The only color we find in
the oldest embroideries and hand-woven fabrics is red, which was primarily used
to express joy, passion and high spirits. In the old days, red was considered to
have a protective power: it was associated with life and blood, fire which gives
or takes life, and light. It was believed to protect infants from witches and
their evil eye. The red bonnet or headdress worn by brides and young women as
part of their folk costume expressed health and youth. White was generally used
to express clarity and innocence, but in southern Somogy county it could also
reflect old age and paleness, which is why it was also the color of mourning.
“ … . .All that night, Vasilisa walked nervously through the forest holding the
doll who guided her path. Then suddenly, she saw a horseman rushing by.
His face and clothes were white and he was riding a white horse. As he
passed the first light of dawn appeared across the sky. Then, another
horseman came by. His face and clothes were red and he was riding a red
horse. As he passed the sun began to rise. Vasilisa had never seen such
strange men and she was very surprised.”
“ … Suddenly, another horseman galloped by. His face and clothes were black
and he was riding a black horse. He rode through the gates and
disappeared. As he passed, night descended.”
—–
“… . Vasilisa hesitated, “It’s just that on my way here I saw a white horseman. Who was he?”
“That was my Bright Day,” answered Baba-Yaga.
Vasilisa continued, “Then I saw a red horseman. Who was he?”
“That was my Red Sun,” answered Baba-Yaga.
“And then a black horseman overtook me whilst I was standing outside your gate. Who was he?”
“That was my Black Midnight,” answered Baba-Yaga. “These horsemen are my faithful servants. Have you further questions? … . “
Why black, white and red are such vital colors has been debated.
Arguments are as varied as the theory that they are the colors of
shadow, light and life (blood) to they are the color of bodily fluids
(which would also include blood for red) . What is known is that
these three colors are universal in being both the first colors humans
see as important and in having similar meanings.
Black (and to a lesser extent, the deep blues and purples that are
similar to black) is universally a symbol of death, separation, and
slavery or submission. For the Hausa culture of Nigeria, Sudan,
Cameroon, Ghana, Cote d’Ivorie and Chad, black denotes negative and
socially undesirable qualities and things that harm.
White is the symbol for purity and ‘all that is good’, and has the
power to exorcise or forbid unacceptable things. Priests were
dressed in white, and the dead are buried in white robes. The
Hausa believe that white is a symbol of positive and desirable things,
and the word white in their language (fari) is used as a word for good
things: to have a white heart is to be equable, happy, and rejoicing; to
have white blood is to be popular; to have a white stomach is to be
happy.
Red is an ‘ambiguous’ color being somewhere in between black and
white. It universally is seen as a sign of both life and aggression.
This makes sense, as red is seen in nature as a both a warning sign and a
welcoming signal in poisonous berries, cocks combs, tongues, lips,
as well as simply as blood: menstruation, parturition, or blood from
wounds. For men, red is generally held to be the symbol of hunting, and
for women, of fertility.
Once upon a time in midwinter, when the snowflakes were falling like
feathers from heaven, a queen sat sewing at her window, which had a frame
of black ebony wood. As she sewed she looked up at the snow and pricked
her finger with her needle. Three drops of blood fell into the snow. The
red on the white looked so beautiful that she thought to herself, “If only
I had a child as white as snow, as red as blood, and as black as the wood
in this frame.”
Soon afterward she had a little daughter who was as white as snow, as red
as blood, and as black as ebony wood, and therefore they called her Little
Snow-White. And as soon as the child was born, the queen died.
“White, red, black. Seeing nothing but snow in front of her, the original Queen, who is the Good Mother, has summoned the ancient trinity of colors to compose a wish-child. Together they form a series, putting us on notice in the opening sentences that this will be a magical story in which each color, in turn, will determine a stage in the life ofthe child created by the wish. the heroine, who will be more luscious than blood on snow–life on top of death–will move through three phases of life … ”
“White is innocence, virginity, purity, light without heat, a window in to the future, but white by itself is sterile. Something more than snow is required to produce life.
The Child must also be as red as the drops of blood that flow from her mother’s finger. The Queen has felt a prick, just as Sleeping Beauty will be pricked by a spindle. "Prick” is a word that we still use for penis; in street language an upraised middle finger is understood as a sexual act. The Queen’s blood is the same as menstrual blood, so common that the loss is scarcely noticed, even though it signals life’s capacity to regenerate itself. But it’s also the blood that flows from a ruptured hymen when a woman loses her virginity, and conceives a child, which is what has happened to the Queen here.
Blood is red, the womb is red, the vulva is red, especially when stimulated. Paleolithic cliff tombs were painted red, to show that the earth, the body of the goddess, is the womb of life as well as its tomb. Above all sex is red, as in Eve’s apple, a virgin’s “Cherry,” Persephones’ pomegranate or the Devil’s cloak, the red-light district, red shoes, red satin boxes shaped like hearts and filled with candies to be licked on Valentine’s Day, or a Scarlet letter A for adultery, embroidered on a Puritan gown.
White and red together make a child’s story, as in Snow White and Rose Red,“ but a crucial element is lacking: the perspective of time. The Queen’s child must also be black as the window frame (black as a raven’s wing in other versions”, a strange condition to insist on before birth, since black is the color of unconsciousness and death. Put together, the three colors paint a picture of time and growth, the phases of the moon as crescent, full, and waning, which corespond to the ancient goddess in her triple phases as Maiden, Matron, Crone.“
–Spinning Straw into Gold: What Fairy Tales Reveal About the Transformations in a Woman’s Life by Joan Gould
10th January 2019
Reblogged From armyofdorkness
Notes: 3530
