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From, the dawn of human history, man has recognized that sunlight was a very powerful phenomenon which is vital for all life. Color, being a manifestation of light, held a divine meaning not only in a physical nature but also symbolically. Man's quest was one of trying to solve the strange workings of creation by giving it some personal meaning for survival.
It appears that as far back as we can trace man's ancestral roots, creative people have been looked at as being gifted with some special ability. Primitive cultures had no elaborate languages or alphabets in which to communicate survival skills or the elusive nature of feelings. But they did possess the power of observation and limited ways to mimic nature for applying them in ways to live. The process then, became one of communicating any discoveries for the others to learn from, and creative expression was born.
Acting out these stories worked to an extent, but often something else was needed. This was when art came into the picture. Obviously it wasn't recognized as art as we see it, it was a teaching tool. Long winter months were spent in caves and drawings were made from found materials on the walls to accompany stories. It was also discovered that sounds could enhance the impact of the message they were trying to relate. This could have been done by banging on different things to make different sounds, or by imitating the rhythm of an animal's hoof beats to copying the whistle of a bird. It soon became apparent how this could excite and encourage participation. It was also a way of attempting to think or become One with the spirit of the animals that fed and clothed them. Rhythm and art played a major role in the story telling tradition and the origins of mythology.
Nature constantly provided obstacles in daily survival for early man. They experienced displays that were far beyond primitive man's wildest imagination. Mountains could explode, causing the earth to shake and the mountains would bleed with a fiery liquid (lava) that soon turned to stone. Branches of light could shoot from the sky like lances of fire that exploded with deafening rumbles and were soon followed by floods of water. At the end of this, the sun would announce its arrival with enormous arches of bright colors painted on the floating abyss of the sky. To an unsophisticated mind, THIS was sacred magic of the Great Spirit!
As Homo Sapiens evolved, early man learned to recreate some of these phenomena. They learned how to create fire for warmth and cooking. They manipulated sounds, which harmonized with, or copied other life forms. They were even able to recreate various colors of the rainbow. It's only natural that these discoveries went rewarded according to that certain discoveries usefulness or seeming tribute to the gods. Status in the group could be earned with recognition when the performances were repeated and shared.
In gatherings primitive people would dress up and dance around banging objects and blowing whistles to get people excited and induced the general mood for the group. The most skillful at this could have been seen as possessing some "larger than life" ability of nature or that of the Creator. These are the ones who were chosen to create the wall paintings and heal the sick or wounded. Today cave paintings in Texas have been dated at 3,685 years old because the paintings were done in part, with organic materials like blood, honey, and urine that were used as a bonding agent.
In order for these chosen ones to maintain their status, they had to continually update or refine their skills. This was done by refining their skills at creating new and or useful applications and experimenting with newly discovered plants and minerals. It is thought that elaborate rituals evolved to assist in daily hardships in ways meant to be understood by everyone; no matter how old or of what clan. One way of maintaining status was by reserving certain discoveries of how to blend a color or do something special strictly for themselves or for other high ranking individuals in the community.
Elaborate paintings were done on walls, masks, jewelry and pieces of clothing, incorporated into architecture used in daily life. Art and music were then combined with various complex rhythmic and visual arrangements in ceremony for the purpose of specific rituals or methods of conveying spirituality in various ways that could be understood by anyone in that culture.
Many theories exist on exact origins, but rituals were created for almost every act of man. These included, but were not limited to: healing, marriage, birth, death, preparation for the hunt, the following feast, spiritual guidance, initiation from childhood into adulthood, or simply to show respect.
Sun worshipping is as old as antiquity. In many instances, the sun represented the masculine and inflexible virtues of the Creator. The moon was then the feminine because of its passive, calming affects that caused one to relax.
The Egyptians and Mayans had an expressive color symbolism that permeated all of their art and culture. The hues of the rainbow were as significant as language in their costumes, art, architecture and rich in the colors used on totems prescribed by their medicine men, healers, or what are known as "Shamans."
Color beliefs varied from culture to culture, but applications of their use were strong universally. Color was used to signify rank with clothing, ornaments or body paint. When one group encountered another while traveling and wanted to avoid violence and possibly being killed for intruding, they sometimes had to come up with something quick. If they didn't want combat, they would have to intimidate or entertain the people with some special appearance or abilities that often ended up with some exchange and sharing of discoveries. Among the people of the world, color has always been associated with social status and vanity in signifying importance. Even today an individual's personal inadequacies can be hidden behind the anonymity of a uniform or robe. That person is then identified by the position of what his/her office is supposed to represent.
Some medicinal practices of the ancients utilized curatives of color and song as remedies for different ailments. The Persians even practiced a form of color therapy based on the emanations of light. Despite the mysticism that originally surrounded them, many of these cures have been proven effective and accepted into modern medicinal practices.
Along with music and colorful displays, medicine men and spiritual advisors commonly incorporated a certain amount of illusion into their rituals to instill faith in their followers. As a rule, people are more apt to question what a person is capable of doing if the other person's appearance is a bit "different." We tend to assign personalities with a persons looks, for example a person in a judges robe is "supposed" to be for the good of society as is a policeman, yet they are only human and subject to err just as anyone else. In this case it was easier for the healer to utilize a little hocus-pocus with their learned applications to instill this faith. It was much easier than trying to overpower known fears or pains of the person in need.
As time went on, many of these practices were exposed as trickery or just deemed as "superstition." In some cases fear still determined the application, but it caused some practices to be seen as evil. The fact remains that "belief" IS powerful in the recovery of any disorder. This can be witnessed by studying the millions of cases of people who have been cured from actual ailments with no more than placebos (or sugar pills).
It was the Greeks who contributed a more practical view to the physical affects if these practices. In the 4th century B.C., Hippocrates abandoned mysticism to study the actual functions of the body. He then founded the diagnostic principles of modern medicine. This was the beginning of the split between spiritual and clinical approaches to healing. Science divided spirituality because of the many unknown variables due to the fact that technology had not evolved to the point where adequate explanations could be found to describe the unexplainable. Today's discoveries in modern medicine and physics are beginning to give us reason to think they may actually be one and the same after all.
Today color and sound are utilized in a wide variety of ways to influence us. From using a blue light on a baby born with pathologic jaundice, infra-red heat treatments, advertising, utilizing red or yellow on warnings, the colors of a recovery room in a hospital, to calming large groups that are in a stressful environment by piping in music or decorating with soothing colors. By getting a better understanding of the mechanics of the electromagnetic spectrum, you can then realize just how sophisticated modern science has re-applied the historical uses of these mediums for physical and psychological health. Much of this section was learned from a man named Fabber Birren. He dedicated his life to the affects of color in life and devised many of the common color codes used today in public and military applications. Although his discoveries sometimes took him into controversial areas that scared the novice, he devised the color coding systems utilized in much of the living areas of our lives today. The yellow stripes we see on highways and warnings to red lights for example.
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Eden is. The kingdom of the Father is spread upon the earth, and men do not see.
Joseph Campbell
"The Power of Myth"