Symbolic Colours: Their Significance in Antiquity, The Middle Ages & Modern Times
- Phoenix Amata
- Nov 26
- 1 min read
The author demonstrates a profound familiarity with the esoteric teachings discreetly transmitted from generation to generation in the schools of initiation that have existed in one form or another throughout the history of civilisation. It is also apparent that he is concerned neither with the scientific application nor with the philosophical understanding of colour, rather, it is clear that his primary concern is with the symbolism of colour employed by the learned of previous generations; about which he is evidently as well or better informed than any of his era.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Baron Frédéric de Portal (1804-1876) Born into a minor noble family from the Languedoc who could trace their ancestry back to the early medieval period. They were active during the wars of the Albigensian Crusade, although they seem to have opposed the French for local patriotic reasons rather than for their beliefs. But dissent did run in their blood and after the collapse of the Huguenot cause some of the family fled to England. Frédéric’s branch, however, remained in South-Western France and, as a Jurist, historian and author, he became, perhaps, the most distinguished head of his family. He wrote one other book on symbolism, but it is for Des Couleurs Symboliques (1837) – which was utilised by Eliphas Lévi in his studies of the Kabbalah – that he is deservedly best known.
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