Capítulo 8 Proceso de Producción
8.5. Capacidad de la planta
Violet and purple
In ancient, androgynous religions the colours violet-blue and red symbolized the male respectively female antipodes, whereas the mixed colour-combination purple expresses the divine idea of merging / joining the male and female elements.
Merging however requires a genuine purple-mixture of red and blue. The human eye however cannot easily identify the difference between violet and genuine purple (as a mixture of red and blue). Obviously these confusions did lead to the idea of generating a purple colour as a divine symbol by high density weaving of Byssos as described in the Bible. Two embroideres, Oholiab, the son of Ahisamach, from the tribe of Dan and Huram are named as the specialists for generating the divine symbols of purple from red and violet-blue.
Now before we start discussing the religious symbolism of the colours red and light we will need to study some physical facts in the field of colours and light. A special attention will be devoted to the colours violet and purple. Violet is a spectral colour (approximately 380-420 nm), of a shorter wavelength than blue, while purple is a combination of red and blue or violet light. The purples are colours that are not spectral colours – purples are extra-spectral colours. In fact, purple was not present on Newton's colour wheel (which went directly from violet to red), though it is on modern ones, between red and violet. There is no such thing as the "wavelength of purple light"; it only exists as a combination.
On the CIE xy chromaticity diagram, violet is on the curved edge in the lower left, while purples are the straight line connecting the extreme colours red and violet; this line is known as the line of purples, or the purple line.
One interesting psychophysical feature of the two colours that can be used to separate them is their appearance with increase of light intensity. Violet, as light intensity increases, appears to take on a far more blue hue as a result of what is known as the Bezold-Brücke shift. The same increase in blueness is not noted in purples.
Fig. 29: CIE xy chromaticity diagram
Violet cannot be reproduced by a Red-Green-Blue (RGB) colour system, and must be simulated by a mixture of red and blue (purple). The shade of violet simulated in the colour box above is just over halfway between magenta and blue on the colour wheel.
The Seal of Solomon
The double triangle, the Seal of Solomon, also called the hexagram , is of great interest as a symbol of androgyny. This seal, known as the Magen David of the Jews, is actually composed of two triangles, superimposed on each other. One triangle pointed upward represents the flesh or material matter and the male generative act; the other, pointed downward, signifies female sexuality and the spiritual plane.
Therefore we have a masculine and a feminine triangle integrated. This indicates sexual union, the sex act, and the reconciliation of opposites, yin and yang, or male and female in a union. The merging area's colour is a superimposed purple as the divine mixture of red and blue.
Fig. 30: Seal of Solomon
Having lost the religious, androgynous symbolism the Seal of Solomon turned into the hexagram , as a symbol for sexuality in witchcraft.
The Celtic burial tomb at Hochdorf
A fine museum at Hochdorf / Enz near Stuttgart-Germany is guarding an important Celtic religious symbol. At the time of discovery the grave already is a sensational finding in 1968, being the untouched tomb92 for an early Celtic king. Looking back the real sensation however must be seen in an violet-purple coloured, long coat, symbolizing the religious fundamentals of the Celts.
92: Located at Hochdorf near Stuttgart, Germany, approx. 500 b. C.
Fig. 31: The Celtic burial tomb at Hochdorf
Hochdorf is a burial tomb assigned to the nearby Celtic Oppidum High-Asperg, which must be considered as one of the main Celtic trading stations in central Germany. Archaeologists discovered a dozen equivalent partner trading-stations in southern-Germany, including the Heuneburg, a trading centre for approximately 5000 inhabitants and surrounded by a sophisticated wall of bricks, located at the border of the Danube-river. The Heuneburg93 has been an important Celtic trading station 2500 years ago.
The tomb at Hochdorf / Enz with its famous technical instruments and their archaeological and historical details are the main topics for the museum. Artisans reconstructed the grave and the ceremonial gifts using original workmanship and tools, clearly demonstrating life and the burial ceremony 2500 years ago. The tomb symbolizes a Symposium at the king’s palace and the banquet must be seen as a highlight in the life of the buried person, quite similar to the Symposium in Plato’s Banquet. A fine copper barrel, filled with mead, seems to have been imported from Greece and transported from Marseilles towards Germany. The real miracles however are the towels and clothes in the grave. The museum’s guide explains how all gifts in the tomb were wrapped in sheets.
Most sheets are coloured in red and blue, which must have been most expensive dyes at the time of the burial ceremony.
The orator explicitly demonstrates the manufacturing procedure for the violet-purple-coloured, royal coat of the sovereign. In fact, she explains, the material is woven with fine red and blue dyed threads at an extremely high density of up to 80 threads/cm.
93:(Probably) Herodot's “Pyrene” at the sources of the Danube
Religious Symbolism in Colours
In ancient Europe the red dye has been extracted from lice living on the Kermes-oak trees (Quercus coccifera L.), named Coccus ilicis or Kermes vermilio Planchon. Alternatively the red dye may also be drawn from lices (Porphyrophora hameli Brandt), living on certain grasses.
The blue dye has been extracted from a herb called European Indigo (Isatis tinctoria, German: “Waid”). In De Bello Gallico Julius Caesar documents the British Pict-warriors painting their bodies and faces with blue European Indigo, in order to frighten their enemies. However we will now be able to explain these blue indigo colours as symbols of the male members in an androgynous religion.
In China the bride wears a red bridal dress and is to be carried to the matrimonial ceremony in a red sedan. The bridegroom is waiting for her and walking a red carpet he will welcome the bride by lifting her red veil.
In modern times we welcome our new-born daughters with light-red and our new-born sons with light-blue coloured dresses and furniture, which must be considered ancient androgynous symbols as well. In early traditions the dark red colour of blood used to symbolize the female and the blue colour the male element. “Mother Earth” was known to spend the red ochre in the Stone Age civilization. Japanese culture is still associating red to the female element. In contrast “Father Sky” symbolizes the blue colour for the male antipodes.
The human eye sees a mixture of red and blue as purple-violet, which has been a royal colour at all times. Mediterranean civilizations did preserve purple clothes for members of the royal family, prohibiting subjects to wear these ornaments.
The Mediterranean weavers used a special, purple dye, which was manufactured by boiling huge amounts of snails in the Phoenician city of Tyros.
It would have been easy for the Celts to import the Tyrian purple dye, but instead they preferred to interweave the finest red- and blue-coloured threads to create the purple coat. The museum in Hochdorf clearly demonstrates the expensive interweaving technique and the coat must be seen as a religious symbol, which even may be understood in modern times. Red is the female and blue is still the male symbol, in which we celebrate the arrival of our newborn babies. At his burial ceremony at Hochdorf the sovereign did wear the same red and blue symbols in his coat.
Red and (violet-)blue are the long-wave, respectively short-wave colours at the very edges of the visible spectrum and they are spectral antipodes. Mixing the colours red and blue will yield purple, which is the only colour, which cannot be found in the rainbow. A colour absent in the divine rainbow however is a divine attribute. In this context we may consider the concept of the rainbow's border-colours red and blue to symbolize the androgynous poles in early religions. Basically the ancient Hebrews must have been considering the rainbow’s bordering colours red and blue and the mixture-colour purple as fundamental symbols for the Covenant between God and His children instead of the rainbow itself.
The Sephiroth
The Sephiroth94 are organized into 3 different columns or gimel kavim ("three lines" in Hebrew):
The central column Kether
Kether95 heads the central column of the tree, which metaphorically speaking is known as the "Pillar of Mildness"
and is associated with the Hebrew letter Aleph, "the breath", and the air element. It is a neutral pole, a balance between the two opposing forces of male and female tendencies.
Some teachings describe the Sephiroth on the centre pillar as gender-neutral, while others say that the Sephiroth vary in their sexual attributions. This central column does contain Purple and the mixed colours.
Kether produces96 a male Sephira named Chokhmah and a female Sephira named Binah. As a trio they are named “the three heads”, containing all other Sephiroth.
The right column Chokhmah
Chokhmah (Nr. 2) heads the right column of the tree, metaphorically speaking the "Pillar of Mercy", associated with the Hebrew letter Shin, the fire element, and the male aspect;
This right column does contain Blue and generally the blueish colours.
94: Image from Wikipedia-Commons
95: Nr. 1 in the figure
96:De Philonische Geheime Leer – De Kabbala van Philo van Alexandrië by H.J. Spierenburg. ISBN: 90 202 8558 0, Ankh-Hermes (2001) referring to the Zohar 3, 288b, 291a.
The left column Binah
The left column is headed by Binah (Nr. 3) and is called the
"Pillar of Severity". It is associated with Hebrew letter Mem, the water element and the female aspect. This right column does contain Red and the reddish colours.
Fig. 32: The Qabalistic Tree of Life
Even if the pillars are each given a sexual attribution, this does not mean that every sephirah on a given pillar has the same sexual attribution as the pillar on which they are located.
In Hebrew Kabbalah, of all the Sephiroth only Binah and Malkuth are considered female, while all the other Sephiroth are male. Additionally (and this applies to both Jewish and Hermetic Kabbalah), each sephirah is seen as male in relation to the following sephirah in succession on the tree, and female in relation to the foregoing sephirah.
Alternative traditions consider the grammatical genders of the words involved. Thus, Gevurah is feminine because it has an atonal finial Heh. Thus, Severity or Justice becomes a feminine attribute while Chesed (Mercy or Loving kindness) becomes a masculine one, despite the modern Western tendency to genderize these terms in reverse manner97.
The colouring Codes in the Zohar
Purple Blue Red fine linen
Zohar98 Zeir Anpin Malchut
Zohar99 Tiferet Malchut Gvurah
98: Sohar, Verse 164 in 26. Pekudei : 20. Sacred robes
99: Sohar, Verse 247 in 26. Pekudei : 26. Measuring line and measuring reed
100: Sohar, Verse 132 26. Pekudei : 17. Each order contains three
101: Model accoding to Carla Randell in Cabbala by Franjo Terhart (ISBN 978-1-4054-7978-3)
A typical definition of the sacred colours scarlet red, purple and blue may be interpreted in the following quotation of the Zohar102:
“Verse 247. He explains: Since the former measurement is sacred, with the sacred colours 'of fine twined linen, and blue, and purple, and scarlet' (shemot 36:8).
These are sacred colours, alluding to chesed, gvurah, tiferet and malchut, linen being chesed; scarlet, gvurah;
purple, tiferet; and blue, malchut. its whole sum amounts to 32, 28 in length and four in breadth, altogether 32...”
Zeir Anpin103, called Microprosopus in the Kabbala Denudata of Christian Knorr von Rosenroth, is the apprehensible portion of God associated with Chesed, Geburah, Tiphereth, Netzach, Hod and Yesod in the Zohar, and is the microscopic equivalent of Macroprosopus in the Sephirotic tree of life. The Siphra Dtzenioutha portrays it as the revealed face of God, and the Idra Rabba elaborates on the Kabbalistic significance of its several attributes.
The different definitions in the colouring attributes to the Sephiroth Tree may indicate the keys already have been lost at the writing of these books. The only unambiguous codings seem to be a scarlet-red, female Gebura-column and a blue male Chesed column.
102: found at 26. Pekudei : 26. Measuring line and measuring reed
103: see Wikipedia
Fig. 33: Sephiroth Tree according to Carla Randel
The Adonis-Cult
Along with Paphos at the Island of Cyprus the city Byblos at the coastline of Syria used to be a centre for Aphrodite's respectively Astarte's cult. Byblos was renowned as the oldest Phoenician city ever since foundation by the great God "El", who had been called Chronos by the Greeks and Saturn by the Romans. In ancient eras Byblos was the venerated location for the ceremonies of the Adonis cult104. At the south-side of Byblos the river Nahr Ibrahim mouthed into the Mediterranean Sea and in antiquity the river used to be called "Adonis".
The last king Cinyras of Byblos has been decapitated by Pompeius Maximus. The source for the Adonis river is located in Aphaca, a village at a day's distance from Byblos, surrounded by sacred forests and a temple area for Astarte, which has been destroyed by Constantine.
The temple is situated near the village Afka, surrounded by walnut-trees. The river springs from an elevated territory and the creek runs down towards a high waterfall. At this location Adonis is said to have met Aphrodite for the first and last time and right here we will find his grave, where his deadly wounded corpse had to be buried.
Every year at Eastern the young Adonis however will have to repeat his accidental death, revealing nature's bleeding, colouring the Adonis river in the Spring. Admirers mournfully observe the red waters of the Adonis flowing between the flowering anemones and red roses into the blue Mediterranean Sea, where an inland-wind produces a purple band of coloured water near the estuary of the river.
104: Information from: "The Golden Bough" (1890) by James George Frazer
Aphrodite's respectively Astarte's idol has been a white cone or a pyramid. The anemone's name probably has been derived from Naaman ("the loved one"), a nickname for Adonis.
The Adonis-cult has been practised among the Semitic peoples of Babylonia and Syria. The Greeks accepted the cult as early as the seventh century before Christ. The real name for the deity was Tammuz. The name Adonis refers to the Semitic title
"Adon", "Lord". Tammuz was the young lover for Ischtar and had to die each year. The mournings were to be held over the idol of the dead deity, which had been washed in clear water, embalmed with oil and covered by a red robe.
These colourings in the red water of the river, the blue water of the sea and the purple mixture certainly have been considered another symbolism of androgynous religion. Although the symbolic character (red for the male Adonis and blue for the sea) had been reversed the androgynous symbolism in the purple mixture may clearly be identified.
Another example of reversed colouring symbolism may be identified in Roman history. From early times the Roman kings always represented Jupiter himself. The Romans hailed their victorious generals after dressing them in Jupiter's purple cloths, to be borrowed from the statue in Jupiter's temple at the Capitol hill. However the (male) victorious generals painted their faces in scarlet red colours.
Yin and Yang
Red and blue are also elementary symbols in the banners of several countries with a Celtic history, such as Great-Britain, the U.S.A., France and the Netherlands. Are these colours the old symbols for androgynous antipodes?
There is a strange coincidence: both the classic yin/yang-symbol and the oldest flag in history (the Dutch banner) are using symbolic colours orange and blue. The first Dutch banner also preferred the colour orange instead of red.
Fig. 34: The Prince's Flag (1572)
Some of the Yin/Yang-symbols have been painted in red (earth/female) and blue (sky/male). They represent the polarity of everything: the double manifestation of the Tao.
According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica:
“In Eastern thought, the two complementary forces, or principles make up all aspects and phenomena of life.
Yin is conceived of as earth, female, dark, passive, and absorbing; it is present in even numbers, in valleys and streams, and is represented by the tiger, the colour orange, and a broken line.
Yang is conceived of as heaven, male, light, active, and penetrating; it is present in odd numbers, in mountains, and is represented by the dragon, the colour azure, and an unbroken line.
Fig. 35: The Yin/Yang-symbol in the Korean banner
The two are both said to proceed from the Supreme Ultimate (T'ai Chi), their interplay on one another (as one increases the other decreases) being a description of the actual process of the universe and all that is in it.
In harmony, the two are depicted as the light and dark halves of a circle”.
The History of the US-banner
Surprisingly little is known about the origins of that familiar symbol, says Marc Leepson. Historians are not sure who made the first one -- despite a popular tradition that it was a Philadelphia seamstress named Betsy Ross. Nor are they certain why it consists of white stars set on a blue background, flanked by red and white stripes. Most believe the colours were inspired by the British flag. As for the stars and stripes, Marc Leepson says stars and heraldry have always stood for trying to attain greatness.
"The other thing is that nearly all the Founding Fathers were Masons," he notes, "and stars have a very strong place in Masonic iconography. The stripes? We don't have a clue. The Dutch owned part of the United States in the beginning and the Dutch flag has three broad stripes, but we just don't know where they came from."
In 1777, the Continental Congress issued a resolution calling for a national banner of red, white and blue, with 13 stripes and 13 stars. More stars were added as states joined the Union, until the flag assumed its current form -- 13 stripes and 50 stars.
There is some evidence the colours red, white and blue have been chosen by Templars and Freemasons in a great number of countries, namely Holland, France, England, Scotland and the USA. At the time of defining a banner the leading intelligentsia in most of these countries are known to have been influenced by Templar-or Freemason-symbolism.
A great number of US-presidents are known to have been Freemasons: Washington, Monroe, Andrew Jackson, Polk, Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, Garfield, Theodore Roosevelt,
A great number of US-presidents are known to have been Freemasons: Washington, Monroe, Andrew Jackson, Polk, Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, Garfield, Theodore Roosevelt,