Sacred Candlelight
There are many ways you can use your handmade candles as a sacred art. For example, you can create a sacred space in your home to go to whenever the world is too much with you — to refresh your spiritual energies for the tasks ahead, to rest, to meditate, to reflect, to be silent and alone. Your handmade candles can be the perfect accompaniment for such a sacred space where you can use them to put you in touch with your most peaceful center. By surrounding yourself with candlelight from candles of your own making, you connect with your inner self in a deep and significant way. To further personalize the candles you might use on such occasions, you can choose different colors and scents to accommodate specific spiritual needs and purposes. (We'll give you more information on the specifics later on. The significance of color in candles is discussed in detail in Chapter 4. Study the meanings of the various colors before you make special candles for ritual purposes.)
Creating Daily Life Rituals with CandlemakingAsk yourself these questions:
What rituals do I use for ordinary everyday life? These may include how you prepare yourself for bed, for work, for dinner, for play or recreation.
What rituals do I observe as part of my spiritual practice? These may include churchgoing or any worshipful practice carried on through an outside or public forum, or purely private activity such as doing yoga, meditating, or praying.
Am I fully aware of my private rituals?
What do the rituals I use mean to me?
What connections do I make through ritual?
Do I want to include more rituals in my everyday activities?
Does ritual serve to satisfy a need in me?
Would I enjoy designing my own rituals for myself and my family?
How can I integrate my candlemaking into my ritual observances?
Make a list of how you now use candles in ritual, and then add all the ways you can think of to use them more.
Using Candles in RitualHere are some suggestions for incorporating rituals using candles into your daily life:
Create a welcoming ritual for any new possession, especially an important one, by making a candle in its honor. Burn the candle every day for a week and say a blessing while the candle burns.
Create a disposing ritual to “bury the dead” — things in your household that broke or that you need to give up for any reason — by making a special candle to honor them and their past usefulness. Japanese Buddhists observe “Needle Memorial Day,” to honor all the needles that have been “killed in action,” or worn out, during the year. As you dispose of such an object, burn the candle while you give thanks to the object for its service.
Make a candle to prepare you for each day's work. Light it and while it burns, bless your workspace and all the equipment it contains. Thank them for being a part of your life and work.
Make a special candle to honor a visit to any site that is spiritually meaningful, such as a cemetery, a local or national memorial site, or a natural setting that appeals to you spiritually. Make a pilgrimage to the site and burn the candle there. (Always take due caution with fire and be sure to extinguish your candle properly after each use.)
Invite others to participate with you in creating candles for a ritual to honor common space, such as a park or playground.
Make special candles to celebrate earth's seasons. Burn the candles on the spring and fall equinoxes and on the summer and winter solstices.
Make moon candles for the phases of the moon, and especially the new moon and full moon, to ritually honor the earth and her moon.
Discover your own moon sign and make a special white candle to burn on the days the moon occupies the same sign in which it appeared at your birth.
Free astrological charts are available on the Web at
