According to color theory, every color symbolizes to certain aspects of life or means something significant. Purple stands in the juncture of red and blue, and is one of the rarest colors that is present in nature. Purple has the highest visible wavelength of electromagnetic energy, which is just a few steps away from x-rays and gamma rays. Among the seven colors of rainbow, violet has the highest wavelength of 380 to 450 nanometers. Purple’s rarity in nature has given it a mystical aura since the ancient times. This explains why purple is associated with supernatural energy and the cosmos.
In ancient ages, making purple dye was the most strenuous job. Because to get 1.5 grams of pure purple dye, it would require 12000 shellfish. That is the main reason why purple was associated with royalty and only royal people could afford to were purple garments. In the course of time, purple became available to the commoners and thus now it represents nobility and luxury.
According to Hinduism, Saturday is the color of royalty which is purple. The Hindu deity Shani is the master of Saturday and is associated with Saturday. The God is also one of the nine heavenly bodies known as Navagraha in Hindu astrology. People who worship the God or visit his shrine, wears and donates clothes of color deep purple and black.
What does the color purple represent?
Considering all aspects of purple, it represents magic, mystery, imagination, spirituality, subconscious, creativity, luxury, royalty. Sometimes it means cynicism, arrogance, mourning negatively when it’s represented in a darker shade, while the lighter shades often are associated with class, femininity, and beauty.
How purple color affects you?
Using the purple color in abundance or keeping yourself surrounded by purple color calms the mind and nerves. Purple color helps in uplifting your spiritual growth since it inspires and encourages you to explore your wisdom, compassion, and creativity. Purple raises and stimulates your mood so you feel calm while surrounded by this color. A sense of spirituality, mysticism and connection to the cosmos spreads through your mind when you absorb the purple aura. Purple encourages your creativity and imagination. Perhaps, this is the reason many artists like to incorporate purple in their art.
Why is spirituality associated with the color purple?
Purple is associated with spirituality since this color inspire you divulge deep into your innermost thoughts. As a result, you connect with your inner self deeply. You receive a deep understanding of who you really are. You start to discover your ideals and values. Since purple provokes your imagination and fantasy level, it provides the guidance to you towards your spiritual growth.
As purple has this supernatural aura around it, often people find this otherworldly and ethereal impact purple leaves serenely enjoyable. Purple comes from the mixture of blue and red color. This blue hue in purple color is responsible for your spiritual intuition. Since blue is found in nature in abundance as sky and water’s color, it symbolizes peacefulness with nature. Indigo represents the sixth kundalini chakra or the Ajna chakra which is the representative of calmness and intuition. The essence of purple color also encourages mind, body and soul to be in alignment.
Purple color is often represented as the color of enlightenment. It is associated with thoughts which are unbiased, wise and mature. That is why purple is the last color of the spectrum band signifying maturity. Purple indicates a broader minded perspective. Thus, this color has the ability to alter perspectives and opinions. Perhaps, this is the reason why many philosophers gravitate toward purple color. Any shades of purple remind us the great unknown outside our knowledge that are yet to be explored.
Often the pictures of space NASA releases have an abundance of the color purple. Galaxies are presented as mostly with the colors blue, purple, white and red. Space emits a range of wavelengths of light, some are visible and some are not. The majority of emissions are of red and blue light. Since both of these wavelengths are easily visible to the human eye, we see these colors the most. As purple is a combination color of these two colors, we see purple in space/galaxy pictures in abundance. This again associates with the knowledge of the unknown.
Since purple inspires your creativity, imagination more often than not, this color provides an escape from everyday life.
Spiritualism is a sense of detachment while still living the everyday life. Purple provides that exact environment. It helps in your spiritual growth while keeping you grounded.
You might stray from reality but since purple connects you with the cosmos, it’ll always bring you back down to earth, near to nature. Purple has the ability to balance your mental clarity with your emotional stability. Purple is wildly effective in meditative practices.
Why purple color is associated with the crown chakra?
Kundalini Yoga has been associated with spiritualism since ages. In Sanskrit, the word kundalini means ‘coiled snake’ and shakti means ‘energy’ which represents the divine feminine energy. It is believed that divine feminine energy was created at the base of the spine. Kundalini-shakti is a quintessential shape-shifter and which is associated with our inner goddess or the divine feminine energy.
We are born with this energy which stays dormant at the base of our spine, and Kundalini yoga works to ‘uncoil this snake’, move upward and connect us to our divine essence. Chakras are psychic junctions of innumerable nadis (there are 72,000 nadis, according to Hatha Yoga Pradipika, III.116). Through these chakras this energy travels upward, from muladhara (root), the lowest chakra of consciousness (symbolizing Shakti) to sahasrara (crown), the highest chakra (symbolising Shiva).
The position of this highest chakra sahasrara is top of our head, but outside our body. It is believed sahasrara is the seat of Shiva or the divine masculine energy. Sahasrara or the crown chakra is beyond our body since it connects our inner energy to the higher energy or the cosmos. Shiva is associated with the nirvana-shakti or the divine masculine energy. That is why all the 6 major chakras’s position is within our body except the crown chakra. The work of kundalini yoga is to establish the connection between Shiva and Shakti and by activating crown chakra it is achievable.
This crown chakra is represented by the color purple. Since crown chakra linked to the crown of the head, nervous system, and the brain, is the representative of pure thought. The crown chakra connects one to the infinite consciousness. Awakening crown chakra means deep spiritual understanding and knowledge. If crown chakra is not aligned, problems like depression, schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, dizziness, epilepsy or any mental illness can happen.
Violet is the last color of rainbow, or the last of the electromagnetic frequencies. So, it is associated with completion. Thus, purple is the energy that indicates the end of a cycle. It is a color of letting go, detachment, to give space for something new to be born.
The negative impact of purple or violet on a mental level is when someone is too withdrawn and attached to the materialistic chases of this existence, that it, overindulging in earthly pursuits, they get trapped in their way of thinking, reluctant to open up to other ideas, thoughts, or knowledge. The color of crown chakra is violet or which also can mean deep grief, sadness, and suffering.
Kundalini yoga is performed by antahkarana shuddhi, which is a set of purification processes such as asana (or physical postures), pranayama (or breathing control), bandhas (or physical locks), hasta-mudras (or hand gestures), mantras, and meditation.
Famous usage of the color purple:
- Cadburry
- Yahoo
- Hallmark
- Monster.com
- BTS V’s “I purple You.”
- Famous cartoon character Gwen Tennyson’s Mana.