colour

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 11 Jan 2003, and now archived in the Forum Library.

Aoife	11 Jan 2003
I'm fascinated by colour, my emotional response to different colours, their cultural significance and symbolism. Are there any accepted 'meanings' for specific colours? What importance do you attach to specific colours on the cards and how important is your emotional/spiritual/intuitive response to them? My search about this subject came up with a thread from late Dec 2002 in Tarot History and Iconography - a discussion between Ophiel and jmd about Alchemical Symbols and Colour. [i hope it's ok to quote jmd] "I do think that colour plays an independent effect upon our spiritual senses". It would be great to hear any comments.

Thirteen	11 Jan 2003
Accepted meanings? Wow. There are tons of accepted meanings....as I'm sure you already know from the discussion on tarot symbolism. But just to give colour symbolism a wider spectrum (yuck, yuck, yuck): Consider: In Japan, white is mourning. Red is for marriage. And black was for wisdom and power. As compared as in Europe, where white is for marriage (but was used, in rare cases, for mourning during the Renissance) and black is mourning (but was also a sign of wealth and elegance and could only be worn by royalty, like purple--while at the same time indicating evil--the "blackness" in someone's heart. And dark skin being less desirable than lily white). Back in the middle ages, green use to be the color of lose women (as most girls had only one skirt, and rolling around in the grass a lot would turn it green). Green was also the color of envy--the green-eyed monster. White was purity. Blue is a powerful color relating originaly to Isis, and then, eventually, to Mary, J.C.'s mom, and so was the color of saintly mothers. Red, on the other hand, was the old "earth-mother" color. Ochre red was also used to symbolize birth or re-birth among Aboriginal tribes, standing in for and emblematic of blood. Chakras--red is the base color for sexuality, moving up through orange, yellow, GREEN at the heart, blue for speech, and indigo for the third-eye. In auras, violet indicates psychic ability, yellow a cheerful disposition, blue a quiet personality. In some magic texts, yellow is air, blue is water, black is earth and red is fire. Um...but not always. And then there's alchemical colors.... And of course, there's pink for girls and blue for boys. All of which brings us back to your question--which "accepted meanings" are you looking for? Ancient Western? Renissance Western? magical? Alchemical?, Eastern? Or did you just want some idea of what the colours in tarot cards mean to us? An interesting door to throw open as decks definately have their own color schemes that play with the intereptations.

Insomnia Turtle	11 Jan 2003
First, I would like to mention that I am a complete tarot newbie, so none of what I have to say has nothing to do directly to tarot cards. On an artistic point of view, there are many excepted meanings of colors. It depends on where you come from. For instance, here's an example that many people are probably familiar with, in the western world, typically black is seen as a color symbolizing death (note that I say typically. I myself find black a beautiful color that I hardly find death like), but in the eastern part of the world white is typically considered the color symbolizing death (once again, note the use of the word typically). Your social and religious backround can also make a difference. For example, imagine a bride wearing bright red during a highly traditional christain wedding. It probably wouldn't go over well. Just something to think about. Just noticed someone posted the same thing seconds before me :).

Osher	11 Jan 2003
I recall how Shakespeare described ladies of the night as wearing 'flame-red taffeta'. (red being their colour). Oscar Wilde (?) in humour used 'puce', due to it sounding like something else. Of course, purple was an interesting colour, as it came from sea creatures. So many had to be killed and crushed that purple became the colour of royalty. Basically, what I am saying is that colour has many meanings. In my Tarot of the Old Path colour is very important. Different colours have different symbolisms. Red: Rods (fire) Green: Pentacles (earth) Blue: Cups (water) Yellow: Swords (air) Other tarot have different colours. In the Manara, for example, air is light blue, and water is deep blue; with the majors yellow. Then you have aura colours (which I, despite trying, cannot see).

amyel	11 Jan 2003
Quote: Originally posted by Aoife Are there any accepted 'meanings' for specific colours? As you've seen so far, I guess the answer is "no". It seems to depend on the artist of the card and how they use color. For example, in my Glastonbury deck, the artist uses color to represent specific things, like pink for love, and purple for insight. She explains it all in the LWB. It works for this deck. Quote: Originally posted by Aoife What importance do you attach to specific colours on the cards and how important is your emotional/spiritual/intuitive response to them? I place a great deal of importance to the use of color in decks. In fact, the decks I have seem to be selected largely due to their use of color. I like vibrant decks. If a deck is too dark, I don't repsond to it - so I don't buy them, because I know I will not be able to use them. This doesn't mean that I am able to work with all of my vibrant decks, though....

Violet Gargoyle	12 Jan 2003
Couple of Factoids: Back in the Early times when Purple was only worn by royalty, the color "purple" actually meant a deep red- crimson to brownish really, the color of dried blood- just not the violet/eggplant/abergine that we associate the word with today. The movie "The Crow" had to be marketed differently in Japan, they changed the posters and ad material from black to white and focused on the "ghost story" aspect of the movie. This was because, as mentioned already, white was associated with death and mourning in Eastern cultures. You also have the Yin Yang- Black and White representing several things: Male and Female, Positive and Negative, Opposites, Spiritual Balance. You also see the White, Red, Black Combo in Goddess Associations- often in that order for the Maiden, Mother, and Crone (you can reverse that in more eastern cultures.

tarotbear	12 Jan 2003
I dunno....just about ANY Tarot book is going to tell you the significance of the colours, such as why the Fool wears Yellow boots and many people have Red plumes...not by chance, but by design. Colour symbolism is rife in the Tarot! It's not happenstance! The High Priestess between two columns or trees, the Magician between two Candles...one is always black and one white...for a reason! Am I wrong in reading that you are missing or oblivious to the color symbolism? It's in there! LOL!

Macavity	12 Jan 2003
I think it might be interesting to derive a "Tarot Pallet". You could have the three primaries (Red, Yellow, Blue), then secondaries and tertiaries, derived from combinations of the previous ones. Some Kaballah theorists may/seem to do something like this and the fix the numerology by adding e.g. black/white to give: 3+(6+1=7)+12=22 (major arcana, sum of "paths" etc.) divisions of color through the spectrum. I surmise that's how the Crowley-Thoth deck derives it's "King's scale", "Queen's scale" for coloring etc??? But I admit I've never quite cracked THAT system... :D

Ophiel	12 Jan 2003
If you are magically inclined at all, you might want to pick up some material on the Kabalah. Not only does the Tree often use the major arcana Tarot, but colors are very important. There are ten spheres of power on the Tree (at least on the front side) and each is associated with a different planet/cosmic energy, color, and group of deities. For instance, Yesod is the ninth sphere, just above Malkuth (the upper layer of the physical plane) and Yesod is associated with the Moon deities (most, but not all...it depends on what aspect/quality the particular moon deity is expressing), purple, and is assigned to the four nines in the Tarot deck. The paths between the spheres are twenty-two in number, thus the link to the major arcana. Each card defines a subjective spiritual experience between the two spheres it connects. Also, the paths are assigned color. Waite was an occultist and a member of the Golden Dawn and color was very important to his cards. You can find a lot of material on this in magic books by Golden Dawn influenced authors (Regardie, Crowley, Paul Case, Hulse, Robert Wang, etc.) In fact, there is a great deal of information on the cards in David Allen Hulse's "The Western Mysteries" published by Llewellyn Books. Paul Case's classic, "The Tarot," also has a great deal of information along these lines, but mostly as color relates to the Majors.

MeeWah	12 Jan 2003
Aoife: Welcome to the forums! Just wanted to say that Thirteen is correct about Japan. Those colour associations are the same in Chinese tradition. Red is used in weddings, with invitations in red & printed in gold. When I was married, although it was not a Chinese ceremony & aside from my parents not permitting the use of white, I was not comfortable with it as a colour. Instead, I designed my apparel & that of my two bridesmaids using Chinese silk. The style was a Chinese cheongsam in pale lavender for me; emerald green & turquoise for the bridesmaids. As Tarotbear & others have stated, there are many colour associations used in Tarot purposefully, usually with regard to the Majors.

cuddles	12 Jan 2003
i am most definitely missing the colour meanings in the cards and welcome this kind of post/discussion ;-) being new to tarot i am interested in all the ways my cards can speak to me. there are so many! and it's wonderful but a bit confusing at first. colour is a powerful thing and many people have studied its effects. a room painted blue is soothing, while one painted yellow can make you hyper (so i hear). and if you didn't know the reason you wouldn't understand it. and possibly change it. so understanding the colours in our cards can help us understand our reactions to them. but this is different from the symbolic meanings given to colours by various cultures. so do we need to understand our reactions to various colours as well as what the artist meant to convey by using colour? am i making this all far too complicated? lol

Aoife	12 Jan 2003
Cuddles, "....do we need to understand our reactions to various colours as well as what the artist meant to convey.." That's my question in a nutshell - wish I could re-start the thread with this but I'm new to all of this and bursting with questions. I'm also feeling I have to pose 'serious' questions if I'm to get serious responses so I think together with my englishness I can come across a bit pompous.

cuddles	12 Jan 2003
i know that bursting feeling! well, my guess would be yes, we do. so what we are looking for is a key somewhere to the colours used in the decks and their meanings. i haven't come across one yet in any of my books. though i have 3 more in the mail as i write so maybe the answer lies there. as for our emotional responses to colours...that is far more complicated as the other posts have shown. but i do believe, for instance, that Goethe did a study of colours. does anyone know of something like that which could be used as a starting point? in my experience so far (3 whole months!) this is not an aspect of tarot cards that is heavily discussed. though possibly, like so many other things, i just haven't seen it yet ;-)

Cerulean	12 Jan 2003
The color palette idea with your favorite tarot is useful. Watercolor pens are very quick. The main colors for the archetype or character would be easiest at first. I think because our eyes usually tend to jump to the human figure or face, that might be a very good place to start. At least in portraiture class, we thought everyone looked at humans and faces first. The Golden Dawn style coloring system in the BOTA book that I am looking through (Paul Foster Case: Book of Tokens) is very interesting. I found the Universal Tarot by Robert DeAngelis, Diamond Tarot (U.S. Games) and Golden Tarot had some variations in the color scheme for the Fool...I liked the coloring of the DeAngeleis Fool the best of the ones that I was looking at last night. But overall, I like the Tarot of the Cloisters color scheme for my RWS workalike readings. Below Joan Cole's website should have most of the color variations: http://www.advancenet.net/~jscole/tarotrwsclone.htm If you are looking at a Rider Waite Smith deck, Joan Cole's comparisions of the coloring would be helpful. The palette differences really affect people's ideas. Best wishes, Mari H.

Webfoot	12 Jan 2003
“I'm fascinated by colour, my emotional response to different colours, their cultural significance and symbolism.” Aoife Me too. All I’m recalling is that the Thoth deck was supposed to have used the “right” colors. Does the Book of Thoth explain? So little time, so many books. Since color is so subjective, I’d be interested to hear if, or how much, or why, color influences choice of decks. I know I like the bright colors of the RWS and the Grimaud Marseilles, but I couldn’t tell you why. For anybody interested in color, there’s a fascinating site at http://www.handprint.com.

Cerulean	22 Jan 2003
This is i Tarocchi dei Colori on tarotgarden.com and Alidastore.com http://www.trigono.com/tarots/tarocco-dei-colori.htm After you see the scans, do you think this design too simple? Tarot of the Fey has well done color associations...I'm thinking this is affordable if I wanted another take on a reading. I mean if I want a reflective mood response. The Tower being such a rain of colors, the Chariot being someone trying to control two different horses and palettes of colors...does this work for people? If you were a beginner as well, would a tarot with color associations such as this also help? Or just confuse? A review on Wicce's formerly public page can be viewed if you go to the 'cached' version (www.wicce.com/deicolori.html) Happy colors, Mari H.

Jewel	23 Jan 2003
Like someone else here (on pg. 1 of this thread) I just LOVE vibrant colors. My favorite decks to work with all have vibrant colors. Most books that come with decks (not LWBs but real books) do explain the colors used by card ... not all but most. I know the Robin Wood book, for example, provided some really good insight into color. Ultimately I probably go by what the color means to me, which is of course impacted by the things I have read and colors I see repeated again and again on specific tarot cards. My suggestion is to see if there is a book that goes with your deck of choice. Then flip through it to see if it addresses color. If it does, then get it and contrast what the creator/artist says with how you feel ... then decide how you would like to interpret that. I suggest a deck specific book because as noted by others here, people use color differently so a general book on color symbolism might not apply to your specific deck. Another thing that has helped me in seeing what color means to me (as well as get nicely acquaited with a deck I want to work with long-term), is the following exercise I found in Mary Greer's workbook Tarot for Yourself: 1. What do you see? 2. What colors do you see? 3. What human figures or animals do you see? 4. What symbols are there? 5. Describe the card in terms of an emotion. How do you feel when you look at it?

Cerulean	23 Jan 2003
...I'm thinking of opening a new thread where independent books or web guides might be associated with certain decks. Their insights sometimes give me more...although it is more likely book artists or authors give better color details. The exception, for instance, might be Leah Samuls (Wisdom to the Cards)...although I remember a thread on the Hudes deck where a fan was more detailed in color study than the Samuls book. I was researching Aecletic threads on the Lo Scarabeo title, Tarot of Secrets by Marco Nizzoli and found someone posted that titles such as a Gothic Grimoire by Constantinos might have information on it (the data in the Gothic Grimoire or other Constantinos titles might not be more than a mention...I'm researching). The colors and contrasts are deep and yet it does compare well with other Lo Scarabeo decks. At the moment I'm doing a few color and design comparisons between the Celtic Shaman (illustrated by Chesca Potter) and the Secrets Tarot. There are some odd and glyphlike details and colors in Secrets at time that remind me of a dreamlike graphic novel.

Jewel	23 Jan 2003
Mari that sounds like a really neat and fun project. You must promise to post your findings here at Aeclectic when you are done! Thanks for sharing.

patter	24 Jan 2003
Some deck attach particular colours to the cards -- magician is yellow for example.

The colour thread was originally posted on 11 Jan 2003 in the Spirituality board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Spirituality, or read more archived threads.