Orbing

Orbing is the power to teleport to another location through the use of orbs. This power is possessed by Whitelighters, Elders and Whitelighter-Witches. When someone orbs, they turn into a swarm of blue and white orbs that rise upwards, or sink downwards, depending on the direction the being is going. However, certain Half-Whitelighters orb in a swirling manner without rising or descending like Simon Marks. Witch spirits utilize a variation of Orbing that allows them to turn into swirling white orbs instead of blue and white orbs like Whitelighters do.

As a protection from evil, Orbing is one of four teleportation powers being able to reach the Heavens. On at least three occasions, the warlock Eames, the Titans, and Neena stole the orbing power from Whitelighters to attack the Elders.^[1]

List of Users

Original power

Through spell, potion, power stealing, etc.

Related Powers

Telekinetic Orbing

Telekinetic Orbing is the ability to teleport or move objects through the use of orbs. It is a hybrid version of regular Telekinesis combined with orbing. The first being to display this power was Paige Matthews, the first known Whitelighter-Witch. Her Whitelighter DNA caused her power to manifest through orbs.

Remote Orbing

An advancement of telekinetic orbing allowing the user to send other beings to another location without having to orb with them. Remote orbing was used for the first time by the Elders from the Heavens when they orbed Leo away from Piper when he tried to marry her.^[2] Paige Matthews later developed this power for the first time when sending Phoebe home from Magic School.^[3]

Combustive Orbing

Combustive Orbing is the supposed hybrid power to combust objects and beings by channeling orbs into the desired target. This power was used only once by Wyatt Halliwell when he destroyed a dragon he had conjured.^[4] The true nature of this power remains unclear, as it was only witnessed once.

Orb Shield

Orb Shields are transparent blue energy fields composed of orbs. It is a highly focused advancement of Telekinetic Orbing and has only been shown possessed by Whitelighter-Witches. Wyatt Halliwell possessed this power from the womb, allowing him to protect himself and his mother from harm.^[5] Paige Matthews developed his powers years later to protect herself and her sister from a demonic attack.^[6]

Notes and Trivia

• Black Orbing is an evil counterpart of Orbing used by Darklighters and Darklighter-Witches. When Wyatt was evil, he also orbed through black orbs.
• The special effects of Orbing has changed a throughout the series. It has noticeably gotten darker, and in later seasons the orbs would rise slightly then dissipate instead of rising out of sight.
• In early seasons, it was mentioned that it is forbidden to take passengers, more specifically witches, while Orbing. However, Leo broke this rule on several occasions and this rule was subsequently forgotten about.

• Whitelighter-Witches are shown to orb differently to Whitelighters. While Wyatt and Chris orb in a similar manner to their father by rising up and descending in cyan orbs, Paige is instead surrounded by darker orbs before disappearing on the spot, while Simon Marks is surrounded by more watery, swirling orbs.
• In the beginning of the series, Leo would always orb in the same manner going upwards in a rising silhouette no matter where he was going. Even if it was to the Underworld which was generally beneath him he would still orb upwards. However, as the series progressed, he began orbing in the direction he was going, if he was going to the Underworld he would orb downwards in a silhouette.

  

• When Piper possessed Leo's powers, she showed great control over this ability, mastering it quickly. While she had trouble with healing and sensing his charges, after orbing with Paige only once, she was able to orb on her own with no apparent difficulty, something that took Paige months to master.
• When shooting a scene where someone orbs, the director would yell freeze to the actors on stage. A blue light would then be put on (the director would yell "orb light up") the actor who orbs. The actor would then move to his destination and unfreeze as the blue light fades out. After that, the scene is edited and orbs are added. (This can be seen in the Behind-the-Scene's video of The Legend of Sleepy Halliwell).

• Gideon is the only Whitelighter or Elder in the series whose orbs had a different color (although Paige did have her orbs temporarily turned green during the events of Lucky Charmed). His orbs have varied between the regular blue and purple. It is still unknown what exactly this color change was associated with.
• In Germany, the powers of Orbing and Beaming, a type teleportation used by Cupids, are both called Beaming (german: Beamen). There was made no difference between them.
• Margo Stillman created an anti-orb spell that prevents users from Orbing.^[7]
• According to Leo, orbing burns a lot of calories.^[8]
• Leo stated that Paige orbed into the neutral plane; whether or not this is the usual modus operandi for orbing in general is unknown.^[9]
• There are some instances in the series where orbing isn't presented as teleportation per se, but more as the user flying around in the form of orbs. An example of this is in "Sympathy for the Demon" when Paige attempts to orb out of the Manor after Barbas traps her in it, only for her orbs to bounce off the bricked windows. Another example is in "Saving Private Leo" when Paige orbs through the ceiling and is seen sailing through the sky.
• Orbing seems to be faster than hyper speed, evident by Paige orbing in front of her charge Mitchell Haines when he tries to run away from her.^[10]
• In the 2018 series, Orbing is completely different: it has nothing to do with the orbs and is much more similar to Apparition from the Harry Potter franchise.
• In the reboot, the Whitelighter-Witches orbing seems to be influenced by their witch powers: Jada Shields in fact has the power of electrokinesis and this led to the development of Electrokinetic Orbing.

Gallery

The Orbing article has a Photo Gallery.

References