I am in no way saying that the old witches looked at red and didn't see love and passion. But more than likely they did not have the option to include a red candle or altar cloth simply because money was concentrated. As far as how they wrote spells of course they weren't like today's. Once again that can be traced back to the options they had. Today the atheme is generally heavily adorned and used only for magic. Back then they would've been a regular everyday knife that served many uses besides ritual work. The astrological correspondences can be summed up this way. Most old witches probably used the moon and seasons that's about it. If you were a educated practitioner you may have known something of the signs but the vast majority couldn't have. I'm not sure if it is a blessing or curse that we have all this access to opinions and knowledge.instead of having to rely on our own ability and connection to the natural cycles we can just Google it or go to ye old witchy shoppe and buy it.
I'm not advocating work on a whim but I am saying that the Old Ways of working with what you have not what Google tells you.
I agree that the energy attached is what makes them strong. However it is a personal connection that gives them strength. I am simply telling the teens out there or financially troubled witches that they don't need all the hyped up colors and hours. They can use what is at hand like our spiritual ancestors have for thousands of years.
A note on the flower thing. That is true but only during the summer and spring. So what would they do once fall and winter come? They said to heck with the red rose I need for blah blah blah spell I have this perfectly good _____.
Novumpacum. You have some things right, and some wrong. You are making the mistake of many others: by supposing that magic and witchcraft are the same. They are not! Many people, all over the world, have practised magic for thousands of years. The ancients certainly knew of Astrology and Astronomy. But those had little or nothing to do with witchcraft. The word comes from "wicce" in the European form. It meant "wise man" (wicca meant wise woman.)
Witches were, indeed, the healers. They studied the natural sources for the healing power of plants, and they kept the knowledge to themselves! That knowledge was the means of earning a few pennies by "casting a spell", but mostly these spells were very similar to the placebos in modern medicine trials. If a witch convinced a "client" that she was casting a magic spell to cure a headache, then the client would think it was magic, when the "treatment" was merely the sap from the bark of a willow tree. Aspirin!
Magic, to the ancient witch was knowledge. As has already been posted; knowledge of herbs, other plants, trees. The knowledge of how animals behave.
This is the tradition I was taught from the age of five, and I am now seventy-seven. My witch teacher never had a wand, nor an Athame, nor coloured candles. The only spell I ever knew her to cast was a protective "circle". But she had a vast knowledge of the way the world works, and the way the universe works. She knew what re-incarnation really meant! And much more that many people would call "magic". She was, as I am, a "traditional witch", and knew her "craft" long before Gerald Gardner formulated Wicca!
Bright Blessings from a (very old!) traditional witch.
You're right about correspondences such as colors and planets. But the elements and obvious associations remain true. To understand certain energy, we must understand it's modus operandi and that which surrounds it. When it comes to symbolism, it changes throughout the world with time and location. The symbolism behind correspondences are purely belief based on hundreds if not thousands of years of use behind them. But if you don't believe it, it is worthless to you. However nature itself remains pretty much the same (besides shifting plates and evolution/adaptation) fire always burns, water is wet etc.
When it comes to colors, some simply match an element. I personally use psychological colors as well as obvious element colors, like fire is red and earth is black/brown. You'll find that many "magick" color correspondences are spot on with psychological associations.
Of course there is psychological benefit from colours. As there is in many of the "tools" of the more modern paths of magic and other Pagan beliefs. And, of course, witches have always worked with the magic arts.
But there are many religions, many beliefs, that use magic. But they are not necessarily witches in the old ways.
And witches do take notice of the planets and the moons; more so with the modern advances in Astronomy.
However, the tools, the colours, the candles, are good for putting a person "in the mood" for magic; whether it be meditation or any other ritual. But, as has already been posted, the old time witches didn't have such things. In the UK such objects could not be sold until after 1951. It was against the Law!
