The Colour Red

Of all the colours, red is the one that has the strongest emotional effect on us. It is the colour that brings us into the world. We are born in blood, and quickly learn that it is the stuff that our life itself is made of, filling us, always ready to spring to the surface when we cut or graze ourselves. It is the nearest we can come to physically seeing our life-force – our birth, our existence, and the awareness of our mortality, all wrapped up in one.

Blood flushing to the skin can signal excitement, anger, sexual arousal, embarrassment and other moments of intense emotion – critically important signals to those around us. The presence of blood itself is a strong instinctive alert. It means that someone or something has been injured, possibly killed: the danger could still be present… or there might be vital food on a freshly-hunted carcass.

Although most individual flames shade across several colours, fire is red in our minds and our symbolic languages. Like blood, it is both life-giving and lethal, a vital source of warmth and nurture, but also a clear reminder of pain and death. Harnessed fire is energy and power – light to live by, heat to cook and get warm by, a weapon to drive off enemies with. It was the vital tool that allowed us to develop the society and intelligence that we have today.

Rojo Sobre Negro by -Merce-

From these critical foundations, red has taken on a complex web of meanings for us. Because of its strength, it represents power, force, leadership and courage. With the way that it colours our skins to reflect our emotions, it is also associated very strongly with sexuality, passion, excitement and love, and with defensive reactions such as anger, aggression, rage and shame. Through its links to fire, it carries meanings of energy, force and destruction, material security, stability and influence. Modern society has given it meanings that include debt (from the red ink used to mark ledger debits), left-wing politics, and the instruction to stop. Blood gives the colour its deepest associations, to life and death, birth, menstruation, violence, danger, war and excitement. Above all, red is exciting, getting us ready for opportunity or threat, the joint thrills of pleasure and danger.

Across the world, culture-specific beliefs tend to reinforce the general human experience of the meaning of red. In classical times, the planet Mars, the brightest red light crossing the sky, was identified with (and named after) the Greco-Roman God of War. Heraldry used red to indicate boldness, ardent love and enthusiasm. For the Chinese, red is the colour of luck, because of its power over life and death. Across much of Africa, it is seen as one of the colours of sorcery, because of the power of blood. In Polynesia, it is the colour of the gods themselves. In India, it represents virginity and purity. Christian belief associates it with Christ’s martyrdom, while Hindu thought attributes it to the power of Kundalini, the sacred life-force.