Blue is a symbol of faith and constancy, depression and sadness, harmony and conservatism, loyalty and tranquillity, fear and passivity. As one of the heraldic enamels, blue stands for "justice". In old Norse tradition it was the colour of mourning and sorrow - and to the Greeks of Antiquity, it was the colour of the gods. Even today, in Greek culture, blue eyes are believed to ward off the evil eye. And the French can exclaim "sacrebleu!", an expression of surprise. According to Christian tradition, the Virgin Mary wore a blue robe, and that is probably the meaning of the French oath. (It is quite unusual today. Mainly used in English when parodying a Frenchman.) (Image below: "Azure", heraldic blue.)
In China blue stands for immortality, and in India it is the colour of the gods Krishna and Rama.
According to Böhme, blue stands for "entity". In other systems it can mean shadow, water, sour, animal; Venus before it transforms, but sometimes also Saturn, Jupiter, and the Moon; and the constellations Libra and Sagittarius, sometimes Capricorn and Aquarius; the Blue Rose is the flower of wisdom. For P.O. Runge, it means "God the father". In Alchemy blue is considered as a form of Saturnine black. In the Chinese Feng Shui it is Yin.
Blue is said to suppress appetite. There is very little edible material in nature being blue, so we simply react negatively to it. Evidence of this is purely anecdotal. It is, however, calming; it lowers the blood pressure and reduces pulse and respiration.
In old Egypt, blue [Egyptian "irtyu" or "sbedj"] was the colour of heaven and water, the sources of divine and mortal life; and of course, of the Nile. Amon was sometimes depicted with a blue face, which showed him as a creator god. The blue ibis symbolised Thoth, and so did the baboon which was sometimes given a blue face. Gods were often portrayed with blue hair, it was said that it consisted of lapis lazuli.
In Egypt they actually managed to produce the first synthetic colour pigment, still called "Egyptian blue". Other blue pigments used were azurite ["tefer"], genuine indigo, and the priceless Lapis Lazuli ["khesbedj"], genuine ultramarine.
In Genuine Ultramarine, Once One of the Most Costly Pigments in the World, I wrote:
Ultramarine was once the most expensive mineralic pigment in the world. Genuine ultramarine was originally made from ground lapis lazuli (lazurite).
and
When the expensive pigment came to Europe, it was called ultramarine, because it came from beyond the sea (from Latin ultra, beyond; and marinus, of the sea). It was imported by Venetian merchants and the painters of the Renaissance used it, although very selectively, due to it being so expensive. In Renaissance Italy, it was often reserved for the robes of Mary and Christ.
In 1828, professor Christian Gmelin developed a method to produce ultramarine synthetically. After that the pigment ceased to be expensive and has been used much more by painters and other artists. Synthetic ultramarine has not the same brilliancy as the genuine thing, however, but that is true about almost all synthetic pigments in comparison with their genuine counterparts.
Royal Blue is a name applied to several shades of azure blue, nowadays to a brighter colour than in the past. The shade was invented for a dress to Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, consort of British King George III. Today it is associated with the colour of the sash of the most illustrious orders of many monarchies.
Tuaregs traditionally preferred indigo coloured turbans [tagelmust] and robes, which also coloured their skin a little. The men wore and wear an indigo coloured veil [alasho] to ward off evil. They were subsequently called the blue people. Today the blue turban is used mainly for special occasions. (Image below: Tuareg. Photo: Denis Doukhan/Pixabay. CC0/Public Domain.)
Indigo is a pigment made from different related plants, not only the indigo shrub: It was used in old Egypt, China and India. Also the Maya of Mesoamerica used indigo to create their specific Mayan Blue. I suspect that it was first used in India. The word "indigo" is derived from Latin "indicum", which came from Greek "indikon". It is obvious that at least the Greeks and Romans got their use of indigo from India, where also the genuine indigo shrub, Indigofera tinctoria, grew.
Tekhelet is a blue colour mentioned in the Tanach. It was of ritual importance to the Jews and probably they derived it from a shellfish related to the one producing purple pigment. The knowledge was lost, however, but much effort is made to rediscover it. It is likely that this blue pigment was the same as the blue which was used by royals throughout the ancient world.
Blue colour of birds, such as peacocks or kingfishers, and mammals, is Tyndall blue; it is a result of scattered light, not a pigment. Read more about that in Colours IV: Colours of Animals and read about scattering here.
Then blue is associated with sadness. But that is a separate story for another article in the future.
Previous articles related to "Blue":
Prussian Blue & Aizuri-e - Blue Pictures
Blue Light, Blindness, Sleep Disorder & Cancer
Genuine Ultramarine, Once One of the Most Costly Pigments in the World
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...
Colours VII: Red in Focus – Blood, Death, Love, Power...
Read also about Purple.
All articles related to colour in my index, and that is more than the series above, can be found here.
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(The images of this article are in the Public Domain.)
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This is so informative this is one of my fave colors too