Candle Magic 101: An Introduction to Candle Magic by snow wolf

[Dept of PMM Artists & things]

Candle magic is one of the simplest forms of spell casting. Considered sympathetic magic, it's a method which doesn’t require a lot of fancy ritual or expensive ceremonial artifacts. In other words, anyone with a candle can cast a spell. After all, remember when you were a child and you made a wish before you blew out the candles on your cake? Same theory, only now instead of just hoping, you're declaring your intent (and by now you've probably stopped hoping for a pony). If you think about it, the birthday-candle ritual is based on three key magical principles:

• Decide on a goal
• Visualize the end result
• Focus your intent, or will, to manifest that result

What Sort of Candle Should I Use?

Most practitioners of Wicca will tell you that, much like a few other aspects of life, size really isn't important. In fact, really big candles may be counterproductive -- a candle that takes too long to burn down can be highly distracting to someone working a spell that instructs you to wait until the candle burns out on its own. Typically, a short taper candle or a votive candle work the best. In some cases, a spell might call for a specific type of candle, such as a seven-day candle or a figure candle, which may represent a particular person. One of the most popular candles, believe it or not, is in fact the little menorah candles which are sold by the box in the kosher section of the grocery store. They're about 4" long, white, unscented, and thin -- perfect for spell work.

You should always use a brand new candle for spell work -- in other words, virgin materials. Don't use the candles that you burned at the dinner table or in the bathroom yesterday for spell work. In some magical traditions, once a candle is burned it picks up vibrations from things around it -- in other words, a used candle is already tainted by vibrations, and so will lead to a negative or ineffective magical outcome.

When it comes to colors, you may wish to have a variety on hand for different magical purposes. Typically, color correspondences for candle magic are as follows:

• Red: Courage and health, sexual love and lust
• Pink: Friendship, sweet love
• Orange: Attraction and encouragement
• Gold: Financial gain, business endeavors, solar connections
• Yellow: Persuasion and protection
• Green: Financial gain, abundance, fertility
• Light Blue: Health, patience and understanding
• Dark Blue: Depression and vulnerability
• Purple: Ambition and power
• Brown: Earth-related or animal-related workings
• Black: Negativity and banishment
• White: Purity and truth*