Candles as offerings and what kind of cheap to buy offerings have you given?

[Redfaery]

Thrift stores are another good spot to find nice stuff for seriously cheap.

Fourthing this! There's an antique store in my hometown that I love, and it always throws useful stuff at me as soon as I walk in the door. I got my incense burner there, as well as a number of beautiful candle holders. Not to mention the piece of furniture I use as my altar itself came from there. It's full of treasure!

[MarsPrincess]

For me personally, because I work with Mars and Fortuna on clearing my karmic patterns and healing me and balancing my auric field, they do ask for candle offerings because I had some heavy karma going on in my life and they needed a "give and receive" to work on my heavy karma. They did mention something like for the candle offerings I gave them, they could somehow clock more advanced healing work on me as they need to exchange energies to "buy some spiritual tools in the unseen worlds" to help clear my stuff that was weighing me down. I don't know if anyone of you have had this kind of explanation before from your patron deities about needing an exchange of energies (also the giving of offerings included) to be able to do more advanced work with you.

Hi everyone, referring to this part of the original post I made in this thread, no one much has touched this topic in the thread yet.

I wonder have any of you worked with candles in clearing and healing yourself and others with your patron deities?

Are candles as offerings considered candle magick? Is it the same or different?

If you work with deities about healing, are you just the person who gives healing suggestions to deities or are you considered a collaborating amateur healer?

Thanks!
MarsPrincess

[Redfaery]

Hi everyone, referring to this part of the original post I made in this thread, no one much has touched this topic in the thread yet.

I wonder have any of you worked with candles in clearing and healing yourself and others with your patron deities?

Are candles as offerings considered candle magick? Is it the same or different?

If you work with deities about healing, are you just the person who gives healing suggestions to deities or are you considered a collaborating amateur healer?

Thanks!
MarsPrincess

That's a bunch of really complex questions. (Don't worry; complex is good) I'll answer as best I can.

I'll answer your second question first: I'd say that candle offerings can be magic, depending on how one offers them. This would be especially true for me, since I suck at thaumaturgy. The closest I come to magic and spells is actively asking Sarasvati-sama* to do something for me. A case in point, I might offer a suitably inscribed and dressed candle of an appropriate color to her as an offering, in the same way someone else would use that candle as a spell.

To your first question: I have indeed used candles to heal myself, but it didn't work...not as planned. Let me tell you the story. I think it's hilarious.

I have a number of hormonal issues. A few months ago, I had an IUD implanted. My body did not accept it at first (quite a normal occurrence). Given the fact that I also had not menstruated for 4 months, I had also built up a case of endometriosis. So I was in a good bit of discomfort.

So I decided to do something. I set up a spell altar with a red candle in a red candleholder. I inscribed the candle and dressed it, and set it on a red cloth and ringed it with red stones. (Red for health, and also because it's a personal power color). I burned the candle for a set period of time (until it burned down through the runes I'd inscribed). Then I extinguished it. I figured it would take some time to work.

However, I kept cramping and bleeding. Do you want to know what did happen? Whatever glitch in my then-new computer that was causing the blue screen of death whenever I surfed the web for too long...*poof*! Banished. So, I'd have to say that my healing spell worked. Just not on ME.

Your third question I can't answer, as I am not a healer. But I'm sure someone else can.

[Scales]

What kinds of offerings have you given to your patron deities that are cheap to buy? I'd love to get some ideas on that because I don't have a lot of money right now but I'd like to over time add more variety to the offerings I give my patron deities.

 
It's probably all been said, but ones I personally give are tea and rice.

You can make very cheap tasty tea by roasting rice and/or barley, but tea can be acquired pretty cheaply anyway. On the other hand, while being cheaper, if you have the time for it, making roasted teas means you're also (depending on your tradition) offering your time and effort in making it. Making a one time splurge on some honey to sweeten it or something else nice to add can stretch far and fancy up your cheaper offerings. The rice tea I make is almost opaque white, so I add edible but mostly flavourless berries to make it look more appealing (pink!).

Rice is also very cheap to buy, and I like giving a bowl of lightly seasoned white rice.

I also offer water pretty much every day, independent of whatever other offerings there are.

Depending on how much time you can spare (this is more 'expensive' to some people than others), you can also write, dance, sing, etc in offering.

As a disclaimer, I'm not overly familiar with your tradition/patrons.

[Scales]

Hi PrincessAstrid, you said the fig cookies that were bought cheaply and offered to your gods kept them happy for quite a long while. Something similar is happening with me. Although right now my only offerings are white tealight candles burnt as offerings to Mars Roman God and Fortuna Roman Goddess, my patron deities, they are so happy with it and told me I don't necessarily need to honor them daily through candles but they work harder on my problems when I do. They say heartfelt offerings always go a long ways.

Thanks and love to you all!
MarsPrincess

 
As an aside, with cheap tealights this is an option. Although of course you should look up the safety and flammability of herbs and oils before adding them to melted wax, it's a pretty cheap way of enhancing your tealights. Herbs vary quite a bit by season and oils can be expensive, but as with honey in my other post, it's a one time (for quite a while, at least) splurge, and you can make it when stuff is on sale.

Also, if you have an ikea, they are the cheapest source of tealights (other than perhaps wholesale) that I have found.

And on candles in general, if you have a discount store, eg I think the one here is called 'Price Matters,' that's a great place for candles. Rather than dollar stores, they're stores that get damaged crates of merch that other stores won't sell, and re-price and sell the unhurt goods. Ours always has big $8-15 pillar candles for $2-5.

[Valeria Crowe]

Well this is my personal experience and I can't say for anyone else for sure but I would love to read about your experiences and similarities in experiences too!

 
For myself, I find candles I make myself work best for offerings during rituals (bit much for day to day, rune through em right quick that way) as I'm sacrificing the time and effort spent to make them.

Just get soft beeswax and candle wicks. Soften the beeswax, knead in anything you wish to (incense, salt for purifying, pinch of grave dirt, etc.), wrap the wax around the wick layer by layer, e voila!

A bit ugly, but I'm sure yours gods will appreciate the effort.

On a less on-tpic note, the forum autocorrected 'voila' to 'toils'. Appropriate given the post, no?

[Nautilus]

Now that I think about it, some of the statues/figurines I have are a sort of permanent offering. My two emergency rainbow LED candles were only a (US) dollar each, my (very much fake) gold/crystal peacock was about $6, both off eBay, and my owl was MAYBE $15 off Etsy. I think the most expensive item on my shrine was the bamboo plant, at something like $25.

 
I was thinking of posting and asking if there were any circumstances where LED candles would be acceptable but I was sort of afraid of what reaction that question would get ... It's sort of a relief someone else has done it.  I was thinking of it--I don't know with the batteries how good it is for the environment versus regular candles, but I wouldn't care to burn traditional candles daily just for air quality concerns.  Not to mention fire hazard.  I mean, on the one hand, I would feel a little guilty about LED candles as not quite "real", but on the other hand technology has moved on and I suppose the ancients would have offered LED candles if they'd had them.

I'm just starting out and still trying to figure out what I should be offering.  I have to say it's helpful to be on this board and see other people with similar ideas and questions.  My problem is that I tend to have an instinct to get very perfectionist and go overboard on things, so it's helpful to read a thread on budget offerings.

[Jenett]

I suppose the ancients would have offered LED candles if they'd had them.

Well, to me, it depends what you're using the candle *for*, and whether a candle should be a consumed offering (which depends on your path and your goals for the practice.)

A wax candle is used up as you offer it, and so you have to pay attention to how it is being used up (how much is left, etc.) and replace it regularly, even if you use a pillar candle or burn it only briefly each day. (Likewise, a stick of incense is a consumed offering, and that's a common one in many cultures, or a food or drink offering is a consumed offering, or a pouring of fresh water can be an offering.)

If what you want is a consumed offering, an LED candle won't do - because it's not consumed.

If what you want is a focal point for your offering, or an action that says "I am taking a few moments to pay attention to you, my deity" or something like that, then an LED candle will do quite well. (But so would a number of other actions that aren't about candles at all: opening a box and taking out some small relevant items, opening a cabinet to reveal a shrine or image, putting on a piece of jewelry while you do whatever prayers or daily ritual you want to do, etc. It wouldn't need to be just a candle or candle-like object.)

Likewise, there are things you can do for magical workings with a candle you can't do with an LED - adding herbs or oils, or using a candle to burn down to release charged energy (I've done year-long candle workings where I mark off the candle for each Sabbat, and then burn it down to the next point in the few days around the Sabbat.)

In terms of the air quality - generally, people burning candles as an offering aren't going through a whole candle at a time (for safety reasons, if nothing else.) The most common practice I know is to light candles while you're at your shrine or altar - maybe 5-10 minutes, most days, maybe longer for specific rituals. There are certainly ways to mediate that without giving up candles all together, for people who still want the candles.

[Scales]

 
I just had another thought, for people worried about fire safety and/or the cost of large candles. Homesense and other places sell what I guess you'd call candle 'facades'- a large wax candle, pretty and decorated and scented, but instead of a wick, there's a dish carved out in the top for a tea light. You could also use electric tealights sometimes, but wouldn't be restricted to only electric or only fire.

I think they run something like $8-$30 depending what you get (again, discount stores are great for this). I've been thinking about getting one so I can have a nice constant look in certain situations/on my altar sometimes, and actually burning giant pillar candles gets pretty pricey

[Nautilus]

Well, to me, it depends what you're using the candle *for*, and whether a candle should be a consumed offering (which depends on your path and your goals for the practice.)

A wax candle is used up as you offer it, and so you have to pay attention to how it is being used up (how much is left, etc.) and replace it regularly, even if you use a pillar candle or burn it only briefly each day. (Likewise, a stick of incense is a consumed offering, and that's a common one in many cultures, or a food or drink offering is a consumed offering, or a pouring of fresh water can be an offering.)

If what you want is a consumed offering, an LED candle won't do - because it's not consumed.

If what you want is a focal point for your offering, or an action that says "I am taking a few moments to pay attention to you, my deity" or something like that, then an LED candle will do quite well. (But so would a number of other actions that aren't about candles at all: opening a box and taking out some small relevant items, opening a cabinet to reveal a shrine or image, putting on a piece of jewelry while you do whatever prayers or daily ritual you want to do, etc. It wouldn't need to be just a candle or candle-like object.)

Likewise, there are things you can do for magical workings with a candle you can't do with an LED - adding herbs or oils, or using a candle to burn down to release charged energy (I've done year-long candle workings where I mark off the candle for each Sabbat, and then burn it down to the next point in the few days around the Sabbat.)

In terms of the air quality - generally, people burning candles as an offering aren't going through a whole candle at a time (for safety reasons, if nothing else.) The most common practice I know is to light candles while you're at your shrine or altar - maybe 5-10 minutes, most days, maybe longer for specific rituals. There are certainly ways to mediate that without giving up candles all together, for people who still want the candles.

 
Thanks for the ideas.  I think I get this idea in my head that I have to do something BIG or it doesn't mean anything, so I tend not to think of little things.  There's just part of my mind that sometimes tells me it doesn't count if I don't suffer in some way (probably the part that was a Catholic schoolgirl).

Yeah, I wouldn't feel right using an LED candle for rituals or Sabbats.  But for everyday use I'll think over your suggestions.  And mulling it over, I wonder if there's some sort of decorative non-candle-shaped light I could find.  If it's not really a candle there's no reason for it to be shaped like one (and those fake flickers LED candles have are really annoying).

[missgraceless]

...I wonder if there's some sort of decorative non-candle-shaped light I could find.  If it's not really a candle there's no reason for it to be shaped like one (and those fake flickers LED candles have are really annoying).

Check eBay. My LED rose candle thingies are shaped like, well, roses.  There's no "wick/flame" or any kind of candle-like appearance. They just shift through the rainbow of colors quite nicely. And I only paid a dollar for them.

[Jainarayan]

What do you personally know about the significance and importance of candle offerings across cultures and beliefs, especially in paganism?

I can't speak for any other pagan traditions... heck I can't even really speak for Asatru, being new to it, but I think I can say confidently that light is important, especially flame, which is a natural element. Tea lights and other candles are very nice devotions. I alternate between tea lights in small holders and small brass oil lamps. My latest acquisitions are 4 small clay oil lamps traditionally used in India.

What kinds of offerings have you given to your patron deities that are cheap to buy? I'd love to get some ideas on that because I don't have a lot of money right now but I'd like to over time add more variety to the offerings I give my patron deities.

 
I don't use alcohol or non-vegetarian offerings out of respect for Hindu tradition, even though Thor loves his mead. Instead I use bread and other grains, water, milk, butter, cheese, fruit, nuts, flowers. All of those are from the earth, so I don't think Thor or Odin would sneer at them.  

[Chatelaine]

What kinds of offerings have you given to your patron deities that are cheap to buy? I'd love to get some ideas on that because I don't have a lot of money right now but I'd like to over time add more variety to the offerings I give my patron deities.

My shift from paganism to Christianity has changed little about my offering habits. I still burn candles at my shrine every day - white unscented tealights that I buy at the local supermarket, £3 for 100 (can't get cheaper than that, really). For special occasions like Cill shifts, I use scented glass cup candles from B&M - £1.99 for a set of four assorted themed fragrances (I can't wait to break out the bakery set for Halloween!), each lasting about 18 hours.

I love burning incense, but proper liturgical incense isn't cheap to come by, so I save the censer for feast days and use sticks daily. I get those from a Buddhist charity shop, at around £1 and some change for 10-20 sticks, depending on brand.

Flowers are also something I love to offer but have to save for special occasions, as I don't have easy access to a florist where I could buy one or two flowers, and the alternative is a huge supermarket bouquet. Not terribly expensive, but wasteful. My efforts to grow my own flower plants have been met with resounding failure so far.

[PetitAlbert]

What kinds of offerings have you given to your patron deities that are cheap to buy? I'd love to get some ideas on that because I don't have a lot of money right now but I'd like to over time add more variety to the offerings I give my patron deities.

 
Origami for the win. Paper is easily available, and there are lots of easy patterns for birds, butterflies, boxes, things that can adapt to any metaphor and look lovely burnt. I can't remember the last time I did a ritual without.