Colors
“Mere
color, unspoiled by meaning and unallied with definite form, can
speak to the soul in a thousand different ways.”
Oscar
Wilde
All
of us thrill at the sight of a rainbow. I've been known to drive off
the road looking at one. They form when the sun shines through
droplets of water in the air following rain. It's interesting that
they hold such symbolic meaning for us—that of the covenant of God
with Noah, certainly, and now, the standard of the 'rainbow nation',
that peaceful, diverse community of enlightened people. The rainbow
reminds us that when the storm passes, there will be peace again.
There's
something about the color spectrum that aligns with our cells. We can
'feel' the colors as well as see them. They line up with our chakras
from base of the spine to top of the head—red, orange, yellow,
green, blue, purple and violet at the crown. According to Hindu
tradition, meditating on a particular color stimulates the harmonious
twirling of the matching chakra. Mandalas are made for that purpose.
Sometimes
we see an unstructured painting; one that is composed only of colors
on a canvas. We may look at it for a long time, simply imagining what
it might represent, what it reminds us of. In the end, there is only
the harmony of the colors, but we project onto it all the things we
want to see there.
I
have learned a little about colors organically, from trial and error,
through the quilts I make—which colors compliment each other, which
are jarring to the nervous system. Just by putting the colors
together in a particular way, you can cause the eyes of the observer
to move; the colors and the pattern seem to call forth movement. I
have favorites, of course, as almost everyone does—blues and
greens. Sea and land colors.
Today,
as you sally forth into this new autumn, take notice of the colors
around you. Which one delights your eyes? Which one makes you sigh?
Which one arrests you in your tracks. Those colors have meaning for
you. Autumn is a great time to relate to them.
In
the spirit,
Jane
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