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Miscellaneous Terms
The Use of Colours
According to Lilly’s list, the colours associated with each house are as follows:
| 1st House |
2nd House |
3rd House |
4th House |
5th House |
6th House |
| White, pale, grey |
Green |
Red and yellow, or croceal or saffron colour |
Red |
Black and white, honey colour |
Black |
| 7th House |
8th House |
9th House |
10th House |
11th House |
12th House |
| Dark Black |
Green and black |
Green and white |
Red and white |
Saffron or yellow |
Green |
You will see that four of the houses are associated with the colour green, whilst none are associated
with blue or purple. In general, traditional authors disagree widely on the use of associated colours
and I’ve personally never come across a traditional list that makes perfect sense or appears very
useable in practice.
David McCann wrote a very good article on ‘The Astrology of Colour’ which appeared in issue 18 of
the Traditional Astrologer. It has been reproduced on this website and offers a good explanation on some
of the difficulties of associating colours with astrological symbols, as well as an interesting run-down
on the meanings and properties of the colours. He explains how practical considerations played their
part in traditional associations, and since blue dye was very difficult to obtain, it was listed
infrequently to reflect the fashions of the times.
Another problem was that traditional cultures simply did not have the broad range of colours that we can
create with modern technology, nor did they have the terminology for colour that we
have today. Hence, where Lilly lists ‘red and white’ for the 10th house, he probably means red mixed
with white, ie, pink. Similarly, ‘red and yellow’ listed for the 3rd house means orange, and ‘black and
white’ listed for the 5th probably means silver; ‘honey colour’ could mean gold. The limited
terminology also explains why the 6th house is associated with black, but the 7th house is associated
with ‘dark black’ – black is used to represent darkness and white is used to represent lightness, so the
black attributed to the 6th house is suggesting any colour that is dark, whilst the dark
black of the 7th would be the true black we visualize by the term today.
I’ve re-written Lilly’s associations below in the way that I interpret them, but all in all I haven’t seen
enough evidence of the house-colour scheme in working practice to offer any confidence in it. I would
recommend that you read the article by David McCann, who explains the problems more fully and
details varying colour lists offered by other traditional authors.
| 1st House |
2nd House |
3rd House |
4th House |
5th House |
6th House |
| Light colours |
Green |
Orange |
Red |
Silver or gold |
Dark colours |
| 7th House |
8th House |
9th House |
10th House |
11th House |
12th House |
| Black |
Dark green |
Light Green |
Pink |
Yellow |
Green |
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© Deborah Houlding 2003
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http://www.skyscript.co.uk
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