Pantheon of Colors: Purple
Colors and Astrology, Uranus, and the Twos of the Minor Arcana
A Rainbow of Energies
“What is a god? A god is a personification of a motivating power of a value system that functions in human life and in the universe.”
― Joseph Campbell
The gods have been personified in many ways by the various cultures of the world. Some know these same powers as “archangels” or “planetary spirits”. In Western astrology, we associate them with the planets and call them by the names of Roman gods. But what they are essentially is invisible energies — energies that do things, each with its own frequency and its own type of influence. The most universal and meaningful associations with these life powers that I know of is their correspondences with colors.
"Colors express the main psychic functions of man." ~ Carl Jung
Colors and Astrology
The above illustration shows how the colors fit into astrology. The model is the traditional RYB color wheel used for paint and design. This is the kind of diagram that can yield almost endless insight with continual contemplation over time.
The Circle around the perimeter represents Time. There we see the qualities of Time in colors associated with the 12 signs of the Zodiac.
The hexagon within the Circle represents the life energies from which half of the signs derive their qualities, in terms of color and planet.
The Center of the Circle represents the ultimate Source of All Things in absolute Timelessness. It belongs to no point in Time more or less than any other. The Center’s absoluteness makes White (all of the colors combined) and Black (no color at all) its equivalents in terms of color. They are extreme opposites, yet they are one, like the two sides of a single coin. As planets, these energies are Pluto and Neptune respectively.
The Primary Colors = Fire
The triangle around the Center represents the 3 Primary Colors: Red, Yellow, and Blue, which are fundamental and cannot be created by mixing other colors together. As the spectrum colors ‘closest’ to White, they correspond to the spontaneous motivational impulses of the Fire element, or intuition. If Fire were a section of an orchestra, it would be the brass.
As planets, the Primaries are Mars, the Sun, and Jupiter. The points of the triangle indicate each planet’s rulership (reflected qualities) of the 3 Fire signs in the Zodiac, which share their colors.
The Secondary Colors = Air
A hexagon is formed with the addition of the 3 Secondary Colors, which are blends (‘offspring’) of the Primaries: Orange, Green, and Purple. They correspond to the mental functions of the Air element, or thinking. If Air were a section of an orchestra, it would be the woodwinds.
As planets, the Secondaries are Mercury, Venus, and Uranus. Their points indicate their rulerships of the 3 Air signs in the Zodiac, which share their colors.
In the Zodiac, every other sign is either a Fire sign or an Air sign, sharing the Primary or Secondary Color of its ruling planet, and reflecting its qualities. These 6 signs are the “positive” or “masculine” signs.
The Tertiary Colors = Water & Earth
"Since psyche and matter are contained in one and the same world, and moreover are in continuous contact with one another and ultimately rest on irrepresentable, transcendental factors, it is not only possible but fairly probable, even, that psyche and matter are two different aspects of the same thing." — Carl Jung
The 6 signs in between the masculine ones are the Water (psyche; nonphysical form & feeling) and Earth (matter; physical object & sensation) signs. Theirs are the 6 Tertiary Colors, each a blend of its adjacent neighbors (as though joining with them to form a Circle). If Water were a section of an orchestra, it would be the strings. If Earth were a section of an orchestra, it would be the percussion.
These 6 in-between signs are “negative” or “feminine”, because in them the formless masculine planetary energies take form. Here the term “negative” doesn’t mean inherently “bad”, but refers simply to the impermanent nature of forms.
Forms serve purposes and are neither bad nor good in themselves. But as solid and permanent as many forms seem to be, ultimately none of them really is. Eventually we outgrow, consume, or abandon them, and they dissolve or morph into something else. We can have bad experiences with the feminine signs if we overvalue forms in the mistaken belief that they won’t ever change. Good comes from those bad experiences when we learn from them and get our perspectives better centered.
4 of the feminine signs are ruled by planets in the hexagon whose colors don’t match them, apparently connected with them through their orbit patterns (a different diagram) rather than through color. The other 2 feminine signs are ruled by planets not part of the inner hexagon at all: Saturn and the Moon.
Life ‘Breathes’ Out and In
Life ‘descends’ from the Source into physical manifestation from the Center out, like a blooming flower. Then, as it develops awareness, it ‘ascends’ back to the Central Source.
As human spirits traveling through Time in physical bodies, each of us is continuously developing awareness of all the life energies within. But how can our awareness take us back to the mysterious, ineffable Source?
The color model shows us that we are naturally aligned with the Source when we express all of the ‘colors’ within us clearly and in balance. In the orchestra model, the ‘conductor’ is the Source, and we’re aligned with the ‘Conductor’ when we’re ‘playing all of our instruments’ well and in harmony.
In this series, we’ll take a close look at the planet that rules the sign of the month. We’ll observe its associated color, its legitimate influence in life, and symptoms typically experienced when it’s somehow out of balance. We’ll also see an expression of its basic influence in music and in tarot, as cards of the minor arcana.
Purple
True Purple is one of the Secondary Colors, an equal blend of Red and Blue. It’s unusual because it’s not a color on the visible spectrum, and not one of the colors of the rainbow. (The closest color to it on the visible spectrum is Violet, which is bluer than Purple.) Purple doesn’t have its own wavelength of light. When we see Purple, we are mentally synthesizing separate Red and Blue waves into one color — a natural and fundamental process of creativity.
Purple is associated with:
Creativity
Exoticism
Mysticism
Magic & Psychic Work
Spirituality/Eroticism (the deep psychological connection between spirituality and sex)
Negative associations include:
Exaggeration
Madness
Uranus
The sturdy structures of Saturn, built up slowly from the past, serve as the surest known protection of the young life within them. Eventually they can no longer meet the needs of that developing life, and their old walls must be breached to open up ways to the future. The power to do that comes from Uranus, the planet of creative intelligence. As it bursts outward to a vast open field of possibilities, it also bursts inward to deeper levels of thought.
We have a clue to the Uranus perspective in the placement of its orbit between those of Saturn and Neptune.
Saturn binds all under its control to the 4th dimension and the limits of Time & Space. There we have a history and our normal awareness of the established reality. (If timebound Saturn were punctuation, it would be a period.)
Neptune beckons dreamers to the 5th dimension: the limitless astral plane or dream world, where imagination ‘paints’ symbolic reflections of potential reality with or without our conscious awareness. Depending on underlying feelings, dreamscapes can reflect anything from unspeakable beauty and love to stark terror. (If mysterious Neptune were punctuation, it would be a question mark.)
As suggested by its orbit, Uranus operates between the 4th and 5th dimensions, with access to both planes. Its energies take thinking beyond normal limits, where the mind can make exciting new connections and ‘bring heaven [or hell] to earth’, as it were. (If dramatic Uranus were punctuation, it would be an exclamation point.)
Uranus is high frequency, erratic, all about the excitement of free experimentation and shattering the status quo. The mind of Uranus is wide open and its process instant, so that new ideas can strike like lightning at any moment, with results ranging anywhere from somewhat peculiar to downright bizarre. Things that flash, sparkle, or produce shocks are associated with Uranus, as well as advanced technologies, all things futuristic, and unusual things that defy classification.
"The creative act is not hanging on, but yielding to a new creative movement. Awe is what moves us forward." ~ Joseph Campbell
No one knows what Uranus might do next or what effect it might have, and that includes Uranus! Prompted directly from the spontaneous Fire element, the Airy actions of Uranus can stimulate the inner Fire of others in unexpected ways. When we encounter it, we may be startled, shocked, disoriented, frightened, or delightfully galvanized by the connection.
"Their task [creative artists], therefore, is to communicate directly from one inward world to another, in such a way that an actual shock of experience will have been rendered: not a mere statement for the information or persuasion of a brain, but an effective communication across the void of space and time from one center of consciousness to another." ~ Joseph Campbell
Impatient with conventions and traditions, Uranus delights in its individuality and eccentricity. It’s stubbornly anti-authoritarian, refusing to be molded by officially-approved experts (too old-school, too limited), or for that matter to conform to anything — the physical planet even rotates sideways.
In stories, we associate Uranus’s amazing magical surprises with wizards and magicians. In life, Uranus inspires creativity in scientists, inventors, artists, and other innovative people.
Like all the planetary energies, that of Uranus can be expressed in constructive or destructive ways. Well-balanced geniuses seek sincerely to improve our quality of life. Like the good wizards and magicians of our stories, they dream loving dreams and do exciting, delightful, and helpful things with their creativity.
There are also unbalanced creative people, who merely revel in their own Promethean cleverness and the thrill of rebellion. Like those of the mad scientists and evil geniuses of our horror stories, their psychopathic dreams express their icy contempt for others and inspire malicious deeds. They can wreak horrific damage with their diabolical schemes and crackpot experiments.
Thanks to Uranus, we don’t have to be bored. Where we see it in an astrological forecast, we never know what it will mean. It’s always whatever we didn’t think of, so we know only to expect the unexpected. Often it turns out to be some crazy (but basically harmless) surprise, and we may be excited, delighted and/or temporarily upset by whatever it is. While Uranus’s scattering and jumbling effects serve to awaken us to unconventional thought, they’re not necessarily destructive or permanent.
"We live in a world which in some respects is mysterious; things can be experienced which remain inexplicable; not everything which happens can be anticipated. The unexpected and the incredible belong in this world. Only then is life whole. For me the world has from the beginning been infinite and ungraspable." — Carl Jung
The composer of the piece below, Gustav Holst, was also a brilliantly insightful astrologer. He composed The Planets, a suite of pieces for each of 7 planets. All of them sound exactly like the way the planetary influences they express feel. This one renders in sound Uranus’s bohemian nonconformity, startling unpredictability, intense willfulness, and shock & awe effect. There’s informative text, but the sound is more important.
Uranus, The Magician - Holst
Uranus Rules Aquarius
Read about Aquarius (Purple) here:
Tarot and the Planets
In tarot, the planets have their correspondences in the cards of the Minor Arcana. Each of the 10 numbers corresponds to a planet. There are 4 cards to a number, one for each of the 4 elements:
Wands = Fire
Swords = Air
Cups = Water
Pentacles = Earth
I’ll give you descriptions of the cards in my deck, along with the interpretations I generally use for them in divination (adapted to context as needed). If you read tarot, the meanings you use may be different from mine, which is fine.
The Twos of the Minor Arcana
The tarot Twos are the Uranus cards, and they all represent encounters with something or someone new and the consideration of possibilities. Could anything further develop from this new combination? Do we want something to develop, or fear that it might? With the Twos we’re excited, but anything beyond the present moment is an uncertain “maybe”.
Reversed, a Two indicates that there is no possibility, or that one rejects or doesn’t recognize a possibility.
Two of Wands
High in the mountains, a man stands at a low wall on the roof of a stone structure. He is holding a globe and gazing out over the snowy mountains and the sea. A wand standing behind him is bolted to the wall; he holds a second wand upright near the edge of the wall, above a design of crossed lilies and roses (purity and beauty).
Upright - One considers the possibility of taking some action at the right time and under the right circumstances.
Reversed - Spontaneity, “playing by ear”. Adaptation to the unexpected.
Two of Swords
Under a Waxing (building) Moon, a blindfolded woman sits with her back to a body of water from which rocks protrude ominously. The two swords she holds are crossed in readiness for defense in case of trouble from either direction.
Upright - Danger, tension, a possibility of trouble, “walking on eggshells”.
Reversed - Tension is broken. Either a threat is removed, or one is immune to it.
Two of Cups
Under a starry sky, a man and a woman are facing each other with a purple glow between them. Each of them offers a cup to the other.
Upright - An exciting meeting that might develop into a relationship.
Reversed - A separation or missed meeting, or a failure to meet a potential partner.
Two of Pentacles
With ships on a choppy sea in the background, a man stands shifting his weight from one foot to the other. In his hands he holds two pentacles; a cord that joins the pentacles is looped in the form of an infinity sign (interchangeability).
Upright - Shopping. There is a possibility of making a trade or a deal.
Reversed - No deal is possible. One is not in the market, or there is no acceptable offer.
