COLOR SYMBOLISM

“I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in
a field somewhere and don’t notice it.”
– Alice Walker – (American writer, b.1944)

Have you ever noticed how often politicians wear red ties (women politicians: red jackets)? That’s because red is a sign of power.
Do you want to sell your house? Paint it yellow. Yellow houses sell faster. In hospitals they often use cool colors like blue and green to calm people down: blue can actually slow someone’s heart rate!

Color is symbolic and psychological. Color influences mood. It’s a driving factor in so many areas of our lives: film, art, home design, office design, clothing and … anything intended to be symbolic.

I’m relating these color pages to tarot for that reason; tarot is symbolic and color is critical to interpretation of the tarot. In presenting this to you, what I’ve tried to do is give you images that you can refer back to in thinking about what a specific color means, rather than simply give you a list of the meanings. I then give an example of how I would interpret (or have) interpreted) that color in a reading for a specific card.

Below are some I have used, but you can do this yourself with any imagery you feel will help you remember the meanings of the colors. (The links will take you to the full interpretations. Please check back as this website is a work in progress.)

• Black: Sophisitcation. The requisite ‘little black dress.’
• Blue: Sea and sky. Both are calm and serene to me.
• Green: Foliage. Growth, abundance and regeneration.
• Orange: The warmth of the fiery sunset.
• Purple: The high spectrum of a rainbow, and the spiritual blending of the blue sky and the crimson sunset.
• Red: The passion of a red rose.
• Yellow: The brilliance of the sun to me is the joy and warmth of yellow.