Candle Magick

A lot of witches burn candles just about every night. They burn a candle in honour of the Goddess. Just burning a candle puts you in the right frame of mind. Some witches, even if they are burning a candle in honour of the Goddess, still dress the candle. Dressing the candle means applying the right kind of oil and/or writing out on your candle what you want. So, you need to know the right kind of candle and the right oil.

Candles have been used as a Witches tool for centuries and used a lot for ritual purposes. They are often symbolic of spirit or energy, and they can represent all of the five elements. Candles can be used as a focus device in meditation, or to set a gentler mood in a room. Remember your birthday cake candles? They were lit and you made a wish and then blown them out, well you participated in the most popular candle ritual in the world and subconsciously you were performing candle magick. By setting the proper atmosphere, candles are used to help increase a spell's power, or to influence a particular power. Candles absorb one's personal energy and release this energy when burned Candle colour is very important when performing magick, for each colour produces a particular vibration and attracts certain influences. The following lists below are meant to be used as a guide in choosing a candle colour for your personal use. Please remember that colour is another ‘tool’ and you need to choose what works best for you in your magickal workings. If you do not have the colour mentioned for your particular need, spell or ritual you can replace that colour with a white candle.

The candles you use should ideally be ones you yourself make out of beeswax, using natural dyes and essential oils, if desired. Beeswax sheets are available at most craft stores, and are a fast and easy way to make your own candles at home. Realizing this is not always possible, you may use what is readily available to you. There are plenty of websites and craft stores where you can purchase your candles in a wonderful array of colours ~ you will find lots of candles on this website! Prior to using any candle in your workings you should cleanse the candle and anoint it with a small amount of oil during the waxing phase of the moon. This consecrates the candle and charges it with magickal energy. You can also carve or paint appropriate magickal symbols onto your candles, to further empower the candles with those energies. The heated tip of your athame works well for this purpose. It is best to use one candle per ritual or spell, and to not use a candle that has been used previously for another purpose. It is also best to allow the candle to burn out by itself, as blowing it out may disperse the energy contained within. If that is not possible as sometimes we have something unexpected come up just when we have planned a nice quite time in and it simply would not be safe to leave your candle burning alone, then you may use a snuffer to put the candle out ~ never leave an unattended candle burning on it’s own and always keep candles well out of the reach of small children and animals.

I have two cats and one of them just loves to ‘get involved’ in my rituals! You can bet as soon as I place my candle in a ‘safe spot’ he will be sure to jump up to check it all out! These days I have to ‘ban’ him from the room whenever I am using candle magick! So always be sure your candles are safe and if like me you have animals double check your candles are safe for safety of your home and your animal too!

 Important pointers on choosing a candle:

1. Choose a plain candle, of uniform shape. Having unusual or large candles can
be distracting and is therefore not suitable for magickal use.
2. Candles used for magick should always be Virgin (unused) at the start of the
ritual. Using second-hand candles or other materials in magick can have
disastrous effects as they might have picked up vibrations from previous
use, even if it was just on a dinner table!
3. It is a very good idea to make your own candles if they are for magickal
use. It will increase the magickal potency of the candle many times.
4. It is very easy to make your own candles, simply heat the wax until liquid
and pour it into a mould, which is threaded with a wick. The wax should now
be left to cool, after which the mould can be removed. Oils and colours can
be added to the Wax for extra effects do this at the time your melting the wax.

Cleansing and Consecrating your candles
The cleansing and consecration of candles used in magick is an extremely important step that
should never be omitted. Cleansing your candles removes all that negative energy the
candle may have picked up along it's path to your hands. Now if you've made the candle
yourself, it may not have any negative energy at all. However, you may still want to cleanse
the candle in case it picked up any during its creation. You never know what it picked up
when you cursed at that hot wax that bubbled over onto your floor. :) As with all magickal
supplies, you want your candles to be as free of all that dirty psychic debris as possible.
There are many ways you can cleanse your candles, and it all comes down to what works for you.

How to cleanse your candle and consecrate it

Sea Salt

Sea salt make sure you have enough to completely cover your candle
Candle
Bowl (to hold the sea salt and candle, should be large enough to hold both)
Pour the sea salt into the bowl, though not to the top unless you want it to spill over. Submerge the candle in the sea salt. Ask the Lord and Lady to bless and cleanse the candle in a way befitting of your own design. Once again, it's always best that the words come from your heart and not from someone else. If you like, write down the phrasing you'd like to use before attempting to cleanse the candle to prevent yourself from getting confused. Leave your candle in the salt for around a day or overnight.

Alcohol
Rubbing Alcohol
Cotton wool balls
Candle
Apply the rubbing alcohol to the cotton ball. Holding the candle in your hand, cleanse the candle from bottom to top. This expels the energies from your candle. Make sure to focus on your goal (cleansing the candle of negative energies), or you could expel positive energies from the candle as well. Ask the Lord and Lady for their blessing and cleansing of the candle. If working with a candle encased in glass, cleanse the exposed wax and glass. Make sure the candle is dry before doing anything else with it.

Other ways for consecrating your candles

Pass it through incense smoke
Allow it to bath in the light of the moon overnight

Charge your candle before using it in ritual. 
This can be done by anointing it with oils associated with the ritual or magick you intend on performing, or by simply touching it and charging it with your own energy.

Whilst charging the candle, visualise the North and South Poles - rub the oil into the candle starting at either the North or South end and always brush in the same direction. The oils used in anointing your candle should where possible always be natural fragrances.

Now when purchasing your candle, most witches buy small candles which can be found in New Age stores.
When you are doing your spell, think positive that it will work. Never, ever think that your spell will not work.
When doing a candle magick, leave opening for Gods to let them make decision. Also, set a time limit on the candle magick. Give it a certain amount of time for it to happen and if it does not, then do it again.
Keep in mind that some candle magic has to be repeated over a period of days. Therefore, you will want to place them in an area that will not be disturbed. Do not choose a place where there is a TV, radio noise or disturbances of any kind. Somewhere quite where no one can mess about with them.

Next you can either consecrate it with words asking the Lord and Lady to bless it and empower it for your intention you can charge it by the moons rays and ask The Lord and Lady to bless it.
“I cleanse and consecrate this candle in the name of the Lord and the Lady. May it burn with strength in the service of the light.”

Spells do not last forever. If some time has passed, say a Full Moon or so then you must do it again.

Next you will need to dress candle

Dressing your candles
Once you have purchased or made your ritual candle it has to be oiled or "dressed" before burning. The purpose of dressing the candle is to establish a psychic link between it and the magician through a primal sensory experience. By physically touching the candle during the dressing procedure, you are charging it with our own personal vibrations and also concentrating the desire of your magickal act into the wax. The candle is becoming an extension of the witch's mental power and life energy

Then you dress a candle for magickal use, imagine that it is a psychic magnet with a North and a South pole. Rub the oil into the candle beginning at the top or North end and work down-wards to the half-way point. Always brush in the same direction down-wards. This process is then repeated by beginning at the bottom or south end and working up to the middle.

The best type of oils to use for dressing candles are natural ones which can be obtained quite easily. Some occult suppliers will provide candle magic oils with exotic names. If the magician does not want to use these, they can select suitable oils or perfumes from their own sources. The oil soluble perfumes sold by craft shops for inclusion in candles can be used.

Dressing the candle with oil is as important as any other step. Use whatever oil you prefer or what a specific spell asks you to use. What is important is the direction you dress the candle. To bring something to you, rub oil on the candle in a downward motion from the top to the middle and then from the bottom to the middle.
To send something away from you...you rub the oil from the middle of the candle out to the ends. Never make a back and forth motion as this defeats the purpose. Dab the remaining oil from your fingers onto your third eye and on your breast bone.

Oils and herbs for boosting
Whenever you are searching for the right oil, you also need a something which gives it that extra boost, like cinnamon. Catalyst herbs need to be in all spells. You need to use catalyst herb/oil along with your intended oil to send it off, to activate it. But just a pinch or drop or so of oil.

Boosting oils/herbs

1. Dragons Blood - all spells should have this herb. Whatever you put in, you get out.
2. Allspice is good for money.
3. Cinnamon - psychic work and love spell.
4. Cloves - love and psychic.
5. Galangal - this is a good one for prosperity.
6. Lilac - with flower power (feminine).
7. Lavender
8. Musk
9. Myrrh - another great oil which gives power to any oil.
10. Ginger

Inscribingyour candles
If you inscribe a candle you should use your Bolline or you could use an unused blessed cocktail stick. The same principle as dressing the candle is used...
To draw something to you, write from the top to the middle, and then from the bottom to the middle.
To repel things, write from the middle to the ends.
You could inscribe it with the name of the person you are trying to help, planetary symbols, runes and other words of power or deity names.
The candle is now ready to be used in spell work.
If you are not going to use this candle straight away wrap it in wax paper or a plastic sealed bag so it does not become contaminated once again.
The use of differently coloured candles symbolizes the nature of intent and ultimately the outcome of a particular spell. Coloured candles are therefore used to pinpoint our focus on a particular deity or planetary association. We need to understand the colour properties and other associations of candles to make magick work.
  
Candle colours
The colour of the candle is very important as well:

White candles reflect all colours back.
Red for sexual love.
Pink for love 
Orange for attraction. This is good for a calling.
Yellow well being, concentration, intuition.
Green represents health and healing, money, changes and renewal.
Blue spiritual, healing, memory.
Indigo Brow, third eye, psychic centre. Helps to see aura. Psychic awareness. Purple - Crown centre, royal colour, Deity, spiritual.
Brown Stability.
Grey represents intuition.

Moon Phases for candle magick
The Moon phase must be taken into account whenever working magick or Wiccan spell-casting.
Each phase of the Moon has its own energy, and its own Power. When spell-casting, as mentioned in the essence of magick, the more you can align with the flow of Universal Energy, the more powerful your Wiccan spells will be.

The Moon is in magick the way it is in life. Each moon phase generates an energy flow. If you want to work magick with the Moon -- which is one of the most important ways to enter into the flow of Magick -- you must perform your spells in harmony with the Moon's phase.
Below is a list of Moon phases, and the energy they create. This will tell you when the best time is to work any magick spell.

New Moon

New beginnings, fresh starts, optimism, hope and faith

Waxing Moon

Building, accomplishments, creativity, strength, growth and learning, positive transformation

Full Moon

Abundance, harvest, wish-fulfilment, manifesting desires, sexuality, achieving all dreams, protection

Waning Moon

Letting go, clearing away, cleansing, releasing, shedding old patterns, undoing bindings, opening up problem-knots, making space

Dark Moon

Rest, Peace, deep wisdom, divination, contacting the guru within, letting things die away completely