This month, GLAMOUR’s resident spiritual columnist, Katy Meade-King, shares her definitive guide to auras, revealing what they are, as well as how to see and cleanse them.
What is an aura?
The etheric body or aura is the electromagnetic field that surrounds our physical body. The aura is a reflection of who and what we are in a physical, emotional and spiritual sense. It can be affected by ill health, fatigue, depression, fright or fear and there are daily variations, because every thought we have, action we make, and moment we experience through our senses has an instantaneous reaction in the aura making it in a constant state of change and reaction.
Atmosphere, climate and the energy fields of others will also cause our auras to change form (especially if you’re super sensitive or live in a busy city).
Can you feel other people’s auras?
When you feel a ‘vibe’ in a room, or get a vibe (either a bad or a good one) from someone – that is your aura guiding you intuitively, so it is up to you to use those subtle hints from your energy body and listen to your intuition.
No two auras are alike, everyone’s aura is completely unique. If you are a natural sensitive without proper training in how to take care of yourself energetically, your aura will be expanded and almost acts like an open backpack that you are wearing – allowing everyone to chuck ‘their stuff’ in. Over time, this gets heavier and heavier and you might wonder why you feel so drained. If this sounds familiar, it would be worth seeing a healer to guide you and clear your aura from any energies that you have ‘picked up’ along the way. Without proper care, our auras can become patchy and even have dark cloudy spots caused by either emotional or physical shocks.
How to see an aura
You might be able to see the part of the aura like a smokey vapour surrounding the body, but try standing in front of a white wall and hold your hand up in front of you with your fingers splayed, set your gaze on your hand and focus on the entire hand and let your eyes adjust (like those eye puzzles from the 80s).
Slowly move your hand from side to side, a very small movement, and you might see the aura as a small light surrounding the edge of your hand. Some people can see the aura in colour, because colour is the frequency of visible light, and light waves are travelling energy like the constantly changing aura. Each colour signifies a certain vibration which has different meanings and associations both physically and emotionally and can tell a lot about the individual’s health and wellbeing.
What each colour means
Red: This is the vibration that relates strongest with our physical reality and with very human emotions such as desire, the urge to succeed and therefore feel secure. It also relates to the intensity of physical experience, so any pain, discomfort physically can show as red. It is the vibration of survival instinct, so can also relate to our finances and living situation as well as vitality, strength and leadership.
Orange: Still very much a strong, Earthy vibration, yet higher frequency than red, the colour orange represents creativity, strong emotions, the ability to connect and relate to others in an open and friendly manner, sociability, intuition or gut feeling. The ability to reach out and extend one’s self towards others, and or creative talent.
Yellow: Getting more into the emotional and lighter side of the Earthy vibrations, yellow in the aura represents a sunny and enthusiastic disposition. Often cheerful, bright, and with great sense of humour, fun and optimism. Yellow shows inner courage, the courage to trust that inner guidance and wisdom in order to live authentically and inspire others.
Green: This is the central colour of balance between the red vibration of the physical and the violet vibration of the spiritual aspect. Balance is integral with green in the aura and it shows patience, a sense of responsibility and service, self awareness and care, as well as compassion and empathy (inwards and outwards). Green is also the colour of growth, so those on their spiritual journeys, searching for inner wisdom often will have green in their aura as the journey must begin with compassion for oneself. Green symbolises a focus on creating positive change in the world.
Blue: Lighter vibrational energy represents a depth of feeling, devotion, loyalty, trust, desire to communicate. Often shows creativity, a vivid imagination, a dreamer and possibly artistic ability. Blue vibration shows emotional sensitivity, natural intuition and may enjoy solitude. The blue vibration shows the requirement of peace, calm and oneness in their environment. Blue symbolises looking for truth, balance and beauty in everything.
Purple: A high vibration energy that represents the more unconventional, often has psychic abilities, unusual charisma and charm, the ability to manifest their desires in the material world, wish to charm and delight others and can easily connect with higher planes of consciousness. Playful, nonjudgmental, and tolerant of others’ eccentricities, this is the vibration of a sensitive and compassionate energy.
Violet/White: This is the colour representing high vibrational, spiritually motivated energy. The ability to be open and receptive to divine spiritual energy. Feels constant connection and oneness. Complete acceptance and inner wisdom characterise the lightest energy.
How to cleanse your aura
To cleanse your aura, it is important to find a quiet space and time for you to sit comfortably with your feet flat on the floor.
Start by taking three deep breaths, and set your intention and focus to cleansing your aura. Ground yourself by bringing your attention down to the soles of your feet, imagine you are similar to an oak tree and send long roots from the soles of your feet down into the ground, spreading them deep below you into the earth and far out wide all around you.
Once you are grounded, imagine a beautiful orb of sparkling divine white light hovering above your head, see it like a power-shower filling your aura with pure, white divine light. Visualise this shower of light pouring all over you and ‘see’ it cleansing every cell of your physical and emotional bodies, until you are in a giant bubble of this divine white light. Then, start scanning around this bubble to notice whether there are any patchy or foggy grey areas, when you ‘see’ one, use your imagination to fill that space with white light, like fluffing up a white cloud.
Once you have done this, pull your bubble of light inwards, like you are shrink wrapping it to about an inch away from your skin, all around you, above and below. Then you can cover your grounded and cleansed aura in a giant silver egg or disco ball of protection, so you remain cleansed and the silver works like a mirror to reflect any lower frequency energies away – like closing that energetic backpack so you’re carrying around anything that isn’t yours.
Doing this regularly is a beneficial way to listen to the subtle side of who you are, you might find that you have more vitality and clarity. There is a version of this cleansing meditation you can listen to on my website.
