THE MAGICK OF COLOR · LESSON 1
How Color Works in Magick
Start with a color you already feel.
Before any chart or list, stop and look around you. Find one color in the room. How does it make you feel? Calm, restless, warm, sharp, sleepy? You did not need a book to answer. That feeling is where color magick starts.
Why color is used in magick
Color is one of the quickest ways to point your attention at an intention. A red candle, a blue cloth, a green stone: each gives your mind something to hold. Practitioners have used color for a long time to focus a purpose, mark a ritual, and set a mood. The color does not do the magick for you. You do. The color helps you feel what you mean.
Where color meanings come from
No one owns the meaning of a color. Meanings grow from many places:
- Nature: green is leaves and growth, blue is water and sky, red is blood and fire
- Culture and religion: the same color can mean very different things in different places (see Lesson 4)
- Planets and days: many traditions link colors to planets, days of the week, and the zodiac (see Planetary Magick)
- The seasons and holidays: some colors belong to certain times of the year
- Your own memory: a color you wore on a happy day, a room you grew up in, a flower you love
Taught as tradition and personal practice. It is not a measurement and it is not medicine.
Why sources disagree
Open three books on color magick and you will find three lists that mostly agree and sometimes do not. One may put purple with power and another with spirit. One may use black only for banishing and another for rest. That is normal. Meanings overlap, shift, and change by person and tradition. When sources disagree, you have three good choices:
- Pick the meaning that feels right to you
- Use the meanings that overlap across sources, since they are the most common
- Keep a note of which source you followed, so you can look back later
Your feeling is the guide
If a color feels right for a purpose, use it, even if it is not on a list. The lists in this school are a place to start, not a rule. When your feeling and a list disagree, trust your feeling and keep notes on what happens.
Try this now: color and mood
Pick a color for how you want to feel today. Wear it, carry it, or set it where you will see it: a scarf, a cup, a cloth on your desk, a candle. Notice through the day how you feel when you see it. At night, write down the color, what you wanted, and what you noticed. This is an experiment in attention, not a promise of an outcome or any kind of health treatment.
Journal prompts
Take your time. Write as much or as little as you like.
- Which color in your space makes you feel the way you want to feel?
- What color do you reach for when you are tired, and when you are brave?
- Which color meaning from your own life or family is not on any list?
- When sources disagree, which approach would you choose, and why?
- What did you notice about your mood when you wore or carried your color?
All 7 lessons in The Magick of Color
- How Color Works in Magick (you are here)
- Color Meanings, Part 1: The Main Colors
- Color Meanings, Part 2: Neutrals and Metals
- Color and Culture
- Using Color in Practice
- Choosing and Combining Colors
- Color in Your Space and Wardrobe