A long funeral procession winds up a small hill through a garden, the participants robed in white, most of them carrying a twig of yew. In Japan, white is the color of mourning. This is appropriate to a worldview that sees death as a completion, not an abyss. White light contains all the colors of the complete color spectrum—the summation of our earthly experience of color.

In the West, we associate black with death and mourning. Black is only a “color” in the sense that it defines the absence of color. Like the silence between spoken words or the blanks between words on the page, it serves as a separator and endpoint. It is an appropriate color of mourning for a Western paradigm that defines death as a void.

Different colors have different symbolic meanings in different cultures because humans have developed the symbolic content of color from a vast and varied palette of philosophies, religions, and historical experiences. For example, scarlet appears as the color of good luck in China, the mark of the harlot in Colonial America, and the symbol of invincible courage in 18^th century Britain. Yellow wears the brand of cowardice and faithlessness, yet it is also the color of remembrance and the immortal sun.

As a symbol, each color offers a long and contentious history of “good color, bad color” interpretation. Virtually every color has symbolically positive connotations along with opposing negative attributes. One need only search far enough to learn that turquoise is both the color of intuition and the color of deception, the color of kings—and of snakes. Thus it would seem that any serious discussion about the “meaning” of color is doomed.

Not so.

Color as energy

Beginning in the 1920s with seminal works by Rudolph Steiner and others, the primal aspects of color related to color as energy began to be emphasized. The seven colors of the visible light spectrum correspond to separate frequencies and wavelengths, representing light at different energy levels. Red corresponds to the longer wavelength, lower energy ranges of light; violet to the shorter wavelengths and higher energy ranges. In between, all the other colors are arrayed like notes on a musical scale.

These scientific facts echo the writers of the Sanskrit Vedas, who associated the seven spectrum colors of visible light with the seven major chakras (bodily energy centers) in precisely the same order and manner. Red is the color of the first chakra, which is devoted to the lower, slower energy survival issues and physical life, while violet is the color of the seventh, highest energy chakra, devoted to spiritual issues and enlightenment.

Unlike all the varying symbolic interpretations of color, the interpretation of color as energy is universal. It is like a single language remembered and spoken by all peoples in all nations of the world.

Color is energy. All colors are literally defined by the kind (wavelength) and intensity (frequency) of energy they possess. Human beings throughout the world, from every continent and race, inherently recognize and respond to the energetic content of color. This response is hardwired into our brains and nervous systems. It is automatic, universal and independent of conscious thought.

Color as therapy

This automatic response is the basis for modern theories of Color Therapy. The stimulus that a particular color gives our brain and nervous system is independent of what we think about it or how we interpret it symbolically. Once the stimulus effect of a color is known, it is possible to consciously use that stimulus to create a physiological outcome—the release of specific hormones, which, in turn, alter mood, metabolism and other aspects of our internal experience.

Red and green, seen here in an autumn vignette, oppose each other on the color wheel, but support each other in their diverse biological affects. Photo: Anna von Reitz

Much of the research conducted to determine the stimulus effects of color was accomplished in the former USSR between 1955 and 1970; though far from exhaustive, the results of those early clinical trials provided the groundwork for further study. Beginning in the 1980s more interest was generated by the findings of Scandinavian researchers in Finland and Norway, who sought to use "light therapy” in the treatment of depression and alcoholism—with marked success. The now common use of full spectrum light to treat Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) was one positive application of their findings.

Not surprisingly, the circumpolar nations remain the current leaders in light therapy research. Persons living near the Arctic Circle are said to be “color starved” during the dark and relatively colorless months of winter. This type of sensory deprivation can cause hormonal changes resulting in depression, sexual dysfunction and metabolic malfunctions. This, in turn, gives rise to (1) higher rates of alcoholism, drug abuse and suicide; (2) higher rates of diabetes and obesity; (3) higher incidences of rape, child molestation and domestic violence.

The cure, according to color and light therapy researchers, is planning our home and office environments so that they include abundant sources of full spectrum light of sufficient intensity. This may include “color blasting” through our winters with interior decors that provide sufficient color stimulus to compensate for the lack of color outside.

How to make colors work for you

“Take a hint from Mother Nature,” advises Color Therapist Jan Rasenen, a Finnish designer who has been applying Color Therapy principles for over twenty years. “What happens every autumn? The entire natural world explodes in color. Why? To help prepare us for the long, colorless months of winter.”

Fall colors are Mother Nature's way of preparing us for the months of color deprivation ahead. The intense autumn colors serve to both energize and stabilize biological systems, making them excellent choices for most work and play environments. Photo: Anna von Reitz

According to Rasenen, every home should ideally have seasonal theme rooms. “The idea is to provide continual access to the colors of each season because each season provides an aggregate color stimulus. So, if you are sick and you need the stimulus of spring colors, you will naturally seek out that room. If you are feeling tired and uncertain about your future, you will seek the autumn colors. If you are overstressed and overly stimulated, you will go to your winter room. You will do this even without thinking about it, and only afterward start to appreciate how wise our bodies are.”

Hundreds of colors have been evaluated for their stimulus affect and can be consciously used to create a specific desired outcome. For example:

Struggling with obesity?  Place an object or painting that includes intense blues in your dining area and glance at it from time to time while you are eating or meditate on it for a minute before you start eating. Intense blues curb appetite and help balance sugar metabolism.

Depression? Combine sun colors with spring colors. Paint your walls light yellow and accent the room with deeper yellows, copper, bright greens, pinks, lavenders and a few touches of cobalt blue. If possible, create or buy a large painting that combines these colors and place it where you can see it easily and often. These colors work together to trigger hormones associated with feelings of optimism, progress and health.

Although "The Language of Flowers", a nineteenth century tome devoted to the symbolic meaning of flowers, tells us that marigolds should be interpreted as tokens of sadness, our physical responses to their intense cheerful colors are anything but gloomy. Bright yellows, oranges and greens stimulate the release of adrenal hormones. Photo: Anna von Reitz

Alcoholism? Try using orange spectrum and blue spectrum colors combined, accented with browns, coppers and greens. The yellow-oranges are especially important, as these colors stimulate hormonal responses that create feelings of personal power and self-esteem. Darker oranges prod us to take action. Blues balance sugar metabolism and consumption impulses. Blues containing gray (like slate and steel blue) and pastel blues (which are tints of blue and pure white) all serve to induce calm. Accents of intense cobalt and ultramarine and cerulean blue serve to stimulate problem solving.

Recovering from surgery or chemotherapy? Surround yourself with Christmas colors and warm browns. Red stimulates physical energy, revs up metabolism and induces positive stress responses—notably, the release of natural painkillers. Greens stimulate detoxification processes and elimination of waste. Warm browns also assist in the detoxification process. White is the great harmonizer, promoting a steady, balanced overall functioning of body and mind.

“All this takes place automatically,” Rasenen points out. “You set the colors up to suit your needs, and that’s it. No lectures, no reminders and no stress. All you need to do is pay attention when your goals and needs change, and change the colors in your environment accordingly.”

The value of winter colors

With all the talk about color starvation and its ugly impacts, it might be easy to assume that winter colors are bad for us, but that is not the case. Black, white, shades of gray and muted blues all give respite from color stimulation—a much needed break space in which to calmly contemplate life. The winter colors are nurturing, resting colors. The problem faced by residents of the arctic climates is not that winter colors are bad, but that they last too long.

“Virtually everyone living in the arctic regions of the world can benefit from tuning up their winter home and office décor with bright colors,” Rasenen says. “Especially with the warm colors—reds, oranges, yellows—accented with bright greens, and intense blues.”

This does not take a lot of money to accomplish. The answers are as close as the nearest paint stores and thrift shops. Colored glass items displayed in sunny windows are especially fun and effective; clear glass containers filled with different colored glass nuggets or marbles can be easily changed to suit your needs. Seasonal silk flowers and foliage are inexpensive and come in every hue. Try refurbishing an old kitchen chair with bright paint and a colorful chair pad. Or, check out the offerings of Scandinavian design firms (easily found on the Internet) that have jumped on the color therapy bandwagon.

Want to get really daring? What about painting the trim in the laundry room a bright yellow, blue or green? Or, maybe a watermelon pink washing machine? The spectrum of possibilities is—quite literally—endless.

Anna von Reitz is a professional writer and photographer living in Big Lake, Alaska. She began incorporating Color Therapy principles into her own life a decade ago and heartily endorses the results.