Using Candles in Your Ritual Practice

Candles are by far one of the most diverse tools a spiritual practitioner can have in their arsenal. For the sake of highlighting the many uses of the candle rather than any one kind of practice, I will use the general term practitioner to describe the kind of person who might do some of the things listed below. They can be fixed for the sake of invoking some kind of intention in your life. A practitioner may fix a candle using oils, herbs, perfumes, places of power. All of these things can connect the candle with the energy necessary to spiritually charge wax and wick, thereby transforming mundane items into something with a kind of power. Out of all the ritual tools available in a local spiritual shop, the candle is a time old classic for a reason.

A candle can be used to commune with spirit guides using simple and straight forward methods that have been around for generations. People can be a little unfocused when it comes to spiritual connection. Candles help to focus a person's ability to feel with senses that connect all of us in ways the original 5 do not. In addition to spiritual focus, candles are a known calling card for spirits. Depending on your intention a practitioner can peak their intention over a candle, use prayer, learn the process of making demands or sleep with candles under the pillow. Each of these things can help accomplish the goal of connection to spirit or spirit guides and ancestors.

Candles can be placed on an altar to represent the fire element necessary to close a circle, seal an agreement or give something a place of honor. Candles give us the ability to temporarily use an element far greater than we are. The act of harnessing an element sounds dramatic depending on the language used to describe it but the candle truly does that. With a single candle, people can borrow the power of the flame and use it representatively on an altar. 

Candles are only as limited as the practitioner who uses them. When it comes to using a candle, it is not important what you practice or what you believe in. A candle will be of used to you if you let it. Candles are an inexpensive and simple opportunity to explore what each practitioner is capable of.