Color has always provided a certain exhilaration for me, whether I was experimenting with my first box of Crayola crayons as a child or observing the subtle variations of color in nature. There never seemed to be a color that could not belong with another, or that did not serve some purpose within the whole.
Nature uses brilliant combinations of audacious color and an almost infinite variation of hue. Is this extraordinary display intended merely to please the eye and entertain the senses, or does color serve some deeper purpose within nature’s evolutionary scheme? Does the color perceived by the human eye correspond to that experienced by less complex forms of life, or do other forms of life perceive an entirely different world of color?
Color is intrinsic to form and is abundantly present throughout nature. Artists have traditionally used pigments derived from the earth to represent the visible world and imitate nature’s forms. As a student of art, I also explored the artificial and plastic qualities of paint, blending different hues into opaque and transparent passages and discovering the endless relationships that could be created between them.
Artists continually seek to capture the splendor of nature’s palette, although we can never entirely equal it. Nature remains the greater colorist.
The journey toward perfection is also the artist’s journey. In this sense, it becomes a metaphor for the journey of the soul, painted upon the palette of individuality.
We seek to understand and reflect something of the creative principles underlying nature and our relationship to the universe. The inner life, like a painting, contains complementary forces, contrasts, dominant tones, subtle gradations, harmony, imbalance, unity, and diversity. All must eventually be brought into relationship.
The artist works toward the wholeness and completion of a work of art. Similarly, the spiritual student seeks to harmonize spirit and matter and to bring the many aspects of life into greater balance so that the nature of the soul may be more clearly revealed.
Evidence of this process appears throughout the natural world. In vegetation, color, form, growth, and fragrance combine into a unified expression. A plant reaches upward toward the light, fulfills its cycle, flowers, and radiates its fragrance into the surrounding environment. Its beauty is not produced by color alone but by the harmonious relationship of all its qualities.
Esoteric teachings suggest that human beings undergo a comparable process. During an incarnation, the deeper qualities of the soul may initially be concealed by the stronger and coarser energies of the developing personality. Physical needs, emotional desires, opinions, ambitions, and patterns of thought may express themselves symbolically through the aura in changing qualities of color and vibration.
Within this metaphysical system, the Soul Ray represents the deeper spiritual quality seeking expression through the individual. As the personality develops greater discipline, balance, and self-awareness, the more discordant elements are gradually refined rather than simply suppressed.
Color therefore becomes an appropriate metaphor for spiritual transformation. Harsh contrasts may become harmonized. Muddy mixtures may become clarified. Excessive intensity may soften, while weak areas may gain strength. No experience is necessarily wasted; each contributes something to the final composition.
Eventually, according to esoteric teaching, the personality becomes increasingly capable of expressing the qualities of the soul. The colors associated with temporary desires and conflicts become less dominant, while the deeper quality of the individual becomes clearer.
Then the true color of the soul may begin to radiate with greater clarity and magnetism.
Like the artist who continues to refine a painting until its many elements become a unified whole, the soul works through repeated experience toward harmony, integration, and the revelation of its essential nature.
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