#requii rambles

i have not been a very colorful person lately, unless you count my language. in true form, the new moon and i are not getting along; i am sullen, in physical pain, and grousing about like a wet cat, swiping at anything that makes me mildly inconvenienced. i had meant to post this back on the second day of this witchblr, and then on the third; after a long, late night of mourning a passing family dog last night, i still really don’t feel like posting this today, or doing much of anything. but, sometimes things need to be done or said that are hard or tiring, and i think this may do me some good. so. let’s talk colors.

colors and crystals and auras, oh my. i gave my husband a book of norse runes and divination practices for yule, and i picked myself up a gift at the same time: a little bit of auras: an introduction to energy fields by cassandra eason (you can find it on amazon; i found it at barnes & noble).  it’s simple, and easy to pick up, and for me, a comfort, because colors and auras were one of the first things my late mentor passed on to me. all things, living and not, have energy. livig creatures and plants are made of energy, inanimate objects may have psychic imprints left by their owners or those who have touched them, and the remains of those living creatures that have passed on retain energy from their previous lives as well; the magic of reading these energies is psychometry, but we won’t touch on that here. what’s important is that these energies, whether you see them, feel them, or sense them however it is you do, have colors, and these colors have meaning.

eason talks about colors specifically as they relate to auras and energy fields, but colors have a place in all parts of magic, from the energy you manipulate to the energy you release, the crystals you use, the candles, you light, the colors you’ve painted your walls, the clothes you wear, everything. below is just a quick master list of color symbolism in magic for the seven major colors (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet), and the two base colors (black and white). when casting magick, preparing a spell, or even just preparing yourself for the day, you should choose the colors of your tools carefully to boost your intent, or at least be aware of the impact they may have on your spells. so, without further ado:

𝓻𝓮𝓭 ➳ action, survival, change, power, courage, determination, passion, love

𝓸𝓻𝓪𝓷𝓰𝓮 ➳ confidence, independence, identity, creativity, self-esteem, personal desire, fertility

𝔂𝓮𝓵𝓵𝓸𝔀 ➳ changeability or restlessness, communication, travel, intellectual achievement, memory

𝓰𝓻𝓮𝓮𝓷 ➳ love, fidelity, trust, harmony, natural growth, nature, money, prosperity, grounding

𝓫𝓵𝓾𝓮 ➳ ideals, visions, healing powers (esp. those connected to celestial entities), natural authority, justice, truth

𝓲𝓷𝓭𝓲𝓰𝓸 ➳ inner vision, psychic awareness, spirituality, future and past lives / worlds, sight, third eye

𝓿𝓲𝓸𝓵𝓮𝓽 ➳ medium senses and dimension crossing / communion, ancestors, angels, self & spirit

𝔀𝓱𝓲𝓽𝓮 ➳ limitless potential, boundless energy, life force, spirits, quest, purity, cleansing, healing

𝓫𝓵𝓪𝓬𝓴 ➳ transitions, rest, regeneration, sorrow, obstacles to overcome

shades and variations, such as pink, grey, or gold, also have their specific meanings, but i can discuss those in a later post if interested. i hope this reference has been helpful, and maybe it will brighten someone’s day or help them achieve a higher vibration. for more information on color associations, i do still recommend eason’s work, as she also includes information about associated essential oils, crystals, archangels, etc. i may do individual color posts at a later date. but until then,

fair winds and following seas, lovelies.

⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⊰⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅∙∘☽༓☾∘⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅∙•⋅⋅•⋅⊰⋅•⋅⋅•⋅  

the new moon is a time for setting new intentions, new goals. resetting and starting to look forward to the things we reflected on during the dark moon. energies are often haywire during the new moon, people fighting, grousing, electronics misbehaving (especially with today's partial solar eclipse), and if not haywire, then downright grey and dull. new moon energies are at the lowest point turning upward, so be kind to yourself today, and know that things will get better. the last year, and especially the last few months for me, has been awful, and if rock bottom is a place, well, i'm twenty leagues further down, but today I woke with hope and more energy than I ever have on a new moon.

energies shift.

things will change.

greetings, all ! back again for the first time, i’m requii (you can find my main blog & writeblr @requiemesque), and i’d like to welcome you to grimmoiresque, a.k.a. leanan sidhe and tea, a sideblog dedicated to wicca, witching, druidry, pagan traditions, and assorted magickal feels, aesthetics, and, knowing me, some shitposting about life as a witch. are these things even different? you may be asking. yes. the answer is yes. although they are often interchanged, the words wicca(n), witch(ing), druid(ry), pagan(ism), and even magick/magic are all different. they borrow from each other and meld, colored threads in the same weave, but here’s the jist of it:

me and 2019, running late on posts. today has a perfectly reasonable explanation, however. either a bird flying very far from home dropped some out-of-season berries by my door, or i was visited by fae. which is it? i don’t know, but look at the little lovelies i found on my way out the door today

none of the plants nearby show any signs of bearing berries at this time of year, nore do any of them have bark that color. and what a color! i was originally going to post today about colors and withcraft, but this piqued my interested and i’ve spent the last several hours trying to figure out what this berry is (besides, obviously, poisonous; trust nothing brightly colored if you value your health). there were no leaves on the plant to properly identify it, but i’ve narrowed it down to two possibilities: Cornus obliqua  (swamp dogwood) or Parthenocissus quinquefolia (Virginia creeper). many dogwood of the genus Cornus have blue fruit, generally around autumn, and swamp dogwood is native to this area. the berries, however, look more similar to virginia creeper vines, which have a more consistent color palette like the ones i found, but these vines are generally found several states north of here. both species are wetland plants, both with small, round berries, and both, notably still not located on this plot of land, at least as far as i can tell. these berries are lovely, and fascinating.

generally, in wicca as i practice it, small things out of the ordinary, particularly as associated with nature (certain birds, feathers in your path, weather), are considered portents, omens, or just small flickers of the universe trying to get our attention, for good or for worse. i joke that these berries were a gift from fae because of their unusual coloring and the way they came across my path, but i also know better than to ignore them, and i’ve looked into the meanings of the two possible plants it could be, just to see.

dogwood symbolizes wishes and is frequently used in protective magicks.1 it may also mean devotion, fertility, loyalty, passion, desire, determination, and illusion, the latter of which comes from the fact that its “berries” and “flowers” are neither berries nor flowers but clever mimics.1 dogwoods are often reverred in christianity as well, thanks to a legend about the Christ in which the base of his cross was made from a dogwood tree. the tree “felt his pain,” and in sympathy he commanded it never to grow big enough to be used for a cross again.1 in that sense, it can also be a sympathetic tree. in the victorian language of flowers, dogwoods symbolized “love undiminished by adversity”.2 dogwood is also an excellent resource for communicating or operating with fae, as it has strong ties to the devic realms of light.1  they’re particularly popular for dryads, and may bleed instead of leak sap. dogwood branches also makes excellent air wands and wards, but if this is dogwood, i may have brought myself bad luck by bringing the berries inside. whoops.

virginia creeper / vines were a little harder to find any information on as far as symbolism goes. their name Parthenocissus translates from Greek to virgin ivy3 , and their berries are poisonous to humans but not birds, but i otherwise couldn’t find much. for magick and symbolism, i had to refer to ivy and vines, in general. in the language of flowers, ivy referred to fidelity and friendship2, and in wicca, it and other stubborn vines like it (i.e. virginia creeper) are symbols of strenth and determination (Bell, 2014). Ivy, particularly, was also seen as a plant of artists and poets (Bell, 2014).

both plants seem to be associated with friendship and fidelity, determination and protection. so, maybe i was visited by fae after all. some gift from the devic realm to make friends, to inspire determination. …or maybe it was just an illusion meant to bring me bad luck. today thus far has been pretty lucky, i’d say, so here’s hoping not.

fair winds and following seas, and watch what you bring into your home, lovelies.

~ 𝓻𝓮𝓺𝓾𝓲𝓲