The Symbolism of Light and Colors

Daniele Corradetti - May 22, 2011

Light, Colors and Consciousness

The study of color symbolism is very important in sacred science because each color is associated with an inner state, and colors act immediately on the psyche and unconscious with an exciting or soothing action, even going so far as to modify the secretion and activity of endocrine glands. Classic examples are the treatment of neonatal jaundice, which occurs by exposing newborns for long periods to a blue light bath instead of a blood transfusion, allowing them to absorb excess bilirubin; or psychological experiments in schools and hospitals. Classic is Wohlfarth's experiment (International Journal of Biosocial Research, Volume 3, No. 1) who in an elementary school replaced the color of the walls from orange to blue for a few months and changed the light bulbs to solar spectrum ones, achieving a 17% decrease in children's blood pressure. For example, 15 or 20 minute exposures to a blue light source are used as a pain reliever. Conversely, red is a psychic stimulant, orange is a tonic, etc.

Normally in Chromotherapy the following colors are used: Red to stimulate body and mind and increase circulation and blood; Yellow to stimulate the nervous system and purify the body; Orange for the lungs and to increase energy; Blue to soothe pain; Violet for skin problems.

Distinction Between Color and Electromagnetic Wave

Before proceeding, however, we must highlight one thing: when speaking of chromotherapy, we must distinguish two fundamental aspects that are associated and often confused, but are actually distinct: one given by electromagnetic radiation, that is, what light is as an electromagnetic phenomenon; one given by color.

The first is a sensation and electrical stimulation, a phenomenon that becomes a vehicle for a quality or qualia, a perception that is that of color. If I see a red color, the electromagnetic wave that I then translate into an electrical wave is one thing, and the color I perceive is another. Light is outside us as radiant energy, but colors are within us, in the secret mechanisms of the psyche; from outside come the light waves that stimulate the retina of the eyes and through nerve pathways become psychic images from electronic impulses.

For example, if I dream of the color red, I have the same perception without it being associated with any particular electromagnetic radiation; it is simply produced by the mind. Similarly, the color red remains a tonic and strengthens me even if instead of seeing it as red light outside me, I visualize it forcefully and breathe the red color, and then feel stronger and more brilliant, full of energy.

Action on the Psyche is Given by Quality, Not Electromagnetic Wave

What therefore has an action on the psyche is mainly not the electromagnetic radiation but the color itself, that is, the quality that lives within our consciousness and does not need electromagnetic waves to exist, since in the dream state colors exist peacefully even when we have our eyes closed and everything is dark.

Tibetan Book of the Dead

Therefore colors are buried in our consciousness; in traditional symbolism they are a true language of our consciousness that manifests in the purest and clearest way not when we are in the ordinary waking state, but when we are in other more oneiric states of consciousness or after death.

A book that deals extensively with this subject is the Bardo Thodol or Tibetan Book of the Dead. In Buddhist tradition, as well as in Egyptian and esoteric Christian traditions, between one reincarnation and another there occurs a certain latency time in which the soul lives disembodied in a kind of limbo where images of the personal and collective unconscious are substantiated and objectified, causing the individual's blessing and damnation.

In this state, divine mercy makes lights appear to the individual's consciousness that would allow them to be liberated and exit the phenomenal world, but often these visions are not understood, partly because the force of these visions frightens the individual, partly because they do not feel affinity with them, partly because consciousness is in a state similar to dreaming; then in Buddhist liturgy an expert monk accompanies the deceased's journey after death, suggesting what they should say and do to avoid being dragged down the path of perdition.

I wanted to read you some passages not only because there are very significant parts that will allow us to understand some fundamental things about colors, but also because this discourse of the soul's journey after death, of the soul to the underworld, is a characteristic feature of all Ancient Mysteries and therefore it is fundamental to have knowledge of it in a course on traditional symbolism. It is fundamental because it is precisely in this situation and condition that the unconscious speaks to consciousness in the form of symbols.

Invocation of the Dying

"Lords of compassion, now that I am going from this world to the other world, I am dying without possibility of choice, be a refuge for me who has no refuge, protect me, defend me, make me escape from the great hurricane of cause and effect. Protect me from the great fear of the lord of death, free me from the long and dangerous path of the Bardo. When separated from the friends I love, I wander wandering and the empty forms of my projections appear, may the Lords of Wisdom intervene with the force of their compassion so that the terrors of the Bardo do not emerge. When the five luminous lights of wisdom shine, may I fearlessly recognize myself. When the peaceful and wrathful forms appear, may I, without fear and with confidence, recognize the Bardo."

In this fabric of symbols, the symbols...