Colours

Symbols and allegories.
Fomalhaut
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Colours

Post by Fomalhaut »

In this topic we can discuss about your favourite colours, what kind of inspiration you get from them and their manifestation in your Work.
"I am not what happened to me, I am what I choose to become."
— C.G. Jung
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Heith
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Re: Colours

Post by Heith »

Black (although, technically not a color) to me represents the vast empty space where nothing is, and at the same time, all is. In my work this is the main color. Black is the color of the wise witch's cape, of night and secrets (because black can hide things). It seems sometimes to be empty, and sometimes heavy with things. It's also the color of death (as is white), and represents rest, solitude, result, silence and new beginnings. I find it to be very soothing, and at times empowering or uplifting. Often black animals that appear in my dreams or surroundings seem to represent things a little differently than animals of other color. Black wolves, for example, instantly give a entirely different impression than grey or white ones- they seem to be loners, and somehow more aggressive.

When it comes to places in nature, black to me represents something that can not be tamed or ruined. Black ponds, woods, so forth. Places untainted by human deeds.

Black isn't the colour of evil (I think coral or peach might be), but it's stylish as hell.
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Nefastos
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Re: Colours

Post by Nefastos »

Yes, black for me too. Black is All and Nothing, it absorbs all of the light & understands everything, hinders nothing. It's immaculate, perfect all-being: the sweet void (or rather, fullness) of space, becoming visible in the stars only when it starts to limit some aspects of its all-compassing perfection. It's not only a colour, it's all colours together, the source & destination of them all.

A long time I enjoyed only that black, was obsessed by it. It took many years to slowly start to see beauty in (other) colours. First, in purple or violet. That bursted to pink, & pink to all the bright colours of the rainbow, which I'm still studying, but slowly trying to take that brilliant energy to the more earthen colours of the browns &c. They have been most difficult to me, but I think I can handle them better too, given some time.

Heith wrote:Black isn't the colour of evil (I think coral or peach might be)


Yesterday I finally started to read one of the Left Hand Path occult authors everyone's being talking about but whom I've never read myself, namely Kenneth Grant. Grant talks a lot about the colour mauve, associating it with the twilight zone between the dream-world & the waking world. I'm disagreeing with many fundamental ideas with Grant, but with this I agree.

Grant's term / Theosophical term

Dream-state / astral [kâma rûpa]
Waking state / physical [sthûla sharîra]
Mauve zone / ~ etherical [linga sharîra: the energetical, liminal side of the physical]

But Gran't focus being very much in the astral side altogether, his "mauve" (etherical) visions also seem to lean more to the astral (imagined & subjective, also demonic & insane) side of being. Taken as such, it almost becomes "a colour of evil", for in it one lets to manifest all the subconscious devils of both the subjective & the collective kind.
Faust: "Lo contempla. / Ei muove in tortuosa spire / e s'avvicina lento alla nostra volta. / Oh! se non erro, / orme di foco imprime al suol!"
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Aquila
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Re: Colours

Post by Aquila »

Well, you two already described black in such manner that I don't feel there's much to add at the moment even if black is a colour that can always be adored in new ways of language and art, yet never being bound by them.

But in a way such is the case with all the colours, I think. My choice is purple and it's different shades (mostly darker and more reddish ones). It's unearthly (I've always felt earthly colours somewhat distant to me), rare, mystic, like a veil that hides something behind. It's calming yet seductive, having attributes of both red and blue but being not as aggressive as red and not as gentle or soft as blue. It's connected with the third eye, spiritual vision but also with obscure astral distortions in it's negative aspect. And it might get a little pompous in it's dignity. It's the last colour before emptiness or blackness, last shades of light before the night.
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Heith
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Re: Colours

Post by Heith »

As both you and fra Nefastos express a difficulty with earthy colors, I must say for me, it's the total opposite. I enjoy murky, earthy tones. But then again, I'm a earth sign. So perhaps this is why.

Green, as the color of forests- the darker the better. Green of moss, old trees, decay. Dark brown. Fur brown, dirt brown, sunken boat shade. Grey- wolf grey, wool grey, witchy color, things in between.

And my favorite, the shade of old, clotted blood mixed with dust and earth. This is a deep, wise red, with subtle, devotional / magical undertones. I take great care in creating this shade to my works. It's very specific. Lately I combine this with other types of red, and find the outcome to be quite moving, even violent. (Fra Nefastos knows what I mean, as the latest work I sent had these shades, even if the photocopy quality was somewhat poor. Still, some of the atmosphere is transmitted).

I find that red is a difficult color to portray correctly, but when I nail it, it's really good.

I have troubles with bright colors. I dislike pastel shades. My least favorite is baby blue. I can't wear any colors that are not murky. After a while I begin to feel sick.
Fomalhaut
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Re: Colours

Post by Fomalhaut »

I love all the colours. But most significant colours for me are as follows: Black, White, Grey.

Black is the colour where all possibilities and probabilities of existence and non-existence unite.

White is the counter path and also the supplementary colour of Black, as Black is White's. White reminds me of Death and total Purity.

Combination of Black and White is Grey. I do not know why, but I think Grey is colour of unearthliness.

I also like Red and Purple colours so much but I do not know why I do :D
"I am not what happened to me, I am what I choose to become."
— C.G. Jung
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Nefastos
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Re: Colours

Post by Nefastos »

Fomalhaut wrote:I do not know why, but I think Grey is colour of unearthliness.


I think your intuition serves you right, & grey is like another side of that mauve that Grants refers to. So, not a spiritual colour, but "unearthly" from our standpoint, on the verge of strictly physical reality.

Mauve being the side that is seen from the standpoint in spirit, grey the side that is seen when the standpoint is in physical reality. Hence etheric substance, the volatile side of body, is seen as grey when appearing outside the physical body ("ectoplasm"). Such can quite easily happen in hauntings & in other phenomena where one's psychophysical integrity is badly shaken or in great turbulence.

That is why some people see "grey men" when they are at the liminal state between the two worlds. These are phantoms - more or (usually) less intelligent themselves - conjured up from those etheric vapours we do not see when completely healthy & awake, but which are still subtly physical.
Faust: "Lo contempla. / Ei muove in tortuosa spire / e s'avvicina lento alla nostra volta. / Oh! se non erro, / orme di foco imprime al suol!"
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Jiva
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Re: Colours

Post by Jiva »

I also think of something similar regarding the colour grey as a state between two worlds. The twilight stage between night and day is grey to me due to the colour of the solar terminator as viewed from space. I also consider Moonlight to be grey, rather than white or blue. Basically grey is also the colour of unearthliness to me as well, perhaps because of the Lovecraft story The Colour out of Space. It made me strangely happy when I joined the SoA and found myself in the Grey Aspect :).

On a simpler level I like warmer colours like dark reds, oranges and yellows. The light in my bedroom is deliberately underpowered so the light is quite dim. I also find it much easier to sleep during the day when sunlight shines through a curtain that dulls it a bit. I used to like falling asleep at sunrise (the earthly colours of the solar terminator) but that's basically impossible now.
'Oh Krishna, restless and overpowering, this mind is overwhelmingly strong; I think we might as easily gain control over the wind as over this.'
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Heith
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Re: Colours

Post by Heith »

I agree with this color grey - thing. And I was also pretty happy to become a grey soror- only I didn't, as I joined the Serpent aspect I think the moment my application was accepted :)
Tulihenki
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Re: Colours

Post by Tulihenki »

Beautiful views in this topic!

Colours has played significant role in my life because I'm colour-blind. I think that normally people see and recognize colours somehow by inner knowledge, which rises at the early years of life. I didn't learn to see colours at the same way.

When I was in primary school I remember how world of colours was totally unknown to me. When I had to paint my teacher colours which I used was completely wrong. Step by step I learned that I'm unable to see colours the way others do, so I had to learn atleast somehow to recognize them.

When there is a mix of green and red I can't separate them. When I look at landscapes I recognize basic colours, but I can't describe view more accurate way. As I look at some colour I have to make associations to comprehend what colour I'm looking at.

I love grey and black; these colours are not so mysterious to me than the brighter ones or atleast I know instantly them.

More than 20 years I have known that I'm colour-blind, but still I don't really understand it. It's complicated. Many years ago it was like a curse, but not anymore, it's just part of me and part of my journey.
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