Library of the Scholar Witch

Correspondences

Firstly, we need to know what is a correspondence in witchcraft?

Correspondences are, in brief, things that give your metaphysical workings direction and extra oomph. For example, if you were creating a spell drawing on the power of the ocean, then you might want to assemble a jar full of seashells and sea glass since those things have been in the ocean and will help power your spell. If you were cooking a magical meal that is full of anger, you might use a lot of red pepper... or you might not! The thing about correspondences is that they are intensely personal; you have to truly believe in them to make them work, which requires thinking about what things in the material world you associate with specific people, places, emotions, and more abstract concepts. If your grandmama cooked a lot of spicy meals full of love and comfort, then you certainly won't associate red pepper with anger the way I do.

With all of that in mind, correspondence lists assembled by anyone other than yourself are kind of useless, because using correspondences that you don't agree with beyond a superficial level won't truly add anything to your magical workings. However, I am including a list of color correspondences below. Why? Because I want to provide examples of how I think about what goes into making correspondences for my own use. You can use these correspondences if you want to, but I would advise you to come up with your own once you're ready for the training wheels to come off.

Color Correspondences

Red

• physical vitality... because blood is red.
• fire (element)... because this element and the heat it generates are often associated with this primary color.
• passionate emotions such as courage, love, or hatred... because hot emotions such as these are often associated with fire, and thereby the color red as well.

Yellow & Gold

• the sun... because the sun is classified as yellow star, and is often drawn with a yellow color by children.
• happiness / alleviation of depression... because smiley faces are often yellow, as are many flowers.
• masculinity... because, in Wicca and the medieval alchemy texts that that religion draws from, the sun is seen as masculine.
• money & financial prosperity... because the valuable metal known as gold is yellow.
• daytime... because the sun is yellow.

Green

• growth & prosperity... because plants grow, and (many) healthy plants have green foliage
• fertility... because of the lush verdancy of nature

Blue

• spirituality... because in most denominations of Christianity (which is my cultural background) blue is strongly associated with the Virgin Mary.
• water (element)... because the ocean is blue.
• peace & calm... because the United Nations' peacekeeping forces wear blue helmets + blue is seen as the opposite of the fiery emotions that the color red governs.

Purple

• prestige, fame, & social success... because, before the invention of synthetic dyes and paints, the color purple was associated with royalty due to the pigment's extraordinarily high cost.

Pink

• friendship... because, in some versions of Victorian-era floriography, being gifted a pink rose meant that the giver valued you as a friend.
• self care... because of all of the female-directed marketing in the modern world that promotes lotions and bubble baths and stuff.

Gray & Silver

• the moon... because of its color.
• femininity... because, in Wicca and the medieval alchemical texts that that religion draws from, the moon is perceived as feminine and having a connection to menstrual cycles.
• dreams... because of the connection to the moon and the night.
• otherworldly communication... because of the connection to dreams, which can sometimes be messages from internal or external forces/entities.

Brown

• protection of animals... because a lot of animals are brown.
• earth (element) because dirt is brown in most of my experience.

Black

• the night... because it's dark at night.
• secrets & deception... because burglars and other unsavory characters often sneak around at night.
• danger... because many carnivorous animals prowl at night.

White

• a stand-in for other colors... with light and prisms, if you combine all colored light then you get white.
• decay... maggots are white, as are many species of fungi that derive nutrients from dead things.

More About Correspondences

Another thing to know about correspondences is that they change over time. I found a list of color correspondences that I wrote out (mostly from copying what was written on various magickal blogs) when I was just starting out on my path as a witch. It's what formed the basis for the list you just read through on this website.

I changed the correspondences on that list to be more accurate to what I believe now; instead of mostly copying, I thought about what I actually believed in regards to those colors. I don't associate orange with anything beyond a certain citrus fruit and basketball, so I didn't include the color orange in the above list. Likewise, just as the correspondences above will change with time, they will also remain perpetually incomplete—I don't have a color correspondence for the element of air, which you may have noticed, since I don't work with that element very much at present and have yet to give it deep thought.

And that isn't a bad thing!

Your understanding of how the world and the magic within it work will always be in a state of change, whether slow or fast. It's okay to realize that what you had taken for a hard and fast rule isn't so permanent and inflexible after all.

Correspondence Homework

This homework is optional and certainly won't be graded by an authority figure, but you can choose to do it if you think it will be useful.

First, record everything you eat and drink in a 24 hour period. Think about the ingredients that go into your meals and snacks during that time—what do you associate with those ingredients? Then make a list of those associations, which will become your correspondences! Try to list both positive and negative things... for example, maybe sugar is positive because it's sweet to the taste, but in excess it can cause dental problems. Likewise, salt is used to preserve and flavor many things, but when something is too salty it can be really unpleasant to eat.

If you chose to dp the homework, then congratulations! Hopefully you feel more confident making and using your own correspondences now.