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From: catherine yronwode <cat@luckymojo.com>
Newsgroups: alt.lucky.w,alt.magick.tyagi,alt.paranormal.spells.hexes.magic,alt.magick
Subject: Re: candle magic
Date: Wed, 05 Aug 1998 09:56:23 -0800
Organization: Lucky Mojo Curio Co.
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Vbell2623 wrote:
> 
> What is an Astral Candle & a Petitioner's Candle?
> Where can I purchase them?
> 
> Thanks

In hoodoo and conjure that has been influenced by European ceremonial
magic, an astral candle is a candle deemed appropriate to symbolize a
person due to its being coloured and dressed according to the
astrological symbolism of the sun-sign of the person whom it is intended
to represent. For instance, a blue-green candle might represent a person
born with the sun in Scorpio. It would be dressed with Scorpio Oil. The
system of using astral or astrologically-based candles to represent the
sun-sign of a person was popularized by Henri Gamache in his famous
1940s work "The Master Book of Candle Burning." Candles marketed as
astral candles can be purchased anywhere that occult supplies are sold.
Often they are simple 6" offertory candles dressed with astrologically
symbolic oils or marked with an astrological symbol. You can make them
up yourself. 

The petitioner's candle is the candle that represents the person asking
for the work to be done (either the client of a conjure-worker or a
person working a spell for him or herself). For example, if i wish to
burn candles to draw a man sexually close to me, i might use two candles
-- an astral one for his sun-sign (say, blue-green for Scorpio) and a
red one (for passion) for me. The red one in that case would be the
petitioner's candle, because i am the petitioner. Regular 6" offertory
candles are often used for this purpose.

Many practitioners of candle work (myself included) never use astral
candles -- instead, names are carved on the candles to personalize them.
The traditional way is to carve the name in a spiral around the candle
-- like a barber's pole. 

To return to the case of my wishing to draw a certain man close to me, i
personally would use two red candles (so that our passion would be equal
in intensity) and i would carve his full name on one candle and mine on
the other. The fact that he is a Scorpio and i am a Taurus would not be
my first chopice in personal symbolism (there are hundreds of millions
of Scorpios and as many Tauruses in the world), so i would use other
things to symbolize him -- for instance, since through his name he
personally is associated with snakes, i would get one of those cute
dime-store plastic snakes and place it at the base of his candle. And
since through my name i am associated with cats, i might place a small
figure of a cat at the base of my candle. Thus, instead of the slightly
impersonal symbolism of Scorpio and Taurus, i would be using the
name-symbolism of snake-boy and cat-girl. 

If i wanted (in this example, not in real life!) to completely rule,
dominate, and control this man, i know JUST the additional symbol i
would use to further that end: it is an ancient Egyption papyrus drawing
of a feral tabby cat with a captured snake in her mouth! I have it in a
book and i could get a colour copy made of it. I would place that
picture on the altar between the two candles and every day draw them
closer together until they met atop that image. When they met and
touched and burned to the end, the cat would have captured the snake.

Hmmmm. Good thing i am not into spells of domination and control. 

:-)

cat-girl (thinking about it, though...)  

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