Marble magick ...

...is a simple way to introduce children into the craft.

It's fun and easy and teaches color and crystal use for beginners.I personally like old-fashioned handmade marbles as they tend to be of one color rather than a mix. and you can still find new handmade marbles on the
market if you look. I think www.hearthsong.com
carries them from time to time.

Some of the color correspondences your children will know intuitively like green=growing/money, with others, they might need help to find the correlations, and still others will insist that that color is all wrong. If they feel that strongly, trust that their instincts are right and let them use the color that pleases them most.

Here are a few simple guidelines for color correspondences:

Green:
Health, physical well being, deep healing, the element of earth, Grounding, centering, and balance, money, Gnomes, Fairies, finances, fertility

Blue:
Peace tranquility, release from pain, cooling, the sea, the element of water, emotional balance, emotional strength, purity, cleansing, Merfolk, change.

Darker blue:
Deep meditation, intensity, the Mysteries, the Mother, psychism, healing

Red:
Passion, (of all types), desire, strength, raw power, the element to fire, renewal, cleansing, need, lust, physical exertion, Salamanders, Dragons, good fortune, life, transformation, protection, courage, blood.

Orange:
Luck health, attraction, polarity, energy, success, the God, stimulation, Honor

Yellow:
imagination, creativity, writing, studying, the element of Air, Clarity of thought, organization, speech, Pegasus, the Sun, divination, memory.

Pink:
Emotional love, emotional healing, and friendship.

White:
Purity, strength, cleansing, unity, harmony, the Fifth Element, of Spirit, Goddess, Maidenhood, purification, Moon, hope, truth, protection.

Grey:
Neutrality, the astral realms, peace, and rest.

Black:
Absorption, and destruction of negativity, reversal, cleansing, Midnight, the Crone, Change, transformation, banishing.

Brown:
Earth, healing animals, home, balance, and building foundations.

Purple:
Spirituality, duality, Fifth element of Spirit, spiritual balance, clergy, and power

Some of these definitions will be too complex for little ones but teens can use these for more in depth spell work on a budget.

The first thing to teach little ones, is how to cleanse the marbles, which can be as easy as running them under tap water, covering them with salt, or sitting them on the window sill on a full moon. Explain to your youngsters that this helps them to get rid of bad feelings that the marbles might have. I explained it to my daughter by showing her how a bath makes you feel better when you're sick. We don't know why is works but it does. Clean things just work better. and children readily accept that inanimate objects have feelings/vibrations.

Other things children will need are a box or a pouch to place the marble in.

I prefer small pouches because they are easy for the child to take with them and a single marble won't rattle and make Mom crazy. but a box will work fine if no pouch is available, We've used Altoid boxes, and they work fine as long as you don't have very little ones who will take joy in shaking them.

Have the child hold the marble they have chosen and squeeze it tightly, thinking of the thing they desire. Hold this thought in their head for as long as they can, when they feel their mind wander, tell them to say the color of the marble and start again. Do this three times. Children's minds wander very quickly so this shouldn't take them very long, and as they get older this exercise will teach them to learn to focus. they have just
"charged" the marble with magickal intent. Now they have the basics for Crystal magick, as they get older.

Place the marble in the pouch or bag, and have them place it somewhere they will see/touch it often. (This is important because glass does not hold energy as well as crystal) If it is in a pouch, they can place it in a pocket and take it with them. Whenever they feel the need to focus, they can hold the box or pouch and concentrate on the color and what it means. This spell work is especially effective when children are stressed, like concentrating during a test or when moving to a new place, it can help them gain the confidence to make new friends. By feeling the marble, they are reminded of their goal, and makes it easier to obtain. When they have reached the goal, have them put the marble back with the others, because marbles are like people and like to have company. As they get older, they can combine different colors and see how/If they react, or you can teach them herb lore to increase the marbles effectiveness. Children are some of the most successful spellworkers, I think it is because they still believe
in Magick, and it hasn't been conditioned out of them.

I hope this gives you ideas for putting a little magick into your children's lives.