When I was in my early twenties and new to magic I burned enough magical candles to heat up my small bedroom
My roommate and I would have multiple candles burning in our bedrooms at one time. During the winter this provided a wonderful heat source for our rooms. In all honesty, I don't recall my spell candles working quickly if at all. Because I only read books on spell casting, I only understood one aspect of practicing magic. I did not understand the power of the mind, especially the subconscious, or how my fears and limiting beliefs controlled my reality. Truthfully, I was young and new to the game and I really didn't care about the deeper parts of the work, just the outcomes. This lack of knowledge played a big part in the outcome of my magic.
I was blessed to work with and eventually live with my friend, Carlotta, a spiritualist, who ran a metaphysical bookstore with her sister. Here I learned how to dress candles, read tarot for customers, work with crystals and make mojo bags. Her grandmother, who lived with us, was a medicine woman from Mexico who did not speak English and did not know how to read. Yet this little fiery woman was powerful and she passed on her knowledge to her granddaughter, Carlotta. I was blessed to live, for a short period of time, in a household where magic was practiced regularly. I'm not talking about elaborate rituals, we didn't cast a circle nor call in the elements. Our practices were more hoodoo based. We read tarot for each other, had deep conversations over delicious meals of biscuits, sausage and gravy at our favorite diner and we comforted each other as we processed our mental, emotional and spiritual shit. It was a catalyst to everything I practice now and was a safe haven during a difficult and uncertain time of my life. This time of my life birthed the witch in me. Carlotta passed away from cancer at the age of 65. We had parted ways and not been in contact for quite sometime by the time I found out. My heart grieved a reunion and conversations that we would never have. I mourned a fellow cancer fighter. I mourned the lost opportunity to really express how grateful I was for all that she did for me and the dynamic spirit that she was. She will always be special to me and I'm so grateful for everything that she taught me.
It has only been within the last 25 years of my life that I've invested time in learning about the part that the subconscious mind plays in creating our realities. Once I was willing to do the hard work to re-program it the real magic began. When we add magical tools to our subconscious mind, we can manifest like a beast! But it can be a struggle. Our ego is very protective of what it knows and it doesn't like to give up its identity without a fight.
Many of us are in survival mode. We have become a product of our upbringing and our external environment. We have turned our spirituality and connection to the Source, God, Great Mystery etc... over to churches and politicians. We are allowing these external sources to create a reality for us that reflects the beliefs and ideologies of systems that are in place to control the masses. We add this to the programming we already received from our parents and schooling. Between dealing with our relationships, children, work, health and financial concerns, we are drained and tired at the end of the day and often don't have the energy to address our own well being and healing. We just want to escape into a good book, television or social media.
One powerful thing we can do is use affirmations to program our subconscious mind. We can speak our affirmations out loud when we have privacy or we think the affirmations into our subconscious at anytime and place. Being consistent about re-programming the subconscious will lead to some deep, meaningful changes. Be patient with this process. It did not take one time, situation or circumstance to create the life you are living so don't expect one round of affirming to fix everything overnight. Working on your mindset and examining the root of of your beliefs and actions is very powerful and magical in and of itself.