THE OLD LANGUAGE OF BLUE
“Blue, ’tis the colour of heaven!”--KEATS.
In the spectrum we ought to be able to recognise both blue and indigo,
though many people find difficulty in recognising the indigo ray. Blue
belongs to the cooling end of the spectrum, and thus it is right and
fitting that symbolically it should be the colour of Truth, which is
the result of calm reflection and never of heated argument. Even in
everyday language we speak of “true-blue.”
Blue is the colour of the heavens--that is, blue is the colour of the
abode of God:--
“Then went up 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.”[13]
[13] Exodus xxiv. 9-11.
Ezekiel has very much the same vision, not because he copied from an
older version, but because it is given to every great seer to realise
for himself any real basic truth, such as that God dwells in Truth.
Clairvoyant visions often repeat themselves to different people in
different countries and in different ages.
“And above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of
a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone: and upon the likeness
of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon
it. And I saw as the colour of amber.”[14]
[14] Ezekiel i. 26.
A wonderful vision truly that within Truth dwells the amber of unity
and the divine Spirit.
The Egyptian judges wore a breastplate of blue covered with symbolic
figures. The blue was to show that they would reverence truth in their
judgments and not stoop to bribery.
Moses was commanded to make the robe of the ephod of blue, and on the
skirts of it were to be pomegranates of blue. This was to symbolise
that the true priest of God was to abound in Truth--not in mere facts
and formalities. Truth is ever greater than mere facts. Facts may
sometimes give the appearance of an untruth, but Truth is ever one and
indivisible. As said previously, it contains unity.
Again Moses was commanded to--
“Speak unto the children of Israel, and bid them that they make
them fringes in the borders of their garments, throughout their
generations, and that they put upon the fringe of the borders a
ribband of blue ... that ye may remember, and do all my commandments,
and be holy unto your God.”[15]
[15] Numbers xv. 38.
Here we might mention that the Rabbins considered that blue was the
colour of the two stones on which the Commandments were written. Plato
tells us that the robes of the priests of Atlantis were blue.
The Buddhists say, “Sapphire produces peace of mind and equanimity. It
chases out evil thoughts by establishing healthy circulation. It opens
barred doors to the spirit. It produces a desire for prayer. It brings
peace, but he who would wear it must lead a pure and holy life.”
Surely, if all this is true, it is almost essential that we should
follow the advice of colour healers and have our ceilings always of
blue.
Blue is often called the colour of devotion, but we must remember that
devotion is not an end in itself; it is the striving after eternal
Truth and Wisdom that matters.
So much did the Hindoos think of the colour that their gods are
addressed by the epithet “narayan,” and they are said to be born of
the sea which ever reflects the blue of heaven. In Egypt the gods were
often painted blue to show their heavenly origin; _e.g._ Kneph the
Creator, the great Mind, wears blue robes. Mummies were shrouded in
blue beads to show that they were united with the soul of Truth.
Odin, the wise All-Father of the Scandinavians, is nearly always spoken
of as wearing blue robes. The blue pines near the homes of Philemon and
Baucis were sacred to Jupiter. Sin, the Assyrian god, is said to have
had a blue beard. Our conception of blue beard has taken on the debased
meaning of cruelty.
Isis is often called the Lady of the Turquoise, while Osiris is god
of the turquoise and the lapis lazuli. The Virgin Mary is often clad
in a blue robe, for the same reason that she is often represented as
standing by the Well of Truth, as in Arthur Hacker’s “Annunciation.”
The Hindoo Mariama is addressed as “Holy Nari Mariama, mother of
perpetual fecundity.”
In both Mexico and Chaldea blue was worn as mourning, being a token of
the joy that the soul realised in the Fields of Peace.
The turquoise and the lapis lazuli seem to have had in them the two
blues that appealed most to the ancients. In the “Burden of Isis” we
have these words in praise of Osiris, who is identified with the spirit
of the departed:--
“With turquoise is thy hair twined, and with lapis lazuli, the finest
of lapis lazuli. Lo, the lapis lazuli is above thy hair.”
There is another similar incantation in the Festival Songs of Isis and
Nephthys:--
“Thy hair is like turquoise as thou comest from the Fields of
Turquoise; thy hair is like unto the finest of lapis lazuli, and
thou thyself art more blue than thy hair. Thy skin and body are like
southern alabaster, and thy bones are of silver. The perfume of thy
hair is like unto new myrrh, and thy skull is of lapis lazuli.”
Since hair is not blue, the statement must be symbolic, and means that
the spirit of the departed has now become one with Eternal Truth.
Surely we cannot read the above passages without thinking of the Song
of Solomon, where the bridegroom is compared to “bright ivory overlaid
with sapphires.”
There is another such song in praise of Amen-Ra:--
“Praise to Amen-Ra,
To the bull of Heliopolis, to the chief of all the gods,
To the beautiful and beloved god,
Who giveth life by all manner of warmth,
By all manner of fair cattle.
* * * * *
Amen, bull fair of face,
Beloved in Thebes;
He fashioneth earth, the silver and the gold,
Real lapis lazuli for those who love him.”
The same imagery is used by the Buddhists. When Buddha sat under the
Bo-tree on his throne of knowledge, all truths were revealed to him. To
symbolise this we are told that he saw the great white cosmic umbrella,
and also the Fields of Lapis Lazuli, where all the preceding Buddhas
dwelt in ecstasy:--
“He hath overthrown the flag of pride,
He hath obtained the triple knowledge.
* * * * *
The King of Physicians
With his heavenly Amrita[16]
Will dull all human pain
And lead all flesh to Nirvana.
Having entered the City of Omniscience,
And become one with the Buddhas,
He is now indivisible.”
[16] Amrita, bread of life.
This last word gives us the key to the whole situation that in the
Fields of Lapis Lazuli there dwell the pure spirits who have become
the soul of Truth, inseparable from Divine Truth, indivisible from the
Spirit of God.
When we consider the Greeks we remember that Homer always speaks of
Pallas, the Goddess of Wisdom, as “the blue-eyed maid” for is she not
the goddess who teaches the will of Zeus and the truths of Zeus? The
heroine of almost every fairy tale in the world is blue-eyed, as a sign
that she is the true, good, and lovable maiden who is the object and
reward of the quest and labour of the prince.
In the epic of the Finns, Ilmater is invoked in these words:--
“Rise up, O water-mother,
Raise thy blue cap from the billows.”
And this makes us think of Venus rising from the blue ocean.
We must recollect that blue was the colour of the robes of the Druidic
bards. The bards were men who had been “ovates” and had worn the
green. They were still to retain in themselves all that was meant by
the green, but blue is symbolically a higher colour, even as it is
physically.
Many people think that red would have been a better colour for the
bards, because this symbolises the enthusiasm that is so necessary in
song and poetry; but the bards were to have more than enthusiasm--they
were to have the gift of looking beyond the world and of obtaining
great Truths to uplift humanity. They were to be Masters of Wisdom.
They were to get beyond mere passion and look into the cooler, calmer
regions beyond, whence they could draw these great and deep truths. It
makes us think instinctively of Wordsworth’s definition of poetry as
“Passion recollected in tranquillity.”
From the great Triads of the Druids we learn the duties of the bards:--
1. To make a country habitable.
2. To civilise the people.
3. To promote science.
Blake had the same belief in the duty of a poet, which he expresses
very beautifully:--
“I will not cease from mental strife
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand
Till we have built Jerusalem
In England’s green and pleasant land.”
The work and duty, as given in the first two parts of the Triad,
recalls J. Russell Lowell’s wonderful lines:--
“He who would be the tongue of this wide world
Must string his harp with cords of banded iron
And strike it with a toil-embrownèd hand.”
In our own time, Maurice Maeterlinck has written a little play called
_The Blue Bird_. The playbills tell us that the quest of the Blue Bird
is the quest for happiness, but it seems to be far more than this. A
bird often symbolises spirit. Thus the quest of the Blue Bird is really
the quest for spiritual truths.[17] The children in their journey first
appeal to their dead grandparents for the bird. By this Maeterlinck
means us to ask ourselves whether the past was able to know Truth, and
the fact that the children do not find the bird there shows us that
Maeterlinck thinks Truth is of the future.
[17] See Henry Rose, _The Blue Bird_.
Still, the children have grown by appealing to the past, as is shown
when the grandparents measure the children against the door. They have
also another great fact to learn--that there are no dead.
Next the children ask the Trees if they have the Blue Bird. These
Trees, who think they are the rightful custodians of the Blue Bird,
and resent the intrusion of the children, represent the persecuting
churches of the world who have become stereotyped and hate progress.
So the children are in great danger and are only saved when the dog
(or human common sense) bursts his bonds and Fairy Light comes to the
rescue.
The children never find the Blue Bird, for is it possible to obtain
universal Truth and put it in a cage? When a man says vaingloriously
that he has all Truth, it is a sign that he is very far from his
statement. Still Mytyl and Tyltyl are better children for going on
their journey, showing that it is the quest that is the great thing.
* * * * *
Blue in its lowest meaning signifies depression and despair. We
have such expressions as “a fit of the blues.” Or again it may mean
hardness, coldness, or cruelty, even, as in such an expression as
“steel-blue eyes” or “Bluebeard.” A blue-stocking means someone who has
cultivated intellect and left out affection.