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Letters on Occult Meditation - Letter VII - The Use of Color and Sound
Some Remarks on Color Now we must go to work. The subject for our consideration this evening is of profound and complicated interest. This seventh letter of mine has to do with the use of color and sound in meditation. We have, as you know, dealt a good deal with the subject of sound in our earlier letters, both in studying the use of the Sacred Word, and in the study of forms and mantrams. It is a truism to say that sound is color and color is sound, yet so it is, and the topic I really seek to bring to your attention is not so much sound as sound, but the color effects of sound. I seek to emphasize especially the color aspect in this letter, begging you to remember always that all sounds express themselves in color. When the Logos uttered the great cosmic Word for this solar system, three major streams of color issued forth, breaking almost simultaneously into another four, so giving us the seven streams of color by which manifestation becomes possible. These colors are: Blue. Indigo. Green. Yellow. Orange. Red. Violet. [206] Not unwittingly have I placed them in this order but the exact significance is left for you to discover. I want to emphasize a second thought: These seven streams of color were the product of logoic meditation. The Logos meditated, brooded, conceived mentally, formed an ideal world, and built it up in thought matter. Then our objective universe flashed into being, radiant with the seven colors, with the deep blue or indigo for synthetic undertone. Therefore certain things can be posited about color: It has to do with objective meditation, therefore it has to do with form. It is the result of sound uttered as the culmination of meditation. In these seven colors, and their wise comprehension, lies the capacity of man to do as does the Logos and build. Colors have certain effects on the different vehicles, and on the planes on which those vehicles function. When it is known by the occultist which color is applicable to which plane, and which color therefore is the basic hue for that plane, he has grasped the fundamental secret of microcosmic development, and can build his body of manifestation by means of the same laws that that Logos employed in building His objective solar system. This is the secret that ray meditation will eventually yield up to the wise student. These four points lay the foundation for all that follows. I would here seek to put your mind at rest on the point as to whether the colors enumerated by me conflict with those enumerated by H. P. B. You will not find they [207] do, but both of us use blinds, and both of us use the same blinds as those who have eyes can see. A blind is not a blind when recognized, and I offer not the key. One or two hints however I may give: Complementary colors may be spoken of in occult books in terms of each other. Red may be called green and orange may be called blue. The key to the accurate interpretation of the term employed lies in the point of attainment of the unit under discussion. If speaking of the Ego one term may be used; if of the Personality, another; whilst the Monad or higher auric sphere may be described synthetically or in terms of the monadic ray. The colors of higher or lower mind are at times spoken of in terms of the plane and not in terms of the ray involved. Blue-indigo, being cosmically related, and not simply analogous, may be used interchangeably for purposes of blinding. Let me illustrate: The Lords of the Flame, in their work in connection with this planet, may be spoken of in terms of four colors: Indigo, as They are in the line of the Bodhisattva in connection with the Love or Wisdom Ray. The Lord of the World is a direct reflection of the second Aspect. Blue, because of its alliance with indigo and its relationship to the auric egg; just as the Solar Logos is spoken of as the "Blue Logos" (literally indigo), so the color of the perfected man, and of the auric envelope through which he manifests, will be predominantly blue. Orange, which is the complementary to blue and which has direct connection with man as an intelligence. He is the custodian of the fifth principle [208] of manas in its relation to the totality of the personality. Yellow, being the complement of indigo, and also the color of buddhi, and on the direct line of the second Aspect. I give the above illustration to demonstrate to you the great complexity involved by the use of blinds, yet also to show you that for those who have the seeing eye even the choice of these blinds is not arbitrary, but subject to rule and law. It is therefore obvious to you why it is so often emphasized that in dealing with esoteric matters lower manas helps not. Only he who has the higher vision in process of development can hope to attain any measure of accurate discrimination. Just as the green of the activity of Nature forms the basis of the love aspect, or the indigo vibration of this love system, so will it be found upon the mental plane. More may not be said, but food for thought lies here. Orange also holds the secret for the Sons of Mind, and in the study of flame (which even exoterically blends all the colors) comes illumination. In studying this question of color and sound in meditation how best shall we divide our vast subject? Let us consider it under the following heads: Enumeration of the colors and certain comment thereon. Colors and the Law of Correspondences. The effects of colors: On the bodies of the pupil. On groups and on group work. On the environment. The application of color: In meditation. [209] For healing in meditation. In constructive work. The future use of color. Under these five heads we should be able to sum up all that has to be said at present. Perhaps little that I may say will be fundamentally new, for I give not aught which may not be found in that foundation book of H. P. B.'s. But in a newer presentation, and in the aggregation of material under one head may come enlightenment, and a further wise adjustment of knowledge. We will take up these five divisions later. Tonight I will only add a few further points to those already given. Colors as manifested on the physical plane show at their crudest and harshest. Even the most exquisite of shades as seen by the physical eye is hard and harsh compared to those on the emotional plane, and as the finer matter of the other planes is contacted, the beauty, the softness and the exquisite quality of the different hues grow with each transition. When the ultimate and synthetic color is reached the beauty transcends all conception. Colors - such as we have now to do with in evolution - are the colors of light. Certain colors, which are the left-overs from the previous solar system, have been seized upon as modes of expression by that mysterious something which we call "cosmic evil" (in our ignorance so we term it). They are involutionary colors, and are media for the force of the Dark Brotherhood. With them the aspirant to the Path of Light has naught to do. They are such hues as brown, grey, the loathsome purple, and the lurid greens that are contacted in the dark places of the earth, on the emotional plane, and on the lower level of the mental plane. They are negations. Their tone is lower than the note of Nature. They are the offspring [210] of night, esoterically understood. They are the basis of glamor, of despair, and of corruption, and must be neutralized by the pupil of the Great Ones by the admission of the colors connected with light. The synthesis of all the colors, as aforesaid, is the synthetic ray of indigo. This underlies all and absorbs all. But in the three worlds of human evolution the orange of flame irradiates all. This orange emanates from the fifth plane, underlies the fifth principle, and is the effect produced by the esoteric sounding of the occult words "Our God is a consuming Fire." These words apply to the manasic principle, that fire of intelligence or reason which the Lords of the Flame imparted, and which stimulates and guides the life of the active personality. It is that light of reason which guides a man through the Hall of Learning on into the Hall of Wisdom. In the latter hall its limitations are discovered, and that structure which knowledge has built (the causal body or the Temple of Solomon) is itself destroyed by the consuming fire. This fire consumes the gorgeous prison house which man has erected through many incarnations, and lets loose the inner light divine. Then the two fires merge, mount upwards and are lost in the Triadal Light. Certain colors belong more exclusively to the human Hierarchy, others to the deva. In their ultimate blending and intermingling comes eventual perfection...
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