I'm trying to use pattern along path to put some little beam things around a light bulb icon. The beam thing is the white part above the bulb. It's an ellipse object. The blue path was an object but I turned it into a path. I except the object thing to go around the path thing but the opposite happens. It doesn't matter where I raise or lower the elements.

Select the 'Help' tab of the dialog that you have made a screenshot of, to get help for this issue (hint: the stacking order of the objects matters).