Also called ceromancy, carromancy, wax pouring, lanie wosku
Pouring melted candle wax into cold water and reading the shapes it forms, a fortune-telling game best known from Polish St Andrew's Eve parties and Eastern European Christmas nights.
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Take care: Hot wax burns. Melt only small amounts, keep children back, never leave a flame or pan unattended, and never pour water onto hot wax or wax into a hot pan of water on the stove.
At Polish Andrzejki parties, young people pour hot candle wax through the hole of a key into cold water and read the result for hints of a future spouse. It sits alongside other games of the night, and similar St Andrew's Eve love divinations are known in Ukraine, Germany, Slovakia and Romania.
Wax pouring was widespread in old Russia and survives as part of the fortune-telling games of the Christmas season, when girls and families read shapes in wax for the year ahead.
A Filipino mangtatawas heats alum or drips candle wax into water and reads the shape to find the cause of an illness, such as a child's constant crying. The practitioner may then recommend a cleansing or offering. It is used as diagnosis, not as a party game.
Ceromancy takes its name from the Greek keros, wax, and manteia, divination. Pouring molten wax into water and reading the shapes is recorded in folk practice across Europe, and the antiquary John Brand noted such customs in his Observations on Popular Antiquities. It is a close cousin of molybdomancy, the German New Year's habit of pouring melted lead, which shares the same idea of reading shapes made by a sudden change of state.
The best-known living form is the Polish Andrzejki, held on the night of 29 to 30 November before the feast of St Andrew. The central game is pouring wax through the hole in a key into cold water and reading the shapes, often through their shadows. In Russia and Ukraine the same method belongs to the winter holiday fortune-telling season. It is a social game rather than a tested method of prediction, and part of the fun is arguing over what the shapes look like.
Peel an apple in one unbroken strip, throw it over your shoulder, and read the letter it makes on the floor as the initial of a future partner.
Naming two nuts for a couple and setting them side by side on the fire on Hallowe'en. If they burn quietly together the match is good; if they jump apart, it is not.
Melting a little tin (or wax) on New Year's Eve, tipping it into cold water and reading the year ahead from the shape it freezes into.
Tell us what you need and we will craft a custom spell, charm or reading for it. Or call to book a reading or a road blessing in person.
