To learn to sense the aura if you haven't ever been able to see one, find a willing subject (you may practice on each other) and have them sit, relaxed, before you. Both of you should ground yourselves and feel centered. Now you, as the aura reader, should extend your hand palm out to your friend, and attempt to feel where the aura begins around your friend's head. Feel for a slight tingling, a heat, a difference of any kind. See if there are any bare spots or spots that feel colder or different than the rest; they may end up being spots that you will later see as different colors that you can interpret.

To enhance the ability to sense changes, have your friend consciously meditate and pull up energy from the earth, as in the Tree of Life meditation technique. See if you can feel the energy grow, and then ask your friend to try to damp out the flow of energy at some point, to see if you can feel when he or she stops exuding it. Deliberately making changes is a good way for one of you to sense the changes and the other to practice changing energy levels.

To best see the aura, have your subject sit in front of a white or black background, in dim lighting. Let your eyes relax and scan the space around your subject. You will probably see a sort of line encircling the outline of the body. Beyond that, look for a discoloration of some sort; it may be a glow, or a shadow, or lighter than the background. This may be best practiced with someone already adept at the movement of energy, so that you can watch them do a meditation for peace and see what "peaceful" looks like in that person's aura.

Here is a list of color symbolism as applied to aura-reading.

Red: Most often seen in the auras of active people, including athletes and children. Can denote good health, healthy social life, and strong sex drive. Dark red usually indicates anger or surfacing temper, while lighter reds can be interpreted as closer to pink.

Orange: Most often seen in outgoing, mostly-healthy but stressed-out people. Can denote a tendency to have too-quick reactions to all types of stimuli and pressure in life. Dark orange can indicate serious pressure or extreme aggression.

Yellow: Most often seen in intelligent, creative people. Can denote serious study and high intellectual power, especially in language. Deeper yellows indicate higher intellect while lighter yellows indicates less creativity. Yellow-orange can indicate someone who uses their sharp mind to hurt others.

Green: Most often seen in domestic, family-oriented people and artistic individuals. Can indicate happiness and contentment and love of nature. Deeper greens appear in people who are plotting against others, and light greens appear in people with big egos.

Blue: Most often seen in healers and very caring people. Can indicate selflessness, talent in herbalism, or spiritual or creative people. Light blues appear in the auras of religious or spiritual people and also in those with musical talent. Deep blues show up in the auras of psychic people or those with natural gifts to understand others. Creative people will sometimes be seen with shafts of blue light coming out of them.

Indigo: Most often seen in clairvoyant or spiritual people. Can indicate giftedness in the magickal arts and a need to change one's outlook on life if it appears lower on the body. Those with indigo in their auras can also become too self-absorbed.

Violet: Violet is not often seen in anyone, but belongs to those who are unusually fulfilled and enlightened. Indicates peace with the world and very strong understanding and integration of life's processes. It is believed these people with violet in their auras are reincarnated souls whose karma is on the plus side and are there to help others in the negative.

White: White is also not often seen in anyone, and means similar to the violet except for the fact that these people are usually disconnected from the outside world and spend much time daydreaming. If white is seen in an aura the reader is usually mistaking it for the auric field itself.

Pink: Most often seen in romantic, happy people. Can indicate a strong sense of justice and fairness, selflessness, and new love. People with pink in their auras may be too concerned about others to properly care for themselves and sacrifice too much.

Olive: Most often seen in negative, stagnating people. Can indicate negative emotions, childish behavior to get what is wanted, and tendency to always want more while ignoring the pleasures of what is already had.

Aquamarine: Most often seen in inactive people. Can indicate a need to get out more, people who are spending too much time in intellectual pursuits at the expense of their physical health. These people need more physical exercise to revitalize their bodies.

Peach: Not often seen in anyone, but when sighted, indicates a compassionate, selfless person. These people are good listeners and excellent friends, and usually give good advice.

Lavender: Most often seen in people who lead two or more different lives. Can indicate lying out of feeling helpless, putting up a front, or wishing to live one way that does not match the current lifestyle. Often these people's problems are caused by too much alcohol or other dependence.

Blue-Green: Most often seen in emotional dreamers. Can indicate too much thinking and not enough doing, or can simply combine the characteristics of blue and green auras intertwined.

Turquoise: Most often seen in analytical, insightful people. Can indicate clear and logical thinking (sometimes too much so, but often just the right amount). This color shows up in the auras of musicians, inventors, and scientists.

Red-Violet: Most often seen in confused, driven, frustrated people. Can indicate action toward a goal with which the person himself disagrees or has doubts. When this color appears in large amounts, it can be indicative of a stress-related disorder.

Beige: Most often seen in less intelligent, very normal people. Can indicate basic happiness, lack of ability, and inactivity. These people are usually content with their lot but are not very smart or particularly special in any way.

Green-Brown: Most often seen in dogmatic, conventional, closed-minded people. Can indicate an inability to think for oneself and fear of stepping outside conventions. Often these people are very vocal or active about their causes, but do not fully understand them; they can be dangerous but also cowardly.

Brown: Most often seen in extremely unhappy or anxious people. Can indicate obsessive personalities, a sense of hopelessness and giving up, or sickness if in small patches over body parts. An aura that is almost entirely brown is usually just a bad mood leftover from an unpleasant event. Brown can indicate very serious depression.

Silver: Not often seen, but shows up in elderly people most often. Indicates interest in spiritual or religious attainment, though does not actually indicate that the attainment has occurred. These people have open minds toward their own area of chosen wisdom.

Gold: Almost never seen, but when it is seen, it combines with white, blue, or violet most times. It can indicate extreme enlightenment, to the point where the person does not even appear to be on the same level with other humans. People are strongly attracted in an almost cult-like way to those with gold in their auras, because of the person's huge amount of wisdom and expertise in living life.

Gray: Often seen in negative or sick people. Indicates a negative personality overall, a person who is very dangerous and best to avoid out of fear of violence. If this color is concentrated over a body part, it can indicate serious illness in that body part.

Black: Not often seen, but indicates a twisted, sick personality. People with black in their auras are streaming with hate or murderous intentions, and often have had a very bad childhood or recently been hit with an experience that has irrevocably changed their outlook on life for the worse. If black is localized over a body part, it can indicate a life-threatening illness.