James Divine: Welcome to knit a spell. I'm James Divine. This week, Katie is away and we get to talk about the color red, a color I can't even see. Thanks a lot, Katie.
INTRO
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Light From Lantern presents: Knit A Spell.
I'm magical maker: Katie Rempe.
And I'm the maker of magic: James Divine.
Join us as we stitch together the symbiotic relationship between crafting and 'The Craft'.
Red Through Color Deficiency
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James Divine: That's something kind of true. I am not completely colorblind, I am just color deficient. I can see red if enough of my field of vision is taken up with a vibrant red color, and, or, if the object is well lit, held close, and bright red. But, for instance, red flowers on a green bush, And we're driving by and my husband's like, wow, look at those beautiful flowers. I'm going to crane my neck and say, where?
Cute story, one of the first times that I really experienced red was we were at a lounge. So it was not the brightest lit place. And a friend of mine was wearing these cool glasses that had a tint to them.
And I asked him about them. I said, wow, your glasses are tinted. And he said, yeah, they're the colorblind correcting glasses. And I didn't know that he was colorblind. And I was super curious because it was when everyone was posting. Hey, Jim, have you ever thought about the colorblind correcting glasses on my Facebook?
And I thought, oh, what? So there by this company called Enchroma, and I was like, gosh, that would be so cool to see. It turns out that his prescription is similar enough to mine that I could actually see through them. And I asked him, Could I see what it's like to look through them? He's like, okay.
So I put them on and we probably should have filmed it because it was a lot like those videos I could not believe that in that sort of dim lounge that we were hanging out in. I could see red, like the little bits of red that are throughout a lounge, for instance, the emergency illumination lighting
I could see that red LED light and I could see a bead on a friend of mine's bracelet that was red. And I thought it was a brown .And I was just like, wow, is that red? That's red. This thing is red. That candle over there is red. So all these things I started to just be able to see like, oh, people are wearing red lipstick and it just jumped out at me.
The takeaway from me was, Oh my gosh, red is a very obnoxious color. It's really in your face. No wonder it's used for things that need to get people's attention. And that was something that I never really realized before. I've never really had the experience of, red really getting my attention because it really blends in and just isn't really that, vibrant of a color for me.
So pretty fascinating. So for all of you that see red, yeah, I'm sorry. The world is full of this obnoxious color that's knocking you in the face all the time. And for all the companies that use too much red, how rude. of them to overuse such a color. Abusive!
Popular Consensus on Red
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James Divine: In any case, let's talk about red. So there are surveys. So fortunately, there's research out there. What do most people who see red feel about red?
So there are really interesting research surveys on the psychology of red. And of course, these are going to be different in different countries.
In China and in countries that are not infused with Christianity and with a Western viewpoint.
In the West we tend to associate red really with courage, but also visibility, proximity, and with extroverts. The surveys also found that red by a really large margin, is the color most commonly associated with seduction, sexuality, eroticism, even immorality. And this could be because of its close connection with passion and with danger, with warning signs, things like that.
Along with black and white, red was one of the very first pigments ever used in ancient history, just using the dirt that was red, which is made out of hematite. Hematite is also known as bloodstone because hematite dust is red because of its iron.
And when you polish or you cut hematite on a. Grinder. It bleeds red because of the iron. So it's one of the stones known as bloodstone.
So hematite dust and hematite in red oxide. Ochre has another one. These are dirts that were used as red. And then there's natural red found in two types of insects and in a plant. So these ancient sources of red were used by ancient peoples as red dye. One of the first sources of red way before any of the other colors could really be used as dye.
And so you see this on cave paintings, you see it in all kinds of ancient rites people would use on their bodies. Also lead the toxic mineral or element is also used and can be used as a red dye. Not recommended. But it was used in Roman times as well as , a way to create red.
So all of these We're one of the first dies one of the first things and so it's this vibrant color found in nature all over the place and very attractive, to the eye the longest wavelength hits us first. And is this again this garish very obnoxious color.
It's funny, though, how many animals are also colorblind and don't see the color red. If we think about the bullfighters with the red cape that they wave to attract the bull and anger the bull. Bulls don't see red. They are actually enraged by the movement of the cape, not the color. They see blue and yellow. Actually, they don't see red or green. So that was pretty cool.
Naturally Red
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James Divine: What is naturally red? Obviously, flowers are the first thing you can think of. We see the sky at sunrise or sunset. We see the ground. Certain areas of the dirt is red. Red clay. The presence of iron oxide turns things red. We see rust if we have metal.
The ancient peoples didn't have metal, but we see rust as red. Certain planets have a reddish hue to them. So when we see Mars in the sky, sometimes even Jupiter has a little bit of a reddish tint. If there's smoke in the sky from a forest fire, that will turn the moon or the sun red.
And certainly when the moon is rising or when it's eclipsed by the earth, it can have a red hue to it or it can turn very red.
Magical Corespondences
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James Divine: When we think about magical correspondences with red, these are influenced by our culture, Western culture.
We think of red. Associated with the number one a lot of times because it's associated astrologically with Aries is associated with the planet Mars and with this idea of war and power and courage, even blood because our blood is red.
And we think of this cardinal fire. This idea of Aries. We think of the element of fire, like I mentioned. And traditional witchcraft would put that in the south. Not all traditions do that. In the West, we have that day associated with Tuesday or Mars Day Martes.
There's many festivals associated with fire. In fact, more festivals are associated with fire, it seems. Because we have candle mass. is associated with the candles. We have Beltane, which is leaping the fire. We have all of the equinoxes and solstices, which are associated with, either the equaling of the fire in the summer and winter, they're all solar festivals.
It's amazing how many are really around the sun, which is about fire.
Rite of passage, a lot of times those are associated with red. birth, death, marriage.
We can think about the chakras in the body. The root chakra is often red and that's can be associated with this sort of connection toward the earth. Our basic needs being met in that dark red root chakra that's there.
Red Stones
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James Divine: And of course, any stone that's red. Agates can be red. Garnets. A lot of these can be many colors, but there are red garnets. Red rubies spinels, red tourmaline. I love when Turin can be watermelon or red. Topaz can be red. There's Alite Rite and Jasper Red, Jasper's fabulous.
There's also like a red Tiger's eye and all kinds of cool red gemstones.
Red Keywords
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James Divine: All kinds of keywords for the color red. What are some of the ones that you think about?
I think about passion, power, vitality, courage, action, importance. If something's important, we're going to make it red.
Warning. We obviously associate it with blood, and either death, like war. And sacrifice or we can talk about it like life and life saving. The red cross.
Or celebration if you're in the east in china or in japan and other asian cultures and in islamic cultures Also, we can see red as a color of celebration and success and good luck and fortune.
Red Idioms
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James Divine: Some of the ideas about red. One of the cool things that I thought was really cute is if we just think about the idioms, the idiomatic expressions in the West when we think about red. And I think these tell us a lot about how and what we think about red. So if we're going to be angry, We are going to see red.
In fact, there's a fantastic song to see red. I see red, right? And so if I'm seeing red, I'm so mad that all I did was see red. I lost rational thought and rational action.
To go red faced is to be embarrassed or there's a little bit of like infuriation with that embarrassment.
That's a really interesting term because we do think about how we go flushed or how our face will turn red.
If we say we blushed, that's different. The connotation there is, Oh, he blushed and that's a cute flirty type of embarrassment.
How about this one? To paint the town red. And that gets to some of the debauchery we would assume that if you don't drink not going to eat or drink anything, you're probably not going to paint the town red. But if you are going to let your guard down. And, devote yourself to the God Dionysus. We would say you're going to paint the town red.
And that gets to this idea that red is associated with excess, danger immorality seduction, it's connection, with passion and danger.
And we have the expressions around warnings, like to raise a red flag or to be in the red to raise a red flag is to signal that there's a problem or to be in the red is like accounting, like we are losing money .
We can have a calling attention similar to that. It's a red letter day. It's a special or important day. That one's not common. But to roll out the red carpet, we're gonna make a special effort to welcome you to my house or treat someone as a special guest.
To catch someone red handed. I think that one's really fun as a palm reader and that's to catch someone in the act or catch them doing something, bad or wrong or that they shouldn't be doing.
And then there's a few that I just think is really interesting.
Like the idea of red tape as bureaucracy and a bureaucratic, mess. A red herring is a false clue or a distraction or something that's purposely put in your way to set you off the trail.
So I just thought that was fun to see some of those things I don't really think about it when I say it. Sometimes it just comes out and I'm like, Oh yeah, I am using that color red a lot of times.
All right, let's take a break. And when we come back, let's talk about how we use red in art and in branding and Ways that you might use red in your making.
See you in a minute.
Learn Palmistry
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James Divine: Why learn palmistry? The divine hand method of palmistry will give you a transformative and empowering understanding of palmistry that is distinct from the conventional fatalistic approaches that are prevalent today in other palmistry methods. Here are three major distinctions of the divine hand method.
Number one, freedom from fatalism. The divine hand method reveals patterns, not predictions.
Number two, rubrics and patterns. Instead of memorizing fixed interpretations. It allows you to discover a logical foundation you can apply universally, making the process of palmistry more intuitive and insightful.
And the last reason to learn palmistry, spiritual growth and self awareness. As you explore The intricacies of palmistry, the insights you gain from learning about your hands and the hands of others often leads to a deeper understanding of your own unique gifts.
So if you've been interested in palmistry, but you have yet to find something that speaks to you out there, the Divine Hand Method offers practitioners an alternative approach.
Join me in learning the divine hand method of palmistry in either my introduction to palmistry or my intermediate level of palmistry.
Find out more at: IntroToPalmistry.Com.
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James Divine: Welcome back. Let's talk about branding and art. what are some of the things that we make red on purpose? Like logos. So companies with red branding, why do people make their logos red? A lot of times the psychology of red is bold, passion, they're trying to bring forth strength, attention, love, excitement. Action or aggression.
If you google red logos or red and branding on the Internet, you'll see some of these images and what I was was grouping them together and I noticed that if The company or the organization has red in the name, obviously, they're going to be more likely to use a red logo, like the Boston Red Sox or Red Robin, the restaurant or Red Bull, the energy drink.
If you are selling something that is red, yeah. You're likely going to have a red logo. For instance, if what you do is related to blood, like the American Heart Association or if you're selling ketchup, Heinz ketchup, for instance, red.
If you're doing something that includes excitement, motorcycles, performance tires, travel, sports, entertainment. So you have things like ESPN for sports. You have Avis Rent A Car for travel.
You've got Pirelli performance tires. That's excitement. That's entertainment.
For seduction. So if you have a lips and a tongue, that's Rolling Stone. I thought that was really funny and countercultural that Rolling Stone logo. For attention or alert. So you have a lot of news organizations that are going to use red like CNN. The BBC Time Magazine .
For power or energy, you have things like Texaco for fuel, you have food like Dairy Queen or Circle K or KFC Even tobacco, like the Marlboro logo. Or you have banking and money, like ADP. Bank of America. There's a lot of really different ways that companies will use RED.
And, it's interesting because people can even overuse RED. Such that red lettering can be overlooked because we know that it's branding and we know that it's advertising . And red is hard to read against white, so we'll just ignore it. So I think that's a very interesting thing about red.
Ways to use Red
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James Divine: How do you use red in your making? Here are some ideas that came to my mind.
Bring these energies into your project. Of course, it doesn't have to be like that pure red. If you wanted to bring shades of red in, you could think about more of a burgundy color. And that might be more of a steadfast power.
If you wanted to use a pink, that could be a lighter sense of power, like a love type of power, friendly type of power.
So what are some ideas for projects? I always think about if you're going to knit something or crochet something, where would someone wear this piece?
What part of the body would it cover? If I was going to have a red hat, I would think about how it would cover my crown and maybe my third eye chakra or that energy center. I want that energy in my head. If it was around my voice, I wanted to enhance my voice or give my voice something.
I would use a scarf and I would have that around my neck. Or, if I wanted the energy or the power in my hands that's the type of garment or the place where I would maybe put that color.
If you were painting or drawing, you could put that color in the piece itself in an area that was meaningful.
If you were using a blocking water, if you were using something after the fact you could use crystals or stones in the water or to energize around the piece that have those energies or that red energy with it.
Or if you're doing a black piece, you could, put some red that wouldn't show just to give the energy of it.
So there's other ways to use that red so that you know that it's there, that energy is there, even if the color isn't necessarily visible.
Share Your Thoughts!
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James Divine: What are your ideas for using the color red in your making? I would love to know. Drop us a comment on this YouTube video. That's where you can really start a flame war. Just kidding. Flame war. Get it? Red flame war. Okay. Join us on all of our socials. Katie is @lightfromlantern on Instagram and I'm @divinehandJim.
We will see you next week. Bye everybody.
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