A Short Guide to
Private Devotional Magic for
Non-Theists and Materialists
Why bother?
Internal focus is a powerful tool for working through problems and shedding feelings that may be holding you back, but as non-theists there is another aspect to the candle ritual.
In some religions, prayer allows the faithful to soundboard inner turmoils onto a ‘higher being’. The candle — like these higher beings — is not capable of solving our problems, but it can act as a tangible or at least literal focal point to allow us to work through a problem for ourselves by communicating to a non-participating outer focus.
Additionally, flames are often associated with purification and destruction; we call on fire in these rituals to symbolize letting go of what are not helping us or have outlived their usefulness in a situation.
In Satanic symbolism, a lit candle rides atop the head of the Sabbatic Goat (“Baphomet”) as the flame of knowledge, illuminating otherwise dark corners of ignorance and fear. Let us keep these shadows from our minds and our hearts as we move about the world.
May we instead always be beacons of hope and awareness, wherever we go, in whatever we do. Be the light, embrace the flames.
Ave Satanas.
This private devotional works best with a physical flame present in the space with you, and is written with that in mind, but if you are in a place where you can’t light a candle or want to perform the ritual in secret, use a good quality video of a candle flame such as offered on a streaming service like YouTube or a recording you’ve made yourself. Alternatively, you can make your own substitute at home to use. Just be sure there is no background distractions such as people talking, traffic, distracting music, pets, etc.
Light your candle.
As the flame grows and begins to take hold on the wick, let the movement of the flame relax you.
Clear your mind and intentionally relax any tight muscles as you watch the outline of the flame waver and dance against the background.
Once you feel relaxed and the flame is well-established, move your focus to the spot where the flame meets the wick. Focus on this point until the world melts away and you can see the “keyhole” in the flame.
The keyhole is a small void, typically at the very tip of the wick, that may appear as a small dot in the colorless area at the base of the flame around the wick.
Once you are focused on this spot, here are three options to use this as a meditation.
1. If you have been overwhelmed with emotions, imagine feeding them—one-by-one—into the keyhole of the flame.
Watching your unwanted emotions vanish as they are burned away.
Let go of the emotions as they feed into the flame; don’t dwell on the emotion or try to reason with it, simply acknowledge its presence and let it go as it burns away.
Continue this process until you feel at peace and are ready to continue your day.
2. If you have been struggling with persistent unwanted thoughts or you have a problem you keep worrying about, imagine feeding these — one-by-one — into the keyhole to be incinerated.
Do not try and obliterate the problem itself; this is not that kind of ritual. Instead, simply imagine the negative thoughts and feelings surrounding the problem being burned away so the true issue is made clear and uncovered to you on the other side of the flame.
To be clear: this exercise is not meant to remove a problem by some mechanism mysterious and partial to your whims — independent of your direct action; rather, it is meant to remove any emotional attachments impeding you so your problems are easier to approach without unhelpful emotions and anxieties.
Continue to stare through the keyhole as you think over the problem, feeding any new negative emotions that may arise into the keyhole to burn away until you feel you have come to a resolution for your problem or until you can continue to work on the problem without becoming overwhelmed by emotions.
3. If you need to draw on inner strength or to set a personal goal, start by scanning your mind for any negative thoughts or feelings such as feeling overwhelmed or thinking you won’t be able to make your goal.
As you find these, acknowledge them and feed them to the flame. As you feed each one into the keyhole, draw a positive replacement from the flame.
For example, if you are wanting to finish a project and find yourself thinking, “I never finish anything,” feed this thought to the flames and feel the warmth of the candle as you replace the thought with, “I can finish this project.”
If you are using a video of a candle, recall the gentle warmth of a candle in your mind as you think positive thoughts.
Use the keyhole to keep all distractions from your goal at bay and continue to draw positive thoughts and inspiration from the flames as you feed any negative or unhelpful thoughts back into the fire.
Note: For working toward goals it may be helpful to have a pad of paper and a writing implement close by. Do not stop in the middle of the exercise to write notes, but when you close your candle meditation, write down any ideas or steps to completing your goal that you came up with during your session as you are able. Be present and active in the moment before considering what comes after.
When you are finished, pull your focus from the center of the flame back to the flickering body and let your mind drift for a moment as you let your eyes adjust.
Move from the keyhole to the candlelight in general and then to an outside point.
Do not pull your focus directly from the keyhole to the outside world; the shift from such a small focal point to the world at large can cause headaches and overstimulation, so give your eyes time to refocus before leaving your candle meditation.
It can help to have a small figure or picture you can look at to bring you back to the outside world without looking at something bright, like a window, or hearing something loud, like talking.
As your eyes move from one focus to another let your brain move as well, slowly letting the world back into your thoughts. If you were working on a specific problem, now is the time to write any insights down before letting your mind go back to day-to-day tasks. If you need to keep the focus from your candle ritual as you go about your next task, keep the image of the flame in the back of your mind.
Now go out and conquer.