Druids of England, who likewise built temples to the sun and whose culture antedated the Roman conquest, were equally superstitious. Eliphas Levi in his History of Magic writes, “The Druids were priests and physicians, curing by magnetism and charging amulets with their fluidic influence. Their universal remedies were mistletoe and serpents’ eggs, because these substances attracted astral light in a special manner.” (Further data in regard to this book, as well as others cited, will be found in the bibliography on page 267.)

In the orient, Brahmanism recognized yellow as a sacred color. Of man himself, the Hindu Upanishads relate, “There are in his body the veins called Hita, which are as small as a hair divided a thousandfold, full of white, blue, yellow, green, and red.”

Buddha’s color was similarly yellow or gold. However, he wore red when he pondered over the vicissitudes of man. “And the Blessed One, putting on a tunic of double red cloth, and binding on his girdle, and throwing his upper robe over his right shoulder, would go thither and sit down, and for a while remain solitary, plunged in meditation.”

Confucius, who also is identified with the color yellow, wore black and white. According to the book Heang Tang, “The superior man did not use a deep purple, or a puce color, in the ornaments of his dress....Over lamb’s fur he wore a garment of black, over fawn’s fur one of white; over fox’s fur one of yellow.” His dislike for purple is very well expressed in his own writings. “I hate the purple color, because it confuses us with the red color. I hate the goody-goodies because they confuse us with the virtuous people.”

To the Mohammedan, however, the color of all colors is green. In the Koran one reads, “As to those who believe and do good works...for them are prepared gardens of eternal abode....They shall be adorned therein with bracelets of gold, and shall be clothed in green garments of fine silks and brocades, reposing themselves therein on thrones.”

In Hebrew and Christian lore, color symbolism is no less glorified. Blue is the hue of the Lord Jehovah. In Exodus: “Then up went Moses, and Aaron, and Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel; and they saw the God of Israel; and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of sapphire stone, and as it were the very heaven for clearness.”

In Judaism the divine hues are red, blue, purple, and white. Josephus wrote: “The veils, too, which were composed of four things, they declared the four elements; for the plain [white] linen was proper to signify the earth, because the flax grows out of the earth; the purple signified the sea, because the color is dyed by the blood of a sea shellfish; the blue is fit to signify the air; and the scarlet will naturally be an indication of fire.”

To the Christian, however, blue is less significant than green and is seldom used in church ritual. The Holy Grail was emerald. According to St. John the Divine, “He that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone; and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald.”

THE RACES OF MAN

The Pawnee priest of America chanted, “The morning star is like a man; he is painted red all over; that is the color of life.”

Among the peoples of the world, color has always been associated with racial pride. The art of cosmetics, in truth, originated in ancient Egypt where red dyes were used to emphasize race distinction. Darwin wrote, “We know...that the color of the skin is regarded by the men of all races as a highly important element in their beauty.” Extreme whiteness of skin among northern peoples, extreme yellowness or goldenness among the orientals, extreme blackness among Negroes became emblematic of the ideal racial type.

The Egyptians recognized four races. Red was for themselves, yellow for the Asiatics, white for the peoples across the Mediterranean, black for the Negroes. The Assyrians held to the same designations. The Arabs, however, accepted two races, one red or ruddy, the other black. In African mythology the descendants of those who ate the lungs and blood of the first ox slaughtered for food established the red race. Those who feasted on the liver begot the black race.

In India the four original castes were associated with colors. As the story goes, mankind once comprised four races. From the mouth of the creator came the Brahmans, whose color was white and who were to be priests. From his arms came the Kshatriyas, whose color was red and who were to be soldiers. From his thighs came the Vaisyas, the yellow ones of the mercantile class. From his feet came the lowly, black Sudras of the servile class. These were the four varnas, “varna” being a word which means “color” in the Sanskrit language.

In The Arabian Nights, “Tale of the Ensorcelled Prince,” the evil wife of the Prince cast this spell upon the inhabitants of the Black Islands: “And the citizens, who were of four different faiths, Moslem, Nazarene, Jew, and Magian, she transformed by her enchantments into fishes; the Moslems are the white, the Magians red, the Christians blue, and the Jews yellow.”

THE QUARTERS OF THE EARTH

Belief in the divine healing properties of color pervades all ancient symbolism, religious or otherwise. Obviously man’s survival was beset by countless hazards. His was a struggle against visible and invisible forces, a trek out of misery and ignorance.

Practically all civilizations identified color with the supposed four quarters of the earth. In Egypt, the Pharaoh wore a white crown to symbolize his dominion over Upper Egypt and a red crown to proclaim his authority over Lower Egypt. The ceilings of temples were usually blue and embellished with drawings of the constellations. The floors were often green like the meadows of the Nile.

Among the peoples of Tibet in Central Asia, the world was conceived as being a high mountain called Sumur. As the earth grew from the beginning of time, its summit rose into the sky and provided a convenient dwelling-place for the gods. The mountain of Sumur was shaped like a pyramid with its top broken off. The sides facing the four quarters were hued and shone like jewels. To the north was yellow, to the south blue, to the east white, to the west red. In each of these directions was a continent within a salty sea, inhabited by different races of people having square, oval, crescent-shaped, and round faces.

Such symbolism has been found in lands as remote from each other as Egypt, Ireland, China, and America. In ancient Ireland black represented the north, white the south, purple the east, and dun color the west. In China, black was a token of the north, red of the south, green of the east, and white of the west.

In America similar traditions have existed. Thousands of years ago, according to a Navaho legend, men dwelt in a land surrounded by high mountains. The rise and fall of these mountains created night and day. The southern mountains were blue and caused the dawn. The eastern mountains were white and caused the day. The western mountains were yellow and brought twilight. The northern mountains were black and covered the earth in darkness.

The American Indian also had color designations for a lower world, which was generally black, and for an upper world, which had many colors. The tattooing on his face, the colors on his masks, effigies, and huts were full of mystical significance. He related colors to his songs, ceremonies, prayers, and games. Life and death were somehow influenced by them.

THE PLANETS

Man has always been convinced that his destiny is ruled by divine forces within the sky. The macrocosm of the universe, the microcosm of the individual soul, all came out of darkness into light. All knowledge was with the gods who dwelt in the firmament; the sun, the planets, and the stars held answers to the secrets of life.

Over two thousand years before Christ, astrology was an important science. The Egyptian called time “the everlasting green one.” The Chaldean gazed into the sky and saw the movement of the planets and the sun. Eternal laws were written here. The planets controlled the earth and all upon it. Each had its hour of ascendency during which it ruled men, formed their minds and spirits, and brought health and fortune, disease, adversity, or death to them.

Much of early architecture involved color symbolism referring to the sun and planets. C. Leonard Woolley in his Ur of the Chaldees has written of the “Mountain of God” unearthed between Bagdad and the Persian Gulf in modern times. One of the oldest buildings of history, it dates back to 2300 B.C. and was thought to be the original home of Abraham.

The tower was built in four stages. The lowest was black, the uppermost red. The shrine was covered with blue glazed tile, the roof with gilded metal. Woolley writes, “These colors had mystical significance and stood for the various divisions of the universe, the dark underworld, the habitable earth, the heavens and the sun.”

Of other such towers, or ziggurats, Herodotus wrote in the fifth century B.C., “The Medes built the city now called Ecbatana, the walls of which are of great size and strength, rising in circles one within the other....The number of the circles is seven, the royal palace and the treasury standing within the last....On this wall the battlements are white, of the next black, of the third scarlet, of the fourth blue, of the fifth orange; all these are colored with paint. The last two have their battlements coated respectively with silver and gold.”

To all indications Herodotus referred to the great temple of Nebuchadnezzar at Barsippa. Uncovered in recent years, i...