THE OLD LANGUAGE OF THE RAINBOW
“Be thou the rainbow to the storms of life.”--BYRON.
We have come to the end of our survey of the inner meanings of separate
colours, showing us how “The invisible things of God from the creation
of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things which are
made.”[25]
[25] Romans i. 20.
However, we should not properly complete our task if we did not
consider the rainbow and the deep symbolic meaning attached to it.
Since every ray gives out some great truth and blessing, the rainbow
stood for all blessing, the sign of the presence of God’s love. In
Greece, Iris (who is sometimes regarded as the rainbow itself, or a
goddess clothed with the rainbow, or dwelling in the rainbow, or making
a rainbow path to earth) is the messenger of the gods. She is not
mentioned in the _Odyssey_ but very often in the _Iliad_. She has some
of the functions of Hermes, but unlike Hermes has little or nothing
to do with the pale realms of Pluto. She is generally looked upon as
Juno’s chief messenger, and confers blessings on those whom Juno loves.
In the _Æneid_, book iv., we have a beautiful description of Iris
coming to release the suffering soul of Dido, the luckless Queen of
Carthage:--
“Then Juno, pitying her agony
Of lingering death, sent Iris down with speed
Her struggling soul from clinging limbs to free.
* * * * *
So down to earth came Iris from on high
On saffron wings all glittering with the dew.
A thousand tints against the sunlit sky
She flashed from out her rainbow as she flew.”
The Scandinavians believed that on the rainbow arch the souls of the
heroes were able to march in triumph to the great wassail in Valhalla.
Curiously enough this rainbow is spoken of as “treble-hued.” It would
be interesting to know which three main colours of the rainbow they
thought of.
“Over all swept the magnificent arch of Bifröst,[26] the treble-hued
rainbow, and Odin turned and said: ‘See, children, how Bifröst bids
us climb yet higher, humbly to learn of the holy Nornir (the Fates)
and drink in wisdom from the fountain of Urd (Norn of the Past).
Let us mount and ride.’ And the glorious procession took its way
across the plain to the luminous trembling end of the bridge, where
golden-toothed Heimdal (the sleepless guardian of Bifröst) stood on
guard. With a smile of welcome he threw open the gate, and they swept
proudly on, singing a song of joyous thanksgiving for the beauty and
peace of all around them; but, when great Thor would have set his foot
on the bridge, Heimdal barred the way with his spear.”[27]
[26] Bif-rost--the wave-rest, _i.e._ the resting place of the waves.
[27] _Asgard._ K. F. Boult.
So of all the gods Thor might not tread the rainbow; still, he was
allowed to make his journey into the council of the gods by other paths.
The rainbow is said to have been given to Noah as a sign that there
should be no more flood or no more sea of trouble, for the sea or
the salt water stands mystically for the troubles, the trials, and
the suffering which the soul has to surmount before it receives
blessing and peace. How this makes us think of the meaning of Bifröst.
The promise that there shall be no more sea does not stand for the
drying-up of actual oceans but is a promise given to every true
navigator of the soul--such as Noah was--if only the ark or soul is
constructed according to divine instructions and has its little window
above into which light may shine.
In the “Kalevala,” Wainomoinem builds a magic boat, but forgets the
last three words of his enchantment, and so he cannot complete the
boat. He journeys over the whole world to find these words, and when he
does eventually find them he finishes the boat and gives it as a dowry
to the Maid of Beauty:--
“Sitting on the arch of heaven
On the bow of many colours.”
Among the Peruvians the rainbow was worshipped under the name of
Chucychu.
Ezekiel[28] sees the rainbow beautiful and bright around his vision
of God and the Cherubim. St John[29] also has a vision of Christ
manifesting within a rainbow glory.
[28] Ezekiel i. 28.
[29] Revelation iv. 3.
We should naturally expect from the above that the opal should have
much the same meaning as the rainbow. We certainly do find that in the
East it was considered a most sacred stone, and it was said to contain
the Spirit of Truth.
The Greeks were probably responsible for our belief that it brings
ill-luck in love affairs; but we must remember that they considered it
capable of giving the gift of prophecy, provided that the gift was used
for the benefit of others. If this was not so, then bad fortune came to
the seer.
Joseph’s coat of many colours has been said to have been a sign of
all-blessing, but we must remember that there is considerable doubt
concerning the context of this passage, Still we do know that in many
nations certain variously coloured garments have been considered
garments of honour. Thus the ancient Irish bards had robes striped
with the following colours as a sign of their noble and honourable
calling--white, blue, green, black, and red.
Modern symbolism speaks in very beautiful language of the fact that the
seven rays of the spectrum give white light, but we must remember that
this symbolism is essentially modern. Thus, as I have said previously,
white represents unity; while to the ancients, yellow, the sun colour,
was the colour of unity. The seven rays have been likened to the seven
gifts of the Holy Spirit, and sometimes they are likened to the Elohim.
In the spectrum we have three main rays, sometimes given as red,
yellow, and blue, and sometimes as red, green, and blue. These are said
mystically to stand for the Trinity or God in Three--that is, God in
manifestation; while the white ray would represent God in Unity or the
One Supreme Cause--God Unmanifest--God ever changeless.
Sometimes the seven rays are likened to the various ways and methods of
approach to spiritual vision, for few people receive this vision in the
same way or under the same conditions. Some people receive inspiration
through work, others in quiet meditation, or by concentrating their
energies on some great truth. Thus the Zoroastrians and Parsees have
concentrated on the virtue of Purity, and they realise that all that
is unclean, whether of the body or of the soul, is forever separate
from God. This is a great and basic truth that must be enshrined in the
heart of every worshipper:--
“Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God”
--a wonderful promise, hardly to be comprehended except by the saints,
the seers, and the exalted ones.
Then the Buddhists lay stress on the Brotherhood of Man, and so charity
and the virtue of giving willingly and freely has been exalted to one
of supreme importance in India.
The Christians lay stress on the Love of God--the highest conception so
far; but one that must include the other truths or it becomes degraded
and debasing, as in the belief of the person who holds that the more
wickedly he lives, the more God will have to forgive, and therefore the
more love God will have for him.
So all Truths are necessary in order to form the white ray. As James
Russell Lowell says:--
“God sends His teachers into every land,
To every clime and every race of men,
With revelation fitted for their growth
And shape of mind, nor gives the realm of Truth
Into the keeping of one single race.
* * * * *
All nations have their message from on high,
Each the Messiah of some central thought
For the fulfilment and delight of man;
One has to teach that Labour is divine,
Another Freedom and another Mind;
And all, that God is open-eyed and just,
The happy centre and calm heart of all.”
This wonderful study of symbolism sheds new light on many old customs
and myths. From it, we are able to penetrate to the heart of things,
and to see that every nation has aspired earnestly to understand the
universe, and to realise that the Creator is manifest in His works.
Unfortunately the modern world in its haste has for many generations
cast aside this desire to know more deeply these inner truths. The
Puritan saw that symbolism had degenerated into image-worship and into
corrupt and unworthy practices, and so his mission was to destroy this
dragon of false priests and to give simplicity and reality. Almost too
well he seems to the artist-minds to have done his work, but we must
remember that it was an age of “No compromise.”
Now, however, there seem to be signs all over the world that people
would once again love to have these beautiful symbols, for just as the
mathematician can reach greater truths by means of his symbols, so the
mystic by his can attain to the highest realms of ecstasy. He becomes
one of the uplifting forces of the world; one who gives light. His
eyes and face reveal the inward light, and so he becomes a star. Mere
knowledge, mere intellect, without the inner vision, never makes the
star soul--“He whose face gives no light can never become a star.” To
such a one the object can never enslave. He has become, as the Hindoos
say, “A King of the Zodiac”; that is, he has learnt all his lessons,
journeyed through the twelve great constellations, performed his
appointed labours, and is able to receive the great reward. What is the
great reward? To see the spiritual significance burn through from all
the objects of Nature and so to obtain communion with the Maker, and
thus enter into the golden yellow petals of the Eternal Rose.
You ask me lastly why I think it is that the nations should agree so
well in choosing the inner meanings of colours. It seems to me that
in olden times the gift of being able to see the human aura was one
well known to the prophets and seers. Now, once a person has this gift
it is very easy to connect the type of person exhaling the aura with
particular qualities. When another aura is seen containing one of the
same colours the quality it shows would ever after be connected with
that colour, and so there would grow up a colour symbolism differing
little all over the world. Many of the most successful colour healers
of to-day see the human aura, and according to the beauty of the
colours they see the beauty of the Mind, and according to the lack of
beautiful coloration they see illness and wrong-doing. Still it must
be borne in mind that the wrong-doer even in health cannot attain so
beautiful or refined an aura as the good man. In sickness the colours
of the latter are greyish in value, whereas the colours of the evil man
are muddy-looking.
It is indeed a great subject, proving that the physicians of the future
must minister to the soul as well as the body. The world awaits them.
APPENDICES
APPENDIX I
SCHOOLS OF COLOUR (p. 25)
In these ancient schools of colour the students of seership
concentrated for, sometimes, years on the truths coming to them from
a given colour. Of the Persian Sufis there are said to have been four
colours:--
1. Gold School.--Where all the beauty and majesty of the inner
symbolism of the sun colour was to glorify their souls.
2. Green School.--Where they learnt of immortality, and the need of
ever serving the Maker.
3. Black School.--Where they pondered on the mysteries of God and
learnt wisdom thereby.
4. White School.--Where as full initiates they knew the joy of God.
There have also been rosaries of symbolic colours. Roses and prayers
seem to have some connection in nearly all great religions, hence
the colour of the rose was to denote a prayer or deep desire for the
quality symbolised by the rose.
APPENDIX II
THE COLOURS OF THE PLANETS (p. 25)
This is a subject on which research gives variable results. In recent
years Mr. Alan Leo, perhaps the greatest modern exponent of astrology,
assigned the following colours to the planets:--
Sun orange
Moon violet
Mercury yellow
Venus blue
Mars red
Jupiter indigo
Saturn green
A list perhaps more in harmony with the ancient beliefs is the one
given below:--
Sun yellow or gold
Moon white or silver
Mercury green
Venus blue (turquoise or lapis lazuli)
Mars red
Jupiter purple (or lapis lazuli)
Saturn black (sometimes black with orange flecks).
Saturn, it may be said, is the planet of mystery and the mysterious
ways of God. He is like the god Chronos or the Angel Oriphel; he makes
the person wait till his appointed hour before gifts are given. Still,
as he often, by means of waiting and suffering, causes the person to
develop some of the very highest gifts, he is sometimes given the
yellow flecks.
Minnie Theobald, in an explanation of a Passion play entitled _The
Descent of the Light Spark_, writes on the colours worn by the Planets
in her play. I quote at some length:--
“These seven principles are represented in my drama as the seven
planets, which in the ancient mode of consciousness typified different
modes of consciousness and substance.... Neptune and Uranus are the
two planets of regeneration and rebirth, they are connected with
cosmic consciousness; and so in the colour scheme either iridescence
or all colour must be present to indicate their connection with
wholeness.... Red typifies life and consciousness, and suggests the
power of the Father, the Lord of Fire, reappearing in the lower
worlds. Blue indicates the mother element or the substance into which
life enters; yellow stands for the personality or child. _Colour is
language; any planet may be represented by any colour_; it depends
upon the particular activity of the particular planetary spirit to be
portrayed. In this drama Mercury or Memory, the messenger between Time
and Eternity, wears red, for he is carrying life and consciousness
down to the cross of matter. He is the representative in the lower
regions of the Light Spark; he is the flame hidden within each one
of us, giving us memory of our divine origin. Next comes Venus, our
fundamental soul-substance, the medium between the ego and personal
mind; she is clad in blue. Jupiter, personal mind, follows next, clad
in yellow. Then we have Mars. Our soul-substance, blue, has become
mingled with personal mind, yellow, and so we get green. Red, cosmic
life becomes green, personal life, for after the birth of the personal
mind everything becomes reversed. Our personal life-current is the
complementary mode of activity to the crucified cosmic life-current.
This personal life and passion is the field of activity of Mars, and
so shows his complementary colour, green. Finally, black or Saturn
marks the limit of the fall. Here we have the negation of the life of
Eternity, black or dense matter being the inversion of the pure white
light of spirit.”
This last quotation will show how modern mysticism uses colours.
APPENDIX III
CHROMATICS OF THE SKY. By J. S. DYASON (p. 4)
The following is a tabulation of his observations:--
Copper at sunset presages wind or rain.
Bright yellow ” wind.
Pale yellow ” wet.
Rosy sky ” fine.
Pale green ” wind or rain.
Indian red ” wind.
Grey in the morning ” fine.
Red ” wind or rain.
Dark blue ” wind.
Bright blue ” fine.
A high dawn ” wind.
A low dawn ” fine.
APPENDIX IV
YELLOW (p. 15)
Yellow is still a non-canonical colour in the church. Blue is also
non-canonical.
The five canonical colours are (1) white used at Easter, Christmas,
Circumcision, and Epiphany; (2) red at Exaltation and Invention of
Cross, Pentecost, and Feasts of Martyrs; (3) violet on Ash Wednesday,
Lent, Septuagesima, Quinquagesima, and Advent; (4) black on Good
Friday; (5) green on ordinary Sundays and week days.
APPENDIX V
COLOUR AND FORM (p. 4)
Since colour is vibration, it is easy to see that it must also give
form. Some of the most beautiful designs in the world have been
produced by vibration. In his great book on _Colour_, Babbit takes red,
yellow, and blue and gives them the forms of the triangle, the hexagon,
and the circle. The triangle has the sharpest corners, thus it is
appropriate to the energising fiery red. The circle, with no corners,
represents the calm indwelling blue; and the yellow, which has energy
and yet peace, partakes of the hexagon, which still has angles but yet
approaches the shape of the circle.
APPENDIX VI (p. 4)
M. Camille Flammarion has made many interesting experiments on the
growth of plants under different coloured rays. In one experiment he
took young lettuces from the same plot of ground, and all the same
size. His results showed that--
Under red glass lettuce grows four times as quickly as in direct
sunlight.
” green ” ” slightly quicker than in sunlight.
” blue ” becomes very stunted.
In another experiment he worked with Indian corn.
In sunlight one plant grew to 25 inches.
Under red glass ” ” ” 18 ”
” green ” ” ” 8 ”
” blue ” ” ” 6 ”
Beans flourished under white and red glass.
” perished ” green ” blue ”
From the above it seems that blue glass is bad for plants; but this is
not always so, as is seen from the experiments of General Pleasanton,
where he grew the best grapes in his district by using alternate
white and blue glass in his greenhouses. Babbit states that blue
light develops germination of plants, while red and yellow develop
animalculæ. Yellow rays cause carbon to deposit from the air, and
so form the woody fibre of plants. Red and yellow cause seeding and
fruitage.
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TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE
Page 2: “same event, whoever,” changed to “same event, however,”.