Witchcraft: Beginner's Guide to Candle Magic

Why and How to Practice Candle Magic

Candle magic harnesses the power of fire—the element of transformation—to bring change. Think for a
moment about how fire transforms things. It melts wax. It renders many organic materials (leaves,
wood, flesh and bone) to ash. It softens hard metals and makes them malleable for forging. It can heat
substances, turning them from liquid to gas (water to steam, for example). If you mix ingredients
together and put them into the fire, it can transform your batter into cake or your dough into bread. It
brings light to the darkness and warmth to the cold.

Ever since human beings discovered fire, they have been in awe of its power, and they sought to harness
that power, mostly to use its transformative abilities. We continue this ancient tradition when we
practice candle magic.

If you’d like to learn candle magic, this guide will take you through the process step by step, from
determining your goal and designing your spell to dressing your candle and burying it once the ritual is
done.

Remember . . .

The moment you begin planning a spell, you are in the process of casting it. Always keep your intentions
good and your attitude positive, because you’re pouring your energy into the goal.

Step 1: Determine Your Magical Goal

As with all magical workings, it’s very important to put thought into your goal. Here are some tips to
keep in mind when setting a magical goal:

 Be Specific: Avoid ‘wishing’ or ‘make-everything-better’ type goals.

 Be Realistic: Don’t venture into the realm of fantasy, here.

 Be Ethical: Always act ethically, and don’t interfere with free will.

 Use Positive Language: Avoid words like ‘don’t’, ‘can’t’, ‘won’t’ and ‘not’.

 Create a Series of Goals: Break bigger goals down into a series of smaller ones.

With those tips in mind, try to write your goal in a single sentence, such as ‘I need to earn extra money
to pay the electric bill’ or ‘I want to be protected from harm when I travel’.

Step 2: Design Your Spell

Use your goal to help guide you in designing your candle-magic spell. Let’s say I’m doing a money spell
for the electric bill. I’m going to do the most basic candle-magic spell: I’m going to visualize my goal and
light the candle to release the energy.

I’ve decided to keep components simple and to a minimum—a taper candle in a holder, some oils to
dress the candle, and maybe a few herbs and spices to lend some power.
Finally, I want a chant to help raise energy. I can use one of the many chants found online, or I can
custom-design one. The only important thing about the chant is that it has meaning to you. I also
personally like to use rhymes, because they’re easy to remember and to get into a rhythm.

If you use magical timing, you could check a lunar calendar to decide the best moon sign or planetary
hour for your spell.

Chant to Attract Money

This is a chant from my Book of Shadows that I wrote when I was out of college and trying to get my
finances in order, my career off the ground, and pay off my student loans:

Money, money, come to me

I seize the opportunity

With this spell the tables turn

What I need is what I earn

Increase paychecks I will see,

This is my will so mote it be!

When pulling together the components for your candle spell, it's important to find ones that are
meaningful to you.

Step 3: Collect Your Components

Choose components aligned with your goal. You will want to find a candle color and oils, herbs and
spices that correspond with your goal. For our money spell, we already designed the spell to use one
candle, a holder, and some oils, herbs and spices to lend power. Let's look at how to choose
components that align themselves best with our money spell.

In my magical cabinet, I will look for:

 A New Green Candle: Candles should always be virgin—or never used—in candle magic. As for
the color choice, use your instincts or see the quick color-correspondence guide below.

 A Gold Candle Holder: Gold also represents wealth (it’s not real gold, it’s just gold-colored, but
it’ll do).

 Patchouli Oil: This oil is associated with prosperity.

 Ground Cinnamon: This spice is associated with wealth.

 Dragon’s Blood: This resin lends spells power.

 Ground Ginger: This spice is used to speed up results.

How Do You Choose What Kind of Candle to Use?

When it comes right down to it, you can use pretty much any kind of candle for your spell. I
prefer tapers (typically medium-sized), but I sometimes use chime candles in a pinch. Votive
candles and tea lights also work, though the latter is hard to dress. Lastly, pillar candles are a great
option for multi-day spells, but I find they're a bit of a waste for one-day burnings.

How Do You Choose Magical Correspondences?

Part of learning Witchcraft is learning to choose correspondences appropriate to your goal. There are
lots of correspondence charts in books and on the internet that can come in handy; a quick Google
search will yield an abundance of them. While these charts can be helpful, the most important thing to
remember is that the correspondences need to have meaning to you.

A good thing to ask yourself when choosing correspondences is, “What things do I associate with my
goal?” In my case, green reminds me of money and wealth, but if gold or brown or red remind you of
money and wealth, you could use those colors instead. If I didn't have essential oil, I might just use corn
oil—corn reminds me of cash crops and prosperity. But you could just as easily use olive oil—it's
expensive, so you might see it as a luxury item.

I use ginger because I have had success with it speeding up the results of spells. But let’s say you hate
Chinese food because it makes you sick, and the smell of ginger reminds you of that. In that case, ginger
would not be a good correspondence for you, because you associate it with being sick.

What Color Candle Should I Use to Cast a Spell?

Color Correspondences

assertiveness, courage, creativity,

Red
energy, passionate love, sex
 Color Correspondences

ambition, concentration, eloquence,

Orange
legal issues, intellectual pursuits, success

attractiveness, clarity, happiness,

Yellow
intelligence, persuasiveness, travel

growth, fertility, harmony, health,

Green
prosperity, wealth

dreamwork, healing, intuition, loyalty,

Blue
peace, spirituality

connecting to the higher self,

communing with higher beings,
Purple
meditation, psychic abilities and
development

beauty, compassion, femininity,

Pink
partnerships, romantic/innocent love

all-purpose (can be a substitute for any

White other color), cleansing, purification,
truth, reflecting energy

absorbing energy, banishing, breaking

things (bad habits, hexes, etc.)
Black
discovering hidden wisdom, protection,
self-defense

invisibility (not literal), loneliness,

Grey
neutralizing energies and spells, wisdom

abundance, family, friends, gardening,

Brown
grounding, pets, stability

No list is written in stone. What's most important is what colors represent to you. This is just a general
guide—feel free to tweak it, expand on it, or toss it if it doesn't resonate with you.

Step 4: Dress the Candle

This is one of the most important parts of doing candle magic. You have to establish a psychic link
between the candle, you and your goal. The process for doing this is known as ‘dressing the candle’.

1. Rub the Candle With Oil.

Dressing the candle requires the candle and some oil (whatever you’ve chosen based on your goal). The
basic idea is that you have to pour the oil on your hands and rub it on the candle, but there are a lot of
different opinions on the ‘proper way’ to rub the oil on the candle. Here are some variations:

 Rub the candle with oil from top to bottom.

 Rub the candle with oil from bottom to top.

 Rub from top to bottom to draw things to you; rub from bottom to top to send things away.

 Start at the center of the candle and rub from center to top, then from center to bottom.

 Start at the ends of the candle and rub oil on from the top to the center, then from the bottom
to the center.

So which one is right? I think this is one of those things in which various methods work and you need to
choose the one that works best for you.

2. Visualize Your Intent.

More important than the way you rub the candle is your mental state as you do so. As you rub the oil
onto the candle, you should be strongly visualizing your intent and mentally ‘pouring’ that energy into
the candle. (You can use your chant at this point if you feel it will help.) You will start to feel the energy
building. Your hands may actually begin feeling tingly or the candle may begin to feel like it’s pulsing
with energy. This is good—it’s working.

3. Continue Until Candle Is Charged With Energy.

Do this for a couple of minutes, maybe 50 to 100 strokes, until you feel the candle is sufficiently charged.
You can dress your candle well ahead of time if you like, or you can do it just before casting the spell. It’s
up to you.
Carving a rune into your candle can help make your spell more powerful. The rune Fehu represents
wealth.

Using Herbs and Spices to Add Power to Your Spell (Optional)

We talked about using herbs and spices to help lend power to the spell, but how do we do that? It's
pretty easy, really. After you choose herbs and spices that correspond with your goal, hold them in your
hand and charge them with your intent. Roll the dressed candle in them, or sprinkle them over or
around the candle.

Using Runes and Symbols to Add Power to Your Spell (Optional)

Another way to add power is to scratch names, numbers, or symbols in the wax of the candle. You can
use anything from a pin or earring to a ritual knife to scratch things into the wax.

For our money spell, I’ll scratch my name into the wax (to further connect myself to the candle) and I'll
add the ancient rune Fehu. Fehu is a rune that symbolizes prosperity.

If runes are meaningless to you, you might choose a different symbol, such as a dollar sign or money
bag. Of course, you could always just write 'money' on it. That'll work, too.

Do you have a preference for dressing a candle?

 Top to bottom, always.

 Bottom to top, always.

 From outward to the center.

 From the center outward.

 No standard way-- depends on the intent, the candle, etc.

 I never heard of dressing a candle before. Maybe that's where I went wrong.
See results

The visualization of your goal is a big part of candle magic. Before you even light your candle, you should
already feel the energy of your goal radiating out from it.

Step 5: Cast the Spell and Light the Candle

When the time has come to cast your spell, sit before your candle and follow these steps.

1. Meditate as long as necessary to relax yourself. Take a few deep breaths, release tension and let
go of intrusive thoughts and worries. If you want, you can imagine these thoughts are helium-
filled balloons and visualize yourself letting go of them.

2. Begin to visualize your goal, as if your mission has already been accomplished.

3. Try to feel the feelings you would feel if your goal were accomplished. You would probably be
happy, relaxed, and relieved. Imagine what you’d look like—what your life would be like—if
your goal were accomplished.

4. When you have a clear visualization in mind, repeat your chant as often as you feel is necessary
to raise energy. When you feel yourself bursting with your goal in mind, light the candle.

5. Imagine the candle’s aura (the light aura right outside of the flame) is growing, getting bigger
and bigger, filling the whole area. Imagine it growing out, expanding into the universe to bring
you to your goal. You may continue chanting if you desire.

6. Spend some more time visualizing yourself attaining your goal. Hold the visualization as long as
possible.

A Helpful Guided Meditation for Manifestation

Step 6: Let the Candle Burn Out, Then Bury It

Make sure the candle is in a safe place, and allow it to burn out on its own. It might go out before it’s
finished, or it might completely melt away into nothing. It’s okay either way—don’t re-light it.

Once the candle has gone out, bury the remnants and know that the ritual is done.

More About Candle Magic

This is only one of many candle-magic methods. Some people like to write or draw a picture of their goal
on paper and place it under the candle. Some people like to write down their desire and burn the paper,
lighting it from the candle flame. Some people put a pin in the candle and, instead of letting it burn
down to nothing, they extinguish it when it gets down to the pin.

Other more complex candle spells may include performing the chants and visualizations for multiple
days in a row. You would extinguish the candle each night and re-light it the next day when you continue
with the spell.

Other candle magic methods involve using multiple candles—one to represent the caster, one to
represent the target, and one or more candles to represent goals or situations.

That’s part of the beauty of candle magic: It’s flexible, so you can really design your spell to suit your
needs, but you also can keep it fairly simple with a minimum of supplies. Keep practicing and you may
be surprised by how helpful this skill can be.

If you're interested in learning more about candle magic and spells, check out the books below. Both are
excellent resources for beginners.