Chapter XI: 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.