In this article, we will look at the three major monotheistic religions and their relation to colour. This is the second part of the essay on colour and cosmology. The first part was Colour & Cosmology I – Cultures & Alchemy.
Islam
The role of colours in Islam deserves its own description.
There is a system of three colours, and a system of four; combined they give a system of seven. Then there is the third level [three and four being the two first], which consists of 28 colours. This is based on Arabian and Persian Alchemy and is very metaphysical and symbolic. There was a rudimentary colour symbolism before this developed, during the prophet Mohammed's own time; more on that below.
The seven colours express the old magic number seven, as a combination of number three, the number of the divine (or spiritual), and number four, the number of the material world. Thus seven represents everything in total, the spiritual and the material. (More on that in Number Magic 1: Three & Four.)
The three colours are white, black, and sandalwood. White is light, the divine power. Black is divine emanation, "God hides in his own radiance". Sandalwood is "earth", as the material counterpart of the divine.
The four colours are red, yellow, green, and blue. They correspond to the four elements of metaphysics: fire, air, water, and earth. These are then combined to different qualities or associated with various correspondences in the usual way.
The seven colours [black, yellow, green, red, blue, sandalwood, white] are also associated with the seven celestial bodies (those being visible to the naked eye): [Saturn, Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus], with seven metals: [lead, gold, silver, iron, mercury, tin, copper], and with the seven prophets: [Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Jesus, Mohammed]. This is entirely in accordance with the principles of Alchemy, where, especially, the correspondence between celestial bodies and metals is central.
The third level, the 28 colours, can be arranged to symbolise Moon's movement through the Zodiac, and thus a closed system, a picture of both macrocosm and microcosm. A more detailed analysis of this model is beyond the scope of this essay.
In the times of the prophet Mohammed, there was little use of colour symbolism, mainly limited to black, white, and green, sometimes red.
The flag of Quraish, the tribe of Mohammed, was black, with an eagle; and the prophet himself is said to have preferred a one-coloured black flag, "Al-Uqaab". In addition to that, different other one-coloured flags were used in various military campaigns. (For more on this, see Muslim & Arab Flags and their Symbolism.)
The green, which more than any other colour is associated with Islam, has many explanations. One is that the prophet's cloak was green, or that his tribe had a green banner. Green is also mentioned in the Qur'an, as it is stated that believers in paradise are dressed in green:
"They have deserved gardens of Eden wherein rivers flow. They will be adorned therein with bracelets of gold, and will wear clothes of green silk and velvet, and will rest on comfortable furnishings. What a wonderful reward; what a wonderful abode." [Surah 18:31]
"On them will be clothes of green velvet, satin, and silver ornaments. Their Lord will provide them with pure drinks." [Surah 76:21]
Then there is the pre-Islamic figure, "Al-Khidr", the Green Man. He is said to have eternal life, and has often been identified "the nameless servant of God", as is mentioned in Surah 18: 60-82. Read more about Al-Khidr in The Green Man II: Al-Khidr, Teacher of Moses.
Hebrews & Christians
"In the change of this highest principle of form which breaks forth out of the darkness and out of the ether, ten forms and colour patterns will arise which are reflected within each other, and multiply from ten to a hundred and, in the course of their increasing potency, will finally return to their original unity".
(Gershom Scholem)
For the old Hebrews, colour was a surprisingly subordinate concept, although one can find some of the ordinary correspondences. Of course there are colours, but compared to the obsession with numbers and letters, and many forms of correspondences, they play a small role. And the role they play is not always clear, since the complexity of the material gives room for many different interpretations. Colours are also in one sense relative.
What we have is especially two things, one is the rainbow. Scholem writes: "the harmony of the rainbow colours is partly related to the concentration and unification of the active, creative forces of the Sepiroth". [Sepiroth is "the ten original numbers", a concept not possible to understand without an introduction in Cabbalism.]
In Pontifex Maximus & The Imperial Purple of Rome, I wrote:
Another idea is to base a system on the tabernacle and its colours: blue, purple, red, white. They relate to the four elements: air, fire, water, earth. Black and green are added too, standing for "total negation" and "non-perfection".
These four; blue, purple, red, white; can be followed from the Hebrews into Christianity, and its art as far ahead as the Renaissance. Joannes Richter, in "Another Etymology for Purple" (2010), identifies "purple" as a pair: the red being a woman, the blue a man, interwoven they would make purple. He relates how icons were painted mainly in red and blue, and how Medieval art used mainly these three colours. This would, he suggests, with good justification, be derived from Exodus 39, whose five first verses I quote from the Jewish Tanach (also part of the Bible), Jewish Publication translation, 1917:
1. And of the blue, and purple, and scarlet, they made plaited garments, for ministering in the holy place, and made the holy garments for Aaron, as the Lord commanded Moses.
2. And he made the ephod of gold, blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen.
3. And they did beat the gold into thin plates, and cut it into threads, to work it in the blue, and in the purple, and in the scarlet, and in the fine linen, the work of the skillful workman.
4. They made shoulder pieces for it, joined together; at the two ends was it joined together.
5. And the skillfully woven band, that was upon it, wherewith to gird it on, was of the same piece and like the work thereof: of gold, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen, as the Lord commanded Moses.
Twined linen was interpreted as white, which some translators of the Bible actually wrote.
Richter takes this even further and interprets purple as androgynous, as being mixed red and blue - even the androgynous Adam, before he was divided into a male and a female being - or a creator god. Ultimately, he also sees it as symbolic for a married couple.
He also wants to prove that purple was known before the later so expensive pigment was used to produce it - but that it was obtained by weaving thin threads of red and blue together. His proof consists in garments of a Celtic king from about 530 BC.
Richter's thoughts are a bit off the mainstream, but they are interesting and well worthy of serious consideration.
Speaking about the Bible, there is another place where two of these colours turn up: The Book of Revelation describes "The Whore of Babylon" (which probably means Rome) as this:
"And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication [...]
Aleister Crowley (1875-1947), in his living myths, held himself with a female companion called the Scarlet Woman, quite obviously referring to the The Book of Revelation. He called himself the Great Beast. In his mythology, the role of the Scarlet Woman varies a little; in real life it was an office held by a number of women throughout Crowley's life.
The same book of the Bible has another concept referring to colours, The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. There were four; horses: a white, a red, a black, a pale; and they came with everything evil [quoted from King James Bible]:
And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.
[...]
And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword.
[...]
And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine. [Famine]
[...]
And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him.
Read also part I, Colour & Cosmology I – Cultures & Alchemy;
about colours in Heraldry: Vexillology & Heraldry;
about colours of Muslim Flags, Muslim & Arab Flags and their Symbolism;
about Purple;
and about Al-Khidr, The Green Man II: Al-Khidr, Teacher of Moses.
Here you can find all my articles about colour, and about symbols.
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Hi, my friend.
Very interesting essay on colors and Abrahamic or monotheistic religions. Of course, based on the information you share with us, it seems that symbology of the color is more defined in the Islamic religion. Well, which does not mean that it does not exist in the religions from which the Muslim expression comes.
In any case, currently in certain circles there will be a collage of them. Although as you say, the Hebrew secrets lie between numbers and letters at the same time.