The Color Purple

     The Color Purple

Purple is the second most common Freemason color after blue. It is a symbol of royalty, and it represents the royalty of Biblical characters like Hiram of Tyre and King Solomon. Purple is a color commonly used for the aprons and collars of Grand Lodge Officers.

The word ‘purple’ was first used in England in 975 AD. ‘Purple’ as a word comes from the old English word ‘purpul.’ The old English word ‘purpul’ comes from the Latin word ‘purpura.’ The Latin word ‘purpura’ comes from the Greek word ‘porphura.’ So ‘purple’ can be traced to ancient Greek.

Purple is the color of dignity, mystery, magic, romance, grandeur, rarity, penitence, feminine, wisdom and piety. It was also associated with extravagance, decadence, and vanity.

Purple is a color that is in between the colors blue, and red. It is the first color to be synthesized as it the least occurring major color in nature. Purple is the hardest color for the eye to discriminate, and it is the most powerful wavelength of the visible wavelength of electromagnetic energy.

Purple was so rare and expensive to make that it was only used by monarchs who could afford it. The dye that was originally used to make purple came from the city of Tyre, a place that is now in Lebanon. In those days, the dye was extracted from the spiny dye-murex snail found in the Mediterranean region of Tyre. The shells of the mollusks were cracked open, and the snails were then removed and soaked to remove a tiny gland. The juices of the gland were then extracted and left in the sun. The sun would turn the liquid to white, and then yellow-green, and then green, and then violet before turning it to dark red. The process had to be well monitored to get the right shade of purple. 9000 of these snails were needed to make one gram of Tyrian purple! So, you can imagine how expensive the process was. The process was recreated in modern times, and it was discovered that an ounce of purple would cost more than $2000.

Ancient myth had it that the guardian god of Tyre, Melqart, and a nymph called Tyrus were both walking on the beach when a dog owned by Heracles bit into the shell of a mollusk and its tongue turned purple. Tyrus then asked Heracles to make a purple garment for her, and so, the purple from Tyre was discovered.

Purple was worn by the rulers of Persia, Greece, Egypt, and Rome. The rulers of these nations were revered by their subjects and purple began to be known as a symbol of holiness and divinity. Purple was then used by the Holy Roman Empire and the Byzantine Empire before it was later used by other kingdoms.

Purple was also used by the Chinese, Aztecs, Mayans, Polynesians, and Japanese. In these regions, purple was made from other types of snails, the sea urchins and the logwood tree of Mexico. But these other dyes did not have the durability and longevity of the Tyrian purple.

Purple was also used by Bishops in some Christian churches and professors of some European universities. After the fall of the Byzantine Empire in 1453, purple wasn’t commonly used like before, and only a few monarchs still used it. In the Elizabethan era, purple was tightly regulated that only the Royal family of England could wear it. In 1856, William Henry Perkin accidentally created a synthetic purple compound while he was researching an anti-malaria drug. The dye was then patented, and he made a lot of money from it.

Here are some purple apparel that you can purchase from BricksMasons.