Tuesday, August 6, 2013

The Color Purple (BlogAlong day 6/30)

I'm getting ready to start my Life Book 2013 Week 31 lesson. The teacher suggests shades of purple and blue - though in reality, any color scheme could be chosen. And can you believe that the huge dresser drawer (and overflow basket) of acrylic paint in my studio contain just about every color under the sun EXCEPT purple?

Now, I realize I could mix blues and reds to create purple, but I chose not to go that route. So after a particularly heinous shift in the ER, I decided to perform my own personal Critical Stress Debriefing with a little therapeutic shopping. These are my new paints (I decided to throw in a couple blues and a pink, too). Pay no attention to the brush that was obviously left in a jar of rinse water way too long -
a bad habit of mine...
 
I had some fun reading about the color purple this morning.
From the website http://deeptrancenow.com/colortherapy.htm I read about the healing and mystical properties of this color. It reminded me of Nursing School and the course on color/crystal therapy and therapeutic touch (one of the instructors was into the woo woo stuff). I liked her. She gave me a piece of amethyst.
 
Violet / Purple

Healing properties: These are colors of transformation. They heal melancholy, hysteria, delusions and alcohol addiction and bring spiritual insights and renewal. These colors slow down an over-active heart; stimulate the spleen and the white blood cells (immunity); bring sleep; soothe mental and emotional stress...

Leonardo da Vinci proclaimed that you can increase the power of meditation ten-fold by meditating under the gentle rays of Violet, as found in Church windows.

Esoteric/magickal: Elemental spirit. Divination and prophecy. Angels. Psychic abilities, divination, counter-acting negativity/black magick, reversing curses, psychic healing, psychic power, inspiration, meditation, spirituality, spiritual power, astral projection, third eye, compassion, counter-acting depression.
 
Preference for violet/purple: Colors for meditation, contemplation, mysticism, spirituality and religion power. A longing to ascend and dissolve polarities (purple consists of the active red and passive blue), to improve the world. Reservation, mystery and dignity. Soft, sensitive people with often paranormal abilities.
 
And when I looked up the color purple on Wikipedia I learned more interesting things...
 
Purple was one of the first colors used in prehistoric art. The artists of Pech Merle cave other Neolithic sites in France used sticks of manganese and hematite powder to draw and paint animals and the outlines of their own hands on the walls of their caves. These works have been dated to between 16,000 and 25,000 BC.[15]

Beginning in about 1500 BC, the citizens of Sidon and Tyre, the citizens of two cities on the coast of Ancient Phoenicia, (present day Lebanon), began to exploit a remarkable new source of purple; a sea snail called the spiny dye-murex. This deep, rich purple dye made from this snail became known as Tyrian purple, or imperial purple.[16]

6 comments:

Unknown said...

Purple is one of my favorite colors!

Karen Stewart Elliott said...

Such interesting facts about purple. I'm glad you got to take yourself on a therapeutic shopping trip!!

Julia said...

Purple is the color of transmutation and one of my favorite colors.
Thanks for sharing your talent.
Hugs,
Julia

Unknown said...

wow ... thanks for the link to the color therapy site. My favorite color is turquoise and what it says there is SPOT on!

Cara said...

Ooh, I love color meanings! I have a tendency to go through color phases, where I'm just drawn to a certain color for awhile. Black, dark blue, HOT PINK, peacock teal, and lately dark purple have all been a part of that. Oh and silver. I think I will always be drawn to silver. >_< hahaha!

This was a really cool post :D I hope you make some pretties with your new purples!

Deanna Hogan said...

Mmmmm. I love color, and the meaning and symbolism behind them. I feel sorry for my poor color-blind husband. He doesn't know what he's missing.