Imprint DESIGN Sense/Net, Andy Disl and Birgit Eichwede, Cologne EDITORIAL COORDINATION Florian Kobler and Kathrin Murr, Cologne PRODUCTION Stefan Klatte and Daniela Schadlich, Cologne To stay informed about upcoming TASCHEN titles, Please request our magazine at: www.taschen.conv/magazine Or write to: 'TASCHEN, Hohenzollernring 53 D-50672 Cologne, Germany eontact@taschen.com Fax +49-221-254919 We will be happy to send you a free copy of our magazine, which is filled with information about all of our books. Copyright © 2010 Archive for Research in Archetypal Symbolism. All Rights Reserved. © 2010 TASCHEN GmbH Hohenzollernring 53 D-50672 Koln www.taschen.com Printed in China, ISBN 978-3-8365-1448-4 COVER IMAGE Hand-shaped cutout of the American Woodland Indians, Middle Woodland period, 200 B.C.B.-400 C.E. (see also p. 383). IMAGES ON BACKCOVER (top left to bottom right) Bubble, Sth-century Japanese hanging scroll by an unknown artist (see also p. 53); Sky (see also p. 56); Sun, tempera painting with gold, ca. 18th century, India (see also p. 23); Dew, Greek vase depicting Eos, the goddess of dawn (see also p. 75); Chakras, the ordering of subtle body energies within the seven major'chakras. Kangra painting, ca. 1820, Himachal Pradesh, India (see also p. 782); ‘Transformation, mask, wood, bair, twine and paint, Nuxalk Indian, ca. 1865, British Columbia, Canada (see also p. 779). IMAGE ON PAGE 2 Crescent, Le Seize Septembre, by René Magritte, oil on canvas, 1956, France (see also p. 31).Red Ifcolor is the musie of the eves (Portmana, 158), then red would be the sound of trumpets (Theroux. 161), Coneretely. red is evoked in humans by radiant energy of specific wavelengths, which increase muscle tone, blood pressure and breath rate, For some animals it is sexually arousing, These effects occur also in blind humans and animals, so “red” is not purely an experi- ence of the eve but something more like a bath (Port- mann, 138ff). ‘Symbolically, red is the color of life. Its meaning relates, at bottom, to the human experience of blood and of fire. In primitive thinking blood was life: When the blood left the body, it took life with i (Edinger 1992, 227). Atthe same time, the red flow of blood was a dan- er signal. The glow of fire was our great comfort and protection, but, out of control, a threat of annihilation, Red attracts us, conveying vitality, warmth, excite ‘ment, passion, but also warns of danger, calls for atten- tion, says “stop!” In China, as well as in Stone Age Eu- rope, red pigment was buried with the bones of the dead for renewal of life (Portmann, 140) ‘The color red stands at the center of our images of libido~life energy—whether sexual passion or af- ‘toed Whore of abylon ane Soorar ecto Se war, fierce energy and destruction. In many cultures, red is associated with fiery in- ee eee ens {Chaim Souin' red image ses pe trerween lifeiving food and bloody death Side ‘and Calfs Head. oil on canvas. ea. 1925. &‘The fierce energy of red is so widely felt that even red hair has been seen as related to a hot temper, iras- cibility, choleric temperament. By the principle of like protecting from like, a red ribbon over the doorway or fa red spot painted on the forehead was protection ‘against devils. The Christian devil, of course, was red too, Red coral protected against the evil eye (Theroux, 2021). ‘And, to the alchemist, rubedo or reddening was the last stage of the long process of making gold or, psy- ‘chologically, integrating the personality. It meant noth- ing less than bringing spiritual realization into full- blooded reality, lived out fully in everyday life (Edinger 1995, 296). Bamhart, Robert K. Ed. The Barnhart Coneis Dictionary of Etymology. NY. 1995. * Berger. Patricia, etal. The Legacy of Chinggis ki London, 1995. et et Edinger. Edward F. Ego and Archetype. Boston and London. 1992. Pdinger, Edward F. The Mysterium Lectures, ‘Toronto, 1995. Portmann, Adolf, et al. Color Symbolism ‘Six Excerpts from the Eranos Yearbook, 1972 Zurich, 1977. ‘Theroux. Alexander. The Primary Colors. Ny, 1994. Nor ‘Not all reds have the same punch. In this painting, Sven red achieves harmot Mar ‘and balance. Red! No. re Rothko, oil painting. 1961. United States. ‘tRed as the raging fire of ferocity: The Tibetan rit sees mask from Mongolia was worn by one of el. Sword Bearers in the retinue of Begtse. the war 6 Sesame the guardian of the Dalai Lama (Berger. Papiersmiché, 19th centuryOrange A hemisphere of orange, Ellen Kriger's untitled, abstract watercolor suggests the rising or setting sun, the suceulence of orange and cantaloupe, or the glow of molten lava and igneous rock. Orange is a mixture of red and yellow and in the light spectrum of color stands between the two. Orange extends into the realm of gold, the incorruptible and everlasting, and into the realm of blood, vigorous, active and mutable, The lam- bent saffron of the East brings the two together, evok- ing lame and arousal, the physical and subtle body en- ergies of the second chakra, the tantric unity of opposites, and the sacral fragrance and flowering of life. In the Buddha’s time, prisoners wore orange and the Buddha was said to have adopted a robe of safiron as a sign of compassion for the dispossessed and con- demned. Bold and visible, orange still signifies deten- tion, warning and protection, from the jumpsuit of the American prisoner to the vivid markings of the mon- arch butterfly that tell potential predators its body has toxins that make it lethal prey. Orange colors the as- cent, descent and burning of the sun, associating its hhues with processes of emergence, heat, growth ang perfection, and the coagulating intensity of desire. Thy Roman bride wore the flammeum or flammelike veit of Aurora, the goddess of the dawn. Divine Jupiter wag said to have presented an orange, round, seedy and fe. ceund, to Juno on their wedding day (Inman, 18). Sen divogius, a seventeenth-century alchemist, intuived in the sun-ripened orange an emblem of psyche's trans. ‘muting heat sufficient to cause the nature of «thing to bring forth its vital spirit, come to fruition and produce its seed. Orange is then maturation and harvest, the brilliance of che turning leaf, the russet, autumnal ‘moon, ingathering and completion. But the warmth of ‘orange also becomes emblematic of nature and psyche’ more searing transformations, sudden and drastio—the ‘quality of forest fire, volcanic explosion and nuclear blast. Inman, W. 8. An Essay on Symbolic Colors in Anti ‘quity, the Middle Ages, and Modern Times. London, 1845. { ABaddhist and Hindu monks of India and Southeast 'spically wear saffron-colored garments, La0s. Pool wear sffon-colored garments 12 Untitled, by Bllen Kriger. watercolor. 1997, United States.Yellow Yellow is “a color eapable of charming God” (The- roux, 146). So wrote Vincent van Gogh from his yel- low house in sun-drenched Arles. Preparing a room in his house for his friend Gauguin, he made a series of yellow sunflower paintings but judged only two to be fine enough to hang (www.vangoghmuseum.nl). Van Gogh's yellow is exultant, radiant with the energy of the sun in the blue sky. The Maya of ancient Mexico used the word Kan, yellow, for the god who held up the sky (Theroux, 86). Traditional Chinese belief has also linked yellow with the highest things—with the sun as the center of the heavens, with the emperor (whose ‘emblem was a yellow dragon) as the center of the uni verse (DoS, 1138). During the Ch’ing Dynasty (1644- 1911), only the emperor was allowed to wear yellow clothing (Theroux, 90). Huang, the Chinese word for yellow, also means “radiant.” Im Ghina, yellow was also the color of fertile soll and used for hangings on the bridal bed, to ensure the fertility of the marriage (DoS, 1138). Chinese refer to themselves as golden, not yellow (Theroux, 112), and of course yellow is closely linked to gold in Western symbolism, from the halos of the saints to the bones and flesh of Egyptian gods, which were thought to be of god. Islamic culture saw yellow in two ways: Golden yellow stood for wise and good advice; pale yellow for betrayal and deceit (DoS, 1139). This pale yellow is the color of sulfur, which belongs tothe devil's realm. There is a host of unflattering yellows: The doors of traitors were yellowed in the sixteenth and seventeenth cen- tury as were the houses of bankrupts in medieval France. In the 1200s and within recent memory, Jews have been forced to wear yellow insignia on thetr cloth- ing as a form of persecution (DoS, 1139). A fa personality type for centuries, a cholerie person was thought to have an excess of yellow bile and to quick to anger’ (Theroux, 126). Then there eho yellow of cowardice (“yellow-bellied,” "yellow seexh up your back”). & (yellow) “canary” is an informer “Yellow journalism” is cheap and sensation-driven More practically, yellow is highly visible; chrome yellow ean be seen ata greater distance than any other ‘color. So yellow has become a color of warning, on heavy machinery, life preservers, as the sign of quer. antine against deadly disease, as a cautionary traffic lighe Yellows also a stage in a process. Aging is yellow. ing: the paper of old books and the leaves of auturnn trees, the teeth of old animals and humans. After sum- mer green comes yellow and then brown, a slow pro- cess of decay. To the medieval alchemists, yellowing (Citrinitas) was a phase in the long process of making gold, of, metaphorically, of arriving at psychological wholeness and integration. It was a transitional stage, coming after the (black) chaos and despair of the be- inning had given way to (white) reflective awareness and quiet. Yellow was a reenergizing and a returning of interest inthe outside world—on the way toa full (red) involvement with life (Hillman, 83-5). Hillman, James. “The Yellowing of the Work.” Personal and Archetypal Dynamics in the Analytical Relationship. The Eleventh Internatio: nal Congress for Analytical Psychology. Binsiedeln, Switzerland, 1991. Portmann, Adolf, et al. Color Symbolism: ‘Six Excerpts from the Eranos Yearbook, 1972. ‘Zurich, 1977. ‘Theroux, Alexander. The Primary Colors. NY, 1994. |. Vase with Fourtcen Sunflowers, by Vincent van Gogh. oil on canvas, 1889, France. Yellow warbler on a branch. photograph bby Ron Austing,Green The miracle of green spreads softly over the win- ter-brown landscape, thrusts up from a dry wrinkled seed, draws water and earth and light together in hic den chemistry to appear as new, green plant life. This holiest of mysteries, on which our survival depends, has been imagined over the eons in the form of a di- vine being who is often green-skinned, The deity, like the Egyptian god Osiris shown here, may suffer seem ing death, yet returns to life full of vigor, just as green plants sprout again, bud and blossom in the spring, The Christian crucifix, representing the dying and resur- recting Christ, was also pictured as green. This vibrant life energy that infuses plants also flows chrough us: “The force that through the green fuse drives the flower /Drives my green age...” wrote Dylan Thomas (Thomas, 10) ‘The link between “green” and plant growth is buit into the word itself: “Green” is related to the Old Eng- lish word grovean, meaning to grow or cover with green (Barnhart, 329). Green affects the body by lowering the blood pressure and dilating the capillaries, a rest- ful effect used against both insomnia and fatigue (Port- ‘mann, 139). But beyond physical-life energy, green also stands for hope, for the promise of reaching one’s pre- ‘cious goal beyond the blackness of discouragemert (GW 14:623-4). Green's relationship to life can eastly swing over to. connection with life's opposite pole. Then green is found in images of death and decay and iliness: slime, mold, polson, pus, nausea: alsoin the threatening faces of witches, the bodies of extraterrestrial enemies, di- nosaurs, monsters. In the psyche, too, there is the green-eved monster of jealousy, and being “green with envy. More positively, green is inked to the ereative,fer- tilizing power of the Christian Holy Ghost and to the Greek goddess Aphrodite, who oversav: love and fertil ity, As well, it is sacred co Islam, the color of Muham- rmad’s flag, of the dome and interior of his tomb and the freen and white flags of his descendants (Theroux, 280). In ancient Egypr, green was a symbol of growth ‘and of life itself and “to do green things” was an expres- sion for postive, life-producing actions, as opposed to “red things,” which were evil (Wilkinson, 108). fresh, moist, pliable (like green wood), not rigid. Te twelfh-conory Sent Hildegard of Bin i seingincead keris es ce fitontin fon shy theca ae ee “greenhorn.’ Sees eae ee er eee eee ee Barnhart, Robert K. Ed. The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology. NY. 1995. Bishop, Peter. The Greening of Paychology Dallas, TX, 1990. Fox, Matthew. Ed, Illuminations of Hildegard (of Bingen. Santa Fe, NM, 1985. Frazer, James G. The Goldlen Bough. NY. 1958. Leidy, Denise P. and Robert A. F. Thurman. Mandal the Architecture of Englightenment. NY. 1997. Portman, Adolf, et al. Color Symbolism: Six Ex- ‘cerpts from the Eranos Yearbook, 1972. Zurich, 1977. ‘Theroux, Alexander. The Secondary Colors: Three Essays. NY, 1996. ‘Thomas, Dylan. The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas. NY, 1953. Wilkinson, Richard H. Symbol and Magic in Egyptian Art. London and NY. 1994. Lm Gogh Tt Goats painting embodies what St tidegad of Boer clled the "ened greenness” and shomy the itae—the lash. fre serdaney of tater. ving Chesen Tree 1867, FranceBlue Goethe wrote that “ a blue surface seems to re- cede from us ... it draws us after it” (Hillman, 133). Also, into it—into the wild blue yonder, into the deep blue sea. It is not quite of earth, this blue, which apart from sea and sky is the rarest color in nature. Given the unearthliness of blue and living as we do below the vast blue heavens, we have colored our gods blue— Kneph, Jupiter, Krishna, Vishnu, Odin—and our god- desses t00: “Blue is the color of Mary's celestial cloak; she is the earth covered by the blue tent of the sky” (CW 11:123). Blue is linked with eternity, the beyond, supernatural beauty, religious transcendence, the spir- tual and mental as contrasted with the emotional and physical and with detachment from the earthly. When this celestial blue appears in everyday lan- guage, Its symbolism becomes less clear, but often points to the special, the highest, the most valued ‘Thus, a blue ribbon for first prize, a blue-ribbon (elite) committee, blue-chip stocks (those of the most vay, able. most profitable companies).a blue blood par cian), this last said to derive from the veins sheer, through the skin of faicomplexioned arictuor® (American Heritage Dictionary, 207) In the course of physical evolution, mankind hes been able to perceive (and s0 to name) the colors ae the warm end of the spectrum before the cool ones (Portman, 132). Blue is a latecomer. Homer had no word for blue, referring to the sea as dark. In a major, ity of the world’s languages the same word mesns both “blue” and “green” (Theroux, 56). Blue ws seldom used in prehistoric art or by nonliterate peoples for lack of the raw materials with which to produce biue pigment (Biedermann, 44). The original ultramarine blue pigment was produced from a finely ground semi- precious stone, lazulite, the source of lapis lazuli, and ‘was so expensive that it was reserved for important \The Brah Iman section of the old city Jodhpur in India lost entirely painted bright blue. 2.Blue draws us into a meditative mood. Yves Klein was, 1 French painter known for his patented color. filed ‘under the name IKB (International Klein Bive). Blue ‘Sponge-Relif.reliet. 1957-9.paintings, and for images of spiritual beauty and per- fection (Theroux, 39) ‘At the same time, blue feels cold. It cools and calms, Is the color of moonlight. Blu light slows the heart rate, lowers blood pressure and retards the growth of plant, Itis the color of bruises, melancholy, isolation, “the blues.” Pablo Picasso's paintings from his “blue period” show poor laborers, beggars, café sit- ters in states of lethargy and despair, all painted in blue tones to convey their hunger, cold and sadness (Ther- ux, 31/), The blues as a musical form arose from the poor, black rural American South and predated jazz ‘music, mixing sadness and humor as the singer laid out his travail. The blue note, a flatted note dropped into a melody in a major Key, is hallmark of jazz, which, despite its exuberance, still has the ruefulness of the blues. Psychologically, blue ean be seen es midvay 5 evcenloch esa and he nes nee suggesting a state of reflection and detachment. Linke} to shadows and darkness, blue brings depth (Hillmea 133). American Heritage Dictionary Boston and NY. 1996, Biedermann, Hans. Dictionary of Symbolism, NY, 1994 Hillman, James. “Alchemical Blue and the Unio Mentalis." Spring 54 (Sune 1993), Portman, Adolf, et al. Color Symbolism: Six Excerpts from the Eranos Yearbook, 197: Zasrich, 1977, ‘Theroux, Alexander. The Primary Colors, NY, 1994, 4.lue Leudy sits enthroned on her totem animal. just like an archaic goddess. By Suzanne Nessim, acrylic on canvas. 1987, Sweden. Blo anci Tobancient cultures, the fish was both despised for ies ng anes and venerated as an image of the sout Similar to the idea of the soul-bird flying. ovonchus. sacred Bay _ ring the crown of thor. Blue glass. New Kingdom.Purple Francis Bacon's imaginal pope is a figure both of grandeur and diminishment, cloaked in the ambiguity cof majestic purple. Besides the regal hue of spiritual and secular royalty, purple possesses in itself a whole spectrum of color. Nature offers us in ts fruits and flora lavender, lila, violet, plum, grape and eggplant. There is the purple of livid wounds and the washed purples. of the dying sun. Fascination with a rich, vibrant color called “pur- ple” goes back so far in history that we are not sure what the precise hue of ancient purple really was. Prob- ably Biblical purple, used in the clothing of Hebrew priests and in tabernacle furnishings, was what we would today call crimson. The ancient Greek purple, too, was a dark reddish color thought suitable for ap- peasing end honoring the dead and the fearsome gods of the underworld (Harrison, 249). Hugely admired by the Romans, a color known as “Tyrian purple” came to represent wealth, worldly position and honor, and was worn exclusively by the famous and powerful. Ulti- ‘mately, by law it could be worn only by the Caesars themselves. The Tyrian dye, precious and costly, was painstakingly made from a Mediterranean sea snail This purple—a very dark color that was most valued— ‘was described by ancient authors as the color of con- gealed blood (IDB 3:969). The sense of extravagance of the Roman purple lives on perhaps in our term “pur- ple prose,” used for rich showy writing, full of ornate phrases. ‘Outside the Wester tradition, a purple dye made from mollusks appears in other seacoast cultures, too, notably in the Tehuantepec area of southern Mexico and in Japan, where purple cloth is used by Shinto priests to enclose the most sacred objects of the tem- ple ritual (Finlay, 381). The color was also associated ‘with royalty and divinity in China, where it was con- nected with the emperor (Eberhard, 242), and was a royal color for the Aztecs and Incas of the Americas (Cooper, 40), The color purple is « mixture of the primary col- ors red and blue. Beyond kingly splendor, much of its ‘symbolic meaning comes from the fact that it brings together opposites. For instance, purple ean stand for the red of passion balanced by the blue of reason, or the real by the ideal, or love by wisdom, or earth by heaven, or, psychologically, for union of opposing en- exes within an individual. In Taoism, its rans between yang and yin, active and passive (Stevsc” 150). Purple, or violet, in which blue predominany slightly over red, is the last color ofthe rainbow. ant ccan be thought of as “the end ofthe knovin and the he, inning of the unknown,” bringing it into connection with dying Finlay, 386). In medieval times, they cious purple tincture” was a term for the alchemiegy goal, signifying the suocessful outcome ofthe work, the final union of opposing substances —or energiesimes a whole, evoking the image of majesty: “The king pus (on the purple robe,” they said, at the climax ofthe ak ‘chemical process (Abraham, 160) Jung translated the alchemical fantasy into the idea of a spectrum. At the infrared end is the dynamism of instinct, At the ulten. violet or “mystical” end isthe archetypal image ofthe instinet,numinous and fascinating Tis through ts me- diation that instinct can be realized and assimilated tn the service of integrity, hence the “purple robe" (CW 8:414ih, Christan symbolism similarly relates purple to spiritual process and growth. It signifies marcyrdom as a devoted “witnessing” and is used on the altar at pen- itential seasons of fasting and sober reflection such a Advent and Lent. Atthe same time, Christian art plo: tures Jesus n a purple robe atthe time of the Passion, symbolizing once again a paradoxical union: the mys- tery of divine and human nature combined in one being. Here, as in many other symbol systems—theal 5 chemical, the Roman, the Aztec and Incan, the C rnese-—ve find that the highest, most sacred values are represented by purple. 4 vens, Abraham, Lyndy. A Dictionary of Alchemical Imagery. Cambridge, UK, and NY, 1998. Cooper. J. C. Symbols. London, 1976. Davies, Hugh and Sally Yard. Francis Bacon. NY, 1986. Eberhard, Wolfram. A Dictionary of Chinese ‘Symbols. London and NY, 1986. Finlay, Vietoria. Color. NY, 2002. Harrison, Jane Ellen. Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion. Princeton, NJ, 1991. ’ Stevens, Anthony. Ariadne’s Clue, Princeton. s NJ, 1999. ned pope, a paraphrase of Velasquer's ornate th-century portrait of Pope Innocent X (Davies, 23) Ye 1951, England Pours ® stores punt: modesbanch of let German Schoo form abcd to best De _ *Solorand cmp on pane eesBrown The variant browns offallen leaves mingle, decom- posing, with autumn’s damp soil, shavings of bark, the residue of nuts and berries, animel seats and tiny, in- distinguishable insest life. Brown carries the bustling, feound substance of earth, and its dissolutions. The vast majority of animals are brown, blending protec- tively with woods, rocks, dirt and desert, or submerged in the muddy sediment of rivers and ponds. Brown is both rich and humble, evoking softness, warmth, depth and respite, the sepia tones of coming darkness, the duskiness of skin, the sumptuous brindling of fur and feathers, Brown is produced by the mixing together of many colors, its reds, yellows and grays elegantly as- serting themselves as chestnut, bay, roan, sorrel, wal- rut, oak, heather, chocolate, coifee, mocha. Brown can also represent colorlessness or discoloration-—rust. and dried blood, drought, brownouts of electricity or ore ativity, blandness, boredom or muddle. Service gnj military uniforms capitalize on brown's capacity to ‘merge the individual with the herd, reinforcing collee tive identity and dependence. Nazi soldiers were known, as “brownshirts.” Brown evokes the formless, chaotic liquidity of muck, slops, waste, vomit, feoulence and sewage. Itis desiccation and mummification. Yet brown is also emergence, the shapes and boundaries of dry land surfacing out of watery abyss, the dormant vital- ity of seeded fields, the mothering support of firm ‘ground and good earth. Autumn Lecrves, by Christopher Gallo. photograph, 2006, United States.Black Black envelops and swallows. is cave and abyss, the holes of space and the bowels of the earth. night, melancholy and death. Mourning sinks into black and rests in its muifled sadness. The widow's veil of sepa- ration and loss, the judge's robe of sober authority, are black. The black vestments of the cleric renounce the bright-hued pleasures of the sensual, material life; the black elegance of eveningwear engages them. There is bible black and ebony black, and the black of scarab, crow and cat. Black is foulness, decay and dirt. But the black dirt can be the soil itself, the fertile covering of the earth from which life arises. In Ancient Egypt black evoked death but also life, as the black silt of the inun- dating Nile brought fertility; the resurrecting god Osiris was sometimes depicted with black skin, sometimes green. Black encompasses the terrors and beauties of the underworld and its tenebrous precincts of healing and initiation. The “black” deities are ambiguous, chthonic and fateful. Divine smiths are black with the soot of voleanie forges in psyche’s fiery, creative depths. ‘The dark ground of Kali, the Black One, absorbs the blood of sacrifice and nature’s slaughter and nurtures the seeds of return. Black Mary, Isis, Persephone, Ar- ‘emis, Hecate possess the black womb of uncanny dark- ness and new moon. ‘The Navajo see in black the sinister, but also, be- ‘cause it confers invisibility, black’s capacity to protect (Reichard, 194). Black comes from the north, the di- rection of danger, but also from the east (ibid.), the place of sunrise. In parts of Africa, black is also tradi- tionally the color of the north, but here it signifies the direction from which come the dark clouds of the rainy season, vegetation and water (Portman, 63). Black connotes the “seasoned” individual's achieved social maturity and authority, patience and the ability to wait (ibid., 73-4), LA window on black. Ultimate Painting No. 6. by Ad Reinhardt, oil painting, 1960, United States. 2 Blackness as a stage in the alchemists’ work, here pictured as a black alchemical vessel labeled “Crow's Head.” The black container is set against a strip of Aourishing life-green, the hoped-for conclusion of the darkness. Putrefactio philosophorwn, illustration from Black and white are often in tension with each other. especially where the one is perceived as a den ciency of the virtues of the other: white as blandnes, tnd coldness, and black os richness and warmth o> black as benighted and whice as enlightened. Wve ane not allways sure what to call black—a color, or the ah sence of any color or as the Sufi mystie poet Rumi de. soribed it, “the consummation ofall colors,” the state ‘of beatitude in which the godhead reveals itsel, ra. ishing the initiate (De Vr, 93). From the Heian period ‘of Japan (800-1100 C.E,) derives the notion that in black is expressed the “sublimation and purification of all emotions” realized by the individual who has plumbed the depths “of the sadness of human exis. tence” (Portmann, 172). Black is primeval chaos, the polar heart, hidden center and locus of emergence Blacks primary to many forms of transformation, the imaginal hue of individual metanoia, a turning away, or aturning inward, or even a “dark night of the soul" che luminous darkness of sel-understanding. In the alchemical opus black signifies the eolipse of famil- iar patterns of identity and meaning, The nigredo isa state of disorientation, exhaustion, self-doubs, depres- sion, ineria, confusion and disjunction. The alche- mists described it asa “black blacker than black, "black ‘sun, widow, orphan, caput coreisor “head ofthe row.” Yet, the alchemists found the nigredo not cause for dis- may, but Jor rejoicing; it expressed conjunction with psyche’ illimitable, teeming potential in which could bbe conceived the golden embryo of sel. Portmana, Adolf et al. Color Symbolism: Six Excerpts from the Eranos Yearbook. 1972. Zurich, 1977. Reichard, Gladys, A. Navaho Religion: A Study of Symbolism. NY. 1963. 4 collection of alchemical extracts, mainly by Araold o Villanova, 1$th century. Germany or Austria. .Nineteenth-century village women in their Sunde? black. which has the effec of disembodying and eliminating individuality. At the Sermon. by Theo Ribot. oll painting. ca. 1890. France. poeta fee Cora pecans sent edad naWhite White evokes pristine, monotonic landscapes— the endless, undulating sands of Arabia's desert, or the Aretic's crystalline glaciers and frozen ground. The polar “whiteout” erases even shadows, eliminates the horizon and deceives our perceptions of seale and depth (Lopez, 239). Yet white is also newness and be- ginning, harboring color. The briefest white of predawn ds to rose and saffron, 4 field of impeccable snow absorbs the hues of hovering sky and shifting sun. White suggests mist, vapor and ether, and the fanta- sized emptiness and silence just preceding the first sound-colors of the discriminated world. Baptismal candidates and the initiates of ancient mysteries clothed themselves in the white vestments of rebirth, simplicity and restoration. Delicate white blossoms of apple, pear and orange trees are emblems of spring- time, renewal and wedding vows; the trumpeting, trans- Jucencblooms of the Easter lily announce resurrection. Equally, at the other end of life's spectrum, white con- notes infirmity and disembodiment, a lack of red- blooded vigor or a failure of courage. White isthe pale horseman of death, the pallor of the corpse, bone stripped of flesh, shroud and wraith, and the dove or seabird as the soul departing ‘White plays between opposites. Itis incandescent heat and frigid cold or a merging of fire and ice. The mythic Snow Queen of the north is captivatingly beau- tiful and wintry of nature; che pallid vampire is blood- less in its passion. White receives the projection ofall ornothing. The psychologist Rudolf Arnheim observed that white is “a symbol of integration without present- ing to the eve the variety of vital forces that it inte- rates, and thus is as complete and empty as a circle” (Riley, 302). In his poem “Adonais,” Shelley speaks of “the white radiance of eternity.” For Mehille's Captain Ahab, however, the great white whale Moby-Diek con- veys the indefiniteness and impersonal vastness of the universe, and human fears of annihilation (Melville, 194), Yet the milky, maternal ocean of Hindu myth is the source of all the fundaments of the cosmos. From The artist observed that white is “the ultimate color, the true, real, conceps of infinity” (Ball. 74). Suprema- tist Composition: White on White. by Kazimir Malevich. oil on eanvas, 1918, Russia, its waters emerge saps and elixirs, he white cow of al desires, and the moon-white elephant Airavata, em, blem of the Vishuda chakra, the throat of “void” in which all the elements intermingle. White Buttalo Con Woman, dressed in white buckskin, is the dazzling mysterious presence that gives to the Sioux the git gf the sacred pipe and all the holy rituals honoring Grand. mother and Mother Earth (Brown, 3f), Where fantasy identifies white reductively with light, white can be forced into polarizing opposition to black. Here, white becomes purity, virtue and inno. cence versus black as turbid, lustful and evil; white as the unblemished lamb of sacrifice versus black as the derelict scapegoat of sin. Alchemy projected on white an essential aspect of the opus. On the one hand white was childlike na. ivety, unawareness, immaturity and a lack of experi ence. One might need to sacrifice such whiteness and tincture one’s matter with substance and individuality (On the other hand, white represented the ash or sak of bitter suffering and hard-won wisdom, and the white hair of the knowing old man or crone. Indeed, primary white gave way symbolically to melting, blackening ‘burning, flooding and seperation—a discrimination of ‘one's nature that preceded synthesis. The second whit ‘ening or albedo was conceived as a state of iumina- tion or the dawning of the unknown personality in con- sciousness. Some deemed the albedo the attainment ‘of the goal. Others believed the opus reached fulfill ment only when dawn turned into the ruby briliance of sunrise, the roundness of an integrated, creatively embodied life Ball, Philip. “Seeing Red.” Natural History (March 2002), Brown, Joseph Epes. Ed. The Sacred Pipe. NY, 1971 Loper, Barry Holstun. Arctic Dreams. NY, 1986: Melville, Herman. Moby-Dick. NY, 1926. Riley, Charles A. Color Codes. Hanover and London, 1998. 2.Polar white on white. A bear menges with the ic Photograp!Gray Gray is a mixture of black and white, but also. as anyone with a watercolor paint box knows, it results from mixing any of the color opposites: green and red yellow and violet, blue and orange. Because of this, it hhas a peculiar position at the center of the color world Despite che attraction of the vivid primary colors, gray is essential: * ... that fundamental grey which distin- guishes the masters andis the soul ofall colour.” wrote the painter Rodon (Gage, 185). Gray ie prevent to some degree in almost all colors, and this common note ties together in harmony the various hues in a painting (Gage, 215) Human newborns do not, as we once thought, see only gray. Though they are not able to focus as well as adults, so that objects are fuzzy, their eyes possess color vision. As we develop, gray, neither bright nor bold, takes on particular meanings. Probably by asso- ciation with graying hair, gray stands for old age and all that is associated with it: retrospection, inaction, narrowing of libido—but also wisdom and serenity. In Christian symbolism, itis the color of mourning, of the ascetic time of Lent, of humility—and of resurrection of the dead. Medieval paintings show Christ in a gray cloak at the Last Judgment (DoS, 456). Gray evokes saturnine “lead” and the moods that leadenness con- veys: sadness, inertia, melancholy boredom. Gray is linked with the sackcloth and ashes of penitence and with the symbolism of ashes in gen- eral. Despite the association of ashes with deteat and failure, however, in alchemy ashes symbolize the im- mortal part of the personality that has survived the confrontation with primitive desires and emerged pu- rified (Edinger. 139). Gray is neutral, an in-berween indifference or place. Opposites balance there or are yet undifereng teed, Mythical. dead persons and spire moving tween the alms are gray. “Bray area” isnot certain, one way or the other. There is indefiniceness abo fray, embotied especially in gray elouds and tog. which, adds to its ambiguity and its place as a mediator, The varying usages of gray a5 a symbol suggexe thatithascifering meanings, depending on one's tem perament. To the outward-directed personales. which seeks excitement and stimulation, gray stands for sl) that is burdensome and limiting. In an 1899 speech Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed, "Far better its to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkored by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, be- cause they live in the gray twilight that hnows not vic. tory nor defeat” (Gable, 30). By contrast, the Amen. can poet Paul Engle, writing of his experience ar a student at Endland’s Oxford University, remembered that: “The tense American nerve relaxed. Ilived/ with ‘gray quieiness thet let the mind / grow inward lke e Edinger, Edward F. The Mysterium Lectures. Toronto. 1995, Engle. Paul. Corn. NY. 1939. Gable. John Allen. Ed. The Man in the Arena Speeches und Essays by Theodore Roosevelt. (Oyster Bay. NY, 1987. Gage, Jom. Color and Culture Berkeley and LA, 1999. Kertess, Klaus. Brice Marden: Paintings and Drassings. NY. 1975. Brice Marden's quiet gray’ painting is rich with the ‘colors it has absorbed. “It is the painting's very reticence which compels our involvement” (Kertest 19). Was foil and wax on eanvas, 45 in, x 56 in. 1965 United States. | | | | | |