Colors of the Soul

“The color on an object is a corpse, and corpses have reality. The color as an archetype in the cosmos is an archetype in the cosmos, and that has its reality. An archetypal color is not diminished when an object that has the corpse of that color is no longer present. I may have something that is a kind of turquoise derivative. I can look at the pigments that make up this color, and they are real as long as color on that object is present; but that color is not archetypal but transient. Goethe says, ‘Everything transient is only a parable.’ Everything that can change or is transient is merely a parable of something permanent. The archetype is what endures.” — Dennis Klocek

The subject of color is a very important aspect of life and healing, especially healing what we could call the split in the world created by ordinary dualistic human perception. Rudolf Steiner speaks about this split in various different ways with a kind of “hidden” language, making it sometimes difficult to understand the fundamental idea. In this book, Dennis Klocek presents a kind of meditation on many different aspects of color and how we can work with the alchemical principles of Jachin and Boaz―the two pillars of Solomon’s Temple, representing the red and blue in the blood―to understand the Rosicrucian path in terms of color and healing.

Using many examples from natural- and spiritual-scientific research into color and the rise of various color theories through history, Klocek zeros in on the real essence of colors and how they relate to us as human beings in our physical body and soul. From Newton to Rudolf Steiner, as well as several centuries of artistic development of color and pigments, we learn to perceive in new ways that can both heal and help us work and play with color in new ways. The author also connects what we learn about color to healing with artistic therapies, homeopathy, and flower essences.

Colors of the Soul is illustrated in full color, featuring numerous helpful diagrams and examples of art from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century. Like the author’s books on physiology, climate, and agriculture, this book brings knowledge and surprising insights to the nature of color, a topic that is integral to our everyday life and development.

This book is based on previously unpublished lectures given at Rudolf Steiner College Coros Institute in summer 2010.