Seven Colours in Three Movements
"They might not be as deeply entrenched or imbued with meaning and mythological significance as the sun or the moon, the river or the forest but rainbows (Fig.1) still feature quite prominently in our Western cultural conciousness - from the elusive 'pot of gold at the end of the rainbow' to the 80s TV kids program of the same name - probably beyond them even (I'm not especially knowledgeable on the subject)."
"Even though they border on the commonplace, I believe that most people smile inwardly, if not outwardly when they see a rainbow. To everyone but meteorologists they're unexpected, and are intrinsically beautiful: a transparent, pyschedelic spectrum stretched across the cloud-soaked sky."
Fig. 1
"Is it a cruel irony then that the rainbow - a symbol of unity, love, hope and fortune - is just an optical illusion? Were the cultures involved in the consensus that rainbows are a suitable emblem for these things aware of this? If not, perhaps they can be forgiven - but we can't."
"If, on the other hand, they were aware..."
"Hmmm. Maybe they are appropriate symbols for the positive. It doesn't matter a jot if these things are 'real' in a corporeal sense, that we can't touch them or unravel them into their separate colours. Our eyes render the strangeness of the world in a way we can comprehend, and the way we comprehend it can affect how we behave."
"And as optical illusions go, it has an interesting enough cause: sunlight filtered through rain, which have their own individual connotations - ones obvious enough for me not to bother explaining them."
- Dr. F. Ruscoe, PHD
"Even though they border on the commonplace, I believe that most people smile inwardly, if not outwardly when they see a rainbow. To everyone but meteorologists they're unexpected, and are intrinsically beautiful: a transparent, pyschedelic spectrum stretched across the cloud-soaked sky."
Fig. 1
"Is it a cruel irony then that the rainbow - a symbol of unity, love, hope and fortune - is just an optical illusion? Were the cultures involved in the consensus that rainbows are a suitable emblem for these things aware of this? If not, perhaps they can be forgiven - but we can't."
"If, on the other hand, they were aware..."
"Hmmm. Maybe they are appropriate symbols for the positive. It doesn't matter a jot if these things are 'real' in a corporeal sense, that we can't touch them or unravel them into their separate colours. Our eyes render the strangeness of the world in a way we can comprehend, and the way we comprehend it can affect how we behave."
"And as optical illusions go, it has an interesting enough cause: sunlight filtered through rain, which have their own individual connotations - ones obvious enough for me not to bother explaining them."
- Dr. F. Ruscoe, PHD