by Catherine Mayell

Color is always bursting with meaning. If you pay attention to it when interpreting images, it will deepen your insights.  Some tarot decks, like the Thoth deck, make great use of color to convey meaning. Check out the common meanings of colors below. The energy of colors varies with their wavelength.  So red, which has the greatest wavelength, is the most stimulating. While violet, which has the shortest, is the most calming.  Next time you see color in an image, feel its energy. What’s it telling you?

  • Red/Orange: vitality, life, libido, passion, strength, life force, fire energy (wands).
  • Brown: earth energy, fertility, nature, manifestation of earth energy.
  • Yellow: Joy, spirit in a male (yang) sense, the Sun, joyful energy, vitality.
  • Green: Growth, natural world, life, newness, creativity.
  • Blue: spiritual receptive love, wisdom, mental planes, air energy, the feminine (yin) principal, clarity (together with yellow and white).
  • Violet: royalty, spirituality, in Egyptian mythology, the color of the warrior, uncalculating warmth, lovingness.
  • Gold: transformation, as in alchemy, royalty, divinity, wealth.