Here is a key which may unlock the study of the esoteric. It will allow your studies to bridge many disciplines in the esoteric & healing arts. It certainly did for me!
Correspondence means the application of meanings across several systems. it's similar to the analogies you may have studies in school, something like "seeds are to the apple what puppies are to the dog". Or more poetically, "childhood shows the man like morning shows the day" (John Milton).
Correspondences are similes and metaphors, analogies, that occultist and mystics have used to draw meaning across many systems, including: herbology, astrology, tarot, numerology, and more recently the incorporation of chakra systems, crystals and stones.
Herbs and plants
Tarot
Numerology
Astrology
Angel/ Archangels
Chakras/ Energy centers
Body Parts
Directions
Crystals/ Stones
Elements
Animals
Moon Phases
Days of the Week
Metals
Seasons
There are a couple of very general distinctions to be made. I would say the major clusters of correspondence would be:
-The western hermetic cluster
-The eastern elemental cluster
-The south american shamanic cluster
-The north american shamanic cluster
-The aboriginal and african shamanic cluster
There are so many different variations and hybrids from these clusters of correspondences. For example the voodoo culture which is a combination of western judeo-christian cluster and the african shamanic cluster.
Another hybrid is the Egyptian cluster. Although this large body of esoteric correspondence has come to 'feed' the western hermetic cluster to a large degree, I would consider this a hybrid. This would be a combination of african shamanic cluster and western hermetic cluster. Of course these are all attempts to delineate what has no clear distinction. Its purpose being to facilitate a shorthand when speaking or referring to bodies of human knowledge.
The Egyptian cluster as a redefined hybrid of african shamanism and future-hermeticism requires us to perceive it outside of time. And I believe it only makes sense outside of the cause-effect box which time inscribes us into.
By way of aside, the hermetic cluster has developed into its own massive attraction point, clearly creating a body of esoteric correspondence which is distinct from the Egyptian cluster. If you will accept my categories, inasmuch as it helps to speak about these concepts, we can move ahead with some interesting revelations.
It may also do well to keep in mind that the details of each cluster are like planets circling their own stars. And that each cluster, then is made up of thousands and millions of stars. These are the myriad details and points of view, the manifold ways of practice that each cluster provides. I am in no way seeking to gloss over the distinctions or dis-respect nor make invisible the uniqueness and presence of the various traditions. They remain unseen only as much as a planet remains unseen when examining the locations of galaxies.
Further as clarification, I will focus on those subjects in which I am most familiar. And I will happily leave to you, should you feel drawn, to extrapolate my working theory to those clusters in which you are intimately familiar. Let's compare notes and see what we discover.
Let's start with one example. I know there is a correspondence between Venus and Copper. Everything that is Venusian including a facility for the arts, enjoyment of music, luxury, good taste, pleasure, refinement, poetry, sweet things, romance, all that is soft, languid, beautiful, graceful and sensual falls into her domain. And of course, love and sexuality. Venus rules Taurus and Libra astrologically. Her day is Friday. This folds in allusions to Freya and the Viking cosmologies. You can see how these references weave into each other, and how layers of meaning reveal themselves through correspondences.
There is more to say on this but I'll end it for now. This is a working theory that has not been fully fleshed out. And I don't know if it ever will. Like so much of this website, I intend that it be a type of sketchbook in which to explore and show process.
As a parting note I'll foreshadow a bit as to why this is useful to personal growth. These correspondences have their own inertia of consciousness and energy. They are not quite 'living fields' but certainly have their own matrices within the fabric of space-time. Undoubtedly they can become a language in which to speak to the Universe and in which the Universe may speak with you. Similar to number synchs, animal symbols, and other omens, these clusters can be read like a text. They may appear in dreams, flashed upon the inner psyche, or they may appear in the outer world as an animal or an offhand comment, a movie or image that seems highlighted against your awareness. The clusters are also actual experiences and histories, timelines of ancient events.... but that is another post for another day.
With love,
Maria