WTF even are Correspondences?
A Witch Way Q & A Post + Full Moon in Pisces Invitation
Dear Readers:
Thank you so much for your support and enthusiasm. I’m delighted to have you here with me exploring magic, creating enchantment, and making witchcraft an integral part of our lives.
Please join me for our Full Moon in Pisces / Blue Moon Ritual this Wednesday at 6pm.
We’ll be practicing entering a receptive state to receive guidance from our intuition without ego getting in the way. Looking forward to seeing you there!
Love, Amanda
Witch Way Q & A
Dear Amanda,
You are often referencing Zodiac correspondences of the cards that you discuss on your podcast Between the Worlds, and I was wondering if there was a source for these references?
Thank you!
Correspondence Curious
Dear Correspondence Curious,
The short answer is that usually I list all the references in the show notes. You can access those by clicking the arrow icon on the iTunes page for each Between the Worlds episode.
A slightly longer answer is that the best tarot book for correspondences is the appropriately named, “Tarot Correspondences,” book by T. Susan Chang, who was a guest on the show for our 8 of Wands: Focusing Your Attention episode.
I also source my references from multiple other places, including the Akron and Banzhaf Thoth Tarot book, and more recently The Tarot of the Holy Light guidebook. Decks have variations correspondence systems though (which the T. Susan Chang book addresses).
But really, most of the correspondences I just know or have intuited from working with the tarot for so long, so I don’t have a reference for them. You might just say a little bird told me. An owl, or sometimes a crow or a dove.
The more you practice any of the esoteric arts, the more intimately you’ll get to know these little birds of correspondence, and will be able to rely on them.
The longest answer – which is only implied by your question – is what the heck ARE correspondences and WHY should we care about them in the first place?
So here’s my answer to that, quick and dirty, though I could teach a semester long class on each of these (and maybe I will!).
What are correspondences?
In Paganism, and various other forms of magic, the gods/powers often have non-localized bodies. Meaning: they aren’t just in one place or no place, they are in the “real” universe in multiple places.
So, for instance, Jupiter is thunder and lightning, he is the planet Jupiter, he is tin, he is royal blue and deep magenta. He is pictures of Jupiter and hymns to Jupiter. These are his vehicles, but they are also HIM.
Imagine that your hair were woven into a cloak. In magic, you could be on the other side of the world, or even dead / in the Otherworld, but an aspect of your spirit would still be in that cloak, and could be worked with magically.
Pagan theologian Michael York explains that a god can be likened to a magnet. The correspondences act like iron filaments that are drawn towards the magnet because of their “likeness”.
When you work with the correspondences, you draw the essence of the energy you’re calling towards you.
The correspondence behaves in the same way as the thing it corresponds to because it IS the thing it corresponds to. In the same way that your hair is “you” even when it is also carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, protein, etc.
Why should we care about correspondences?
They help you remember the meaning of tarot cards.
Example: You might have forgotten what the Temperance card means but if you remember that it corresponds to Sagittarius (which will be easy because the symbol is often printed on the card), you’ll remember the Sagittarian relationship to healing, spirituality, adventure, and optimism – and be able to draw your interpretation from there.
You’ll understand what medicine your natal chart might hold for you, or the transits you might be experiencing.
For example, if you know that Venus/Aphrodite corresponds to Cypress (she is often called the Cypriot, because she was said to have washed up on the shores of the island of Cypress at her birth), then you might visit that island on a pilgrimage if you wanted to call love into your life, touch the stone where she rose from the ocean, or burn cypress incense when you’re going through a Venus transit.
Correspondences are at the essence of what magic is all about: resonance and relationship. Magic and witchcraft, are based in a mythopoetic ontology (world view). Developing your craft as a witch means honoring the way that the web of life connects with itself.
Magic is a kind of embodied ritual poetry. Just as in poetry, the more you’re able to string resonant images together, the more powerful your craft will be.
Example: When poet Jorie Graham says, “The skin made of the looks of others held up at the end of a long fork / then cast into the pit”… it’s a lot more powerful than if she were to say: People judge others mercilessly based on their looks. Which is like, yeah, no duh.
Similarly, in magic, if you wanted protection, maybe you would roll your crimson candle in black salt gathered at the foot of a volcano - vs. not rolling your candle in anything because you don’t know sh*t about correspondences.
In short, correspondences are not only useful, its basically impossible to develop in your craft without them.
However, like the poet, we don’t have to use the ones that are most obvious (not every love is like a red, red rose) but there does at least have to be some form of resonance.
Otherwise, the signal, the line that goes from your spell to Aphrodite’s ear, might get crossed in a way you don’t like (my love is like a cesspool of maggots), or might not get there at all (my love is like a snickety snook).
You can look up correspondences and memorize them, or you can divine them from personal gnosis (wherein the spirits tell you which ones to use and for what reason, and then you practice with them and see if they do the job).
Either way, you might want to start keeping a list of correspondences for your personal use, and write down when and how you use them — that way you can refer to them later, and you won’t have to remember it all over again next time.
Hope that helps!
Love,
Amanda
P.S. Subscribers! You can use the correspondences in your monthly witch guide to call in the powers you want to work with on a daily basis.
You can perfume your days with the incense of Venus, dress in the colors of Jupiter, add the herbs of Mercury to your cooking, pray to and research the deities, practice their magical tools, hold their stones in your meditations and spells. All of it is a way to magnetize the essence of the corresponding energy towards you. I’ve linked to the Witch Guide in the subscriber section below.
LIVE FULL MOON RITUAL THIS WEDNESDAY
Wednesday, 8/30/23. 6pm PT: Full Moon in Pisces Ritual.
During Wednesday night’s Full Blue Moon in Pisces ritual, we’ll be practicing entering gently altered states of consciousness in order to access our intuition.
We can achieve the same kind of inner imagery as we have in dreams while we’re in waking trance states. A big part of doing so about letting go of our attempt to control the imagery, and opening ourselves to receive. It’s a process of unlearning our attachment to control that takes PRACTICE. But it’s a necessary step if you want to strengthen your intuition.
Hope you can be there!
To join us, Wednesday at 6pm PT, become a subscriber.