Colour is of great significance, both in healing and magick.
Colour symbolism is used frequently with candles, as well as with crystals, flowers, foods and coloured water.
These uses are a way of focusing on and activating the different qualities inherent in the colours.
White
In magic, white represents light, the life force and clear vision and so is helpful where a new beginning or a sudden burst of energy and enthusiasm is needed.
White is a good colour for work involving rites of passage, especially for birth, marriage and welcoming new family members by marriage or adoption.
Use white also for protective magick, for replacing darkness with light, in meditation, for Goddess-focused rituals, for increasing spiritual awareness and contact with spirit guides, angels and the higher self.
White contains both solar and lunar energies and is often used for altar candles.
You can substitute white for any other colour.
White candles can be used on any day of the week, though they are associated with Monday in the Goddess aspect and Sunday and the Sun for life force magick.
Red
Red, the colour of Mars, the planet and god of war, represents action, power, determination, physical energy and health, courage and determination, sexual passion and potency, survival and change, for careers where danger is involved and the armed forces.
It is used as a focus for rituals calling on the power of the gods.
Orange
Orange is the colour of the Sun, of fertility – both physical and mental – and of creativity with words.
Growth, self-esteem, confidence and abundance of all kinds are related to orange, as are independence and asserting your identity if it is under threat or being eroded by the demands or unfair criticism of others.
Orange also relates to careers involving people and the arts.
Above all, orange is the colour of joy and also the successful integration of all aspects of the personality into a harmonious whole.
Orange candles are best used on a Sunday.
Yellow
Yellow is the colour associated with Mercury, the winged messenger of the Roman gods.
Through his skill and dexterity, he came to rule over commerce and medicine and also became a patron of tricksters and thieves.
Yellow candles, therefore, encourage clear communication and activity of all kinds, improving memory, concentration and learning, and are good for overcoming mental stagnation and blocks in
ideas or assimilation of facts.
Use them in rituals when you wish to gain another person’s confidence and approval or to win someone round in business or intellectual matters; to sharpen logic; for succeeding in examinations
and tests; also for good luck, for short journeys or to initiate a house move within the same area.
Yellow is also a healing colour, especially for conditions needing surgery or concerning the mind.
Yellow is good for careers in business, medicine, technology, communication or the media and also for job changes.
Yellow candles are best used on a Wednesday.
Green
Green is the colour of Venus, goddess of love, and so is good for all love and relationship matters, especially partnerships and romance; it is also potent for rites involving the natural world, herbs,
gardening and tree magick, for healing the planet and especially the forests and the land.
Green is for peace and harmony, especially within the self. When green candles are used in rituals for wealth, they tend to encourage a gradual increase in profits or resources.
As the faerie colour, green is also potent for spells for good luck and increasing magical abilities.
Green candles are best used on Friday.
Turquoise
Turquoise is the colour of Hathor, the Egyptian goddess of wisdom, music and dance, whose magical mirror reflected back the true person of all who looked in it.
Turquoise rituals are for the integration of heart and mind, feelings and thoughts and the synthesis of wisdom and experience.
Turquoise is used for successfully combining different aspects of life or two different career strands; for compassion and altruism; for increasing healing abilities; for maintaining impartiality when making difficult decisions and judgements; and for seeing other dimensions.
It is the colour of artists, sculptors, dancers, writers and poets, and can bring inspiration and originality increasing artistic ability.
Turquoise candles can be used effectively on Thursday or Friday.
Blue
Blue is the colour of the Father God and other Sky deities in their external roles as wise judges and rulers and so can be used for this aspect of the god and as a protective colour.
In magick, blue can expand the boundaries of possibility and bring success, confidence and power mingled with altruism, nobility and idealism.
Blue is also used for prosperity rituals where this involves advancement or for maximising opportunities, for promotion and expansion of business.
Blue is the colour of long-distance travel and house moves, legal matters and dealing with officialdom.
It is also for careers involving justice and leadership. Above all, blue brings calm and the ability to solve problems in the midst of a crisis.
Blue candles are best used on Thursday.
Purple
Purple is the colour of Jupiter in his role of wise teacher and keeper of hidden knowledge, and of Osiris, the Ancient Egyptian Father God and Lord of the Underworld, who died each year and was
resurrected by his wife Isis.
It represents unconscious wisdom and is used for all things of a psychic and spiritual nature and for divination.
Purple provides a link with higher dimensions and can bring happiness for all who yearn for something beyond the material plane.
Purple candles aid meditation, work with past lives, scrying with candles and mirrors, and astral travel. They are good for psychic protection and preventing nightmares.
Purple can also be used for all rituals where the facts are not clear, for clearing secrecy, for healing the spirit and for banishing what lies in the past, especially failure, and for remembering departed loved ones.
Below, I have given subdivisions for different shades of purple, but in practice they are interchangeable.
Indigo
Indigo is for spiritual healing, for psychic awareness and knowledge of past lives and worlds; it is the colour of the seer.
Lavender
Lavender is for dreams and connections with others, on a telepathic level, for awareness of Devas and other higher nature spirits and for herb wisdom.
Violet
Violet is for clairvoyance, mediumship, spirituality and contact with the evolved self, angelic guides, mysticism and peak experiences.
Purple candles are best used on Thursday.
Pink
Pink is the colour of Venus in her gentler aspects, for family relationships, affection, friendship matters, children and for the growth of new love and trust, especially after betrayal or a setback.
Pink rituals are excellent for restoring self-esteem and healing wounded emotions, for letting go of past hurts involving family or childhood, for quiet sleep and for mending of quarrels.
Pink candles are best burned on Friday.
Magenta
Magenta represents the path of service to others, especially for older women and men in the role of wise counsellor.
It can help all in the caring professions and will help anyone transform experiences, both positive and negative, into wisdom that can be offered to guide others.
Magenta candles are best used on Friday.
Brown
Brown is a colour of Saturn, the Roman form of Cronus, god of time.
Deposed by his son Jupiter, he was sent to Italy where he taught the farmers, agriculture and engineering and there established a golden age of peace and plenty.
Brown is good for protection, for magick concerning animals and especially household pets, for locating lost objects, learning new skills, for the home, property, practical matters, security and having enough resources for one’s needs.
It is also the colour of all who work with their hands.
Brown is also the colour of Mother Earth and the Earth spirits and so is good for environmental matters and conservation, especially as an impetus for practical conservation projects.
Brown is good for grounding rituals.
Brown candles are best used on Saturday.
Grey
Grey is ruled by Saturn and by Mercury, some say, when he becomes invisible in the sky.
Grey is used primarily for neutralising or erasing negative energies or feelings.
It is the shade of compromise and adaptability, of lowering one’s profile in times of danger, and offers protection against both physical and psychic attacks.
It is a colour for keeping secrets and for smoothing down potential conflict and keeping one’s counsel when to do otherwise would be unwise.
Grey candles are best used on Wednesday when Mercury cannot be seen and on Saturday.
Black
Another colour of Saturn and also the kings of the Underworld – the Roman Pluto, the bestower of the hidden wealth that lay within the Earth, and the Greek Hades, who abducted Persephone ,thus causing winter.
Black is the colour not only of death, but also of regeneration.
This belief goes back to Ancient Egypt when the annual flooding of the Nile carried with it black silt, which brought new life to the land each year.
In magick, black is the colour of endings that carry within them seeds of new beginnings.
It can be used for banishing negativity, for leaving behind old sorrows and redundant relationships; for acknowledging grief, for rituals of partings, for breaking hexes and for psychic protection.
Some people do not like using black candles because of their associations with black magick.
If you feel that these associations are too strong for you, substitute dark blue, dark purple or brown candles in rituals.
In a positive sense, black, like brown, is a colour of acceptance, whether of a restriction or of the frailties of self and others and so it is a candle colour of forgiveness.
Black candles are best used on Saturday.
Silver
Silver is the colour of the Moon and all lunar goddesses such as Diana, the Roman counterpart of Artemis, who, because of her strong association with the Moon in all its phases, was a goddess of
fertility as well as love.
It is also used on some altars to represent the Goddess, with a gold candle for the Horned God.
Silver is potent in all forms of divination, but especially for candle divination, for awakening clairvoyant powers, telepathic and psychometric abilities, astral projection, for rituals to invoke anima (female) power, for intuition and mysticism.
It represents dreams, visions and a desire for fulfilment beyond the material world.
In times of stress and sorrow, silver candles can remove negativity, promote inner stability and bring to the fore your hidden potential.
Silver candles are excellent for scrying, especially by the full moon, and for all magick involving the female life and for female fertility.
Silver candles are best used on a Monday.
Gold
Gold is the colour of the Sun and is associated with the solar deities, for example, the Egyptian Ra.
In Ancient Greece, Helios, the Sun God, was worshipped each dawn as he emerged in the East and drove his chariot of winged horses around the Sky before plunging into the ocean in the West at sunset.
Gold is potent for worldly achievement, wealth and recognition, for long life, ambitious schemes and money-making rituals that require an instant or substantial return.
The colour of male potency and fertility, it represents animus (male) power, energy and change and all rituals with noble or altruistic purpose.
Gold is best used on a Sunday.
Using Colour In Rituals
You can also use coloured candles as a focus for wishes in a particular area of experience represented by the colour.
So you might write a wish for a better memory on yellow paper and burn it in a yellow candle, the colour of Mercury.
You could then collect the ash in a heatproof ceramic pot or metal bowl beneath the candle and scatter it to the four winds.
For banishing an injustice, you might write about the event on dark blue paper, burn it in the blue candle of Jupiter and bury the ashes.
Around the home, different coloured candles can be burned for different purposes. Scented candles can also amplify the colour energies
