Glass Encased Vigil Candles

[SunKat]

Although special-use figural candles are still very popular with African-Americans and "The Master Book of Candle Burning" is still in print, since the 1970s, the old Jewish-style offertory candles have shared shelf space in hoodoo curio shops with "vigil candles" modelled after tall, glass-enclosed Catholic-style novena candles. In short, a merger between hoodoo and Catholic candle burning traditions has been effected.

Catholic novena candles bear colourful paper saint image labels, and many hoodoo vigil lights are similarly decorated. (Others are printed with one-colour line-art and hand-lettered text silk-screened directly onto the glass.) The text and images found on vigil candles are typically the same as those used in hoodoo formulae for anointing oils, including Fast Luck, Uncrossing, Compelling, Money House Blessing, and the like.

While hoodoo glass encased vigil lights still retain such traditional African-American titles as Fast Luck and John the Conqueror, some have been outfitted with partial or complete Spanish translations of their names or intended manner of use. In addition, the makers of silkscreened hoodoo candles may carry a Mayan item such as the chuparrosa love candle and they might add a Santeria line with special colours and designs for the orishas or their Catholic saint equivalents.

The evolving form of hoodoo candles has not greatly affected the traditional system of colour symbolism, although under the influence of Santeria's Catholic heritage, which invokes the brown-robed Saint Anthony as the finder of lost things and returner of lost lovers, brown candles, formerly used for court cases, are now also employed for the return of that which is lost. Glass containers make it easy to pour two-, three-, and even seven-layer candles -- which led to the development of multi-colour symbolism.

Probably the most popular of the multi-colour glass encased 7-day vigil candles is the red-and-black Reversible candle for returning evil to the one who sent it. This is simply a modification of the old standby two-colour free-standing jumbo altar candle called "Double Action," which is still manufactured and still quite popular. However, other multi-coloured candles are only found in glass encased form, among them the seven-colour Lucky Prophet Lafin [sic] Buddha Brand All Purpose Novena Candle which grants "7 desires" to the user.

The practice of dressing candles with anointing oils and magic herbs had to be modified considerably to accommodate the new 7-day vigil candles. Since the sides of a glass encased candle cannot be rubbed, it is now customary for the retailer rather than the user to dress the candle. This is done by poking holes into the top of the candle with a nail (preferably a coffin nail) and then dripping an appropriate anointing oil and magic herbs into these holes, sometimes finishing off the top with symbolically coloured glitter. This technique leaves the customer in danger of spilling the dressing oil while carrying the candle home, so in many stores the dressed candle is covered with a plastic sandwich bag or cling wrap, held in place by a rubber band.

The introduction of glass encased candles also necessitated modifications in spells designed to be worked over a length of time. The old pin or needle measuring technique, described above, cannot be used on glass encased candles, so timed burning or measuring the glass into sections with a marking-pen has taken the place of needles or pins among people who prefer the glass encased candles. This serves to weaken the practitioner's involvement in the spell, however, because there are no pins or needles left over to make the crosses and double crosses prescribed in the older workings. A glass encased candle spell therefore takes on a slightly "ritual" or "religious" tone, in that one's desires and wishes are expected to do the work alone, as contrasted to an offertory candle spell, in which the manipulation of magical objects -- candle, flame, paper, herbs, and needles or pins -- is integral to doing the job.