Psychology of Color
BY
J. C. F. GRUMBINE
Color, in its appeal to the human mind, affects
nerve and emotional centers through its eflluences and these finer wave lengths of energy are
perceived and their influence felt by that function
of the soul which is supersensitiveness,
which belongs to each one and is his psychic endowment,
however unconscious he may be of it.
Perhaps, upon very close analytical scrutiny,
it will be found that the psychology of this psychic
supersensitiveness will reveal a co-ordination
of color vibrations to moral impulses, so
that there will be shown an ethical side to color,
which hitherto has been but faintly or indefinitely
appreciated. So that good or evil, moral and
immoral effects may be involved in every human
perception of physical light as light is reflected
in color. However, involved and illusive the
ethical side of the psychology of color is, the effect
of color on the morals of man is self-evident.
What is true of color is also true of sound.
The moral quality must not be associated with
the mere sensation and perception of the pleasure
or pain which color may produce. In highly
organized or sensitized bodies, high, medium or
low pitch of sound waves produce proportionately
painful and pleasurable effects, as witness as
shown by Mr. Aitken in his book on "THE
FIVE WINDOWS OF THE SOUL,"
Reptiles and scorpions writhe in pain when the notes of
a piccolo are sounded and become enchanted
when the flute is played. To a serpent, a piccolo
would be an instrument of torture and he
would attack and kill under its influence. The
moral effect on the reptile is to make it ill behaved,
that is bad; on the contrary, the flute
would iron out its wrinkled coils, subdue its temper,
soothe its nervous system and so cause it
to be well behaved, that is good.
Similarly, some forms of color excitation intensify
the sensation of pain and the moral effect
is bad, while other forms soothe the nerves
and the moral effect is good. This is especially
significant in the therapeutic and pathological
values of the various forms of electrical discharge
as the violet rays which overcome, to an
extent more and more appreciated by chromopathologists
and electro therapeuti cists, functional
and organic diseases. Dr. Edward Babbit in
his pioneer work on "The Philosophy of Light"
furnishes unquestionable evidences of the beneficial
and healing quality of color.
Color in nature is not only ornamental, but
useful. It serves a purpose in vegetable, insect,
bird, fish and all animal life which is not only
offensive and defensive, and hence protective, but
contributes valuable suggestions relative to the
nature and habits of the species along lines of
struggle and survival.
If red, flaunted in the face of a bull infuriates
the beast, surely, the effect is none the less dynamic
and hostile though not so spontaneous,
among men and women of low or elemental natures.
For red is thermal, a stimulus, an irritant,
a fiery energy which arouses the blood and
passion of the animal nature, whether in beast
or man, while blue is a counter irritant, is depressing,
electrical and soothing in its effect
upon the nerves. Blue is an antidote for the
effects of red, as red is an antidote for the effects
of blue. A neutralizing effect of red or blue
is produced by the red or blue being modified by
white. The purer the color, that is, the more
transparent it is the more forceful is its vibrations.
The more a color is tinctured with matter
of coarser substance or slower vibrations,
the more mixed and confusing is its effect upon
the sensory.
Color is both physical, (that is chemical) and
psychological (mental) in its effect upon the
mind. The chemical effect is a nervous one; the
psychological effect is psychic. The nervous
system reflects its disturbances upon the mind,
hence the sensation of pain and pleasure, and
the emotional states which accompany them.
This is true of all the colors. Primary colors
are radical, elemental and fixed in their vibrations
or wave lengths, and hence, when once the
effects of the sensations which they produce on
the mind are known, their uniformity can always
be depended upon. Red as thermal and a stimulent,
and blue as electrical and depressing, act
uniformly on all forms of life. So with yellow.
Light by the spectrum analysis proves that its
seven colors are made up of vibrations or wave
lengths of mathematical exactness. If the seven
colors are modified in any way whatsoever, this
mathematical condition or unity is disturbed and
disarranged, and the effect upon the senses will
be determined by the alien substance which
causes the modification. The difference can be
gotten as much by calculation as by subtle, psychological
analysis.
The great painters, Michael Angelo, DaVinci,
Raphael, Murillo, used the primary colors in
their pigments most effectively, and as they followed
a religious canon in the use of coloration
the divine blues, superb reds, royal yellows, warm
browns and glorious purples and violets, conveyed
spiritual ideas which the colors symbolized.
Blue, as we know symbolizes truth; red, love;
yellow, wisdom; brown, earthliness; purple and
violet, dignity and spiritual elevation. Perhaps
the medieval artists more than later painters
understood the psychology of color and schemed
their technique and spread their colors on canvas
with this idea ever in mind.
Virgin white,
not only signifies cleanliness, but purity, and naturally the mind
is consciously as well as unconsciously
affected by it. "White as wool," "pure as ice," "chaste as snow," are sayings
which convey the electrical concept of purity
which is universally accepted the world over as
the triune interpretation of white.
while "black as sin," conveys the opposite concept. If, therefore,
a color symbolist or a psychologist wishes to
impress us, with purity and virtue or vice and
sin, he need but hold before us the white or
black, the positive or negative form of the light.
He may even use scarlet, for sin has frequently
been likened to scarlet, for reasons which are
psychological as well as ethical; for scarlet is a
stain on a white garment; and so, "Though your
sins be as scarlet" (red) in case of murder or
passion, "they shall be as white as wool," as in
the case of the spotless purity of the lamb, or
the seamless white garment of Jesus, symbolically
pre-figuring the radiant glory of the Christ
consciousness or the soul clothed with the ineffable
light of the sun.
Vibrations were known and understood by
the Ancients. Note their use in precious stones
and dress.
The physical science of the light assures us
that each color has a distinct frequency or vibration
due to wave lengths.
Grave or slow and quick notes or tones of the
drum appeal to the savage or uncultivated mind.
They express in sound what the red expresses
in color, while the neutral notes or tones of the
flute, oboe or French horn and violins, appeal
to the more refined. They express in sound
what the blue expresses in color.
It will be perceived that what is regarded
as a "temptation" and even a "sin" in certain
systems of Christian theology, is due as much to
the subtile influence of color on the imagination
as to human passion. Thus violence to ones
human nature follows an emotional color bath is
as certain, as grave or slow, gay or quick sounds
produce their opposite emotional effects. Of
course, to allow these physical and sense excitations
in the forms of vibration to influence one
against ones better nature makes the temptation
possible, but the urge to do so is often not so
much a power from within as from without.
We have carelessly
grown up in the midst of the riot and
chaos of color influences as to ignore their physical,
subtile, moral and spiritual values.
They can be and are helps or hindrances to the spiritual
life
For instance, black is the ecclesiastical
or canonical color in the Christian
world for mourning. Could any color be more
depressing and illogical for a Christian Church
to accept, that teaches the hope and knowledge
of a resurrection and a life beyond death?
Black negatives all joy, hope, or expectation of
personal survival and is it not a hopeless and
hideous, though conventional spectacle of human
ignorance to wear black for mourning when, to
say the least, one should rejoice to wear white
or gray, or electric colors as blue, since the message
of Jesus Christ was and is the message of
survival of the human personality after death
and in short, "the resurrection and the life"?
Is not black a rebellious contradiction and defiant
denial of what the Christian Church believes and
teaches? Then why use black? Why not employ
hopeful, cheerful, stimulating colors, instead
of black, which is the pall and symbol of
gross ignorance, woe, evil death, non-entity?
Many Oriental nations wear violet, purple, white
and they certainly do so with more wisdom than
the Christian nations of the West.
Meditation and observation will lead to precise and unfailing
definitions and psycho therapeutic generalizations.
Both color and music arouse as well as
stimulate the memory, imagination and ideality
There is no magic about the co-ordination between
color and nervo psychic susceptibility. In
a very subtile as well subtle way the soul responds
to color, but the appeal is first to the
eye, then to the perception and afterward to the
soul.
The eyes, the windows
of the soul, reflect the colors of the soul,
and as plants absorb sunshine, indeed the whole
gamut of color contained in the light, so the
soul, on the physical plane, a human plant growing
in the garden of the world, absorbs its vitalizing,
therapeutic and nervo psychic stimulus
from the colors.
Color in Dress. Why Brides Wear White
and Mourners Black. International
Customs Analyzed
The primary colors of red, yellow and blue,
appealed to the elemental and simple minds of
the savage, because their vibrations were the
most physical in their effects on their senses.
Reds are warm, blues are cooling, while yellow is
more or less neutral. The ruddy reds of the
earth, the rosy sunrises and sunsets and the
fierce flames of fire, and the blue of water and
sky, strangely impressed the early peoples. So,
from sun and fire, they learned that the red symbolizes
heat and they used yellow and red pygmies,
yellow and red feathers and yellow and
red garments, not only because they liked them
as ornaments, but because they imitated nature
in her elementary moods.
The blues were not so commonly used because less dynamic and
violent, but were featured by the Jews, Egyptians,
Arabs and the Orientals, in their tapes-
tries, robes, portieres, frescoes and ecclesiastical
vestments. The subtle reason for this is its
spiritual and mental rather than emotional appeal
to the senses.
This was not due to a lack
of dyes, as it is a well known fact, fully corroborated
by Wendell Phillips in his celebrated
oration on "The Lost Arts," that dyes were
known, as for instance the royal or Tyrian purple,
thousands of years before Christ, which art
has since been lost. This was not only true of
Phoenecia, Egypt, Assyria, but of Persia and
India.
The less bizarre and spectacular colors, as
the gray blues, gray pinks, grays, gray purples
and violets, fawn browns, yellows and greens
were used in the Mural decorations of temples
and the costumes of the women of royalty.* They
had developed a high, fascinating and unexcelled
artistry in color combinations which the modern
world has not surpassed. And the most remarkable
part of their use of color was their psychological
knowledge of its spiritual values and the
subtile effect of color on the individual. In fact,
color, among the Eastern nations, was a function
of religion, and the priests established, sanctioned
and supported the function as long as they
were in power.
The reason why brides wear white, is the
same which caused the Vestal Virgins among
Greeks and Romans to wear a white flowing
gown, centuries before Christianity dawned upon
the world. White typifies innocence, virginity,
chastity, without a stain, blemish or spot. It
is, therefore, the fitting color (or absence of
color) emblematic of maidenhood or virginity.
This is too evident to need further comment.
Black, on the other hand, typifies the universal
negative, in which color is absorbed, hid and
not manifest, and is emblematic of death, matter,
oblivion, annihilation, nothing—loss of life
and love.
It therefore conveys no idea or thought
of immortality or survival of the personality of
death, and its effect upon human nature is depressing,
joyless, sad, reproachful, hostile, evil.
In analyzing international habits and customs
of mourning, a criticism is made against the
time honored Christian fashion and precedent,
which have been blindly followed by society,
out of a loyal and sincere wish to pay the last
sad respects to the dead; for the simple reason
that such solemn respect should not spiritually
and rationally be associated with black.
As a Christian nation, believing in, if not able
to know and prove the survival of the soul at
death, black symbolizes a denial of the resurrection
and an infamous repudiation of the affirmation
of Jesus, "I am the Resurrection and the
Life," and "I came that ye might have life and
have it more abundantly." It typifies faithlessness,
blindness, death, annihilation, agnosticism,
atheism, materialism. It takes the divinity out
of the shield of the Christian Religion and
throws a pall over the crown of life. It deliberately,
as though designed by the arch enemy of
truth, crushes the soul, by screening and camouflaging
its vision with the darkest, blackest
clouds of nescience and ignorance.
This idea is a religious and scientific one of
survival, is important to teach and impress solemnly
upon a none too spiritually minded generation,
because it follows that if black, symbolizing
death, evil and non existence is allowed to
continue to be the formal and popular color of
mourning, the fact of the soul's survival, will
expose our self elected ignorance and rebuke our
time honored stupidity. As a matter of fact, the
correct idea of death has made inroads upon
foolish western customs of mourning. In some
quarters, black has been discarded altogether,
as has black crepe on doors and evergreen and
flowers substituted in its place.
It would go a great way toward educating the masses in the
spiritual significance of death, if the corpse was
robed in white and placed in white coffins instead
of black, irrespective of age, and clergymen
taught from pulpits and in homes and when
ever opportunity suggested the need, that white
preaches the best sort of a mute but comforting
sermon on the resurrection. As the dawn announces
the rising of the sun and the advent of
day, so white announces the fact that death has
lost its sting and the grave its victory. This
is the truest orthodox Christian teaching, however
heterodox it may seem from an ecclesiastical
and theological standpoint.
When the integrity and unity of life is at last recognized
from matter to spirit and from the crystal to
God and all vibrations are registered and realized,
color will be found to have its value in the
psychology of life, and it will not appear as a
mere accident or coincidence of natural phenomena,
but a service in the divine scheme of things.
