The Herbal Alchemist’s Handbook: A Complete Guide to Magickal Herbs and How to Use Them - Karen Harrison 2020

Tables of Correspondences
Appendix

The following tables are quite useful when planning rituals. Correspondences are materials that share a similar energy/vibration pattern with the Planet with which they are associated. The tables are quick reference guides to the powers, vibrations, and energies of plants, colors, metals, and much more. A Table of Correspondence shows you quickly and easily which materials share corresponding energies so that you can choose your materials and plan your work accordingly. Consulting a Table of Correspondence can enable you to put together and finetune everything you want to use in focusing your Magickal energies for a special ritual. You don't have to use them all at one time in one ritual—just choose the ones that will best suit your purposes for your current working.

When designing your ritual, the first step is to pick the Planet (or Planets) that best exemplify the energies you are seeking to use:

Sun: friendship, vitality, luck, money, patronage, peace, confidence, success

Moon: astral travel, safety, childbirth, reconciliation, intuition, creativity, dreamwork

Mars: assertiveness, victory, willpower, sexuality, protection

Mercury: career, communication, conscious mind, learning, theatre, divination, health

Jupiter: ambition, luck, opportunities, abundance, expansion, fame

Venus: beauty, creativity, the arts, love, friendship, pleasure

Saturn: discipline, self-knowledge, the occult, karma, past lives, protection

Neptune: mystical experiences, inspiration

Uranus: quantum mental leaps, the unexpected

Pluto: deep inner issues, fears, instincts

Once you have decided which Planet or combination of Planetary energies will work best for your ritual, the color corresponding to the Planet is the color to use for your candles, altar cloth, or paper, if you're drawing a Talisman. The plants and perfumes are the herbal materials to choose and blend when making your own Incense, Ritual Oil, or Herbal Amulet as you develop your formulas. The metals and gems are materials that you can charge with energy and use in an Amulet (or bury or keep in your pocket or place upon a photograph or contract—your imagination is the limit). The number associated with each Planet represents the Planetary energy, so you could use objects in the same amount as the number associated with a Planet—one candle or stone to represent the Sun; two candles or stones for the Moon, etc. In making a paper Talisman, you would use a three-sided (triangular) paper for Venus, which is associated with the number 3; a four-sided (square) paper for Saturn, which is associated with the number 4; a five-sided (pentagon) paper for Mars, which is associated with the number 5, and so on.

The best day to perform your ritual is determined by the Planet whose main energy you have to tap. Each Planet rules a day of the week:

You will notice that because Uranus is the higher octave of Mercury energy, its rites are performed on the same day as Mercury's, Wednesday. Neptune, the higher octave of Venus, has its rites performed on Friday as well; and due to its depth of energy, Pluto shares the energies with both Mars and Saturn. Depending on the type of Plutonian rite in which you are engaging, choose either Tuesday or Saturday for your work. Rituals involving deep-seated instinctual functions such as sexuality or radical transformation of the psyche would be done on Tuesday. Plutonian rites involving resolving karmic debt or ties with whom one has shared a lifetime or lifetimes would be performed on Saturday.

You will also want to plan your ritual by the correct phase of the Moon to capture the best Lunar flow:

Waxing Moon (New Moon to Full Moon, as the Moon is getting bigger) is used to influence events outside of yourself and the environment and people around you, expansion, and growth.

Waning Moon (Full Moon to New Moon, as the Moon is getting smaller) is used for inner work like dreamwork, past life regression, stopping bad habits, and slowing or stopping events.

New Moon is good for new beginnings and blessings.

Full Moon is the Moon in its full-power tide. You'll want to check the Astrological placement of each Full Moon to take the most advantage of its energy at that time.