Money Magic and Ceromancy

During my stay here in Seattle, I made my way over to Edge of the Circle, and picked up some "Fast Luck Oil" and a money candle, and finally got a proper incense for Sekhmet from Rosarium Blends.

I'll admit, this was going to be my first time doing money magic, and while my finances have been good here, they could be better. So I decided to give it a shot.

 I did my work on Sunday, during the hour of Jupiter. Carved the symbol of Jupiter into the candle, dressed the candle with my Fast Luck oil, prayed my intentions of what avenues I wanted used to grant me the money I wanted (you know, not having someone die and leave me money, that sort of thing)

The candle burned oddly compared to other candles I've burnt. The other candles I've burnt have mainly been offerings to gods, and spirits. They seem to get eaten right up, down to almost the last drop of wax. It just evaporates as if the candle was never there. I honestly thought that this was typical of candles, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

This time, the candle I burned melted into a puddle. This was so strange to me, that I looked it up. I was sure it had to mean "something" other than "oh, my candle melted into a puddle and all the wax is still here) And after a little research I discovered a form of divination called Ceromancy, or the art of reading candles/candle wax. There seems to be a couple of forms of this. One form involves "reading" the candle as it burns, and watching signs of things like smoke, crackling, speed of melting, how the candle melts, when the candle burns out, etc. The other involves taking hot candle wax and dripping it into some cold water, and reading the shapes the wax take.

I'd actually been doing some of this for a long time, and never knew that there was a word for it. I'd watch the candles and "read" them for any signs the gods/spirits might have been trying to tell me. How quickly the candle burned, how easily it lit, how much of the candle was left over.. to me these things told me important things about how the spirit was accepting the offering, if they were accepting it. If it was sluggish, I noted what planetary hour I was doing my offerings in, and considered that it may have been a poor hour for working with them.

Now that I know that there's an actual word for this, and much more to reading candles than I have currently learned, I'm planning on learning much more about this art. It's quite useful, and the better I can understand it, the better my workings will be.