The Pagan Blog Project: C is for Creating Correspondence Charts

Oh goodness. Correspondence Charts. Recently I've started thinking about my Book of Shadows again. One of the biggest things I would like to add to it is: Correspondence Charts. This has been the brick wall to my spiritual momentum for some time now. When I first began studying the pagan path I was obsessed with trying to find the correct correspondence for certain things. It drove me nuts! I would find one book or website or person that had wonderful correspondences and then I would find another source with even better correspondences! I began to wonder if I would ever find something that really rang true to me. I sit here now, no farther along that path than I was when I first began. I still find myself searching through books to find correspondences for the sabbats, the esbats, the elements and deities. I have no idea who to trust or where to begin. I'm starting to feel like I should just say "Fuck it!" and do what I want!

In my opinion, however, there is a certain danger in that mentality. I believe in the "do what feels right for you" philosophy but I also believe there are certain things that just ARE (despite what one believes). For example: I would never associate Hematite with the element of air. Hematite is heavy and black and grounding and is not anything air is. I would never claim that Aquarius is an earth sign because I connect more with earth. Certain things just are. 

I want a solid and detailed chart of correspondences so I can better organize and execute my practice and as of this moment I'm stuck. I'm not sure where to get my information. One book I love to use is Sabbats: A Witch's Guide to Living the Old Ways by Edain McCoy but it is very Celtic in nature and I'm not sure if that is where I want my practice to be based. I also use The Craft: A Witch's Book of Shadows by Dorothy Morrison. The frustrating thing is: these authors are not always on the same page! So what do I take and what do I leave? Who has the authority on correspondences anyway? No one. That is my issue. 

Part of me feels like I really just have to open up and listen. I will know. Part of being a witch, I've learned, is to listen to the earth. Listen to the stone in your hand. Is it air, fire, water or earth? Watch the deer prancing in the woods in your backyard, does she say Artemis or Brid? I suppose my frustration lies in my programming. I am a product of my generation and waiting, and calming my mind is frustrating and not quick enough! I know I need to rid myself of this thinking (and believe me, I'm trying!). In the meantime I guess I will just keep referencing the great authors I respect (ie: Dorothy Morrison, Edain McCoy, Sorita d'Este, Christopher Penczak and Diane Sylvan)