(121) Outward colors arise from the light of sun and stars, The light that lights the eye is also the heart's Light; The eye's light proceeds from the Light of the heart. But the light that lights the heart is the Light of God, At night there is no light, and colors are not seen; Hence we know what light is by its opposite, darkness. At night no colors are visible, for light is lacking. How can color be the attribute of dark blackness? Looking on light is the same as looking on colors; Opposite shows up opposite, as a Frank a Negro.

(22) The green color alludes to the vegetation which covers the face of the earth, and therefore represents the robe of Nature. The black represents death and corruption as being the way to a new life and generation. "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." (John iii. 3.) White, yellow, and red signify the three principal colors of the alchemical, Hermetical, universal medicine after the blackness of its putrefaction is over.

(25) In symbolism the body is divided vertically into halves, the right half being considered as light and the left half as darkness. By those unacquainted with the true meanings of light and darkness the light half was denominated spiritual and the left half material. Light is the symbol of objectivity; darkness of subjectivity. Light is a manifestation of life and is therefore posterior to life. That which is anterior to light is darkness, in which light exists temporarily but darkness permanently. As life precedes light, its only symbol is darkness, and darkness is considered as the veil which must eternally conceal the true nature of abstract and undifferentiated Being.

(14) But the bitter spirit is the chief cause of the black earth, for through its fierce bitterness the Salitter became killed in its outermost birth or geniture, from whence existed the wild or barren earth.

(60) The black magician cannot use the symbols of white magic without bringing down upon himself the forces of white magic, which would be fatal to his schemes. He must therefore distort the hierograms so that they typify the occult fact that he himself is distorting the principles for which the symbols stand. Black magic is not a fundamental art; it is the misuse of an art. Therefore it has no symbols of its own. It merely takes the emblematic figures of white magic, and by inverting and reversing them signifies that it is left-handed.

(24) These are the indications of the wandering about on the Sidpa Bardo of the mental-body. At the time, happiness and misery will depend upon karma.

(24) The cause of this association is the darkness of unwisdom.

(11) On thy heart is rust on rust collected, Thy rust, layer on layer, O black kettle! If that smoke touched a new kettle, It would show the smut, were it only as a grain of barley; For everything is made manifest by its opposite, But when the kettle is black, then afterwards Who can see on it the impression of the smoke? If the blacksmith be a negro, But if a man of Rum does blacksmith's work,

(46) Primitive conceptions concerning the warfare between the principles of Good and Evil were often based upon the alternations of day and night. During the Middle Ages, the practices of black magic were confined to the nocturnal hours; and those who served the Spirit of Evil were called black magicians, while those who served the Spirit of Good were called white magicians. Black and white were associated respectively with night and day, and the endless conflict of light and shadow is alluded to many times in the mythologies of various peoples.

(9) This is as was mentioned before; the Harshness is the Prima Materia, or first Matter, which is strong, and very eagerly and earnestly attractive, that is Sal: The Bitterness is nin the strong Attracting, for the Spirit sharpens itself in the strong Attracting, so that it becomes wholly aching, [anxious or vexed.] For Example, in Man, when he is enraged, how his Spirit attracts itself, which makes him bitter [or sour,] and trembling; and if it be not suddenly withstood and quenched, we see that the Fire of Anger kindles in him so, that he burns in Malice, and then presently a to be revenged. Purpose.

(50) The ancients conceived the spirit of man to correspond with the color blue, the mind with yellow, and the body with red. Heaven is therefore blue, earth yellow, and hell--or the underworld--red. The fiery condition of the inferno merely symbolizes the nature of the sphere or plane of force of which it is composed. In the Greek Mysteries the irrational sphere was always considered as red, for it represented that condition in which the consciousness is enslaved by the lusts and passions of the lower nature. In India certain of the gods--usually attributes of Vishnu--are depicted with blue skin to signify their divine and supermundane constitution. According to esoteric philosophy, blue is the true and sacred color of the sun. The apparent orange-yellow shade of this orb is the result of its rays being immersed in the substances of the illusionary world.

(51) In the original symbolism of the Christian Church, colors were of first importance and their use was regulated according to carefully prepared rules. Since the Middle Ages, however, the carelessness with which colors have been employed has resulted in the loss of their deeper emblematic meanings. In its primary aspect, white or silver signified life, purity, innocence, joy, and light; red, the suffering and death of Christ and His saints, and also divine love, blood, and warfare or suffering; blue, the heavenly sphere and the states of godliness and contemplation; yellow or gold, glory, fruitfulness, and goodness; green, fecundity, youthfulness, and prosperity; violet, humility, deep affection, and sorrow; black, death, destruction, and humiliation. In early church art the colors of robes and ornaments also revealed whether a saint had been martyred, as well as the character of the work that he had done to deserve canonization.

(8) Along with it [i.e. the green light of the All-Performing Wisdom], a light of dull green colour from the Asura-loka, produced from the cause of the feeling of jealousy, coming side by side with the Wisdom Rays, will shine upon thee. Meditate upon it with impartiality, — with neither repulsion nor attraction. Be not fond of it: if thou art of low mental capacity, be not fond of it.

(9) Moreover, when the Bitterness rages, rises up, and vexes in the [sour] harsh Mother, then it falls into a glimmering Flash most terribly; in this Form the Mercurius, or Venom, or Poison is generated. For when the Matrix perceives this Flash of Fire in its dark sour Form, then it is terrified, and becomes dead in her hard sour Property. And in this Place, Death, Poison, the noble Life in the Mercurius, and in the Springing up of the third Principle.

(19) Now this is the root of covetousness, envy, pride and wrath [anger]; for in the fierce qualifying or acting and boiling rose up the wrath, and burnt like fire of heat and cold, and was also bitter as gall.

(35) Thus it befell the pride of Lucifer: he triumphed a little while with his kindled light; but when his light was spent and burnt up, then he became a black devil.

(60) And in the bitter Essences she makes the Worm of the Soul prickly, spiteful, envious, and malicious, grudging every Thing to any; as the Bitterness indeed is in Friendship with nothing, but it stings and grinds, raves and rages like the Abyss of Hell, and it is the true House of Death as to the pleasant Life.

(31) As a negro may be called Kafu'r (white); They are names derived from God's essential attributes, For if so, they would be only empty pleasantries, Like calling the deaf a hearer and the blind a seer, Or a name like "impudent" for a modest man, Or "beautiful" for an ugly negro, Or such a title as "Haji" for a new-born boy, Or that of "Ghazi" applied to a noble idler. If such titles as these are used in praising persons

(5) The darkness of ignorance is: holding that which is unenduring, impure, full of pain, not the Soul, to be eternal, pure, full of joy, the Soul.

(2) This, too, they say, that in the reign of Az-i Dahâk a young woman was admitted to a demon, and a young man was admitted to a witch (parîk), and on seeing them they had intercourse; owing to that one intercourse the black-skinned negro arose from them.