Red is the colour of blood, meaning love, passion, power, life and happiness (in many Eastern countries, brides are dressed in red), and in China it means good luck. Due to its association with blood, it can also mean revolution and aggressiveness. This is why Communism has come to use red as a symbol. To the old Celts it stood for death, and in Hebrew culture it means sacrifice. As one of the enamels of heraldry, red means "charity". (Image below: “Gules”, heraldic red.)
In India red symbolises both purity and sensuality, and as a wedding colour it balances on a borderline in between. As heat, energy, and passion, red is also the colour of the goddesses Lakshmi and Durga. In combination with ochre, red denotes royalty - corresponding to the purple of the West. It also symbolises Shakti, charity, and protectiveness. Dead women are cremated shrouded in red, because the colour has the power to destroy and protect against evil.
In Mecaru (Balinese Hindu belief), red symbolises directions below and south, the god Brahma, and the holy number 9.
In old Egypt, red ["deshr"] had mainly negative meanings. It was danger and chaos, fire and fury - and it was the desert ["deshret"]; and the symbolic colour of Seth, the god of Chaos, who killed Osiris. Further, it was the entrance to the underworld, where the sun disappeared at sunset. To "have a red heart" was to be furious, and "redden" was to die. As being the colour of fire and blood, however, it could also be used for magic protection; and the "eye of Ra", the burning sun, was made of red stones. Red could also stand for victory.
The reddish colour used for the skin of male Egyptians on pictures had no known symbolic meaning, but seems to have been merely an artistic convention.
Iron oxide and red ochre ["ded"] were the most common sources of red in art. A red-purple colour was made from madder root. Roughly it corresponds to today's "alizarin crimson".
They also used carmine, or "kermes", made from dried bodies of an insect.
Amongst the many pigments of ancient Egypt, "minium" deserves to be mentioned. It is a form of lead oxide, red lead. Minium has led to the term "miniature". It was often small, since the colour was so expensive and the technique suitable for small size; but contrary to popular belief (and much special literature) a miniature does not have to be small [It has nothing to do with wordstem "mini", small or minute]. It denotes a painting made or at least delineated with "minium", no matter its size - mainly "illuminations". The term, however, has gradually come to denote minute paintings and is now universally abused.
Below, a page from a Medieval manuscript, “The Códice del Escorial“, 1272-1284, (original in Biblioteca del Escorial). The reddish colour is minium.
Reddening, "rubedo", is the fourth of the four phases of the alchemical Opus magnum, according to "Physika kai Mystika" (one of the oldest works on Alchemy, which strongly influenced subsequent Alchemy in the West).
According to Böhme, red stands for "father in the brilliance of fire". Other systems let it symbolise coloured light, atmosphere, bitter sweet, man; the planet Mars and the constellation Scorpio, or Gemini; the Red Rose is the solar (metallic) tincture. For Runge it stands for the son. It is associated with Tuesday and in Chinese Feng Shui with Yang. It is also one of the five Chinese basic colours, associated with fire, south and summer.
Red triggers appetite, probably because a lot of food in nature that is suitable to us is red. Just picture for yourself sun-ripened tomatoes, strawberries or red apples! One might say that blood is red too, but I doubt that blood triggers human appetite, at least not in a literal sense.
This colour also increases aggressivity ("blood thirst"?), raises blood pressure and increases the stress level. It is activating, also on brain functions.
Red as a "stop" sign in traffic began on the railroad. It was seen as a natural sign of danger and warning. The opposite, "go", was first white light, but it proved to be too easily confused with starlight or other light, so it was early changed to green.
Dragon's blood is bright red, made from resin from different plants. (From the beginning it was from Calamus draco.) It can be used as a dye or as medicine, as incense or as varnish, the latter specifically in the making of musical instruments. It has been used in Europe, India, and China. Medically it has a large number of effects, but what they are depends on the plant from which the resin is taken.
The hue is a form of Cinnabar, although genuine Cinnabar is a mineral, cinnabarite, mercuric sulphide - also called vermilion. This has sometimes been called "minium", although in reality that is lead tetroxide [red lead], a completely different pigment obtained by heating "white lead" [see above].
Cinnabar has been used all around the world since the earliest times. The Maya used it as royal burial insignia on sarcophagi, and even before them, the Olmecs used it. In Hinduism it had and still has ritual importance, a tradition going back at least 5000 years. The Chinese used it for laquerware.
To sign with "vermilion" was once the privilege of the Byzantine Emperor and certain other dignitaries of his realm.
Traditionally, the ink used for signature chops in China is cinnabar. In Taoism, this colour symbolises life and eternity. The Chinese also were the first to produce vermilion synthetically. (Image below: Chinese signature shop.)
Vermilion is a name of cinnabar ground into powder; it is derived from vermiculum, a colour made from the insect Kermes vermilio, the source of crimson. The use of names on colours are not always consistent, and even one and the same pigment might vary in shade due to where it was produced, differences in methods of extraction, etc. Cinnabar can vary between orange-red and brownish-red, and vermilion can be different forms of red.
Cinnabar is toxic, due to its content of mercury. As a mineral, it plays an important role in Alchemy, where both Sulphur and Mercury are of ultimate importance.
Read also about the red of blood & red colour magic in Japan.
Previously published articles in the present series on colour:
Colours I : The Nature of Colour 1
Colours II : The Nature of Colour 2
Colours III: Function, Purpose, & Effect of Colour
Colours IV: Colours of Animals
Colours VI: Green in Focus – Religion, Life, Death, Sex, Witchcraft...
All articles related to colour in my index can be found here.
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Hi my friend Well, in my country red is associated with the currently dominant bad government. I did not know of its broad symbolism. Personally, I like that color.