Many modern witches are leashed to the ideas that correspondences will strengthen magic. This isn't neither wrong nor right and I don't want to debate its validity here. Instead I want to illustrate an alternative and back it with facts.
1)Magic is generally described as being reliant on belief that what you do will influence the world or All
2)Almost every tradition draws on the past traditions of magic
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I'm going generalize and assume that most people who read this agree with those two points.
Now lets look back in history. Way back to the old witch in a hut on the boundary of her village. Lets look at the average citizen in ancient civilizations like Rome Mesopotamia and Egypt. Neither one of these people would have access to specifically colored candles or
astronomical knowledge either due to poverty or lack of education. So was their magic less? Did their ability to harness the natural flow of energy around them suffer along with their purses?
The specific color correspondences planets and
numbers that many witches today use first started to really impact occult thinking during the Renaissance with the creation of Hermetic orders like the Golden Dawn. If we look at history we can see that only the wealthy belonged to these orders and had access to the materials they believed necessary for successful casting. To the common witch these things were still irrelevant.
The vast majority of witches did not have access to specific colors or ingredients or knowledge until very recently.
My point in all of this is that the color or a candle or the hour of the day don't matter unless you chain yourself to that belief.
I quite frankly don't want to have such restrictions on my magic. I practice like the witches of old with wit and what's laying around the house.
I can't be sure about the hourly and planetary correspondences in the old days.
However, color has always played an important role not only in magick, but in life as well, so I find it difficult to believe that hundreds of years ago (if not longer) it didn't play a role in representation during magick. Now not "all" colors were available in every region, however the use of flowers, berries, ect did help create dyes and were used when available.
Does this mean they had colored candles? No. They wouldn't have wasted the candles in such a manner since it was the only available light to them at night other than the hearth. But "witches of old" did not practice the way we do today and in fact I would say had a much simpler approach by using what was available such as herbs, flowers, animal parts (if necessary), ect.
Now as far as astrological knowledge..did they know when Jupiter was in the right house to do a working? Probably not. But they did live by the phases of the moon, which are still used by many in magickal workings today.
Many times I have found people who "work on a whim", meaning they don't necessarily pay attention to the moon phases when they are doing workings. Of those people a lot of them rely on intuition and end up "feeling the time is right" during what we can consider the correct moon phase. Perhaps it's a natural draw, perhaps it's coincidence..though I doubt the latter.
The reason correspondences are said to strengthen a working is because of what they mean, the belief and thus energy attached to them and the natural vibrations attached to them that have been used for a very long time by many. It adds a boost to the working and helps get the energy on target for what is being done.
I don't think working with correspondences or tools makes a magickal working any more or less "powerful"...but I think understanding the humble roots of where it all started and where it grew from is important.
I am in no way saying that the old witches looked at red and didn't see love and passion. But more than likely they did not have the option to include a red candle or altar cloth simply because money was concentrated. As far as how they wrote spells of course they weren't like today's. Once again that can be traced back to the options they had. Today the atheme is generally heavily adorned and used only for magic. Back then they would've been a regular everyday knife that served many uses besides ritual work. The astrological correspondences can be summed up this way. Most old witches probably used the moon and seasons that's about it. If you were a educated practitioner you may have known something of the signs but the vast majority couldn't have. I'm not sure if it is a blessing or curse that we have all this access to opinions and knowledge.instead of having to rely on our own ability and connection to the natural cycles we can just Google it or go to ye old witchy shoppe and buy it.
I'm not advocating work on a whim but I am saying that the Old Ways of working with what you have not what Google tells you.
I agree that the energy attached is what makes them strong. However it is a personal connection that gives them strength. I am simply telling the teens out there or financially troubled witches that they don't need all the hyped up colors and hours. They can use what is at hand like our spiritual ancestors have for thousands of years.
A note on the flower thing. That is true but only during the summer and spring. So what would they do once fall and winter come? They said to heck with the red rose I need for blah blah blah spell I have this perfectly good _____.
Novumpacum. You have some things right, and some wrong. You are making the mistake of many others: by supposing that magic and witchcraft are the same. They are not! Many people, all over the world, have practised magic for thousands of years. The ancients certainly knew of Astrology and Astronomy. But those had little or nothing to do with witchcraft. The word comes from "wicce" in the European form. It meant "wise man" (wicca meant wise woman.)
Witches were, indeed, the healers. They studied the natural sources for the healing power of plants, and they kept the knowledge to themselves! That knowledge was the means of earning a few pennies by "casting a spell", but mostly these spells were very similar to the placebos in modern medicine trials. If a witch convinced a "client" that she was casting a magic spell to cure a headache, then the client would think it was magic, when the "treatment" was merely the sap from the bark of a willow tree. Aspirin!
Magic, to the ancient witch was knowledge. As has already been posted; knowledge of herbs, other plants, trees. The knowledge of how animals behave.
This is the tradition I was taught from the age of five, and I am now seventy-seven. My witch teacher never had a wand, nor an Athame, nor coloured candles. The only spell I ever knew her to cast was a protective "circle". But she had a vast knowledge of the way the world works, and the way the universe works. She knew what re-incarnation really meant! And much more that many people would call "magic". She was, as I am, a "traditional witch", and knew her "craft" long before Gerald Gardner formulated Wicca!
Bright Blessings from a (very old!) traditional witch.
You're right about correspondences such as colors and planets. But the elements and obvious associations remain true. To understand certain energy, we must understand it's modus operandi and that which surrounds it. When it comes to symbolism, it changes throughout the world with time and location. The symbolism behind correspondences are purely belief based on hundreds if not thousands of years of use behind them. But if you don't believe it, it is worthless to you. However nature itself remains pretty much the same (besides shifting plates and evolution/adaptation) fire always burns, water is wet etc.
When it comes to colors, some simply match an element. I personally use psychological colors as well as obvious element colors, like fire is red and earth is black/brown. You'll find that many "magick" color correspondences are spot on with psychological associations.
