Last week, I wrote about how to properly decipher the energies of an eclipsed moon so that you can work with it magically. This week, I want to continue this discussion by sharing with you a simple, bare-bones candle ritual that can be adapted to work with both the upcoming lunar eclipse in Taurus and solar eclipse in Sagittarius.
Why is this ritual so bare-bones? Honestly, I want you to customize it to your needs. Eclipse magic is powerful and can be harnessed for nearly any type of magic – what type of magic do you need to cast right now? I want you to make this ritual your own – feel free to customize the oils and herbs in any fashion that suits your intentions – the only thing that I suggest keeping is the double action candle. This is because the double-action candle is representative of the push-pull element of the eclipse energy, as I detailed in my last post.
To Perform this Ritual You will Need:
1 Double Action Candle
A fire-safe dish or bowl
Oil to anoint your candle – olive or coconut is fine, or intention oil if you have it
1-3 Herbs appropriate to your Intention for each half of your candle
A two-part intention or two intentions
A sharp object to inscribe your candle
A crystal to wear or enspell (optional)
A spell pouch of the appropriate color to your intention (optional)
Now, let’s break down the basics of this spell.
For this spell, you will need a Double Action candle. If you don’t know what this is, a Double Action candle is a two-colored candle with each color taking up half of the candle. In this case, I suggest a candle that the top half of the candle is black and the bottom half of the candle is the color that matches your intention (red for love matters, green for money, etc.) This is different from a reversible candle where the black is on the bottom – we are not looking to bunt the candle for this ritual – if you are following this ritual as I have it written, the black color should be on the top of this candle.
You can find double-action candles widely across the internet and in most magical shops that sell a wide variety of candles. I suggest choosing one that is free-standing and big enough to write your petition onto but choose the candle that is right for you.
The reason that we are choosing a double-action candle that is black on top is that we are going to banish something impeding our progress towards our goal (represented by our petition) BEFORE bringing that goal into existence if that makes sense.
With the oils, you can go as simple or as complex as you wish. It is appropriate to use a separate oil for banishing on the black portion of this candle and for the intention portion if you have them but if you don’t, that is fine. There are so many options for this, use one which fits your practice. An all-purpose clearing/road opening styled oil such as Vanvan could be used to anoint both sides of the candle. You can anoint the banishing potion of the candle with a banishing oil or holy water. You could make your own intention oils. Use your intuition here.
For herbs, I wouldn’t go too heavy on the botanicals here as that tends to affect how a candle burns. Choose 1-3 herbs for the banishing side of your candle and 1-3 herbs for the intention side of your candle. Crush them to powder and lightly apply them to the candle after you have anointed with oil. Alternatively, you could keep your herbs whole and place them around your candle in a shape that fits your intention. When I’m using flowers or large herbs like star anise, I like to make mandalas with them around my candle to help to empower the spell.
I’m including here a list of some basic kitchen herbs that you may have already for a couple of basic intentions, mix and match as fits you and your practice:
- Banishing Kitchen Herbs: Black Pepper, Chili Peppers, Cloves, Garlic, Garden Sage
- Healing Kitchen Herbs: All Spice, Apple, Cinnamon, Lemonbalm, Mint
- Love Herbs: Apple, Basil, Cardamom, Cinnamon, Lemonbalm
- Money/Abundance Herbs: Basil, Cinnamon, Mint
Here I suggest either using herbs that you use regularly in your practice or that you cook with or eat regularly. This will create a connection between you and the botanicals in question which will strengthen your magic.
Additionally, you may consider empowering a gemstone appropriate to your intention with this spell. This could either be a piece of jewelry that you wear or something that you add to a spell pouch with the herbs that you used (for your intention, not the banishing). As you carry this with you throughout your days, you will be drawing your intention to yourself.
The Ritual Itself
!. Craft Your Double Intention
Here, the goal is to craft two intentions – one to banish whatever is holding you back from achieving your goal and one that is designed to bring your goal to you. If you are intending to write your intentions onto your free-standing candle, keep in mind any space constraints you may have. I am not going to tell you how to write your petition as that is something that is highly personal and should be relevant to your practice.
Additionally, consider if you want to use any sigils or bindrunes for either part of this. Because eclipse magic is wild and somewhat unpredictable, I would only suggest using symbols that you have a close working relationship with or ones that you have crafted yourself at this time. It would be fine to use dollar signs for money magic or hearts for love work but don’t seek out somebody else’s sigil for this purpose UNLESS you have worked with it before and know that it works reliably.
2. Craft your Sacred Space
Here, I would keep this simple and create a space that is comfortable for you. Pay close intention to fire safety during this ritual – this should always be true but especially during the lunar eclipse in Taurus when Mars will be opposed to Uranus. This isn’t the time to take chances.
3. Cleanse yourself and the items you will be using during this ritual
Here, lean into your own practice and cleanse/clear yourself and your items in the way that fits your practice. Though this is always good spiritual hygiene, it may prove especially important during the eclipses when energies tend to be high and people all over the place will be acting unpredictably out of reaction/emotion. You may not be able to drop all of the emotions of the day and that’s okay – you can use them to empower the banishing portion of your candle.
4. Carve your banishing intention into the black half of your double-action candle
Depending on your practice, you may want to write the banishing petition from the center of the candle outwards to represent that you are sending that energy away from yourself. Really think into this – put your emotions into what you need to banish and how it makes you feel. Try to release all of the ick of it into the black half of the candle while not touching/handling the intention half of the candle. (If you don’t do this perfectly that’s okay, just make an effort to focus on/touch the black half of the candle exclusively)
5. Anoint the black half of the candle
Even if you are using the same oil for both halves of this candle, I suggest anointing them at separate times from one another. This signals to your subconscious and to any spirits/energies/gods that you work with that the two halves of the candle have separate intentions. I suggest anointing this candle from the center out with the candle faced AWAY from you to show that you are looking to get rid of your intention.
After you do this, you can carefully wrap the black half of the candle in a cloth so that you can hold it while working with the intention half of the candle without touching the black wax or banishing oils. This is optional but will make it easier to continue to work with your candle.
6. Cleanse yourself again, as needed, and take time to re-center
This is very important – especially if you have put a lot of negative energy into the black portion of your candle. You want to get yourself into the mindset of what you want to receive now to put that energy into the positive/intention side of your candle. How you do this is personal and likely will vary depending on the type of work you are doing. What makes you feel the way that you want to feel when your spell manifests? You could use aromatherapy, meditation, music/sound, or really anything that you can think of.
7. Carve your positive intention into the Intention half of your double-action candle
Here, I would consider writing your intention from the center of the candle towards the bottom while holding the candle so that the bottom of the candle is faced towards yourself. This shows that your intention is designed to draw something in towards you.
8. Anoint the Intention side of your double action candle
Again, anoint towards you if that is a part of your practice. Pay careful attention to making sure that the intention oil does not touch the black half of your candle (even if you used the same oil for both sides). This is why a cloth comes in handy during this time. Again, don’t freak out if you don’t do this perfectly, just make an effort to treat both sides of your candle as separate from one another.
8. Add any powdered herbs to your candles
Again, stay conscious of the line between the sides of your candle while doing this. The positive intention powder should stay on the positive side of the candle and the banishing powder should stay on the banishing half of the candle. Stay conscious of the botanicals that you are using – wash your hands if you’ve been handling hot peppers or you’ll regret it later!
9. Affix your candle to your plate or bowl
If you are using a candle holder, you can obviously skip this step. Otherwise, I suggest doing this even for a larger free-standing candle. Any time that you are doing banishing work, you can expect your candles to be a bit…peppy…and this will be increased during the eclipses. You don’t want your candles to fall over and start a fire! Try to only touch one side of your candle so that you don’t transfer oils and herbs from one side to the other.
10. Light your candle
From here, the ritual is really up to you. Work your candle in a way that is appropriate to your practice. You may feel intuitively called to work your candle in a particular way, trust your gut here. Eclipses heighten intuition so pay attention to your thoughts and the way that the candle burns as it may give your insight into what actions need to be taken towards your desired goal.
Variations
There are as many ways to alter this ritual as there are magic users! Do what feels right for you.
You could use a glass “7-day” candle and light this candle on the lunar eclipse in Scorpio and then every day for the next 14 days with the intention of finishing the ritual on the solar eclipse in Sagittarius.
If you can’t find a double-action candle you could use two candles (one black and one colored for your intention) by lighting the black candle first and then lighting the intention candle after it burns out.
If you feel that a reversal is in order, you could use a reversal candle and bunt it rather than using one that is double-action.
You could add in supporting candles for the intention portion that you light once the black portion has burned through – or – alternatively, light a separate reversal candle that burns while the banishment portion of your candle is burning.
Additionally, since all of the botanicals that I mentioned above are kitchen herbs, you could cook with the same herbs used in your spell while your candle is burning and then eat your food to increase the potency of your magic!
If you do this spell, I would love to hear about how you make it your own!