Studies in Astrology
by
Elman Bacher
Volume VI
Chapter V
Color
Color is that attribute of Manifestation of
Perceptibility. Since the manifested Universe is the vehicle or instrument of
Spirit it has to be conceived and then perceived before it can be put to use;
we as "sparks of Spirit" in manifested form, become aware of this instrument
by our faculty of sight. The other senses are agencies by which we complete
our perception, but by sight we "take the first step."
Therefore, as "perceptibleness" (we see "things"
as "patches of color"), color has a great significance in regard to the occult
nature of manifestation. If we are here to unfold awareness of the principles
of life, are must learn about the functions of material things and also about
what they mean as chemicalizations of archetypes. To understand the nature of
a material thing as well as its function is to understand the purpose of its
archetype; to understand the purpose of an archetype is to understand, in
degree, a life-principle. Archetypes, in composite, are the primary
manifestations of life; the life of the archetype is the "life-cycle" of its
manifested chemicalization. "Archetype and manifestation" is the most direct
reference we can make to the Cosmic Law of "cause and effect."
We are so accustomed, after hundreds of
incarnations, to take for granted the colors of the world that we tend to
forget (if we ever have known it) the significance of this attribute in the
life-cycle of manifested things. Since all things affect, and are affected by,
all other things, can it be that color represents one aspect of the nature of
universal vibratory exchange? Colors are emanated and responded to; they
affect the things that react to them and they are affected by the things that
act on their chemicalized forms. Therefore, if we had "eyes to see," we could
study this aspect of vibratory emanation of manifested things and learn about
the nature and significance of their archetypes--their realities.
The study of color has always had a place in those
approaches by which human beings have sought to understand the inner and outer
nature of their own archetype, humanity, and that of the other octaves of
manifestation. It might be said, with some justification, that the study of
life is the study of vibration which is the essential action of life. The
Great Ones who teach us serve to ignite in our consciousness the awareness of
vibration because they know that matter is not a "dead thing" but the
manifestation of something that is eternally alive, rhythmically pulsating,
ever releasing and fulfilling its potentials but never changing in essence.
Since we are here concerned, in this study, with
color as a factor in art-expression, astrological symbology and the truths
concerning the nature of the archetype, Humanity, let us recall, in part, what
has been given as instruction pertaining to the colors of the human aura. The
author, not being as yet qualified, has never had the experience of perceiving
the human aura, but several acquaintances, and perhaps many of you students,
have. The one outstanding fact in the information conveyed by this experience
is the color-attribute of this vibratory body. Regardless of extent,
brilliance or dullness, it is understood that color is seen in every aura. In
fact, without the at-tribute of color, the aura could not be seen at all, much
less studied and analyzed; though its power can be "sensed" by sensitive
persons through their reactions to the vibratory quality of the " aura-
person." In other words, that which is "sensed" (by feeling-reaction) is that
which is clairvoyantly seen as color of the aura.
The composite of etheric bodies of human
composition is one of the many forms of the archetypal state "matrix;" another
form of "matrix" is air--in which we are all enveloped; still another is water
(gestation), place of generative manifestations. Air and water, so it is said,
are "color-less." If, however, air and water did not possess, in degree, the
attribute of color-vibration how could light be directed through them? How
could they reflect color? How could colors be perceived through them? It is an
occult maxim that in order to manifest on any plane, a suitable vehicle is
necessary; how, then, can color manifest in and through air and water if they,
as "elements," did not possess in their essential nature that which
corresponds to the nature of colors Can it be that the "colorless-ness" of air
and water is the only true white there is, and that which we designate as
"pure white" corresponds to the "colorlessness" as the physical body
corresponds to the etheric matrix? Or as any fulfilled manifestation
corresponds to its archetype, as a rose, in the full beauty of its perfect
maturity corresponds to the "rose-archetype," as the most highly evolved
specimen of an animal-species may correspond to its group-archetype ? (Food
for thought!) Color is truly one of the mysteries of manifestation because,
by it, the divine essence of manifestations is perceived in a specialized way.
Color corresponds to design as a philosophical truth corresponds to the
ceremony or ritual which symbolically transmits it to the inner knowing of
humanity; as love between husband and wife corresponds to the incarnation of a
child; as aspiration corresponds to service.
We must use analogies:
If we may consider the "colorlessness" of air and
water to be archetypal white (and as such, the "color-symbol" of the
Unknowable, the Infinitely Subjective), then the purest of what we call
"white" is manifestive white. This, in turn and by correspondence, is the
color of Father-Mother God in its essence and in its two expressions of
"Virgin Spirit" and "Perfected Consciousness." (Why do we associate "white"
with purity?) Purity is "undifferentiatedness," innocence is "not refracted
by experience"; perfect-ion is realization of one-ity (unity). Anything that
we describe as "perfected" is fulfilled, harmonious, and complete in the
relationship of its parts to each other and to the total. White is "innocence
before refraction of light" and the "perfected re-un-ity after refraction."
In its relationship with the spectrum-colors, white symbolizes the
relationship between perfected consciousness and the differentiatedness of
soul-qualities which we designate by such words as courage, patience,
integrity, etc. In its relationship to black, white is spiritual source and
black is utmost chemicality of the emanations from the source. Consider this
analogy: archetypal white is universal causation; manifestive white is
universal bi-polarity; black is the densest of universal chemicality. Black is
a very interesting subject of thought and study, and a fascinating subject for
philosophical meditations. It has been used (poor thing) for ages to symbolize
mankind's concepts of hell, death, and evil--in short, the color-symbol of the
Devil. An injustice, no less. Black as a "color" in the material universe, is
the compression of brown (the composite of all spectrum-colors) and brown is
the color-symbol of productive earth--our home in incarnation. Black, then, is
the congestion of productive life-forces but congestion does not mean death in
the absolute sense--congestion is a little death which can,
must, and will be decrystallized ("redeemed"). A color that would
symbolize absolute death would have to correspond to archetypal white as black
corresponds to manifestive white. And no such "color" exists because black is
the "mid-point" between white and white. The square (congestion) aspect
between two planets in a horoscope would represent two colors which by their
relationship have the effect of "blackening" the shade of each other--you have
seen, have you not, "blackish red" or "blackish greens" These shades represent
degrees of congestion of color-potential toward a common point of
"staticness." Black is not recognizable as "red" or "green" or any other
color--it is the UTMOST density (lowest vibration) of all colors, as
manifestive white is the utmost decrystallization of color-powers. In the
"Inferno" of the Divine Comedy of Dante the nether-most region of this
unhappy place is depicted as a place of the "forever lost," "beyond hope,"
"impossible-to-redeem," "absolutely no potential," "total negation," and
"utterly life-less." It is true, we are told in occult philosophy, that there
are a few members of life waves that congest to such a degree that they cannot
progress with the others on their particular "wave;" but we are also
instructed that, however long they may be held back, ultimately they start
anew with another "wave" and so progress to fulfillment.. Thus "hell," as the
place of the totally lost, is an illusion, a false concept of life. We feel
that the "mercy of life" (or of Father-Mother God) is expressed in the truth
that all potentials are to be eventually redeemed--no one and no thing is
"forever set apart and discarded." The "color" black could, of course,
symbolize the state of "congestion-to-such-a-degree-that-progress-is-for-a-
time-i nhibited" but the eventual progress will be represented by the
releasement (on a new cycle) of the congested potentials of black. Your
astrological aspects will approach " blackness of color " to the degree that
the squares are approaching the exactitude of ninety degrees and are
unrelieved by the assistance of sextiles or trines. To the degree that the
squares are removed from ninety degrees will their color be more evident. To
the degree that your planets are trined will your planetary colors glow with
radiance, power and beauty.
The author is not presuming to present "absolute
truths" in these symbolic color-picturings; however, we, as astrological
students, become so accustomed to seeing astrological art presented by "black
marks on white paper" that we forget the value of "thinking chromatically."
Since we are dealing with the spectrums of designs and vibrations we must,
from time to time, exercise our minds on the colors that are implied in drawn
symbols; these "implied colors," in turn, symbolize the spectrums of human
consciousness and experience, and we must perceive "gradationally" if we are
to unfold our understanding of "placement-qualities," "relationship-
qualities," and the "archetypal nature" of the planets as focalizers of the
zodiacal signs. A little more food for thought: archetypal white as it
"manifests" in the five color-octaves of three octaves of the point, line, and
circle of astrological symbology:
The five manifested octaves of archetypal white
are : (1) Manifestive White ; (2) Grey (neutral); (3) the Colors of the
Spectrum; (4) their composite, Brown; (5) their congestion, Black. The three
octaves of point line, and circle are: (1) Cosmic (the Unknowable); (2) Solar
(Father-Mother God); (3) Human (the Great Mandala of the Archetype, Humanity,
and the personal mandala of the individual horoscope).
1. Cosmic--the point, line and circle of cosmic
ideation; the center is archetypal white; the Ascendant-line is manifestive
white and the Ascendant-point is neutral grey, the abstraction of brown and
the "composite" of the extremes of manifestive white and black. We cannot know
the extent of that which is manifested by the Unknowable so its "appearance"
at the Ascendant-point must be the indefinite, neutral, "extentless-ness" of
grey. Grey is "boundless," it combines and blends with all colors and it is,
more than is any other "shade," that which can convey a sense of indefinite,
infinite manifestation, focalizing no one thing, but symbolizing "All-that-is-
ness."
2. Solar--the Manifestive action of Father-
Mother God; the center is manifestive white; the Ascendant-line modulates from
manifestive white through grey and through brown (composite of all spectrum-
colors) to the Ascendant-point which is black; the black Ascendant-point
symbolizes the total chemicalized manifestation, to the densest degree, of
this solar-system; in the black are found all of the color-expressions which
are symbolically inherent in the natures of all beings of this system and
which are to be "released" as specific color-symbols of consciousness-
gradations during the evolution of these beings in incarnation-cycles.
3. Human--(a) The Great Astrological Mandala of
the archetype, Humanity; the center is manifestive white, the Ascendant-line
modulates from white through grey and brown; the Ascendant-point, the "I Am"
of the individualized archetype is red, the first cardinal color which
corresponds to the first cardinal sign of the mandala, Aries. The three
variations of the "I Am" of Humanity are the cusps of the (in clock-wise
order from the Ascendant) 10th, 7th, and 4th Houses; the total of these four
"I Ams" is the I Am of the basic human family: male and female begettor, male
and female begotten; male and female of causation and male and female of
reaction to, or effect from, causation. Since scientists who study and analyze
color tell us that there are four basic primary color-senses (red, yellow,
green, and blue) we shall ascribe each of these to a cardinal point of the
Great Mandala: Aries, red; Capricorn, yellow; Libra (complement of Aries)
green; and Cancer (complement of Capricorn and initiator of the last Trine of
the generic spectrum), blue. The fire-trine will be represented by gradations
from pure red through orange; Earth--yellow through its darker shades to air--
green (in its modulations to water) blue--carrying through to complete the
spectrum at Pisces in purple, color symbol of divine qualities and last color
of the basic sequence of spectrum. This is one approach. You may find
another, or many others. But--find something!
3. (b) Human--the personal horoscope of an
individual human-being: in unevolved humanity, the center is the red of blood;
in evolving humanity it is the red of the individualized "I Am" blended with
the redemption of white; the Ascendant-line modulates through grey and the
color of the ray to the color that may be identified with the planetary ruler
of the Ascendant-sign. This color will represent the temporary (for this
incarnation) variation of the red-white of the center. The color of the ray is
a "basic" to each human being during the entirety of his or her evolutionary
progress in incarnation. Philosophic or occult knowledge sooner or later
reveals the nature of one's ray and the color that pertains to it. It may be
supposed that, in cases of un-evolved humans, the Ascendant-point color might
be the brown of Earth which will be "decrystallized" or differentiated as the
person begins his spiritual evolution. In the individual charts of humans,
blackness may be, as was remarked before, implied in congested planetary
aspects, but never at the ASC-point.
There are, probably, as many "solutions" to this
study of color in symbology as there are people who study it. But when we
loosen ourselves from the limitations of personal feeling-reaction to colors
we are better able to focus our awareness of colors as factors in abstract
symbology--to correlate the essence of color-vibration with the essentials of
symbolic figures. Another approach to study the "basic colors" in an
individual horoscope is to synthesize the planetary positions by
dispositorship--and create a compositing of the planetary positions by sign-
placement. In such a synthesis, all planets dignified will convey a sense of
purest color, those in detriment (opposite the sign of dignity) are, to a
degree, "neutralized" and their colors will verge toward a mixture with grey.
Also, to correlate color with design, study your chart from the standpoint of
seeing how your planetary groupings make specific patterns--a grand cross, a
grand trine, a square with the alchemicalization of one planet by a third
which sextiles it, and so forth. Your horoscope, in whatever form or
arrangement, is, in black and white, an abstraction of a painted portrait--in
symbols. Look at the planets that are farthest north, south, east, and west--
they are structure-points in your "Astro-portrait;" opposition aspects are
"verticals, horizontals, and diagonals" in your picture, etc. But let yourself
become more aware of the importance of mentally "colorizing" astrological
symbols--it is a most valuable and beneficial exercise of your intuitive
powers.