Colors are Forces

An Excerpt from “The Path of the Chameleon: Golden Dawn Color Studies”

Copyright (C) 2012 by Sandra Tabatha Cicero, to be published in the Upcoming Edition of Hermetic Virtues magazine, Spring 2012.

“Colors are Forces, the Signatures of the Forces; and the Child of the Children of the Forces art thou. And therefore about the Throne of the Mighty One is a Rainbow of Glory, and at His Feet is the Crystal Sea.”

Color has always been a primary component of magic symbolism, but the founders of the Golden Dawn took scattered bits of grimoiric color lore and expanded it into an elaborate system of color magic in its own right. The Four Color Scales of the Golden Dawn were ingeniously created to describe the ten Sephiroth and the 22 Paths of Wisdom on the Tree of Life in each of the Four Qabalistic Worlds (Atziluth, Briah, Yetzirah, and Assiah). The Four Worlds have numerous associations, including the YHVH Formula of the Tetragrammaton, the Four Elements, and the Four Tarot suits, just to name a few. These are the among the most basic archetypal forces in the universe.

The Golden Dawn places a huge emphasis on the color correspondences of magical forces. Colors, like names of Power, attract certain energies that are affiliated with them. They are yet another tool used to affect magical change and transformation. Colors are also excellent portals; by meditating on them the magician is able to explore the hidden mechanics of the universe, whether Elemental, Sephirotic, Planetary, or Zodiacal.

However, the focus of this brief article is not on the Four Color Scales. I have already covered these in a previous issue of Hermetic Virtues magazine (see “The Chameleon’s Coat,” Autumn 2007, Edition 2, Vol. 1) and more recently in my new book, The Book of the Concourse of the Watchtowers: An Exploration of Westcott’s Enochian Tablets.

Instead, this paper will explore other avenues of color mixing, specifically the “interchanging energies” that are contained within the Sub-Elements, the Sub-Planets, the Sub-Signs, and the Sub Sephiroth.