Sun: rays, brilliance and light
The great secret of being human consists in transmitting sunlight and external radiance into our inner being by means of sensory perception and reflecting it there. The rainbow and the colour-intensive northern lights are among the rare natural phenomena that make this connection between human beings and the environment both tangible and visible, which is why they have fascinated all people since time immemorial. “Nothing affects the human mind more dramatically than the apparition of a gigantic color corona in the heavens. Thunder and lightning frighten us; but the colors of the rainbow and the northern lights soothe and elevate the soul. The rainbow is accounted a symbol of peace.” 2
Transparency in bright colours: on the fascination of the rainbow
The rainbow can also be seen as a symbol for two completely different views and approaches to colour theory: The first is related to the dualistic thinking that prevails in the occidental context. It analysed light philosophically, physically and physiologically, but detached it from the body. The second view is based on a holistic approach that is still applied in the oriental context. Characteristic of this approach is the belief in the self-healing powers of the body and in holistic health, which is understood as the balanced harmony of body, spirit and soul.
“Color is life, for a world without colors appears to us as dead. Colors are primordial ideas, children of the aboriginal colorless light and its counterpart, colorless darkness. As flame begets light, so light engenders colors. Colors are the children of light and light is their mother. Light, that first phenomenon of the world, reveals to us the spirit and living soul of the world through colors.”4
When we see a rainbow, it becomes clear that there is always much more in the atmosphere surrounding us than we consciously perceive. Light and air are transparent. Thus, we perceive atmosphere as a sensation rather than being able to describe it as a specific colour. The colours of the rainbow are the same all over the world and have always evoked a great fascination in Mankind because they make light visible and show that, based on sensory perception, there is a deep connection between our innermost being – expressed, among other things, in colour preferences – and the light of the sun and our environment. Feeling this connection at the sight of a rainbow triggers great joy and creates deeply fulfilled inner radiance. Happiness hormones are released and feelings of connectedness and all-oneness arise when one’s own inner colours meet the colours of the rainbow.
Transparency and radiance of contentment
The feeling of being fulfilled and radiant is strongly connected with – consciously or unconsciously – knowing where and what our own geographical, emotional, cultural and financial home is. This inner knowledge is as irreplaceable for our own and very personal happiness in life as unconditional self-love and boundless trust in oneself, in one’s own inner strength and in one’s own self-confidence. If the connection to an aspect that conveys home is missing, sometimes at least the sight of a rainbow reminds us that this part of home exists somewhere and that it is worthwhile to find it.
Transparency and creativity
Artists who create art are regarded as creative and creatively active people. Not infrequently, they are seekers of their inner home and in need of access to themselves. Creative minds use their skills to make their inner state visible to the outside world as well as for themselves. Colours always play a major role in this creative process, whether on the canvas, in the form of the timbres of music or as culinary aromas. It is about nourishing the senses and, through this nourishment, understanding the meaning of one’s own life in its connections to family origin and history as well as to space and time. Artfully and artistic works are created as a form of access to self-awareness. The more similar the life experiences of artists and their consumers are, the more they feel touched by the artwork and the creation.
It shows that creativity is a process – the process of becoming oneself and gaining access to one’s full personal potential. The potentials and qualities that define each personality in its innermost being are always related to home, holism and wholeness. The search for home as an expression of our self and our own inner being leads to ever new interactions between the inner and the outer world, because we both discover the inner in the outer world and shape our external environment from within. Our own relationship to the inner being also defines our relationship to external people, places and products, which manifests itself in rejections and preferences of corresponding colours. Colours are an expression of the primordial relationship to ourselves and others. Colours connect human beings and the environment by means of sensory perception and create the meaning of life as a journey to oneself.
Transparent abundance: Solar power Solar energy
Sunlight is primordial energy. The sun serves both to regulate human energy and sustain life and to generate energy in the form of electricity. The most powerful solar cells for generating electricity are black because they absorb all the light. Thus, black solar panels can generate the greatest amount of electric power. Black does not count as a colour because it absorbs all light and leads to the absence of all colours, which results in the complete withdrawal of all life energy. Therefore, it is no coincidence that right now, in times of increasing digitalisation, creativity as well as the meaning of life and electric power generation are being questioned more intensively than ever. It also explains why there are research projects to produce solar panels that, instead of being black, are coated with coloured materials on their surfaces.
2 Johannes Itten, The Art of Color: the Subjective Experience and Objective Rationale of Color (Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, 1973), p. 13
4 Johannes Itten, The Art of Color: the Subjective Experience and Objective Rationale of Color (Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, 1973), p. 13