Well, to be honest i haven't really separated out which developments came when. Itten was a mystic and follower of a sort of pseudo-Zoroastrian group, and so i dont know to what extent he would be familiar with the GD colour system.
BING ! pseudo-Zoroastrian group ??? Where ... let me at it .... 'I need that ... because of ... ... reasons ' (Thoth thread joke) . I have been studying Zoroastrianism and preZoroastrian religion and P.I.E. peoples culture for some time. So , I am instantly curious.
I will follow that one up ... and hints or references you know of?
Some of the people in the bauhaus had a background in Theosophy, while others were also involved in the same group as Itten. There was a certain mystical bent in Ittens thinking, but his work built upon Newton's and Goethe's systems, but in his case he made his own contributions that have had a huge impact and continued influence to this day, which have largely disregarded his more mystical attributions. Examples are models such as the use of "Warm-cool" terminology, and correlating colour to musical ratios creating a system of "colour-chords" based on triads and such. Ive never studied him specifically and was mainly taught according to whatever was understood to be established knowledge about colour, regardless of history. (the majority of which I have largely forgotten, I just knew how to mix colours to get to pretty much any colour I wanted with only a standard understanding of the colour wheel. In terms of painting. In most of my work in graphic design, colour palettes would come from any number of sources, none of which were particularly esoteric.)
I find it fascinating and have looked into the history of it, starting with the colours available and used in the Neolithic palette, and how through history different people and cultures discovered applicable colours and usage and the related meanings. (Also I have experience with some indigenous art here - unfortunately in some cases IMO they use modern paints ... the traditional ones and colours seem preferable in many situations.)
Regarding the GD zodiac colour wheel, it doesn’t appear to me, from my admittedly cursory glance, that the colour relationships themselves are unique to the GD, being, based on even mixtures of the primary colours. How their system established/attributed colours to planets and so on i have no idea. Did they ever reveal their sources?
Not sure about that, however Crowley had a go at it, in the appendix in the back of 777 , ‘EXPLANATIONS OF THE ATTRIBUTIONS’ ;
“The deep violet is episcopal. It combines 2 and 3, a bishop being the manifestation of heavenly or starry existence manifested through the principle of blood or animal life.’
(Episcopal and regal as at first the colour was hard to obtain and hence expensive, so available and reserved for upper class usage ?)
“ 6. The rose is that of dawn. The attribution therefore asserts the identity of the Sun and Horus and is thus implicated with the doctrine of the New Æon.
7. Amber represents the electric voluptuousness of Aphrodite. It suggests the tint of the skin of those women who are most enthusiastically consecrated to Venus …
Thus the violet of Jupiter is definitely religious and creative, which at the end of the scale the red of Mars is physical, violent and gross. Between these we have Saturn whose indigo represents the sobriety and deep-sea calmness of meditation, Saturn being the eldest of the Gods. Luna is blue; representing purity, aspiration and unselfish love. The green of Venus suggests the vibration of vegetable growth. It is the intermediate stage between the definitely spiritual and the definitely intellectual and emotional type of vibration. In the "rods and cones" attribution green is the central colour, the pure passivity absorbing all: as Venus combines all the Sephiroth in one symbol. The yellow of Mercury suggests the balanced but articulate movement of the mind. The orange of Sol is the intense but gross physical vibration of animal life. Leo is pure yellow, yet with that tinge of green which is characteristic of the purest gold. It suggests the first form of the principle of vegetable growth, implicit in the nature of the Solar ray. …
“Virgo has the yellowish green of young grass. The connection is evident. Libra is emerald green, being pre-eminently the house of Venus. Scorpio is the greenish-blue /Prussian-blue whose psychological effect upon the sensitive mind is to suggest a poisonous or putrefactive vibration. It contains the idea of life and death interpenetrating each other and reproducing each other continuously; always with the accompaniment of a certain morbid pleasure. It is the identification which one finds in Swinburne’s best poems: “The Garden of Proserpine,” “Dolores,” “Illicet,” “Anactoria,” and others. The natural correspondence is the blue-green sea.”
And so on … starts page 93 (
) @
http://www.golden-dawn-canada.com/pdf/liber 777 revised.pdf
My guess is they were knowledgeable of Newton and Goethe as far as any scientific knowledge was based, but colour meaning and correspondences can come from so many places. Sort of like how you can map sacred geometry on top of an image or landscape or work of art and find associations and connections. In other words, i really have no idea
I am not sure of original GD sources myself ( via Moina Mathers ? ) … I know Anthroposophy and the system of Steiner art and colour is based on Goethe primarily, being esoteric, and considering the time, I suppose Goethe had a large influence on GD.
