So here I was looking at a piece of jewelry I received, a crystal necklace with gemstones attached to the side of it in the assending colors of the Chakras, red bottom on up to Purple for the Crown.

In looking out my window I noticed a rainbow and how the colors were arranged in nature. In the rainbows I have observed since then it appears that Red is the top color desending orange, yellow, green, blue, purple. Opposite of what is put out there as the colors symbolizing the energy centers. Can anyone give me a reason for this?

Wow... neat observation.
Hope one of our so many knowledgeable folks in the forum reply. And thanks jeffdengr for noticing. That's pretty interesting stuff.

My guess - correspondance. Red is longer wave length and hence lower frequency while blue is the shortest wavelength and thus highest frequency.

I figure it's because the red is often the only colour seen in a rainbow. We know the full spectrum is there but on many occasions only the red is faintly visible. So being the first colour seen it is associated with the first Chakra. Also I was of the understanding colours were assigned by one that could see the colours of the chakra. In which case it would be an interesting natural relationship.

We cannot always see the rainbow if we are staning or looking in the wrong direction. So someone with the ability to see the chakras is going to tell us what they see.

Also how does one decide what is the top of a rainbow? Isn't it abitary? Since it was only us who decided what is top and what is bottom?

Alex

[This message has been edited by Alex K. Viefhaus (edited December 29, 2004).]

That is a neat observation Jeffdengr. As is yours Alan.

I would also through in the psychological effects of colours into the discussion. Especially since I don't think the index of refraction or the photo-electric effect had much input into the colour associations. However, the rainbow may have been influential.

I like the idea that the scientific and the personal interpretation of light energy have a similar ordering. That the same or similar information is being percieved by the human and mechanical systems. It's the kind of think a Spring Forest Qigong practitioner with a background in physics really likes.

Sorry, no answers, just gratitude for your sharing.

You are perfection.
Iam2

Here is a really good site on the rainbow phenomena ...
http://my.unidata.ucar.edu/content/staff/blynds/rnbw.html

Red's at the top of the rainbow because of its wavelength and bend it goes through at the back of the drop of water.

As for chakras and colors that's got to be "higher" chakras equal higher vibrations equal higher (frequency) color stuff. The older literature does not give the colors so simplistically, but rather mentions things like silver and red together for a particular chakra.

Some people try and make a correspondance between the chakras and the notes of the western musical scale, which is another arbitrary association.

It would be interesting for anyone out there with "second sight" who can actually see auras and chakras to describe what they experience. I have no direct knowledge.

Thank you all for the info. I had wondered if there was a connection of the natural colors of the rainbow and the colors choosen or seen for the Chakras.

On Maui here there are regular rainbows and the visible part for me is top red and bottom purple. Since they followed a natural spectrum I can't see how it would follow in a opposite pattern for the energy centers.

But as Allen pointed out it is probably arbitrary and then just accepted by everyone.

I started paying attention to color sequence after learning about the constructive cycle of the elements and how that worked. You see the Tibetan Prayer flags and the sequencing of colors they use. So I suppose I ask "why did they do it that way?" It has to mean something.

Rainbows are actually circular. we only see part of the circle because the earth gets in the way. It is possible to see the full circle and has been seen from the air in planes.

The number 7 seems to be very significant in our life on earth.
7 notes on a musical scale,
7 visible colours in the spectum (like notes they repeat at a higher frequency)
7 years our bodies are fully replaced by our ever changing cells. [Physically no part of us is with us] 7 is the cycle of growth.
The seven dominant chakras.

The mind looks for pattens and it looks like we look at the patterns of our natural world to create associations.

Alex

Come on Alex.

Rainbows are not circular. There is another phenomena called a halo that may be what you are refering to. Rainbows are caused by water droplets hanging in the air acting as prisms reflecting sunlight to an observer. Please provide us a reference to the completely circular rainbow. A picture or description or website? I'd love to see it or read about it.

7 notes in the musical scale? Which musical scale are you referring to? There are 12 notes (per octave) in the "equal tempered" scale which is the compromise that folks came up with so they could make a piano that'd play in more than a couple of keys. It's based on the 12th root of 2.

Seven notes of a diatonic scale is the sound palate most folks work from but if you start and stop from a different place then you have a different relationship between the notes. These are "modes" like Ionian (1), Dorian (2), Phyrigian (3), Mixolidian (5), Aeolean (6).
In the west there has also been Pythagorean, Just Diatonic and Chromatic tunings of scales which have different frequency relationships between the notes. There are other non-western Arabic scales, Hindu scale (22 notes), pentatonic scales (5) and use different tonal centers.

The reference or basis for all tuning has risen from A = 432 Hz to A = 440 Hz to some folks even playing A= 442Hz. So where is the ground of being? How do we chunk it?

Light. Are there only seven colors? Or is there an infinite number of colors? What do you mean by your statement "like notes they repeat at a higher frequency" ?? Light is a frequency specific phenomena interpreted by our nervous systems. Do you know anyone who sees (unaided) into the ultra-violet or infra-red portions of the spectrum?

Seven year replacement for cells? It varies.

Chakras? Gotta take others word on that. I do not see them. Do you?

I suspect the seven number comes up because of the "7 plus or minus two" that most folks can hold in conscious attention rather than a intentional segmenting of the universe.

But I could be wrong.

In the November issue of Focus 2004 page 45 Andy Harrison writes

quote:

---

"Rainbows are in fact circular, with the circle's center exactly in line with your head when the sun is behind you. You only see part of the circle because the earth gets in the way, but people in aeroplanes have observed completely circular rainbows when the contitions were just right"

---

He goes on to explain how rainbows are formed, and that the colours only appear to be red top and blue bottom.

Of course if you don't like my source you can check this one http://my.unidata.ucar.edu/content/staff/blynds/rnbw.html http://www.phy.ntnu.edu.tw/java/Rainbow/rainbow_story.html

As for colours at the extremes of sectrum.
Animals can see them and with electronic aids we do see them isn't it interesting that they are called infra-red and ultra- violet.

On the whole my discussion was about what the indigenous people from around the world have associated with the rainbow and our part in nature. A possible reason as to how and why the chakras are associated with the Rainbow.

Alex

[This message has been edited by Alex K. Viefhaus (edited January 02, 2005).]

Alan, you posted the same link that Alex had in her post after you said that "rainbows aren't circular".

Well after pondering Round Rainbows I came up with a few ideas. If the Chakras assend from red to purple and red is the closest color to the sun, then possibly the Lower Dentian energy center might symbolize the human sun energy and you would have the rainbow colors working in the right order.

Another application might be in Spring Forest Qigong visualizing the column of energy in the body as a round rainbow starting with the sun in the center.

I'm a application kind of guy.

Be Beautiful

Jeff

Alex previous post was filled with references to the cosmic significance of the number 7.

Well I learned something about cicular rainbows - gotta be in a plane to see them.

I do not have access to the magazine Focus but there's a nice picture here ...
http://www.roddyscheer.com/napali_circular_rainbow2.html

The first link does not mention a "cicular" rainbow. The second one does. So we have some odd occurences of people being in airplanes. Great.

I disagree with the quoted author. The earth does not "get in the way" of the rainbow. In order for the phenomena called, "rainbow," we need water droplets, sunlight and an observer at the correct position. In the earth there is no water mist to reflect the sun's light to an observer.

I rarely see a full semi-circle rainbow. It is usually only part of the arc. Does that mean we have the sky or clouds to "get in the way." No it means the reflected sunlight is not there.

Anyone want to bite on, "If there is no observer is there a rainbow?"

From another perspective, we create the rainbow. I like that one.

The paragraph immediately before the Header What Makes the colours of a Rainbow.. in the first link which is the same one you provided. answers your question about when one can see the fuller arch.

quote:

---

We don't see a full circle because the earth gets in the way. The lower the sun is to the horizon, the more of the circle we see -right at sunset, we would see a full semicircle of the rainbow with the top of the arch 42 degrees above the horizon. The higher the sun is in the sky, the smaller is the arch of the rainbow above the horizon.

---

Alex

[This message has been edited by Alex K. Viefhaus (edited January 02, 2005).]

Don't you think it's all pretty arbitrary?

Because we see seven colors in a rainbow doesn't mean there *are* seven colors. A person from a different culture may very well see only four distinct colors in the rainbow, while others (say an interior decorator or a painter) may see many more.

The attribution of colors to chakras may be arbitrary. It may just be a way of categorizing and understanding things, not a truth in and of itself.

Higher and lower frequencies of color and vibration make sense as correlaries, but, really, "up there" may no be so heavenly and "down there" may not be so earthy or base.

Up and down are both based on frames of reference that change. For instance, if you're upside down, then the relationship of colors of the rainbow to the chakras matches.

And, also, in experiments with light and refraction through lenses (and that is, I think, what a rainbow is) things often get reversed ... so, it very well may be that purple is indeed "up" and red is "down."

Well I don't think it's arbitrary. A certain standard was laid out for the colors of the energy centers. Somebody had some logic in there to do it that way and have it accepted by most everyone. I was asking if someone knew why they did it that way.