Post by giovanni on Jan 23, 2006 18:27:28 GMT
THE SEVEN RAYS AND THE RAINBOW
Bro. René Guénon
We have already Spoken on various occasions of the symbolism of the ‘seven rays' of the sun,[1] and it might be asked whether these 'seven rays' have some connection with what are ordinarily called the ‘seven colors of the rainbow; for these colors represent literally the different radiations of which solar light is composed. There is indeed a connection, but at the same time these so-called ‘seven colors' are a typical example of the way in which an authentic: traditional doctrine can sometimes be deformed by a common misunderstanding, This deformation in a case like the present one is, moreover, easily explained: it is clear that there must be a septenary here, but since one of its terms cannot be found, another having no real justification is substituted; the septenary seems thus to be reconstituted, but in such a way that its symbolism is entirely falsified. If it is now asked why one term of the true septenary escapes the common man in this way, the answer is also easy: it is because this term is the one that corresponds to the 'seventh ray; that is, to the ‘central' or 'axial' ray which passes ‘through the sun' and which, not being a ray like the others, cannot be represented as they are.[2] By this very fact therefore, and by reason also of the whole range of its symbolic and truly initiatic connections, it has a particularly mysterious character; and from this point of view it could be said that the substitution in question has the effect of concealing the mystery from the eyes of the profane; moreover, it matters little whether its origin was intentional or simply due to an involuntary misunderstanding, which doubtless would be rather difficult to determine exactly.[3]
In fact, the rainbow does not have seven colors, but only six, and it isn't necessary to reflect very long to realize this, for it suffices to consult the most elementary notions of physics: there are three primary colors-blue, yellow, red-and there are three colors complementary to these-orange, violet, green-or six colors in all. Naturally, there are also an indefinite number of intermediate shades between these colors, with a continuous and imperceptible transition from one to another; but there is obviously no valid reason whatsoever to add any one of these shades to the list of colors, for then one could just as well consider a multitude of them, and in such conditions the very limitation of colors to seven becomes basically incomprehensible. We do not know whether any adversaries of symbolism have ever made this observation, but if so it would be quite surprising if they had not taken advantage of it in order to qualify this number as ‘arbitrary’: Indigo, customarily numbered among the colors of the rainbow, is really nothing more than a shade between violet and blue,[4] and there is no more reason to view it as a distinct color than there would be in the case of any other shade, such as blue-green for example, or blue-yellow; besides, the introduction of this shade into the enumeration of colors completely destroys the harmony of their distribution, which, if correctly understood, is shown in a regular manner according to a geometric schema that is simultaneously very simple and very significant from the symbolic point of view. The three primary colors can be placed at the three apexes of a triangle, and the three complementary colors at those of a second triangle inverted in relation to the first, in such a way that each primary color and its coin plementary color are located at diametrically opposite points; and we see that the figure thus formed is none other than the ‘Seal of Solomon: If a circle is drawn within which the double triangle is inscribed, each of the complementary colors will be located at the mid-point of the arc between the points occupied by the two primary colors from the combination of which it is produced (the latter, of course, being the two primary colors other than tire complement of the color under consideration); the intermediate shades naturally correspond to all the other points of the circumference,[5] but in the double triangle, which here is what is essential, there is obviously place for only six colors.[6] These remarks may even seem too simple for it to be useful to dwell on them but in truth, these kinds of things should often be recalled in order to correct commonly held ideas, for what should be immediately apparent is precisely what most people do not know how to see. True ‘good sense' is very different from the 'common sense' with which it is so frequently confused, and it is certainly far from being 'the most widely shared thing in the world,' as Descartes declared.
To resolve the question of the seventh term that really has to be added to the six colors in order to complete the septenary, we must :go back to the geometrical representation of the ‘seven rays; such as we have explained it on another occasion, that is, the six directions of space forming the three-dimensional cross and the center itself whence these directions issue. It is important to note at the outset the close similarities between this representation and that which we have just mentioned concerning the colors: like the colors, the six directions are opposed two by two along three straight lines which, extending on either side from the center; correspond to the three dimensions of space; and if a planar representation were desired it obviously could only be that of a figure of three diameters forming the six-spoked wheel (the general schema of the 'chrismon') or by various other equivalent symbols. Now, these diameters are those - joining the opposite apexes of the two triangles of the ‘Seal of Solomon; so that in reality the two representations are but one.[7] It follows that in relation to the six colors the seventh term must play the same role as does the center in relation to the six directions; and, in fact, it will also be placed at the center of the schema, that is, at the point where the apparent oppositions, which are really only complementarities, are resolved into unity. This amounts to saying that this seventh term is no more a color than the center is a direction, but that, since the center is the principle from which all space with its six directions proceeds, the seventh term must also be the principle from which the six colors are derived and in which they are synthetically contained. This can therefore only be white, which is actually ‘colorless', just as the point is 'dimensionless'; white does not appear in the rainbow any more than the 'seventh ray' appears in a geometrical representation; but all colors are only the product of a differentiation of white light, just as the directions of space are only the development of the possibilities contained in the primordial point.
The true septenary, therefore, is formed here by the white light and the six colors into which it is differentiated; and it follows that the seventh term is really the first, since it is the principle of all the others, which would not have any existence whatsoever without it; but it is also the last in the sense that all finally return to it: the reunion of all- the colors reconstitutes the white light, which gave birth to them. It could be said that in a septenary thus constituted, one is at the center and six at the circumference; in other words, such a septenary is formed of unity and of the senary, unity corresponding to the non-manifested principle and- the senary to the whole of manifestation. We can compare this with the symbolism of the ‘week' in the Hebrew Genesis, for there too the seventh term differs essentially from the six others: Creation is in fact the ‘work of six days' and not of seven; and the seventh day is that of ‘rest'. This seventh term, which could be designated as the ‘sabbatical' term, is really also the first, for this ‘rest' is nothing other than the return of the creative Principle into the initial state of non-manifestation, a state moreover from which it had gone forth in appearance only, relative to creation, and to produce creation according to the senary cycle, but from which, in itself, it had never really departed. Just as the point is not affected by the deployment of space, although it may seem to go out from itself to describe the six directions, nor the white light by the irradiation of the rainbow, although it seems to divide itself in order to form the six colors, so likewise the non-manifested Principle, without which manifestation could not exist in any way, while seeming to act and to express itself in the 'work of six days', is nevertheless in no way affected by this manifestation; and the ‘seventh ray is the ‘Way' by which the being, having passed through the cycle of manifestation, returns to the non-manifested and is effectively united with the Principle from which, however, even in manifestation, it has never been separated except in an illusory way.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] See chaps. 41 and 50 (ED).
[2] Referring to the beginning of the Tao Te Ching, it could be said that each of the other rays is ‘a way’, but that the seventh is ‘the Way'
[3] We have come across a rather curious bit of information in this respect, though unfortunately without any precise reference: the Emperor Julian [the Apostate] somewhere refers to the 'seven-rayed god' (Heptaktis), whose 'solar' character is evident, as being, in the teaching of the Mysteries, a subject on which it was desirable to maintain the greatest reserve; if it were established that the erroneous notion of the ‘seven colors' goes back to antiquity, one might wonder whether it had not been intentionally spread by the initiates of those same Mysteries, who would thus have found the means of assuring the preservation of a traditional idea without however revealing its true meaning outwardly In the contrary case, it must be supposed that the substituted term was somehow invented by the common people themselves, who would have known simply of the existence of a septenary, but would have been ignorant of its real constitution; and it may be, moreover, that the truth happens to be a combination of the two hypotheses, for it is very possible that current opinion on the ‘seven colors' represents the outcome of several successive deformations of the original idea.
[4] The very designation ‘indigo' is manifestly quite modern, but it maybe that it replaced some 'more ancient designation, or that this shade itself was at a certain time substituted for another in order to complete the common the septenary of colors. To verify this we should of course need to undertake historical researches of a somewhat complicated sort, researches for which we have neither the time nor the necessary materials at bur disposal; but for us, this point has only a very secondary importance, since we propose only to show how the current conception expressed in the ordinary enumeration of the colors of the rainbow is wrong and how it distorts the true traditional idea.
[5] If we wished to count a color intermediate between each of the six principal colors, as indigo between violet and blue, there would then be twelve colors in all, and not seven; and if we wished to carry the distinction of shades further, it would always be necessary, for evident reasons of symmetry, to establish the same number of divisions in each of the intervals between two colors. In short, this is no more than a very elementary application of the principle of sufficient reason or cause.
[6] We may note in passing that the fact that visible colors thus take tap the entire circumference and are there joined together with no discontinuity shows that they really form x complete cycle (violet partaking at the same time of the neighboring blue and of red, which is found at the other side of the rainbow) and that, consequently, the other, non-visible solar radiations, such as those that modern physics designates as 'infra-red' and ‘ultra-violet’, in no way pertain to light and are of quite a different nature from it. Thus there are not, as some seem to believe, ‘colors' which an imperfection of our visual organs prevents us from seeing, for there would be no room on any part of the circumference for these so-called colors, and it certainly could not be claimed that this circle is an imperfect figure, or that it presents any discontinuity whatsoever.
[7] Let us point out further that an indefinite multitude of directions could be considered by including all the intermediate directions, which thus correspond to the intermediate shades between the six principal colors; but there is reason to consider distinctly only the six ‘oriented' directions forming the system of rectangular coordinates to which all space is related and by which it is as it were ‘measured' in its entirety; in this respect, again, the correspondence between the six directions and the six colors is therefore perfectly exact.
Bro. René Guénon
We have already Spoken on various occasions of the symbolism of the ‘seven rays' of the sun,[1] and it might be asked whether these 'seven rays' have some connection with what are ordinarily called the ‘seven colors of the rainbow; for these colors represent literally the different radiations of which solar light is composed. There is indeed a connection, but at the same time these so-called ‘seven colors' are a typical example of the way in which an authentic: traditional doctrine can sometimes be deformed by a common misunderstanding, This deformation in a case like the present one is, moreover, easily explained: it is clear that there must be a septenary here, but since one of its terms cannot be found, another having no real justification is substituted; the septenary seems thus to be reconstituted, but in such a way that its symbolism is entirely falsified. If it is now asked why one term of the true septenary escapes the common man in this way, the answer is also easy: it is because this term is the one that corresponds to the 'seventh ray; that is, to the ‘central' or 'axial' ray which passes ‘through the sun' and which, not being a ray like the others, cannot be represented as they are.[2] By this very fact therefore, and by reason also of the whole range of its symbolic and truly initiatic connections, it has a particularly mysterious character; and from this point of view it could be said that the substitution in question has the effect of concealing the mystery from the eyes of the profane; moreover, it matters little whether its origin was intentional or simply due to an involuntary misunderstanding, which doubtless would be rather difficult to determine exactly.[3]
In fact, the rainbow does not have seven colors, but only six, and it isn't necessary to reflect very long to realize this, for it suffices to consult the most elementary notions of physics: there are three primary colors-blue, yellow, red-and there are three colors complementary to these-orange, violet, green-or six colors in all. Naturally, there are also an indefinite number of intermediate shades between these colors, with a continuous and imperceptible transition from one to another; but there is obviously no valid reason whatsoever to add any one of these shades to the list of colors, for then one could just as well consider a multitude of them, and in such conditions the very limitation of colors to seven becomes basically incomprehensible. We do not know whether any adversaries of symbolism have ever made this observation, but if so it would be quite surprising if they had not taken advantage of it in order to qualify this number as ‘arbitrary’: Indigo, customarily numbered among the colors of the rainbow, is really nothing more than a shade between violet and blue,[4] and there is no more reason to view it as a distinct color than there would be in the case of any other shade, such as blue-green for example, or blue-yellow; besides, the introduction of this shade into the enumeration of colors completely destroys the harmony of their distribution, which, if correctly understood, is shown in a regular manner according to a geometric schema that is simultaneously very simple and very significant from the symbolic point of view. The three primary colors can be placed at the three apexes of a triangle, and the three complementary colors at those of a second triangle inverted in relation to the first, in such a way that each primary color and its coin plementary color are located at diametrically opposite points; and we see that the figure thus formed is none other than the ‘Seal of Solomon: If a circle is drawn within which the double triangle is inscribed, each of the complementary colors will be located at the mid-point of the arc between the points occupied by the two primary colors from the combination of which it is produced (the latter, of course, being the two primary colors other than tire complement of the color under consideration); the intermediate shades naturally correspond to all the other points of the circumference,[5] but in the double triangle, which here is what is essential, there is obviously place for only six colors.[6] These remarks may even seem too simple for it to be useful to dwell on them but in truth, these kinds of things should often be recalled in order to correct commonly held ideas, for what should be immediately apparent is precisely what most people do not know how to see. True ‘good sense' is very different from the 'common sense' with which it is so frequently confused, and it is certainly far from being 'the most widely shared thing in the world,' as Descartes declared.
To resolve the question of the seventh term that really has to be added to the six colors in order to complete the septenary, we must :go back to the geometrical representation of the ‘seven rays; such as we have explained it on another occasion, that is, the six directions of space forming the three-dimensional cross and the center itself whence these directions issue. It is important to note at the outset the close similarities between this representation and that which we have just mentioned concerning the colors: like the colors, the six directions are opposed two by two along three straight lines which, extending on either side from the center; correspond to the three dimensions of space; and if a planar representation were desired it obviously could only be that of a figure of three diameters forming the six-spoked wheel (the general schema of the 'chrismon') or by various other equivalent symbols. Now, these diameters are those - joining the opposite apexes of the two triangles of the ‘Seal of Solomon; so that in reality the two representations are but one.[7] It follows that in relation to the six colors the seventh term must play the same role as does the center in relation to the six directions; and, in fact, it will also be placed at the center of the schema, that is, at the point where the apparent oppositions, which are really only complementarities, are resolved into unity. This amounts to saying that this seventh term is no more a color than the center is a direction, but that, since the center is the principle from which all space with its six directions proceeds, the seventh term must also be the principle from which the six colors are derived and in which they are synthetically contained. This can therefore only be white, which is actually ‘colorless', just as the point is 'dimensionless'; white does not appear in the rainbow any more than the 'seventh ray' appears in a geometrical representation; but all colors are only the product of a differentiation of white light, just as the directions of space are only the development of the possibilities contained in the primordial point.
The true septenary, therefore, is formed here by the white light and the six colors into which it is differentiated; and it follows that the seventh term is really the first, since it is the principle of all the others, which would not have any existence whatsoever without it; but it is also the last in the sense that all finally return to it: the reunion of all- the colors reconstitutes the white light, which gave birth to them. It could be said that in a septenary thus constituted, one is at the center and six at the circumference; in other words, such a septenary is formed of unity and of the senary, unity corresponding to the non-manifested principle and- the senary to the whole of manifestation. We can compare this with the symbolism of the ‘week' in the Hebrew Genesis, for there too the seventh term differs essentially from the six others: Creation is in fact the ‘work of six days' and not of seven; and the seventh day is that of ‘rest'. This seventh term, which could be designated as the ‘sabbatical' term, is really also the first, for this ‘rest' is nothing other than the return of the creative Principle into the initial state of non-manifestation, a state moreover from which it had gone forth in appearance only, relative to creation, and to produce creation according to the senary cycle, but from which, in itself, it had never really departed. Just as the point is not affected by the deployment of space, although it may seem to go out from itself to describe the six directions, nor the white light by the irradiation of the rainbow, although it seems to divide itself in order to form the six colors, so likewise the non-manifested Principle, without which manifestation could not exist in any way, while seeming to act and to express itself in the 'work of six days', is nevertheless in no way affected by this manifestation; and the ‘seventh ray is the ‘Way' by which the being, having passed through the cycle of manifestation, returns to the non-manifested and is effectively united with the Principle from which, however, even in manifestation, it has never been separated except in an illusory way.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] See chaps. 41 and 50 (ED).
[2] Referring to the beginning of the Tao Te Ching, it could be said that each of the other rays is ‘a way’, but that the seventh is ‘the Way'
[3] We have come across a rather curious bit of information in this respect, though unfortunately without any precise reference: the Emperor Julian [the Apostate] somewhere refers to the 'seven-rayed god' (Heptaktis), whose 'solar' character is evident, as being, in the teaching of the Mysteries, a subject on which it was desirable to maintain the greatest reserve; if it were established that the erroneous notion of the ‘seven colors' goes back to antiquity, one might wonder whether it had not been intentionally spread by the initiates of those same Mysteries, who would thus have found the means of assuring the preservation of a traditional idea without however revealing its true meaning outwardly In the contrary case, it must be supposed that the substituted term was somehow invented by the common people themselves, who would have known simply of the existence of a septenary, but would have been ignorant of its real constitution; and it may be, moreover, that the truth happens to be a combination of the two hypotheses, for it is very possible that current opinion on the ‘seven colors' represents the outcome of several successive deformations of the original idea.
[4] The very designation ‘indigo' is manifestly quite modern, but it maybe that it replaced some 'more ancient designation, or that this shade itself was at a certain time substituted for another in order to complete the common the septenary of colors. To verify this we should of course need to undertake historical researches of a somewhat complicated sort, researches for which we have neither the time nor the necessary materials at bur disposal; but for us, this point has only a very secondary importance, since we propose only to show how the current conception expressed in the ordinary enumeration of the colors of the rainbow is wrong and how it distorts the true traditional idea.
[5] If we wished to count a color intermediate between each of the six principal colors, as indigo between violet and blue, there would then be twelve colors in all, and not seven; and if we wished to carry the distinction of shades further, it would always be necessary, for evident reasons of symmetry, to establish the same number of divisions in each of the intervals between two colors. In short, this is no more than a very elementary application of the principle of sufficient reason or cause.
[6] We may note in passing that the fact that visible colors thus take tap the entire circumference and are there joined together with no discontinuity shows that they really form x complete cycle (violet partaking at the same time of the neighboring blue and of red, which is found at the other side of the rainbow) and that, consequently, the other, non-visible solar radiations, such as those that modern physics designates as 'infra-red' and ‘ultra-violet’, in no way pertain to light and are of quite a different nature from it. Thus there are not, as some seem to believe, ‘colors' which an imperfection of our visual organs prevents us from seeing, for there would be no room on any part of the circumference for these so-called colors, and it certainly could not be claimed that this circle is an imperfect figure, or that it presents any discontinuity whatsoever.
[7] Let us point out further that an indefinite multitude of directions could be considered by including all the intermediate directions, which thus correspond to the intermediate shades between the six principal colors; but there is reason to consider distinctly only the six ‘oriented' directions forming the system of rectangular coordinates to which all space is related and by which it is as it were ‘measured' in its entirety; in this respect, again, the correspondence between the six directions and the six colors is therefore perfectly exact.