The Symbolism of Colours

The significances of the colours below are based upon the works of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother.

The significances given here are general indications only, for the meaning of a colour may vary, as Sri Aurobindo noted, "with the field, the combinations, the character and shades of the colour, the play of forces". Moreover, a colour may have several meanings, since there is more than one order of things that colours indicate. "There is an order of significances", Sri Aurobindo observed, "in which they indicate various psychological dynamisms, e.g., faith, love, protection, etc. There is another order of significances in which they indicate the aura or the activity of divine beings, Krishna, Mahakali, Radha or else of other superhuman beings." And there are other orders as well. In the Mother's flower-names, the colours usually indicate a plane of consciousness or part of the being, or, more accurately, the main forces corresponding to a plane of consciousness or part of the being. The colour red, for example, often indicates the forces of the physical plane of consciousness or physical part of the being; accordingly, the significance of the red zinnia is Physical endurance.

Of the relationship between colour and light, Sri Aurobindo commented: "Colour and light are always close to each other - colour being more indicative, light more dynamic. Colour incandescent becomes light."

WHITE. The Divine Consciousness; the Mothers light; purity; integrality. White is the divine power of purity. White light is the Mother's light, the light of the Divine Consciousness in its essence. In this white light all other lights are contained and from it they can be manifested; for this reason white also indicates integrality, completeness, totality — especially the integrality of the being in all its parts, from the physical being to the true self. The adjective "integral" appears in the significances of many white flowers; the white zinnia, for example, is named Integral endurance and signifies endurance in all the parts of the being.

GOLD. The divine Truth; the supramental Truth- Consciousness; the Supramental or Supermind. Gold indicates the divine Truth. Golden light is the light of the divine Truth on the higher planes above the ordinary mind — a light supramental in origin. The golden sun is the symbol of the Divine Light and Truth and of the Supermind.

GOLDEN YELLOW. The light of the Truth in the mind.

YELLOW. The mind; the thinking mind. Yellow is the characteristic colour of mind, especially the thinking mind, the intellect. Its shades indicate different intensities of mental light. Yellow is the light of mind growing brighter as one goes higher till it meets the golden light of the Divine Truth.

PALE BLUE. Higher ranges of mind. Pale blue is the colour of the higher ranges of mind up to the Intuition; above it, it begins to become golden with the supramental light.

PALE WHITISH BLUE. Sri Aurobindo's light; Sri Krishna's light. A whitish blue like moonlight is known as Sri Aurobindo's light or Sri Krishna's light. There are different Krishna lights, depending on the plane in which the light manifests. Pale diamond blue is Krishna's light in the overmind, lavender blue in the intuitive mind, a deeper blue in the mind, and so on. Blue is also Radha's colour.

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LAVENDER BLUE. Devotion.

DEEP BLUE. The physical mind; mental power in the physical.

PINK. The psychic. Pink or pale rose is the characteristic colour of the psychic. Pink, especially pink mixed with lavender, mauve or pale purple, can also indicate the emotional vital.

ROSE. Psychic love.

GREEN. Vital strength; energy, generosity, self- giving; the emotional life-force; the emotional vital; the emotions. A vital energy of work and action, green is very usually associated with Life and a generous emanation or action of forces - often of the emotional life-force. Green light can signify various things according to the context — in the emotional vital it is the colour of a certain form of emotional generosity, in the vital proper an activity with vital abundance or vital generosity behind it; in the vital physical it signifies a force of health. Green is the colour of the emotional vital and of the emotions.

LAVENDER. The vital, especially the higher vital or emotional vital.

MAUVE. The vital. Mauve is a colour of the vital, light mauve tending to indicate the higher vital or emotional vital, deep mauve the vital proper.

VIOLET. The vital; vital power; protection; Divine Compassion; Divine Grace. Violet is a colour of the vital plane, dark violet indicating vital power. Violet is also * the colour of protection and of benevolence or compassion, but more vividly of the Divine Grace; it is the light of the Divine Grace and Compassion.

PURPLE. The vital; the vital force; vital power. Purple is a characteristic colour of the vital. It is the colour of the vital life-force and of vital power. Dark purple may indicate the lower vital.

PURPLE RED. The vital consciousness; the vital life-force.

RED. The physical; the material world. Red is the colour of the physical and of the material world. Darker shades of red, however, may also indicate some part of the vital.

DEEP RED. Divine Love.

CRIMSON. Love manifested in the physical. Crimson light indicates the manifestation of love in the material atmosphere or in the vital and physical together.

ORANGE. The Supramental in the physical; the supramental physical light; occult knowledge. Orange or red-gold or golden red is the light of the Supramental in the physical, the light of Divine Truth in the physical. Orange is also the colour of occult knowledge or occult experience.

BLACK. Obscurity, chaos, blindness, ignorance.

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