Urban Grimoire: Candle Magic Made Uncomplicated

If you want to join in my streak of cursing politicians but aren't sure what to do here is candle magic made easy.

It is not an ancient magic because candles only came in to common use in the nineteenth century, but does utilise ancient magical techniques: identifying one thing with another and effecting change, the use of the elements, and so on.

You will need:

A candle of your choice (it helps if it reminds you of the target in some way but the candle's colour and shape really don't matter).

Somewhere safe to burn it. Best to use a candlestick and never leave it unattended.

Optional: 

A knife or pen to write or carve your purpose onto the candle before or after stage 2 below.

What to do:

1. Take your candle in your hands and form your intention in your mind. Tell your candle what it means and what is going to happen. Say it as a statement of fact, out loud if you wish.

Eg 'Donald John Trump is in prison' or 'Joe Bloggs recovers from cancer'.

2. Next you dress the candle. You will read a lot of complex stuff in the books about doing this but IMHO the simplest way to get your purpose into the candle is to dress it with the oil produced by your own skin. Simply rub your fingers on the side of your nose and then rub them onto the candle, knowing that this is identifying the candle with your desire. I like to dress down from the wick for things I want to decline and upwards for things I want to grow.

Keep dressing the candle until it feels right. By this I mean that you will feel the intention leave you. If you're doing the head bit right here, you will either feel relieved, tired, or like you've had enough of it.

3. Burn the candle in a safe place. You can either do it as quickly as you want or a little bit each day. As you do this see your desired outcome in your mind's eye. If you need a picture to look at of course it's fine.

I think it's fine to blow it out at the end of each session.

4. Burn it until it goes out on its own and dispose of any remaining wax in a symbolic way. I simply scrape the bits into the bin but if the spell is for something you want you could keep them as a charm.

5. Try not to think about it. Difficult, obviously. If you know you're going to keep scratching the itch add an intent to start off with that that will strengthen the spell.

Caution about the side effects of magic: magic does not return threefold as some people claim and frankly as adults we need to be responsible for our actions rather than running round paralyzed by fear of retribution like Christians. However there is a great tradition that magic primarily acts on the magician, so if you've cursed a politician, for example, you might suddenly find yourself becoming very politically active for their opposition. In history I think most practitioners of this sort of practical magic have tended to be driven to it by fear and powerlessness so there's an irony in the way it affects you and changes you, including making you feel empowered.

Happy witching!