“Colour cannot be specifically defined unless one goes into microns of wave-length, and even then there are tints containing black or white, or even both. Many writers have tabulated colours in the Four Scales, but working from tabulations is not only lazy but also by-passes the very growth of the psyche we court. As the most frequently used colours we use are a blend of the King scale for the Paths and the Queen scale for the Sephiroth, being active and passive respectively, we now give the student clues on how to feel satisfied with the intuition of the real colours as used in practical working.” Frater Fiat Lux, April 1989.
In the early papers of the Order, the colour scales of the Minutum Mundum are listed in simple terms — “blue,” “yellow,” “violet.” These labels are just starting points.
A single colour can divide into countless shades, tints, and intensities. The “blue” of Water is not the “blue” of Sagittarius, and neither corresponds to the Lunar “blue.” Yet in the older manuscripts all three share the same word. The distinction was meant to be supplied by the trained perception of the student.
Later, in the Stella Matutina and at Whare Ra, this principle became more explicit. G. H. Soror M.C. (Mrs Felkin) introduced natural analogies to describe the colours: the same “Blue” used in the old Order for Water, Sagittarius and Luna became with M.C.’s instruction “Deep sea blue with a touch of green”, “Deep blue of a summer sky, intense hot blue”, and “Pale sky after sunset, though faded, but not dark, pale silvery blue”.
Not poetic ornaments, these descriptions are a stroke of esoteric genius. They are articulating precisely a method — a way of anchoring a colour so that its astral signature could be grasped with certainty in Malkuth.
Nature provides a stable reference. The forms of Assiah give solidity to the impressions of Yetzirah. A colour that is read remains abstract; a colour that is seen — physically, and astrally —attracts Force and becomes operative.
This descent from pure inspiration to concept to image and finally to form follows the same order as the Lightning Flash on the Altar diagram: the Light moves from Atziluth into Briah where it is conceived, into Yetzirah where it takes form, and into Assiah where it must finally be grounded. So too with colour. It is first glimpsed inwardly, conceptually, then refined in the Astral through the faculty of the imagination, and only becomes real when finally anchored in the world of form.
For this reason, every student must learn to turn the colours in the mind: to hold the hue inwardly, mix it, deepen it, lighten it, and observe its resonance until it becomes precise. Only then does it settle in Yetzirah. This inner stabilisation is the real work; no list of names can replace it.
Once this has occurred, the student should endeavour to find its analogue in Nature. The colour must be compared to something concrete — a particular flower, a stone, the sky at a specific hour, the sea under certain light. Not to reduce the colour to a natural object, but to anchor it, to ensure that its tone remains consistent in all workings. The Light must touch Malkuth before it can be used.
There is a difference between poppy red and blood red; between the blue of deep water and the blue of high evening air. Each carries a different force. Each conveys a different influx from the Sephiroth or the Paths. The purpose of the colour scales is not to memorise labels, but to perceive these differences and work with them.
This is why the Order’s colour names are only guides. The Minutum Mundum cannot be learned by rote, slavishly. It must be discovered and formed in the mind’s eye first — and then found in the natural world.
Eventually the student needs to draw up their own colour scale descriptions, similar but not necessarily the same as M.C.’s, but nonetheless still rooted in the Minutum Mundum and Malkuth. When this occurs, the colours begin to act as talismans. They become true symbols, not pigments. They form a language the Soul can see.
Thus the work:
First perceive inwardly;
Then stabilise astrally;
Then anchor in Nature;
Thus do the colours of the Minutum Mundum come to life.
And in all this personal work, maintaining Hermetic silence is important to prevent insight becoming unchangeable dogma in oneself and in others.
Kasmillos
