"I never realized there were so many uses for color in magick!" It was a Wiccan Priestess who spoke, and what she said surprised me. I knew that she had used color in healing and aura work for many years but, apparently, she had not thought of its use beyond that. Color can be incorporated into various methods of healing, as well as be used in such diverse roles as divination, numerology, astrology, talismanic magick, poppets, candle magick, crystal gazing, meditation, and numerous forms of psychic development.

Discovering its effectiveness can certainly lead to enthusiasm for its use but, of course, you don't have to use it all the time…though the temptation is there! One of the joys of using color is its simplicity. There is no need for any elaborate equipment and difficult training. Much color is utilized through lights (daylight and artificial) and colored papers or gels. Just the use of colored candles, inks (in talismans), papers, and robes, can hone a fine edge to a lot of magickal practices.

Color Breathing
Years ago I used to commute to work on a daily basis (today, happily, I work at home) and decided to use the drive time to experiment with color breathing. For years now I have frequently been accused of looking far younger than my years—as much as ten or fifteen years younger! I am sure that this is a direct result of that color breathing done so many years ago, and this illustrates the absolute simplicity and effectiveness of color work. Every day without fail I would spend ten minutes of my morning commute and ten minutes of my evening commute just breathing deeply. This was pretty much the standard deep breathing that I have detailed in several of my books as a prerequisite for any magickal work: breathing in white light to gradually fill all areas of the body while breathing out all negativity, aches, pains, etc. The difference here, however, was that I would imagine the air around me as being pink in color! That meant that, with every breath I took in I would fill my body with that pink light. I would sense it—"feel" it, almost—as it worked its way into every little corner of my body, from the tips of my toes to the top of my head. I pumped myself full of this pink light and kept at it for the full ten minutes. Then I let it go, and let my mind move on to other things. But over the weeks and months I began to receive more and more comments/compliments on how well I was looking. By color-breathing pink, I was able to greatly slow down the aging process! It has been many years now since I did that specific breathing, but the benefits have remained with me.

Light Waves
Color is nothing more than light waves, the rate of vibration giving the specific color. That rate of vibration is measured in what are called Angstrom units, which measure one ten-millionth of a millimeter of vibration! The color red, for example, has a wavelength varying from 6,200 Angstrom units to 6,700Å. At the other end of the spectrum, violet vibrates from 4,000Å to 4,500Å. A balance of these colors is absorbed, from the sunlight, by our bodies. When we are sick it is invariably because the colors are out of balance. By increasing the color(s) lacking, we can give ourselves the necessary boost to return to balance. In very simple terms, that is the basis of chromotherapy. The whole concept was explored and worked with intensely by the pioneer Dinshah P. Ghadiali, throughout the first half of the twentieth century. He wrote a number of excellent books on the subject and even founded the Spectro-Chrome Institute, in Malaga, New Jersey. In more recent years, the work has been greatly developed by Faber Birren, acknowledged and recognized by the Council on Industrial Health and by the American Medical Association.

With what we know of the properties of colors—the traditional associations—from candleburning magick and similar, we can also employ those colors in a wide variety of magickal practices to increase the resonance in the spell. For example, instead of using white paper when making a love talisman, for example, it would give extra empowerment to use pink, the color associated with love. Making a healing poppet of green cloth (the color for healing) rather than plain white is another example. A blue projection of thought, or even actual light, when working to bring down a fever is yet another example.

Like the Wiccan Priestess I mentioned earlier, explore the possibilities of working with color. Stop thinking of it as simply a pleasant background and start thinking of it as a potent ingredient in your magick, healing, divination, and more, for that's what it is.