For thousands of years color has been used to elevate mood, to heal, to delight, and to calm. In ancient Egypt the God Thoth was credited as the founder of the art of “healing with color”. In ancient Greek mythology, Hermes ruled healing with color, as well as mysticism and magic. Egypt and Greece used colored minerals, stones, crystals, salves and dyes as remedies. Treatment sanctuaries, painted in rich color, were used throughout the ancient world. In the first century A.D., Aurelius Celsus followed the doctrines established by Pythagoras and Hippocrates and wrote of colored ointments, plasters and flowers in several treatises on medicine.

Throughout the Classical period these principles remained largely unchanged in the West, until the Middle Ages.

With the coming of Christianity, all that was pagan was exorcised and those practicing the healing arts were persecuted. Ancient healing arts were preserved using secret oral instruction passed on to initiates. This hidden knowledge became known as the “occult.”

Later, the Renaissance saw a resurgence in the healing arts in Europe, and one of the most renowned practitioners was known as Paracelsus (1493-1541). Paracelsus regarded light and color as essential for good health and used them with charms, talismans, and elixirs. A proponent of alchemy, he insisted that alchemy’s true purpose was not to make gold, but to prepare effective medicines. In fact he used liquid gold to treat ailments of all kinds, apparently with a good deal of success.

By the eighteenth century “enlightenment” took on a new meaning and alchemists lost their prestige when mysticism was overtaken by rationalism and science. The divine gradually disappeared from the scientific view and by the nineteenth century, science was based on the material rather than the spiritual. Treatments such as surgery and antiseptics led to a decline in interest in healing with color and charms.

In recent times various forms of light therapy are on the rise. Endorphin and serotonin boosting light waves, injury healing light waves, and more esoteric forms of color and vibrational healing are used to boost collagen and improve athletic performance. Perhaps we are returning to ancient ways, integrating the mystical with the practical.

In any case, when we look deeply to our experience in this modern world, we see that vibration of both color and sound can bring solace and energy to humans, especially during this time of isolation. Can you invoke these ancient healing arts in your apartment, in your house, with your family or all alone? Yes, you can, without going anywhere.

Imagine a treasure hunt. In your current environment there are charms, talismans, and remedies you have collected all around, charms that convey power and peace: a photo of a loved one; a piece of woven fabric from another country; a bold silk scarf; a natural piece of stone; a piece of Mexican pottery. Recall the scent of perfume, a favorite song from long ago. These talismans can change your mood just by activating connections to meaningful experiences. Color can do the same thing.

I encourage you to make a list, mentally or on paper, of the things in the room where you are right now that bring joy, healing, hope, tenderness, and strength. These will be your clues.

Here is a hint: seeing color and feeling color are two different things. Music is a little like that. Some feel the beat, some feel the melody, some feel the lyrics. Feeling is the key. To interpret color I use a “kinetic” language to help clients experience the expression the color is presenting.

I might call a color scratchy, dry, bossy, weary, sad, juicy, comforting, fragile, or sincere, for example.

To discover your own healing colors, look to your list of totems around you and find correlations. Do you thrill to the intensity of violet and orange? Or prefer earthy terracotta, a fresh peach, a true green fern frond, or the mysterious warmth of a strand of pearls? Whatever you prefer, these are your touchstones, these are your comforts, these are unique to you.

In your mind, design your own enchanted healing chamber. Combine the present moment with the ancient wisdom of thousands of years ago. Decorate the chamber with the ten thousand charms stored in your DNA, in your past, and in all your memories of days gone by. Feel the vibration of all that you love, all you have shared, and all that you value.

This is this.

I am thankful for the research of Helen Graham in her book, History of Color Therapy