Candle Magick

Candle magick is a popular method of spellcasting to modern Witches as well as even the non-magickally-inclined in need of a little help. Candle spells are simple, quick, and effective for creating changes all by lighting a wick, reciting a chant or saying a prayer, and maintaining faith that the energy from the burning of candle will create the requested changes.

Simple, right?

However, candles in and of themselves are simply tools with no inherent powers.

So why does candle magick work? How can something without power affect energies on a quantum level to create changes in observable reality? Can just lighting a candle and saying a prayer be a spell? Why do some candle spells fail whereas others prosper despite your faith in their effectiveness?

A quick look into the manufacture of and charging candles provides the answers to these candle magick questions.

How the Candles are Made

In the manufacturing process, candles can be made simply as a light source, infused with scents (for aromatherapy or just to smell nice), or charged with energy specifically for their use in magick or religious devotion.

The candle made just for the ability to burn a small flame with wax will not have much in the way of energy of their own. If you intend to use plain, regular candles in spells, you'll need to charge the candles with your own energy for them to have any magickal effect.

The candle with scents have the bonus of aromatherapy properties. However, many of the fragrances are just synthetic scents and not made from real herbs and flowers and essential oils from the real plants. (Note: Even when candles claim to be "natural" scents, this can mean "natural" in the sense of a synthetic version of a natural plant's smell, or the fragrance may include actual essential oils while also incorporating synthetics.) In the case of fragrance candles, you will still need to charge them for use in candle magick.

If the candle is of high quality and includes the actual herbs or essential oils--some candles of this type today also include crystals--the candle will have the energy of those plants or stones within it. This makes charging the candles considerably easier as you merely need to add a little of your own energy and focus the energy already contained within the candles toward your goal.

The candles that are already magickally charged are the best to work with in candle magick. They're often manufactured specifically with plants, oils, stones, or symbols for a variety of purposes, such as money, love, protection, friendship, etc.

The best manufactures of spell candles do so by hand and will actually charge the candles with these general intents while making the candles, which is arguably the most effective way to make a candle for spellcraft. With these intentionally made spell candles, you will only need to focus the energy contained within toward your specific goals.

Charging the Candles

The act of charging a candle may also be referred to as the intent. Even those who don't practice magick or candle spells may use candles for a number of purposes. It's not so much the candle as much as it's the intent and reason for lighting the candle that makes the difference.

For example, simply saying a prayer and lighting a candle in a Catholic church is not typically a spell of and by itself and is rarely compared to candle magick. However, if someone felt that their purpose (or intent) in the prayer needed special attention and chose to light the candle in the church to amplify their prayer as a way to differentiate it from their other daily prayers, this is more akin to spellcraft.

Did the candle have to be in the church? No. Although, the individual may have felt the energy within the church would help them focus on their intent.

Did the prayer require lighting a candle? No. However, the individual may have felt the act would draw attention to their request.

Basically, the type of candle, charged by the energy of the sacred space and the intent of the individual, is what lent it to its intent. The intent is what makes the candle important.

In candle magick, the intent goes a little deeper. Here, you aren't only using the lighting of the candle as a way to focus your attention and to demonstrate that what you're doing is important but also adding energy into the candle.

The candle often represents something for you, as was the case with the charged candles mentioned above. You then begin to focus your energy into the candle so that when you light it, the energy is released to the specific goal you intend.

If you are using a plain candle, you can use magickal or essential oils (called "dressing the candle" when you coat the candle in oil by rubbing it in while focusing your intent), herbs, and stones placed on or around the candle to add their energies to your own.

Why Things Go Wrong in Candle Magick

Not all candle spells are created equal. The following are three of the most common problems that arise in candle magick with tips to help you increase your success rate starting the next time around.

Belief.

If you don't believe the spell will work, then it won't. Surprisingly, disbelief can take two forms:

You don't possess any belief or confidence in the spell and so it simply doesn't work. This leads to whatever outcome being a matter of happenstance or coincidence. In other words, lack of belief negates the effectiveness of the spell.
When your lack of belief in the candle magick is to the point that what you actually believe is that spells don't work. This negative belief causes the spell to basically work in reverse, making it appear as though the spell had no effect when the actual effect was preventing the desired outcome from occurring. So if you're finding your spells are consistently not working, take some time to see if there's a part of you expecting your magick won't work for whatever reason.

If you believe that spells work but have some doubts, the spell may or may not work. The effectiveness of your candle spells will fluctuate right along with your beliefs--including those doubts. Some practitioners will talk about the "strength of your belief" but my experience is it's less about how strongly or passionately you feel about magick and spells and more about your confidence in the spell at hand.

If any doubts are fed into the spell, they act like blocks to the energy meant to push along your desired outcome.

If you believe--doubt free--there's nothing to block your energy and the spell will work. Even if you only passively believe in magick and spellcraft, as long as you have no doubts about the spell at hand, the energy that you raise or contained within the candle can move toward your intended goal unhindered.

Not trying.

Some people go out and buy a candle and maybe some magickal oils. They light them and recite the little prayer that came with the candle or from a book. Then they sit back and expect whatever the problem was to just resolve itself.

Spellwork is only half the magick. The other half is doing and taking care of things.

Whenever doing candle magick, you've got to follow up with the non-spell side of the intention. The spell is influencing the energies to create the possibilities of your desired goals. It's up to you to take action beyond the energetic level. You can't complain that your lottery spells keep failing if you never buy a lottery ticket!

For example, if you've done a spell to gain employment, don't be idle afterwards. Keep looking for and responding to job ads, do your best to impress potential employers, and watch for the opportunities you may have overlooked before.

Cast a spell for a new job two nights ago and suddenly you keep finding yourself presented with opportunities for workshops, classes, and influential contacts all tied to the same career field? Follow up on it!

Sometimes we think our spells have failed when, actually, we just didn't take advantage of the opportunities our spells created.

It's kind of like when you ask someone for advice, they give you good, healthy advice that would help you significantly if you just follow it, but then you don't. You ended up wasting your time and energy--and theirs!--because you didn't follow through.

If you want your candle magick to be effective, make sure you're following through on your intent.

Trying too hard.

You cast spell after spell and do all the work outside of the spell but you still aren't getting the results you want.

Stop and ask yourself: When you build the energy to charge the candle and then light the candle, have you actually released the energy? Or are you still holding onto it?

Many times when we want or need something badly, we internalize it so much that we feel like we're going to burst. Instead of releasing the energy out into the universe so that the universe can respond, we hold it all in, leaving the universe to say, "Okay, fine. Have it your way."

The result is that our circumstances don't change. Sometimes they even become less desirable as we become miserable as a result of our wishes going unfulfilled.

Stop trying so hard and release the energy! By all means, feel your feelings. Be excited. Be concerned. Be involved. But channel all that into your spell to fuel the energy and direct it toward your goal, then let it go.

Once you've released it, it's out there. When the thoughts and feelings try creeping back up in the meantime, just think back to the spell, remind yourself that it's being taken care of, and move on.

If you applied all of these troubleshooting tips to your candle magick and still can't seem to understand what's going wrong, go back to the basics of spellcraft and how it works. You could be missing a vital piece of the puzzle that leads to effective magick.

However, assuming you've got the basics down and doing all the things, applying these tips you've read here should take your candle magick to new heights!