As many witches will tell you, auras come in many colors and many variations of those colors. Each has its own meaning for those who know how to read auras. Some people have auras that combine two or more colors or their variations, as well.
Here is a very basic list of only the most common aura colors:
Scrying is some of the most interesting magick a witch can learn to practice. Whether using a cauldron filed with water underneath the moonlight, using a rock crystal sphere, or a magick mirror, the tool a witch chooses is of less consequence than the manner used for scrying. Even using natural methods, such as the tall grasses in a field or the leaves of a tree dancing in a breeze, the dancing light of a fire or simple candle, scrying is a process that speaks to witches around the globe.
The medium you use should be natural to you. If drawn to air, leaves and grass blowing in a breeze can reveal what you seek. If fire calls to you, use a candle or the flames jumping from a fire. For earth, a rock crystal sphere or magick mirror, answers questions, just as a cauldron or charged metal bowl filled with water.
To practice scrying with your cauldron or a bowl, it is as simple as filling it with water to within a few inches of the lip; due to the natural elements it contains, rainwater or spring water works best. If you are inside, add a couple of small votive candles or chime sized candles of an appropriate color (related to the questions asked) to either side but do not allow the flame to touch the water surface while scrying. If you are outdoors, the light of the moon is best, however, do not allow the reflection of the moon to touch the water as you scry. Take several deep breaths and center yourself within your own mind. When your mind is clear, focus on what you want to know and allow your mind to narrow your focus to a single statement or question. When you are ready, allow your eyes to open and gaze into the water. You do not need to focus on the water itself, allow your gaze to sink into the center of the water. Allow your eyes to blink naturally; you are not in a staring contest with the water, after all. Let your mind relax around the single question, hear it in your mind as a whisper, feel it as a weight in your bones. The answer may come in pictures viewed with your third eye in the water, or as a voice in your mind. Let yourself relax and be open to the response you seek.
When using a crystal sphere or magick mirror, after it is magickally charged, do not allow sunlight or man-made light to touch it directly. I.e. protect it from fluorescent or incandescent light. I even set it carefully where candlelight does not reflect directly on the ball or mirror. I feel that candles should sit behind you as you scry, illuminating the medium you are using to scry only indirectly. Again, take several deep breaths and center yourself, as you focus on the question you need answered. Allow your gaze to sink into the mirror or ball, not focus directly on it. It is not like the movies where you see fluid shapes on the surface of the mirror or ball like a film shown on a movie screen. The shapes will occur within the mirror or ball, itself. You may see a snapshot as an individual picture reflected, you might see moving shapes showing you the answer. Some witches hear the answer audibly from the magickal item or as a whisper within their mind. How you share your connection with the crystal sphere or magick mirror will be uniquely yours. It might change as your work with it progresses, or stay the same. Only with continued workings will you learn how your individual connection works.
If you use a candle or fire to scry, it is as simple as it sounds. Once you have lit the fire or appropriately colored candle, perform your deep breathing and centering. Focus on the intent behind your gazing and allow the flames from the fire or candle to draw your attention deeply. The room or area should be darkened, if you are indoors, or nighttime if you are outdoors. When outdoors, make certain it is a still night and that you have taken all necessary precautions to keep the fire from spreading or the candle from falling and igniting other items. You do not want to have to worry about the flames spreading to you or the surrounding while you are gazing. Allow yourself to see the flames movements. Listen to the hiss, sizzle, and crackle of the flames when using a fire. Fire might choose to speak though images and/or through audible means as well. As you focus on the question, listen to the flame and watch as it dances, in order to hear and see the answers you seek. When using a candle or fire, you might also observe the smoke and with the fire, after the flames have burned out, you may try your hand at scrying for answers in the ashes.
When using nature to scry, it is very different from other means. Using nature requires you to have daylight. You may choose to listen, or observe visually, in order to find the answers you seek. Once you have chosen your medium, leaves high above you in the trees, grass on a hillside or open field, or even a tree-shaded brook or stream, you need to make certain you are comfortable. Arrange your body in a position that ensures your safety first, then your comfort. Make certain plants in your area are not harmful, such as poisonous ivy, poison oak, or poison sumac. Protect yourself from human, animal, insects, and vehicular dangers. Once ready, take your deep breaths and center yourself, gain your focus on the question. If you watch the leaves or grass moving in the breeze, you may see patterns or shapes, conversely, you may hear whispered answers to your question. The brook or stream, may answer you as the shadows of leaves form patterns or the babbling of the water becomes whispers or words you understand.
When you have a focus for your scrying, no matter which medium you chose, it can act as a doorway into your own subconscious, allowing you to interact with knowledge you do not realize you have. It might act as a way to contact the universal energy, elementals, a means to contact deities, familiar spirits, or other entities with access to knowledge beyond your own. You may receive the answer you seek; you may receive more than you seek or less. You may even end up with new questions to ponder.
When you practice scrying, it is best to keep a record of your activities. Use your grimoire or personal journal to track responses. If you experiment with various mediums, recording the results will help to track the most successful workings so you can find the most accurate medium, which works best for you. Each witch is unique and it may take time to discover with medium works best with your unique gifts. Some witches use different mediums for different questions, so, I suggest that you try as many methods as you can to see which works best for you.
As a witch with a talent of my own, (though it is certainly not tarot reading) I can understand that people who do not believe in psychics have a right to their opinions. When a person calls a psychic hotline, or visits a psychic online and gets a badly explained reading or trips over a person who has no legitimate talent, they have a right to be angry and dissatisfied. However, for some people to say that “no one” has the ability or the power to read a person based on a special skill is ridiculous. Sorry. I have to call bullshit on that one! That is like saying no one can do advanced science because you cannot understand it. It is akin to stating that because you do not “believe in” string theory that it does not exist and the people who work in the field are “making it up” as they go along. It is preposterous.
I have met only a handful of people, who have a great deal of talent in my lifetime. The first was when I was in my early twenties; she provided some excellent advice that served me well concerning my immediate question. Having been someone who investigates things thoroughly beforehand, I made it a point to give her my first birth name (which I have never actually used in my life) and a single word as the question only. I refused to banter with her, giving the “Interesting!” or “Oh, that is so me!” type of leading comments that can lead to a clue for fakes. I did not nod along with the good info or purse my lips at the bad. I did not look her in the eyes, kept my mouth shut and my eyes strictly on the cards she used. After it was all said and done, the answer to my question was absolutely not what I wanted to hear, but it was the answer she gave. I accepted it as such and walked away with the information I sought, leaving her without any feedback on her reading. I assumed that if she wanted feedback she would have asked for it.
The one person who shocked me the most, though, was my own beloved husband. When we first married, my late beloved told me he had “played around” with a Rider Waite tarot deck as a teen, but never really got into it. He had tried it because he found a card from that deck on the ground once and carried it with him for years, but really had no interest in tarot, otherwise. That all changed when we started studying the occult in depth.
My late husband was scary, very scary indeed, when it came to reading the tarot for people. Once he got “into” studying the tarot, he found himself drawn to several different decks. As such, he became a collector of decks, and on meeting someone new, he would engage them in discussions about the weather, or something going on in the world. He purposefully avoided personal information. It was a point of pride with him that the first reading, knock their socks off.
Therefore, Az looked the person over, felt the energy coming off them, then; he would reach for a specific deck. It was amusing to watch, as sometimes people would point to a different deck and ask for the reading from it because it was a cooler looking tarot deck, prettier tarot deck, spooky looking tarot deck, more well known tarot deck, and he would say, “No. This is your deck.” He shuffled the deck and handed it to the person to cut; he repeated this action three different times. He always reminded them to think the question while they touched and cut the deck, but not speak it aloud. He did not want to know. He would choose a layout based on what he wanted not what was ornate or popular, then, it was reading time.
He specifically admonished people not to give any sort of feedback during the first reading, but hold it until after he was finished. He would ask them to just listen, absorb what he had to say and hold any questions until he was through, as well. Sometimes people would blurt something out after he made a comment and it would piss him off and he would show it. As a 6’ 5” tall and very broad shouldered and masculine man, he had a great scowl that could turn off chatter as quickly as a faucet being turned, so there was usually only one “slip up” during a reading.
When I say scary, I mean that his feedback, after the fact, in the entire time he gave readings was never rated as less accurate than an eight or nine in relativity to the question. He got a few that low, however, most often people said he was dead on target for the question and rated him a 10. It was hilarious to watch his first time readings. Seeing people go pale when he would give them specific information. Watching their eyes widen with surprise, their mouth drop open in absolute shock at times was funny because Az rarely looked up from the cards during a reading and that only when he was searching for a specific word. Even then, he kept his eyes closed. You could practically see his mind spinning; hear the wheels turning as he sought the best possible way of explaining what he was getting from the cards. I had to cover my mouth to keep from laughing sometimes as people would gape at him openly, yet there he was… staring down at the cards, or facing the heavens, frowning with his eyes closed searching for what he needed to express, just so.
Invariably, the person would walk away one day and return another, often with a friend in tow. When you have the talent, you know and it shows to others around you. If not, then that, too, is obvious to those who are paying attention.
Bear in mind, I have met some extremely good fakes over the years. Fakes with crystal balls, fakes with tarot cards, fake palmists, all of whom are good at reading body language, asking the right questions and feeding you information which seems right at the time, but when you look back on it, the information is so generic it could apply to anyone you know.
The true readers have been rare in the almost 30 years I have been visiting and testing them, but they certainly do exist. Some talents, exploited by those people who want to make a quick buck, get a bad reputation as a result, but bad reputations or not, carefully seeking one with true talent can pay off in the end, when you get the assistance you need.
Sacred Hands Coven 