Altars for Candle Ritual

Creating a special area where you will place your candle can enhance the experience of candle magic. A wonderful addition to the ritual of picking out our candle, choosing its color, and carving the candle with symbols, is the planning of an altar where ultimately the candle will be placed. This isn't at all necessary for your candle magic to work, but I have felt that sometimes when I wanted to add more 'punch' to a candle spell, I've created a visually beautiful altar with items that represented my intention.

Here are a few books that are good references for creating 'sacred space', but by all means, let your intuition be your guide.

• 'Altars Made Easy' - Peg Streep - ISBN 0-06-251490-3
• 'Sacred Space' - Denise Lin - ISBN 0-345-39769-X

Here's a list of some of the items that I've used when creating altars;

• Tarot cards
• Gemstones
• Carved animal fetish(s)
• Anything found from the Earth - leafs, stones, flowers, feathers, shells, etc.
• Divination stones
• Pictures of individuals
• Artwork of my favorite artists - Susan Seddon Boulet, etc.
• Coins, dollar bills (for money rituals)
• Food, cookies (for abundance rituals)
• Candy (for love rituals)
• Medicine bags
• Cards

Taking Your Altar Apart

Taking your altar apart is as much a part of the ritual as it was to create it. Give yourself a few moments to look at the altar and appreciate the ritual of creating it and all the energy that was part of the altar. Thank the altar and all the elements on the altar for the part they played in the magic, then slowly, and with intention, begin to remove each altar object. Each of those items have gathered a lot of 'mojo', and when used over and over again become increaingly powerful.

If you've used food on an altar, either eat the food if it's still consumable or leave it outdoors as an offering. Since it's been part of a ritual, it's not appropriate to throw it in the garbage, down a garbage disposal, or in a compost pile.

http://www.mindspring.com/~stardancer/candmag5.htm