Color Magick: A brief history and how to use it.

An assortment of differently colored candles.

Are you curious about color magick and how it can benefit your craft? Color magick is a great way to enhance and amplify your spells and to work magick even into your mundane life. You can do so by bringing certain colors into your home, or by blending color magick and glamour magick. Makeup and decor can be magickal too! Want more wealth? Buy some gold or red, yes I said red, pillows or an earthy green throw. Get gold picture frames to surround your family photos in opulence and wealth. Want to turn your partner on? Red nail polish or red lipstick will do the trick!

Over the years I have noticed that depending on where you look you will find different associations for different colors. Have you ever wondered why that is? Cultural & ethnic differences and UPG, (unverified personal gnosis), which are valid. For example, often you will find red being associated with strength and power, which I agree with. However, in some cultures red is associated with wealth, and I agree with that as well. Some may also associate purple with wealth due to the fact that in ancient times the Phoenician purple dye that was used was so expensive and rare that only royalty could afford vibrantly colored clothes. This is something that persists to this day in some parts of the world.

Rainbow roses

A lot of people see yellow as an uplifting, happy color that is associated with justice, luck and friendship while others might associate the color yellow with disease and death. Why? Usually when something on a person’s body starts to yellow you need to seek medical attention immediately. Let’s also not forget how yellowing of the skin was a sign of The Black Death in the middle ages. Following that logic you could use a yellow candle to inspire happiness or inflict illness.

You can even adapt this to your herbal correspondences. Roses are associated with love and romance while others associate them with death and decay because they are often seen at funerals. You can use roses in love magick to bring love and romance to a relationship and draw in good energy and you can use them in baneful magick to hex someone’s relationship and absorb the love. If you have an aversion to an herb or a color you should be honoring that. Using things you don’t like or even detest or are allergic to could cause your spells to fall flat or worse, backfire.

An altar

Now I’m going to blow your mind by telling you that you can use whatever color candle you want in your candle spells or whatever color you have available to you at the time. Some witches use one candle for many spells. Their spells work. Some witches burn a candle for an hour at a time and when they feel like things are getting stale again they relight that same candle. Their spells work. Back in ancient times there was no such thing as colored candles.

Is color magick valid? Yes. Does it enhance and add power to your spells? Yes. Is it necessary? Nope! You can even create your own correspondences based on your personal experiences, culture and ethnic background. In fact, I encourage you to do just that! That is going to have a way bigger impact on the results of your spells than any color correspondence you will get out of a book. I also want to encourage you to research the associations of herbs and colors as they are relevant to your cultural and ethnic background. At the end of the day your craft is YOUR CRAFT and you should feel empowered and confident to experiment and adapt things to suit you.