A Guide for Choosing Candle Colors
Witches use candles as a simple, effective and flexible tool for adding focus and energy to our spells.
Candles can be inscribed with runes, sigils, words, names, and dressed with oils and herbs.
Choose a candle color associated with the magical effect you are seeking just as you would choose a specific day, hour, or moon phase. Some spells may call for candles of two different colors and some may call for several different colors.
White is a good all-purpose candle. White represents all colors, if you need to work a spell and do not have the color you normally use, substitute white. Protection, purification, positive outcomes, spirituality, peace, truth, stop gossip, cleansing self and home, consecration, balance, order, truth, sincerity, happiness, moon magic.
Black candles are used to banish things, people that are negative, grounding, protection, complete change, breaking bad habits, healing diseases, invisibility, reversing your and others spells, crossing and uncrossing, hexing and unhexing, black magic, binding.
Blue Candles are used for the Element of Water, communication, focus, organization, truth, healing, sleep, meditation, patience, sincerity, forgiveness, acceptance change, increase flexibility, inspiration, tranquility, peace, quietness, serenity, banishing anger, peaceful home.
Brown candles are used for animal magic and healing, general spells for animals, home blessing, stability, locating lost objects, nature, real estate, construction, food, solidity, foundation.
Green candles are used for the Element of Earth, money, personal growth, improve finances, grow prosperity, improve employment situations, grow success, personal business growth, luck, fertility, growth, abundance, gain acceptance, harmony, gardening, tree and plant magic, weather magic, create or dispel envy and jealousy.
Orange candles are used for strength, power, attraction, luck, to promote winning, court success, creativity, opportunity, ambition, speed, courage, energy, justice, career, business goals, professional growth.
Pink candles are used for loving friendships, kindness toward another, compassion, emotional healing, emotional unions, partnership, domestic harmony, protection of children, nurturing, over all good will .
Purple candles are used for power, victory, increase influence, ambition, contacting spirits, spiritual guidance, increase intuition, increase psychic abilities, increase will power, independence, justice, channeling, divination, dreams, psychic energy, astral energy and travel, increase occult knowledge.
Red candles are used for the Element of Fire, passion, heat, lust, assertiveness, competitiveness, strength, vigor, sexual love, attraction, courage, creating conflict, binding, creating or dispelling anger, creating or dispelling hatred.
Yellow candles are used for the Element of Air, travel, intelligence and mental acuity, increase charm, personal charisma, memory, enhance study, increase learning, open the mind, break mental blocks, imagination, spoken or written eloquence, confidence, persuasion.
Trust your instincts, believe in your magic and have fun.
Blessed Be
We get a lot of questions about cleansing,protecting and consecrating with sacred smoke at the shop. This is our interpretation of the why, whens and hows.
Why
Saining or censing is the practice of cleansing yourself, a place, a space, or an object with the smoke from herbs or resins and can be a spiritual act associated with Shamanic and Pagan practices; however, it does not require any specific religious belief. Like all magical workings it is effective because of your focused intentions.
When
There are no hard and fast rules. Most customers say that something does not "feel right" about the space they are considering saining. Saining is used to remove the energy that feels negative and bring in energies that feel positive. The most common situations that benefit from saining are:
How do I sain a space?
Clean your space. Sweep and mop the floors, throw out the garbage, and straighten your belongings. Dirt and physical clutter trap negative energy and will make it harder to feel the effects of your saining.
As you do with other magical workings gather your supplies:
A vessel for burning the herbal bundle. Pots or cauldrons are useful for holding burning bundles and for burning loose herbs or individual leaves.
You can sain with any fragrant smoke, including conventional incense.
A source of fire such as a long match or candle.
A tool for fanning the smoke is helpful if you need to cover a large area. Feathers and fans direct the smoke where you want it to go and traditionally represent the element of Air.
Open the windows and doors so the energy you are clearing has a way to escape.
Set your desired intention. What would you like to cleanse from your space?
Speak your intention aloud and repeat aloud as you sain the space. “I let go and release what no longer serves me."
Light the source of smoke.( Watch out for your smoke alarms) Hold the bundle at a 45-degree angle over your vessel, light it using your match or candle, let it burn for about 20 seconds, blow out the flame when you see orange embers on one end(watch for sparks as you blow it out) the smoke will then billow up.
It is common to have to relight your bundle several times during the process. You do not have to use the entire bundle for your work to be effective and many choose to break off a piece of leaf and burn only that part of the bundle.
You may want to begin by cleansing yourself first. Starting at your feet & working your way up or starting at your head & working you way down( whichever feels right to you) wave the smoke around your body visualizing the smoke removing any negative energies and returning them to the earth to be cleansed. Now take a deep breath or two and feel yourself firmly planted on the ground.
Pick a starting point. The front door, the north facing side of the space, wherever feels right to you and start walking counterclockwise.
Slowly walk around your space allowing the smoke to waft around. Using your tool or you hand guide the smoke toward the open windows and doors.
Pay attention to doorways, hallways, corners, mirrors, and technology letting the smoke waft over the area.
When you have returned to the place you started extinguishing the bundle by rubbing it out in your vessel.
Speak and affirmation that your work is done, “So mote it be”.
Blessed Be
We get a lot of questions at the shop about how to choose a tarot or oracle deck. The simple answer is there is no right or wrong way to choose a deck. We encourage our customers to pick a deck based on the images that speak to them. The deck you love to look at will be the deck that you love to read.
Tarot Deck or Oracle Deck
One type of deck is not better than the other they are simply different. Tarot cards are a form of divination that have ancient origins while Oracle Decks are a modern form of divination.
Tarot Decks
Tarot cards are said to be first designed in 15th century Italy. The oldest complete tarot deck is the Sola Busca printed in 1491, 50 years after the Visconti-Sforza tarot was created for the Duke of Milan’s family around 1440. Many historians speculate there origins are even older.
If you choose a deck titled “tarot” you are picking a deck that has a historically specific structure, common meanings, and usually 78 cards.
Major Arcana has 22 cards relating to major events, life lessons and archetypal themes.
Minor Arcana has 56 cards Page, Knight, Queen, and King (known as the Court Cards) and Ace through 10 (known as the Pip Cards).
The Tarot is divided into four different suits named Cups (Chalice), Pentacles (Coins), Wands and Swords.
Modern card decks are the descendants of tarot cards. Court Cards are King, Queen, and Jack, Hearts are cups, Pentacles are spades, Wands are clubs and Swords are diamonds.
Tarot cards are associated with specific traditional spreads, a method that the reader uses to physically place the cards on the table and the order they use to read the cards meanings. There are many different spreads such as the 10 card Celtic Cross, the 7-card horseshoe, 5 card, 3 card etc.
Tarot cards are associated with specific meanings for each card and are similar in all tarot decks with variations that can be unique to the author and artist that created the deck. We tell our customers if you learn to read the Rider-Waite deck then you will be able to read any other tarot deck.
Tarot Cards are a good choice if you like details and really want to learn a historical form of divination.
Oracle Cards
Oracle cards became popular in the 1900's with the creation of the Lenormand Oracle Cards in Europe. Oracle cards returned to popularity in the 1970’s with the “new age” spiritual movement.
When you choose a deck titled Oracle you are picking a deck that has an “interpretive” structure where themes and meanings are created by the author of the deck and are open to your own personal interpretation.
Oracle cards may have any number of cards in a deck ,typically most decks have between 36 to 64 cards.
Oracle cards do not usually have suits, may have the meaning of the card printed onto the card, and have a guidebook to offer the author’s interpretation of that deck of cards. Interpretations may vary with each deck.
Oracle cards can be used in a variety of ways such as pulling a card a day, week, or a month for personal guidance, to receive personal affirmations, or as a divination system for readings for yourself and others.
Oracle cards are usually easier to learn and are a good choice for beginners who want a quick and simple way to give themselves a reading that does not require the practice and mastery of Tarot cards.
Follow your intuition when choosing a deck, try both because you can never have too many decks of cards, and have fun with your divination.
Blessed Be!
