[Setting Lights] Practical Candle Burning
Alright. So, you know how to create your Master Candles. You know how to create a Petitioner Candle. Now what do you do with them? I'm glad you asked.
The work described here is done with petitioner candles. As such, you don't even have to have been the one who made the candle - this may be one that you've gotten from a conjure(wo)man for some purpose. If they include instructions, pay attention to those - the mojo they've invested into your candle is going to react much more strongly if you use the techniques they give you. But failing that, or if you've made your own, here are a few ways to burn them.
Extinguishing Candles
Contrary to what you read in Llewellyn books, there is a reason in hoodoo to blow out a candle. Blowing it out "sends it on its way." If the lit candle is you allowing the mojo to "cook down some," then when you blow it out, you "serve what's been cooked." As such, if you blow out your candle before it's burned all the way down, there is some work left unfinished in the candle. Maybe that's okay - maybe you just need a little push.
But generally speaking, let the candle burn down to as low as it can get, and then blow it out, facing to the east if the candle is working to bring you something, or in the west if it is working to get rid of it. Then, bury the candle stub by your front porch or front door if you're looking to bring something in, or at a crossroads if you need to get rid of it (or if the working is for someone else).
If you need to extinguish the candle flame before it has burnt all the way down, do this by snuffing it (also called "covering it in") or by quickly pinching your fingers down over the wick (called "pincing it in"). In both cases, the mojo is basically forced back into the candle, to pick up where it left off. Traditional wisdom has that restarting the mojo requires rebuilding momentum - try and let your candles burn for at least an hour, and more is better, if you must extinguish them.
Basic Burning
The basic sort of burn when setting lights is simple. Place it in the part of the house most associated with the purpose of the candle - where you balance the checkbook or pay bills for prosperity candles, the bedroom for relationship candles, the kitchen, bedroom or hearth for health, and so on. Set it in a candlestick, light it, and then say a prayer for what it is that you need. Don't be afraid to ask for what you need and what you want - mojo doesn't measure your morality, your worthiness or your karma. It's like falling water - open the sluice, and more water falls through, no matter who you are. It is what it is. Some of the preferred prayers are indicated below
Let it burn all the way down. Remember to extinguish it properly.
When to Burn
If you're a little more focused, and want to pull on sources of mojo other than just what's in the candle, time your setting lights for when it's most auspicious. This might be done at a given day of the week, or a given hour of the day, or both. Some examples are included here, but you may need to research or consult with rootworkers for others.
- Financial Work: Green candle; Monday, Thursday or Saturday; 61st Psalm
- Healing Work: Blue candle; Sunday, Wednesday; various Psalms (1st against premature delivery, 3rd against headaches and back problems, 18th against incurable diseases, 119th for a huge variety of ills)
- Love Work: Red candle; Tuesday or Friday; 138th Psalm (for creating love), 139th Psalm (for increasing already-existing love) or 140th Psalm (for mending troubles in a relationship)
There are, of course, a huge variety of others.
Setting Twin Lights
Often, a conjurer will offer to "set twin lights" for someone - that is, stay in contact with the person, and either light their own Master Purpose candle at the same time the client lights theirs, or lights a second Petitioner's Candle.
This is a tremendously beneficial work, as the root doctor's mojo is not only working double, but it is also working in an active way, as compared to the much-more passive work that the mojo invested in a Petitioner's Candle brings.
Burning Atop a Foundation
One of the other techniques involves laying something down on the altar or workspace before lighting the candle, in order to focus and enhance the mojo being "cooked" by the candle. Some examples include:
- Petition or Name Paper: A piece of parchment with one's wish written on it, and surrounded by symbols appropriate to the work. If the work is being done for someone else, this paper often has their name on it. In either instance, the paper is anointed in the five-dot pattern (like the five-pips on a die) with the proper dressing oil.
- Crossroads Powder: Using a sachet/blowing powder of the proper type, lay down an X with a circle around it, then place the candlestick right in the center of that X. In each of the four quarters made by that pattern, you might place something else mentioned here.
- Money: Surrounding the candle with coins, or placing bills beneath the candle, this is a good use of prosperity magic. Write your name on bills, and anoint both coins and bills with dressing oil. When the candle is all used up, go out and spend that money immediately - it'll go into the world, and come back to you, bringing some of its friends with it. (Don't be surprised if you start receiving money with other peoples names on it when you use this technique; like attracts like. Add your name to the money, reanoint it, and send it back out into the world.)
- Talismans: Placing a necklace or some similar piece of jewelry around the candlestick to help boost the mojo. Anoint it with the proper dressing oil, then when the candle is done, wear the talisman to keep the mojo with you. Anoint it weekly, on a day appropriate to the work it was used it. Though you can reuse it for work of the same kind, NEVER reuse it for a different kind; otherwise, the different kinds of mojo muddy one another out.
- Herbs, Roots and Minerals: Particularly good if you're going to be making a mojo hand, let your candle burning "open the way" to a bigger working than either setting lights or making a hand alone. Place the herbs, roots, minerals and other ingredients going into your hand around the candlestick, or in the quarters of the X if you use the Crossroads Powder suggestion above. Then, when the candle is done, use those to make the mojo hand.
There are many, many more techniques, tricks and little additions to what is a very, very broad craft. I'd love to hear some you've encountered!
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by Elise on -
I'm not sure where to put that question, but I think this thread is the best...
Can the candles' proximity affect how fast they're going to burn down?
I'm asking this because today I did a candle burning for my spouse Korb, and the candles went down extremely fast... I used chime candles - I've been using them for five years, and I know their average burning time is a little over two hours, without fail.
But Korb's setup all burned down *within* ONE hour. AND, the flames were all leaning to the right - even though there was no draft.
And so before going off in the directions of omens, I'm looking at physics, for which I am hopelessly null. Could it be that when candles are too close together, they melt faster?
Here is the setup:
-
-
Permalink Reply by Alorer (The Gecko) on -
They really don't look close enough for such small flames to make them burn faster.. Even tealights *right* next to each other don't burn faster. It would require a smaller candle very close to a bigger one and in that case, the bigger candle would have melted mid-way.. not together.
The identical leaning of ALL the flames, even the Master Candle's (sic?) is quite bizarre.. And doesn't fit any physical reason I can think of. Perhaps others may have ideas as to why these things happened.
Elise said:I'm not sure where to put that question, but I think this thread is the best...
Can the candles' proximity affect how fast they're going to burn down?
I'm asking this because today I did a candle burning for my spouse Korb, and the candles went down extremely fast... I used chime candles - I've been using them for five years, and I know their average burning time is a little over two hours, without fail.
But Korb's setup all burned down *within* ONE hour. AND, the flames were all leaning to the right - even though there was no draft.
And so before going off in the directions of omens, I'm looking at physics, for which I am hopelessly null. Could it be that when candles are too close together, they melt faster?
Here is the setup:
-
-
Permalink Reply by VLM on -
It could be something... BUT I do have to disagree with Stef here..
I make candles. A LOT of things affect how they burn. When we buy them in the store, 99% of the time the manufacturer has used whatever they could get the best price on, in terms of wax and wick.
If the wick is slightly (and I mean not even enough to really tell by eye,) thicker, the candle can burn MUCH faster. if the dye to wax ratio is different, it can affect the burning. The quality of the wax itself (which changes with each batch usually) does as well... If the wick or quality is vastly different from "ideal," then it can lead to either smoke, or dripping, where-as if it's close but not perfect it simply affects the burn time.
However in this case, there must have been a draft. You may not have perceived it, but the fact that all the candles have the identical "lean" to the right says that there's a little bit of air flow.
Add air flow, means an increase in the oxygen they get, means a faster burn time.
Lastly, their proximity can indeed affect their burn times as well. If they're closer, then the wax can melt faster. In the case of tea lights, they are really too wide across for the small flames to affect each other, but in the case of "normal" candles, they could indeed affect the burn, especially of the ones in the middle (which would get additional heat from all sides.)
So *maybe* you had something else cause it.. but from the picture and your description, it sounds more like environmental variables.
-
-
Permalink Reply by Elise on
-
I'm glad to hear that... I have to say that the end result was an incredible (and never seen before) mess of melted wax, all on the right side. Wax I intend to keep and make a sachet out of for Korb.
The leaning is going straight toward the South, by the way.
And yes, I should have mentionned, that white candle is my current Master Candle. :)
Alorer Stefanos (The Gecko) said:
They really don't look close enough for such small flames to make them burn faster.. Even tealights *right* next to each other don't burn faster. It would require a smaller candle very close to a bigger one and in that case, the bigger candle would have melted mid-way.. not together.
The identical leaning of ALL the flames, even the Master Candle's (sic?) is quite bizarre.. And doesn't fit any physical reason I can think of. Perhaps others may have ideas as to why these things happened.
Elise said:I'm not sure where to put that question, but I think this thread is the best...
Can the candles' proximity affect how fast they're going to burn down?
I'm asking this because today I did a candle burning for my spouse Korb, and the candles went down extremely fast... I used chime candles - I've been using them for five years, and I know their average burning time is a little over two hours, without fail.
But Korb's setup all burned down *within* ONE hour. AND, the flames were all leaning to the right - even though there was no draft.
And so before going off in the directions of omens, I'm looking at physics, for which I am hopelessly null. Could it be that when candles are too close together, they melt faster?
Here is the setup:
-
-
Permalink Reply by Alorer (The Gecko) on
-
That's why it's always best to get multiple opinions on a given subject! :D Thanks for the clarifications Shawn, I never thought the quality of the wax and wick could affect the burn time. :)
-
-
Permalink Reply by VLM on
-
ah hah! :) So if you see what I said before about wicks, this really does point to the wicks being the wrong size, combined with a slight breeze, even something you couldn't perceive on your skin.If it smokes, it's too large, if it drips, the wick is too small... This is to clarify my earlier statement.
Elise said:I'm glad to hear that... I have to say that the end result was an incredible (and never seen before) mess of melted wax, all on the right side. Wax I intend to keep and make a sachet out of for Korb.
The leaning is going straight toward the South, by the way.
And yes, I should have mentionned, that white candle is my current Master Candle. :)
Alorer Stefanos (The Gecko) said:
They really don't look close enough for such small flames to make them burn faster.. Even tealights *right* next to each other don't burn faster. It would require a smaller candle very close to a bigger one and in that case, the bigger candle would have melted mid-way.. not together.
The identical leaning of ALL the flames, even the Master Candle's (sic?) is quite bizarre.. And doesn't fit any physical reason I can think of. Perhaps others may have ideas as to why these things happened.
Elise said:I'm not sure where to put that question, but I think this thread is the best...
Can the candles' proximity affect how fast they're going to burn down?
I'm asking this because today I did a candle burning for my spouse Korb, and the candles went down extremely fast... I used chime candles - I've been using them for five years, and I know their average burning time is a little over two hours, without fail.
But Korb's setup all burned down *within* ONE hour. AND, the flames were all leaning to the right - even though there was no draft.
And so before going off in the directions of omens, I'm looking at physics, for which I am hopelessly null. Could it be that when candles are too close together, they melt faster?
Here is the setup:
-
-
Permalink Reply by Elise on
-
Taking good notes, Shawn, especially as I have a mind to make my own candles at some point in the future (once I finish using up my current stash LOL).
Shawn said:
ah hah!
So if you see what I said before about wicks, this really does point to the wicks being the wrong size, combined with a slight breeze, even something you couldn't perceive on your skin.If it smokes, it's too large, if it drips, the wick is too small... This is to clarify my earlier statement.
-
-
Permalink Reply by Luna Starshine on -
Quick question about wicks, if it's okay here? I refill my novena candles with container palm wax, and I'm using wick from a spool that I bought at Hobby Lobby. It didn't really specify a size, but it is a flat braid wick. Primed it in wax, positioned it. Let my candle sit and cool for 24 hours before lighting, trimmed the wick, and the flame was still huge. It smoked for about 5 minutes and then no more smoking, and although the flame stayed huge, it is burning just fine, with no smoking and no problems whatsoever. Any reason why it would do that?
VLM said:
ah hah! :) So if you see what I said before about wicks, this really does point to the wicks being the wrong size, combined with a slight breeze, even something you couldn't perceive on your skin.If it smokes, it's too large, if it drips, the wick is too small... This is to clarify my earlier statement.
Elise said:I'm glad to hear that... I have to say that the end result was an incredible (and never seen before) mess of melted wax, all on the right side. Wax I intend to keep and make a sachet out of for Korb.
The leaning is going straight toward the South, by the way.
And yes, I should have mentionned, that white candle is my current Master Candle. :)
Alorer Stefanos (The Gecko) said:
They really don't look close enough for such small flames to make them burn faster.. Even tealights *right* next to each other don't burn faster. It would require a smaller candle very close to a bigger one and in that case, the bigger candle would have melted mid-way.. not together.
The identical leaning of ALL the flames, even the Master Candle's (sic?) is quite bizarre.. And doesn't fit any physical reason I can think of. Perhaps others may have ideas as to why these things happened.
Elise said:I'm not sure where to put that question, but I think this thread is the best...
Can the candles' proximity affect how fast they're going to burn down?
I'm asking this because today I did a candle burning for my spouse Korb, and the candles went down extremely fast... I used chime candles - I've been using them for five years, and I know their average burning time is a little over two hours, without fail.
But Korb's setup all burned down *within* ONE hour. AND, the flames were all leaning to the right - even though there was no draft.
And so before going off in the directions of omens, I'm looking at physics, for which I am hopelessly null. Could it be that when candles are too close together, they melt faster?
Here is the setup:
-
© 2015 Created by Steve Paine.
