Spin the Color Wheel: Indigo

Hello, folks! Ready to spin the color wheel? If you haven't heard of this prompt series yet, I spin an imaginary color wheel in my head and choose a color. Then, I give you lots of great material to use in your own writing related to this color. New words, phrases, ideas, and photos will accompany these prompts. Without further ado, let's spin! (Whrrrrrrrr-ing!)

INDIGO.

Indigo is likely my favorite color. Just wanted to get that out of the way so you know I'm terribly, unapologetically biased. You may have even noticed that one of Floodmark's key colors is, in fact, indigo. Yep. So now that that's out of the way, let's get indigo.

Interestingly enough, my first encounter with Indigo was also in my crayon box. (Thanks, Crayola, for providing me with a lifetime of inspiration.) When I was a kid, I reserved indigo for the color of the night sky. I thought it looked like deep velvet, with the stars nestled away like diamonds. I think I ended up with more night skies than anything else.

A quick Wikication told me that Indigo was named after the indigo dye derived from Indigofera tinctoria, also called true indigo. (In case you were curious, true indigo is in the bean family. Humble beginnings.) India started the indigo dye game, and basically dominated it for a long time. Somehow El Salvador is the modern-day indigo big wig. Go figure.

Get this: it's pretty hard for your eyes to see indigo. Or anyone's eyes, for that matter. The colors that lie between blue and violet are tough for the human eye to differentiate. Perhaps that's why indigo looks deep blue one second, and deep violet the next. It's constantly shifting and shimmering as your eyes try to make sense of what they're seeing. 

One last thing I stumbled upon during my travels across the Internet: indigo children. 
See, Indigo is a mystical color in New Age philosophy. It symbolizes sixth chakra which includes the third eye, which is related to intuition and gnosis (spiritual knowledge). Unsurprisingly, when someone has an indigo aura, psychics associate this with intense spirituality and intuition -- hence, indigo children have predominantly indigo auras. They are believed to possess unusual and special abilities, have telepathy, and/or be more empathetic/creative than other children. Very interesting. 

So, without further ado, I present to you: indigo. 

Definition: the color between blue and violet. 
(via Wikipedia)

Shades: electric indigo, deep indigo, Tropical Indigo, Denim, Imperial blue, Persian indigo. 

Indigo Sounds

To listen to while you write and read the rest of this post. Also to live by, because this type of jazz is the best music for: writing, showering, cooking, and loving. No dispute. 

1. Mood Indigo, Duke Ellington & Louis Armstrong 

2. Mood Indigo, Ella Fitzgerald

3. Blue Indigo, Frank Sinatra

Indigo Sights 

(The night sky, source) 

(Marc Chagall's America Windows at the Art Institute in Chicago, source)

(Indigo Fields, source)

(Indigo dye, source) 

Blue jeans. 

The Prompt 

Write an indigo poem. Use the color as a filter, through which you see your life and relationships. Let it inundate your imagery. Tackle the shimmery quality of indigo -- the parts of the color that you're never quite sure about. The bits that jump from  violet to blue to somewhere in-between. Do you know someone like that? Someone who is never quite what they seem, who is more expansive and mysterious than previously realized, or who is deep and unpredictable? Write about this person and follow your imagery about them into the heart of indigo. 

Bonus: Write a poem titled "Indigo Child". 

Read more of Alexandria's work here.