Lesson 13: Astral Candle Shield

One of the lovely things about candles are their properties their colors can bring to your rituals…right? So why not bring that quality to a shield. Let the candles natural properties boost your shield.

However, you are not always in a position to Lay out candles in a circle and light them, let alone do a full ritual for your shield.

So what is a Witch to do?

Why, we go Astral of course! Well, in a better sense of the word, we will create the shield in a meditative state.

Once you have reached you have grounded and reached your meditative state, think of the tools you would use for a circle casting. I will not list them as each tool and what is used is different for individual people…however, make sure you have an Athame or Wand.

First, you will want to place the green, red, yellow and blue candles in the four directions that correspond to those colors. Next, put the white candle in the center of the circle.

Now cast your circle and invoke the Elementals and the Lord and Lady, you can use specific Elementals, God, and Goddess if you choose.

Once you have the Elementals, God and Goddess invoked, go through and light each candle. Notice that the flames colors correspond to the color of the candles.

Starting from the East (Yellow) candle, stand over the top of the flame, knowing it won’t burn you. See the flame surround your whole body, encasing it completely in a shell of light. When you the light has encased you completely, call to the Elementals of the East to protect and aid you, to infuse you with their strength to meet the battles that you may encounter. Feel the energy of the Elementals of the East filling your body and fortifying your shield. Thank them for their aid in your life.

Now move to the south flame and stand over it, repeating what you did with the East Elementals. Repeat it for West and North as well.

Once you have reached North and have received the aid of those Elementals, Move to the white candle in the middle of the circle. Doing similar to the Elementals, entreat the Lord and Lady to give you aid, comfort, protection and strength to face your challenges.

As you go to each candle, notice that you get encased by the color of those candles; Yellow, Red, Blue, Green and White. (Refer to the lesson on the colors for the meanings of these colors, or to the Color Magick board.) When you finish, this will be a five-layer shield, as each color will go over the top of the previous.

When you have finished asking for the aid of the Elementals and the Lord and Lady, you may now uncast your circle and exit your meditation.

With practice, this shield will come to you faster and faster.

When you wish to remove this shield, you can picture it dissipating and no longer being there, or you can ground and center yourself and go back into the meditation state and perform this meditation in reverse. Think in terms of a ritual after you have finished your workings and you dismiss the Lord and Lady and Elementals. Cast your circle. Starting with the white candle, thank the Lord and Lady for their assistance and see the white casing removed from your shield. Then do the same going from North, West, South and then East. Then you can uncast your circle once again to finialize the removal of the shield.

The purpose of this shield is to incorporate the candle magick, color magick, the Elementals and the Lord and Lady. Each will bring their own strengths to your shield. If done correctly and you find the perfect fit for you, it can be a very strong shield, a shield of balance.

Because we are working with the Deities and the Elementals, occasionally, as they help us with our shield, they will impart messages to us.

A word of caution, however, this shield can be very strong, it is not for everyone though. In addition, overshielding is possible with this shield because of its power. (We will discuss overshielding in detail in a later lesson.) You need to find a careful balance, which is different for every person. You can adjust several factors in this shield; the longer you remain in each specific candle flame is how thick that portion of the shield will be…if you remain in it longer, the shield will be thicker and if you remain in it short, the shield will be thinner. You can also adjust the thickness and thinness of the individual layers. In addition, the different Elementals that you invoke can affect the qualities of the shield, same with the Lord and Lady. Careful forethought is necessary to this shield to determine exactly which Lord and Lady and Elementals you wish to invoke for which properties. Usually, unless the situation calls for different ones, you usually can call upon the same ones for their aid once you have determined who you wish to work with.

 

Homework:

Practice with this shield, altering whom you wish to work with several times, and how thick you wish to make each layer. Put the shield on and take it off several times. When you have practiced with the shield, come back to this post and answer the following questions:

1)      How did this shield work for you?

2)      How many different times did you try the shield?

3)      Did you have a problem with overshielding?

4)      If you did have a problem with overshielding, what did you do to fix the problem?

5)      Did you call upon specific or generalized Elementals and Deities?

6)      Did you call upon the same ones each time you tried the shield?

7)      If you called upon different ones, who did you call upon for the Lord? The Lady? The Elementals?

8)      Did the Lord, Lady or Elementals give you any specific message? (You may share if you wish, if you do not want to share, you may answer this question without giving specifics.)