Of chakras and colored masks
 

I thought you guys might enjoy reading this. :) We were talking to a friend the other day who has read TMNT comics for years but was still having trouble telling the brothers apart; talking about how the mask colors relate to the personalities of the characters finally seemed to cement the characters in his mind - even though in the comics they all wear the same color masks.

Now, we don't think the people who made the first cartoon series thought AT ALL about Eastern philosophy when choosing the various colors for the turtles' masks, but a person's natural instinct to choose colors based on the emotions they feel are what makes the subject so interesting and seems to validate the theory behind it.

According to the chakras (or the body's nerve clusters) of Eastern philosophy:

Red (the root chakra, located in the base of the spine) governs the primal emotions of survival and rage, which Raphael seems to exude. An excess of energy in this chakra causes violence and should be treated with Blue to be harmoniously balanced. Coincidentally, Leo is the other end of that teeter-totter, and why these two are often paired up.

Orange (the naval or sexual chakra) governs pleasure, indulgence, games and sports. Michelangelo is the sensualist of the group who loves to ride skateboards, play video games and eat too much pizza (okay, they ALL do that ) And excess, leading to over-emotionality, is balanced by purple, which is Donny. That's why these two are often paired up.

Yellow (the solar plexus), just for the sake of completion, governs courage and confidence.

Green (the heart chakra), governs love, compassion and balance. Which applies to all of the turtles, who always pull together as a team and a family... and they are green!

Blue (the throat chakra), which governs communication and leadership. An excess of energy here causes a person to be too self-righteous and and to talk excessively, which Leonardo can do at times. Balanced by red/Raph.

Purple (or Indigo) (the brow chakra) governs intuition, imagination and intellect. The mental capacity to visualize and understand mental concepts. Donatello, "the brains of the bunch" fits this to a tee. Excessive energy can lead him to talk down to others and is treated with orange/Mikey.

Violet (the crown chakra) governs spiritual enlightenment. Master Splinter could wear this color I suppose as this suits his character best.

I admit that the whole color-coded masks was started for the kiddies with the old cartoon, but I love how they picked colors that suit their personalities (And it does make them easier to tell apart. ;) )

- J & T :) :)

Cool post. Now... someone explain to me what a chakra is? :ohwell:


I love indigo... don't know why.

http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswik...ovely_Liza.jpg

:o I'm astounded that you don't know. A chakra is one of the seven centers of spiritual energy in the human body according to yoga philosophy. Supposedly, the 'sign of the cross' can be related to chakras.

Well, OK, I have looked into pressure points andd energy points. I've heard of chakras... but I still don't really understand what they are or why they are important... or why they have colors! The sign of the cross? Really?

Wow that is really cool. I love it. I find stuff like this so fascinating. Got anything else? :)

OMG that is so cool!

I do not know what my chakra is- probably one of the higher ones, since I am so iNtuitive.

Splinter, Leo, and Donnie are iNtuitives. Raph and Mikey are Sensors.

They covered the chakras briefly in Avatar (which I know people think is a ripoff but I still like it :trazz: ) so I've at least heard of these. Now the colors I hadn't seen paired with it before, and it's kinda creepy/awesome how well it matches up!

I never heard about the chakra colors, either, but that is so cool that they match up perfectly. :D

Thats pretty cool.

And one hell of a coincidence.

Purple is my fave colour too. Although this is the first I've heard of it being "intuition, imagination and intellect" I've always heard of it refered to as a spiritual colour.

Plus, its pretty.

Whoahohoho! That just nailed Ava like it was Ra- *hit by a bus*

I really didn't know anything about chakras, but my ex-girlfriend was a psyhology major. (That was only fun sometimes >.>) And one of our most memorable conversations was about how people's favorite colors reflected their personalities in all aspects, and it was basically the same thing. I said "Oh...like the ninja turtles!"...and she just rolled her eyes at me ~_~;. It never could have worked out between us XD

EDIT: I didn't mean to make it seem like I was talking about Ra and Buslady...rereading my post it made me giggle. ^_^

So, does this color scheme thingamajig have something to do with what color you seem to prefer (Red is mine, with Purple being close behind)

So, does this mean I'm angry, emotional and smart at the same time?:D

Summarizes our boys perfectly. I especially love how Red and Blue are needed to balance each other. That's so awesome.

My favorite colors are purple, magenta, and blue. Yeppers, the colors of a certain flag that I do fall underneath :)

I do identify more with the chakras of higher wavelengths, curiously. I do take care of my self-preservation needs well, but I always have had trouble in the sex and romance domain.

wow that is cool and they really do makes sense

Wow, that is creepily awesome! (although at first I thought you were talking about Naruto for some reason). That definitely sums up our green guys very well. Ridiculously well. For me, I think I am a good mix of red, orange, and yellow chakra. I usually react in a violent manner, love games, and not only am I confident in myself, but people tend to tell me that when given the chance, I have the courage of a lion.

Strangely enough, those colors represent fire, which might suggest that my "element" is fire. Wow... O_o;;

Aw...but I thought you intended it to be like that. I feel sad now :(

...:P

*waggles eyebrows* I'm on the red/black/green cusp. I enjoy art, music, roleplaying, and volunteering my middle finger to the general public.

My element is Air. My favorite Planeteer was Linka with the power of Wind and all. But I see that Air is Leo's element- not Donnie who is the iNtuitive Thinker like myself. Oh well, Leo rocks.

Justice Force -- I have looked into Chakras myself, and wondered how the turtles seemed to represent such strong parts of the psyche --

But I have never heard of the root chakra (survival) being "balanced" by the throat/mouth chakra (expression). Nor have I heard of pleasure (orange) being balanced by insight (purple)...

Where, out of curiosity, did you find such pairings? :-?

Oh and by the way -- since they're all green, I suppose that means that LOVE is the thing they all have in common -- it keeps em together. Now ain't that a sweet coincidence? :roll: ;)

Zeh? The chakra colours are really cool, but as for each Turtle's element, I always imagined it was: Leo - Earth, Don - Air, Raph - Water, Mike - Fire.

Funny about your ex, Ava. Seriously, that is how I feel sometimes when people don't like the TMNT. :lol:

Edit: Scandia, I had to look up what flag you were referring to. And whaddaya know, me too! Although orange is my fav colour.