Why Planetary Candles?

The first answer is that I love candles, I love creating custom scents, and I love astrology. My creativity needs bounds, and the 7 traditional planets come with both a reasonable scope for a collection and millennia of correspondences to herbs, flowers and trees.

The second answer is a little more mystical. Planets are big spirits, and magical folks have been trying to connect with them for a very long time; you can look at complicated rituals from the Arbatel for examples. Planetary magic is an old thing, and whether you are looking to petition the spirits, try some remediation or just align yourself with the energy, candles often play a part.

If you want Serious Mojo, there are folks out there who build talismans and very precisely blessed candles and other goods. This is Hard Work and is often expensive.

If you have a tiny budget, you can go to the local dollar store, pick up an appropriately colored prayer candle, and work from there.

I wanted something in the middle, and something that fit into my ‘background magic’ practices. Trying to bring more Venus into your life? Light the Venus candle, say a prayer or some affirmations, and go about your day. Let the candle burn for a few hours and fill your space with light and scent, keeping your intentions in the back of your mind and helping to empower you with whatever you’re doing. If you want a little extra oomph, reserve this work for that planet’s day, or look up ‘planetary hours’ and start the burn at that time.

FAQ

Are these candles specially consecrated? Nope. I don’t know your practice or purpose. If you want consecrated candles and aren’t sure how to do it, you can message me and we can work something out. I’ll have an article up eventually on how to do this yourself, along with what a sample ‘background magic’ burn would look like.

What about shorter burns? Don’t do that. It’ll hurt the candle, and will feel disrespectful. If you need a shorter burn time, use a candle with a smaller diameter. I’ll have those available soon.

Why aren’t your candles topped with crystals and herbs? Short answer: I’m a Virgo. Medium answer: My insurance won’t cover me for candles outside of ASTM standards, and I can’t afford to pay for someone’s house. Long answer: herbs can catch fire, making the flame much taller and the container much hotter. Some rocks explode from extra heat. I would be Very Anxious selling potential firebombs, even if the likelihood of something bad happening was low. Now, if you want to sprinkle herbs on your own candle that you’ve purchased, that’s out of my hands. Just read up on fire safety.

What about the outer planets, the modern ones? They’re not part of my practice, and since they’re modern they don’t have the same connection to scented items attached to them. I’m working on adding them to my collection, but since I’m having to do a lot of research and testing outside of my tradition, expect them to come online one by one over the next 6 months.

What about Zodiac or other stellar candles? There are a lot of ideas but limited time! The Zodiac is a big collection, so I’ll need to release those in chunks. I also want to look at other candles — asteroids, moons, constellations or fixed stars; but these have the same issues as the outer planets, so will come in dribs and drabs as I am inspired.

What about Tarot, witchy holidays, etc? I know I know! So many cool ideas. Again, I have yet to find more than 24 hours in a day. If you want something custom, contact me and we can work something out — keep in mind, though, that it takes at least 2 weeks to prepare soy candles for testing, so reach out way ahead of time.

What if I can’t burn things? Well, candles produce scent without flame, just not as well. You can invest in a candle warmer if you’d like. I also sell other planetary items that don’t require fire to function.

What if I’m allergic to something? If you’re worried about a certain ingredient, you can contact me and I’ll go through products with you to see what should be safe. If you want to engage in this work but none of my products fit, you can instead book some time with me as a consultant and we can work through your options.

Other questions? Contact me! I enjoy emails and an opportunity to be nerdy about the science of candles and the art of magic.