Connotations of "black"
A post on Tumblr reminded me today that I have long been in love with the color black, and have long worked to give it new associations. It's a deeply spiritual color for me; both actual black *and* the "dark brown skin" that most people call black. Many of my Goddesses have brownish skin, like Shao'Kehn (who also has black hair). Grah'Bahn, Kusunia, and now Morshiinin have even darker brown skin. Morshenda's skin, hair, and eyes are true black in color; makes sense, since She is Deity of darkness and the night. None of my Deities are evil; Shao'Kehn can be a bit intense at times, especially Her Shao'MaHK/Dame Mah’HKrah (destruction) Aspect, but She's never been evil.
In the Yahgahn culture of Traipah, where all my Deities come from, their view of the color black is different. There's a scene in the second (and unpublished) book where we see a bit of this; a meeting on Traipah where waving a black flag indicates agreement and waving a white flag means disagreement. I don't know what their associations with white are beyond that, but they have positive associations with black. The part of their eyes that are white in human eyes, are black for them. They looked up at the night sky, it's blackness, and decided that black was the color from which creation sprang, that the bones of the universe were black. It is a sacred color to the Yahgahn culture, and many other Traipahni cultures.
In paganism we see other positive associations for black. Onyx and other black stones are protective stones and can absorb negativity, wicking it away and banishing it. Onyx is also good for working with one's inner fears and "inner demons." In color magick, black is the color of power, and can lend oomph to your energy, and to your magick workings; it's also good for bindings, for shape-shifting, and breaking free from bad habits and addictions. And the color brown is a stabilizing, grounding color good for motivational and work-related magick, as well as protection and money magick. Black is also the color of mystery, of things hidden, which may be why small minds fear it.
This was cross-posted from http://fayanora.dreamwidth.org/1053740.html
You can comment either here or there.
In the Yahgahn culture of Traipah, where all my Deities come from, their view of the color black is different. There's a scene in the second (and unpublished) book where we see a bit of this; a meeting on Traipah where waving a black flag indicates agreement and waving a white flag means disagreement. I don't know what their associations with white are beyond that, but they have positive associations with black. The part of their eyes that are white in human eyes, are black for them. They looked up at the night sky, it's blackness, and decided that black was the color from which creation sprang, that the bones of the universe were black. It is a sacred color to the Yahgahn culture, and many other Traipahni cultures.
In paganism we see other positive associations for black. Onyx and other black stones are protective stones and can absorb negativity, wicking it away and banishing it. Onyx is also good for working with one's inner fears and "inner demons." In color magick, black is the color of power, and can lend oomph to your energy, and to your magick workings; it's also good for bindings, for shape-shifting, and breaking free from bad habits and addictions. And the color brown is a stabilizing, grounding color good for motivational and work-related magick, as well as protection and money magick. Black is also the color of mystery, of things hidden, which may be why small minds fear it.
This was cross-posted from http://fayanora.dreamwidth.org/1053740.html
You can comment either here or there.