This is going to be a quick guide on how to easily and affordably make your own candle oil blends from herbs.
If you’re familiar with candle magic and your familiar with herbalism, no doubt you can see the possibilities of combining the two in your spellwork. Unfortunately most of the commercially available oils are rather limited. Making your own oil is not only cheaper, but it also lets you experiment with a wider variety of herbs and even lets you create your own blend.
Imagine being able to make an oil out of lavender, rose, and jasmine the next time you want to do a love spell? You can even throw in a dab of dragon’s blood to strengthen it. The next time you’re lighting a candle to do scrying, or any other type of divination, try an oil blend of mugwort and nutmeg. You can also add eyebright or even marijuana (if it’s legal where you live), and of course dragon’s blood will make the oil more powerful.
Unfortunately many people have not been trained in how to brew their own oils at home. These same people go on the Internet and chat about how you need thousands of dollars worth of equipment to make your own oil. Most of us don’t have that kind of money to spend on the equipment. Fortunately all you really need is about $20 plus the herbs and you can make your own oils. And people will be in awe when you tell them you have the equipment to make your own oils as needed.
I’m not going to teach you how to make commercial quality oil. This isn’t going to be something you can sell in a store, and I don’t recommend putting it on your skin. This oil is meant to be put on your candles and burned, and this oil will be perfect for that job and you’ll only need $20 worth of equipment. This isn’t a new technique either. Someone taught this to me a while back and magicians have been doing this for a very long time. Unfortunately it isn’t getting taught enough and a lot of people believe they need to spend a lot of money to make their own oils.
Steps:
1. First off, get your stuff together. Figure out the exact type of blend you want to make. Then you need to get three things, your herbs, a mortar & pestle, and a base oil.
I. Your Herbs – How much the herbs cost are going to vary quite a bit based on quantity, quality, type, and where you shop. Never, ever buy herbs from a magic shop unless you absolutely have to. The best place to get herbs from is a New Age Herbal shop. I literally have a New Age Herbal shop and a magic store right next to each other near my home. The New Age Herbal shop has fresher herbs, they’re better taken care of, they literally cost about ten times less, and the shop is staffed only with hot girls in their early twenties (which doesn’t effect the quality of the herbs, but enriches my shopping experience). The only downside to an Herbal store is there are certain herbs they usually don’t carry (like Osiris Root and Dragon’s Blood). I would say order online before you order from a magic shop. Magic shops give you low quality herbs at super high prices.
WARNING: Before burning any herbs, even in an oil, you should have educated yourself on what those herbs do. Many herbs, even those sold for consumption in herbal shops, can be poisonous and potentially fatal. You should also be aware of what effect the herbs may have on you, since a severe allergy to an herb that you’ve burned can also be fatal. It’s best to only burn candles with oils in well ventilated areas when you are awake until you are sure about what affect the herbs will have on you.
II. Mortar & Pestle – These can be found in magic shops, herbal stores, and pharmacies. The price will vary based on quality and size (probably between $10-$80). I have a very large high quality Mortar & Pestle. I don’t suggest buying one like I did. It is so heavy I can’t put in on a table or shelf because it will warp the wood. It’s a pain to clean. And I’ve never had to grind so many herbs at once that I needed a Mortar and Pestle that big. Generally one that costs between $15-$25 will be adequate for candle oils. Remember that you’re more than likely going to pay an inflated price if you buy it from a magic shop.
III. Base Oil – This is the last thing you need and you have a few different options. The best and cheapest way to go is to use cooking oil. Use either corn oil or olive oil as your base oil. For a couple of dollars you can get a big bottle of the stuff, and that will last you a very long time so long as you aren’t also using it to cook with. If you want to be really fancy, you can buy a half ounce bottle of an appropriately scented fragrant oil for about $5. Expect to use at least half the bottle if not more. This can start to get pretty expensive, and personally I’ve never felt like this added all that much to the spell.
2. Place your herbs in the Mortar & Pestle. This is an easy part. Take the different herbs you want for your blend. Place them in the proper quantities inside of the bowl part of the Mortar and Pestle.
3. Grind. Now take the stick part of the Mortar and Pestle, and grind the herbs in the bowl. To do this just push down hard and move the stick around. You want to keep doing this until you have the herbs ground down into a fine powder.
4. Once you have a powder, add some oil into the Mortar and Pestle. How much oil you add really depends on how many herbs you’ve used. You want the oil to be full of herb powder, and I’d say that you always want the mixture to be at least 50% herb powder. I’d say not to add any more oil than you have to (remember the oil is just the base so we can apply the herbs to the candle, it’s the herbs that have the magical qualities).
5. Grind again. Grind the powder into the oil to get it good and mixed up.
6. At this point you’re finished. The only thing left to do is apply the oil to the candle with a cloth. I don’t suggest saving the oil (especially since it is so easy to make more) and recommend washing any excess oil out of the Mortar & Pestle after the spell.
Rob's Magick Blog 