You May Be Using Sunlight in Your Magic and Not Even Know It!
By Link
A Circle is cast between the worlds. This space is lit by a gentle candle flame, and filled with the scent of fragrant herbs. Energy is raised, focused with purpose and then released with a sudden "whoosh." While there are many types of energy used in magick, you may be using sunlight more often than you realize, since sunlight is hidden deep within your herbs and candles.
Plants Store Energy
Remember learning about photosynthesis? Photosynthesis is easy to understand. Warm, bright sunlight rains down upon the Earth, while plants drink in its golden energy, nurturing themselves with it. In simple terms, "photo" means light and "synthesis" means building something, putting the pieces together. Plants use the sun's energy, through photosynthesis, to bond together the raw materials found in the soil and air, making the fiber and oils and materials the plant needs to survive. These bonds are like tiny little rubber bands that the plant uses to tightly hold the soil's basic materials together in new forms, building itself from the Earth's nutrients. These chemical bonds turn simple physical molecules into complex, organic chains; they turn this organic material into stems and roots and branches and flowers and seeds.
The energy in these bonds is the "glue" that holds the plant together. This is the secret to the energy released when wood or other plant life is burned. Flame is actually the stored energy being suddenly released during combustion, like the violent snap of all those tiny rubber bands! So, the flame we see as we burn a piece of wood is actually the release of hidden sunlight, locked away a tiny bit each day as the plant faced its leaves toward the sun and used photosynthesis to build itself from the chemicals in soil and air.
Perhaps that release of sunlight explains the special sentiment we humans have for fire—whether a cozy romantic fireplace, or the primal roar of a festival bonfire, or even the burning Yule Log remembrance of the Winter Solstice.
The Sun's Energy in Herbs
Many believe that certain herbs can be used as tools in magick. If burned as incense, these herbs are going through the same combustion release of stored sunlight described above. But not all magical uses of herbs call for the herb to be burned. Whether burned or not, that same stored sunlight energy is still present within the structure of plant, like little solar batteries. This solar energy could affect the magical properties we believe the herbs hold. Perhaps when we use herbs in magick, we are focusing their energy and releasing it to fulfill the specific purpose of the spell. That energy could be the hidden solar energy locked away within bonds of the plant.
The Sun's Energy in Candles
Most candles today are made of paraffin wax; a petroleum product made from crude oil. And where does that oil come from? It is organic material that was once plants very old, long gone plants.
Picture a lush green forest, alive and thriving in the Sunlight. But like any living thing, a forest must eventually pass on and die. When conditions no longer allow the forest to continue, its trees fall one by one over time. They decay and decompose. Where geological conditions were right, after centuries and eons this decomposed plant-matter formed into the thick, sludgy mixture we call oil.
The flame we love so dearly in a candle burning bright is that same flame we see burning in the warm summer sky—the sun. Again, the fire from burning petroleum-based wax releases the energy stored away in the chemistry of plants as they use sunlight in photosynthesis.
But with candles, the energy we release is somehow different. It's not like burning a stick of incense made from an herb that grew over one or two seasons. It's not like burning a campfire log, made from a tree that grew over a few decades. Candles are made from age-old oil that takes thousands of years to form from the dark sludgy mixtures deep within the Earth. The sunlight we release from candles actually shone upon the land long, long ago. The light we see comes from a time long past, from an old time when things were very different. Think of this as you light your prayerful votive candles, as you light the four candles of the Elements, as you light the God and Goddess candles in Circle, or even as you blow out your festive birthday candles and make a wish!
The Sun's Energy in Everyday Life
Combustion is all around us every day. True believers of Kitchen Witchery will tell you that cooking or other daily events can be very magical. Just visualize: See the sunlight in the flame of your stove using natural gas, which is formed often in the same fields as oil. See the sunlight in the glow of your barbecue charcoal, remembering it was once trees soaking up solar nourishment. And as you travel, think about the combustion that makes your travel possible. Gasoline (a petroleum-based fuel), though not ecologically favorable, still unlocks the sunlight stored away by long gone forests of plant life. Remember it the next time you start your car and pray for safe travel. You can even visualize that same solar essence as you trace back the energy produced by power utilities who burn oil or coal to run their turbines, making the electricity that cleans our clothes, heats our homes or does any other job which may have seemed quite mundane before you thought of it as calling upon the power of the sun to bless what you are doing. | 
