Under a Color Spell

UNDER A COLOR SPELL

by Eleyne-Mari

It has taken me nearly one hour of hiking and huffing uphill but I have finally made it.

I am standing atop Glastonbury Tor. Avalon. Mystics. Enlightenment. Fairies. All the ancient wisdom is here in this sacred spot and I feel I am finally home. Down below, past the bright green fields dotted with wooly, sweet-faced sheep, is the medieval town of Glastonbury. I join the line of tourists, New Age Travelers (nomadic hippie types) and purple-robed pagans to make the downhill trek.

Back in town, I scour the shops and am soon reminded why this mythical Isle of Avalon is one of the most powerful, magical centers on earth. In Glastonbury, nearly every proprietor caters to the magic folk, offering everything from tarot cards to amulets to crystals. There are countless bookshelves devoted to the great wizard Merlin, the crop circles and The Holy Grail (which is said to have been buried beneath Glastonbury Tor by Joseph of Arimathea).

I find an alleyway leading to a courtyard of shops called The Glastonbury Experience, where I nearly trip over a ragged hippie who is demanding my change. The air is filled with burning incense as I weave in and out of each colorful establishment, until I have wandered into a little shop of colors that sells Aura-Soma. How appropriate that this little magical town would have a little shop of color magic, I think.

Throughout the ages, color has played a significant part in magic and its power cannot be underestimated. Burning candles is one of the simplest and most effective ways to incorporate color magic. After consecrating and charging the candle with oil and intentions, one can use the color energies to perform these magical spells:

- To attract money or power, burn a gold candle.
- To protect against evil, light a white candle.
- To bring happiness, burn an orange candle.
- To get rid of bad luck, use a black candle.
- To attract love, burn a red or pink candle.
- To heal, burn a green candle.
- To increase magical powers, burn a purple candle.

Besides colored candles, magical rituals may include a specific colored altar cloth, robe, gemstone, ink, statue or flower. In some rituals, a colored placket is used to hold a photograph or personal object. A healing placket might be colored red on one side (for strength) and green on the other (for healing).

In their ancient magical rituals, Native Americans, Egyptians, Japanese and witches often applied colorful cosmetics and tattoos to their bodies to attract courage, protection and invincibility. “Green, rose, or copper eyeshadow or eyeliner draw in energy from Venus, the planet of love and romance,” writes Laurie Cabot, the “official witch of Salem”, who also suggests “charging” makeup and body paint with specific intentions to enhance the magic.

In ceremonial magic, a poppet (cloth doll representing a specific person) may have the person's name written in the color which corresponds to their birthdate. For instance, the name of a person born under the sign of Libra would be written in yellow.

Color magic is also used in planting gardens. Some of the colors you might find in a magical flower bed are:

red for passion, love and to add the element of fire.
green for prosperity, healing, fairy magic and to add the element of earth.
blue for peace, hope and to add the element of water.
purple for increasing magical and psychic powers.
pink for love, children and friendship.

Tussie-mussies are miniature flower bouquets which have been carried for protection against evil spirits and illness. To attract love, a tussy-mussy might be created with a pink rosebud for love, white azaleas for peace and blue forget-me-nots to ensure the love is true.

From a bookstore on High Street, I purchase Barrie Dolnick’s The Executive Mystic: Psychic Power Tools For Success and begin to read a fascinating chapter about how psychic power tools can help in the workplace. According to Dolnick, a particular color may be thought-projected to someplace you will be in the future. (Like sending confidence-building yellow ahead of you to the board meeting location.)

Inside the home, kitchen witches have been known to use color magic to achieve their heart’s desire. In her book, Candlelight Recipes for Magic, author Marian Singer offers full chromatic menus for attracting everything from luck to love. Describing her Prosperity Pasta (a money meal using fresh spinach and spinach noodles), Singer writes: “The wonderful green noodles in this recipe represent your money; whereas the garlic sauce neatly surrounds it with protective energy. This way when you really need money, you can “bank on it” being there.”

Accompanying each recipe, Marian Singer gives the reader aromatic, candle color and decorative suggestions, as well as a magical incantation like:

Oodles of noodles, with prosperity green

Bring me more money than I’ve ever seen!

Of all the color “spells” I’ve discovered, the one that appeals to me the most also seems the most fattening. You simply write your intention on a cookie with your desired color of frosting (eg. red to attract a new romance). To make the magic work, apparently you just open your mouth, insert cookie and eat!

I love Glastonbury. It is a magical, colorful place where you can walk the same worn paths as some of the greatest sages in history. But as I gaze at those wonderful Aura-Soma bottles back home in Rhode Island, I know that one needn’t embark on a Glastonbury pilgrimage to appreciate the wonders of color magic. Color is vibration and so it travels at the speed of light because it is light. Turning on a beautiful Tiffany lamp or meditating before a stained glass window is color magic. You can project color anywhere to anyone if you can visualize the color…and believe.

Once you understand the power and attributes of each color, there are many ways its magic can be used to achieve your desiers. But as with all magic, it is the power of intention that makes the color magic work and it is our responsibility to use those intentions wisely.

Eleyne-Mari is a writer, certified color therapist, spiritual aromatherapist and the director of Aura House School of Color Therapy. Her website address is www.colortherapyschool.com.