From dopamine dressing (aka dressing in a way that makes you feel happier) to taking a color therapy bath to using Feng Shui colors to literally set the tone of your home, there’s no denying that hues can influence how we feel. Well, practicing “color magic” is a way to harness the power of colors to call in more of what we want into our lives, says Jerico Mandybur, a creativity coach, tarot reader, and author of Rainbow Power: Manifest Your Dream Life Through the Creative Magic of Color.

What is color magic?

Color magic is already happening all around us, affecting how we feel, Mandybur says, as each color of the rainbow holds a specific frequency and meaning. On example? The color red can make some people feel energized or even panicked, as it’s often associated with tension and emergencies. Practicing color magic, Mandybur says, is about being more strategic with how we interact with color in a way that helps us improve our lives and achieve specific results. “Color magic is just a way of co-creating results with color rather than just taking it for granted or ignoring it,” she says.

Practicing color magic is about being more strategic with how we interact with color in a way that helps us improve our lives and achieve specific results.

And in case you were wondering, yes, there is a connection between color magic and the chakra colors and meanings (for example, the connection of the root chakra with the color red, the sacral chakra with orange, and so on). “Most color magic advice will hold that kind of frequency or that energy of that color through the lens of chakras,” Mandybur says. “So it’s important to acknowledge that meaning is there for most people, and I think it’s really hard to separate that meaning now; it’s so embedded.”

In the same realm, aura color associations are also based on chakra colors. “Auras and chakras are really closely linked in terms of how they understand color,” says Mandybur.

Color magic color associations

There are certain universal color associations and meanings, which, again, often correlate with the chakra and aura color meanings. Here’s a cheat sheet of the different color meanings, according to Mandybur.

• Black: mystery, possibility, the unknown, protection
• White: cleanliness, purity, innocence
• Gray: diplomacy, balance
• Red: power, tension, confidence
• Orange: eccentricity, power, creativity, fun
• Yellow: optimism, happiness, hope, play
• Green: nature, abundance, soothing
• Blue: intuition, wisdom, intelligence
• Purple: psychic ability, divination
• Pink: self-love, romance
• Brown: grounding, resourcefulness, animals

Still, Mandybur emphasizes that color meanings go deeper than universal connections. “Everyone has such different associations with color that go beyond these rules of what a color means,” she says. For example, even if the association of yellow is with joy, positivity, and optimism, if you had a negative experience with the color, that may not be your relationship with it.

Mandybur’s advice? As with all things in the spiritual realm, take what resonates with you, and leave the rest behind. “I like to emphasize personal agency and writing your own story when it comes to what those colors mean to you,” she says. “That’s what makes it magic.” So, if you don’t vibe with yellow, but for you, green is the color of happiness, she says, working with green in a magical sense to manifest more happiness will be more effective for you.

How to use color magic to manifest what you want

To practice color magic, Mandybur recommends getting a sense of the color already around you, which is often taken for granted or overlooked. For example, in taking a color inventory of your life, you may notice that your home is primarily white. Get curious as to why. Was that a conscious choice? How does it make you feel?

Mandybur also suggests taking a peek at your wardrobe colors and asking yourself why you’re drawn to those colors. “Is it out of a sense of safety, security, familiarity?” she says. “Or, does it feel like I’m really expressing some inner part of myself when I put those clothes on?” In other words, examine your relationship with different colors in your life.

From there, you can begin to harness the power of color by sprinkling more of a certain color into your life based on what you desire. Bringing the color in, Mandybur says, is like bringing in the “medicine” or frequency of that color. And there are no right or wrong ways to do this, she adds. It can be doing small things like buying yellow flowers to cultivate more joy, journaling next to a green plant to manifest abundance, or lighting a pink candle while reciting self-love affirmations to call in romance.

Whatever color magic ritual you choose, the key to success, Mandybur says, is that it is easy and fun to incorporate into your day and feels meaningful for you. It’s that kind of excitement that builds energetic momentum to help you bring your desires to fruition.

It’s also important to remember that the magic lives in the intention you set for the ritual. “Color has this potency and this frequency such that it can really function like an energetic ally in any kind of spiritual work,” says Mandybur. “But it’s also just that; it’s an ally that will complement the intention.”