A Colorful Life looking at color as a way to understand spiritual influences in our universe, our world, and our lives By Connie Kaplan ii Book One: An Overview A Colorful Life looking at color as a way to understand spiritual influences in our universe, our world, and our lives Book O ne: An Overview by Connie Kaplan © 2008, Connie Kaplan Book Design by Carla Ciuffo A Colorful Life www.turtledreamers.com iii Book One: An Overview Dear Reader, This book is not about how you should apply color in your wardrobe, your decorating, or your art. This book uses color as a metaphor for the spiritual frequencies that influence you, and it explains how these invisible frequencies have been operating through you and around you all your life. A Colorful Life www.turtledreamers.com iv Book One: An Overview Dedication With loving gratitude to my friend Jamie Sams, the most colorful person I know. In Gratitude To Marsha Hartos, Carla Ciuffo, and Robin Bernstein for their invaluable help. To my dreaming sisters, the ones I’ve met and the many I haven’t, for supporting this work through these many years. To my mystery school for encouraging me to keep writing. . .keep writing! To my husband and children for living with me and loving me anyway, even when I’m in the throes of writing a book! A Colorful Life www.turtledreamers.com v Book One: An Overview table of contents Preface vi From the Author vii How it all Started/The Vision 1 The Backstory 5 The Spheres of Consciousness 7 The Ego and Evolution 9 The Established Spheres of Influence 11 !Black and White – Alpha and Omega !Violet – Ceremony and Architecture !Indigo – Devotion and Idealism !Blue – Reasoning and Abstract Thinking !Green –Balance and Harmony !Yellow – Clarity and Expansion !Orange – Compassion and Wisdom !Red – Will and Power The Evolving Spheres of Influence 12 13 14 15 16 17 19 19 20 Coral– Surrender and Synthesis 23 Amber– Sophia 25 Peridot – Service 27 Turquoise – Logos 28 Tanzanite – Trust and Initiation 30 Rose Quartz – Mastery and Observation 32 Ruby – Christ Consciousness 34 Opal – Cosmic Truth’s Reflection in the World 36 What Next? 37 References 39 A Colorful Life www.turtledreamers.com vi Book One: An Overview preface The information in this series of books entitled A Colorful Life extends the previous teachings of author Connie Kaplan. In her earlier books, The Woman’s Book of Dreams, Dreams are Letters from the Soul, and The Invisible Garment, she chronicled a series of extraordinary dreams and visions which have led her to develop a unique spiritual practice which she teaches internationally. While these books definitely interweave her earlier teachings, it is not necessary for the reader to be familiar with her other work to understand the concepts in this series. That said, we still invite you to explore all of Connie Kaplan’s work, and purchase her other books by visiting our website: http://www.turtledreamers.com A Colorful Life www.turtledreamers.com vii Book One: An Overview from the author I have intentionally written this series of color books “backwards.” Usually when an author teaches a spiritual practice, or publishes a new cosmological model, the first chapters tell readers how to apply the model directly to their personal lives, and subsequent chapters expand the ideas to show readers how friends, family, community, and world might be similarly affected. Too often in my years of teaching, I’ve found that people whom I call “spiritual butterflies” want the “me me me, what does this say about me?” immediately, and will stop there, never receiving the benefit of the fullness of a body of work. This color information is not only personal, but also universal. I’ve decided to write it by starting with a wide overview of these concepts. With each subsequent chapter I take you deeper and deeper into understanding your personal role in the universal plan. For that reason, it’s not until we get to the fourth chapter that I explain how you can determine “your” colors. From there we will explore how your life-colors affect the world around you. The color work is not linear; rather, it’s labyrinthine. These chapters are written in a circular manner, each one covering the same topics as the ones before, but with more detail, a different perspective, and more texture. I provide suggestions throughout for you to keep a journal, so that as you come to understandings in each frequency, you can record your insights. As in walking a labyrinth, by the time you get to the end, you’ll be at the core of the teachings, and fully knowledgeable of your personal colors. Reading material like this may feel as if you’re trying to digest a sevencourse meal. There’s no need to rush. Take your time. Know that the material works within you in its own way. The page you may not quite understand right away will become clear to as you rest and continue at your own pace. A Colorful Life www.turtledreamers.com A Colorful Life how it all started The seeds for these books were planted one morning in 1997 when I had an unusual experience which seemed to “download” a body of information into my mind. I wrote this information down to the best of my ability over the next few months. That amazing experience started a long line of inquiry. What I share with you in these chapters comes from subsequent years of intense observations, research about color and frequency, and most importantly, feedback from the hundreds of clients and students who have immersed themselves in this material. After over a decade of research, I feel confident that the information is credible and will have value to you as a reader. the vision On Easter Sunday morning in 1997, I arose early to take a walk on the beach, watching the eastern sky to glimpse that first laser beam of sunlight as it peeked over the horizon. Just a few moments before sunrise, I had a remarkable experience. Far away on the horizon, I saw a tiny black ball, which seemed to be traveling toward me. I admit I was hoping for a UFO. Instead, it was something even more undefined. It eventually hovered about 18 inches from my body, approximately at heart level. It was a black sphere about the size of an orange. It was spinning. Simultaneously, as if I had external eyes looking back toward the ball from the other side, I saw that the other side of this sphere was brilliant white. Suddenly the ball burst (but never lost its form), and out of it erupted a golden infinity symbol about two feet in wingspan. It looked like one of Harry 2 Book One: An Overview Potter’s flying quidditch snitches (but this was long before I had read the Harry Potter books.) Suddenly seven concentric spheres flared out of the original ball, engulfing the infinity symbol. The vision is indescribable because it is technically impossible that I saw what I saw. Each sphere was a different color of the rainbow: violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange, and red. Because they were concentric and each one was larger than the one before, it would seem that the red sphere – the outside sphere that surrounded all the rest – would have been the only one I could see. But indeed, I could see each sphere resting inside the others, and each sphere's color was very clear. I could see with my “other set of eyes” that on the opposite side of these spheres were other colors that are not in the typical rainbow. They were simultaneously more subtle and more brilliant than the normal spectrum, blends of the usual colors: magenta, coral, amber, peridot, turquoise, tanzanite, and pale rose pink. And at the same time they were infused with a golden-silvery shimmer that made them appear otherworldly. On that side of the rainbow, the black and white sphere became shimmery gold and silver with veins of all the colors running through it, like an opal. I ran back to my hotel room, and to the best of my ability, drew the vision in my journal. I perceived that the colors of the rainbow created a unified form (a sphere made up of concentric spheres) and that they seemed to be evolving toward new frequencies – new colors – on the “other side of the rainbow.” A Colorful Life www.turtledreamers.com 3 Book One: An Overview What did this mean? I had no clue. Shortly after this vision, I had the following dream: One by one, I visited several small chambers, one of each color of the rainbow. A benevolent, highl y evolved being, (a master of the frequenc y) greeted me in each room. These masters’ job is to oversee the working of their spheres of thought or acti vit y on Earth. On a wall in each council chamber, I saw an otherworldly, indescribably beautiful piece of abstract art in the color of the council. Each painting looked simultaneously pointillist and abstract (because each was not a realistic image and it was made of millions of tin y dots). Closer inspection showed me that each dot was reall y a point of light, and that it corresponded to a li ving hu man being who was a student in that sphere. When a student made a decision to align more authenticall y with the benevolent potential of that color sphere, his or her light became slightl y brighter. Dimming lights meant that the person had just made a decision not in integrit y with the frequenc y . I watched as the masters monitored the acti vities of the members of their color spheres. There was great joy and celebration when a light became slightl y brighter. There was equal sadness when a light dimmed. Apparentl y the master teachers of these schools cannot interfere with the personal will of an y of the hu mans except under extreme circu mstances. Those of us on the hu man plane ha ve to make the choice to brighten or dim our lights without an y coaching from the council. However, I saw that we are rewarded when we make the choices to brighten our lights because the cheers of the masters seemed to strengthen the circuit. I saw some lights brighten slightl y , then flicker, until a master's applause and cheers stabilized and empowered them. I knew (the wa y you just “know” in a dream) that the actual dail y life of those persons would become easier – flow more steadily – and that their choices to li ve li ves of integrit y would become more and more clear because the infusion A Colorful Life www.turtledreamers.com 4 Book One: An Overview of power that came from the masters would root itself in the hu mans. The people who were making choices that dimmed their lights were apparentl y reall y struggling in their dail y li ves, but because they didn't see that their own free will was creating the struggle, there was little the masters could do except grieve and pra y for them. These masters were ver y pra yerful. I also saw that when hu man beings become masters (or reach certain desired levels of competence) in the colors of their primar y spiritual principles (which I will name and describe later), the lights on their particular pieces of art (the lights which represents those indi viduals) stay permanentl y illu mined. There is ecstatic joy when such things happen. One of the master teachers explained to me that when someone reaches ver y high levels in his or her primar y life purpose, there is a soul-cleansing, and the being is now a pure vessel of the soul. It's cause for great multidimensional celebration. In addition, when that person’s light becomes permanentl y illu mined, smaller lights cluster around. The master explained that the person corresponding to the permanentl y illu mined light has become a master teacher, and the smaller lights are the teacher’s students. The masters can infuse spiritual energ y into the students through the teacher if need be. When I have a profound visionary experience, I understand almost nothing about it in the beginning. Then over a few weeks or months, I have waking experiences, dreams, and “aha's” that seem to explain it. Also, books fall into my hands, movies insist on being seen, and perfect strangers say the most unusual things to me that "connect the dots" of the vision. But mostly, and most importantly, I contemplate the experience. I use a focus technique. For example, during such times I often simply sit under a colored light. It’s not possible to explain what happens when I do that, but it feels as if information pours into me through the light. Try it. You’ll see what I mean. A Colorful Life www.turtledreamers.com 5 Book One: An Overview the backstory First, in case you’re not familiar with any of my other work, you need to know that I have a history of dreams and visions, some of which continue to explain themselves over a long period of time, as this one did. The most notable of these experiences was in 1986 when I contracted a viral infection in my brain which more or less put me to sleep for a couple of years. I wasn’t in a coma, just unable to operate normally and unable to stay awake for more than a few hours at a time. After a few years, I shared with friends the messages of what I had dreamed during my sleep – messages that seemed to fly in the face of the traditional psychological interpretation of dreams. That sharing led to a small movement of people across the country, and eventually around the world, who wanted to learn this new approach to understanding dreams. That story and the resultant conclusions can be explored in my first two books, The Woman’s Book of Dreams and Dreams are Letters from the Soul. In 1994, as I sat with my dying father, I received another transmission, which I shared in my third book, The Invisible Garment. This time the information didn’t come in the form of dreams, but rather I had a waking-life conversation with the angels who came to take my dad on his death journey. These first two mystical experiences were evoked by extraordinary circumstances – a bizarre disease and the death of my father. This third one, described in these chapters, was preceded by what any mother of a teenage girl would consider perfectly normal. The night before this vision I had caught my 14-year-old daughter, clad in her steel-toed, knee-high Doc Martin boots, her ripped fishnet stockings, her tacky “vintage” (meaning used, not really old) black mini dress, and her Goth make up – which made her look (in my opinion, but not in hers) like The Joker from the Batman series – having a relaxing cigarette on our hotel balcony. I think I may have actually frightened her with my anger. She was used to a “take it in stride” mother, and suddenly she A Colorful Life www.turtledreamers.com 6 Book One: An Overview encountered a shrew who must have appeared ready to throw her off the balcony into the crashing waves four floors below. She ran into the room and quickly showered and put on her cute little jammies I’d bought her at the Gap. That night I slept very little. I spent most of the night sitting out on my balcony, looking at the stars and wondering whether I had the fortitude to be a parent to a rebellious girl-child. Not having slept much, I left the room before dawn to take a walk on the beach and watch the sunrise. The vision came on the heels of emotional turmoil. In each of these cases, while the intense circumstances may have had something to do with the mystical nature of the experiences, the years of followup research and testing of the material lends a high level of credibility to my conclusions. During the next few months, while following this vision of the color spheres and the subsequent dream, I contemplated the idea that we are constantly monitored by the councils of the spheres and that we are always given help when we need it. Of course, dreams are metaphors, and so these councils may or not be literal people. Perhaps I needed to anthropomorphize the experience in order to articulate it; perhaps I needed these evolved energies to look like people so I could speak about their influence on our lives more concretely. But for purposes of these teachings, let’s say there are advanced beings who constantly assist us in our lives. Sometimes such help is given directly by an embodied teacher, an ordinary person (who is not consciously “in cahoots” with the advanced beings). At other times, the help comes in the form of a dream or through a serendipitous experience. I started looking around to see if I could identify the various color spheres at work in the world, and I began to see them clearly. For example, the Blue Sphere (“Just give me the facts”) is at work in the scientific world, while the Indigo Sphere (“Loyalty to a tradition”) is clearly visible in our fundamental religious movements. A Colorful Life www.turtledreamers.com 7 Book One: An Overview the spheres of consciousness Each of the spheres that I saw in the vision that day on the beach represents a sphere (or level) of consciousness – a way of looking at how we make choices in our lives. These spheres are as interdependent as are atoms in a molecule. They aren’t “separate but equal” parts of a whole, but rather they are interwoven, varying expressions of the whole. We are all influenced by all of the colors/spheres, and yet we are each uniquely configured to be students of only a few of them. Let me explain more fully. As I described in my book The Invisible Garment, you were born “wearing” an invisible garment woven of spiritual fibers that make up your unique configuration of energy. In a later book of this series, entitled Book Four: Your Spiritual Principles and their Colors, I explain in detail how you identify your personal fibers and your own palette of colors. The combination of your spiritual threads weaves a metaphorical pattern that says “I am unique,” and yet the colors of those threads mingle with the colors/energies in the external world. Your tapestry pattern belongs solely to you, but the fibers are simultaneously interwoven with everyone else’s. In other words, each person portrays a unique way in which universal spheres of influence express themselves. I use the metaphor of the “color of the threads” to help you understand that we live in a consensus reality in which various invisible frequencies influence our expressions of life and tie them to all other such expressions. Our actions, our attitudes, and our choices are not only determined by our upbringings, our egos, and our desires, but are also influenced by our spiritual frequencies and by the way their influence on us creates an interface between us, the visible world, and the invisible world. A person whose primary influence is Yellow (the sphere which highlights or magnifies facts) will behave quite differently in a stressful situation, for example, A Colorful Life www.turtledreamers.com 8 Book One: An Overview than will a person whose primary influence is Orange (the sphere which is compassion-oriented.) In the case of an accident that involves casualties, a “yellow” person might be busy gathering the details, finding the needed supplies, calling the authorities, and organizing any bystanders to respond appropriately, while an “orange” person would be more immediately concerned with the care and comfort of any victims. Both those responses are helpful and “right,” but they may both be entirely different from the choice you might make. When you learn to see people’s behavioral choices as reflections of their specific frequencies, you will understand not only your own choices and feelings more clearly, but also those of your family, your community, your world. You will begin to see the external world as an interweaving of these influences as enacted through the personalities, thoughts, and emotions of the people around you. These spiritual influences flow through your life whether or not you are aware of them. Learning to recognize them makes your personal relationship to the flow more graceful, more peaceful. These influences aren’t to be manipulated by you, but rather they are to be observed, integrated, and celebrated. Sometimes spiritual practitioners find it hard to connect their private practices to the external world. Too many of us separate spiritual space from mundane reality. We go to a yoga class, and on the drive home we curse at the driver who cuts us off. We do our morning meditation, and then at work we have an ugly argument with one of our colleagues. It often seems that our spiritual selves just cannot thrive in the external world. The material in these books bridges that gap. It helps the “life student” see every occurrence in the external world as directly influenced by the spiritual spheres. Understanding your unique spiritual spheres of influence will give you a new window into the workings of daily life and a new perspective of your life purpose. It will also give you a new way to view the reasons that certain things A Colorful Life www.turtledreamers.com 9 Book One: An Overview happen in our cultures, in our political systems, and in our environment. The tool of wisdom will be at your fingertips. the ego and evolution It’s important to understand the role of the ego in this work because right use of egoic energy determines whether someone who consistently works at a spiritual practice, such as meditation or yoga or certain religious ceremonies, can experience true spiritual power. The human ego is a device created to translate pure experience into language. The ego is a function of the mind, and it regulates our thinking processes – most specifically how we think about ourselves in relation to the world. “I think; therefore I am” could be rewritten to say “I think; therefore my ego is working.” Most egos operate dualistically, convinced that there is a difference between “me” and “them.” However, as we study the influence of the spiritual energies represented by these spheres of influence, our egos have to face the reality that (pardon the grammar) “me” is “them.” Accepting and integrating the idea that everything “I” do and think affects all of “them” (and vice versa) is perhaps the most difficult task for the human ego. This work with the color spheres requires the student to fully align the ego with truth – not with “my” truth, but with “the” truth that we are One. Spiritual work is not about the death of the individual ego, but rather it is about the alignment of the ego with Divine Will. A few words about that phrase “my truth”: The ego uses relativity to determine how to experience the world. For example, let’s say you’re sitting on a beach looking at the horizon. You see a dot, which within a few minutes becomes larger. You soon recognize it as a ship. Your way of relating to the ship is to say, “A ship appeared on the horizon.” Actually the ship didn’t “appear.” Rather, it moved into a position and became visible to you. In a A Colorful Life www.turtledreamers.com 10 Book One: An Overview larger perspective, the ship was always there, beyond your line of vision. It simply became a part of your personal story when its position was specifically relative to yours. The ego works like that. Your experiences become a part of the story that describes your life. That story is not necessarily Truth, although within the unique configuration of energy that is “you,” it is a reality. To the extent that you completely identify with that one reality, you limit life. To the extent that you recognize that your reality is blended with all other realities, you expand life. Expansion and evolution are synonymous. Evolution does not refer to individual development, but rather to the flow of the “as above” into the “so below” through the individual. It is true that as any person liberates the mind so that the ego is aligned with the intelligence of the universe, that person “evolves.” However, the effect of that evolution occurs on a much greater spectrum than on just that individual. All evolution is for the service of Life. The “evolved” ego directs the individual’s thinking toward seeing the whole, perceiving the weave, and bringing the reality of the inner realms (the dream) into the visible realms of waking reality. There is a Sufi phrase, “Step out of yourself and see the path.” That’s the work of the evolved ego. Each color sphere has both advantages and pitfalls. You’ll read more about the specifics of the advantages and pitfalls in the chapter entitled Book Three: Students of the Spheres. For now, just know that the individual (and therefore the world) experiences the advantages of the colors by aligning with the spiritual power within that specific sphere of influence. Conversely, the pitfalls are experienced to the extent that the practitioner remains stuck in personal will and dualistic ego thinking. The role of the ego in this work is to dissolve itself into the larger reality, recognizing that all the spheres are at work simultaneously, even though your personal attention may be able to focus only A Colorful Life www.turtledreamers.com 11 Book One: An Overview on your immediate surroundings. In other words, the ship still exists, whether or not it is on the horizon of your perception. the established spheres of influence Reading this next section, you will begin to understand the “job” of each of the colors in the waking world. This information is fairly complex, especially in the sense that when one tries to describe it, the language sounds stilted and heady. Hang in there. It’s actually simpler in observation that it is in articulation! Throughout all these books, I will occasionally quote other authors who have written about color frequency and its connection to the spiritual world. Rudolph Steiner, Goethe, cosmologist Brian Swimme, and Sri Aurobindo are probably my most frequently used citations. Each book contains a list of references at the end. In order to make the explanation more concrete, I have woven an example through all the spheres. I’ve chosen to describe the process through which my website, http://www.turtledreamers.com, came into being by demonstrating the journey from the original idea all the way through to full manifestation. I created this website in order to share the spiritual practice that I teach involving dreaming. I named it “turtledreamers” to indicate that the dreamers of “Turtle Island” (a Native American term used to describe North America) offer this information to the world. It will be very helpful to you if you purchase (or make) a journal specifically for this work. I’m assuming you already keep a dream journal. If you do not, reserve a section of this one for your dreams. Journal-keeping is invaluable for the spiritual practitioner. We simply cannot keep all the information, all the insights, and all the memories in our heads to connect the dots as we raise our A Colorful Life www.turtledreamers.com 12 Book One: An Overview consciousness and deepen our understanding of life. Having a journal to refer to will be incredibly important to you later. At our website we will offer many opportunities for you and other students of this work to share your wisdom with each other. Your journal notes will be the source of many “ah-ha” moments as you expand your perspective. Journal suggestion: Make a page in your journal for each sphere. As you read about each color. write down the passages that jump off the page. Write down your questions. Write down your discoveries as you observe the various spheres operating within you and around you in your daily life. Later when you read the other chapters, you can see how those perceptions grow and change. You may find that your questions answer themselves. After you’ve finished all the books, if you choose to join your color communities on our website, you can post those questions and share your insights. !Black and White The Sphere of Alpha and Omega Every form begins and ends in this sphere. From the white, everything that exists emerges. To the black, every form eventually returns when its purpose has been met. This sphere sits at the center of the concentric circles of my initial vision. Black absorbs all color. It represents the great void, the beginning and end (alpha and omega) of all manifestation. Black is the spectrum of all that is unseen (including gamma sphere, X-sphere, etc.) In esoterica, black is called the Invisible Light. In dreams, black is called the future – that which is not yet. In religious liturgy, black is called the Ground of the Soul. In pagan cultures, black is called Earth Light. White reflects all color. White depicts the big bang. It is the expression of all manifestation. Goethe stressed that the relationship between black and white is not "light and its absence," but rather a dynamic condition in which both A Colorful Life www.turtledreamers.com 13 Book One: An Overview function as the source of manifestation (Amber, 1982, p. 21). In various traditions white is called different things, but in all traditions it is basically the light of matter. Esoteric traditions refer to white as the Visible Light. In dreams, white is called the light of purity. In pagan cultures, white is called the body – the form. All of these references basically refer to white as the light that brought forth (birthed) form. The idea for the turtledreamers Website originated as a vague desire to share dreaming information with more people than I could reach through the dream circle that meets in my home. The idea sprang into my head one morning while I was writing in my journal. It came out of a dream, through the white sphere. !Violet The Sphere of Ceremony and Architecture Throughout human history, we have been creating ceremonies as a way of “calling in the energies” for something to manifest itself. In this second sphere, the possibilities which spew out of the white light of creativity begin to establish themselves as a form. In the color spectrum, violet has the shortest wavelength and the highest frequency. That means that the photons that are "violet" move faster and on a shorter circuit than do those of any other color. In the rainbow, violet is almost invisible, as it is close to ultraviolet, which is in the invisible spectrum. Violet is at the outside edge of the rainbow as it drifts off into the invisible spectrum. This position in the rainbow implies that it has a connection to spirit – it has the ability to communicate with the unseen. Violet has been proved to be very effective in healing because its fast vibration allows for penetration into the body. It is spirit taking form. According to Rudolf Steiner, the nature of violet (he called it lilac) is that it wants to vanish (1992, p. 35). It doesn't assert itself because its natural tendency A Colorful Life www.turtledreamers.com 14 Book One: An Overview is to fade back into its own potential. In this way it is both the beginning and the end of the rainbow! Just as a blueprint loses its importance after the building is completed, violet is happy to disappear after the possibility passes through it. One is reminded of the sand painting ceremony of the Tibetans, when monks will spend hours and hours creating an amazingly intricate mandala, only to dump it into the ocean or a nearby river when it is completed. According to Goethe (1840, p. 124), violet responds to a wider range of possibility than the other colors do. It contains red, pink, purple, blue, and a smattering of gold. The violet sphere accepts all possibility, and it molds the best potential beginning for a journey into the realm of form. As I began to contemplate creating a Website, I realized that the format for it needed to be visually pleasing and that it needed to contain many possibilities for exploring dreaming. Often more ideas would come to me as I sat in dream circle ceremony with my dreaming sisters. The violet sphere went to work through me at that point, designing the plan. !Indigo The Sphere of Devotion and Idealism The work of the Indigo Sphere is to give weight to an idea by making it an ideal. Devotees of a cause make that cause a movement – an institution. Without the substance of devotion, a thought or idea will simply vanish back into the black sphere. Indigo is a blend of violet and blue, with a splash of black deepening its color. It is, therefore, a blend of the longing to disappear into Source (violet), the longing for ultimate truth (blue), and divine mystery (black). It is a frequency that is almost imperceptible in the rainbow, being a very thin, dark slash between violet and blue. It doesn't take up much "room," but it exerts enormous influence in that it marks a clear line, whereas the other colors seem to bleed A Colorful Life www.turtledreamers.com 15 Book One: An Overview into each other. If an idea crosses that barrier between violet and indigo, it is an idea that will eventually manifest as a social form. It is an idea with a mission! Steiner said that indigo deepens spirit into form (1992, p. 39). Indigo is a "denser" frequency than is violet. In the Indigo Sphere, spirit begins to merge with matter through the form that was started in the Violet Sphere. Indigo calls you into it, and therefore it calls you into yourself. The blue aspect of indigo makes it a color that pulls, demands, and commands your attention. The robes of royalty are often this shade of deep purple because the color itself pulls the attention of the viewer. This frequency is one of deep inward probing. Eventually, I introduced the idea of the Website to my dreaming sisters. They became the devotees that made the concept more concrete. One of the dreamers in my circle was an artist, and she volunteered to create the turtles that adorn the home page. Other dream sisters shared other ideas and excitedly encouraged me to create the site. !Blue The Sphere of Reasoning and Abstract Thinking After a new idea has become more substantial in the Indigo Sphere, it moves closer to manifestation in the Blue Sphere. While it may still exist in the realm of an abstraction, it becomes a reasonable concept through the agency of the Blue Sphere. Steiner said that blue is darkness as seen through the light (1992, p. 15). In other words, as we stare at the sky, we're really staring at black, but we are seeing it through the light as diffused by the atmosphere. Ditto, when we look at the ocean, we see the blackness at the bottom of the ocean through the light as diffused by the water. Goethe said that blue is the creative force of life A Colorful Life www.turtledreamers.com 16 Book One: An Overview pulling you toward it. He sees blue as the principle of darkness made visible (1840, p. 310). Blue, if seen as an expression of light, shines inward and declares its inner nature. Blue pulls you into it. That's why we can stare for such long periods at the sky or the ocean. Blue takes the viewer into deeper and deeper dimensions because it has the quality of going away, moving into outer bounds. Blue asks for truth and fact and concrete ideas. It demands reason. In the blue sphere, an idea or a concept captures the imagination and gathers more “realness” to itself by becoming a reasonable concept. After a few weeks of planning, three “blue” things fell into place that pushed the idea closer to manifestation. First, I got a contract to publish The Woman’s Book of Dreams. My publisher told me I’d need a Website for publicity. Second, a group of my students asked me to teach an online course on dreaming. Again, a Website would be needed for that. Third, a Website designer popped into my life and offered to design a site for me. The idea, which was still an abstraction, had become a reasonable possibility. !Green The Sphere of Balance and Harmony On its journey toward full manifestation, a concept or an idea must reach equilibrium. It can’t just be an idea; it must also become matter. The green sphere is concerned with proper form – matter which adequately embodies the idea. The other colors result as light interacts with itself. For example, I stated that blue can be defined as darkness seen through the light. Green, however, is light interacting with matter. Green is the visible image of spirit becoming matter. Green is the color of the "image of the living," according to Steiner (1992, p. 23). When life first learned to pull energy out of the sun – in other words, when A Colorful Life www.turtledreamers.com 17 Book One: An Overview plants learned to photosynthesize – green was born. Green became an integral part of the planet's signature. It is life as seen through the light. It is light interfacing with matter: the lifeless image of life (p. 24). Green is the middle of rainbow – the negotiator of all other colors. It is the bridge, the stasis. Goethe called it the perfect color because it is the perfect blend of blue and yellow. "If the two elementary colours are mixed in perfect equality so that neither predominates, the eye and the mind repose on the result . . . and have neither the wish nor the power to imagine a state beyond it" (1840, p. 316). Green's waves and revolutions are of equal length. Violet has short waves and long revolutions; red, at the other end of the spectrum, has long waves and short revolutions. Green is in the middle, so its waves and revolutions are equal. At this stage, we were ready for the “light” of the idea to interface with the “matter” of a Web domain. (I realize that a Website isn’t a tree that photosynthesizes, but in a way, it had become a growing organism that fed on the energy of its participants.) We found the right domain name, found a server, and started making visual choices. It was at this stage that I began to research all the icons that became windows to the various options on the site. I looked into the history of religious imagery for these symbols in order to visually demonstrate the way dream work bridges and balances many different spiritual traditions. The Green Council was at work! !Yellow The Sphere of Clarity and Expansion In the Yellow Sphere, an idea starts to grow. It is the job of the yellow sphere to help an idea explain itself, to give this idea which is on its way to manifestation a definition, a clarity about itself, a way to extend itself into form and make a “name” for itself. A Colorful Life www.turtledreamers.com 18 Book One: An Overview The color yellow radiates out of light's core (think of a star). Goethe called it the color "nearest to light" (1840, p. 306). It is the first color one perceives when even the smallest amount of light is present. It is a color which moves out of itself and continues to expand to the edges of the Universe, the edges of consciousness. When yellow interfaces with another color, it permeates that color and seems to amplify it. Look at a tree when the sun is shining on it. Notice how much greener the leaves in the sunlight are than the ones in shadow. Yellow creates shadow/dimension/definition. It brings depth and a wider spectrum of perspective to anything it touches. On the personal level, yellow shines into you and attunes you to the "I-ness" of yourself. It brings enlightenment. It is the color of inner clarity and expansion. Yellow has a serene, gay, softly exciting character which gladdens the eye and expands the heart as its glow breathes toward us (Goethe, 1840, p. 307). Jacob Liberman quoted a double blind study in which bright yellow light was unquestionably successful in lifting depression in people (1991, p. 123). Gold is yellow with the brown of earth added. We could say that gold is yellow with weight added. It is the yellow of light blended with the weight of matter. There are gold overtones in every sphere, if you think about it. The eye can perceive gold in every color. But gold's home base is the yellow sphere. I chose a yellow/gold as the primary background color for the Website. I can’t say that at the time I was aware that yellow and gold were the colors of expansion, but I can say with full confidence that the Yellow Council was working through me as I made that choice. I also began, at this point, to write all the text for the site. The more I wrote, the more I realized I wanted to share “for free” so that the dreamers who were attracted to the site would have tons of information at their disposal. A Colorful Life www.turtledreamers.com 19 Book One: An Overview !Orange The Sphere of Compassion and Wisdom Orange is a perfect mixture of the two colors on either side in the vibration and symbolism of the spheres. Red's will and power and yellow's clarity and expansion blend to create orange's compassion and wisdom. Orange is a color that demands authenticity of the self. Orange gives us a sense of being armed with our own inner strength (Steiner, 1992, p. 76). To work effectively within the Orange Sphere, one has to understand the power of personal will from the Red Sphere, and one has to equally blend that understanding with the clarity and expansive illumination of the Yellow Sphere. Sri Aurobindo said that orange is the light of truth manifested in one's physical consciousness and being (1958, p. 964). Wisdom and compassion are illusive. One isn’t really aware of either as they are expressing themselves. The awareness comes in retrospect. As I look back, it does seem that wisdom was speaking to and through me as I made decisions about what to share, what to make available for free, with whom to link, etc. Most importantly, the open forum – a free space in which dreamers from all over the world share dreams and insights – seems to be a product of wisdom and compassion. So many dreamers who know that their dreams are more than just psychological statements use the site not only as a place to share their dreams, but as an oasis – a well at which to gather and to receive wisdom from each other. !Red The Sphere of Will and Power Red represents the fiery breath of life. According to Rudolph Steiner's theories, blue is the darkness as seen through the light, and red is the light as seen through the darkness. He explains that red is the color you see when the sun shoots toward you at sunset. It is as if A Colorful Life www.turtledreamers.com 20 Book One: An Overview you are standing in the dark (with the dark behind you) and red is the color you see when you look toward the light (1992, p 26). Steiner further commented that red aggressively pushes itself into you, awakening you to action, while blue pulls you out of yourself and asks you to contemplate (p. 28). According to Goethe's Theory of Color, red is the color in the light spectrum that allows all other colors to emerge (1840, p. 314). Red is at the bottom of the rainbow because it is the longest wave/longest refraction unit of the spectrum. It is closest to the earth because it is closest to manifestation. Because of its wavelength, it appears to take up more "room" in the rainbow. Sri Aurobindo said that red is the light of power. For him, red is the light of Divine Love, descending from the nonphysical cosmic dimensions for the transformation of the physical realm (1958, p. 964). No matter what system you study, red is considered to be a strong, aggressive, powerful, dynamic color. When the Website was finally ready to launch, the red frequency took over. Word about it spread rapidly. The people who were attracted to it were the “right” people – real dreamers who benefited from the information and helped each other with enormous generosity. In addition to the open forum, we use the site to teach classes which are highly successful, bringing thousands of visitors to the site monthly. the evolving spheres of influence I have said that on that Easter Sunday morning in 1997, as I stared at the ball of colored concentric spheres, I could simultaneously see both sides. On the primary side, I could see each sphere as a unique ball contained within the other balls. These colors I’ve named the “established spheres of consciousness.” On the other side, the balls were not so discernable. They were more like spheres of a vaporous substance, and their colors bled and swirled into each other, much like the colors of an amazing sunset reflecting on the clouds. However, as in a sunset, I could discern individual colors – just not the exact lines A Colorful Life www.turtledreamers.com 21 Book One: An Overview where one color stopped and the other started. These are the colors I’ve called the “evolving spheres of consciousness.” As I have pondered this experience, I've come to feel that this vaporous appearance of the other side of the rainbow has two messages for us. First, those spheres of influence are not fully formed. They are the colors – the energetic frequencies – which call us to the future. They still reside in the realm of the not-yet (another term for the future.) The primary colors have been in active service to life on earth for thousands of years. We can, if we want, study history and discern when certain councils were in higher levels of authority. For example, the Indigo Council has obviously been very powerful in the last 2,000 years. We can see that through their influence, religions have played a primary role in the building of civilizations, the structuring of governments, and the fighting of wars. People's strong devotion to their belief systems has dominated the collective dream. Now, however, those segregated beliefs are giving way to an ecumenism that demands a loosening of the divisions between governments, religions, and belief systems. The Indigo Council, with its focus on belief, is giving its authority to another council, whose focus is on a more concrete trust. The second reason that the evolving spheres aren't as discernable as the primary spheres is that they never will be. The new being, and the new way of being, will always be much less individuated than are the old beings and old ways. As fearful as that may sound to those Americans who value individual freedom more than just about anything, and to people who are concerned with preserving "culture," it is true. We are moving (very slowly) toward being a species that trusts its communal self as much as it trusts its personal self. We will be less individuated and yet even more free. By being less individuated, we'll be free of our own restrictions and limitations and personal prisons. By allowing cultures to maintain themselves while simultaneously blending into the "new way," we will be liberated from the taboos, superstitions, and shadows of tribal consciousness. Instead, we will have a freer access to A Colorful Life www.turtledreamers.com 22 Book One: An Overview wholeness. We'll not have to stop at the thresholds of each sphere and readjust our energy. We'll swim more smoothly in the waters of our contractual colors. Although only about 1% of the total electromagnetic spectrum is perceived by the human eye (Liberman, 1991, p. 4), the typical rainbow spectrum has been considered for thousands of years to be the complete visible spectrum. But the other side of this Easter morning vision showed me an emerging new spectrum. My sense is that these new colors are unfolding out of the old ways. And yet, as in all evolutionary shifts, they include all the old, but when in full bloom they will express energies never before known to life on this planet. Our purpose for now is simply to study what we can discern about the emergence of these new energies and see how we as individuals can assist in their process of becoming. I've named these evolving spheres according to the gemstones that correspond to their colors. Gemstones are pieces of dense matter that have crystallized and purified so that the light can shine through them. In a very real sense, these new spheres are crystallizing themselves – they are becoming visible. They are creating new ways of working within the vast possibility of the realm of form. Gemstones also hold memory. They contain memory of all that has ever existed since the original flaring forth. And yet, their beauty and their translucence is beyond anything that could have occurred in the immense heat of the silent blast that initiated perceptual reality. In that sense, they represent evolution – that which contains all that came before it and emerges as completely new. Here is an overview of these spheres as we will study them. In order to make them somewhat A Colorful Life more www.turtledreamers.com 23 Book One: An Overview concrete (even though, as I mentioned earlier, they are by definition sublime), I have added comments about how these new spheres of influence seem to be showing up in the world around us. Journal Suggestion: Now make pages in your journal corresponding to these evolving spheres of influence. The examples I give in this section are cultural. See if you can find ways that these colors are evolving in your personal life, and make a note of them. These discoveries about yourself and your world will grow and deepen as you read each book and make more notes. Coral The Sphere of Surrender and Synthesis The Red Sphere of Will and Power blends with the Orange Sphere of Compassion and Wisdom in a unique way. This sphere is particularly infused with Light, so that it becomes a salmon/pink color. This is the Coral Sphere. This sphere is primarily concerned with relationship between will and wisdom, compassion and power. The workers in this sphere will be assisting the world to understand that true wisdom and power emerge when one surrenders personal will and synthesizes it with divine will. God's gift to us, that which differentiates us from all other beings, visible and invisible, is free will. Through the emergence of this new sphere, we will at last begin to perfect the use of personal will so that it evokes truth. According to Goethe's theory of color, "red-yellow" gives an impression of warmth and gladness. It represents the hue of the intense glow of fire and the milder radiance of the setting sun (1840, p. 309). Sri Aurobindo said that golden- A Colorful Life www.turtledreamers.com 24 Book One: An Overview red has a strong transforming power. It is a supernal, yet physical frequency. It is the light of Divine Truth in the physical realm (1958, p. 963). He maintained that when we see it in a dream, red-gold means that truth and power have joined together (p. 983). “Coral” communities are starting to form. These are not necessarily groups of people who live together. They may not share the same religion or political viewpoints. They may not even know each other. They are, instead, groups of people who share wisdom about our planet’s direction. Al Gore serves as the focal point of one such coral community. Thousands of scientists, philanthropists, researchers, writers, actors, and (surprisingly) oil industry executives have joined him in starting to develop new, renewable energy sources and infrastructures. They are aligning with the “divine” plan that the earth’s atmosphere must remain healthy in order for life on earth to continue to thrive. Bill and Melinda Gates have created a foundation dedicated solely to researching and underwriting the best ways to eliminate the global problems within our various cultures. They have thousands of people on their “team” (a coral community) working together to eliminate diseases, to raise the global standards in education, and to change human behaviors that diminish the quality of life for all. Bill Clinton has created a most interesting “coral community” which he calls the Clinton Initiative. On a yearly basis he gathers wealthy people and highly educated people and puts them together with people who can identify our global needs most clearly. Together these people determine the most efficient ways to address these needs, and they work together diligently to accomplish their goals. This is a kind of philanthropy never before achieved because this kind of international, nongovernmental, apolitical group has never coalesced before. A Colorful Life www.turtledreamers.com 25 Book One: An Overview Amber The Sphere of Sophia – Love of Divine Wisdom The Yellow Sphere of Clarity and Expansion blends with the Orange Sphere of Compassion and Wisdom to create the Amber Sphere. This will be the Sphere of Sophia – the wisdom of the ancient of days. The word philosophy means love of Sophia or love of divine wisdom. The Amber Sphere Council will oversee each person's attempts at mastering aspects of the divine wisdom. The person born in the Amber Sphere will have particular assignments in life, assignments which are really initiations into a higher form of beingness. This sphere has been deeply quiet for many thousands of years, waiting for consciousness to develop to a level of readiness for its teachings to emerge. The Sphere of Sophia will be responsible for returning the Divine Wisdom to its proper place in the consciousness of the species. Amber is a color that is unique to a certain "stone." It results from the crystallization of ancient tree resin. Actually, amber is neither mineral nor plant. It has the properties of a stone, except that it can melt with enough heat. The study of amber bridges many sciences. Gemologists love it because of its beauty, its clarity, and its unique coloration. Geologists and paleontologists are interested in it because it contains fossil evidence of prehistoric life. Archeologists use the presence of amber discovered in various digs to mark trade routes of ancient times. Chemists study it because it has unique chemical qualities. Botanists study it because it often has insects frozen in its golden form. Poets and mystics love it for the inspiration that it brings to their work. Healers know it to have qualities that drive away disease. The Sphere of Sophia is showing up most clearly in the “New Age” spiritual systems. Many indigenous, earth-centric peoples around the globe have prophesies about this present era, when their most ancient secrets are to be shared with people of the West. This trend really made itself known in the ‘60s, A Colorful Life www.turtledreamers.com 26 Book One: An Overview when Native American shamans began to share their spiritual practices with the hippie culture. On the heels of that decade, Australian dreaming cultures began opening their tightly sealed spiritual secrets to “outsiders.” Then African shamans started showing up in America and in other places around the world to share wisdom teachings, as did members of the Huichol and other South American Indian tribes. Some say that these doors to the secret spiritual traditions could only be opened after the Westerners opened their minds (in many cases through the use of hallucinogenic drugs) to receive such information. There’s no doubt that people like Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert (Ram Dass), who used psychotropic drugs, wrote books, and spoke broadly to the youth of the ‘60s, influenced them to become more conscious of the multidimensional nature of the world. Writers like Carlos Castañeda also added to the youth-culture mystique, indicating that by expanding our consciousness, we can encounter bodies of wisdom heretofore kept secret by a strong lineage of seers who only taught through verbal means. Though books have been written disputing Castañeda’s authenticity, the popularity of his writings cannot be discounted. Even the secret mystical societies within organized religious systems have opened their doors in the past 50 or so years to students who would not have been considered “qualified” in the past. Kabbalah, the mystical arm of Judaism, is becoming quite a popular system, as is Sufism (the mystical arm of Islam.) The Amber Sphere has struggled the most, I suspect, in its attempt to be birthed into existence because it is riddled with so many scam artists and selfproclaimed shamans. Dozens of lawsuits have been filed against gurus who were eventually revealed as con artists. And yet, truth and wisdom continue to inch their way into people’s hearts and minds. We will experience, I expect, a glorious awakening of the Sphere of Sophia and her students within the next few decades. A Colorful Life www.turtledreamers.com 27 Book One: An Overview Peridot The Sphere of Service The Yellow Sphere of Clarity and Expansion marries the Green Sphere of Harmony and Balance to create the Peridot Sphere. This will be the Sphere of Service. In the new world, every person will come into form knowing that service to life is the reason for existence. The Peridot Sphere will assist every being on the planet, human and nonhuman, in finding a place of service. The Peridot Sphere will be extremely visible in the next few thousand years as we learn to release the oppression of servitude and slavery in our cultures and embrace the privilege of service. Peridot is a perfect blend of yellow and green. Therefore, we might say that it is the color that marks the purest merger of light and matter, spirit and form. Peridot evokes happiness because of its yellowness, as well as a connection to nature because of it greenness. It creates a sense of expansion, and it simultaneously brings repose, grounding, and healing. Because green is already a mixture of blue and yellow, peridot has a high percentage of yellow. This ratio causes the peridot frequency to be "more yellow" – meaning that it carries more gaiety and happiness than would a deeper green, but it also carries more balance and stability than would a pure yellow. Peridot will become the new "center of the rainbow." Through the Peridot Sphere, people will learn to serve life with more abandon, and they will enjoy new levels of pleasure from the act of serving. The Peridot Sphere is showing up most overtly in the field of health and healing. Alternative healing techniques have gained substantial credibility in recent years. Of course, many of these so-called “alternative” therapies are really ancient healing technologies. Acupuncture, meditation, herbal A Colorful Life www.turtledreamers.com 28 Book One: An Overview supplements, nutrition, vitamin regimens, and exercise have become mainstream in disease prevention worldwide. Holistic and naturopathic practices have been opened in every corner of the world and have achieved high levels of respect from patients and Western medical doctors alike. Yoga, tai chi, and many other ancient systems of exercise have gained international popularity. In addition, many new body science-based exercise programs have been introduced in the past fifty years. Pilates is the latest very popular trend in “core” exercise practices. Its founder, Joseph Pilates, called his method “contrology” because it uses mental discipline and physical postures to strengthen the muscles in the core of the body. Feldenkrais, developed by Moshé Feldenkrais, also trains the body through specific movement to reach deep levels of personal development. All these exercise technologies (old and new) focus on the body-mind connection. This kind of “whole-ism” is the beginning of the Peridot Sphere’s influence in the worldwide movement toward health for all citizens. At the present time, we in the United States stand on the precipice of a completely different relationship to the world. Rather than being the world bully, we can possibly be the world physicians. Using our power wisely, sharing our knowledge generously, making our resources available efficiently – these are the possibilities of the influence of Peridot. Turquoise The Sphere of the Logos – Healed Thought The Green Sphere of Harmony and Balance merges with the Blue Sphere of Reason and Logic to create the Turquoise Sphere. This is the primary sphere of the New Age. This is the sphere of Logos, or healed thought. This Sphere will bring the human species to the mental vibration that demands not only clarity of thought, but also healing and wholeness, balance and harmony as the primary goals of the species. The Turquoise Sphere will make us aware that we A Colorful Life www.turtledreamers.com 29 Book One: An Overview have to consider all the babies of all the species when we make our survival choices. It will bring us to an age of Peace. According to healer and eye specialist Joseph Liberman, turquoise light acts as an anti-inflammatory agent. He uses turquoise light on his patients to heal optic nerve disease (1991, p. xxii). Of all the colors in the other-side spectrum, the turquoise that I saw is the hardest to describe. It was the color of the most brilliant blue turquoise you've ever seen on a piece of Native American jewelry. However, it was translucent, and the effect of the light pouring through this dazzling color was almost blinding. I've seen the color in the sky at sunset on particularly clear days. It's a color, however, that you can hardly believe. I've often looked at the sunsets that turn the sky that color and thought, "Only Georgia O'Keefe could get by with painting the sky that color." We think of turquoise as being a mixture of blue and green. But since green is a mixture of blue and yellow, turquoise also contains yellow. This is a very important encoded key to fully understanding the frequency because the clarity of mind and the expansion of consciousness provided by the Yellow Sphere is always present in the Turquoise Sphere. The Turquoise Sphere is showing up most clearly in the sciences. Starting in the middle of the 20th Century, thanks in great measure to the genius of Albert Einstein, physicists began to study subatomic mechanics. The more they learned, the more they saw that the universe is not Newtonian (a world that can be broken apart into small separated particles) but instead is an indivisible whole, all aspects of which influence and affect all others. In fact, as quantum physicist and mathematicians delved further into subatomic physics they learned that the realm of form is really made up of frequency rather than matter. This new science introduced us to a different conversation in the study of physical science. We began to see the effect of toxins in our environment, the effect of cutting down the rain forests, eliminating species, polluting the air, and A Colorful Life www.turtledreamers.com 30 Book One: An Overview draining the earth of nonrenewable resources. These “polluting” frequencies are intertwined and interconnected with all forms. The more this kind of thinking becomes a part of the global conversation, the more important the issues of ecology become in the political scene and indeed in the economic balance of our planet. As “truth-telling” about the environment becomes acceptable, the more the Logos will take root in our consciousness in every aspect of our lives. Most importantly, the human genome project is a result of the influence of the Turquoise Sphere. Learning to understand the specific genetic proclivities toward certain diseases is opening a new arena of medicine called personalized medicine. As we learn to study our own bodies, meet the precise needs of our genetic patterning, and determine lifestyles that are specifically beneficial to our own uniqueness, we will change the way people take care of themselves. Research on the human genome is new, and yet the discoveries are pouring forth at rates heretofore unimagined. This research is surely the golden star in the Turquoise Sphere! Tanzanite The Sphere of Trust and Initiation The Blue Sphere of Reason and Logic merges with the Indigo Sphere of Devotion and Idealism to create a Sphere of Trust and Initiation. The Tanzanite Sphere will be blending the devotion and loyalty and intensity of the Indigo Sphere with the pure-mindedness of the Blue Sphere. This blend will create an energy on earth that allows science and spirituality to become a unified force. The new emphasis will no longer be on "proof" (Blue) or "devotion" (Indigo), but rather on trust (informed belief.) As we learn to trust life, ourselves and each other, we learn to allow trust to influence our choices. Of course, the trust has to be earned. And the Tanzanite Sphere will create an environment in which we can learn to live from our authentic essence so that the trust is inevitable. As our ability to trust strengthens, we are initiated into higher and higher levels of A Colorful Life www.turtledreamers.com 31 Book One: An Overview knowledge. In this sphere, the individual human mind will learn to merge with the collective mind, and eventually with what the Buddhists call Mind – referring to transcendent consciousness. Through this sphere, new disciplines of meditation, telepathy, and mind technology will emerge. In addition, new models of philanthropy will be born. Ironically, the gemstone Tanzanite is under interdiction right now, as the mining companies in Tanzania apparently fund the Al Qaeda network. This irony may be something we can examine to help us understand the metaphor of this sphere. All the ethical gemologists are refusing to buy or sell it right now. This decision on the part of gem traders begins a ricocheting cycle of economic sanctions against terrorism, and these sanctions may prove to be much more effective than weaponry. The color of Tanzanite is definitely a part of the blue spectrum, so by Steiner's definition (1992, p. 45 ), it pulls us out of our small selves and into a perspective that evokes deep truth. It has enough of the Indigo and Lavender influence, however, that it also longs for the perfect form or ceremonial perfection of the Lavender Sphere. Contemplating this color brings a certain peace to the mind of the spiritual practitioner. In addition, it creates a longing within the mind of the people who meditate to know more clearly and more directly the truth of God. We can see the Tanzanite Sphere at work in the world through the new theories and methods of philanthropy that have sprung up in the 21st century. These new ideas about giving have empowered individuals. One no longer needs to be wealthy to be a philanthropist. Thanks to the Internet, individuals can join e-communities and become a part of a massive economic movement to address poverty, disease, hunger, and global misfortune. A good example of the new philanthropy is the organization kiva.org. Matt and Jessica Flannery, a young working couple, realized that they had “enough” (money, resources, etc.) for themselves, and their desire to help other people led them to create kiva.org. It is a micro-loan Website, in which A Colorful Life www.turtledreamers.com 32 Book One: An Overview participants can select an entrepreneur from the hundreds that Matt and Jessica and the kiva staff have found, lend the person a small amount of money (usually $25) to seed a business, and in so doing, join with thousands of other like-minded people who simply want to give people the help they need. This model is vastly different from the old way of using money to solve a problem. In the old way, we might send rice to feed the hungry. In the new micro-finance model, we will underwrite a farmer, who can then grow the rice. It’s the “teaching the man how to fish” mentality that the Tanzanite Sphere is evoking. Rose Quartz The Sphere of Mastery and Observation The Indigo Sphere of Devotion and Idealism and the Violet Sphere of Ceremony and Architecture merge to create a new kind of shaman. The worker in this sphere will be a master of ceremonies in a whole new sense of the word. This worker will be able to stir an experience of wholeness in each individual he or she encounters. This sphere is called the Rose Quartz Sphere. People who are born into this sphere will need to be protected and cared for by their communities and families. These workers will be highly evolved, and their sensitivities to global processes will be acute. This color and the next—ruby/magenta – are variations on red. They both have some purple in them, too, but they are primarily red infused with light. Technically, this sphere should be the result of Indigo and Lavender; however, in my vision, I saw it as pink or light amethyst. Pink brings Light (truth) to manifestation. Pink is often related to the heart chakra because it is the natural color of the heart when it is infused with enlightenment. The enlightened being is a compassionate person who thinks and speaks from the heart. A Colorful Life www.turtledreamers.com 33 Book One: An Overview This sphere is named Rose Quartz for two main reasons. First, the idea of "rose" includes the color and the fragrance, both of which have meaning in this sphere. The color of the pink rose is a powerful physical representation of the frequency of the energy of this sphere of influence. And the fragrance of the rose softens the mind and the heart, allowing the energy of this sphere to enter the consciousness of the beholder. Second, quartz has a specific mathematically perfect crystallization pattern that reflects the truth of this sphere. If you meditate using a piece of rose quartz as your focus point, you'll understand the frequency of this sphere. If you meditate using a scientific schematic drawing of the rose quartz molecule as your focal point, the entire truth of this sphere may be transmitted to you directly. If you meditate using a pink rose as your focus (and also smelling its fragrance) the same truths will be revealed. S. G. J. Ouseley, a doctor who uses colored lights as a healing technique, maintained that the color pink or light amethyst nourishes the brain cells that allow us to expand the horizon of our understanding into the arena of the Divine (1967, p. 10). Sri Aurobindo maintained that rose is the color of psychic love (1958, p. 252) As the Rose Quartz Sphere begins to show itself in our world, leaders come to the forefront to light the way. Barack Obama is a classic Rose Quartz Sphere person, someone who has chosen to become a politician. He challenges the people of his constituency to empower themselves. His Presidential campaign begged the question whether the United States was ready to leave the Indigo “Daddy will fix everything if you put your trust in him” mentality toward government, and instead adopt the “We must work together to solve our cultural problems” perspective. He is more an inspirer than a decider. He is an architect of ideas and concepts, and he calls on the workers in all the other spheres to unite to rebuild our infrastructure. The indisputable popular vote given to him in the 2008 election was also a mandate for the culture to move toward the other side of the rainbow. It was a A Colorful Life www.turtledreamers.com 34 Book One: An Overview vote to evolve. It gave permission to the new color councils to enter our society through the conscious students for equality, peace, and social justice. At this writing, it remains to be seen how the Obama Administration will reshape history. But at this moment we can know that each of us participates actively in an experiment in whether America can and will lead the world into an age of economic stability, reusable energy development, educational opportunity, and global peace. Ruby The Sphere of Christ Consciousness When the Red Sphere of Power and Will merges with the Violet Sphere of Ceremony and Architecture, the Ruby (Magenta) Sphere results. This sphere will be about truly merging spirit with action. Ruby's color, which is really magenta, doesn't change intensity in the dark or in the light. magenta, meaning that it contains all color. It has the properties of The Ruby Sphere will be consistently delivering sacred energy into the form of expression chosen by the worker of that sphere. It is to be the sphere of realizing and actualizing divinity in form. It will be the council of the Cosmic Christ consciousness. The term Cosmic Christ refers to the contemporary theological theory that the “second coming” is actually the birth of expanded consciousness in each individual. I will discuss this concept more thoroughly in later chapters. The masters of this council will be working to assist every being in the birth of the consciousness of universal love within their personalities. Because magenta’s properties do not change in the dark – It is equally intense in the sunlight and in the moonlight – the works of the Ruby Sphere are equally intense in the "light and dark" aspects of life. This particular sphere of influence deals more directly with light and dark than does any other sphere. Magenta is a very intense pink with a splash of violet, but it has a neonish aspect that makes it confrontational and intense. The color course of study A Colorful Life www.turtledreamers.com 35 Book One: An Overview called Aura Soma maintains that while white reflects all color and black absorbs all color, magenta is the frequency that contains all color. Magenta is intense because it holds the perspective of all potential. When we see the color, we are transported into an ancient memory of the time and space that contains all possibility. According to Reuben Amber's (1982) book on healing with color, magenta may be used to energize the adrenals, the heart, and the reproductive system. It is a diuretic, and it is an emotional stabilizer. It stimulates and stabilizes the flow of energy in the body . These paradoxical properties are important aspects of this sphere of influence. We are seeing the Ruby Sphere’s dawning in our cultural consciousness Thanks in no small measure to Al Gore’s amazing work in raising awareness of the global ecological crisis (also mentioned in the Coral Sphere), people are being educated as to the damage we’ve done to the earth through our careless and greedy choices about energy use. As a result, many individuals around the world are exploring every possible way to create energy using renewable, nonpolluting sources. From the richest oilmen in Texas to the government of Brazil, we are seeing the “merging of spirit and action.” Why do I call this the work of the Ruby Sphere? Because it is in a very real sense, the awakening of Christ Consciousness within people. Christ Consciousness by definition demands that one view the entire spectrum. We must understand the connection between our overuse of pollutants and the loss of millions of species in the plant and animal kingdoms. We must see the direct correspondence between bleeding the earth of her oil/blood and the changing of the atmosphere around her. And we must act from the wisdom of that information. The behaviors we see in the people who are actively taking part in our global mind-change about the proper use of energy are, I believe, inspired by the deep and abiding love for all of life. That love stems from Christ Consciousness. A Colorful Life www.turtledreamers.com 36 Book One: An Overview Opal The Sphere of Cosmic Truth’s Reflection in the World The Opal Sphere is an evolving of the Black and White Sphere in the sense that it is the source sphere. But it articulates itself more eloquently and more subtly than does the Black and White Sphere. It is the light of the sun and the “light” of the darkness. Black is said to absorb all color; white, to reflect all color; magenta, to contain all color. But Silver and Gold (the main colors of this sphere) both penetrate all color. They are the common denominators in every color, and these new colors blend and swirl through each other rather than differentiate. Gold indicates something from the supra-mental. Gold is that which has been derived by a metaphorical alchemist from the quality we know as TruthConsciousness (Sri Aurobindo, 1958, p. 959). In other words, gold is spiritual knowledge, cosmic truth. The silvery light of the moon is known as "Krishna's light." It is the light of blue (truth) penetrated with the white light of The Mother (Sri Aurobindo, 1958, p. 961). Sri Aurobindo worked closely with an avatar named Mirra Richard, who was generally called The Mother. It was not unusual to see white light emanating from her body during darshan (Hindu meditation), and it is to that light that he makes reference in this quotation. Gold is the light of the dimension of Truth. Silver is the reflection of the sun's light into the human plane of consciousness. Gold and silver penetrate all the other colors and thereby bring Cosmic Truth (what new agers call the Great Plan) into every sphere. In a sense, we could say they are the "stuff" that interrelates all the other spheres. This sphere is harder to see in our cultures than are some of the others because of its very nature: It weaves through all the spheres. However, we can see it in certain spiritual communities. More and more we’re seeing spiritual systems operating independently of any religion – for example, the dreaming A Colorful Life www.turtledreamers.com 37 Book One: An Overview community that I have initiated through www.turtledreamers.com. Every person dreams. Every person. Religion, skin color, cultural differences, educational level, economic situation, gender – nothing keeps us from dreaming. It is a “required” daily activity for every individual. Whether or not you remember it, you dream. Becoming conscious of the role that dreaming plays in our spiritual lives, I believe, is mandatory, and the ways in which we do so are inspired by the Opal Sphere. what next? Studying this body of work provides a way for you as an individual to examine the spiritual forces at work in the world and in your life. By understanding how the various spheres of influence work together, you can create a model for picturing a dynamic world that remains balanced and healthy. The books that follow in this series will spiral you more deeply into understanding how you as an individual participate with these spheres of influence to help create that balance and health, both within yourself and within your community and culture. In subsequent books you will learn more about the work of each sphere, about how you as a “student” of that sphere will make certain decisions, about how living within that sphere influences your life choices, about how dreaming the color of that sphere sends certain encoded messages to you, and finally, about how you can determine which of the spheres influence you most heavily Learning to look at the world around you through the windows of the spheres will change the way you relate to the culture in which you live, as well as to global situations as you perceive them. Viewing political races or business trends as though they were resulting from sphere influence takes the emotionality and “spin” off them and puts them in a model that can be addressed with reason and rational investigation. A Colorful Life www.turtledreamers.com 38 Book One: An Overview In addition, by studying the spheres that influence you and your family, you will come to understand your relationships more clearly. Understanding where you are in cooperation and/or in contrast with your children, your life partners, the people in your workplace, your parents, and your friends is perhaps the most helpful personal aspect of this work. To learn more about the other books that I have written which may be valuable in helping you in your study of this work, please go to my website: http://www.turtledreamers.com A Colorful Life www.turtledreamers.com 39 Book One: An Overview references Amber, Reuben. Color Therapy. Santa Fe, NM: Aurora Press, 1982. Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von. Theory of Colours. London: M.I.T. Press,1840. Liberman, Jacob. Light Medicine of the Future: How we can use it to heal ourselves now. Santa Fe, NM: Bear & Co., 1991. Ouseley, S. G. J. Colour Meditations. London: L. N. Fowler & Co., 1967. Sri Aurobindo. Letters on Yoga 2. Pondicherry, India: Sri Aurobindo Ashram Press, 1958. Steiner, Rudolf. Colour. Sussex, England: Rudolf Steiner Press, 1992. A Colorful Life www.turtledreamers.com
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