Candle Magick Basics with Fantasia Crystals
Author: Michael Erwin
Are you new to working with Candle Magick? In this blog you will find simple steps to create powerful and successful magick with basic candles. There are many ways of creating candle magick, we hope this one will inspire you to find a very personal way to create lasting change in your life! Magick can be done at any time but many seek out particular days, a particular time of day, various planetary movements, lunar phases and more to help add potency to an act of intention. What’s most important is to make sure you are putting forth magick when your personal physical energy levels are highest. If your mind and body are exhausted, your magickal potency will be weaked and your magick may not be as successful as you wanted. Disregard what books or others tell you in this regard, as physical energy equates to spiritual energy.
Let’s talk a bit about what magick really is. Magick, in the broadest sense, is any act designed to cause intentional change. Your intent can affect physical reality if you believe it in your heart. Magick is practice, not religion, and anyone can practice it.
Candles are a great tool to help manifest our desires, as the candle becomes an extension of our mental power and life energy- a means to put our will for change out into the universe and to any spiritual beings we connect with. Magick is best focused on acts that you really believe can happen in your life- be cautious asking for things that are not grounding in reality. Care also must be taking when choosing your words when practicing magick. Being positive with your affirmations is very important, as your mind (and possibly any spiritual beings you are working with) will focus on any negative statements. If you are asking for personal gain for any reason, a good rule of thumb is to always add 'under grace and perfect ways' at the end of your written statement of change or along with your prayer of intention.
Basic Candle Magick Method:
Before you begin any magickal working, ask yourself these Questions:
What do I wish to achieve? Am I ready to accept the outcome of my magick?
Do I have everything I need? Am I mentally prepared?
1. Preparing the ritual: Making sure you have all your ingredients and ritual tools ready is very important and a basic checklist can help with this task. Write down everything needed for the ritual, including the often forgotten things like matches, a censor for burning incense, self-igniting charcoal, oils, crystals and other small items you may be using. Altar set up is a very personal endeavor; make sure you have a connection to each item you place on it. Many people would represent the elements with objects, such as a stone or dish of salt for earth in the north, incense or a feather for air in the east, a candle or a piece of citrine for fire in the south, and a dish of spring water for water in the west. A flower may be placed in the center to represent spirit. This adds an energy of balance to your working. Additional candles may be placed upon the altar as well- use a white one to represent the person doing the magick, a purple one to increase the magickal energy flow, a blue one for connecting to the astral plane, a pink one to represent love and compassion, and so on. Be creative as the more you put into your ritual the better the outcome. Make sure your entire altar is set-up so that everything is ready to use.
2. Cleansing: The physical act of cleansing goes hand-in-hand with spiritual cleansing. By submerging ourselves in water, the water acts as an emotional carrier, helping to remove stress and negative vibrations. The use of sea salt added to the bath helps draw negativity out of the body, as well as removing physical toxins within us. The addition of ‘grounding’ herbs and oils helps us to center our mind and concentrate on the task. Some common grounding herbs and oils are Patchouli, Vetiver, and Cypress. Burning a white candle while bathing helps calm and sooth us, while providing a little fire element energy for use during the ritual. Begin by cleansing the ritual area and all the tools and ingredients. The act of smoldering herbs and resins is a perfect way to cleanse; a good base is a combination of Mugwort, White Sage, Dragon's Blood and Copal, with any other ingredients you wish to add, burned on charcoal. If you have smoke allergies or are living with others who might be easily offended by the smell, try mixing some Lavender and Rosemary essential oils with spring water in a spray bottle the day before. Use this spray to cleanse yourself, your space and tools as needed. Make sure that any fans are turned off and that your altar is not in the way of any air conditioning or heating vents, which may disrupt the candle flame. Once you are finished, it is time to prepare yourself with a ritual bath.
3. Mental preparation: Find a quiet, comfortable place to meditate for 10 minutes or more. Sit on a pillow on the ground, close your eyes and take in a slow deep breath, hold for a few seconds and slowly release. Do this at least three times or continue until you feel completely relaxed. If it helps, imagine cool blue air entering your lungs and warm, red air leaving them. The blue represents relaxation and healing and the red is all of your stress, fear and worry. Continue until you are exhaling only cool blue air with every breath. Next, focus your energy on the top of your head. Feel any excess energy and stress slowly moving down your body starting with your head and neck, through your torso, your arms, legs, and hands and down into the earth. Repeat this process until you feel still and blissful. Now let your mind wander for 5 minutes or so, some us will experience lots of internal 'chatter' and some of us will feel stillness, either way continue until you reach a quiet, secure place in your mind.
4. Creating sacred space: The goal of creating sacred space is to set boundaries between your work and the physical realm, not only for protection, but also as a means to separate yourself from regular time and space. There are many ways of creating sacred space depending on your spiritual path or belief system. Most people are comfortable with a general elemental boundary working, invoking the elemental kingdom to help protect and empower your ritual. The use of power animals, runes, herbs, sound, color and more can be useful as well. A simple statement such as 'I make this space sacred and fill it with love, light and protection' is all you need as your voice is powerful.
5. Calling: If you have personal deities, ancestors, spirit guides, or other beings you work with, this is the time to ask them to be witness to, and to aid in your working. I cannot stress this enough: forcefully demanding or invoking these beings is just plain disrespectful and dangerous! These beings are not at our disposal whenever we feel like we want something, and they do not help those who do not help themselves. Asking them for assistance once in awhile is fine, as long as a gift is given in return. Always research a God or Goddess, and the culture that originally honored them before calling upon them. Take some time and prepare yourself for working with these beings, the time spent doing so will let them know you are serious and can greatly increase the chances for a successful conclusion. Another important step is to always have an offering ready for these beings, some like mead or other alcohol, some like sweets, some want very specific offerings, your research will provide insight on what your offering should be. If in doubt a random act of kindness will be adequate. When calling upon these beings, feel free to use music, poetry and motion if you feel moved to do so. The important thing is that you do it from your heart. Make any offerings at this time.
6. Candle creation: (If you have a candle already prepared you can skip this step) At this point you will craft your intent candle. The use of symbols, crystals, herbs, oils and symbols on or near your candle can help add power and potency to your work. Some also like a written intent, typically done on parchment paper.
7. Focus: Now is when we begin to focus on the magick we are creating, carefully seeing in our minds eye the desired outcome of our work, with no attention paid at this time to how it will happen. It is very important to clearly see and feel the positive nature of our manifestation, keeping all negative and harmful thoughts out. Continue this focus until you see the result of your magick clearly within your minds eye. When finished, the next step is to seal your intent into the candle. The use of special oils, or better yet, homemade oils, can help the process as well. If you are creating magick to bring something into you, take a bit of oil on your fingers and seal the candle from the top down. If you are banishing or ridding yourself of something negative, seal the candle for the bottom upward. For gratitude work, start from the center and rub up to the top, then from center downward. This is the best time to state your intent; holding the candle in your right hand, look towards the heavens and clearly state your intent, such as "With this candle I (fill in well thought out intent here)“, then place the prepared candle in a safe place to burn on the altar.
8. The working: At this time any candles on the altar should be lit. The last one to light should be the candle you filled with intent and sealed. There are many variations on how long you should burn your candle. For smaller candles, and when time permits, meditating during the entire burning is and excellent way of connecting to, and manifesting your desire. Some like to burn a small amount of the candle each day for a special number of days in a row, typically in threes, or multiples of three, which is a powerful number in magick. Remember never to blow out your candle, as some believe you are blowing out your intent- always use a candlesnuffer. We never recommend leaving a candle burning and leaving your home- no magick is worth burning your house down for.
9. Raising energy: After your candles are lit, you will want to raise some energy for your working. This can be done with simple chants, drum beats, energetic music, clapping, combining energy with others, creating an energy ball, sacred (and safe) sex and dancing around the altar. Make sure after raising energy that you take time to ground out your excess energy by eating and drinking. A dash of salt on the tongue works quickly!
10. Closing circle: When you are ready to end your ritual, take a few deep breaths and begin to count from one, realizing that when you reach ten you will be back on the physical plane. Open your eyes slowly and adjust to the light and environment around you. Offer simple words of gratitude for any spiritual beings you called to. Simply walking your sacred space and visualizing any boundaries you created slowing fading out is sufficient for most rituals. Your intention is out to the universe and to your sources- trust that it will come to fruition!
We hope this helps you on your new journey using Candle Magick. If you would like to know more please check out our class schedule for future Candle Magick Classes.
Brightest Blessings!
Feel free to reach us at www.fantasiacrystals.com
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