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A close friend of mine (The one who introduced me to paganism actually) steals almost everything she uses in her rituals. She steals the incense, candles, books, herbs, oils, ect. I've read in a few places that when you are holding the items you plan to use, that you should only use them FOR THAT PURPOSE, and try to empower them with positive energies. Now most of the time, I read that about candles, but I've read it about a few other things too. I'd think it would make your ritual items useless if you steal them, wouldn't it?

It depends. There are ways to clear the item of past associations. If you wash the item with energy and thus break previous associations then it doesn't hold an imprint of the past energy. There are cleansing rituals people can go through in order to do this but all you really need to do is imbue it strongly enough with whatever intent you want it to have and it will naturally loose other intentions.

Think about how when you don't reaffirm a spell the power of the spell decreases with time. The ambient energy is constantly washing over it and moving through it and gradually it looses the meaning you imbued it with. You should constantly reaffirm the energy in order to make sure this doesn't happen... if she isn't completely reaffirming the energy she had when she stole it then it won't affect it too much for too long a period

Also you have to keep in mind the energy of the person when they stole the item. Not all acts of thievery are completely malicious. Some people may steal and feel very little and thus they wouldn't be imprinting the item all that much. Am imprints power is directly proportionate to both the will and the intent so both would have to be factored in order to understand what actually would be imbued in the candle.

I would probably be more worried about the subconscious affects and associations she might hold concerning altering a spell. Guilt can creep in at the most awkward places and if your feeling guilty for stealing something or have mixed feelings etc. then that will affect your spell work.

I have no clue what this is supposed to mean, but it sounds like fun.. ninja

Tazers are simple ways to direct energy.

Though I suppose by Ishsha's reasoning, holding the object above the ground would work too, via cleansing with potential energy over electric.

Maybe we could just throw the item in question and cleanse it via kenetic energy.

Well, that would account for thermal energy. ninja

I'm confused- if she didn't think stealing was wrong, what is the need for empowering them with positive energies? If she did think stealing was wrong, why do it in the first place?

Let's do all of them. Ought to be thorough. XD

I don't think she said that her friend thought of the stealing as something negative, only she does.