The OP said: “DO NOT put the candle out, leaving it burning. For smaller candles likes tapers, chimes, or votives, let it burn all day or night until the candle burns all the way the end and extinguishes itself. This type of magick, since there are no entities or incantations involved, requires the candle to be burned all the way down to be effective. So only do this when you can stay with the candle, common sense, don’t go to the grocery store and leave the candle burning in your home.”
My question is: do i really have to let the candle burn down entirely? I’m not able to watch a damn candle for 12 hours.
Personally I’ve never burned anything larger than a birthday candle in one solid go. I find that if you let it burn for as long as your comfortable, then snuff it has been sufficient. For larger, all night rituals it may be worthwhile, but I’ve never seen it as a necessity.
As far as my experience goes, yes. I’ve burned my candles for as long as five minutes to half an hour. The ones I use are thick and can last up to forty hours, so letting something like that burn itself out seems impractical to me. I’ve not had adverse effects from doing it this way.
I’d go on a limb and call that personal preference. Some feel one way works better than another, I use both in conjunction even depending on what I’m trying to accomplish.
Ideally yes you want to let thw candle burn completely down. If you have to leave is it okay to snuff it out and relight it when you get back. But it is a good idea to refocus on your goal for a few minutes upon relighting. Alternatively you can make a container for it so if it does go alittle nuts it will be contained.
In my own case with the work in black magick of arhiman i have a weekly alter candle that is burning at all times unless it happens to burn down while i am at work. This is Usually a 1 to 3 in wide jar candle that i then put in my alter urn. So even if it goes berserk for whatever reason it is surrounded by 9 inches of earth so it cant burn anything. The ones i use for the candle magick system in the samw text also sit in my urn and are left to burn themselves out.
So far i have had one candle for a spell explode the jar while i was at work but it was all contained within the urn.
In EA’s book Works of Darkness, he doesn’t mention anything about letting the candles burn all the way down. He simply says that if a candle is used for a love spell, it should only be reused for another love spell.
In the book 7 Occult Money Rituals by Henry Archer, the first spell has you empower a candle and let it burn all the way down.
The difference, as I see it, is that EA’s spell requires a lot of visualization, with the candle as a focus, whereas with the spell in Archer’s book, the empowered candle itself is the spell and once it is empowered, all you have to do is light it.
Like i said it all depends on the system your using. The above is a perfect example of that. For the system i am explore the ideal is to let it burn down.
Yep. Unless you are doing spirit work, candle magick and personal chaos sigils are just different interpretations of the same methodology, IMO. Good for chakra work, btw(candles).
A chaos sigil of the same intent as the focus of a candle magick spell is a nice touch. Release one with the other.
It is not the candle that is effective, it is your feeling of relief/satisfaction/contentment in relation to your outcome that is doing the job. I wouldn’t worry about it not burning all the way. If you’re still fussy, then let it burn for as long as is acceptable then put it out and light it again when you’re ready.