The Spiritual Meanings Behind Colours

The Spiritual Meanings Behind Colours

Different colours are very evocative to different people and so it has been throughout the ages. Celtic people, Native Americans and other earth based spiritualities assigned different colours for the different elements. Commonly air is seen as yellow, fire is red, earth is green and water is blue. Traditionally green is seen as associated with earth based or Pagan spiritualities. Diana Paxson and her branch of the Asatru associate colours with deities: Odhinn is black and blue; Thor red; Freya and Freyr green and gold, or sometimes brown.

In some wiccan/pagan paths, colour is combined into the crafting of spells these may be for various reasons: 
for health, peace, love, and personal growth. Colour conveys mood very quickly and can help with healing on a very deep level.

The ancient Egyptians, Chinese, and Indians believed in chromotherapy, or healing with colors. In chromotherapy, red is believed to stimulate physical and mental energies, yellow to stimulate the nerves, orange to stimulate the solar plexus and revitalize the lungs, blue to soothe and heal organic disorders such as colds, hay fever, and liver problems, and indigo to counteract skin problems and fevers. Premature babies with jaundice are cured by a chemical reaction triggered by exposure to blue light for several days.

Colour is very evocative of mood. Different colours can completely change the mood that we are in. Much research has gone into this and is behind a lot of the colour choices that go into our decorating decisions for our own homes.

Colours are also very important as related to the Hindu philosophy of Chakras. I won’t go into a big explanation of the chakras here as I’m sure a lot of you already have that knowledge and that is a whole other post!

Below is a brief summary of the spiritual qualities associated with each colour.

White.

White is perfect for connecting with elemental spirits and angels, your higher self and spiritual guides. It is good for purification and healing. White also corresponds to the Maiden form of the Triple Goddess.

Yellow.

Yellow represents the element of air. Symbolizes vitality, progress, change and communication, willpower, confidence and warmth. Light a yellow candle if you are having relationship problems or need a boost in confidence, it will bring joy and happiness to your life. Yellow corresponds with the Solar plexus chakra.

Chakras from Pranagyoga.com

Gold.

Gold is the symbol of all sun-deities and masculine energy. Excellent for promoting self-confidence, success in business and financial matters, overcoming bad habits. Carry a gold coin to attract success.

Orange.

Associated with deities of good luck and good fortune. Represents charm, kindness, success abundance, prosperity, sexual desire, procreation, change, joy, tolerance. Sacral Chakra. Orange is wonderful for raising your energies, try wearing an orange top or scarf.

Red

Red represents the element of fire in many pagan religions. It is associated with deities of love, passion, sexuality and war. Red brings courage, will-power, determination, speed, assertiveness, aggression, masculinity, self-preservation, grounding and material stability. Red is the color of the Mother Aspect of the Triple Goddess. The ruby, a precious gemstone with a brilliant red color, was worn in China to promote long life. Represents the Root chakra. Wear red to promote self confidence and assertiveness, even if it is a small item of jewellery.

Pink.

Love goddesses, softness and tenderness, romance, caring, nurturing, emotional healing. While red is associated with fiery love and passion, pink corresponds to the gentler aspects of these emotions. Put pink rose quartz by your bed to re-kindle romance.

Green

Green is the element of earth. All earth based spiritualities. Corresponds with Nature and fertility deities, Mother goddesses. Represents: nature, fertility, growth, rejuvenation, recovery, healing, unconditional love, compassion, forgiveness. Represented by the heart chakra. Dirty or muddy green corresponds to envy, hate, and sickness (a "sickly green", so to speak) Green is especially useful in colour magic spells for healing and for wealth drawing. Green has great healing power. It can soothe pain. People who work in green environments have fewer stomachaches. Suicides dropped 34% when London's Blackfriar Bridge was painted green. Green was a sacred color to the Egyptians representing the hope and joy of Spring.

 Turquoise

Turquoise brings intellectual and intuitive insights, inventions and originality, renewal.

Blue

Blue is the element of water. Deities of the sea. Peace and tranquility, calmness, truth, wisdom, justice, prophetic dreams, protection during sleep, astral projection, communication, speech, creative writing. Representative of the throat chakra.

Violet/Purple

Elemental spirits and angels. Psychic abilities, divination. Crown chakra. Deepens personal spiritual awareness, as well as working with  divine power. Use fluorite to aid in deepening psychic abilities.

 

Amethyst rose quartz sun catcher http://www.astarte-moon.co.uk/shop/

Indigo

Indigo corresponds to the Brow (or Pineal, or Third Eye) Chakra. Justice, wisdom, inspiration, intuition, spirituality, psychic powers. It can also be used in colour magic to help reduce phobias and stress.

Brown

Stability, grounding, conservation, protection of household, family and pets, healing animals, finding lost objects.

Grey

Neutralizing negative influences, putting a halt to negative action.

Silver

Moon-goddesses, female energy, cycles, rebirth, reincarnation, healing of hormonal imbalances, emotional stability. It is very useful in divination and meditation

Black

Deities of the Underworld. Repel and banish evil and negativity, protection, deep meditation. Black is the color of the Crone aspect of the Triple Goddess.

You can use these colours in a variety of ways. You can wear the colour of your choice, if for example you wish to particularly connect with nature and be grounded then brown and green clothing would be a perfect combination. Wear yellow or orange to work if you need a self confidence boost.

For spellwork and blessings, coloured candles, altar cloths, talismans and writing in particular colours are very effective. Birthday candles make a very inexpensive way of building up your coloured candle cache or coloured t-lights which are abundant during the summer bar-b-q season.

Red Spell Candle http://www.astarte-moon.co.uk/shop/

When meditating imagining yourself surrounded by a particular colour is very effective. For example for protection you can imagine yourself within a beautiful bubble and then colour that bubble blue for peace and protection whenever you need it. Meditating in front of a coloured candle is a way of concentrating the colour.

What colour resonates with you? Which colours to you shy away from? Try and examine why that is? Is there some imbalance that you need to look at within your life? For me I never wore red. I always justified it in that it clashed with my red hair but I eventually realized that I was imbalanced and needed to allow my masculine side a little more space. So now I do wear red, only a very little, a pair of red flip flops are a favourite and a few red bangles but it does give me a bit more self confidence, I’m a very moon gazy  girl and I do have to learn that the golden energy is there too!

Blessings of colour and sparkles to you, alison xxx