You can feel the intensity of your spell as you release it. Allow your hands to touch or hover over your candle, letting the energy flow into it until it can take no more! Place your hands on the floor or wall and continue to release your leftover spell energy until you are empty of it. Now light your candle and get your spell

a-manifesting. Depending on the spell, I light the candle before I energize and release the spell, sometimes after. 

~ Page 150 Coventry Magic with Candles, Oils and Herbs by Jacki Smith

“How do I charge my candle” is a question I frequently get and although the technique is ever variable, the outcome is always the same; “with your intent”.

In Coventry Magic I talk about the types of magic and how they work to creating and empowering your intent.  Each technique speaks to a different part of your psyche and spiritual connection to the divine.  I tend to pick the technique that best speaks to my block around the situation; for instance if I need to let go of control and just feel the intent I go for wild magic or earth magic.   If I need to create a spiritual type of muscle memory I use intentional magic and speak it over and over again.  If I need to create structure I will use ritual magic and if I am looking for divine assistance (basically needing help getting out of my own way) I use sympathetic or earth magic.

When you charge your candle with your intent you can make it as complicated or as simple as you want;  I have to admit, 70% of the time I hold the candle in my hands, think about what I need the energy for and visualize the need and the fulfillment of the need and let all of that flow through my hands and into the candle.  I know when the candle is full of my intent because the image of the goal starts to fade and my eyes start to hurt from squeezing them shut tight. 

Once the candle is filled with my intent I thank it in advance for working!  Why not, it works in social settings, it can work in magic.

Keep it magic and keep it lit!

Jacki Smith

Read more: http://www.keepitmagic.com/index.php/en/media/articles/coventry-magic/219-charging-your-candle.html

In Coventry Magic, “Chapter 6 – Do we know how to live?” – I talk about Seven Steps to a Personal Magical Evolution.   Kind of sounds miraculous doesn’t it!  It is actually and you are the person creating the miracle.   You are the one doing the work, digging deep into the well of your fears and changing how you energetically deal with life.  When you do this, you have evolved to the next step.

If nothing is wrong and you love every aspect of your life, STOP READING.  Move on, have a bon-bon, watch some telly , visit a friend or go running.  If you feel perfect then you are free from any more spiritual work.   If you feel things could improve, maybe you could stop sabotaging yourself with bon-bons and TV, then maybe there is something below for you to glean.  

Some of the steps you may have already conquered and mastered.  Some of the steps will be completed with a simple thought or an AH-HA!  Some of the steps  will seem insurmountable, impossible out and out-right annoying.  You may want to avoid some because you think they are stupid and unnecessary. 

They are all necessary and you will repeat some over and over again to get to the soul healing that can be found there.  It‘s OK.  Even I think the steps are stupid sometimes and I wrote them.   When I think they are stupid or unnecessary or too hard to deal with then I know they are the ones I need to focus on.   They are the ones who are telling me that these are not the droids I am looking for so move in.  You are an expert at playing mind games with yourself – avoiding the hard stuff and feeling “better than thou” when you hit the easy button on the ones you have already mastered.  No one wants to deal with the tough stuff, but this is where you get the biggest reward, the most bang for your spiritual buck.

These seven steps are inspired by the 7 steps that are in the Coventry Magic book by.  These steps help you understand how to LIVE and navigate your way through the traps you lay for yourself.

Do these steps one at a time, one candle at a time and allow yourself to really experience the change in the way you conduct your life.  The faster you go through them, the faster this change will fall apart in the day to day of your life – so don’t rush it!

1.       Get comfortable in your own skin – Getting into the Here and Now

When you live in the past and define yourself by your mistakes it makes it impossible to move forward into what you want.  When you live in the future, where your life will begin once you achieve your goals, you never give yourself permission to be who you are today.  It is the person today that is doing all the work and facing all the fears.   Love today’s person because you are amazing!  You have weathered many storms and braved many foes.  You have many accomplishments and many wins so celebrate who you are today.

Stability Self Esteem Blessed Herbal Candle

Light the Stability candle on your altar or in your sacred space.  Sit comfortably and write out every good think you know about yourself.  Now write out every good thing you have heard about yourself whether you believed them or felt they were genuine or not.  Flip the page over and write out every fear you have in being this amazing person – everything that stops you.    

Write over the top of the fear list all the great things you already know about yourself from the other side of your paper.  You are now surrounded by your amazing-ness. 

Take these next few days, as you burn your candle down for several hour each day, to contemplate who you are today and what you like about this person.   As you think about it, write down the lessons that you have learned in life that have shaped the amazing person you are today and thank the universe for the lesson and for the conclusion of the lesson.

2.       Let go of Limiting Beliefs – Forgiving your past mistakes

We all make mistakes; they are part of being human.    Look at your past mistakes as little reminders that you are always learning.  Embrace those past mistakes and use them as the catalyst and the inspiration to clear the blocks you are experiencing now.    

Sometimes you need to uncover these mistakes before you can forgive yourself and let them go.  This is what makes this step so crucial.  Take this time to let the lies that your fears and criticisms tell you come forward so you can release them.

Heart Blessed Herbal Candle

This one may be a bit tough, but you can do it!  Light the Heart Candle and tell it out loud all the big mistakes you have made that brought you to this place.   Tell it the stories of you as a kid and what events brought you here.  

For several days, as you speak out loud the story, speak out loud that you forgive yourself and why.  Really tell yourself how you understand your motivation and how you have a different perspective now.  Forgive yourself you deserve the love.

Do yourself a favor and every day as you forgive yourself, jump to #3 and do that one too.  #2 and #3 are very effective when done together.

3.       Clear Negative Patterns – Cleansing them as you let go

You can set a new goal, but if you keep looking at them through the lens of your negative beliefs and patterns, you will continually sabotage yourself.  No matter what the motivation you have, you have to change the definition you have of yourself and clear habit before you see serious progress.

You can scrape up the crud of old beliefs, bring them to the surface, forgive yourself, but if you never clear them away, you just tread them right back into you.   Clearing the negative pattern will help you cleanse that old way of reacting from you.

Spiritual Cleansing Blessed Herbal Candle

After you spill your guts to the Heart candle, take the Spiritual Cleansing candle and pass it over your entire aura.   Say out loud, “I clear myself of the negative patterns that were born from those fears and beliefs that I have released.  “

Place the candle in its holder light it and watch as the energy it collected burns off.   Let the candle burn for at least three hours, or for as long and you are in attendance of it.   

4.       Write your own Ticket – Imagine your ideal Situation

There is a time, past or future where you are living within your ideal.  Health, prosperity, love, etc. there is a time that you can tap into and invoke that vibration into your current body.   If you were to envision this time, what would it look like.  Visualize and record what you see and feel here.  This is you painting a picture that you will now use to define you.   

If you never ask for it, you will never get it!  If you don’t know where you are going, you will never get there!  Writing your own ticket is like pin pointing a destination on the map and plotting out your course to get there.

Vision Quest Blessed Herbal Candle

In your sacred space, sit comfortable with a pen and paper next to you, light the Vision Quest candle, close your eyes and let yourself relax into a vision of you in perfect balance, free of the sabotage you are currently experiencing.

Paint that picture in your mind and then bring a copy of that self into the here and now, allowing it to sink into your aura and energy.   

Write down all of your observations of this more balanced self and hang onto that paper to compare to later.   

Do this everyday to affirm this connection to your new, healthy and integrated goal.

5.       Clear your Path  - Move forward into manifesting  your ideal

It’s ok to stumble along the way.  There is an old Chinese saying that if you get up one more time than you fall, you will be successful.   This is the manifestation of that saying.  Just start moving forward.  Whether it is a new way of seeing yourself, eating, spending your money, etc, start doing it.

When you behave in a different way, they world will react.  Sometimes it is to accommodate this new you, but others in your world will feel threatened so you will need to assess their value in your life.  People will step in your way and you will allow them to in a last ditch effort to prove that your fears really are true. 

Needed Changes Blessed Herbal Candle

Light the Needed Changes candle, get comfortable and list out all the things that seem to be standing in your way and are outside of your control.   This may be your job, living situation, toxic person in your life, work schedule, etc. 

Look at these blocks one at a time from a new perspective.  Start with the easiest and ask, what can I change or adjust to change this block in my life.  Fantasize about it, get silly and unreal and from that a good and practical answer will come.   Once you get a clear picture of your solution, write it down and tuck it away until you see the solution manifest. 

6.       Be open to receive – Empty out the fear and fill it with your ideal

Do you really want what you are manifesting?  Starting with that question is a great way to opening your heart to receiving this gift you are giving yourself.   As you open your heart you will find where you have hidden away the disappointments, fears and hurts that can put a halt to your progress.  If you really want this goal that you are manifesting, opening your heart will help empty it of that sabotaging energy and fill you up with a love and passion for what you are going for.

Inner Balance Blessed Herbal Candle

Light your candle, get comfortable and stare at the flame.  Focus on opening up your heart and letting the pain that was tucked into the corners come out.  Let yourself have a good cry or get pissed and yell, or both.  You may even want to put on some moody music to let yourself unleash the torrent of emotions.   

 When you have cried it out, visualize your heart filling with balance, self love and all the things you are working on manifesting. 

Do this every day until you have no more tears to cry or no more anger to spurt.

7.       Actualize your magic – Healing, gratitude and teaching others.

You begin to actualize or see the conclusion of your magic when you help others see it in themselves.   You start to become this new you that you have defined when you are grateful for the little wins that get you there.  You heal this crisis on a soul level when you blend your old life into the new life.  It is all done in baby steps and you have to celebrate each one along the way.

Inspiration Blessed Herbal Candles

This is it! Your goals are manifesting and you need to share your miracle with others.  Light your candle and get inspired as to how you will do it.   You may just spread the love with random acts of kindness.  You may help someone else through their process.  Maybe you will write about it.  Maybe you will donate to charity.  Get inspired and then inspire others – this is magic taking root!

Read more: http://www.keepitmagic.com/index.php/en/media/articles/coventry-magic/209-seven-steps-to-ending-personal-sabotage.html