Candle Magick

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YanaKhan
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Candle Magick

Post by YanaKhan »

Witches use candles in almost every ritual. At least I know I do. And there is tons of information on candle magick in the internet. I thought I could try and systematize some of the basics in a thread, but I wasn't sure of where to put it. So, please, if this thread belongs somewhere else, excuse me.

So, here we go.

First, about the different types of candles.
  • Altar candles These are usually white or a black and white one and are placed on the altar and lighted before every ritual. The symbolic meaning is: A white candle for purification and protection. The white candle can replace any other color candle. The black candle is for going deeper into the depths of the mind. In the cases when a white and black altar candles are used, it's to represent the balance of the universe. Also, they represent the element of Fire in rituals.

    Sacrificial candles. These are to represent a person or purpose when needed. They can be different color, they could have different scent, shape, depending on the purpose.

    Archangel candles. These candles are used to ask the Archangels for help. Archangel Michael - a blue or gold candle to ask for mental or physical protection.
    Archangel Raphael - a green or pink candle to ask for healing energy.
    Archangel Gabriel - a dark blue candle to ask for guidance.
    Archangel Uriel - a gold or purple candle to ask for calmness and courage.

    Astral candles. These represent the person doing the ritual or the object of the ritual. Their color represents the star-sign. If you don't know the person's sign, you can use white candle.

    Moon candles. They are usually shaped as crescent, but actually any candle with a crescent carved on it works. They are used to honor the Moon, to represent the Lady in a ritual and to represent the Moon phase.

    Prayer candles. Usually seven day candles that help concentrate on your prayer.

    Genital candles. Used in potency spells. The male candle has a phallus shape. The female candle is called "yoni candle" and has a vagina shape.

    Skull candles. They are shaped as skull and are used in mind control spells. If green in color, they help people with mental problems.

    Watch candles. These are burned for 3 days when someone passes away.
The information is from Richard Webster's book "Candle magic for beginners".

If you like the information, please feel free to add to it or correct me if you think something is wrong. Next, I'll post info on the colors and oils used in candle magick.
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YanaKhan
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Re: Candle Magick Basics

Post by YanaKhan »

Adding color in your candles is to represent a certain intention and to help concentrate on it. Different sources give different meaning of the colors of candles, so the most important thing is to find your personal correspondences. Yet, I'll post some info on colors of the candles.

WHITE A balance of all colors; spiritual enlightenment, cleansing, clairvoyance, healing, truth seeking; Rituals involving lunar energy; May be used to substitute any color candle.

YELLOW Activity, creativity, unity; brings power of concentration and imagination to a ritual; use in rituals where you wish to gain another's confidence or persuade someone, or in rituals that require solar energy.

GOLD Fosters understanding and attracts the powers of cosmic influences; beneficial in rituals intended to bring about fast luck or money, or in rituals needing solar energy.

PINK Promotes romance, friendship; standard color for rituals to draw affection; a color of femininity, honor, service; brings friendly lively conversation to the dinner table.

RED It's a common belief that the red candle is used for sex rituals and it is, but there are other correspondences too. Health, passion, love, fertility, strength, courage, will power; increases magnetism in rituals; draws Aries and Scorpio energy.

SILVER Removes negativity and encourages stability; helps develop psychic abilities; attracts the influence of the Mother Goddess.

PURPLE Power, success, idealism, psychic manifestations; ideal for rituals to secure ambitions, independence, financial rewards, or to make contact with the spiritual other world; increases Neptune energy.

MAGENTA Combination of red and violet that oscillates on a high frequency; energizes rituals where an immediate action and high levels of power or spiritual healing are required.

ORANGE Attracts others; success, good luck and fortune; discourages laziness and promotes fun; takes physical action toward a desired goal.

BROWN Earthly balanced color; for rituals of material increase; eliminates indecisiveness, improves power of concentration, study, telepathy; increases financial success; locates objects that have been lost.

INDIGO Color of inertia; stops situations or people; use in rituals which require a deep meditational state; or in rituals that demand Saturn energy

ROYAL BLUE Promotes laughter and joviality; color or loyalty; use to attract Jupiter energy, or whenever an influence needs to be increased.

LIGHT BLUE Spiritual color; helpful in devotional or inspirational meditations; brings peace and tranquility to the home; radiates Aquarius energy; employ where a situation must be synthesized.

BLUE Primary spiritual color; for rituals to obtain wisdom,harmony, inner light, or peace; confers truth and guidance.

EMERALD GREEN Important component in Venusian rituals; attracts love, social delights and fertility.

DARK GREEN Color of ambition, greed, and jealousy; counteracts these influences in a ritual.

GREEN Promotes prosperity, fertility, success;stimulates rituals for good luck, money, harmony, and rejuvenation.

GRAY Neutral color useful when pondering complex issues during meditation; in magick this color often sparks confusion; it also negates or neutralizes a negative influence.

BLACK Again, there is a common belief that black candles are used in dark rituals or for black magick. It may be so, but using a black candle doesn't necessarily mean you are practicing dark magick. Opens up the deeper levels of the unconscious; use in rituals to induce a deep meditation state, or to banish evil or negativity as in uncrossing rituals; attracts Saturn energy.

This information is gathered from the internet, I am not the author of it.
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Re: Candle magick

Post by -Dark-Moon- »

Thanks YanaKhan, great post, I'm sure this will be really helpful for lots of people. Thank you for posting.
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YanaKhan
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Re: Candle magick

Post by YanaKhan »

I'm glad you like it and I hope it will help people.
So we came to the scents. Again, there is a lot of info out there about what scent you can use for a certain purpose. In the different systems and different paths, different scents are correspondent to different intentions. For example, in the Western traditions, the cinnamon is a scent used for prosperity, in money spells and such, while in some Eastern traditions, cinnamon is used in love spells. So you can work with scents depending on your path. There are, however, some scents and oils that are identified with the planets. So, this is what I'm going to talk about.
Sun - acacia, amber, angelica, bay, bergamot, cinnamon, frankincense, ginger, lemon, marigold, musk, orange, patchouli, rosemary, sunflower, saffron.
Moon - aloe, ash, cedar, jasmine, peppermint, willow, hazelnut, ilang - ilang, myrrh, iris.
Mars - basil, coriander, cinnamon, bay leaf, wormwood.
Mercury - anise, basil, cumin, clove, dill, hazelnut, nutmeg, sage, verbena, sandalwood.
Jupiter - aloe, ash, cedar, iris, eucalyptus, frankincense, juniper, lavender, lilac, lime, myrrh, oak, sandalwood.
Venus - allspice, almond, catnip, cherry, geranium, wormwood, primrose, rose, valerian, violet.
Saturn - anise, frankincense, civet, oak, pine, poppy, milfoil, willow, rue, bay tree, nard.
Basically, when you want to create a candle to serve a certain purpose, it's always better to make it yourself as while making it, you are charging it with the intent. The second reason why it's better to make your own candles is that you can consider the time you need for the ritual with the size of the candle.
If you want a two (three, five, whatever) purpose candle, you can make two, five, whatever color and scent candle. You could make 2 different shaped candles with 2 or more colors. If for example someone you love needs healing of the throat and the stomach, you could make a candle for each healing shaping it as a man/woman.

You can also carve your candles with intent or a name, you could also carve sigils (I often do that) or add a small piece of paper with the sigil on it to the wax while still hot. You could carve runes and other symbols if you want. You could write a protection spell on a piece of paper and seal it with a protection candle's wax. Basically, you could add many many things to your candles and charge them with every intention.

If you buy your candles, however, you need to cleanse them before you use them. After cleansing the candle, you can use oil to anoint it. That way you still charge your candle with intention. It's a lot easier and takes a lot less time. I love making candles and think it works better for me, but it doesn't mean buying candles is bad or will not work for you.
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Re: Candle magick

Post by Echo_of_shadows »

You've started a very informative thread, YanaKhan. I think it'll be quite helpful. Keep up the good work. :)
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Re: Candle magick

Post by YanaKhan »

Thank you. I really enjoy this subject :) I will continue with candle making.
I know perhaps everybody that wants to make candles probably already found the info about how and youtube clips. I'll just give you some tips on better candle making.
First of all, you want to make sure your candle burns. The most important thing here is the wick. You want it to be slightly thicker than normal. If you don't have anywhere to buy wick from, just buy a normal cotton embroidery thread. Twist it 2, 4 times, as many as needed, depending on the candle and dip it in the hot wax while making the candle. Then put it under a running cold water and again in the wax. Leave it to cool and you have a perfect wick. The thicker the candle, the thicker the wick. If you, like me like to experiment with shapes, you may need to put 2, sometimes 3 wicks in a candle that's too wide.
If you want color. The colored candles in stores aren't usually full color. They have color on the outside and in most cases, this is not what I'm looking for. To make your candles colored, buy wax crayons. They melt perfectly in the hot wax and give you the color you want. You need to consider that the color in the hot wax is not what you get when the candle cools off - it's always lighter in the cooled candle. You may want to add some more crayon to get dark or saturated color.
Now about the scent. If you ever tried to make scented candles you probably noticed that only adding oils doesn't make your candles scented like the scented candles in the store. It's usually not a big deal, but if you want more intense scent, just add 2-3 drops of pure spirit just before you pour the wax in the shape. It makes the scent stronger.
On the shape. Now, I know most candle shapes are expensive and not always available, so if you want a candle, but don't know where to get the shape from, here are some ideas. To make a big square candle, keep the package from kid juice. I mean like this one
products_1476_7069014125d0cdd811a6f.jpg
products_1476_7069014125d0cdd811a6f.jpg (38.43 KiB) Viewed 7658 times
and cut the top. It's excellent because the inside is foiled and won't allow your wax to go all over the place. Now tie the wick to a pencil and dip in the wax. You can also use muffin shape, the aluminum ones, to get a round shape candle. Now, my favorite is to use cookie shapes. As they have no bottom, at first I was wondering what could I use to contain the wax in. And then I decided to experiment with plasticine. It's water (and wax) proof and can be used for multiple candle makings.
These are all from my personal experience. I hope they are helpful. At first I knew the technique, but tried melting tea candles and putting them back into their containers with the old wick and discovered they burn for about a minute and then just go off. That's because my wicks were too thin. Then I found out the scent was not the one I wanted. And experimented on both. So if you have any other tips, please feel free to add to the thread.
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YanaKhan
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Re: Candle magick

Post by YanaKhan »

Again on the candle shapes and molds.
I usually use molds that are flexible (like the ones from the previous post) but actually if you want to, you could use cups and glasses too. Just make sure you grease them before you pour the wax in. If your candle gets stuck in, just put the cup/glass in hot water for a while. This way the wax on the sides becomes softer and you can take the candle out easily. This is how I make my altar candles as they are the ones that should last longer. I came up with it when I was candle shopping and I found the ones in the store too expensive. I had the wax and wick and I though "Can I afford to lose a glass?" and the answer was "Yes, sure". And then I bough a glass, just an ordinary one, cheap and not a big deal if I have to break it.
Another idea is to use egg shells. I mean like this
svesht3.jpg
. You can keep them in the shells or you can just break the shell.
If you have a child over 3, you probably have tons of plasticine shapes and molds. You can easily use those as candle molds, just make sure the wax is not too hot when you pour it there as the molds could get deformed.
Another cool idea which I haven't had the time to try yet, but will this week, is to make your own candle mold using silicone. You can buy this from any craft shop or hardware shop. You need a jar or a glass or anything the shape you want your mold to be. Cover with dish washing liquid or liquid soap, so the silicone doesn't stick to it very much. Turn it upside down and cover it with silicone. Wait for 2 - 3 hours (read on the package how much time it requires to harden.) and then just take the mold off the jar/glass, whatever you used. This is something I will try as soon as possible and will make pictures while making it and then I will post it here.
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p3nathan
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Re: Candle magick

Post by p3nathan »

Those egg candles are such a great idea. The thing that instantly pops into my mind is that they'd be fantastic for a fertility spell.
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YanaKhan
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Re: Candle magick

Post by YanaKhan »

Yeah, they probably are :) Haven't thought of that actually, but now that you said it, they are. They are also perfect for Beltane rituals.
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Re: Candle magick

Post by EmberMau »

I love this ! Thank you for sharing.
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Re: Candle magick

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Candle magick is one of the few workings that I actually use tools for. Mostly I just use focus and intent. I've always internalized my workings. Reading cards is the other thing that I use tools for. Kind of wandering away from the thread here, sorry. I'm glad the thread is here. Thank you YanaKhan.

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AnaisStar
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Re: Candle magick

Post by AnaisStar »

I use candles a lot. Thank you for posting all this great information.
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YanaKhan
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Re: Candle magick

Post by YanaKhan »

I am very glad you find the information useful. I use candles a lot and love working with them. Please, feel free to add to the info.
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YanaKhan
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Re: Candle magick

Post by YanaKhan »

Ok, a little update :)
I ran out of essential oils and went to buy some, but they didn't have the ones I wanted, so I decided to try and add some food flavoring to my candles. So I put some almond essence and it turned out fantastic. Now I have these incredible candles, scented with almond, vanilla and orange :)
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Re: Candle magick

Post by Lillady »

What a wonderful guide! Thank you for sharing it YanaKhan!
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