Photos by Jemma
Colour being quite an emotive tool, makes it useful to draw those correspondences from in order to work magick. So, in a magickal context colour is more often than not used through things like candles and crystals to make a connection, or a correspondence, to the type of magick being worked.
But how do we know which coloured candle is the right colour? What about crystals? Do we go with the colour of the crystal or are there other magickal properties we should learn first? What is more important? See….it gets messy pretty quickly.
Ok, now let’s get things out into the open because what colours mean is still hugely subjective. For example, certain colours can be culturally conditioned, they can have aesthetic or psychological links to us that are so deeply rooted we don’t even know where our likes or dislikes originate. This all means colours may not have the same meaning to all people. If we can accept that, it’s going to make the rest of this article a lot easier to get on board with!
Let’s look at candles first
Not everyone uses candles, and that’s fine. At Magenta when we use candles in magick, we choose them based on their colour. Lots of other practitioners do this too, so that’s probably not that weird. Or special.
But where do people learn which colours to use? There are a lot of resources that might talk about using a blue candle for a certain spell, or a red candle for another kind of spell. Is there some secret Hogwarts that teaches people about all this?
But why those colours?
Ok, so there’s no secret Hogwarts. A lot of the correspondences used today get passed about like a meme. Basically someone decided one time that a green candle gets used for one kind of magick, they teach other people this and on it goes. One of the best examples of lists and lists of colours and their “meanings” is a book called the Liber 777, which was banded about the early 20th Century as the “correct” correspondences.
Alright. But we’re calling bullshit on it now. Remember earlier when we said certain colours can be culturally conditioned, they can have aesthetic or psychological links to us that are so deeply rooted we don’t even know where our likes or dislikes originate? And that this all means colours may not have the same meaning to all people?
Yeah. That. So some white guy wrote a book once, big whoop. He doesn’t speak for all of us.
Our magickal practice is often focused on personal growth and change. So, for example, at Magenta, we align our colours with Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, not the Kabbalah, and we have a couple of extra colours for good measure. This gives us up to 12 colours to work with which we feel is wide enough to achieve our aims, whilst narrow enough to still be manageable.
Surely that has no magickal basis because it’s just made up?
At some point in time all colour correspondences were just made up by someone. Black for a funeral in some cultures, but not in others. Red for good luck in some cultures, but not in others. How long ago it was all decided is probably what gives it credibility though right? Or how powerful or influential the writer is?
Our colour thing does work for us, so we’re comfortable with it being newly made up. It works because as Humanistic Counsellors, the Maslow system makes absolute sense and works. It’s a powerful symbol of human motivation that we have coloured in and attached our psychological links to.
But we absolutely encourage everyone to find out where their colour correspondences came from. If you do find out, and you decide it’s all bollocks, you know you get to decide the colour correspondences that work for you, right?!
It’s the same with crystals as well. For example, we just go with the colour, its a lot less pressure to just learn one thing about magickal ingredients. Plenty of other people will disagree and talk about the various properties of each stone being more important and that’s fine. For us, we’re ok with just the colour.
Our colours of magick
So for us, darker coloured candles or crystals like black and dark red we use for physiological needs or more primal magick. This might be things like individual protection or grounding spells.
Bright red and orange is for safety needs like the protection of others or for an emotional connection with others.
Yellow is for belonging needs, and used in confidence, friendship magick and for mental wellness spells.
Green is for esteem needs and used when seeking moments of calm, love, beauty or abundance.
Bright Blue is for all those cognitive needs, and for communication or forgiveness magick.
Dark Blue and Purple for self-actualisation needs and spiritual magick.
White, Magenta or transparent (in the case of crystals) are for transcendence needs, and used for magick in service of others
Colours may not have the same meaning to all people
Although some of our colour correspondences may not make sense to you, that’s cool. But maybe they’re the same ones you use, if so great!
But give it some thought. Have you ever thought about why you use certain colours in your magick? We invite you to think about how the colours you use connect with the psychological overlay. By this we mean, for example “Blue for Calm” but why? Always ask why! Research where your correspondences come from, the history may surprise or delight you. If you don’t like what you find, have a think about making up a new way, or use our correspondences. Sure, it’s new. But it works and innovation in magickal thinking has to start somewhere right?
Thank you for subscribing. By subscribing you now have premiere access to exclusive content. Do you know someone who would like to enjoy all our free content? Please share this with them and invite them to subscribe too!