We’re All Stories In The End

Let me tell you something they don’t always say in the glittery TikTok witch corners, you don’t need a candle for every mood, every moon, every color-coded correspondence chart. You don’t need twenty-seven jars of herbs and a wand carved from wood kissed by a fae prince.

Sometimes? You just need one candle. One flame. One little fire spirit. That’s it. That’s the whole altar.

I used to think I needed a different candle for every type of spell. White for clarity. Black for banishing. Green for money. Red for passion. And so on and so forth until I had a hoarder’s drawer full of half-burned wax orphans and a heart that still felt stuck.

But then one night, I had only one candle left, a simple tea light. No color. No scent. Just a stub of fire and a deep need. And what do you know? The spell worked anyway.

🌿 The Candle Itself Doesn’t Make the Spell, You Do

This is rule number one and it’s tattooed on the inside of my ribcage (okay, metaphorically): Your intention is the fuel. The candle is the match.

Yes, colors and scents can boost things, sure. But don’t let that trick you into thinking your power is limited to your supplies. It’s not. It never was.

One humble candle is a portal, a torch, a mirror, if you treat it like one.

🔮Cleanse It, Claim It, Charge It

Whatever candle you have, tea light, birthday candle, old emergency taper from the back of your junk drawer. make it yours.

Cleanse it: You can pass it through incense, sprinkle salt on it, whisper over it, or knock it against your palm three times. Do what feels like a reset.

Claim it: Hold it in your hands and say: “You are mine. You are my flame, my focus, my will made visible.”

Charge it: Focus on your goal. Imagine it soaking into the wax like honey. It doesn’t have to take more than a minute. The more focused you are, the brighter the burn.

🕯️Fire Is Fire, So Tell It What To Do

Here’s the magic: one candle can hold any intention, if you’re clear with it.

Need protection? Light the candle and say: “Burn away what doesn’t belong to me.” Need clarity? “Bring light to what I can’t see.” Need energy? “Stir my blood, sharpen my spine.” Need release? “Burn this tie, let the ashes fall.”

The words don’t need to rhyme. They don’t need to be long. They just need to be yours.

🌙 Reuse It With Respect

Yes, you can reuse your candle, as long as:

You cleansed it between spells (a quick pass through incense or a firm knock of intent).

You’re not mixing clashing energies (don’t follow a banishing spell with a love spell on the same stub).

You’re treating it like a tool, not trash.

Think of it like a paintbrush, rinse it, then dip again. Let it serve multiple portraits of your power.

🗝️ Burn Time Doesn’t Define the Spell

A candle doesn’t have to burn for hours to “work.”

Short on time? Burn it for three deep breaths.

In a rush? Burn it as you speak one sentence with your whole soul.

Want to use the same one all week? Burn a little bit each day.

Snuff it out with care (never blow it out, your breath is air magic, but it’s disruptive here). Use a spoon, a snuffer, or pinch it gently.

Final Whisper From Me

You don’t need more stuff. You need more trust.

One candle is enough. It always was. The flame is old. It remembers who you are, even when you don’t.

So next time your altar looks bare, or your supplies are scarce, or your heart feels small, light that single flame, and watch what it reveals.

You are the spell.

Look at them

From the Kickstarter: “Today, Durham is without a Black-owned bookselling storefront and the handful of bookstores in the area do not, at present, offer an expansive cross-genre collection of Black literature. This is the gap that Rofhiwa hopes to fill: (1) creating a space for collective imagining, where children and adults may find and share stories that reflect who they are (2) fostering the convivial atmosphere that is seminal to creating the bookcafé as a communal space (3) offering a deep collection of works by Black writers that invites readers to explore what it means to be Black here, over there and everywhere where Black people make life.”

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2025896590/rofhiwa-book-cafe-a-book-and-coffee-spot-for-east-durham

i admit, “don’t look at me while i learn” hits hard… but why is that so? when i was 7 years old i sang along to songs i had yet to fully learn by bumbling through sounds that half-resembled what i thought i heard, at full volume.

at 6, i would practice ballet moves–in which i had no instruction–outside the theater after a professional performance, in full view of the public.

at 5, i asked my teacher so many questions that she affectionately called me Bug–because i was always bugging her with my endless inquiry. i loved the nickname.

at 14, i was afraid to practice a song in my own room with no one home because, “what if my voice cracks? what if i can’t hit that note?”

at 15 i was afraid to dance in the garage with no one around because–i mean how embarrassing would it be to get the move wrong?

at 16, i forgo asking questions in class because god forbid i not understand.

what is this? “the shame of beginning”, we say. but not inherent, never was it inherent. the child loves to begin! they love making the silly mistake. the world tells us the mistake is fatal, or worse, shameful. what a tragedy. the world strangles our joy of beginning and when we’re old enough we add our own hands to the neck.

but the truth is we begin everyday and we are wrong and we’re dumb and we make silly mistakes and at the end of it all we are still the brilliant learners we’ve always been. there is no shame. it’s alright. i don’t know how to properly express that i wish upon everyone who’s reblogged this post to realize the shame is in our hands wrapped around the neck. we can let go. allow the self-kindess of your heart to soothe the bruises.

1) honeybees do not produce “extra honey.” And beekeepers don’t take some of the honey, they take all of it.

Because I am!

Beekeepers make sure hives are fed before there is pollen in the air, protected from predators and the elements, and have enough honey to sustain themselves. We don’t take all of it.

But overproduction of honey leads to stagnation in the hive. It puts stress on the queen to lay eggs, and when they inevitably fill up all their space with honey (instead of filling up the multiple empty, clean boxes of frames beekeepers might put on top of the main hive box), the queen can get so stressed she dies. If there’s a spike in the weather and the hive hasn’t prepared new queen brood, that’s it! The colony is dead. Because there wasn’t enough space for eggs and honey in the hive.

Beekeepers take excess honey. We are constantly monitoring the state of the hive, checking for parasites, analyzing the eggs for diseases, and making sure they are fed and healthy (usually with sugar water and pollen substitutes until they have made enough honey to sustain themselves in the early spring months). If a queen dies prematurely, we make every attempt to replace her to save the colony.

I know there’s an urge to patronize everyone who works in the farming industry, but try to understand the differences between small scale agriculture and industrial farming. There IS a difference. And stop spreading misinformation.

If you’re this passionate about ethical consumption, look into some of the ecofeminist research on non-hierarchal interspecies relationships (working on building animal-human relationships in a non exploitative way).

Yea Chickens are some of the most abused animals on big factory farms and I’ll be the first to admit it’s criminal and more needs to be done to regulate this.

Yes selective breeding over time has caused an increase in the ammount of eggs produced by chickens and factory farms have some messed up practices to get more eggs from them including forced moutling.

THIS IS WHY YOU SUPPORT LOCAL FARMERS AND THEIR EGGS

-support trans women who have sensitive skin and can’t shave every day.

-support trans women who have pigment allergies and can’t wear tons of makeup.

-support trans women who have blood disorders and other health problems that make surgery a preventively high risk.