AP Literature/AP Language/English7/8 Mr. Stout – C-114
Color Symbolism Chart and “Archetypal Meaning”
Blue / Red / Yellow / White / Blackspirit, intellect / life, vitality / center of earth (China) / absence of color / reversal of opposites
reflection, analysis / blood, sacrifice, martyrdom / degradation (easily tainted) / all of spectrum of light / lack of consciousness
medium of truth / aggression, violence, anger / envy (China) / innocence / descent into darkness
constancy of sky / strength / ambiguity / purification / mourning
simplicity / fire / intuition / restoration (of lost innocence) / negation of worldly vanity
frustrated ambition / love / suspicion / purity/truth / penitence
aspirations of spirit / mortal combat / treacherous aggression / transfiguration / black-gray-white; resurrection
east (China) / sun (Mayan) / south (Mayan) / transcendence / water
rebirth or resurrection / south (Mexico) / transitional (between black and red) / glory / fertility
fidelity / riches / intellect (heraldry) / death (pale as death) / death
mystery / easy virtue / supernatural (white as a ghost) / evil
deception / blasphemy / age (white hair) / merging of all colors
uncertainty / hell, devil / the west (China) / south (China)
water / sulfur / mourning (Oriental) / humility, sorrow (heraldry)
loyalty, devotion (heraldry) / ready for action / transformation
suffering, conquest
north (China)
Water symbolism is suggestive of: primordial fluid; source of life; source of all things; beginning and end of all; flood – drowning and dissolving; death; layers of psyche; ambivalence; life/fertility; submersion/destruction; afterlife; realm of the dead; chaos; rain – life force; rime; eternity; cleansing/washing away spells, sins; baptism; water/fire duality (passive, active); cure/punishment; return to reality; energy of unconscious; dangerous energy when it overflows
Biedermann, Hans. Dictionary of Symbolism. New York: Facts on File, Inc., 1992