A mix of the primary
colours of red and blue.
The red of passion
balanced by the blue of reason,
or the real by the
ideal, or love by wisdom, or
earth by heaven, or
psychologically, for
union of opposing energies
within an
individual.
In Taoism, a
transition between Yang and Ying.
Beyond kingly
splendour,
much of its symbolic
meaning comes from
the fact that it
brings opposites together.
Christian symbolism
relates purple to
spiritual process
and growth.
Signifying martyrdom
as a devoted “witnessing”.
Used on the altar at
penitential seasons of
fasting and sober
reflection, as Advent and Lent.
Christ portrayed in
purple at the time of the Passion,
signifying the
paradoxical union: the union of
divine and human
nature combined in one being.
Imaginal Pope
cloaked in the ambiguity
of majestic purple.
Regal hue of
spiritual and secular royalty,
purple possesses a
whole spectrum of colour.
Fruits and Flora
offered to us by Nature;
Lavender, lilac,
plum, grape and aubergine.
The purple of livid
wounds and
the washed purples
of the dying sun.
Roman “Tyrian
purple” represented
wealth, worldly
position and honour,
worn exclusively by
the famous and powerful,
by law only by the
Caesars themselves.
The Tyrian dye,
precious and costly,
was made from a
Mediterranean sea snail.
Roman purple lives
on in:“Purple prose”,
a term used for rich
showy writing,
full of ornate
phrases.
“The precious
purple tincture” was
a term for the
Alchemists goal.
Jung translated the
alchemical fantasy
into the idea of a
spectrum.
It is through
meditation that instinct
can be realised and
assimilated into
the service of
integrity, hence themselves
“purple robe”.
The many symbol
systems:- the alchemical,
the Roman, the Aztec
and Incan, the Chinese -
we find that the
highest, most sacred values
are represented by
purple.
