Ritual Candles - Questions & Answers About Use & Care

I am pleased to post this questions and answer discussion between myself & a remarkable customer, with her kind permission. i feel that the topics covered will be of benefit to all who use candles for prayer, ritual & meditation. I will post the original letter first, and continue forward to the resolution.

Letter One - Feb 24, 2009:

Ann,

I purchased two candles from you and they have been wonderful. We recently moved and the candles were accidently damaged. The protection candle has a crack through the center and the wealth candle has a crush damage on the top and bottom.

I am concerned because we are experiencing some "bad luck." My intuition is telling me I should purchase a new set, but want to properly "lay to rest" the original candles. What is the proper method for handling the damaged candles?

Thank you so much,

Donna Y

My Reply:

Hello Donna,

Thank you for your letter. I have given your question a good deal of thought.
I always encourage people to trust their intuition, so if you want to lay the damaged candles to rest, then, wrap them in white paper, or black silk & keep them in a drawer somewhere... sort of "saving" them.

However, my own first thought is to burn them. The energy of the moment is still in the wax, regardless of appearance. The most useful, empowered way to lay them to rest for me would be to burn them up.

I don't advise that you do the meditation with them, but rather just light the wick & burn each candle as a candle, enjoy the light & the fragrance. I am interested to know which method you prefer.

Wishing you continued success in all things,

Ann George

Letter Two - Mar 2, 2009:

Ann,

I thought you might like to hear how things have progressed. I started burning the candles just outright and things got worse. I wrapped them as instructed and placed them in a drawer and things have improved again.
I wanted to give it time to confirm my suspicions. Sometimes energies in the universe can overlap and you think one thing is the cause and it turns out it is something else so I try to make sure I am eliminating the proper negative influence.

Anyway, we have seen an improvement since "silencing" the candles and plan on purchasing our new ones tonight. Thank you for all your assistance. Any additional insight you might have would be helpful on how to best lay to rest our troubled candles.

Namaste,

Donna

My Reply - March 3, 2009


Hello Donna,

Thanks so much for your note. I find it very interesting that the damaged candles seem to correlate to episodes of "not luck".
I feel confident that the intent of the candle cannot be damaged by damage to the pillar itself. So, in looking for insights, I am reminded of a traditional mystical "rule" to protect ones sacred objets, power objects, relics & spiritual images; to care for them & to keep them in sacred space.

In my own experience, once, accidentally, and in an impatient hurry, I damaged a sacred object. The damage was minimal, but my distress, shame about my carelessness & concern for the karmic repercussions was profound & energeticallly quite loud.

I felt bad about the damage done for days. I did purifications practices within my tradition to energetically repent and atone for my error. This worked for me, as I have a traditional that offers specific practices for such times. As well, I felt better for taking an action.

So, the suggestion of putting the candles to rest in a protected space may be best. (This is a reference to wrapping each of them in black silk & keeping them in a cabinet, drawer, some place where special things go.) It would be an atonement, and perhaps, over time, they may be a useful offering to burn when another atonement time is at hand. Again, your intuition is usually the best insight.

It is also possible that other factors are at play and energies are overlapping that make the burning of these particular candles coincide with other disturbances.
Simultaneously, there are times when the purification of karmas manifest as "troubles" especially when we are at the end of them. This is also true in energy healings when there seems to be a marked increase in all the symptoms of a disease just before there is a complete healing.

I really do thank you for sharing these experiences with me, and look forward to other notes you care to send. I am quite sure this question & answer sort of dialogue will also be useful to others who include candle work in their spiritual journey.

May I have permission to post our conversation to my blog? I will use any "pen name" you like.. or link back to any blogs you may be publishing if that would benefit you.
We may also get other insights should visitors care to comment.

I look forward to your reply.

With best regards,

Ann George

Letter Three - March 4, 2009:

Ann,

I am honored that you want to post our discussion. I also agree that it may take time to learn the true cause of our disturbance. Our life is filled with change, excitement and stress currently. Your candles are extremely potent and their influence is so obvious that I instantly thought of them as a source for our "trouble" when they were damaged. I only burn the money candle occasionally because I am not able to keep up with the success it brings if i burn it too often.

I am relieved to have your insight and instruction about the intent of the magic vs. the pillar as the source for the power they have. I am also taking steps to protect our space and dispel any negative chi that may be collecting as a result of these changes in our life. Perhaps, there is a negative force wanting to harm our candles and from your words I know I should not give power to that force. For now, I will protect the candles, monitor closely and attempt to narrow down further what is happening.

I will keep you posted. I know in the past when I was dealing with a negative force it took sometime to find the source and I was mislead a couple of times into thinking that I had figured it out. As I write this my intuition is telling me that this is important and that I was not thinking about this as a cause and I am taking a step in the right direction. Before, I was merely focused on the result of the accident to our candles and not thinking enough about the cause.

I think when our new candle arrives that I will protect it between use until this is resolved. Since you have sold out of the protection candles, I will meditate with the protection candle I have for guidance as to whether I can use it the same way by protecting it between uses. Your thoughts on this would be most welcome.

Again, you have helped me greatly. I am so appreciative of your guidance. Thank you for being a strong positive force for the universe.

Blessings,

Donna

UPDATE - March 4, 2009 10:22:57 AM

Amazing, I just have to tell you very quickly what has transpired in the last few minutes of writing to you last. I called my husband to discuss our e-mails and to ask him to pick up a few items for me to perform my regular rituals.

Writing to you helped me to focus and channel myself to understand what is happening to us. So much has been revealed to me further by talking this through with him and I am seeing where I let myself be distracted from my rituals and am seeing the result in these disturbances.

We moved into a "new" house of a friend. I really like the neighborhood, my friend and the house. For a variety of reasons, I neglected and put off some of my normal rituals for cleansing and preparing our sacred space. I also ignored the warning signs I had been getting from my new neighbor who has become an instant friend but does not realize he's been trying to show me the dissonance in my new home caused by the previous tenants.

In particular, one person who used to live there was very set on sucking the life out of the house and money from the owner through various means. I am usually very intuned with harmful energy and can feel it as soon as I enter a home or meet someone. This person must not be inherently bad, but simply a drainer of success and financial well being. I allowed myself to be too distracted and I did not listen to my new home as I should have.

As soon as I got off the phone an order came in for my business and the house began speaking to me in small ways to say I am on the right track. I am going to order the housewarming candle and perform the rituals I should have performed to begin with properly. My inner being is just dancing with excitement.

I will let you know how things progress.

Namaste,

Donna