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Candle
Colors and Meanings |
Handling and Use
Candles are easy to come by and have many uses to both the Wiccan and the non-Wiccan. This is important to remember because most Wiccans like to reserve candles for special occasions and use them for no other. That's Rule #1 To using candles: If you buy candles for a particular purpose, try not to change that purpose. What I mean is that if you buy a box of candles for spell work and for your altar, every time you touch the candles, you are charging them for that purpose. Just being in contact with them charges them. So if you then decide to use an altar taper for a candlelight dinner with your boy/girlfriend, not only is it a waste of energy, but it simply shouldn't be done. The taper was specifically bought for your sacred altar, not a dinner table. If you need a candle for the dinner table or for such purpose, and all you have on hand are your ritual candles, work it to your purpose. Use a votive instead and charge it for harmonious relations with your significant other...a simple spell.
Rule #2 is to never EVER re-use your sacred candles for any other purpose. Being in a budget crunch, I can understand re-using candles on your altar for the same purpose (corner candles, altar candles, etc), but I would NEVER use a candle for a corner element and then later use it to light my room. If the power went out in my dorm and all I had were ritual candles, once again, I would use them for their purpose by casting a circle and using the time for a good meditation.
Rule #3 is to care for your candles. Remember that your ritual candles will be with you in circle. Store them in a place where they will be well protected from breakage and nicks. You want them as cared for as you possibly can have them. Try to handle them only when you are in a positive mood. Once again, you charge them every time you touch them. You don't want to charge them with negative energy!
On the Altar
The candles you use on your altar are important. You don't need all of the ones I have listed, but they're nice to have and they give off a good amount of light if you prefer, like me, to not have any artificial lights on.
The altar itself generally has about three candles. The central candle is the one which you light everything else from. You would light this one, throw your matches or "sacred Zippo" out of the area, then cast your circle. For my altar candle, I like having colors that represent spirituality or the "third eye" to me. The colors I choose are often airy, Goddess colors, as well. I like light blues, sea blues, and purples.
The other two candles you should have are candles for the God and the Goddess. These are not necessary, but when I invoke the God and the Goddess, I like to give them somewhere to "dwell" in my circle. The God candle is usually red, gold, or yellow, and the Goddess candle is usually white, silver, or light blue.
The corner candles are also not necessary, but I like having them. There is debate about which colors correspond to which corners. The elements in the corners are static, though. Usually people use Yellow for the East/Air, Red for the South/Fire, Blue for the West/Water, and Green for the North/Earth. This doesn't quite agree with me. Here are my corners and my reasons:
EAST: This is the corner for air. When I think of air, I think of blue skies--light blue during the day and dark blue at night. Also, as an air person, I think of wands being the tool for this element. It only makes sense to me that plants, where wood for the wand comes from, give off the oxygen we breathe. To me, Yellow for air represents smog. YUCK! For this reason, I like using blue as my East candle.
SOUTH: This one I keep as red. Seems quite logical to have fire be red, eh?
WEST: Once again, yellow for water seems polluted. However, when I think of water, I think of an element that gives plants their life. I also think of those beautiful clear sea green waters around Caribbean islands. So to me, Green seems to be the appropriate color for Water.
NORTH: This leaves Yellow for Earth. Sounds good to me because the Earth is where we get the grains from the harvest. Grain fields are large open spaces of gold stretching as far as the eye can see. Because of this, Yellow for Earth works for me.
I also like to keep a white birthday cake candle on my altar. Since carrying around the altar candle can be kind of messy, I like using a birthday candle to go between the altar candle and votives. If you use tapers, they're easier to light from each other, but they just drip more. Birthday candles are also good for leaving your thumbprint in a spell candle to bind yourself to that spell. See next section.
For Magick
Using candles for magick is quite simple. Like I said earlier, the more you touch a candle, the more you charge it. So when you wish to do a spell, you simply handle the candle of an appropriate color, thinking about the purpose you want it to work for. You can also take an essential oil for the correct purpose (those can be kind of expensive for a college student) and rub it into the candle. This is called Dressing the candle. You'd start at the top of the candle and rub the oil to the middle, then start at the bottom and rub some more to the middle. (I've also heard of doing it the other way around--from middle to ends--but it all depends on your tradition and what's easiest for you. Some people use "end-to-center" for either constructive or destructive magick, and "center-to-end" for the opposite.) I also like to take wax from another candle, a birthday candle for convenience, drip a drop of wax onto the spell candle, and then press it down with my thumb to leave a print. This binds you to the spell candle and I think it makes the spell a little more powerful. You can also scratch a simple purpose in the candle's side (like a one-word phrase such as "health" or "money"). You should chant words that YOU MAKE UP while you dress and handle the spell candle. It's all in you...you're the one setting the purpose for this candle to work.
Colors and Their Meanings
White: A balance of all colors; Spiritual enlightenment, cleansing, clairvoyance, healing, truth seeking; Rituals involving lunar energy' May be substituted for any color candle.
Yellow: Activity, Creativity, unity; brings power of concentration and imagination to a ritual; use in rituals where you wish to gain another’s confidence or persuade someone, or in rituals that require solar energy.
Gold: Fosters understanding and attracts the powers of cosmic influences; beneficial in rituals intended to bring about fast luck or money, or in rituals needing solar energy.
Orange: Creativity, ability to speak one's mind, ambition, career matters and the Law, self-confidence. Solar color and also stands for Leo.
Pink: Promotes romance, friendship; standard color for rituals to draw affections; a color of femininity, honor, service, brings friendly, lively conversation to the dinner table.
Red: Health, passion, love, fertility, strength, courage, will power; increases magnetism in rituals; draws Aries and Scorpio energy.
Silver: Removes negativity and encourages stability; helps develop psychic abilities; attracts the influence of the Mother Goddess.
Purple: Power, success, idealism, psychic manifestations; ideals for rituals to secure ambitions, independence, financial rewards, or to make contact with the spiritual other world; increases Neptune energy.
Magenta: Combination of red and violet that oscillates on a high frequency; energizes rituals where immediate action and high levels of power or spiritual healing are required.
Brown: Earthly, balanced color; for rituals of materiel increase; eliminates indecisiveness; improves powers of concentration, study, telepathy; increases financial success; locates objects that have been lost.
Indigo: Color of inertia; stops situations or people; use in rituals that require a deep meditational state; or in rituals that demand Saturn energy.
Royal Blue: Promotes laughter and joviality; color or loyalty; use to attract Jupiter energy, or whenever an influence needs to be increased.
Light Blue: Spiritual color; helpful in devotional or inspirational meditations; brings peace and tranquillity to the home; radiates Aquarius energy; employ where a situation must be synthesized.
Blue: Primary spiritual color; for rituals to obtain wisdom, harmony, inner light, or peace; confers truth and guidance.
Emerald Green: Important component in Venusian rituals; attracts love, social delights, and fertility.
Dark Green: Color of ambition, greed, and jealousy; counteracts these influences in a ritual.
Green: Promotes prosperity, fertility, success; stimulates rituals for good luck, money, harmony, and rejuvenation.
Grey: Neutral color useful when pondering complex issues during meditation; in magic, this color often sparks confusion; it also negates or neutralizes a negative influence.
Black: Opens up the deeper levels of the unconscious; use in rituals to induce a deep meditational state, or to banish evil or negativity as in uncrossing rituals; attracts Saturn energy.
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