Also called candle spell, candle burning, candle work
Candle magic means choosing a candle by colour, dressing it with oil and herbs, stating a clear wish, and letting it burn down while you hold the intention. It is the most common working technique in modern folk magic and the base for hundreds of other spells.
TraditionAmerican Hoodoo and 20th-century occult candle-burning manuals
RegionUnited States
Era1940s onward, with roots in ancient lamp magic
Moon◐ Any moon
DayAny
ElementFire
Difficulty●○○ Simple
Time15 minutes to set, then the full burn
Tonight's moon is read when the page loads.
The working
Decide on one clear aim and write it in a single sentence, such as 'I find steady work this month.'
Pick the colour: green for money and work, red for love, white for blessing and healing, blue for peace, yellow for attraction, purple for mastery, black for removing what harms you.
Carve a key word, your name or a simple symbol into the wax with the pin.
Dress the candle with a few drops of oil. To draw something in, stroke from the ends toward the middle or upward; to push something away, stroke from the middle outward or downward.
Roll the oiled candle lightly in the crushed herb, keeping herbs away from the wick so they do not flare.
Set the candle in its holder on a heatproof surface, light it, and say your sentence aloud while you watch the flame for a minute.
Let it burn while you are in the room. If you must leave, snuff it (do not blow) and relight it later with the same words.
When it has burned out, bury or bin the leftover wax and note what you saw in the flame and the wax.
Take care: Never leave a burning candle unattended or near curtains, pets or children; set it in a metal tray or sink. Keep loose herbs away from the wick, and do not use more than a thin film of oil, which can flare.
Versions across time and place
i
Greek lamp divination
Graeco-Egyptian ritual magic · 2nd to 5th century CE
Before candles were cheap, magic used oil lamps. Several rites in the Greek Magical Papyri ask the user to light a clean lamp, sometimes with a wick that has never been used, and gaze at the flame to receive a vision or a god's answer. The lamp is a doorway for divination rather than a tool for pulling in a wish.
Recorded in: Hans Dieter Betz (ed.), The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation (University of Chicago Press, 1986)
ii
Gamache's candle-burning rituals
American mail-order occultism · 1942
This small book set out numbered candle layouts that combine coloured altar candles with an 'astral' candle for the person by birth date, moved closer together over several days. It mixed Spiritualist, New Thought and Hoodoo material and became a standard text in Southern spiritual supply stores.
Recorded in: Henri Gamache (Anne Fleitman), The Master Book of Candle-Burning (1942)
iii
Hoodoo figural and glass-encased candles
African American Hoodoo · 20th century to now
Rootworkers use candles shaped like cats, couples or skulls, double-action candles that are half black, and seven-day candles in glass. Practitioners read the soot, the leftover wax and the way the flame burns as signs of how the work is going.
Recorded in: catherine yronwode, How to Practice Hoodoo Candle Magic (Lucky Mojo Curio Co.)
History
Fire has carried prayers for as long as people have lit lamps. The Greek Magical Papyri, ritual handbooks copied in Roman Egypt between roughly the second century BCE and fifth century CE, include several lamp rites for seeing visions or calling a divine helper. In Catholic Europe, votive candles burned before saints, and that habit of lighting a candle to back a request passed directly into later folk practice in the Americas.
Candles only became cheap household goods in the nineteenth century. By the 1940s, Southern rootworkers had a fairly settled method, and mail-order booklets spread it. Henri Gamache, the pen name of Anne Fleitman, published The Master Book of Candle-Burning in 1942, and Mikhail Strabo's booklets of the same decade added altar layouts from New Thought and Spiritualist churches. The colour lists most people use today, green for money and red for love, come from this mid-century American literature rather than from antiquity.
