Color has been studied for thousands and thousands of years. Color has imparted meaning to millions of people for thousands of years.

There are many more accomplished color theorists and color scientists than me, but few that can match my knowledge of chakras, and intuition and color. I’m going to roll up to my crossroads and teach.

 

Colors support us

chakrasChakras are literally how we spiritually interact with the world.

Every chakra works as a lung- taking in energy, a liver- metabolizing that energy and as a subject matter expert- supporting the spiritual work related to the subject matter in a person’s life. 

Every chakra has a color with which it resonates.

The traditional colors of the chakra system (as I see them) are in this picture to the left.

Some chakra experts would disagree, specifically, with the colors of 6th and 7th chakra. Pinning down a chakra is like pinning down a butterfly, intellectually useful, but utterly life-draining.  I refuse to squabble.

Chakras also resonate with specific sounds, yoga asanas and foods.  For example, comfort foods relate specifically to the chakra that handles issues of safety and family.  The root chakra’s favorite foods are- chocolate, beef, root vegetables and coffee.  These foods are grounding. They help your root chakra attach you to the ground so you don’t feel un-tethered and alone.

The color red is the root chakra’s resonate color. So if you’re having a day where things feel out of whack, and you need grounding, wearing red or having red in your visual field helps your 1st chakra.

Every color supports a specific chakra or set of chakras, even the whites, greys and blacks.

 

Colors can be messages

tangerineColor is all around us and it is free.

For the past seven years, I’ve been going about my day and seeing the colors that appear to me, taking note when a flash of yellow or green or pink pops up in an otherwise bland landscape.

What I like about this most is the comfort that it gives me when I am feeling worried or small or existentially bereft.

Looking for a color is an invitation for you to tune into your wisdom and divine wisdom. As you tune into color, you engage with the world.

 

The Meaning of a Color

So, with these two ideas- color is spiritually supportive and color can be a message, how do I identify the meaning of a particular color?

Let’s take Viviane’s blue as an example. Viviane is a participant in the 2016 Color of the Year. You can see all of the colors of Color of the Year here.

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Lovely, isn’t it?

Where should we start?

Let’s start with whether it’s a muted hue or a vibrant hue.

A muted hue is a muted experience. It’s quieter, and also more numinous.

A vibrant hue has some spark to it, though sometimes that vibrance can be too much, and the experience becomes harsh.

Brightness can also connote urgency or movement.

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Using this saturation gradient created in Adobe Photoshop, we can see that Viviane’s blue not the brightest aqua, but definitely more bright than not.

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I also look at the relative lightness of a color.  A darker color is a deeper, richer experience than a light one.

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Viviane’s color makes it lighter than average.

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What is this color? What chakra is supported by it?

To make this color, we need some blue, some green or yellow and some white.

Aqua or Turquoise is the color of the 5th chakra- the throat- the domain of listening, speaking and integrating intuited information with observed information.

This aqua has more green in it than a typical aqua.  So we know it’s going to settle right into that space between the heart and the throat. It’s mostly 5th chakra with a bit of 4th chakra.

It will be a combination of listening and speaking and love and feelings.

I take all this information and I tune into my intuition

And I get: Speak with love, listen with love.  Consider your heart before you open your mouth. 

For Viviane, when I do her reading, I’ll also tune into her energy and apply this concept to her energy specifically. The meaning for her will be a variation on this theme.

I take into account cultural and natural meaning

I will often take into account the cultural meaning of a color.  I believe that our cultural understanding of a color is steeped in the narrative of that color.  I try to use every culture I come across to understand a color, so, for example, red generally means power– but is translated through different cultures to mean luck or femininity or masculinity or danger.  A global awareness matters.

Of course, the subject matter of each chakra naturally aligns with the cultural meaning of a color.  A root chakra relates easily to concepts of luck, femininity, masculinity and danger!

And finally, I take into account the cultural meaning of the animal or plant or natural aspect upon which this color appears. For example, Elephant Gray means determination. Colors take on the attitude of the natural aspects that wear them.

Mine is not the last word on color

The meaning of a color is just an invitation for you to have a relationship with that color. If the meaning is different for you, that’s more than okay. That’s expected.

The meaning of a color is a jumping off point. And my meanings are tinted by my experience.

I humbly ask you to consider your relationship to the colors around you.