Old Candles

[Tora]

What's the best thing to do with the stubs of candles that have already been used in ritual? ^.^

I was just reorganizing my alter for the new year and I decided I should finally do something with the burned candles I've been avoiding for the past few weeks. I'm very weary about burying them into the earth, for fear that it might end up in some poor animals stomach or something. Plus the candles aren't the best quality, so they might be kinda toxic...

[Demeter]

If they were not charged and used for a specific purpose, just used as altar or quarter candles, try melting them down and making new candles out of them. If they were charged for a purpose, melt them down with others of similar purpose and burn those down. (Like, if you had two healing candle stubs. Don't mix healing and love spells or anything like that.)

[talamh]

i save all the stubbie ends and once a year have a fire on the beach and when there are lots of hot coals, i put in a handful of candle ends every couple of minutes. i usually use the energy to symbolically cast off energies i want to be rid of... and to invoke energies i want to come in to my life.

i usually do this at the Lughnasa fire.
bb talamh

[Theres]

hmmm... if they were charged to a specific magickal purpose, shouldn't they have been left to burn themselves out?

anyway, melting them into another candle isn't a bad idea.
i keep a ziplock baggie full of these stumps in the trunk of my car, along with a couple of old newspapers and a few sticks of dry kindling, in case of an emergency. they work well if you need to get a fire started quickly.
i also keep some of the larger ones (a couple of inches long) to use in the bathroom while i'm taking a bath. they're still good for about an hour or so of 'mood lighting'.

[Myst]

As an aside, some people don't burn candles all the way down when doing magickal workings, and sometimes even if you do there's wax stuck in the bottom of the candle holder.

[s1ren]

When I have candle stubs left (usually my little candles go out with about 1/2" left to go, because the wick is shorter than the candle)...once the working is done and forgotten, I just throw the stubs away.

-s1ren

[Lavender]

I remember seeing a few other threads around about the same issue. One's in family forum & the other in Magick (I think). I remember there were some pretty good suggestions. Personally, I save them & remake them into other candles. Mind you, I use uncoloured beeswax candles so I don't have to worry about odd colours & such.

[Tora]

Originally posted by s1ren
When I have candle stubs left (usually my little candles go out with about 1/2" left to go, because the wick is shorter than the candle)...once the working is done and forgotten, I just throw the stubs away.

-s1ren

Yep, that's what happens to me a lot =) The first set of candles I bought I don't think were the best of quality. So with my last half-burnt candles, I used them while I was doing a Tarot reading. Then after that, I just threw the stubs out.

I don't like throwing them away =T It feels... funny... But I would probably feel worse burying them in the earth, especially since the not-so-good candles (like from the dollar store, which is where I bought them) are supposed to have some not-so-nice chemicals in them.

Thanks everyone for the advice!