The ‘Arte’ of candle magick is a vast one. Using the skills and techniques we have been looking at in the last two articles you can begin to develop your own spells and rituals.
Colour Correspondences
As we discussed in the previous article candle colours have traditional correspondences with the intended outcome of the spell or ritual. We looked at some of them in the last article, but here are a few more:

Black: blocking negativity, invisibility, contacting the Otherworld
Silver: Working with Moon Deities; Minor money magick; Glamouries
Gold: Wealth; Working with Solar Deities; Solstice and Equinox rituals; General positive magick
Purple: Wealth; Business expansion; Weight loss
Pink: Self love; Love spells in general; Healing
Orange: Wealth; Helping to overcome lung problems; Meditation
Violet: Meditation; Spirituality; Contacting ‘those that have gone before’
Brown: Earth healing; Magick to do with animals and nature; Long term wealth spells
White: Purification; Spirituality; Can be used in place of any other colour because “white light contains all the other colours of the spectrum” according to most candle magick practitioners.
As you progress in your candle magick experience and experimentation this list will both change and become more attuned to your own personal symbolism and ‘contacts’ in the magickal realms. A good example of this is the notation under “Orange” which says ‘Helping to overcome lung problems’. I discovered this as a side effect of a spell I did back in the 1980’s for a friend who had money problems, but was also a heavy smoker. Leaving aside the probable connection between those two things, I decided to try a money spell using an orange candle with a picture of them as a connection. There was little discernable change in their financial status but they did develop a very bad cough and cold symptoms.

I discussed this with other magickal practitioners and found out from a Witch who was qualified in Chromotherapy (colour therapy) that this colour is used in that form of healing to stimulate the lungs, the respiration, and digestion. I waited until the same phase of the moon came around, and did the ritual again. Their symptoms returned and this time I explained to them what I had done, and that the indications were that their lungs were damaged and this spell seemed to be trying to help them heal. Also if they became non-smokers not only would their lungs heal, but they would find a significant increase in available cash as they were not, in essence, burning through their money.

Unfortunately they freaked out completely when I explained what had been happening to them and dropped out of my circle of friends. This was many years before I became a counsellor and hypnotherapist and learned about the many reasons, emotional and personal, that can underlie why people smoke. However, it was a dramatic demonstration of the effect a charged candle and a good connection can have on a person or situation – even if it was an unintended one. This is why it is important to keep notes on spells as you can look back later and see what factors might have influenced a particular magickal operation.

One of the most effective things you can do in candle magick is to inscribe your intent on the candle, before you charge it in the case of a commercial one, or as part of the process if you are crafting one from basic ingredients. Choices of what to inscribe vary. In the case of a money spell an amount you need might be appropriate, but you might like to use one of the ancient alphabets of the Hebrew, Ogham, or Runic systems. The advantage of this is that each of the signs that make up these alphabets has a meaning of its’ own and, in the case of Hebrew or ancient Greek ones, also has a numerical feature. The most well-known use of this technique being the Bindrunes popular in Norse and Saxon Paganism which blend the powers of the individual Runes into a dynamic design that can act like a magickal circuit board to attract and enhance protection, luck, or any other desired positive outcome.

Candles can also be used in communicating with astral entities and ‘spirits’ and divination. The most common form of candle communication consists of lighting an empowered or consecrated candle and asking questions while watching the behaviour of its flame. The usual code is that the flame will burn higher for ‘yes’, lower for ‘no’ and not change if the answer is not forthcoming. This can be made more multifaceted if more than one candle is used, as in a ‘yes’ and a ‘no’ candle, or if both the entity controlling the flame and the scryer are competent in a system such as morse code. Divination can be done in the same way, but two further techniques involve holding the candle at an angle and allowing the wax to drip onto a cool surface or into a bowl of water while concentrating on the issue or situation you are divining about. The shape of the wax as it cools is interpreted to give the answers or insights to the question.

One other type of communication spell candles are used in is the mental influence spell. At its ‘darkest’ this is used to influence someone without their knowledge, but is more commonly used by coven members and solitary Pagans to contact each other. Using a light blue candle for Mercury the Roman God of Communication, it is charged with the generic intent of contacting the person being concentrated upon. Then the charmer takes a pin or needle and sticks it lightly in the candle an inch, or a couple of centimetres, down from the wick. Lighting the candle they concentrate on the person they wish to influence with a simple message, usually “Call me” or “Call (Name)” until the flame melts the candle down to the pin and it falls out.

Enhancements to this technique include using a photograph of the person you wish to contact near the candle and recite the following spell, for best effect
facing the approximate direction the person would be if you know it

“This is the person I wish to call
Let the call go forth ‘til the pin shall fall”

If the candle has been charged with a strong enough intent other things can be done as the energies are released by the candle burning down. In both cases the candle is snuffed, NEVER blown, out as soon as the target person contacts the spellcaster. By empowering the candle purely as a ‘contact candle’ it can be used several times. People who have used this method say that it gets more powerful with each use. I have heard that Pagans in the Armed Forces, particularly the Royal Navy, use this spell regularly to contact loved ones and colleagues when ‘normal’ channels of communication are difficult to use with good results.