Following the success of our St. Nicholas group rituals over the past two years, as well as the monthly group rituals we perform for members of our Esteemed Initiate tier on our podcast’s Patreon, I decided to offer another candle service to capture the strength and potency of this feast. I am hoping to do one of these per Ember Day, on the encouragement of my spirits, who already drive me to do this kind of work for myself during these cycles. It would be my great pleasure to make this work available to many more beyond just myself and my closest friends, on whose behalf I have prayed and offered these petitions over the years.
The following is an outline of the work done for each petition submitted:
The general style of this working was to identify obstacles via intuition, augury, and somatic knowing, as well as the removal of these obstacles and the opening of novel paths to success such that the best plans for the next three months are identified and followed up on. In keeping with the folklore of the day and turning to the weather as a primary divinatory tool, it was warm and dry throughout for this time of year, with a few scattered clouds appearing only in the later evening – fortunate omens for a similarly warm and mild winter with middling snow, and few obstacles on the horizon for which there will be ample warning. In cementing these omens through their exhalation, much like the holy cross itself, I called on my spirits to commune with the prevailing spirits of the winds and weather of this time and deliver the fortunate omens and effects directly to their petitioners.
At the stations of the day, I lit a candle to bear witness to each of the events and omens, eventually culminating in translating this fire to a central seven blessed candles on my working altar. I then used these flames, under the watchful eyes of both the cross and St. Lucy as the temporal guardians framing this period (using two images of St. Lucy in a nod to her multiplicity in the regions from which this folklore comes), to light a blessed and anointed candle in each of the names submitted to the rite. I spent the evening in prayer, vision, and ecstatic flight, mediating and protecting each blessing that was sent forth into the cacophony of wind and weather spirits that saturate the world this day.
Each candle was named for those who purchased their spot in the rite, anointed with a blend of my personal oils for clear sight, road opening, and success drawing. The candles themselves were lit twice, being extinguished once to put out any potential road blocks that might come in their transference, and then conjured again to stand tall for the rest of the ritual. Seals of protection, road opening, and success drawing were drawn over my working table in chalk consecrated on Three King’s Day, and then covered completely in a blend of barley and wheat berries themselves charmed to bring fertility and maximize prosperity and abundance.
Once all were lit and the incense was burning strong, I performed the rest of the rite through ecstatic flight, going forth alongside the spirits conjured to track the blessings to each named petition. The blessings conveyed are to empower your ability to focus on the most fortunate path forward in your creative, professional, social, and spiritual life leading up to the feast of St. Lucy on December 13th, and further capitalize on all blessings coming your way throughout. Much of my personal witchcraft is carried out in flight, and here each light served as the lantern to guide my spirits to the hearths they were conjured to tend to and empower.
Thank you all so much for your trust in doing this work for you! I will be hosting another rite on St. Lucy’s day, which will be announced in early December.
