Sacred Shapes, Numbers and Colours::

Sacred Colours

Blue, green, red, yellow, white and black are particularly sacred colours for the Lakota. Colour symbology encompasses the entire cosmic universe, including sacred values and sacred entities:

Red symbolises the totality of all that is sacred and in itself contains sacred potency. Application of red paint to a person spiritually ties him or her to the ceremony of which s/he is a part. To a thing, such as a stone, application of red paint consecrates and makes it an altar. Similarly, wrapping something in red cloth consecrates it. During the sun dance, for example, head, wrist and ankles bands of sage (a sacred object in itself) are also tied with red cloth. When a woman has her first menstrual blood she is considered to have become sacred and continues to inhere sacred power whenever she menstruates during the course of her life.

Often, the combination of black and blue signifies a heyoka or Thunder Dreamer, although one heyoka I knew used the colours black and yellow. Indeed, yellow is sometimes associated with Wakinyan in addition to blue and black. Black is a powerful colour and black stripes were often painted on the face of a warrior to denote authority, strength and pride. Today, heyokas may still be seen during certain rituals with half their faces painted black.

Many medicine men, even today, talk of 'red days' and 'blue days'. Brown stated that the terms are "really far more than a wish for good weather, for the Sioux believe that these are the days at the end of the world when the moon will turn red and the sun will turn blue" (1953: 19).¹ An anonymous medicine man told Walker that when a shaman asked for a 'blue day', he was not only asking for a good, clear, sunny day but also for "an effective performance of a ceremony" (1917: 158).² I have also heard the term 'green day' being spoken of in ritual contexts, but have not been able to determine its significance.

Notes::

• 1 - Joseph Epes Brown, ed. 1953. The Sacred Pipe: Black Elk's Account of the Seven Rites of the Oglala Sioux. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.
• 2 - James R. Walker. 1917. "The Sun Dance and Other Ceremonies of the Oglala Division of the Teton Dakota." Anthropological Papers. 16 (2): 51-221. New York: American Museum of Natural History.