Color can be a genuine healing force - it's one of the top reasons that purple jade is so popular. The range of its hues - pale violet, say, to the deepest of purples - resonates with our own color vibrations and allows us to heal.

How does color heal? Well, color is nothing more than light - in other words, it is electromagnetic energy that vibrates at a certain frequency. Human beings are also composed of vibrations. What color therapy does is bring those fields of vibration into mutual contact so that each can lift the other.

In technical terms, purple refers to a shade roughly between red and blue. It is often referred to as a color of royalty and a color of strength and power. The rock star Prince was no fool - he was channeling purple's qualities when he named one of his albums "Purple Rain."

Purple is neither soft nor unobtrusive. It's not neutral in other words. So when purple shows up in our lives, we inevitably respond to it. It calls something forth.

In traditional healing of the chakras, purple is related to the crown chakra located at approximately the top of our heads. Crown chakras deal with the universality in us - we are all brothers and sisters, all part of one large human family.

So purple - because it brings together in a single color the strength of red and the dignity of blue - is considered deeply spiritual. If you meditate on blue - if you surround yourself with it, allow it to integrate into your body and your spirit - you will find that you are more consistently aligned with your higher self. Purple is a color that brings you into contact with what is strong in you without being egocentric. Is it the part of you that is just and moral and longs only to be of service to others.

A poorly resonating crown chakra can physically manifest in depression, a sense of the life force slowly ebbing from your body. You don't know what's going on, what action you should take next.

One way to respond to that is to bring more purple into your life - such as some purple jade. You can carry the stone with you or meditate on it during the day. Let its natural capacity to elevate your sense of worth and purpose slowly infiltrate your life. A sense of renewal and power will flow through you.