The symbolism of colour by Ellen McCaffery
QR code
"The symbolism of colour by Ellen McCaffery" is an esoteric nonfiction treatise written in the early 20th century. It explores how colours function as a shared symbolic language across religions, myth, poetry, art, healing, and nature, presenting colour as both a spiritual sign and a practical force. The book begins by asserting that colour is power—vibration linked to sound—with real effects in healing, agriculture, and weather lore, and that true symbols rest
on correspondences. It then surveys each hue: red (life, health, courage, sacrifice, love; in debased form, passion and violence), pink (healing inspiration and service), yellow (sun, unity, wisdom, glory; also deceit and decay), green (hope, immortality, knowledge; also jealousy and omens of death), blue (truth, devotion, heavenly vision; also sadness and coldness), purple/violet (humility, patience, and wisdom born of love and truth; also pomp), white (purity and the joy of the redeemed; also cowardice and hypocrisy), black (mystery, eternity, sacred silence; also evil and black magic), and brown/grey (rest, ripeness, contemplation; with grey signifying resurrection in sacred art). A chapter on the rainbow gathers all hues as a sign of universal blessing and multiple paths to the divine, illustrated with examples from Egypt, India, China, Greece, the Norse, the Bible, and modern poets. Appendices detail “schools of colour,” planetary and liturgical palettes, sky-colour weather signs, the forms implied by primary colours, and plant-growth experiments under coloured light. The work concludes by urging a renewal of symbolic vision, noting the human aura as a key to colour meanings, and calling for future healers who serve both body and soul. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
Download for free
For your e-reader or reading app — Kindle, Kobo, Apple Books, Calibre etc.
Kindle → Use Send-to-Kindle
Kobo, Nook etc → Transfer via USB
Phone, tablet or computer → Open in a reading app
Other formats & older devices
There may be more files related to this item.
About this eBook
| Author | McCaffery, Ellen, 1886-1953 |
|---|---|
| Title | The symbolism of colour |
| Original Publication | London: William Rider & Son, 1921. |
| Credits | Peter Becker, BlueDiamondHead and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) |
| Reading Level | Reading ease score: 67.6 (8th & 9th grade). Neither easy nor difficult to read. |
| Language | English |
| LoC Class | BF: Philosophy, Psychology, Religion: Psychology, Philosophy, Psychoanalysis |
| Subject | Symbolism of colors |
| Category | Text |
| eBook-No. | 76422 |
| Release Date | Jul 1, 2025 |
| Copyright | Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads | 359 downloads in the last 30 days. |
Project Gutenberg eBooks are always free!