The HeatherMyst

When performing Candle Magick (or any magick) there are steps one must take to ensure the desired result. First and foremost, you must DEFINE the magickal goal you wish to reach. Be very explicit and clear as to this wish. Write in a journal the goals or desires, clarifiy exactly what it is you wish or desire and how you will obtain it. You must be very careful in this. Remember the old saying, 'be careful what your wish for, you may get it?', that epitomizes the caution in which you must exercise in defining your goals.

In developing your goal, it will come as a desire/wish. Take this and dissect it. Write it out. Look at it from every conceivable angle. Question every word. Dissect it into seperate vowels and consonants. Does it feel right? Will it harm you? Will it harm anyone? Should it say "we" instead of "I"? Is it imposing on another? Ask yourself, Why you are asking for this. Is it reasonable? Do you need to reword it? Is that love you are looking for in a certain person? If so or not, have you asked their permission to perform this? What is to happen if you do this, do you really know this person enough to give of yourself that much? Are you in any way perhaps subconsciously preventing this from happening? Have you really thought this out? What about the way in which you wish it to manifest? Have you thought out all the possibilities? Again, will this have any eventual harmful effects on you? Another? Have you done everything you know how to make it manifest before this? Are you truly sure of this wish?

Now that you have thought it out, visualized the way in which you wish it to manifest, what about the result? Have you truly thought of all the ramifications? What then will happen when it does? How will it affect you? Others? What if it comes and you find yourself unhappy? If you can honestly answer all those questions and have the wish thought out and written down, you can then proceed with the following steps:

Preparation: You will need to prepare youself for magick. Your state of mind is of utmost importance. Now you must take great care in drawing energies upon yourself, which will be released by your concentration as a thought form when you light your candle. You will need to know how to harness, work within and then release the tremendous amount of energy you will be dealing with. You should also learn all you can of these and the one or many elements you will be working with. Fire is one, if not the most strongest and potent form of the element. You may want to read some meditation and chakra information on balancing your energy and clearing and grounding yourself for magick. Thought forms are powerful at this time and you must learn how to control them, otherwise things can literally go backward on you or just plain bad.

Choosing your candle: One you have clarified your desires and prepared yourself, you are now ready to choose your candle. There are many colours, scents, herbs, elements, directions and day associations that need to align when choosing your candle. There are also many shapes and types of candles you can use.

Remember to light your candle with a match, not a lighter or other artificial means. Do not blow the candle out, use a snuffer or wet your fingers and pit it out. Blowing out the candle is considered an affront. Please use caution and think of your safety when dealing with fire, do not use anything flammable around your candle and most important of all, keep children away.

Tips on Candle Magick

Because there might be a mess of hot wax, it's important to mention the where and how to burn candles. After a few hours spent ironing red wax out of my livingroom rug a few years ago (Important tip: If you have a candle spill on carpeting, the best plan of action is plenty of paper towels on top of the wax and ironing it to get the wax to absorb into the paper toweling), I have found that in addition to the regular candle holder, it also helps to put a serving tray or extra large plate under the candles to catch any flow of hot wax that might get out of hand. My favorite things to put on an altar or a table are the metal beverage trays that you find at novelty stores. Any tray with an edge will protect not only your carpet, but also your altar tools if they are nearby. I have been known to burn more than one candle at a time on the large trays. Also, if you are scouting around at auctions or second hand stores, saucers, dinner plates and shallow bowls from chipped or mismatched china sets make absolutely wonderful extra things to set candles, on either with a holder, or if it's a fat pillar, you can place it on the plate if there is enough of a rim. Scout out second hand places for old elegant china. One of my best investments is an entire box full of china nobody wanted at an auction because a few pieces were missing and a few of the plates were chipped. For ten dollars I had enough plates with gold edging and roses to not only fit under candles, but to use under leaky plant pots. It is also important to keep an eye on candles while they are burning. Those warning labels on candles that say "Never leave a burning candle unattended" should give you room for pause. Several people I know who are reluctant to pinch the flame out when they have a spell candle going, have suggested that the safest place would be to place the candle in a bathtub. I have never taken that risk. If in doubt, I snuff it out (which is why I have a candle snuffer in almost every area of my house.) I never "blow" a candle out which is being used for spellwork. If I do get called away for an emergency, I use a candle snuffer to put the flame safely out until I can get back to re-light it. Before lighting a candle, it's best to plan to stick around the house for a few hours. Safety first! Many firemen can probably attest to the number of fires that have been started via unattended candles. It's also important to factor in the possibility of pets and small children, and to place lit candles in a fairly protected zone. Choose where you plan to have open flames carefully. There are several places in my house where I quite often have several candles going. If you do leave the room they are in, it is a good idea to pass by quite often to keep an eye on things.. After all, the candle and flame is a symbol of your will and intent. In checking on your burning candle, you are reminded of what has been set into motion with your spell, and you focus again on it. If you aren't watching or keeping an eye on your candle how can you be in the right mindset to do the mental work? If you happen to find a quality candle supplier and are ready to put some candle magick to use, the first question is what size candle will best suit your need? Many of my altar candles - those that serve a dual purpose of honoring the Goddess and the God, and those that correspond elementally with the four directions - are my primary candles in addition to any other candle work I might do. Quite often those six main candles are lit in addition to any spellwork type of candles to aid in the energy. This might not be important to everyone, but in my own workings it is primary to be balanced. In this type of situation, since they will be used daily, weekly, monthly, large candles come in handy. Anointed and dedicated to the individual purpose they serve, they serve as constant reminders that it is the "religion" and "honoring" that is daily of my focus, regardless as to whether or not there is a spell candle present on the altar.

Votives are an excellent choice for candle magick work. Most often when you think of votives, you think of their association with Catholic mass and services. A Mass offered for a votum, is a special intention. So we frequently find in prayers the expression, votiva dona "gifts offered with desire [of receiving grace in return]". Votives have even derived their name from Latin "Votum" which means prayer, wish, desire/vow, promise to God. I like to think they are superb beacons and messengers. They are quick (usually can be burned completely in an evening or a day) and usually inexpensive. Those handy little glass votive holders are easy to be found and really contain the wax so you usually burn the entire candle without much waste at all. For this reason I find them exceptional value-wise and extremely handy to have around because they store easily and make "quick work" of things. Take comfort in the fact that many church sanctuaries also use votives for the parishioners to light for rememberences and special prayers. Because they are small but stocky, you may find it helpful to inscribe a small sigil, rune or magickal symbol on them. Tapers are wonderful to work with as well. Quite often you can find excellent quality tapers on sale when stores change their stocks. As they are widely available in a variety of colors. Because they may be fragile and can break, long slender tapers should be carefully stored. Due to this fragility, they are best left either unscribed or with minimal inscription and enjoyed in a elegant standard type candleholder or some beautiful ritual candleholders. However, I find tapers a joy to anoint and nearly as fast as a votive to burn. Quite often when I am planning to do hours worth of work in a room, tapers will keep me company throughout the night. Perhaps it's because of their classic candle shape, but they really do offer a unique feel in candle magick.

Pillars - Short squat pillars, mini-pillars and the larger column candles offer a unique opportunity because they can not only be inscribed with many magickal sigils, runes or drawings, but offer enough surface area to often etch in or write out the entire working. In fact, you may come across a need to not only work out prose on paper, but feel compelled to inscribe the entire candle with it. Even if left uncarved, multi-hour candles like these can continue to burn with the same energy you need daily until the entire candle is burned if you have a particular working that you know will take some time. Making or buying quality candles - Anyone can make their own candles by simply following a good guide on candle-making available at any bookstore or library. Molds can be purchased or even made from household items (such as milk cartons and coffee cans) Sputtering wicks, or smoky wicks, or wax that burns too quickly are all problems which can occur in either store bought or homemade candles If the wax cracks, it could be that the candle was cooled at too rapid a temperature. Most chandlers use silicon spray on molds to help in getting a candle out. Candlemaking is a fine art to perfect.

Here are a few tips on some candle problems:

* Excessive Dripping - Usually this happens when the wick is too small and cannot absorb the melting wax. Be sure the candle is not in a draft that is blowing melted wax over the edge. Sometimes if the wick is the proper size, the wax is too soft or has too low of a melting point for the wick to absorb the wax.

* Rapid Burning - Not enough stearic acid in the wax, and the candle has been cooled too rapidly

* Cave-ins on the sides -The candle was not pierced in the center of the cavity around the wick well, which leaves the cavity in the middle of the candle to contract inwards.

* Excessive Smoking - When the wick is too large for the candle, the flame consumes wax faster than the wick can absorb it.

Again the key to a quality burning candle whether you make it yourself or buy it, depends upon the materials: the wicks, the wax, the stearine additive, the dye and the oil fragrance.

Some wax formulas that are used today:
70% paraffin + 20% stearic acid + 10% Beeswax
90% paraffin + 10% stearic acid
48% paraffin + 52% beeswax

It's important to select the right size of wicks for candles too: * Nightlights, tea lights and low light long burning candles-usually use a wire wick that has meltable wire inserted into a cotton wick * 1- 3 " votives and columns should use a 15 ply mordanted wick * 4" pillars and taper should use a 24 ply mordanted wick
* over 4 " should use a 30 ply mordanted wick If you were like me as a kid, and baked crayons in your Easy Bake Oven, you probably thought that crayons were wax, and would probably make a good candle. This turns out not to be true. If you use crayons in your homemade candles as one of the dye ingredients, the crayon will cause a chemical reaction that "eats up" the wick and put the candle out. The best dyes to use for coloring homemade candles are those MADE for being used in candles; oil-soluable aniline dyes which can withstand both the heat and the acid nature of stearic acid.

If you are creating your own candles, there are ways of making your candle flame burn a unique color, if you add some ingredients to the wax. Sodium chlorate or potassium nitrate added to the wax will give you a yellow flame. Strontium nitrate added to the wax will produce a red flame. Calcium chloride makes an orange flame. Borax, copper nitrates, barium nitrate will produce a green flame, and Lithium chlorate will produce a purple flame. You can either add the chemicals to the wax or soak the wick in them. If you are adding an essential oil or fragrance to a candle, it should be added just prior to pouring the wax. Too much oil will cause the wax to mottle. Three pounds of wax can be scented with a quarter of an ounce of oil, or you can saturate your wick in essential oil.

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The HeatherMyst	[email protected]