I teach a lot, and the bulk of my classes center around candle magic as it’s my preferred method of working. In this work, I get to hear a lot of questions and I get a good sense about where folks tend to have weaknesses in their knowledge base.
Across the board I’ve noticed that folks don’t know about three major candle magic techniques: butting, loading, and waking/programming. Most of these are done with coach candles or medium- to large-style stick candles. Some of these can be done with chimes, votives, tapers and vigils but not all of them. Let’s discuss…
First up is butting. It’s okay to giggle, it’s a funny word! Despite its comedic flair, it is a powerful technique used to turn something on its head. In fact, it’s how you do the famous witches’ trick of “burning candles upside down”. To begin hold your candle upright and look at the top; notice that most candles are a cylinder with a crayon-like tip.
With a sharp knife, (carefully) cut off the tip so it’s now flat. This way the candle becomes a cylinder with two flat ends (or as flat as you can make it). Then turn it upside down so the base points up and the old tip is pointing down forming the new flat base. The old base is now the top and needs to be carved.
Using the same knife, whittle the wax into a point exposing the wick, thus creating a new tip. Or in short, cut off the top, flip it over, carve the bottom into the new tip. This way the candle is flipped upside down and burned as such. This is useful when doing reversal work, as most double-action candles (where the bottom is black and the top is a color like white, red, or green) are meant to be butted (*giggle*) to create the reversing effect.
A lot of folks don’t know this and I see it a lot across Instagram where folks are missing this step. Now certainly there are instances in which you’d want to burn them colored side up. However, the point is that you should be burning them right side up when you want to for a reason, not just because you don’t know there’s an alternative.
The second thing folks often don’t understand is the act of loading a candle. Loading is different than dressing which is largely done on the outside of the candle. Loading is the act of putting things inside the candle. This is often done one of two ways.
Most commonly the bottom of the candle (the flat part) is carefully hollowed out with a sharp knife. Don’t get carried away, this should simply be a small crater, no bigger than you absolutely need. If you make it too wide, you risk cracking the candle. If your candle is really narrow, you may want to use a flathead screwdriver instead.
Using this technique you can add herbs, oils, personal concerns (hair, photos, fingernails etc.), petition papers, etc. inside the candle. The second method is very similar but instead of going up through the base you tunnel in through the side. This is often done with pillar candles or votives as they tend to be thicker. You risk cracking your candle in half with anything thinner.
Either way you go about it, be sure to close up the hole when you are done, so the items are fully inside. I do this by lighting a smaller candle of the same color and dripping the wax over it to seal it once more.
I tend to use the loading technique to set the core tone for slightly more complicated work. For instance, combining a love spell and a luck spell in one candle to produce a lucky in love spell, I would choose a pink or red candle and load it with love herbs and oils. I would then dress the outside of the candle with luck herbs and oils. This way the core of the spell is based on love, but is influenced with luck. Or if I’m doing protection work, I’ll put some of their hair or their photo inside the candle and dress it with protection oil and herbs.
The last technique I find that people really don’t know about is waking and programming your candle. This is found frequently in folk magic where there’s a tendency to treat everything like it’s alive. The idea being that you wake the candle up so that its spirit is active and then you give it instructions.
The waking portion can be done a few different ways but most the most common method is to tap it on a hard surface (like your altar top) three times. Simple as that. The next step is to program it in one way or another.
This part also varies between traditions but there are two methods I prefer. The first is rolling the candle. Roll it across a surface (your work table or altar is fine) to set the overall energetic intention. Candle wax absorbs and records energy and instructions really well so you don’t have to overthink it.
Roll it away from you three times if you are getting rid of something, or doing work that you consider outwardly projective (banishing, hotfoot, blasting, cleansing, cursing, etc.). Roll the candle toward you three times if you want to bring something in (love, prosperity, protection, etc.). This simply lets the candle know if you want it to pull in, or push away.
The other method of doing this is to simply hold the awakened candle to your mouth and speak your intention into it. This is a fairly modern method, the rolling is old school, but both work well. No matter which you choose, they set the tone for the rest of the dressing and fixing you do with the candle before you light it up.
Before I let you go, I want to cover one last thing. This is more of a novena candle thing, but it really needs to be said; DON’T OVERFILL YOUR NOVENA CANDLES!
There’s this thing that happens (mostly on Instagram) where people fill their novena candles to the brim with dried herbs and oil, and then light them resulting in a bonfire. Then folks post them online with captions about how powerful they are but that’s not how this works at all. These are also the same folks who tend to have exploding novenas on the regular which they also chalk up to their immense power.
We all know that a tall strong candle flame indicates powerful work. However, this is not the result of power, it’s a result of pyromania and it’s quite dangerous! Remember, it’s a novena, not a pipe bomb. Lightly dress your novenas, and let the flame speak for itself. This will also help prevent your house from burning down.
I hope this article has helped you learn something new, and added at least one more tool to your magical arsenal. If you have any questions, feel free to send me a DM on Instagram @Oregon_Wood_Witch. Stay safe, and don’t burn anything down.
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