A Magenta Myth
A while back, I posted an article called The Crystal Path: What Would Aragorn Tolerate?, which was about a guided meditation I did in a workshop on Gems and Dreams at the annual IASD Conference in Ashland.
In that meditation, we were instructed to picture a gemstone and then enter it.
Remember that old movie where a team of people shrank down and entered someone’s body in order to… well, I don’t recall exactly, but it was cool, and I think it starred Raquel Welch. Anyway, it was something like that. You enter the gemstone in your mind’s eye of imagination.
The color of the gemstone wasn’t quite red, and it wasn’t quite pink. Another participant suggested it might be magenta.
Yes, it was definitely magenta.
One of the people I met at the conference was Sidian Jones. He and Tosha Jones were there with Dr. Stanley Krippner. They gave a presentation on an AI agent Sidian has developed to help people interpret their dreams using the Ullman Method.
I participated in Dr. Krippner’s morning dream circles while attending the residential conferences during my PhD program. He utilized the Ullman Method. It is great.
What I later found out was that Sidian and Dr. Krippner had collaborated on a book called Mythic Color: The Personal Mythologist’s Guide. When I got back from the conference, I ordered a copy and finished it last week.
Then it occurred to me that the magenta gemstone might have had a deeper meaning than I had initially attributed to it during the exercise.
What does the color magenta stand for if I use Sidian’s guide?
First of all, what makes up magenta?
It is made by combining red and blue.
It can also be made by combining pink and purple.
Well, Sidian’s book doesn’t include magenta as one of the colors it explores in depth, but it does include those four colors.
In that guided meditation, a key takeaway was that I have tolerated too much in my life.
I have let things slide.
I have not attended to and fixed irritants at a rate that is probably healthier.
I’ve accepted poor service, poor performance from people I was counting on, and slights and jabs that were completely unfounded.
Yeah, I’ve put up with too much for too long.
It then occurred to me that the color of the gemstone might have been trying to tell me what I need to bring more of into my life to overcome this.
Let’s take a look at those four colors and see what they might represent—and what might be missing from my life that has created this tendency.
If you want to bring more Red into your life, consider:
Challenging yourself to do more—and do it better.
Accepting a quest and completing it.
Finishing a project no matter what.
Tapping into your love and passion for another, and getting clear on why you love them.
Fully stepping into leadership responsibilities, both of yourself and in service to others.
Red is the color of strength, challenge, focus, love, passion, determination, danger, pain, and anger (righteous anger, I would clarify).
I can see how these qualities are needed to help me move beyond my unsatisfactory level of tolerance.
Tolerance is good.
Too much tolerance, not so good.
If you want to bring more Blue into your life, consider:
Reading a book.
Keeping your promises, both to yourself and to others.
Being loyal to friends and family.
Telling the truth.
Appreciating the freedom you have.
Blue is the color of calm, trust, freedom, sincerity, truth, wisdom, cleanliness, and dignity.
I can also see how these qualities would help reverse my tendency toward excessive tolerance.
Blend red and blue together and you get magenta.
But, as I stated earlier, you can also get magenta by combining purple and pink.
If you want to bring more Purple into your life, consider:
Learning about and working on what you are passionate about.
Allowing yourself to purchase and enjoy luxurious items.
Tapping into empathy to better understand someone you don’t like.
Creating a poem, a song, or a painting.
Generating creative solutions and sharing them with others.
Purple is the color of passion, grandeur, fantasy, empathy, depth, intuition, creativity, and charisma.
All of these are qualities I want more of in my life, and I think they point toward the same conclusion.
Stop tolerating what is not working, and more of these qualities can enter and become a regular part of your life.
According to Sidian, purple is about living a life of purpose and significance, becoming the ruler of your own destiny, and teaching others what life is really about.
That strikes at the heart of why purple feels important in this meditation.
Free myself from the tendency to put up with things that are not working, irritating, or ineffective, and these qualities become more abundant.
If you want to bring more Pink into your life, consider:
Focusing on making strong connections with others.
Reaching out to people you care about.
Planning a fun outing with family and friends (Fun in the Sun, as I like to call it).
Practicing self-love and self-care.
Giving someone a genuine compliment.
Pink is the color of kindness, beauty, romance, the inner child, intimacy, playfulness, understanding, and care.
As Sidian puts it, pink is the color associated with authenticity through vulnerability.
It helps you make authentic connections with others.
I can dig that.
My takeaway from this reflection on the color magenta is that what I need in my life today is more of the Red and Blue qualities, so that I have the time and psychological freedom to experience more of the Purple and Pink qualities I desire in my radically designed lifestyle.
I recommend the book.
I can see how it would be a helpful tool for interpreting colors that keep showing up for you, whether in waking life or in your dreams.
It can offer insight and guidance on what you might want to cultivate as you continue building toward your dream life.