By Candlelight: Rites for Celebration, Blessing & Prayer [Paperback]

Janina Renee (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 23, 2004

2005 Coalition of Visionary Resources (COVR) 2nd Runner Up in Spirituality category!

The simple act of bringing light to darkness is a moving and meaningful way to create sacred space, celebrate joyous occasions, and find solace in times of loss. Candle rites are also a time-honored way to bestow blessings upon loved ones or focus energy on any wish or intention that you may have.

Warm and wise, By Candlelight is the most complete guidebook to candle rituals available. Within these pages are eighty-seven beautifully crafted rites for a wide variety of common concerns, large and small. From a rite for "evoking the good in others" to "summoning personal willpower," there are rituals for both the public and private spheres of life, along with prayers, blessings, meditations, affirmations, visualizations, and ceremonial actions. Suggestions are included for using color and fragrance, home altars, and other approaches to enhance and personalize your candle rites.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Fire has always been a source of mystery, warmth and light, making it an excellent focal point for family or group gatherings. But the candle—with its single, contained flame and soothing scent—is especially conducive to the enhancement of family rituals and group rites, according to Renée, a student of psychology and ritualism for more than 30 years. Starting with the motion of striking a match and lighting a wick, candle lighting offers an intentional pause—signaling the unconscious mind to focus on spiritual forces. "The flame of a candle can represent the fire of life and spirit... [or] each person's ability to bring light into the world," she writes. By concentrating on the flickering flame, it becomes easier to shut out the distractions and reach a more relaxed "alpha state," making creative insight more likely to occur. Considering the ritualistic power and popularity of candlelight, it's not surprising that someone devoted a book to it. What is surprising is how well this one works. Renée offers 87 non-denominational and inspirational candle rituals for specific situations, such as managing stress, attracting love, greeting a new moon and creating world peace. Each entry includes prayerful phrases to say aloud as well as suggestions for what color candle to use and essential oil scents that will enhance the ritual. Her appendices are especially resourceful, covering the meanings associated with different colors (for instance, light blue represents peace in the home), the uses of essential oils, and home altars.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author

Janina Renée is a scholar of folklore, psychology, medical anthropology, the material culture of magic, ritual studies, history, and literature. Her books include Tarot Spells, Tarot Your Everyday Guide (winner of 2001 Coalition of Visionary Resources award for best Self Help book), Tarot for a New Generation (2002 COVR winner, best General Interest Title), and By Candlelight: Rites for Celebration, Blessing and Prayer (2005 COVR runner-up, Spirituality). Janina continues to work on multiple books, with ongoing research projects exploring the ways folk magic and medicinal techniques can apply to modern problems, including the modulation of Asperger’s Syndrome and other neuro-sensory processing problems.

Product Details

• Paperback: 312 pages
• Publisher: Llewellyn Publications; First Edition edition (February 23, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0738704172
• ISBN-13: 978-0738704173
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #801,492 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars simply awesome!, May 30, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: By Candlelight: Rites for Celebration, Blessing & Prayer (Paperback)

I picked up this book at the library hoping that it would indeed offer everything that it said it did. My spiritual studies have taken an extremely ecclectic turn, merging quite a bit of paganism, egyptian, taoism and buddhism with new age, metaphysical and sometimes christian belief systems. I was looking to incorporate some kind of daily spiritual practice through candle rites into my life, and this book has given it to me - I'm about to purchase my own copy now I know how awesome it is! It is simplistic without being pointless, it offers non-denominational rites I'm sure just about ANYONE can use in their studies, and I think it offers a great deal of spiritual wealth to the world. Thank you for writing this book Ms. Renee!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Simply Wonderful, February 23, 2006

By 

Jenn K (GA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: By Candlelight: Rites for Celebration, Blessing & Prayer (Paperback)

It took me a while to finally get this book. I looked it over many times at a local book store. I also recieve Llewellyn's newsletter and it had one of the rituals for Samhain in it. I thought it was beautifully written and wanted to see more. When I looked through the book some more, I found a ritual for the death of a pet and even one for Veteran's Day. It has many rituals and they are easy to use. You can even alter them for your own use as well. This is simply a wonderful book and I do not think you will regret buying it.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars beautiful and poetic, August 16, 2007

By 

Artemis MOOnSong "Wicked Witch of the West Coast" (The Western Sky, OZ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: By Candlelight: Rites for Celebration, Blessing & Prayer (Paperback)

This book is just so amazingly wonderful, while being simplistic at the same time, which is quite hard to come by these days. Renee describes the beauty of candles (how they 'illuminate' your life) and gives many different candle-lighting rituals (from basic to more complex) without any religious denomination, which means that a Christian or a Wiccan could use this book and just change some of the wording to suit their own needs. What I also liked about this book was that Renee gives correspondences for candle colors, oils and scents which are lacking in many books today. This book was what caused me to be a fan of Renee's writing and I'm sure you will feel the same way.