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| Simplified Scientific Christianity |
To view colors in the superphysical worlds is to behold an infinite sea formed of shimmering rainbows in an ever-ascending series of clarity and beauty. Here a soul may lave in the harmony and rhythm of its own vibratory color tones.
An intellectual soul finds harmony in the yellow, ranging from the deep sun tones of the purely mental up and on into the opales cent rays of intuition. The person of a kindly sympathetic nature responds to the tender, clear green rays.
The cardinal principle of activity is expressed by the pure red rays. The artisans and workers of the world are motivated by powers manifest in this color. The deep opaque reds are destructive; the clear reds constructive. This fact is noticeable during times of war when red becomes the dominant color in feminine fashions and the arts. People themselves may not be conscious of this fact, yet one versed in color psychology can and does observe the hidden effect upon emotions. This condition affects life in all its aspects.
Events, too, have their interior color notes, and when these are of a universal character and charged with deep significance, they quickly translate themselves through human consciousness into cor responding colors on the outer plane of expression. The constant talk of war in 1939 and its actual outbreak before the end of that year made red the predominant fashion color in wearing apparel. As the war spread in 1940, red gained in popularity. Hats, dresses, coats and handbags were conspicuous in any large assemblage of people. This was in keeping with nature's requirements. Red is the color of strength, courage, initiative and physical action. It is valor's own radiation and was, therefore, the predominant quality needed for the successful prosecution of the war.
As the war progressed something else was needed. The stress and strain of '41, '42, and '43 were tending to break the fighting spirit. Morale builders were the supreme need, and so here too, color played its indispensible part. The brightest possible hues came to the fore, and the more vivid and brilliant the better. This was, therefore, the season of royal purples, bright fuchsias and rich magentas. These colors were, moreover, expressed in most striking combinations. Some were fairly breathtaking. They served to give tone and vibrancy to the spirit, lifting it above doubt and sorrow, depression and despair. They had the effect of turning the mind's eye to the silver lining; the spirit to the brighter days on the other side of the great trial.
The year 1944 was a pastel year. The brilliant and climactic combination of colors was succeeded by soft, soothing tones of all the exquisite pastels. The need of their healing influence had come. The long drawn-out months of war, the suspense and agony of waiting for news, the heart-break evidenced by numerous signals of a golden star, could no longer bear the stress of vivid colors. Victory on the battle front was already conceded, its fulfillment being only a matter of time. Hence, the need was not for greater incitement to action but for more poise for concluding the conflict and making the peace that was to follow. This was the message of the pastels that were introduced to do their work.
This truth found beautiful and effective expression in the Christmastide decorations for 1944. In some of the most famous of our big city department stores, the decorative motifs for window displays and throughout interiors were not so much in the conventional reds and greens, as in rainbow colorings of the most delicate and exquisite tints. In keeping with this color change, it was signi ficant to note that in at least one important instance the traditional Santa Claus was replaced by silver-misted angels.
Commenting on this fact, the manager of such a store expressed the hope that the innovation in their color schemes would tend to lessen the rush and strain and nerve tension of Christmas shoppers.
With 1945 came the cessation of war and the universal call for One World. The need for the solace and healing of the pastels was still with us so they also remained in the front line of fashion. However, it is beautifully fitting that the prevailing color note centered at this time in a lovely blue, the blue that is described as dusty or ash blue. This is the soft, misty shade of the sky in June. It is th; color that belongs to healing, to aspiration, to high idealism and to the dreams of a New Day and a New World.
The year 1946 marked the New World in the making. The atomic bomb sounded the death knell of the Old. The thought in every one's mind and the words on all lips were to the effect that we have now come to a place where it is to be either one world or none. Mass consciousness was concerned as never before with inter national relations. Again we find this general trend reflected in the prevailing color modes of the day. To quote from a fashion note: "The spring prints all tell their story. There are Gulliver's Travels, and Chinese influence is strongly marked. One designer features a Chinese blouse with Russian decorations, to be worn with a Spanish sash. This is but another evidence that we dress as we feel and think.''
As previously noted, red was the dominant color note in the first years of the war. It was the red of destruction. But red is also the color of initiative and action, and as these are needed for the building of the new world, red still has work to do, and is, therefore, well in evidence. But it now appeared in a combination appropriate to its present role. It was linked with gold. Golden yellow is the cementing color, the binder, the unifier. It is the color reflected by the world's efforts to establish the UNO as a success fully functioning world government. And so a current fashion note said that golden red (tomato) was being shown extensively and bid fair to become extremely popular — yet again an expression of color forces at work beneath the surface of things and that become out wardly manifest in our everyday environment.
It is now for the gold in the hearts of mankind to transmute the red of war and conquest into the golden red of the day star, so that humanity may come to walk in the Light as He is in the Light and have true and lasting fellowship, one with another.
The artistic temperament is most responsive to the delicacy of pink and rose rays; especially does the lover of home and home life in all its finest connotations respond to the pure rose tones.
Richard Wagner, the foremost apostle of New Age music, was conscious of the highly sensitizing and refining influences of color upon both mind and body. He aimed to let no fabric but silk touch his bare body, and the color tones so worn were carefully chosen to harmonize with the spirit of the creative work in which he was en gaged. Much of Wagner's music deals with the life and activities of the inner or higher planes. In Lohengrin and Parcifal, for instance, he transcribes for human ears fragments of celestial symphonies. At such highly inspired moments he needed the sensitizing aid of delicate pastels such as the new orchid, the heavenly blues, the crystalline and pale mauves and golden color tones the angels use as mediums of both motion and music in their higher celestial realms.
The soul that is dedicated to God, that seeks a close communion with Him in service and love, finds rest and comfort in the pure, ethereal blues.
The influence of color is being tested in a novel school in Sydney, Australia, according to a news item carried by the Canadian Press, June 20, 1946. The aim is to put colors into the very lives of the children by having them dress in bright colors, work at colored desks and use colored table napkins. Boarders sleep in beds with brightly colored covers, and for daily rest periods the young child ren are covered with sheets of their favorite color. Pupils are encouraged to choose their own colors for clothing and it is recognized by the head masters of the school that such choice reveals something of the character of the child's nature and upbringing. All lessons, in every grade, stress color values.
This item is insignificant in indicating how rapidly the forces of the inner worlds are now making their impression upon the objective consciousness of mankind in general. As the physical world is the world of form, so the astral world is the realm of color. More and more the outer is reflecting the inner, as the growing color consciousness indicates.
That the reported "color school" should be an Australian enterprise is also in keeping with advanced racial developments, since this is a cradling ground of the New Race even as is our own America.
The sacrificial one finds peace and harmony in the Christed golden ray, which is more gold than yellow and is more brilliant than the ordinary yellow ray.
The lover of mankind, the one whose life is filled with compassion, is closely attuned to the violet ray. This is the blue of love purified by the red of suffering, for only through love and suffering is compassion born.
It is important to understand more fully the power of color in regard to its effect on life, since only then can consideration be given to its use in the home, school and public buildings of all kinds. The decorative motif should be in harmony with the purpose to which the building is dedicated, whether this be learning, living or worship. In New Age schools the pupils will be instructed in methods of visualizing the colors of physical, mental or spiritual states which are to become permanent attributes.
The Stelp School in Wilmette, Ill., received a new paint job. Walls were in pastel hues; boards, dark green; chalk, yellow. "There's an entirely different attitude now," says Gordon Walker, an instructor. "There's no afternoon let-down. The kids stay awake and always are ready for something."
From the New York Times, Nov. 2, 1948:
The effect of schoolroom colors on children was a matter of utmost concern to education officials ... the formerly prevailing brown scheme, which is said to have a depressing effect on youngsters, is to go ...
Harold D. Hynds, Supt. of the Bureau of Plant Operation, explained that scientific experiments indicate that color is a factor in molding attitudes and viewpoints of children. Light-colored walls and ceilings, together with sufficient natural or artificial light, will produce an environment which promotes health and is conducive to study.
The Ladies Home Journal published an item about Teachers College, New York. The traditional library was high-ceilinged, sha dowed by pillars and panelled in oak with Tudor carvings — like a funeral home. Interior decorators threw tradition out of the window, and now the walls are panelled in yellow, rose and Bermuda tans. The flying buttresses are elm-green, ceilings and cornices similarly brightened, giving the whole the friendly charm of a Dutch kitchen. Result: circulation has zoomed.
Architects, educators and psychologists collaborated on three Baltimore school buildings. The latter saw to it that there was proper lighting, that the "blackboards" were green, the chalk yellow and the walls in delicate tints. Children's lunches are served in vari-colored plastic dishes to give brightness and beauty. Apathetic children were stimulated to new interest in their studies when the walls of another schoolroom were painted in Wedgewood blue, the trim and cloakroom in bright yellow. The blackboards are no longer black but cream-colored and written on with royal-blue chalk.
According to Dr. William Jansen, a Supt. of Schools, vandalism has decreased where schools are attractively painted. He declared that the "entire tone of a community can be raised by the children's awareness of the beauty and cheerfulness of color."
In a lecture given recently by a prominent modernistic architect, the New Age residence was described as being mostly white on its exterior and as having three sides of every room open to light. The twelve zodiacal colors are called into service in interior motifs. A design was shown in which the rooms were grouped around a large central dining salon with a dome-like arrangement. From the top of this dome a camera obscura reflected surrounding scenery upon walls of the dining room in a continuous series of motion pictures.
From Dallas, Texas, come the ideas of Carl Smedley, a color expert for a paint concern, on letting color solve human problems. "Now take the case of a cantankerous business executive who came to our office.... When the walls of his office were changed from an off-yellow color to a two-tone green, his disposition became as gentle as a lamb's." He told of one lady who had a putty-colored kitchen. When painters substituted canary yellow above, white below, and delphinium blue in nook and for ceiling, she wrote that her husband's early morning grouch entirely disappeared.
Light, color and beauty are to be key-words to New Age living. The Aquarian Age is essentially and primarily a color age. Lighter or higher color tones of the spectrum are coming into visibility as, on the one hand, the atmosphere becomes clearer and more attenu ated and the ethers more discernible; and, on the other hand, man's sense perception becomes more highly sensitized. With such changes in man and his environment we may expect to lay hold of hitherto undreamed of powers linked to color radiations. New and amazing developments in the psychology and therapeutics of color are nearing practical application and public use.
A manual was prepared on color for printers, publishers and advertisers by The National Research Bureau, Inc., Chicago. The work is stated to be the result of twenty-five years of research in color values and is entitled The Color Prophet. This is no simple restatement of familiar principles in general, but an exhaustive scientific treatise on the subject such as one would have reason to expect in a work that sells, not for a few cents or even a dollar or two but for the very substantial price of $35.00. It is further evidence of our growing color consciousness. The manual contains an analysis of the following major aspects of each color: psycho logical effect; symbolic meaning; legibility value; visibility and attention power; identity and retention power; appropriate use.
A hundred years ago newspapers were packed tight with small type print. There were no light spaces, no spread-eagle headlines, no pictures and no color. Now we have all these, though colors in the dailies have not yet gone beyond the "funnies" or certain tinted pages. But we have color photography, technicolor films and many magazines with colored illustrations in profusion. It will probably not be long before the morning paper will come in colors to pep the reader up for the day, and the evening paper in tones designed to prepare him for a comfortable armchair and a night's sound sleep.
New York's new subway cars are coming in color. The exteriors are done in a two-tone gray with orange striping, and the interiors are decorated in a bright blue-and-gray color scheme, lighted by rows of fluorescent fixtures. Seats are upholstered in striped plastic and the floors have been dressed up by a resilient blue-gray covering with yellow markings.
Yes, and a California beekeeper has invented a process by which he is producing honey in six different colors.
It is well to be surrounded by the color to which one's soul responds or for which one feels a need in his development. Regard less of outside environment, the soul can always touch color vibra tion by lifting itself in communion and prayer. Bathing in the golden radiance of the Christ Light or submerging oneself in azure harmonies are not mere poetic fancies. They are glorious and divine techniques for acquiring power, understanding and beauty. They serve to further spiritual growth and to assist in the rehabilitation of the individual — and thus, of the world.
The following list is given as representative of the psychological effects produced by the powers of color.
— Corinne Heline
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