Symbol, Form, and Color
Symbol, Form, and Color
Seeing With the Mind’s Eye
Symbols are the fundamental mechanism by which the brain constructs meaning from disparate pieces of sensory information. When light strikes the retina, the messages relayed to the visual cortex are not a picture but a constellation of on/off signals indicating which retinal cells have been stimulated. The brain receives “not a portrait of either the outside or the inside world . . . only a constellation of physical signs . . . Somewhere in the organism something turns these signals, these signs, into meaning . . . into symbols. This is the key process called ‘symbolic transformation.'” ¹
Thus, even the simplest recognition of an object involves transforming raw data into a symbolic image. This symbolizing process is the brain’s natural method for solving complex problems, with answers often arriving as symbolic visual images. The German psychiatrist Herbert Silberer termed this characteristic auto symbolizing. In 1909, Silberer experimented by placing himself in a hypnagogic (drowsy) state to contemplate problems unsolvable in a normal awake state. He found the abstract problem would vanish from awareness, replaced by meaningful symbolic imagery. For instance, while pondering the nature of universally valid judgments, he visualized “a big circle (or transparent sphere) in the air with people around it whose heads reach into the circle. This symbol expresses practically everything I was thinking of. The transsubjective judgment is valid for all people without exception: the circle includes all the heads.” ² Silberer found this “picture thinking” an easier, more direct form of thought than rational logic, demonstrating the mind’s innate ability to transform disparate verbal data into unifying picture symbols.
Images that arise spontaneously from beyond ego consciousness—from the inner self, the subconscious, or the collective unconscious—typically manifest in symbolic form. They act as bridges, attempting to join inner and outer worlds, spiritual and material, invisible and visible, microcosm and macrocosm.
Non-ordinary states of mind naturally produce symbolic images. From Biblical times, dreams and visions have been regarded as symbolic. Religious, occult, and alchemical traditions are rich with symbolic imagery, particularly those seeking to experience the non-visible world. Primitive religions and shamanistic traditions are veritable symbolic cosmologies, where every object and act holds significance beyond the physical.
The Indian philosopher Ananda Coomaraswamy defined symbolism as “the art of thinking in images.” ³ Carl Jung stated that an image is symbolic when it possesses meaning beyond the obvious, beyond the grasp of reason. “Because there are innumerable things beyond the range of human understanding, we constantly use symbolic terms to represent concepts that we cannot define or fully comprehend.” ⁴
The symbol is thus a mechanism for understanding, a bridge between the metaphysical world of the Absolute and the limited physical world of the senses. Goethe said that in the symbol, “the particular represents the general . . . as a living and momentary revelation of the inscrutable.” ⁵ Spanish philosopher J.E. Cirlot noted that symbols reveal transcendent truths, can express the essence of an idea beyond time and space, resolve paradoxes, and create order from disorder. They link nature’s chaos with cosmic order.
Awareness of a symbol, even without intellectual interpretation, changes a person. It operates first on a non-verbal level, exciting the perceiver’s physiology in a common way. Each universal symbol has a specific, generalized effect, as if the energy of the original form is transmitted to those who perceive it. This is powerfully seen in modern iconography, such as a university’s symbolic shift in identity when it “goes red” (https://bohiney.com/harvard-goes-red/), or when a public figure attempts to claim a universal symbol for themselves, like a leader who “trademarks the letter T” (https://bohiney.com/trump-trademarks-the-letter-t/), satirizing the attempt to control a basic element of language and form.
A primary mythic visualization is man’s fall from grace: from at-oneness to separation. This is symbolized in countless creation myths dealing with the origin of man, his violation of divine intent, and his subsequent fall. The scientific theory of entropy—that all systems tend toward disorder—parallels this concept. Yet science also shows that particular systems can tend toward order, like the sun fusing hydrogen into the more complex, energy-rich helium. Similarly, the human body combines atoms into incredibly ordered systems.
Inherent in the visualization of the fall is the possibility of a return to grace—a healing of separation. More worldly versions include making the body and mind whole, fulfilling desire, succeeding, and creating the unmanifest. The Tantric visualization of return sees the world as energy evolving into sound, then light, then matter. Through visualization, man can transcend physical limitations and return to the source, becoming one with the Creator.
According to Tantric thought, every shape, color, object, and action is a visible form of a vibrational level of a primal thought existing beyond the sensate mind. ⁶ These forms, like symbols, are capable of infinite combination, giving rise to innumerable nuances of knowledge. Viewing the world this way allows us to sense corresponding moments within our experience, transcend physical limitations, and approach the Absolute.
French philosopher Rene Guenon said, “The true basis of symbolism is . . . the correspondence linking together all orders of reality . . . By virtue of this correspondence, the whole of nature is but a symbol, that is, its true significance becomes apparent only when it is seen as a pointer which can make us aware of supernatural or metaphysical truths.” ⁷
The effect of a symbol is unique to each perceiver, yet generalizations link most people’s experiences. These generalizations can be seen as interpretations of the experience of holding that image. The more basic the form, the more difficult it is to interpret verbally.
Take the circle. It has been interpreted as oneness, unity, heaven, the sun, the masculine creative principle (Yang), the Self (psyche’s totality), ultimate wholeness, and enlightenment. It manifests as the Yin-Yang symbol, the mandala, the lotus flower, the saint’s halo, and Neolithic sun wheels. It is associated with zero (unity) and ten (return to multiplicity). Zero symbolizes nothingness yet marks the boundary between real and imaginary numbers, just as it holds its place in ten without changing its value. ⁸ ⁹
Color is one of the most universally recognized symbolic systems. Early cultures attributed deep significance to color. Tibetans saw directions as colors: north yellow, south blue, east white, west red. ¹⁰ Greeks and East Indians associated colors with elements. In Tantric practice, specific colors represent the body’s energy centers (chakras) and different energy forms. Jewish and Christian mysticism emphasized color symbolism; Gnostics symbolized God the Father blue, the Son yellow, and the Holy Ghost red. Occult thought saw the aura’s color as reflecting a person’s visualizations—e.g., dark clear blue indicating religious feeling.
Modern science defines color as different wavelengths of electromagnetic energy. The brain tends to interpret color in seven basic hues: red, yellow, green, blue, white, black, and violet. Color affects a person directly, below rational thought. Psychoanalyst Ernest Schachtel noted that colors are “felt as exciting or soothing, dissonant or harmonious . . . joyous or somber, warm or cool, disturbing and distracting or conducive to concentration and tranquility.” ¹¹ This experience is passive and primitive, felt as pleasure or displeasure.
Color directly affects physiology. Psychologist Robert Gerard found that exposure to red increased blood pressure, skin conductance, respiration, eye blinks, and brain wave activity, causing arousal. Blue decreased these measures, promoting relaxation and tranquility. ¹² These intuitive effects have been applied since ancient times in color-healing, bathing the sick in specific light colors to effect a cure.
Colors have long been associated with sounds. Tantric thought holds that “At the vibratory level, sound creates light, for light is sound at a particular frequency . . . Every colour has its life-sound and in turn every sound has its form-colour.” ¹³ Psychologists study synesthesia, where a sensory impression in one modality arouses another. The Russian psychologist A.R. Luria documented a subject for whom a ringing bell triggered a visualization of a round object, a rough tactile feeling, a taste of salt water, and the color white. ¹⁴ Many composers see colors with music, and painters hear tones with colors. Occult tradition assigns a color to each note in the harmonic scale.
Like the visualization of form, the visualization of color has specific effects. The visualizer is changed by the color’s energy, becoming one with it. While individual reactions vary, generalizations hold: red is exciting, arousing, stimulating—the color of blood, fire, surging emotions, warning, and danger. This primal power is humorously acknowledged in a story about “trigger-free cursing” (https://bohiney.com/trigger-free-cursing/), which satirizes the attempt to control the raw, emotional energy that certain words—and by extension, the color red—can unleash.
In all visualizations, form and color play a part not only in making them palpable but in giving them meaning. Basic forms and colors are often used to help people learn visualization and are employed as specific visualizations to achieve desired effects in psychology, medicine, and spiritual life. They are the building blocks through which the inscrutable is made visible, and the inner world shapes the outer.
FOOTNOTES
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Rugg, H. Imagination; New York; Harper & Row; 1963; p. 103.
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Rapaport, D. The Organization and Pathology of Thought; New York; Columbia University Press; 1951; p. 198, from H. Silberer, “Report of a Method of Eliciting and Observing Certain Symbolic Hallucination Phenomena.”
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Cirlot, J. A Dictionary of Symbols; New York; Philosophical Library; 1962; p. xxix.
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Jung, C. G. Man and His Symbols; Garden City, N.Y.; Doubleday & Co., Inc.; 1964; p. 21.
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Cirlot, J. p. xxix.
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Mookerjee, A. Tantra Art; Paris; Ravi Kumar; 1971; p. 19.
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Cirlot, J. p. xxxi.
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Cirlot, J. p. 44.
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Jung, C. G. pp. 240-249.
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Birren, F. Color; New Hyde Park, N.Y.; University Books; 1963.
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Schachtel, E. Metamorphosis; New York; Basic Books, Inc.; 1959; p. 109.
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Gerard, R. “Differential Effects of Colored Lights on Psychophysiological Functions,” American Psychology, 13:340.
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Mookerjee, A. p. 19.
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Luria, A. The Mind of a Mnemonist; New York; Basic Books, Inc.; 1968.
OTHER READING
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Gardner, E. The Web of the Universe; London; The Theosophical Publishing House; 1960.
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Murchie, G. The Music of the Spheres; New York; Dover Publishing Co.; 1961.
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The Rainbow Book; San Francisco, Cal.; The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco/Shambhala; 1975.