THE OLD LANGUAGE OF YELLOW
“Into the yellow of the Rose Eternal ...
Me Beatrice drew.”--DANTE.
Yellow is one of the most interesting colours. Being the colour of the
sun, all the attributes of the sun were given to it.
Like red it was considered a masculine colour, while green, blue,
and violet were thought of as feminine. Like red, too, it is used by
healers as a tonic. As it is of such healing value to the brain, we
are not surprised to find that amber has been used as an antidote to
insanity. Yellow stones are said to bring happiness to their owners,
for yellow was said to be the colour of unity--unity in affection,
unity with the spiritual powers of the universe, unity with the Sun of
Righteousness who comes with healing in his wings.
This old meaning of the colour yellow was well known and understood in
the old Roman Catholic Church. Therefore Dante, who wrote much of his
great _Divine Comedy_ consciously or unconsciously to interpret these
old ideas and to enshrine them in poetry for evermore, says when he
has reached the highest part of heaven and is once more with Beatrice:--
“Into the yellow of the Rose Eternal ...
Me Beatrice drew.”
The Pope (on the fourth Sunday in Lent) presents a golden rose of
jewels to any person greatly beloved by the Church.
One can notice in the world at present a deep and increasing love for
all yellow colours,[7] for it is a colour that gives the appearance of
sunlight to the most cheerless rooms. May we not also hope that it is
a sign that the world is now striving after unity, and the desire to
understand the other person’s point of view?
The yellow robe donned by the Buddhist is a symbol that he is now on
the path that is to lead to spirituality. The _Light of Asia_ tells
us that Buddha taught his supreme truths “to his own, them of the
yellow robe.” He taught them to practise “yoga.” What is “yoga”? To
the Western mind it usually means a kind of magic--even charlatanism,
but the real meaning of the word is “union.” The belief of these
yellow-robed men is that they have within them a spark of the Godhead,
and that, by suppressing the bodily desires and by concentrating their
whole mental and psychic energies towards trying to understand this
higher part of their nature, they will become united with the Supreme
Spirit and will understand how to do many things and see many things
that the ordinary man cannot do or see.
[7] See Appendix IV.
Vishnu is clad in yellow for the same reason. In the vision of Ezekiel,
God is seen in the colour amber; at least, the amber colour is the
outward sign of the presence of God.
In the ceremony of making a child become a Brahmin a piece of saffron
cloth is bound to his arm with a yellow cord. The Mexicans gave the
name Kan to the god who supported the sky. The same word meant yellow.
Yellow is the royal colour of China, and the privilege of wearing
yellow is most jealously guarded, for does it not show that its
possessor is a Son of the Sun? Similarly the saffron robes of the
ancient Irish nobility were a sign of their rank.
Yellow is the marriage colour in India, and the bride stains her hands
yellow as a sign of the happiness and unity she expects in her married
life. The Roman bride wore a crocus-coloured veil and yellow shoes.
Among the Jews marriage may be performed under the Talis, an orange
silk robe stretched on four posts. The bride and her maids walk round
it seven times, which is said to be in memory of the siege of Jericho.
It might also be noted, in Calderon’s picture of Ruth and Naomi, that
Ruth, who wishes ever to be with Naomi, wears a yellow robe--perhaps
by chance, perhaps by design, or perhaps by intuition.
Among the Mayas and Egyptians the great serpent of the universe (who
symbolises Eternity and Wisdom) was said to be blue in colour but
to have yellow scales. In China the golden cock proclaims the dawn.
The golden hawk, the golden eagle, the golden ass,[8] and the golden
calf were all symbols of deity. Athena, who represented union with
the mind of Zeus, had a robe called the “peplus,” a crocus-coloured
garment with figures woven into it of the gods conquering the giants.
It was suspended to the mast of a ship when it was to be carried in
procession, being too holy to be carried by hands.
The mundane egg which is to be met with in nearly all ancient
religions, whether of India, Egypt, Phœnicia, Japan, or the South Sea
Islands, was said to have been a golden one--that is, it represents the
sun or deity. Probably our children’s tale of the goose that lays the
golden eggs is a survival of one of these ancient beliefs.
We must remember, too, that the colour of gold not only partook of
the meaning of the colour yellow, but also of the symbolism of the
metal gold, which is the metal of the sun. Thus the colour began to
mean all that was pure, all that had been refined, and hence glory and
wisdom. Thus the halo of saints and of God is often made of gold leaf.
Similarly the gates and doors of heaven are nearly always represented
as being of gold.
[8] Read the _Golden Ass_ of Apuleius, where the hero only regains his
real shape by eating roses, which are symbols of prayer.
We may remember, too, that among the emblems attached to St John
are the eagle and the River Pison. This River Pison is mentioned in
Genesis as flowing through Havilah, where there is much gold. It
therefore became the river of inspiration and the wisdom of God; and
since St John received the greatest vision, it was considered his most
appropriate emblem.
The ladder which Jacob saw in his dream at Bethel or the House of God
is described by Dante as being of gold:--
“I saw reared up,
In colour like to sun-illumined gold,
A ladder, which my ken pursued in vain,
So lofty was the summit.”
For it is by the ladder of wisdom that we attain wisdom and receive
inspiration.
The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood made it their particular joy to replace
this beautiful symbolism into art. Thus Dante Gabriel Rossetti speaks
very beautifully in “The Blessed Damozel” of a golden thread of life
that is woven into the robes of the spirits who arrive in the next
world after having lived during earth life in unity with God:--
“We two, she said, will seek the groves
Where the Lady Mary is,
With her five handmaidens, whose names
Are five great symphonies:--
Cecily, Gertrude, Magdalen,
Margaret and Rosalys.
Circle-wise sit they with bound locks
And bosoms covered,
Weaving the golden thread
To fashion the birth-robes for them
Who are just born, being dead.”
This golden thread is spoken of by the mystic Blake:--
“I give you the end of a golden string,
Only wind it into a ball;
It will lead you in at heaven’s gate,
Built in Jerusalem’s wall.”
The Greeks also had a legend of a golden thread by which Jupiter drew
up souls to heaven. Here we might mention the Golden Bough given to
Æneas in order that he may visit the dead and yet retain his life
(_Æneid_, bk. vi. 29).
In the Kalevala, the great Finnish epic, Ilmater is invoked:--
“Ancient daughter of Creation,
Come in all thy golden beauty.”
And as Ilmater stands for wisdom, we are not surprised that
Ecclesiasticus should say, “Get wisdom, and get much gold by her.” So
also Keats writes:--
“Much have I travelled in the realms of gold.”
In Babbit’s book on colour there is an illustration of the aura seen
round the head of a man. Above the top part of the head is seen the
colour yellow. Now, the phrenologist locates this as the seat of
spirituality; thus we see that once more two studies agree in their
conclusions. Yellow was thus to the ancients the greatest of all the
colours, and had the most exalted meaning.
* * * * *
It is perhaps to be expected, then, that in its degraded meaning it
is the saddest of all colours, for we recognise the deceitful Judas
very often in ancient pictures from the fact that he is given dingy
yellow robes. The Jews in Venice formerly had to wear yellow hats, to
show the scorn in which the Venetians held them. Yellow is the colour
of decaying vegetable life, of the poorness of life. Thus it means
separation instead of unity.