This is the reference shelf. The pages here are meant to be consulted and not read from start to finish. The herb, crystal, and color tables can be filtered by typing a word, so you can look up an herb by name or search for everything that is linked with protection.
Herb Correspondences: Magical Properties of Common Herbs
A searchable table of 36 common herbs, flowers, and trees, with their elements, uses, and cautions.
Crystal Correspondences: Meanings and Safe Handling
A searchable table of 24 stones with their traditional meanings and whether each is safe in water and sunlight.
Color Correspondences: The Meanings of Colors in Magick
The meanings of fourteen colors for candles, cords, and altar cloths, plus the colors of the elements and the sabbats.
Days of the Week: Planetary Correspondences for Timing
Each day of the week is ruled by a planet and suits a kind of magick. A simple table for timing your work.
Pagan and Witchcraft Symbols and What They Mean
The meaning and real history of fourteen common symbols, from the pentacle and triple moon to the triquetra.
Glossary of Wiccan, Pagan, and Witchcraft Terms
Plain definitions of more than eighty terms, from athame and besom to widdershins and Yule.
What a correspondence is
A correspondence is a traditional link between a thing and a purpose. Rosemary corresponds to protection, green to growth, Friday to love. Witches use correspondences to choose the materials and timing of a working, so that everything in it points the same way.
These links are not laws of nature. They are a shared symbolic language, built up over centuries from folklore, the old theory of the four elements, the appearance and habits of plants, and long use. Different books sometimes disagree, and so do different cultures. The tables here give the associations that are most widely used in modern Western witchcraft.
How to use these tables
- Choose a few. One color, one herb, and one stone are plenty. A spell is not improved by adding everything on the list.
- Use what you have. A common kitchen herb that you own is better than a rare one that you must order. Rosemary and a white candle can stand in for almost anything.
- Trust your own associations. If lavender reminds you of your grandmother's kindness, then for you it is an herb of comfort, whatever the table says. Personal meaning is the strongest kind.
- Read the cautions. The herb and crystal tables include safety notes. Please take them seriously.
When you find associations that work for you, write them in your Book of Shadows. In time, your own table will be the one you reach for first.