In both Catholicism and Voudou, candles are lit for prayerful intentions; the flame holds the intention and symbolizes the prayer. There are numerous descriptions of Marie Laveau’s altars illuminated with candles, and we even learn from witnesses how she lit her candles. She poured a liquid with high alcohol content into a saucer and “ignited it with a match . . . then, she took candle after candle, plunged them into the burning alcohol, and distributed them around, muttering mysteriously all the while” (Times Daily Picayune 1890, 10). Similarly, today’s conjure workers pour Florida Water in a dish and ignite it. The burning blue flame of the alcohol is used to light the candles in the case of tapers and to cleanse the glass-encased variety with fire.
A power up to any kind of candle working that marries Catholicism and conjure is to light a candle in a Catholic Church at the same time you are setting a light for healing or blessing for a client. Anyone can light a candle in a Catholic Church, so don’t be shy should the need arise. The flame will represent you and your prayerful intention long after you leave the church. Candles are used in all altar work and in the petitioning of saints.
When working with the saints, you will find the candle color corresponds with the clothing worn in the classic iconography. For example, artistic depictions show St. Anthony as typically wearing a brown robe; thus, his candle color is brown. Likewise, St. Jude’s robe is green and so his candle color is green. One hard-and-fast rule is that when in doubt or when lacking a candle in a particular color, substitute a white candle for any other color. Just roll that white candle in some herbs, powders, and conjure oil, put your intention into that candle, and it will be every bit as effective.
A power up to any kind of candle working that marries Catholicism and conjure is to light a candle in a Catholic Church at the same time you are setting a light for healing or blessing for a client. Anyone can light a candle in a Catholic Church, so don’t be shy should the need arise. The flame will represent you and your prayerful intention long after you leave the church. Candles are used in all altar work and in the petitioning of saints.
When working with the saints, you will find the candle color corresponds with the clothing worn in the classic iconography. For example, artistic depictions show St. Anthony as typically wearing a brown robe; thus, his candle color is brown. Likewise, St. Jude’s robe is green and so his candle color is green. One hard-and-fast rule is that when in doubt or when lacking a candle in a particular color, substitute a white candle for any other color. Just roll that white candle in some herbs, powders, and conjure oil, put your intention into that candle, and it will be every bit as effective.
Like sweeteners, candle color was also associated with race in the past. White or pink candles would be burned to represent white people, while red represented brown folks. There are some references to the use of red candles to represent black folks and blue candles to represent brown folks in the Hyatt texts (e.g., Hyatt 1970, 1:801). Black candles were reserved for enemies without regard for race. It’s a simple concept to follow, and these types of little tweaks were believed to enhance workings and even speed them up in certain cases. In this way, the old-timers followed concepts of imitative magick and the law of similarity in their conjure work.
A final tip regarding candles from Marie Laveau. If you use taper candles or votives, save the nubs and wax remains when they burn down to add to your gris gris, unless the working specifically calls for disposal. As one witness to a Laveau Voudou ceremony observed, “the candles had burnt into tiny bits which were religiously preserved as potent factors in the gris gris” (Times Picayune 1890, 10).
A final tip regarding candles from Marie Laveau. If you use taper candles or votives, save the nubs and wax remains when they burn down to add to your gris gris, unless the working specifically calls for disposal. As one witness to a Laveau Voudou ceremony observed, “the candles had burnt into tiny bits which were religiously preserved as potent factors in the gris gris” (Times Picayune 1890, 10).
TO MAKE A LOST PERSON RETURN HOME
This working comes from a New Orleans practitioner referred to as Gifted Medium in Hyatt’s Hoodoo-Conjuration-Witchcraft-Rootwork Volume 2. The work is supposed to find someone who is lost and bring back someone who is desired. For this working you will need the following:
Write the name of “the individual that desires de party” three times in a straight line on a piece of paper. Under the individual’s name write the target’s name three times. Set the paper under the plate and fix the red candle to the plate by allowing some wax to drip on the plate and sticking the candle onto the wax until it hardens and is securely in place. Then pour some sugar around the candle, add some raisins and on top of that, sprinkle some magnetic sand. This candle should be lit at nine o’clock in the morning. As it burns, you should call out the desired person’s name three times, telling them to come home. Then at three o’clock in the afternoon, set the white candle on the plate and again, call out the desired person’s name three times, telling them to come home. Lastly, at six o’clock in the afternoon, add the blue candle and repeat. Allow the candles to burn down. When the candles are finished burning, put the remnants of the work in a paper bag and bury under your front steps or front yard. If the working was performed for another person, give the bag of remnants to the person and instruct them to do the same. If you live in an apartment building or someplace without a yard, place the remnants in a red flannel bag and carry it on your person until the desired person returns home.
- Red, white and blue taper candles, one each
- Sugar
- Raisins
- Magnetic sand
- Fireproof saucer
Write the name of “the individual that desires de party” three times in a straight line on a piece of paper. Under the individual’s name write the target’s name three times. Set the paper under the plate and fix the red candle to the plate by allowing some wax to drip on the plate and sticking the candle onto the wax until it hardens and is securely in place. Then pour some sugar around the candle, add some raisins and on top of that, sprinkle some magnetic sand. This candle should be lit at nine o’clock in the morning. As it burns, you should call out the desired person’s name three times, telling them to come home. Then at three o’clock in the afternoon, set the white candle on the plate and again, call out the desired person’s name three times, telling them to come home. Lastly, at six o’clock in the afternoon, add the blue candle and repeat. Allow the candles to burn down. When the candles are finished burning, put the remnants of the work in a paper bag and bury under your front steps or front yard. If the working was performed for another person, give the bag of remnants to the person and instruct them to do the same. If you live in an apartment building or someplace without a yard, place the remnants in a red flannel bag and carry it on your person until the desired person returns home.
TO GET SOMEONE OUT OF THE HOUSE
This ritual was reported to Zora Neale Hurston in her seminal work Mules and Men by a conjure doctor in New Orleans known as Father Watson, the “Frizzly Rooster.” The working was recommended to a woman who had come to him complaining of “too many women in my house. My husband’s mother is there, and she hates me and always puttin’ my husband up to fight me. Look like I can’t get her out of my house no ways I try. So, I done come to you” (Hurston 1935, 219).
After reassuring her, the Frizzly Rooster told her to do the following. Take a flat onion if the person you want to move is a woman, and a sharppointed onion if it is a man and core the onion out. Write the person’s name five times on a piece of paper and stuff it into the hole of the onion, closing it up with the piece you just cut out.
Pay attention to the goings-on of the person and when they are leaving the house. One day, roll the onion behind them before anyone else crosses the doorway. As you are rolling the onion, make a wish for the person to leave the house. That evening take a red candle and burn it just enough to melt the tip. Cut the candle into three parts and place them in a glass of holy water. At midnight, go to the door of your target’s home. Holding the glass in front of you, say, “In the name of the Father, in the name of the Son, in the name of the Holy Ghost.” Shake the glass three times violently up and down, and after the last shake throw the glass to the ground and break it. Say, “Dismiss this person from this place!” When you leave that person’s home, return to your home via a different route than the one you took to get there. That person should be gone within two weeks.
After reassuring her, the Frizzly Rooster told her to do the following. Take a flat onion if the person you want to move is a woman, and a sharppointed onion if it is a man and core the onion out. Write the person’s name five times on a piece of paper and stuff it into the hole of the onion, closing it up with the piece you just cut out.
Pay attention to the goings-on of the person and when they are leaving the house. One day, roll the onion behind them before anyone else crosses the doorway. As you are rolling the onion, make a wish for the person to leave the house. That evening take a red candle and burn it just enough to melt the tip. Cut the candle into three parts and place them in a glass of holy water. At midnight, go to the door of your target’s home. Holding the glass in front of you, say, “In the name of the Father, in the name of the Son, in the name of the Holy Ghost.” Shake the glass three times violently up and down, and after the last shake throw the glass to the ground and break it. Say, “Dismiss this person from this place!” When you leave that person’s home, return to your home via a different route than the one you took to get there. That person should be gone within two weeks.
TO MAKE A MAN COME HOME
This is a bare bones ritual described by Zora Neale Hurston in her book, Mules and Men, meaning Hurston omitted details needed to perform it successfully. As a result, I have filled in the blanks to complete the ritual. To cause a man to return home, take nine red or pink candles and wash them with Essence of Van Van. Then, inscribe his name on each candle using a brand-new nail. Create nine name papers as described in the Bottle Spells and Container Spells section where you write the man’s name three times, turn the paper 90 degrees to the right and write your name over the man’s name. Place the name papers under the candles, and light three candles at seven o’clock, three at nine o’clock, and three at eleven o’clock. As you light each candle, call out the man’s name three times, compelling him to return home. Allow the candles to burn down and when they are finished, place the ritual remains in a paper bag and bury it under the front steps of your home, or in your front yard.
