Written by Fiona Blenman.
What if the colors of the rainbow could provide us with a symbolic map of the human journey? I call this journey the Rainbow Bridge of Life.
Indeed, from the moment we are born, our lives are continually changing.
Initially, we begin completely dependent upon others for survival. Furthermore, as we grow, we explore and discover our abilities. We develop identities, form relationships, become part of communities, accumulate experience and eventually learn one of life’s most difficult lessons: how to let go.
Although every person’s journey is unique, certain themes seem to appear repeatedly throughout human life.
Additionally, inspired by the visible light spectrum, the Rainbow Bridge uses seven colors to represent seven dimensions of development.
Red — Survival — To Have
Orange — Creativity — To Do
Yellow — Identity — To Show
Green — Relationships — To Serve
Blue — Connectedness — To Support
Indigo — Guidance — To Teach
Violet — Sacrifice — To Release
Therefore, beyond them lies White — Oneness, representing integration and the recognition that every color belongs to the same light.
Moreover, these stages provide a framework for considering where we have been and where our lives may be headed.
Why a Rainbow?
A rainbow appears when light interacts with water droplets in the atmosphere, allowing the colors of visible light to become distinguishable to our eyes.
However, Scientifically, visible light is only a small portion of the much larger electromagnetic spectrum.
As a result, within my Conscious Energy framework I use this spectrum symbolically.
In addition, I imagine Consciousness and Energy as complementary principles.
Consciousness represents qualities such as awareness, observation, reflection, receptivity and stillness.
Energy represents qualities such as movement, activity, expression, transformation and creation.
However, consciousness does not occupy one end of the spectrum, nor does energy occupy the other as my diagram shows. In contrast, physics does not describe consciousness this way.
Rather, the spectrum inspired the following philosophical question:
Additionally, what happens between stillness and activity, observation and expression, receiving and giving?
However, for me, the answer is life. As a result, visible light became a beautiful symbol through which to explore it.
Life Exists Through Change
Nothing about our human experience remains completely still.
Additionally, our bodies grow and age.
As a result, our thoughts change.
However, relationships form and sometimes end.
As a result, we learn.
Moreover, we create.
Individuals gain possessions and eventually release them.
Our priorities at five years old are different from those at twenty-five, fifty or eighty.
Additionally, this constant movement inspired me to arrange the colors of visible light into a symbolic journey.
But there is an important distinction.
The Rainbow Bridge is not a scientific measurement of human development, nor is it a timetable that everyone must follow.
Life is far less orderly than that.
Instead, I think of the Rainbow Bridge of Life as a map.
Nevertheless, maps don’t tell us exactly how a journey will unfold.
Moreover, they help us understand the territory.
Red — Survival
To Have
Indeed, every human journey begins with need.
Therefore, a newborn requires warmth, nourishment, shelter, safety and care. Consequently, without these foundations, everything else becomes secondary.
But Survival doesn’t disappear when childhood ends.
Adults return to Red whenever life becomes uncertain.
Losing employment may bring financial survival to the foreground.
Moreover, illness may make physical well-being our highest priority.
Moving home can renew our need for security.
Furthermore, periods of exhaustion may remind us that sleep, food and rest are not luxuries.
Red asks:
What do I need in order to feel safe and supported?
Survival provides the foundation upon which everything else can grow.
Orange — Creativity
To Do
Once our immediate needs are reasonably secure, we have greater freedom to explore.
Watch young children and this principle becomes obvious.
They draw.
Build.
Climb.
Pretend.
Ask questions.
Take things apart.
Put them together again.
They learn through interaction.
This is the spirit of Orange.
Creativity isn’t restricted to painting, writing or music. Whenever we transform an idea into something that did not previously exist, we participate in creation.
We cook.
Garden.
Build businesses.
Solve problems.
Raise families.
Invent technologies.
Tell stories.
Create homes.
Orange asks:
What can I do with what I have been given?
Yellow — Identity
To Show
Eventually creativity turns inward.
We don’t only ask what we can do.
We begin asking:
Who am I?
Identity becomes especially visible during adolescence and early adulthood, but it continues evolving throughout life.
We experiment with clothing, interests, careers, relationships, beliefs and communities.
We discover what feels authentic—and sometimes what doesn’t.
Identity allows us to say:
This is me.
Yet Yellow contains a challenge.
If identity becomes too rigid, difference can begin to feel threatening.
We may define ourselves through nationality, religion, profession, possessions, appearance, political beliefs or social status and begin believing that our particular identity is superior to someone else’s.
The deeper lesson of Yellow may therefore be learning how to possess a strong sense of self without needing another person’s identity to match our own.
I can be me while allowing you to be you.
Green — Relationships
To Serve
At the centre of the visible spectrum sits green.
I place Relationships here because human life changes profoundly when the focus begins expanding beyond the individual self.
The question moves from:
Who am I?
towards:
Who am I in relationship with you?
Friendships, partnerships, families and communities teach us lessons that solitude cannot.
We learn trust.
Communication.
Compromise.
Boundaries.
Forgiveness.
Responsibility.
Intimacy.
And service.
To Serve doesn’t mean surrendering our identity or continually sacrificing our needs.
Healthy relationships involve reciprocity.
Sometimes we give.
Sometimes we receive.
Green asks:
How can two individuals remain themselves while creating something meaningful together?
Blue — Connectedness
To Support
Beyond our immediate relationships lies something larger.
Community.
Society.
Nature.
Humanity.
The Earth itself.
Connectedness develops when we recognize how profoundly our lives depend upon systems beyond ourselves.
Farmers grew the food we ate today.
Someone built the road beneath our feet.
Someone taught us to read.
Countless organisms maintain the ecosystems upon which human civilization depends.
Even our bodies contain elements forged through cosmic processes long before humans existed.
Blue asks:
What supports my existence—and what can I support in return?
Connectedness moves our awareness beyond me and you toward:
us.
Indigo — Guidance
To Teach
Experience can eventually become wisdom.
But age alone doesn’t guarantee wisdom.
Wisdom develops when experience is accompanied by reflection.
People make mistakes.
Pattern recognition guides our work.
We reconsider beliefs.
We discover what matters.
Eventually, some of what we learn can help another person.
This is Guidance.
Parents guide children.
Teachers guide students.
Friends guide one another.
Elders can pass knowledge to younger generations.
And younger generations can teach older people new ways of seeing the world.
Guidance doesn’t mean controlling someone else’s journey.
The wisest teacher may simply illuminate a path and allow another person to decide whether to walk it.
Indigo asks:
What have I learned that might help someone else?
Violet — Sacrifice and Release
To Release
Eventually every human being encounters impermanence.
Possessions disappear.
Bodies change.
Children grow.
Relationships change.
People retire from careers that once defined them.
Loved ones die.
And ultimately, every life reaches an end.
For this reason, Violet represents Sacrifice, although I increasingly prefer to think of its deeper lesson as Release.
Sacrifice can sound as though something is forcibly taken from us.
Release introduces another possibility:
sometimes we consciously loosen our grip.
We release resentment.
Expectations.
Possessions.
Old identities.
Regrets.
Relationships that have reached their natural conclusion.
Beliefs that no longer serve us.
Violet asks perhaps the most difficult question on the entire Rainbow Bridge:
What am I ready to let go of?
What am I ready to let go of?
White — Oneness
To Be
What happens when the journey through the colors is viewed as a whole?
White light provides the final symbol within my framework.
The colors of visible light can combine to produce white light. Symbolically, I interpret this as Oneness.
Oneness doesn’t erase individuality.
The colors don’t become meaningless simply because they belong to the same light.
Similarly, recognizing our interconnectedness doesn’t require humans to share one culture, religion, personality or worldview.
We can remain distinct while recognizing that we participate in something larger.
Red taught us to survive.
Orange taught us to create.
Yellow helped us discover ourselves.
Green taught us to love and serve.
Blue expanded our awareness toward connection.
Indigo transformed experience into guidance.
Violet taught us to release.
White asks:
Can I recognize the whole?
We Don’t Cross the Bridge Only Once
When I first developed the Rainbow Bridge, I imagined these colors primarily as stages corresponding with age.
Infancy belonged to Survival.
Childhood to Creativity.
Youth to Identity.
Middle adulthood to Relationships.
Later adulthood to Connectedness and Guidance.
The end of life brought Release. My original article described my own life in this way, placing myself in Green because I was forty and raising three children.
I still find that broad developmental progression meaningful.
But I no longer think it tells the entire story.
Life doesn’t move through the rainbow in a perfectly straight line.
We circle back.
A seventy-year-old can discover a new creative passion and return to Orange.
A teenager may possess remarkable wisdom and express Indigo.
A forty-year-old experiencing illness may suddenly return to Red and focus entirely on Survival.
A person leaving a relationship may need Violet—Release—before rediscovering Yellow and rebuilding their Identity.
Someone becoming a parent may experience Red, Green and Blue simultaneously: protecting a vulnerable child, building a relationship and recognizing themselves as part of a larger family.
We can occupy several colors at once.
The Rainbow Bridge of Life is therefore not a ladder.
It is a spectrum.
Where Are You on the Rainbow Bridge?
Instead of asking only:
What stage should I be at for my age?
I now prefer a different set of questions.
What part of my life needs attention?
Do I feel secure?
Am I creating?
Do I know who I am?
Are my relationships healthy?
Do I feel connected?
What have my experiences taught me?
What am I holding onto that I need to release?
These questions can reveal something interesting.
One may enjoy a flourishing career, yet face financial struggles.
You might have strong relationships, but feel disconnected from your wider community.
You may spend enormous amounts of time serving others while neglecting Creativity.
Or perhaps you have spent years accumulating possessions and achievements and now feel drawn towards Violet—the desire to simplify and release.
There is no shame in returning to an earlier color.
Life continually asks us to re-balance.
Balance Is the Foundation
This is where the Rainbow Bridge of Life reconnects with Conscious Energy.
Human beings continually move between complementary needs.
Activity and rest.
Thought and action.
Independence and connection.
Holding on and letting go.
Giving and receiving.
Expression and reflection.
Problems can sometimes emerge when one side continually overwhelms the other.
Constant activity without sufficient recovery can exhaust us.
Constant thinking without action can leave us feeling stuck.
Giving endlessly without receiving can produce resentment or depletion.
Holding onto everything leaves no room for change.
Balance does not mean remaining perfectly centred every moment.
Life doesn’t work that way.
Balance is the ability to recognize when we have moved too far in one direction and gently adjust.
The Rainbow Bridge of Humanity
Can this framework also be applied beyond the individual?
Possibly—but here I would be more cautious than in my original article.
I once described humanity as collectively moving from Yellow—Identity—towards Green—Relationships and Blue—Connectedness. The original post associated human identity with territorial boundaries and ethnicity and suggested technology was drawing humanity further towards collective connection.
I still find this an interesting philosophical metaphor.
Human civilization has certainly passed through enormous transformations: survival, agriculture, cities, nations, industrialization and global communication.
Digital technology now allows people separated by thousands of kilometers to communicate almost instantly.
But humanity doesn’t occupy a single developmental stage.
Different societies—and different people within the same society—face very different circumstances.
Some are confronting basic Survival.
Others are struggling with Identity and division.
Others are building extraordinary forms of international cooperation.
The Rainbow Bridge therefore shouldn’t be treated as a scientific measure of civilization.
Instead, it can pose a question:
Which qualities does humanity need to cultivate next?
Perhaps greater Connectedness is one of them.
From Identity to Oneness
There is a larger progression within the Rainbow Bridge of Life that I find particularly meaningful.
At first, life is about:
Me.
To survive is necessary.
I want to explore.
I need to discover who I am.
Then gradually:
You enter the story.
I learn to love.
Serve.
Listen.
Compromise.
Eventually:
We emerge.
Community.
Humanity.
Nature.
Future generations.
And perhaps beyond me, you and we lies the recognition symbolized by White:
One.
No single culture.
Not one belief.
Not one identity.
But one interconnected existence containing countless individual expressions.
Life on the Spectrum
The Rainbow Bridge of Life is ultimately not about predicting where someone should be at a particular age.
It is about noticing the changing priorities of being alive.
At different moments, life asks us:
To Have.
To Do.
To Show.
To Serve.
To Support.
To Teach.
To Release.
And perhaps eventually:
To Be.
Every color matters.
We cannot build Identity without some foundation of Survival.
Relationships become healthier when individuals understand themselves.
Guidance gains depth through experience.
Release becomes possible when we recognize that change is part of life.
And Oneness becomes meaningful precisely because individuality exists.
The rainbow does not ask one color to become another.
Each color contributes something different to the whole.
Perhaps human life is much the same.
Upon arrival, we are vulnerable.
Exploration begins.
Our discovery continues.
One learns to love.
We discover connection.
We share what we’ve learned.
And eventually, we release our hold on the life we’ve known.
Whatever lies beyond that final threshold remains a question for philosophy, spirituality, faith and personal belief.
But while we are here, the Rainbow Bridge gives us a simple invitation:
Notice where you are.
Honor where you’ve been.
Recognize what you need.
Allow others to walk their own path.
And keep moving towards greater balance and connection.
That, to me, is what it means to live on the Rainbow Spectrum.
The Rainbow Bridge of Life and Conscious Energy are my philosophical frameworks for exploring human development, balance and interconnectedness. However, the electromagnetic and visible-light spectra in this model are symbolic and not established scientific measures of consciousness or development.
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