Candle Magick Basics Thornesworld ArtsThornesworld Arts

Greetings, all you wonderful, witchy folk! I have what I hope is a little treat for you, today. I’m beginning to unlock some of my previously gated content from 6 months or so past. I hope you enjoy it and remember, if you don’t care to wait all that time for these magickal recipes, instructional and informational and apothecary recipe posts, come join our supporter community at my Patreon. There are a wide range of tiers to choose from to suit every need and budget.

The candle.

Most any candle will do, from votives to tapers and sticks- in a pinch. I see a lot of tiny tea light type spell candles around Etsy, Pinterest and tiktok. Those are fine for small or repeat magicks, to meditate with and use daily to affect change within yourself or immediate surroundings, I suppose. If I’m honest I think they’re mostly made and sold to be cute and inexpensive, and although intent, (or as I name it, True Will) is indeed central to effective magick, I doubt their efficacy as more than a sort of personal sympathetic magick. That said, if you’re in a pinch and have nothing else to use, or are on a tight budget, empowering those tiny candles with your unstoppable will and desire will do the trick.

I like stick candles. These colored household candles are perfect for most needs, (4+ hour burn time) chime candles are also good and you can find them in a range of colors. The Jumbo 9″ are my go-to for serious candle spell crafting (11-14 hours burn time). Glass container candles also work and come in a small variety of colors, but a few drops of oil in the top doesn’t really carry the focus and ritual that most witches (especially beginners) want to really set a spell going. I don’t recommend using over the counter scented candles or candles already infused with herbs or other ingredients unless you know the witch (or their good rep) that’s crafting them. Otherwise you can buy your candles anywhere you find them and in a variety of wax blends to suit you. I’ll be offering both the household and jumbo candles in the shop as soon as they’re off of backorder.

Let’s start with Color.

Black: Banishing, hexing & hex breaking, cursing & curse breaking, protection, grounding.

Blue: Health, healing, de-stress, peace & harmony, meditation and protection.

Brown: Earth & nature, home & family, stability, security and indecision.

Gold: Money, Prosperity, attraction, energy work.

Green: Fertility, healing, health, good luck, prosperity, money.

Grey: Balance, serenity, to reduce anger & instill calm, removing negativity and banishing.

Orange: Attraction, good luck, gambling, strength, happiness, stimulation and adaptability.

Pink: Love, affection, friendship, calmness and honor.

Purple: Magickal and spiritual power, energy, psychic ability, wisdom & knowledge, protection, meditation and business success.

Red: Love, lust, attraction, change, vitality, energy, strength, healing & health, banishing and uncrossing.

White: Blessing, cleansing, spirituality, purity, fidelity, truth & honesty, protection and meditation. White may also be used in place of any other color.

Yellow: Imagination, creativity, intellect & thought, confidence, communication, success.

You may want to stop right here with color and get on with adding your will to make your candle spell. That’s okay. It’s a good place to begin and get comfortable with doing candle magick.

Doing the Work

Start by preparing yourself for the work. Gather your materials. You will need:

Your candle
Candle holder
Incense and burner
Matches or lighter
Paper and pen if writing a petition
A knife or other carving tool if you’re inscribing your candle
Anointing Oil or herbs

I find that this time assembling my tools is a good focus and grounding for me. Of course, I’ve been doing this a loooong time, so you may want to get more into your magickal groove in other ways. Get grounded. Music is good, meditation also. If you’re feeling particularly tense or scattered, have a nice ritual bath with some of my Ritual Bath Salts, or other salts, oils and/or herbs before you begin.

If you have an altar or other sacred space prepared, by all means craft your candle magick there, but if you don’t, worry not. (We’ll talk about creating, cleansing and consecrating altars in another post.) Just prepare a clean area free from fire hazards. Although any candle holder will do, over the years I’ve gotten tired of wax drips in places I don’t want them, and adding herbs and oils to a spell candle significantly ups the fire hazard as well, so a safe solution is a metal or ceramic bowl filled with sand, like pictured here.

First light your incense and cleanse your candle by drawing and turning it in the smoke from your incense. If you are sensitive to smoke you may wash your candle in lightly soapy water or vinegar (or my Magickal Cleaning Vinegar). (Be sure to dry it well.) Burning incense during our magickal workings also enhances our magick. I prefer loose incense blends and resins on charcoal, but cone incense or stick incense, as in the photo here, will also work. I usually start with Clear & Cleanse incense then switch to Powerful Magick for the duration of the working. If you made a batch of the Home Protection recipe I shared recently, it would work well for cleansing your candle.

You may choose to inscribe your candle with words or symbols, or you may write a petition describing your need, or both.

Now, to anoint. I’m not gonna lie, I’d love for you all to shop for your needs here in thornesworld, and what I’m gonna tell you next might seem entirely mercenary, but it’s not. Magickal Blend of Nine Oils are the best magickal oils available. I have been involved with making these oils since their inception over 25 years ago. I not only sell them, I help mix and pour them and I use them every day. They are crafted from pure essential oils and food grade herbs in a coconut oil base. They’re marvelous. I’m going to suggest you peruse the list of 100 oils including planetary, elemental, astrological and magickal purpose oils. I can’t even begin to cover the various herbs you could use for your magickal needs, so if you have the books or trusted internet sources to research the herbs to add to your candle for your needs, of course you may do so. But trust me on this, Magickal Blend of Nine has already done the hard work and each oil is consecrated for its use by long time practicing witches. A little goes a long way, so to anoint your candle you’ll want between 3-9 drops depending on the size of your candle. I use 3 on the household size and 9 on my jumbos. 1-3 drops at center, stroke from center out both ways. 1-3 drops at top, stroke toward center. 1-3 drops at base, stroke toward center.

Place your candle, relight or change incense, set your magickal intention and light your candle. Magick achieved. If you have written a petition, you may light it from the flame of the last quarter or so of your candle, and place it in a fire safe container to burn to ash (then place the ash in your cauldron, if you have one) or toss it into your cauldron to burn on Dark Moon.

If you’re a bit overwhelmed, just wait, lol. I have more info below to enhance and pinpoint your spell candle. I also have a Simple Spell Candle Kit that will help you get started. Choose from those listed, or pick “custom” to choose from among the other purpose oils. My kit includes a colored household candle, a bottle of magickal purpose oil, Nag Champa incense cones, instructions and a focus-stone. As I said, the above instructions are sufficient when combined with your Will, to create some candle magick. Read on to learn how to enhance and fine tune your spell.

Now let’s talk a bit about timing.

First of all, the time to do emergency magick is always now!

That said, we can strengthen and focus our magicks by working with the phases of the moon (very simple), elemental energies (easy), and planetary energies using the days of the week (still fairly simple). Beyond these, you’ll have to wait for the next lesson, Advanced Candle Magick, when we’ll get into planetary and astrological times.

Moon Phases for Magick and Ritual.

Waxing through Full Moon: Just as we see the moon increasing in the night sky, so is this the time for attraction, action and increasing magick.

Full Moon: Celebration, blessings, consecration.

Waning through Dark Moon: Banishing, decreasing, protection.

Dark Moon: Shadow work, deep protection and banishing, hexes and hex removals, cleanse & clear bad luck, work with spirits and entities. (Please see my post Let’s Talk About Dark Moon, regarding Dark Moon energies and why I separate them from New Moon magick).

New Moon (ie: first crescent): New beginnings, attraction.

Elemental Energies.

Utilizing these energies can be as simple as placing your candle in the direction of the energy you wish to bring to bear, or inscribing the word or symbol, or by adding a Magickal Blend of Nine Elemental oil.

Earth: Growth, birth, fertility, material things/gain, creativity, nature, stability.

Air: Knowledge, wisdom, theory, the intellect, mental work and psychic ability

Fire: Purification, healing, life force, the Will, energy, change.

Water: Emotion, intuition, love, courage, the unconscious & subconscious.

Planetary Influences.

Utilizing these energies can be as simple as doing the spell on the day of the week of the energy you wish to bring to bear, or by adding a Magickal Blend of Nine Planetary oil, or both.

Sunday – Sun: Individuality, power, self assertion, self reliance, dignity, generosity. Also arrogance, egotism and despotism.

Monday – Moon: Imagination, mystery, change, receptivity, psychic energies, cycles. Also moody, indecisive, frivolous.

Tuesday – Mars: Aggression, energy, enthusiasm, passion, carnality. Also argumentative, combative, hasty.

Wednesday – Mercury: Communication, reason, intelligence, dexterity, memory. Also Nervousness, flightiness and indecision.

Also Wednesday – Uranus: Inventiveness, freedom, progressiveness, learning, persistence, concentration. Also rebellious, fanaticism, eccentricity.

Thursday – Jupiter: Expansive, confidence, popularity, perseverance, business success, luck. Also lawless, boastful, extravagant.

Friday – Venus: Love, attraction, harmony, sensuality, sexuality, creativity & artistic ability, cheerfulness and beauty. Also sloth, inconsistency and vanity.

Also Friday – Earth: Stability, tenacity, fertility, prosperity, wealth, strength, independence. Also frugal, barren, lazy.

Saturday- Saturn: Organization, discipline, faithfulness, thrifty, persistent. Also melancholy, greed, obstructions.

I hope this little lesson starts or enhances your journey in candle magick. Please don’t be shy if you have questions. Feel free to ask here in comments, on my Patreon or in our Supporter group on FaceBook.

Blessed be,

In Light and Shadow,

~Thorne

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