William Lilly On Colour…

As I pride myself on being a professional astrologer with a passion for research into fashion, beauty and aesthetics, it’s only right that I touch on William Lilly, and his take on colour in astrology…

“♄ Giveth black colour: ♃ a colour mixed with red and greene: ♂ red, or iron colour: ☉ yellow or yellow Purple: ♀ white or purple colour: ☿ sky-colour or blewith: ☽ a colour spotted with white and other mixt colours.”

Astrologer William Lilly, From the book Christian Astrology published 1647…

Who Was Lilly?

William Lilly was a the most prominent English astrologer of his day, a Taurus born in 1602, he supposedly predicted the Great Fire of London!

Of course, we appreciate that life – and the colour palette – of the 17th century was very different to the spectrum of hues and textures we experience today.

Let’s now look at his take in more detail…

The colours of the Planets…

The Sun ☉ yellow or yellow purple…

As the Sun is the brightest star in our skies, we look upon its brilliance with the same awe as Lilly did, several hundred years ago.

It’s pretty easy to understand why he assigned the colours yellow and yellow purple to this celestial body. An influence of great importance – the number one noticeable object we sense as people (followed by the Moon), the Sun represents important figures – our dad, our king or ruler, the president of a company, our boss. We can look to the warm, generous qualities of the Sun.

Moon ☽ a colour spotted with white and other mixt colours…

This makes me think of an egg – a white egg that’s pretty and speckled! Eggs are lunar like, giving us the notion of growth and moments of birth, as a chick makes its way from this pearly object.

Mercury ☿ sky-colour or blewith…

This is a nice tone for Mercury, a planet of transit and air-mail.

Venus ♀ white or purple colour…

Mars ♂ red, or iron colour…

Known as the ‘red planet’, Mars is visible with the naked eye from earth (as are all the planets mentioned here), and actually has a slightly red tone to it (as does the Moon on occasion).

Jupiter ♃ a colour mixed with red and greene…

Red and green are the colours of holly berries and leaves!

Saturn ♄ Giveth black colour…

Now, what he wrote of the ‘Signes’

“♈︎ White mixed with red: ♉︎ white mixed with Citrine: ♊︎ white mixed with red: ♋︎ greene or buffet: ♌︎ red or green: ♍︎ blacke speckled with blew: ♎︎ black or dark crimson, or tawny colour: ♏︎ browne: ♐︎ yellow or a greene sanguine: ♑︎ blacke or buffet, or a swarte browne: ♒︎ a skye-colour with blew: ♓︎ white glittering colour.”

Aries ♈︎ White mixed with red

Taurus ♉︎ white mixed with Citrine

Gemini ♊︎ white mixed with red

Now, as much as I disagree with repeating the same colours for Aries, we must wonder why Lilly chose for

Cancer ♋︎ greene or buffet

Leo ♌︎ red or green

Virgo ♍︎ blacke speckled with blew

Libra ♎︎ black or dark crimson, or tawny colour

Scorpio ♏︎ browne

Sagittarius ♐︎ yellow or a greene sanguine

Capricorn ♑︎ blacke or buffet, or a swarte browne

Aquarius ♒︎ a skye-colour with blew

Pisces ♓︎ white glittering colour