Colors — Dream Symbol Database

Red is read as Fire made visible — the colour of activity at full strength, and of things that announce themselves.

White is read as Metal's colour — reduction to what remains, and the traditional colour of mourning as well as of clarity.

Black is read as Water's colour — depth, the unlit, and in the traditional map the north and winter.

Blue is read as Water in its open form — distance, depth, and the colour of things seen from far off.

Green is read as Wood's colour — growth, and things in an unfinished stage.

Yellow is read as Earth's colour — the centre, and in Chinese tradition the colour of the imperial and of the soil itself.

Purple is read as intensity held — Fire at depth rather than at the surface.

Orange is read as Fire tempered — heat that has been given a form you can approach.

Pink is read as Fire at low intensity — warmth without force.

Brown is read as Earth in its worked form — soil, wood, and things that have been used.

Grey is read as Metal wearing toward white — a reduction in progress rather than completed.

Silver is read as Metal's shine — value that reflects rather than generates.

Crimson is read as red at its deepest — Fire concentrated rather than spread.

Jade-green is read as Wood made durable — growth that has hardened into something that lasts.

Indigo is read as blue deepened toward black — Water at a depth that stops being transparent.

Violet is read as purple cooled — intensity that has been quieted rather than spent.

Turquoise is read as Water made solid — the colour of water held in a stone rather than flowing.

Amber is read as something preserved — Earth's resin holding a moment that has stopped moving.

Ivory is read as white warmed — Metal's colour with age rather than with blankness.

Maroon is read as red gone dark — intensity that has stopped emitting.

Teal is read as blue brought toward green — Water with Wood in it, or water with life in it.

Olive is read as green muted toward Earth — growth that has slowed without stopping.

Navy is read as blue at maximum depth — Water too deep to read through.

Coral is read as something built by living things in water — structure produced slowly out of a moving medium.

Peach carries one of the strongest traditional readings in Chinese sources: longevity, and the wood that is used to ward things off.

Rust is read as Metal being overcome — the element acted on by something it cannot resist.

Lavender is read as purple lightened toward Wood — intensity made gentle rather than reduced.

Golden light is read as illumination with worth in it — light that implies value rather than merely visibility.

Multiple colours together are read as variety assembled — several distinct things present at once rather than one blended condition.

A colourless scene is read as information reduced to structure — what is left when the qualifiers are removed.