In the Beginning: The Black Sacred Candle

As we open the doors of Dark Goddess Collective, we begin by introducing a series on the Black Sacred Candle. I light it to honor and protect this space so our witch’s work may move forward. I am happy you have found this space ~ Kaycee

The black candle is sacred in my practice, it is sacred because it represents the space from where everything has materialized. It is in the darkness where we become and to the darkness our material selves return. From that darkness, the abyss that is all and nothing, comes a spark. It is the same spark that lies within me, and you have it too. When I light my Black Sacred Candle, it is representative of my spark, and it means there is work to be done: A witch’s work.

From Darkness Comes All

Across cultures, religions, and beliefs, there is an understanding of the elements or the primordial forces coming together to create our world as we know it, our bodies included. From the nothingness comes everything. The air creating the friction for the spark of creation and a fire of consciousness, the heat creating the climate for steam and water, coagulating into form, or earth. It all starts in the darkness, in the cave of the Dark Mothers, celebrated and revered. Our ancestors observed this pattern of creation, of transforming, and the pattern or cycle is still the same in all things. So it is, with The Black Sacred Candle.

The Dark Mothers and The Dark Arts

The Black Sacred Candle is Black and for good reason. Jane Beaumont Snyder (2018) goes into detail describing the cycle as the ancient life, death, and rebirth cycle in her thesis, stating “black was the color of life, reflecting the richness of soil”. Furthermore, Woodman and Dickson (1996) help breakdown the understanding of ‘black’ as synonymous with ‘wise’ during the historical era of use through Robert Graves’ Song of Songs (1973), having gone so far as to call out “Dark Arts” as originally being synonymous with “Wise Arts”. Doing a witch’s work is an art that follows the pattern within and without, the work of our will paired with the universal wisdom of the primordial energetic pattern of life.

The Liminal Spaces and The Crossroads

The witch travels, whether it be through darkness of the liminal spaces, or the spaces created to connect to the Dark Mothers, this witch knows that this is the space most witches do so much work. While we would love to believe that we can manifest what we want right here and right now, witches know that there is only so much work we can do to impact outcomes here (make no mistake, work is required here too). The everyday world is not a causal level, it is the effect level. If we want to induce change effectively, we must align ourselves with the causal level too. That means weaving our webs and connecting differently. The Black Sacred Candle can assist us in doing so quickly and efficiently through an elemental creation and dressing process. It can be our torch at the crossroads, the beacon that our Dark Mothers know well, because they placed power within us to create it and call to them in the same way they have called to us.

This concludes part one of the series, the next part of the series is available here.

A candle and key,

Kaycee

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Feature Image Credit: Marek Piwnicki via Unsplash

References

Graves, R. (1973). Song of songs. Clarkson N. Potter.

Snyder, Jane B. 2018. Death and the goddess: consciousness as integration. [Master’s thesis, Pacifica Graduate Institute]. ProQuest.

Woodman, M., & Dickson, E. (1996). Dancing in the flames. Shambhala Publications, Inc.