We give strong unconscious reactions to different colours, therefore - knowingly or unknowingly - we are bombarded by "colour-coded" stimuli many times a day. I have a passion for colours since my very early teenage years. I even aspired to be an artist for a while, but then I finally chose psychology and for several years after graduation I was involved in a research dealing with the symbolism of colours. In this series, I would like to share this passion with you by having a closer look at the meaning of one colour at a time.

After exploring the meaning of red, blue, yellow, green and orange, we continue our journey with a very dramatic colour, purple, which also a secondary colour (together with green and orange).

Purple is historic

Every colour has a story to tell, but no colour carries the same glamour as purple. It is definitely a colour associated with majesty, dedicated to the service of emperors and kings from the very early times until today.

It is a grandiose colour, symbolical of dignity and pomp. It became the imperial colour by the rulers of the Byzantine Empire and the Holy Roman Empire. In fact, Caesar was the first to wear a toga dyed entirely purple (the so-called Tyrian Purple), but later it was worn proudly by men and women of noble blood and by priests of high sacerdotal rank. (Except in the era of Nero, when anyone wearing purple was executed, as then this colour was a privilege only to the emperor.)

Purple even played a role in the romance of Caesar and Cleopatra. Historians tell that Cleopatra organized a party for Caesar to celebrate his victories over his former ally Pompey. The colour scheme of the party was purple, which was then the most expensive dye (produced from rare sea creatures). The luxury atmosphere created was really impressive and Caesar fell deeply in love with Cleopatra.

Purple is mysterious

Purple unifies the impulsive red with the gentle surrender of blue, becoming a symbol of identification and mysticism. In psychological sense it means a sort of mystic union, where everything that is thought or desired will become reality. This kind of "magical" thinking is very typical in childhood, for example the magician's robe is usually painted purple in fairy tales. Purple is surrounded by imagination, fantasy and enchantment. This is the colour of future and dreams.

Purple is meditative

Physically, purple promotes the harmony of the mind as it has a calming effect over the nerves. It is often considered as the colour of spirituality contributing to mental balance and stability and creating a link between the spiritual and the physical worlds. Purple supports the practice of meditation.

This introspective colour can help us to get in touch with our deeper thoughts, it expands our awareness and connects us to a higher consciousness. This is the reason why philosophers are often attracted to it. (As I am writing these lines I just have a glance at my bookshelves and see that the majority of my philosophy books are dominantly purple or at least have purple on their cover.)

What does purple tell about you…

If purple is your favourite colour then you are either very young or you are a person who remained young at heart. You like to have a good impression, you enjoy when you can charm and delight others.

You are sensitive and compassionate, a gentle and free spirit with a peaceful temperament.
You are idealistic with a great imagination, dreaming of a future in an ideal world where you could exclude the dark side of reality - you tend to look at life through rose-colored glasses.

Purple in different cultures

• In Christian religion purple is associated with penitence and sadness. On Good Friday the traditional colours are red and purple, so priests celebrate the mass in one of these colours on that day.
• In Europe and America, purple is the symbol of vanity (as one of the seven major sins).
• In Victorian times in Britain close relatives wore black for the first year after a death ("deep mourning"), and then replaced it with purple or dark green trimmed with black.
• In China, purple is a symbol of spiritual awareness as well as physical and mental healing.
• In Thailand and Brazil, purple or black is usually worn when mourning of the death of a loved one, and in addition in Brazilian culture, it is considered unlucky to wear purple when not attending a funeral.
• In the United States, purple is often the symbol for honor and courage. For example the military's highest award given to soldiers, sailors, Marines, and airmen for their acts of bravery is the Purple Heart.

Interesting facts about purple

• A shade of purple, violet is the highest colour vibration in the spectrum. To perceive it the eye must receive 790,000,000 vibrations per second.
• In art purple is more a colour of the future than the past. It was not frequently used by the old masters (except in some religious subjects), it came to "fashion" with the appearance of French post-impressionists. They introduced it in an extravagant juxtaposition with other colours, especially in landscape painting.
• Purple fabric used to be so extremely expensive that only kings and emperors could afford it. The dye initially came from the Phoenician trading city of Tyre (which is now in Lebanon). They produced the dye from small snails that were only found in that region. It was hard to produce the dye, as more than 9,000 snails were needed to create just one gram of Tyrian purple.
• In 1856, a 18-year-old English chemist William Henry Perkin accidently created a synthetic purple compound while trying to synthesize quinine, an anti-malaria drug. He patented the dye and made a fortune.
• Purple is the color most often associated with artificial and unconventional, because this is the colour that occurs the least frequently in nature, and was the first colour to be synthesized.
• A shade of purple, violet is the colour of the Crown Chakra (Sahasrara), which represents our connection with the energies of the universe. The energy of this chakra allows us to experience mystical oneness with everyone and everything in nature.

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If you are interested, here you can read the previous parts in this series:

Introduction
Fiery Red
Cool Blue
Golden Yellow
Forest Green
Vivid Orange
Chocolate Brown
Baby Pink
Mesmerizing Turquoise

Literature used

• Max Lüscher: "The Lüscher Colour Test", Remarkable Test That Reveals Your Personality Through Color
• Victoria Finlay: Colour: Travels Through The Paint Box published in North America as Color: A Natural History of the Palette
• Rhodes, H, and Leon, H. M.: The Psychology and Tradition of Color, Kessinger Publishing (Rare Reprints Series)
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purple
• https://www.livescience.com/33324-purple-royal-color.html
• https://www.colorpsychology.org/purple/
• http://www.empower-yourself-with-color-psychology.com/color-purple.html
• http://www.empower-yourself-with-color-psychology.com/personality-color-purple.html
• https://www.huffingtonpost.com/smartertravel/what-colors-mean-in-other_b_9078674.html

Sources of pictures

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