The Art of Setting Lights: Candle Spells in Conjure Tradition
by Storm Faerywolf
Storm Faerywolf is a teacher, artist, poet, warlock, priest, and initiate of the Faery tradition, a lineage of American Traditional Witchcraft. With nearly thirty years experience practicing the Craft and teaching for more than twenty, Storm has lead open circles, given lectures, and taught both public and private classes in the San Francisco Bay Area and across the U.S. He holds the Black Wand and is the founder of BlueRose, his own school and lineage within the Faery Tradition. He is also an initiate in several other traditions of witchcraft, spirituality, and energy healing. Storm is a regular contributor to Modern Witch and has been interviewed on several other podcasts including Elemental Castings and Hex Education. Along with his husband he owns and operates The Mystic Dream, a metaphysical and occult retail store and learning center in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he offers public classes and private sessions to clients. For more information visit his website atwww.faerywolf.com.
(Excerpted from the ‘Modern Conjure’ class material.)
“Setting Lights” is a time-honored practice of using candles or oil lamps in conjunction with formal prayer work, as described in the various regional traditions of hoodoo and Conjure. This practice is rooted in even older traditions. Ever since early humans first made their illuminating discovery, fire has played a central role in the spiritual, religious, and magical practices of humankind regardless of culture. Certain woods have been burned in order to aid in healing and to attract prosperity; various ignitable liquids have been set aflame in order to call spirits or to clear a space of unwanted ones; and candles of various colors and shapes have been used in order to achieve a myriad of magical goals. On a practical level it has meant the difference between life and death. Symbolically it represents life-force, the presence of divinity, and even the will of God.
When Setting a Light for a client I will meditate on their situation and allow myself to be “spirit-led” in determining the best course of action. With the help of my spirit allies I will choose various herbs and oils that are aligned with the desired result and then will set to work creating a sigil for the client, which is then drawn upon the glass of the 7-Day Devotional candles that are traditional for this particular type of candle work. I will pray over the candle for every step that I am working on it, right up to the point at which it is lit and then I walk away and allow the candle to do it’s work. I will check in on it and see what it is telling me… candles reveal their secrets to one who is patient enough to watch for them, but I will do my best to not interfere. If I see that a flame has gone out I know that something is blocking the work and so I will relight it with another prayer and even carve out excess wax that is preventing the flame from being sustained. If I am able to successfully relight the candle then the whole process has told me that the client will need to do more work to achieve the desired result. If I am unable to get the candle to properly light after three failed attempts then I know that this work cannot be done in this way at this time. Once a candle has completed its burn, I will photograph it and email the client the picture along with a brief report detailing my impressions of how the spell faired. I then pray one last time over the empty candle glass, intending all magical threads between the candle and my client and all parties be cleansed and severed, and then I retire them with the rest of my recyclables.
Choosing a Candle Color
The first step with any magical working will be to determine the precise goal that is being sought. Once this has been done we may now move on to the second step which would be choosing an appropriate color for our candle in question.
One question (or rather, series of related questions) that I receive an a fairly regular basis has to do with choosing the “correct” or “most powerful” color for their spell. (“Is red more powerful than pink for a love spell?”, “The book says to use a green candle in my money spell, but isn’t gold better?”, “or even “But what if I don’t have a purple candle? Will the spell still work?”
Rest assured you can certainly cast an effective candle spell without any regard to color at all. If I need to do a spell I will use whatever I have lying around… but the traditional art of using color in magic is one that is powerful as well as beautiful, as and such shouldn’t be dismissed outright. Different colors affect us psychologically, and are therefore of much value to the magician or conjurer. Think of your favorite color… of how it makes you feel. Now, think of a color that you would consider angry… or sad… or jubilant. In this simple flight of the imagination we already are given a window into the potential power of using color.
Now consider that this is far from universal. Your “happy” could be my “sad”. Each of us comes with our own biases and interpretations, based on a lifetime of personal experience. And a good portion of those differences are culturally informed. Consider the money spell… Most people these days wouldn’t bat an eye when told that a traditional color candle for a money spell would be green. After all, green is the color of our money and so it makes sense. But this is not true for all peoples. Feng Shui tradition uses both red and gold as primary activating colors, and purple is associated with the wealth sector of the Bag Gua. In the United States, the color black is often associated with death, but in China the color of mourning is white. The culture of our upbringing is embedded within us. And sometimes this conflicts with tradition. When in doubt, use a color that you personally feel is aligned to the desired outcome.
Types of Candles
Once we have chosen the color for our candle, we need to know exactly what type of candle to use. Simple tapers might be just fine for most workings, but there are also candles that have been specially designed for use in magical work and now enjoy a rich tradition of magical practitioners who have so aligned with their use, creating a powerful current of magical power which may be further tapped into by the magician or conjurer.
• “7 Day” or Devotional Candles: These are glass-encased candles that originally took 7 days to finish burning, but now —due to reformulation of the wax material to lower costs— now usually take 4 or 5. Great for any working, especially those that need a continuous flame for several days at a time.
• Male/Female Figurals: These are little wax images of men and women and are used for working spells on people. Can be moved/manipulated to symbolically describe how you wish the spell to play out. (i.e. moving them closer together to encourage closeness; turning their backs to each other to encourage separation; sprinkles with rose petals to encourage love, etc.)
• Cats: Burned for good luck in different areas of life, depending on color.
• Skulls: White for contacting spirits. Black for protection or hex work. Other colors to call spirits to help in that area. Also used for influencing thoughts.
• Crosses: To invoke God’s presence. Blessings. Mastery over a person or situation.
• Knob Candles: For spells or wishes taking 7 days.
• Pyramids: Money. Financial stability.
• Phallus/Yoni Candles: Sexuality; life-force.
• Adam/Eve or Marriage candles: To cause two people to fall in love.
• “Divorce” Candles: To cause two people to break-up or to ease
• Reversing Candles (black/red): To send a curse or hex back to its source.
The Art of Dressing Candles
Now that we have chosen the color and type of candle it must be “dressed” prior to magical use. This is a process by which it is energetically aligned to one’s magical purpose, usually by using herbs and oils to infuse the candle with the essence of the plant’s energies. Taper candles are usually carved with sigils, signs, symbols, or names before being rubbed with appropriate oils. Spells involving the attraction of influences or energies are usually rubbed from the tips toward the middle, while spells of banishment or the diminishing of conditions are rubbed from the middle toward the tips. (Alternatively, increasing spell candles may be rubbed from the tip to the base, while decreasing spell candles can be rubbed from the base to the tip.) Once the candle has been dressed with oils it may be used, or even rolled in dried herbs to maximize the spells’ effectiveness. (Using similar rules as for the dressing: roll away from you for spells of banishment, and toward you for spells of increase.)
Devotional (Glass encased) candles are not dressed in the same way, since they cannot be carved or rubbed with oils. These candles can be decorated with paint, markers, or photographs and need to have the wax pierced with an odd number of holes with an object such as a screwdriver or another similar tool. After the holes have been made then the appropriate oils are then poured or dropped into them. Then a small pinch of dried herbs or even glitter (for additional color association) may be sprinkled on top.
Dressing Candles (tapers, pillars, jumbos, etc.)
• To invoke: Dress the candle from the ends toward to middle OR from the top to the bottom.
• To banish: Dress from middle toward the ends OR from the bottom to the top.
Dressing Candles (7 Days)
Remembering that each step involves praying for the desired result, poke holes in the top (some traditions say an odd number, but I generally use 3-5) and then simply, and slowly pour oils in. DO NOT LEAVE OIL FLOATING ON TOP! Poke extra holes if this happens. Top off with A SMALL AMOUNT of herbs/glitter appropriate for your working.
Other Items
Petition papers are usually placed underneath a candle or holder to become charged. These can also be placed on the outside of a glass candle or within a circle of herbs, stones, or salt near the candle. A candle substitute can be a large plant or tree underneath which you can bury your petition. (Make sure the plant remains in good health lest your spell’s power wither!)
Disposing of Candle Spell Remains
Traditionally the remains of a candle spell are often thrown into a running body of water, or buried, but PLEASE DON’T POLLUTE THE ENVIRONMENT. Candle remnants can be thrown away with a prayer of release, or thrown in a larger fire. Candle glass can be recycled after being cleansed (with Florida Water or another substance of your choosing). A Sharpie can be used to mark an “X” on those candles that did NOT yield good results before being recycled. Other candles can be energetically “canceled” by praying over them and envisioning the red circle with a slash through it melting into them before throwing away/recycling. Candles for less than noble purposes should always be disposed of away from your home or business. Candle remains from spells that were set for positive purposes can be put in a pouch and carried as a charm, or kept in the home to continue to attract good influences.
This covers some of the basics of Setting Lights and candle spells. Remember that this is only a starting point. Once you have become confident in the steps described in this lesson you may feel free to experiment on your own to devise new methods of empowering and utilizing candles for your magical goals, as we march onward into the future of modern conjuring.
©2010-2015 Storm Faerywolf