Mastering the art of spell correspondences is the key to a rich and meaningful magical practice. A correspondence is made when you form a connection between a substance of the physical world, such as a colour, a flower, or a crystal, for example, and liken it to a human experience, such as love, or a magical intention, such as love attraction. In making this connection, you are saying, the red rose corresponds with love, or love is like a red rose. The red rose is, therefore, the right flower to use in my love spell.
Here are some familiar examples of spell correspondences:
Colours: Red might correspond to love or passion, while green may relate to prosperity or healing.
Herbs: Lavender is associated with peace and calm, while rosemary might be linked to memory and purification.
Planets: Venus is often linked to love and beauty, while Mars is associated with war and action.
Thinking in correspondences is a poetic way of interacting with the natural world, drawing connections and creating meaning, where there wouldn’t otherwise be any, in an objective scientific reality. The more intuitive and skilful you become at inferring correspondences, the more rich, complex and meaningful your spellcraft will become.
The art of spell correspondences, creating meaning with elements of the natural world, has roots in ancient belief systems and traditions that have developed over millennia.
History and Origins of Spell Correspondences
Spell correspondences originated with a belief that certain (magical) objects, symbols, colours, herbs, crystals, planetary positions, and other natural or symbolic elements have inherent qualities that can be harnessed to affect desired outcomes in the material world.
You might call these objects ‘materia magica’. Knowing the inherent magical properties of materia magica provided practitioners of magic and other spiritual traditions with a framework for connecting their rituals and spellwork to the physical world, in an attempt to influence reality.
Ancient Civilisations
In ancient civilisations like Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Greece, and indeed, in all ancient civilisations around the world, the idea that objects and natural elements possessed inherent powers, or could influence reality, was a key aspect of early religious and magical practices. Early examples include:
Egyptian magic used symbols like the ankh and scarab beetle, each with deep spiritual meanings.
Mesopotamian astrology linked planetary movements to gods and their influence over human events.
Greek philosophy and Hermeticism later formalised these ideas. The Hermetic principle of ‘As above, So below’ encapsulates the idea that the heavens (macrocosm) and Earth (microcosm) are interconnected, reflecting the core concept of correspondences.
Ancient Chinese philosophy presents the concept of Wu Xing which are the Five Elements of Wood, Water, Fire, Earth and Metal. These elements are not just physical substances, but are seen as natural processes that influence everything that happens in nature, such as the seasons, including all aspects of the human realm, such as health and medicine, being and consciousness, and even society and government in China. The Five Elements, as correspondences, can be used to explain the philosophical ‘likeness’ of everything belonging to Earth-bound and cosmological nature, including human nature.
Alchemy and Medieval Europe
The development of alchemy in the medieval period further shaped the notion of correspondences. Alchemists believed in the transformative power of substances, and their work often involved spiritual and mystical processes, not just physical ones. Alchemical thought rested on the idea that everything in the natural world had a hidden spiritual essence and that metals, plants, and even planets corresponded to human qualities and spiritual states.
During this period, medieval astrologers assigned planets, metals, days of the week, and even bodily organs to specific zodiac signs and planetary influences.
This period also saw the re-emergence of ancient ideas like sympathetic magic, which can be found in early Medieval English Magico-medico texts, such as Bald's Leechbook and the Lacnunga. In these texts, magical actions were performed on objects to transfer a disease or harmful spirit from the body of the afflicted person to the object. This form of sympathetic magic involved a symbolic connection between the object and the ailment, a foundational idea in magical practice.
Later, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, James Frazer, a historian and anthropologist, studied the history of magic and explored the concept of sympathetic magic in his work The Golden Bough. He categorised magic into two forms: sympathetic magic, where 'like affects like,' and contagious magic, where things once in contact continue to influence each other. However, Frazer was analysing and documenting traditions that had long predated him.
The idea that the shape of a plant or herb could indicate its use for healing a corresponding body part, such as a plant shaped like a kidney being used to treat kidney ailments, stems from the Doctrine of Signatures. This concept is associated with Jakob Böhme (1575–1624), a German mystic and theologian. Böhme suggested that God had placed signs in nature to indicate the uses of plants and other natural substances for human health. However, the Doctrine of Signatures also has roots in earlier medical texts from figures like Galen and Dioscorides, ancient physicians who influenced later European medical and magical traditions.
Renaissance Magic and The Occult Revival
The Renaissance era saw a resurgence of Hermeticism and Neoplatonism, along with other esoteric traditions. Thinkers like Marsilio Ficino and Cornelius Agrippa brought together elements of Christian mysticism, astrology, alchemy, and the Kabbalah into a unified worldview where correspondences governed the relationship between the material and spiritual realms.
Agrippa’s work, Three Books of Occult Philosophy, was particularly influential, providing detailed lists of correspondences between planets, plants, stones, angels, and more. This era laid the groundwork for modern Western esotericism.
In the 19th century, the occult revival, fuelled by groups like the Theosophical Society and The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, helped revive and modernise the concept of correspondences. These groups sought to unify ancient mystical knowledge with emerging ideas about psychology and spirituality.
20th Century: Wicca and Modern Paganism
The 20th century saw the emergence of Wicca and other forms of modern Paganism, which placed a renewed emphasis on spell correspondences. Gerald Gardner, the founder of Wicca, integrated many of these esoteric traditions into the religion, combining ancient folk magic, ceremonial magic, and modern psychology. Later in the century, popular books on Wicca and magic, such as Scott Cunningham’s Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs, further systematised and disseminated detailed lists of correspondences, solidifying them in contemporary magical practice.
Correspondences and the History of Science
The relationship between the concept of correspondences and the history of science is intricate, characterised by periods of harmony and divergence over time.
Natural Philosophy and Early Science
In ancient and medieval times, magic, religion and proto-science (often called natural philosophy) were closely intertwined. The worldview was holistic; all natural phenomena were seen as connected through divine or mystical forces. Early scientific disciplines such as alchemy, astrology, and medicine shared many foundational principles with magic, including the idea of correspondences.
Alchemy, a precursor to modern chemistry, worked with the concept that base metals corresponded to planetary influences, and transforming them (like turning lead into gold) was as much a spiritual process as a physical one. Astrology sought to understand the cosmic correspondences between the stars, planets, and earthly events, a practice that laid the groundwork for modern astronomy.
The Scientific Revolution
The Scientific Revolution of the 16th and 17th centuries marked a turning point where empirical observation and experimentation began to diverge from esoteric traditions. Thinkers like Galileo, Kepler, and Newton transformed how people understood the natural world, focusing on mechanical and observable laws of physics rather than mystical correspondences. For instance, Newton’s laws of motion explained planetary movements based on gravity and inertia, displacing earlier notions of astrological and magical influence.
However, even within this shift, there were overlaps. Johannes Kepler (1571-1630), for instance, was an astrologer as well as an astronomer. He discovered the Laws of Planetary Motion, which described the orbits of planets around the Sun. Isaac Newton, too, practiced alchemy and was deeply invested in esoteric traditions, even as he laid the groundwork for modern physics.
Psychology and Correspondences
In the 20th century, correspondences found a renewed connection to science through psychology and the works of Carl Jung. Jung’s theory of archetypes and his exploration of the collective unconscious resonated with the concept of correspondences, as he suggested that certain symbols and patterns were universally meaningful. Jung also wrote about synchronicity, the idea that meaningful coincidences reflect an underlying order in the universe, similar to the older idea of magical correspondences.
The Interplay of Magic, Correspondences, and Science
The concept of spell correspondences represents a pre-scientific way of understanding the interconnectedness of the universe, blending spiritual, symbolic, and natural elements. Historically, it emerged from ancient religious and magical traditions, was formalised in esoteric schools of thought, and even influenced early scientific exploration. While the Scientific Revolution distanced itself from these mystical frameworks, correspondences persisted in occult practices and were later integrated with emerging ideas in psychology.
Today, correspondences remain a cornerstone of modern magical and spiritual practices, while simultaneously reflecting humanity’s enduring quest to find connections between the seen and unseen, the physical and the metaphysical.
Read about the connection between spell correspondences, magical thinking, and the philosophical concept of qualia.