Nearly everyone loves incorporating candles into ritual work, because something about them has always been synonymous with magick. We can put energy into them by drawing in light from the world around us with our breath. We can then access that energy when we ritually burn the candle. They serve as batteries to hold energy.

In addition to the energy you yourself put into the candle, there is also energy from two other sources. First you must take the energy of the color of the candle into consideration. Each color is a different portion of the light spectrum and vibrates at a different frequency. Red, for example, is much more active than earthy colors like brown. And blue is from the slower, calmer part of the light spectrum. You can choose which kinds of energy you want to add to your ritual by which color candle you use. Below are a few of the many traditional color correspondences in magick, but you should feel free to experiment. Colors may have specific and unique associations to you and these will have an effect on your work. If a color feels right to you, then chances are that’s the one you should go with.

The color correspondences here are not carved in stone and are intended to be guidelines for you to expand upon. Your own experiments and intuition will help you discover what is most beneficial to your practice. The following is a short list I put together after several years of practice, and which I’ve found to be beneficial. See page 234 for further color correspondences.

• • Red: Protection, adding force to ritual, romance
• • Orange: Speed, all business matters, communication
• • Yellow: Victory and success, balance and harmony, general healing
• • Green: Grounding, prosperity, strength
• • Blue: Abundance, growth, expansion
• • Violet: Enhancing psychic intuition, lucid dreaming, anything moon-related
• • Black: Banishing, binding harmful energy, anything related to time or karma
• • White: When in doubt use white as it contains all the colors, general blessing

Lastly, there is the actual fire from the burning candle. The fire generates heat and energy as it transmutes the candle from a solid to a liquid. When you burn your charged candle, you can visualize the flame itself powering your intention.

• As you inhale, visualize the golden energy center in your chest growing as bright as possible due to the energy you’re pulling in.
• As you exhale, visualize that light traveling from the gold sphere in your chest down your arms, out the palms of your hands, and into the candle.
• Repeat this part of the ritual every day for several days. Spend perhaps ten minutes a day at the same time each day for three days pushing energy into the candle.
• On the third day, light the candle and let it burn down.

This can be done repeatedly, with more and more energy being put into the candle. You could do it for seven days, or even a month before you burn the candle. There is no time limit. If what you’re trying to manifest is a good parking spot, it won’t take nearly as much time and energy as a new house for your family to live in.