Candle Magick can be a powerful tool in any magickal practitioner’s
arsenal. In fact, I’ve recently been incorporating more Candle Magick into my spellwork
and can personally attest to its efficacy. Nevertheless, candles make me
nervous…well, burning candles anyway. If you’ve been around the occult corner
once or twice you have undoubtedly heard of at least one candle mishap. I just
can’t bring myself to let a candle fully burn for several hours or even days knowing
that it will be unattended for much of that time, even when taking special
precautions. For spells that require a large candle I’ve ended up extinguishing
the candle when it could not be attended to and then reigniting it again when
it could. While this method works, it breaks up the energy of the work and
takes a hell of a long time to complete the working. Since I am an eclectic and
not a traditionalist, I have in the past substituted a tealight for what would
have typically been a larger candle. I simply carved my intent into the top of
the tealight with a needle and dressed the top of the tealight with oil, moving
in a clockwise direction for drawing things near and a counter clockwise
direction for keeping things at bay. But even tealights burn for hours…too long
for my comfort. So, recently I went to my local magical supply store (Wal-Mart)
and picked up several packs of “birthday” candles.
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| As you can see from the picture above, they come in a variety of useful colors. |
While I can’t carve my intent upon them as one typically
does with a larger candle, I still dress the candle with oil. As a substitute
for carving the candle I include a personalized sigil within the working and
usually place it near or under the candle. Below is a picture of a recent
working showing my minimal setup.
For me there is
really no better alternative. These small candles fully burn in about 15
minutes. This short burn time allows my work to be completed during periods
when I am able to babysit the flame. The
esthetic of these small candles does, at least for me, pale in comparison to
the more majestic candles. Neverthless, the completion of my spell with a fully
burned candle and peace of mind far outway any esthetic. So, if you’re nervous
about leaving a candle burn for hours in your home, give these tiny candles a
try for your next big magick.
4 comments:
So do the birthday candles work well for magical works? I admit to having good results also with tea candles but haven't used birthday candles magically except during birthdays when making wishes.
Hi Aghor. For me they work just fine, but like I said in my post, I do not follow any particular tradition and can generally adapt any magickal working to suit my mindset. Working with candles that require a long burn time causes me enough anxiety that the spellwork never seems to flow well. With the tiny candles my mind is at ease during the fifteen minutes or so the candle is burning because I'm able to be near the candle for this short period of time to prevent any mishaps. No anxiety = better magick.
I am glad I'm not the only one who hesitates to leave candles burning for hours. This is a great solution. And any time I can save money and still practice successful workings I am all for it, so I love your idea of using birthday candles. Thanks!
Harmonia Sphæras - Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment, since I get so few of them. Always glad to hear that someone out there found something I posted to be useful.
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