The Inner Wisdom of Purple
Don’t you just love purple tulips! I do and this week I have seen them just about everywhere I go. They were advertised for sale outside the grocery store entrance, offered in beautiful stone pots at the farmers market and strewn wildly along the road in private gardens the entire way into town. It would be hard not to notice them. I didn’t just notice this amazing color though; I was actually drawn to it so I began researching purple and learned that we actually have an innate attraction to purple, more than we might think.
The color purple is rather rare in nature. Interestingly, due to this natural rarity it is thought that our ancient ancestors probably never saw anything purple, if you can imagine that. But, as civilizations developed so did colors with the earliest purple dyes dating back to around 1900 B.C. Later, as purple became more widely known, so did its magical, sacred powers.
Everything is made of electromagnetic frequencies and colors are no exception. The visible color spectrum is our best example of this. On the one end of the spectrum is red, a lower, slower frequency. On the other end is violet, or purple, the highest and fastest color frequency. Low, slow energetic frequencies are harder on the body and may make us feel sluggish, angry or unwell. Think of how red affects us as we worry ourselves sick and are often incited by something that is said or done. By contrast, purple which is a high, fast frequency, is easy on the body as this frequency is more in alignment with our true overall frequency of love .¨ the highest frequency of all. These frequencies bring us peace, joy and good health. It is easy to see why our inner intelligence would have a strong connection to purple.
Studies using the color purple have shown that children choose this high frequency color 75% of the time when offered a choice of any color. Coincidence? I don’t think so. If we continue looking at the magical power of purple, we only have to take another glance at the electromagnetic spectrum to see that purple, at the top of visible light wavelengths, is close to x-rays and gamma rays. (See the chart below.)
This may be the reason why purple is more closely associated with supernatural energy and the cosmos than any other color. Certainly, our inner wisdom is already aware of this bond. In the chakra system, which consists of seven main energy centers where energy flows through us, purple sits at the highest point on the body, the crown. The chakras, known in ancient Sanskrit as wheels and important in Hindu and other similar belief systems, mirror the visible light spectrum and the ROY G. BIV rainbow. Of course, purple is the most powerful color in the rainbow.
The power of purple is no secret. It is said that it was Cleopatra’s favorite color; it was Donny Osmond’s, too, for those of you who shared my pre-teen crush. And Leonardo Da Vinci believed meditation in a lavender or a purple room increased the benefit of the meditation ten-fold. Purple has long been the color of royalty, wealth and high honors like Purple Hearts for injured and fallen soldiers. As a mixture of the calming, peaceful color of blue and the fiery, energetic color of red, purple is mystical, bold, relaxing and sacred to us in so many ways. Incorporating it into our life, sparingly so, means we can experience all this and more simply with purple.
Purple Power in Your Daily Life
It is not easy, nor is it recommended, to use purple in excess in your daily life. From the perspective of Feng Shui, a Chinese philosophical system of harmonizing everyone with the surrounding environment, purple is recommended to be used only in moderation due to its strong power. However, Feng Shui says it is permissible to use purple boldly in healing rooms and meditation spaces. Just how can we use purple in a way that gives us the power without overpowering us? Below are five ways we can use purple on a daily basis to experience the gifts and magic it brings.
- Buy an Amethyst Crystal for your favorite room. It is said that amethyst, a frequency of purple, provides protection, spiritual growth and healing. Amethyst crystals repel lower frequencies of energy and attract higher ones. These crystals are also said to protect the wearer from himself or herself in the case of addictions. Additionally, amethyst allows you to become more in tune with your inner self and your feelings or emotions. This can bring inner peace and a heightening of your intuition.
- Decorate with Lighter Shades of Purple. If you want to add purple d‚àö¬©cor to a room, try using lighter shades of purple like lavender, lilac and mauve. If you want use it on walls, paint just one wall in a room instead of all 4 walls. Just don’t put it in kitchens and bathrooms. You can also splash a little purple here and there with picture frames, sofa pillows and throws.
- Wear purple. Last year, my mother and I went to Austria for her 70th birthday celebration. On the way there, I stopped at an airport jewelry shop to pass some time. I fell in love with a ring that had a square cut purple jewel on a sterling silver setting. It was gorgeous .¨ vibrant and captivating. My mother decided to buy it as a gift and I have worn it most every day since. I have gotten more compliments on this ring than any other piece of jewelry I have ever worn. I sum it up to the magic in this beautiful color. So, I encourage you to wear a ring, a necklace, earrings or a bracelet with this mystical, powerful color in it.
- Hang Purple from the ceiling for Wisdom. If you have a special place in your home that you use for meditation or quiet time, allowing light to shine through purple or lavender glass will boost your experience. You could hang a lavender color crystal, put in a stained glass window or hang a lavender colored shade on a ceiling lamp. All of these allow the light to shine through and carry the energetic tone of the power of purple.
- Think Purple. Connect with your higher wisdom and your crown chakra on a regular basis by focusing on the color purple during meditation or quiet times. Of course, you can also eat purple foods, like aubergine (eggplant), to ingest some purple power, if you like them as much as I do. Focusing on your crown chakra during meditations can also connect you with your highest internal rainbow power. Who knows what may happen then!
As we can see, purple is a big part of our history, our life today and our inner wisdom. Being aware of the strength and the magic of purple can connect each of us with one of the most amazing colors in our visible light spectrum.
