How to Craft Prosperity

Candle Magic - a relatively simple, yet potent practice within witchcraft. A lot of witches taking their first steps along our mystical journey discover candle magic early on (you don't have to be, or refer to yourself as a witch to practice magical arts). The practice of candle magic is widespread, holding its roots in cultures across the globe, while maintaining a strong presence within spiritual communities today.

Within candle magic, some aspects should be considered and manipulated in order to achieve desired results, including: Colour, Symbolism, Personal articles (if working magic to benefit yourself), Items that correspond with the working you are performing, Time and Mental State. Links to online sources will be provided for further reading. In terms of which type of candle you should use for the spell, pick whichever you are drawn to. Some prefer tea lights, I like to use taper candles.

So, to break that down a bit, I'll start with colour. The colour of your candle is a pretty important factor when performing rituals of this nature. Colours correspond to energies, and if you're unsure of which will work best for you, white candles can be used in the place of any colour, as long as your intent is strongly enforced. For prosperity, you want to think about which areas of your life you wish to enhance, or draw prosperity towards. There are thousands of online sources, as well as written articles, detailing colour correspondences in terms of magical use for you to research; if you wish to adapt this spell (which I always recommend as every spell should be tailored to the practitioner to achieve a more personal outcome). However, as a general rule, the colour green is associated with pursuits of luck, prosperity, wealth and abundance.

Symbolism is often used in witchcraft as a sort of magnet, in order to attract certain energies towards a target. For me, the whole idea of a spell is the manipulation of energy to achieve a desired result. That said, you can use symbolism in this candle magic ritual by carving and charging. For personal results, you can engrave any symbols that connote your understanding of prosperity, and/or the areas of your life you wish to succeed in. Once carved, you want to sit in a meditative state and focus on pushing your intent into the symbol. I like working with sigils, especially sigils formed through the use of a magic square. So magic squares and sigils are a whole story in themselves, and will need a much more detailed explanation. However, in short and basic terms, magic squares are rows of one digit numbers, corresponding to a certain planet or celestial body, which makes up a grid or square. In numerology, numbers are assigned corresponding letters, and so you can use these numbers, within the squares, to map out words in relation to your craft. So, for example, if you wish to attract wealth into your life, you would map the word 'wealth' (or something to that effect) out on the square of Jupiter (planetary ruler of luck among other things) and draw the symbol that the mapped- out word gives, creating your sigil of wealth. I know that is a tragic and poor explanation of sigils and magic squares, however, as I said before this topic will require a whole article of its own, but if you wish to use sigils in this ritual I urge you to research this practice.

Personal articles may sound like a vague and obscure term, however it is very simple and very important. You want to imbue your candle with as much personal energies as you can, as this anchors the spell to the caster. You may be familiar with the term 'Voodoo Doll', in which a doll is filled with personal items of a target (such as hair, nail clippings, jewellery etc.), and this candle magic ritual works within the same ideology. Typically, I rub my own saliva into the candle, focusing on the intent of my spell while doing so. Next, I tie a strand of my hair around the candle, knotted three times, as three is a number I find success working with. You can tailor this to suit what feels right for you, as witchcraft is a personal art, and should be performed instinctively, not through strict rule or dogma. No two witches work exactly the same, no two witches follow the same path, and not all magical practitioners are witches. However, once again, that is a whole different kettle of fish. The purpose of using personal articles is to develop a psychic link between your spell and your physical life, you're sending your intent into the cosmos for it to be manifested into your conscious life, which is why personal articles are vital. If this spell is being performed on behalf of somebody else, you want to use articles belonging to the target. Please note, it is unethical to perform a magical working on behalf of somebody else without permission, and may generate bad karma. A common belief among spiritual people is "What you send out comes back times three", and so if you perform any magical working, make sure it is for the right reasons, and it harm none, if you wish to generate positivity in your life.

Items that enhance your spell can come in the form of virtually anything that corresponds with the working at hand, and the generating of energy. A lot of witches and other practitioners use alters to perform their workings on. Alters, in basic terms, are typically a set-up of crystals, incense, candles, charged water, herbs and many other items personal to the practitioner, and relative to the workings at hand. I hope to write a story on the use and set up of alters in the future, however if you wish to know more in the meantime the information you can find online and in written text is endless. For this spell, in terms of crystals, I would recommend using citrine, aventurine and lemon quartz. You don't require any of these crystals, however their energies will aid the flow of the spell. Citrine is associated with prosperity as it helps achieve your intentions, as well as bringing creative abundance and motivation. Aventurine has long been associated with wealth, and bringing new opportunities to manifest prosperity into our lives. Finally, lemon quartz is known to bring optimism, creativity and success. This crystal is often used in prosperity workings as it is thought to increase luck in pursuits of career and financial gain. Incense can be used to bring about the right kind of atmosphere, cleanse the space of working, and change the vibrations of your environment to align with the working being performed. I would recommend using cinnamon incense as it is strongly associated with prosperity. You can also apply cinnamon essential oil to your candle to strengthen the intent of your spell. I could detail a very large list of items that can be used to enhance your craft, however crystals, incense and a wealth of candles (aside from your spell candle) are enough to generate the right intentions and energies.

Timing is a fickle area of witchcraft, one which can be interpreted individually by the practitioner. That said, the general aspects of timing within spell work come in the form of moon phase, time of day, day of the week, month of the year and astrological influences. For this spell, I recommend working under a New Moon. The New Moon is a time of beginning new projects, projecting your goals for the coming moon cycle, manifesting the means to progress towards your goals and general new beginnings. Day time and night time are both apt times for performing this working, and there are arguments supporting both in terms of success, however, personally, I like to practice my craft at night time. The days of the week are associated with different planets and deities from a range of cultures, and in my experience, Thursday is the best day to attempt spells for prosperity. Thursday is associated with the planet and god Jupiter. Jupiter brings good fortune to pursuits of luck and prosperity, as mentioned earlier. The month of the year isn't vastly important, but I have found that spells linked with prosperity work well around spring time, when our lives are awakened from slumber and bursting with abundance (this applies as our spiritual and physical lives are aligned with the natural world). Astrological influence can be a tricky topic for people who aren't experienced with spell craft, but the thing to remember is we use the energies emitted by celestial bodies to power our spells. From this you can study the sky and use the passing of Jupiter (not completely necessary) or the sun/moon to charge your spell.

Mental State is arguably the most important factor to master when performing a spell or ritual. Many magical practitioners spend a lot of time aligning, charging and grounding their chakras (spiritual energy centres located within the body). This does vastly improve results of spellwork and I will write a more in depth description of chakras and how to work with them in the future. For the purpose of this spell, you want to achieve a meditative state. I suggest sitting in the place you're going to perform your spell (which should be quiet and away from any possible interference, including mobile phones). Close your eyes, take a deep breath in through the nose, feel your stomach inflate as you deeply inhale. After 4-6 seconds (or whenever feels comfortable for you) release through your mouth. Repeat this several times until you begin to feel your mind and body relax. Expel all thoughts from your mind, when you feel intrusive thoughts pushing through tell yourself "I acknowledge this thought, but I will think about it later" and let it slip away. Once a tranquil state has been reached, continuing the breathing steps, visualise how you hope the spell will work. What kind of prosperity are you hoping to attract? How will you benefit from this prosperity? Visualise where you see yourself once the spell has taken root. When you feel that you have reached an appropriate mental state, you can begin the ritual.

Preparation

Firstly, you want to make sure you have everything you need for the spell ready and waiting for you in your place of working. If you are an experienced witch/practitioner, you will most likely have everything already set up on your altar. If you are just trying something new, it's a good idea to have everything set up in the space you will be working and waiting for you. Some people may prefer to engrave candles and charge items during the ritual, others will have already done these steps in advance. I can't stress enough the importance of doing what feels right for you.

Before conducting your spell, you may wish to take a ritual bath. Ritual bathing rids us of negative energies, and aligns our vibrations and intentions with the working at hand. A ritual bath is constructed of herbs, salt and anything you want to be in accordance with for the spell ahead. During the bath, you will want to prepare your mental state, making it easier to enter this state immediately before the spell.

Cleansing the space that you are going to be working in isn't vital, but is very effective. This can be done in a number of ways, but for beginners or anyone who isn't entirely sure what to do, I would suggest using the incense you have selected for the spell, waving the smoke around the area you will be working in, visualising all negativity and energies which do not serve you departing from the space. You may wish to vocalise your intent, and ask that any unwanted energies leave now.

Casting a circle is a sacred time for many witches, and should be developed throughout your journey as a spiritual practitioner. The circle is an energetic boundary, protecting you, and your spell, from interference on the part of mischievous energies. It is the place between dimensions, in which you can project your energies into the universe for manifestation within your reality. There is no dead-set way in which this should be performed, it should feel natural to you. One way in which you might want to cast your circle is as follows: Sit in your meditative state, visualise a flow of white light exerting from your body. Project this white light into a bubble around you, make it strong, let it radiate through everything within the circle, and know that it won't allow any unwanted energies to penetrate it. This is a basic way of casting a circle, but for the purpose of this spell, very effective. As I said before, you should work on your own circle casting methods and allow your intuition to guide you on its development.

Method

After casting your circle, you don't want to leave until after the spell is complete. Making sure you have everything waiting for you within the sacred space is essential.

To begin, you may wish to evoke the four elements, and any deities you like working with. If this all sounds completely supernatural and far-fetched to you, you may prefer to sit quietly in your meditative state, visualising the energy from your set up of crystals and candles pouring into your life force, waiting to be exerted into the form of a spell. Evoking the four elements, in a basic way, goes as follows: Facing the Northern direction from within your circle, call out to the spirits and energies of earth. Invite them into your circle, ask that they lend their energy to this working and aid its progress. Facing East, call out to the spirits and energies of air, again, asking that they lend their energy and aid the progress of your spell. Facing South now, evoke the energies and spirits of fire, in the same fashion as before. Finally, following the same steps, now facing west, evoke the spirits and energies of water. Note: A lot of witches like to start with air, moving to fire, then water and lastly earth. If that works better for you, go for it. The importance of evoking the elements isn't some whimsical fantasy where an earthly troll will show up on your alter, dishing out some energy while a mermaid swoops in through your water source. Its all about the energies associated with these elements, and how these energies can enhance your spell work. It is good practice to have physical representations of the elements in the points of the circle you are calling them from. For earth, I like to use a small pot of soil, mixed in with salt and other herbs I have used in previous spells. For air I use incense, feathers are also a nice touch. For fire, I use one big candle, with smaller candles I have used in prior spells melted into its wax. For water I have a bottle of water I collected from a Roman geothermal pagan worship site which happened to have a stream of water running through. It's also a nice touch to collect rainwater to use as representation, as this is thoroughly charged with energies residing in the sky.

After evoking the elements and any deities you wish to work with, if you haven't already, now is the time to charge your items and symbols. Crystals are naturally charged in many different ways, one common method is to leave them out in a bed of soil under the full moon, or any moon phase you wish to harness the power of. Of course, this will have to be performed in advance. With your spell candle, you want to focus on the symbols you have engraved. If you've used a sigil of Jupiter for prosperity, you should visualise the planetary energies flowing down and into the symbol. You want to visualise your intentions of the spell, and concentrate that energy into your candle. As bizarre and crazy as you might feel, speaking to the candle is always a good thing. Energy travels on waves - sound waves are a perfect medium. Tell your candle your intentions, tell your candle what you wish to achieve and that you're imbuing it with the energies of prosperity.

Now, charging complete, energies raised and feeling fabulous, light your candle. As it slowly burns, visualise all of the energy you have poured into the candle ascending through the flame, up into the ether. You can visualise your energies raining down on the areas of your life you are hoping to achieve prosperity. Job interview? Imagine the energies swirling through your (hopefully) new place of work, making the thought of you working there irresistible to the employer. After a good amount of time, when you feel is right, stub the candle out with your thumb and forefinger. Every night, light the candle and repeat these visualisations until the candle is no more.

Closing your ritual, and the circle is the next important step. Firstly, thank all of the energies you have worked with. Tell them they're free to return to where they have come from, and that you are grateful for their help. To close the circle, you can visualise the energies you projected outwards into your energetic barrier returning back into you, and flowing down back into the earth. Alternatively, you can walk around the perimeter of your circle, ringing a bell and visualising the energy dissipating back into the earth.

One of the most important things to remember when spell casting is you MUST act in accordance with the working you have performed to reach the desired outcome. For example, if you are performing this spell in the hope of getting a job, you can't get the job if you haven't applied. This spell will open opportunities for you, and increase your likelihood of success in these pursuits, but it won't do everything for you. After performing this ritual, you may notice (if you are hoping to get a job, again for example) that a new job has been advertised, in the areas in which your experience lies. A friend may send a job application your way, completely out of the blue. It is now up to you to act on these opportunities. Furthermore, you may apply for this job, only to be declined. Don't spit your dummy out at this point, this is a sign that you should consider a different route. The universe never gives us an experience if there isn't something to be gained from it. When you are shown obstacles down one path, it is only to make you realise where you should be, and how to get there.

Further Reading

Candle Colours

Magic Squares and Sigils