Colors

Dreams use colors to illustrate the “tone” of their content, a feeling, or to highlight various qualities within ourselves. “Whenever colors are used, they hold a particular symbolic meaning connected to emotions.” (Psychology of Yoga and Meditation, p. 199) For instance, black may suggest unconsciousness, white enlightenment, red emotions, and so forth. If we dream of a red sports car, for example, it may be associated with energy and desire, and perhaps bloody qualities, or libido. This aligns with the traditional understanding of colors, that they “express psychological qualities and situations.” (Mysterium Coniunctionis, par. 394.)

Emotions

Colors express emotions or the feeling function (or even eros). Jung notes that some people in analysis initially only create quick sketches or notes about their dreams or fantasies, for instance, but eventually begin to paint instead. This shift signifies when the dreamer moves from merely an intellectual interest in the process to becoming emotionally involved (a necessary step). Sometimes, one observes a corresponding development in the dreams, which literally gain (more) color or a particularly vivid color palette. (Mysterium Coniunctionis, par. 333.) The same source states that “many colors” represent conflicting emotions (par. 388).

Alchemy

In simplified terms, the alchemical process is characterized by four colors: black, white, red, and yellow. The blackness is the initial stage, which gradually acquires some light (grayness, sparks) and transitions into white. This stage must be filled with “blood,” and the adept makes it red; the actual enlightenment is characterized by the yellow or gold.

Jungian Typology

The four functions are sometimes symbolized by colors, where thinking is blue, feeling red, intuition yellow, and sensation green. This is only sometimes relevant in dreams, and of course, should not be viewed dogmatically; it is primarily, but not exclusively, when the colors appear together that this is particularly relevant. (Mysterium Lectures, p. 190.) These are also the four most commonly reported colors in our dreams, alongside black and white (Language of Dreams). The four colors together symbolize totality, or the “integration of personality.” (Mysterium Coniunctionis, par. 390).

All Colors

As a symbol, “all colors” has both a positive and a negative side. The positive aspect can be that all colors indicate perfection (sometimes illustrated by the peacock’s feathers in alchemy, or the rainbow). In some alchemical texts, Mercury is said to carry “all colors” (as do the lapis and the “hermaphroditic monster”), symbolizing both completion and chaos (since Mercury can both assist and hinder the work). In the alchemical tradition, the many colors of the peacock precede the white and then the red state. A multicolored bird as a symbol of the goal recurs in both European and Asian thought.

In Mysterium Coniunctionis, Jung makes a somewhat unresolved link between the “painter [who paints] with all colors” and Eros (par. 140); but, in any case, it emphasizes the connection between colors and feelings, as mentioned earlier.

A contemporary reader may remember that the wizard Saruman in The Lord of the Rings novel by J.R.R. Tolkien transitioned from being “the White” (enlightenment) to being “of all colors” (chaos), in connection with his study of the Rings of Power. Tolkien was probably unaware that this was precisely how an alchemist could go mad from his studies, a phenomenon attributed to “the many-colored” Mercury.

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