The “Fractionation” Magickal Ritual for the Season

This season has holidays that involve candles and lights. The Tantric/Hindu holiday of Diwali is a multi-day holiday which includes lighting more candles each night. Hanukkah, also a multi-day holiday, also has people lighting more candles each night. On Christmas, electric lights (formerly candles) would like illuminate the tree and the home. Pagans light a Yule log. Kwanzaa uses a special candle holder for seven candles that are lit according to a specific pattern.

This is also a time of sharing gifts. Traditionally, these gifts were relatively small, although commercialization has made the giving of gifts into something huge. This is a great time to wish health, well-being, and financial increase to others…and to yourself. I think it’s also a great time to combine the concept of increasing light, increasing well-being, and increasingly powerful magick.

Preparation:

As I’ve described in Modern Magick, I love to use Hanukkah Candles for magick. Each candle is small and you can get a box of them very inexpensively. Many sets come in boxes featuring a variety of colors, including candles that are red, blue, green,  and yellow. They work great for candle magick and color magick.

Due to the economy, many people are having financial difficulties, so this ritual is going to be for increasing finances. For this, people in the U.S. might want to use some green candles as green is the color of our currency. People in other countries, or in the U.S., might prefer to use the yellow candles as representative of gold. Pick one color or the other and remove four of the candles of that color from the box. Of course, you can use other types of candles. The Hannukah candles are merely a great size for this ritual.

With a knife and working on a solid surface, carefully cut the candles into different sizes so you have one candle with 1/4 of the candle from the wick down (discarding the bottom 3/4 of the candle), one candle cut in half (discard the bottom half and keep the top half with the wick), one candle where you keep the top 3/4 and discard the bottom quarter, and one whole candle. When finished, you should have four unlit candles like this:

For this ritual, we’ll burn one of these prepared candles each day. If you do not have a candle holder that will safely support them, simply heat the bottom of a candle with a match or lighter and stick it to a fire-proof plate. On the first day of this rite you’ll be burning the shortest candle. On the second day you’ll be burning the 2nd smallest candle. During the third day you’ll burn the 3/4 length candle, and on the fourth day you’ll light the full-size candle. If you know how to work with the planetary hours, perform this ritual each day during the hour of Jupiter.

Finally either perform a divination or have someone do a divination for you to see what the results of your rituals will be.

Ritual Set-up:

Simply arrange your area as you normally would for any magickal ritual. In addition, you should be able to have the candle safely lit in the middle of your area so there is room to walk around the candle in circles.

Performance

1) Prepare for your ritual as you normally do. Clean yourself and the area. Do banishings. Form your magickal circle

2) Light the candle. Recite out loud the purpose of your ritual. Include your goal and a reasonable date when you should achieve your goal. For example:

“I call on all the powers of the universe to grant me _____goal_____ and provide me with this goal by ___date___.
As my will, so mote it be!”

3) Walk clockwise around the candle. As you do, focus on seeing yourself or imagining yourself having already achieved the goal on the desired date. Continue walking. Feel your energy welling up from within. Also feel energy from the divine covering you in the form of a cone of power or vortex of energy.

4) Continue until the candle goes out on its own. If you tire, lie down within the vortex and feel the combined internal and external energies merging within you.

5) When the candle goes out on its own, banish the area, closing your ritual space.

6) Record the results of your ritual in your magickal record or diary.

The next day, at the same time (or during the same magickal hour), repeat the ritual. Use the second candle (half as tall as the full candle). However, during step two, say, “I call on all the powers of the universe with twice the energy as before to grant me _____goal_____ and provide me with this goal by ___date___. As my will, so mote it be!”

On the third day, at the same time (or during the same magickal hour), repeat the ritual. Use the third candle ( the 3/4 size candle). However, during step two, say, “I call on all the powers of the universe with four times the energy as before to grant me _____goal_____ and provide me with this goal by ___date___. As my will, so mote it be!”

Finally, on the fourth day, at the same time (or during the same magickal hour), repeat the ritual. Use the full size candle. However, during step two, say, “I call on all the powers of the universe with eight times the energy as before to grant me _____goal_____ and provide me with this goal by ___date___. As my will, so mote it be!”

And that’s it. The ritual takes four days to perform. Each day the ritual takes longer as you bring more of the light into your work. This allows you to build up more and more energy—both internal and external—and direct that energy toward achieving your magickal goal. The more specific your goal, the more specific your result will be. Your goal should be ecological, too: good for you, good for those around you, and good for the world.

The Hypnosis Connection—Fractionation

I have found this to be a powerful form of magick. Each night seems to add more power to the rituals. For a long time I wondered why this was so. Did repetition merely make me more comfortable with ritual? Did I merely think that it got stronger?

I finally found the solution within my studies of hypnosis. There is a process used by some hypnotists called fractionation. A famed hypnotist named Elman noticed that each time he hypnotized someone, they could go into hypnosis more easily and more deeply. He called this discovery “fractionation,” and more than one hypnotist (including myself) generalizes this as “the process of moving in and out of an experience in order to go deeper into the experience.”

So because of fractionation, this ritual becomes more effective through repetition within a relatively short period of time. Try it out and tell me what you think.