Correspondences are something that we use all the time in ritual and magic, and I have talked before about how there is a difference between universal associations (like how the heart symbol is understood to represent love), cultural associations (in the US green is associated with money, but not in all countries, especially if their money is another color), and then personal associations (white is not a good color for me). But when we talk about correspondences, we typically are talking about categories.
What I mean by that is that if we think about apples as a correspondence, it often doesn't matter which apple. Some people will differentiate between different types of apple (a green granny smith might give you different vibes than a red delicious, for example), but very rarely do we talk about individual meanings (if you have a bag full of all Fuji apples, are they really all the 'same').
I always thought it was interesting, in a spirituality that personifies the world around us, we generalize and often act as if "all apples are the same' when it comes to their magical properties. That's kind of like expecting "all people to be kind" or something ridiculous like that.
I know that it's all based on archetypes. When we work with an apple, we are using that specific apple as a representative of the archetype of perfect 'appleness', and we have decided that the concept 'apple' means certain things, and that is how we use an apple. But we can expand our understanding of apples (or whatever we are using), by looking for the qualities that the specific apple we are using exhibits.
This is a bit of a crossover with mindfulness practice. A very common mindfulness exercise is to eat an apple, but to pay attention to every aspect of the process. First you look, and touch and smell, and as you eat you taste and listen. And while there are many common factors, ways in which eating this apple will be similar to other apples you have eaten in the past, there are also always unique things to experience.
With magic, being able to notice those individual aspects opens the door to really being able to tailor our works to our needs. Because we have the archetypal apple that we can always call on, the qualities of our specific apple can be added (or not) as we desire.
But let's say, for example, our apple is like the one in the center of the picture at the top. It has patterns on the skin that we can find images in. We can examine the stem, look for blemishes, count the seeds inside....there are a ton of ways to explore an apple and find things that remind us of other things (and honestly, that is all a correspondence is...something our brain links to something else).
We could easily extend this process in reverse too, so when we are looking for an item to use in ritual, we can not just grab any apple, we can look for an apple that fits what we are doing. I feel like many of us do this already, seeking out the 'perfect' item for spiritual use, but when we put active thought into it, we can recognize that 'perfect for this purpose' is different from an idealized version of what perfect means.
Like many things, this is something that becomes easier with use. As we build up our personal associations, we learn to notice more with less effort. We learn how to know what we need, and as we look at our choices, we can pick through them and feel for the one that best suits us.
Like any other mindfulness practice, this starts by slowing down and paying attention. When you use items in your practice, really look at them. Look at what makes them like others of their kind, and what makes them different. Seek out those imperfections, and ask yourself what they mean to you. The more you do this, the easier it will become, until it is almost second nature.
We often have a choice of what to use for our practice. If you want to add another layer to your correspondence use, why not try taking the time to really look at your choices. See each apple as unique, as an individual, and find the one that fits best.
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