Welcome back to Witch School!
If you’ve been following along, you’ve practiced sensing energy with your hands and working with Earth energy. Today, we’re pulling it all together in a candle spell.
For this spell, you’ll need a candle—no surprise there!—and a spell intention.
Choosing a Candle
🕯️ You have lots of options for the candle. You might choose a wax color that complements your spellcasting intention, such as green for money spells or purple for awakening your intuition. You can “dress” the sides with a magical oil that complements your spell.
I like to choose a candle size that will burn through completely in one session, like a 2-3” tall votive candle or a tea light. That way, I don’t have to snuff it out mid-spell if I need to leave.
You can also carve sigils or other symbols, such as astrological glyphs or runes, into the wax.
Once you have your candle situation handled, look over your spellcasting intention…
Crafting Your Intention
📝 Is it crystal clear? A common trip-up is focusing on the how instead of the desired outcome. If you want a new garden shed, spellcast for the garden shed, not a new job in hopes of then being able to afford the shed.
The more direct the route, the less likely magic is to get lost along the way.
Are you asking for what you want (“I sleep deeply and wake up refreshed”) or what you don’t want (“I no longer have insomnia”)? The former tends to be more effective, in my experience.
Let’s Cast a Spell!
You’re now ready to use your energy-sensing skills from the previous lessons to charge the candle with your spellcasting intention. I like to do this while standing before my altar.
🦶 Close your eyes and draw up Earth energy from the ground through your soles, just like you practiced.
💗 Draw it all the way up to your heart, and pause there. Allow the energy to gather as you focus on your spellcasting intention.
🪴 Repeat the intention a few times while tapping into what it will feel like to enjoy your desired outcome—imagine yourself puttering around in that garden shed, potting up some pretty flowers. Smell the soil and the blossoms, marvel at how perfect this garden shed is for your needs, how wonderful it feels to spend time in there. The more vividly you feel this outcome in your body, the more clearly your spell can carry the message.
When the energy in your heart feels infused with your spellcasting intention, send it down your arms.
🖐️ As you did in the hand-sensing exercise, feel the energy in your palms. You might sense the candle’s energy field as a subtle electric-taffy resistance. Visualize + sense the intention-infused energy flowing from your palms into the candle.
Continue until you get a sense of completion. For me, it feels like a balloon that’s about to burst, and I stop right before crossing that threshold.
Open your eyes and release your hands. Allow the Earth energy flow to gently taper off.
🧨 It’s now time to add the final spark to the energetic tinder you’ve created—it’s time to light the candle.
Know that when you light the candle your intention-infused energy will beam into the universe, carrying out your magic. Hold that knowing in your mind, your heart, your soul as you light it.
I like to finish by crossing my arms over my chest, opposite hand to opposite shoulder, bowing my head. This signals that I am fully releasing the energy to do what needs to be done rather than continuing to micromanage and meddle my magic down to a trickle.
🚫 Let the candle burn down safely, but if you have to leave, snuff it out and simply relight it again later. Never leave candles unattended. Seriously, I’ve heard too many stories of witches nearly burning down their house with a spell. Not worth the risk!
Right Timing for Your Spell
I like to think of timing as a subset of magical vocabulary. Details like day of the week, planetary aspects, moon phases, zodiac signs, time of day, etc. present you with a different set of “words” that can be arranged into magical “sentences.”
For instance, Wednesday is ruled by Mercury, and when we look at Mercury correspondences we access a magical vocabulary that includes things like writing, communication, travel, traversing boundaries, commerce, etc.
If you want to magically nerd out and construct more elaborate “sentences,” perhaps you look up which sign the Sun is in right now (Gemini if you’re reading this on June 20, before the Sun enters Cancer tonight).
Which house(s) does Gemini rule in your natal chart? Does that house’s domain support your spell in any meaningful way? Again, think of each component (Sun sign + natal sign + house) as additional magical vocabulary that you might use to complement the energy of your spell.
If you’re in the Northern Hemisphere, today is the Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year. If we think of daytime as consciousness, the longest day of the year is a time of maximum consciousness. This is great for spells that aim to bring something unconscious into our awareness or to shed new light on a situation we thought we understood, but perhaps it isn’t going the way we planned.
This might seem like a narrow category, magically speaking, but let’s take a generic money spell like, “I pay my bills with ease every month.” If money issues are common for you, there’s a chance unconscious patterns* are involved, and a day that carries the potential to illuminate those dynamics could be a potent magical ally.
Let’s layer in the qualities of candle magic while we’re at it. A candle spell, literally and metaphorically, adds light and heat to a situation, so it’s good for illumination, heating (speeding) things up, or activating dormant energies. How do these elements factor into your spell?
*and living in a capitalist hellscape, let’s be real
Writing as Magic
This perspective of viewing magical elements as vocabulary reminds me of an interesting parallel between magic and writing. (As a writer, this is something I think about a lot.)
Our psyches respond powerfully to stories—much more so than to rational arguments (for better or worse). There’s something primal and ancient about the way we orient to narrative. It gives shape to emotion, identity, and meaning. And because so much of our magical energy rises from the unconscious, I believe story and spellwork are deeply intertwined.
The unconscious doesn’t speak in spreadsheets. It speaks in images, feelings, archetypes, symbols—in other words, in story.
When we craft a spell, we’re not just stating what we want—we’re telling a story our unconscious can believe in.
And when we do that well, we’re not simply persuading our ego. We’re persuading the unconscious, which 1) is instrumental in shaping where our life is headed and 2) has a curiously powerful, poorly understand effect on the external world.
Story Timing
When I’m writing, I always have to ask myself, Why am I starting this essay or this scene here? Why not a little earlier? A little later?
As I continue to develop as a writer, I’m learning that I tend to start too early. I could easily lop off the first 20% of most scenes, and I have to work against giving the reader unnecessary setup that bogs down the pacing.
Writing a story is a spell of its own, and timing is critical. In many ways, a story is time: it’s a beginning, a middle, and an end. Choosing when those elements occur is one of the most fundamental storytelling choices, and the same is true of magic.
Why are you casting this spell now? Why does your desired outcome need to be called into existence now?
This choice is a form of storytelling, and I think it’s not only the human psyche that responds powerfully to stories—I think the universe does, too. (As above, so below.)
And when we tell a more compelling story with our spellcasting, the universe can’t help but listen.
What’s Next?
This post wraps up the first semester of our impromptu Witch School—but we’re just getting started. I’m currently having a blast over here, writing a brand-new guide—All the Feels: The Inner Architecture of Spellwork—and oh em gee, am I ever excited to share it with you!
Inside, we’ll explore:
✨ how to translate emotional energy into potent spellwork
✨ how to spot when limiting stories are powering unconscious (and unwanted) spells
✨ how to work with archetypes in a Jungian sense, as deep reservoirs of energy and meaning (two of the most potent spellcasting ingredients out there)
✨ and more!
If these initial lessons sparked something for you—if you want to use your energy-sensing skills to map currents of meaning in your own psyche and turn that insight into spellcasting power—I think you’re going to looove All the Feels.
Stay tuned…I’m moving at a slow-and-steady pace right now, but I hope to have it ready within a month(ish).
In the meantime, my new guide Desire Magic That (Actually) Works is a fantastic complement to what we’re learning here, elevating your spellcasting game with intel from my spirit guides.
(Desire Magic is also available in my Magic School Bundle, which includes my best-selling Enchantment Lab and Sigils Mini Course.)
Happy Solstice 🌞
