BURN, BABY BURN: USING CANDLES FOR RITUAL

  Crystal and Pleasant: photo by Maharet Hughes

Welcome to The Divination Nation blog!

 We are Pleasant Gehman and Crystal Ravenwolf, a duo of divination divas, “spiritual sisters from another mister”. We’re life-long Tarotistas, obsessed with all things esoteric and paranormal. Look for our forthcoming book, “Walking The Tarot Path” in late 2016.
 We’ve created this blog to share our knowledge and to connect with the vibrant worldwide metaphysical and paranormal community. We hope it’s as fun for you to read as it is for us to write…Enjoy!

There are many ways to use colors in ritual and one of the foremost is with candles. Every color has it’s own vibration and several associated uses, depending on what  practice you follow. Even though you could pretty much just  use a simple  or “standard” white candle in your work, selecting a color that corresponds with your intent will make your work that much more powerful.

If you are new to using candles for magick, there are some important things you need to know before getting started. We’ll start with the more mundane first: be sure to choose good quality candles; you don’t want cheaper ones that might burn improperly or unevenly. You must observe the  common-sense rules of fire safety- keep  burning candles away from  drapes, curtains, dried flowers, gusts of wind or flammable altar cloths.  If you are planning on burning a candle for several hours or days- and yes, there are such things as  two-day to seven day candles- it’s essential that you keep the candle lit  in a   place where there are no children-or animals-nearby. The last thing you want is for the candle to get knocked over. This will not only ruin your work, but could put your life and residence in jeopardy!

 Just burning a candle for ambiance during, say, a meditation or during a Tarot reading is fine, but if you are going to use a candle for ritual, you’ll need to  do some thorough research first. To begin with, there are various  kinds of candles: pillars (  often enclosed in heavy glass) tapers, votives, tea lights, figure candles, miniatures. So let’s say you wanted to represent a person, or two people, as you would for a love spell… you might want to use  figure candles instead of a taper or pillar.

There are several ways to dress candles ( with herbs, oils and inscriptions) as well as  for writing the petitions that  correspond to your intent.  For example, you would need to know what phase of the moon  would be most optimal for the type of work  you are doing. You’d also  have to be familiar  with which oils or herbs correspond best with the work you are doing.

 Here, we share a general guide to candle colors and some of the intents and  purposes each color corresponds to:

 White: Use white candles for gaining clarity, healing, to signify purity,  and for communicating with the spirit world or for any type of spiritual work

Black: Black candles are used for reversing spells, protection from evil, for banishing and repelling, and for getting rid of enemies

Red: This color influences love and attraction spells, to promote energy, and increase sexuality. Red is a very physically oriented color and  can increase vitality

Orange: Burn orange candles to support success:  for new projects and business opportunities, to open new paths, and for vivid or clairvoyant dreams

Yellow/ Gold: The color of the eternal optimist, this color attracts positive energy…yellow candles are used to increase happiness, prosperity, luck in general and also for  increasing the odds in gambling

Green: This color assists with any work related to finance and abundance, including prosperity, fertility, money drawing, gambling, fertility, and general good luck.

Blue:  For use in healing rituals, blue candles support peace, harmony and and calm. Very good for meditation, blue candles also increase empathy and understanding, and  help to connect with  higher powers

Purple: Think of royalty…use purple candles to empowerment, to control events for a successful outcome, or for mastering a skill or task

Lavender: Use lavender candles for tranquility, to promote calmness and  restorative health, and to increase intuition

Pink: Pink influences romance and is also used to soothe emotional wounds; it is beneficial to promoting warm feelings, affection and friendship

 Gray/ Silver:  A candle of these colors can assist in  working with spirit, increasing memory and developing clairvoyancedeveloping

Brown: The color of our Earth, brown candles are used to ground and balance, and are  also beneficial for business or legal matters

 Often, candles crafted with dual or even several colors are used in magick. For example, a black and white candle could remove negative energy and usher in healing and blessings, and some seven day “multi-purpose” candles are actually made with seven layers of color.

  Oh, and one last thing- even though we mentioned it before: when using candles and open flames  for ritual: SAFETY FIRST!

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To find out more about Pleasant or request a reading or healing session, click here: http://pleasantgehman.com/tarot.html

 For more on Crystal’s background, or request a reading or healing session, click here: http://crystalravenwolf.com