Greetings,

As the title would suggest, I have found discrepancies in nearly every source on magical correspondence, I have thus far checked. Most will agree about the symbols of the elements and zodiac but few will agree on the Planets- the number, angles, hour, exc. will all differ wildly between sources. This trend is especially true of herbal correspondence; I have yet to find two sources that agree on more then ten or so- many will contradict each other out right.

Yet for some reason it all still works. Regardless of which set of correspondence I use, it seems to work most of the time. The results would indicate that the correspondence does not matter, and the effort I'm exerting is what counts. Can this be true, or is there some method to the inconsistencies that allow it to function despite the errors.

Thanks,

The correspondence itself is intended to provide a link to a specific energy - that of the elements, the planets, etc. These energies are accessed from the universe with no regard to location, timing, etc., although when you begin working with them directly you will likely find that there are indeed times when one energy is more difficult to cultivate than another at some times of the day or year. The moon is always accessible, as is the sun, the other planetary energies can be more difficult to cultivate when they are behind the sun in relation to earth, but that's only my personal experience.

No matter what correspondence you use, you are telling your subconscious to gather energy of this particular kind of carry out this particular purpose, and so that is what it does.

In my own opinion, correspondence ultimately serves better for interpretation of omens, signs, etc., the world around us in general. When you are deciding which correspondences to use for magick, you're really just deciding on which energies to use, and could just as easily use the planetary sigils themselves, and the elemental glyphs, if you were able to get past the presence of candles, kamea, etc.

I have seen very little method behind the inconsistencies myself. Mostly, each culture that produces a correspondence scheme just comes up with a different pattern because they view the world a little differently. One scheme is exposed to another culture and gets altered based on what they think is best, etc. If you want to understand more thoroghly why each culture chose what it did, then look into that culture itself, their mythology, their religion. It's a fair bit of research to trace a book back to it's origins in human culture, but most of the hard part has already been done and can be looked up somewhere.

peace

I was afraid that would be the sort of answer I would receive.



Is there a way to become more familiar with the nature of the energy, so one may work with the particular kinds individually, indecent of the correspondence? Or will I, through practice and time, gain this knowledge?

All you have to do is pay attention.

if you study one preffered correspondence symbol, and meditate on it's energy, you can gain some familiarity that way. learning to work with multiple energies at once without the symbols is when it gets tricky, but that's like learning to think about more than one subject a once - just takes a little brain exercise. it does come about naturaly with time if you want it to, but there's noting wrong with putting a little willful practice into it.

Try working with the astro glyphs. That's what I did to start with planetary energies, since they were so prevalent as correspondences - do such and such a thing on the day of mercury, use the energy of venus for love spells, etc. - the glyphs are really basic, but if you see the connection, then it'll work. You can also evoke spirits from each of the spheres if you are more comfortable working with entities, they can 'introduce' you to the energy, if that makes sense.

I think there's a thread somewhere on working with elemental energies, as well. it'll take some digging up. Pretty much everything can be accomplished with just familiarity with the planetary and elemental energies, there are few traditions that reference energies outside of those. Spirits, angels, etc., are within the realm of energies as well, though - for instance you don't have to actually evoke, say, buer from the goetia in order to work with his energy, and it is a specific 'blend' that has been codified into a single energy for a specific set of purposes.

peace

yep, they're all different, and in all branches of magic - i've seen wiccans fighting over the elements associated with the lower pentacle points

i traced it to being written at different times and in different places - electromagnetic fields change over time and are different from place to place, and like in a tv picture tube, can bend the energy around different ways

es

Greetings,

All right, then I must find an association I like and work with it with the aim of trying to become acquainted with the energy it links to.

Any I thoughts on the feelings or sensations associated with a particular energy; or are these to open to interpretation. Just asking, thought it might make things go faster if there was some sort of universal association.

Thanks

In my experience there is a sort of 'template' sensation that all energy abides by - in my opinion it's similar to the other senses, and I generally classify energy sense as a sense of it's own (6th, 7th, depends on how many senses you calculate); for instance every image may be the same, but they are all composed of light, and sensing light with the eyes is a particular sensation that we generally overlook in favor of the images themselves. The same goes for hearing, touching, tasting, and smelling. So, if you go over your past experiences with energy of any kind, it should be an easy thing to establish what the template sensation is, and go from there. Knowing that template is a great boost for learning to access and interpret other energies, but beyond that just like how everyone has different subjective opinions on images, scents, sounds, etc., energy is subjective as well.

Keeping an open mind about an energy, that is having no expectations about what it will feel like, will lend towards a quicker experience, that you will be more sure of.

peace

Develope your own correspondances. These will allow you channel your energy through your environment and visa versa. The simplist method, while it does take its time, is set a series of symbols, say planets with a number of say herbs in a circle about yourself. Arrange these at random to start and contemplate to yourself if you feel the set up is right or not. If you feel that a particular herb needs to be under a different planet then switch it. Continue as such until you are sure you've found the irght correspondances. An other example is colors and elements. I could never understand why yellow is so commonly associated with air - its the the color of the sun. To me yellow logically fits with fire. So if I were to arrange a series of colors around the four signs of the elements I would put yellow with fire because it rationally make sense to me. Like wise, in the case of herbs you'd probably want to place each herb with a corresponding planet according to your understanding of them. So if you agree that Saturn is the planet of knowledge you'd probably place knowledge related herbs under that planet.

Of course if this rather time consuming, obssessive complusive process does not fit to your liking then simply use a pre-existing list of correspondances that after contemplating you feel would work for you the best. Correspondances are not about how everybody else thinks somethings should relate to others - its about what you think should.

This post has been edited by Acid09: Mar 2 2007, 05:44 PM