Violet, the Edge of the Visible

Violet is the shortest-wavelength light the eye perceives, at the far end of the spectrum from red, and it should be distinguished from purple: violet is a genuine spectral colour produced by a single wavelength, whereas purple is a mixture of red and blue with no single wavelength of its own. As a symbol violet and purple overlap and both carry senses of spirituality, penitence and the mystical.

In the Christian liturgical calendar violet is the colour of Advent and Lent, the penitential seasons of preparation, and it is used for mourning; this liturgical purple descends from the ancient prestige of the dye. In the modern chakra scheme violet marks the crown centre, the highest, associating it with transcendence and union, a recent placement dependent on the seven-colour spectrum. Its position at the visible edge, beyond which lies the invisible ultraviolet, has made violet a natural emblem of the threshold between the seen and the unseen.