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A Candle Question



I have a question maybe somebody out there knows the answer to. There’s a bar in town that I go to once in a while that’s like a “hip” young person’s type bar. On the tables, they have tall glass-encased candles, in the style of the ones that people use in Santeria or to pray to the saints in general. Except instead of saints on the candles, each one features a different sort of spell or situation to take advantage of. They might say things like “find a man” or “land a job” or “get revenge”, except they are written in much more clever language than that. They seem very well targeted to young urbanites with a taste for the unusual and the ironic. I guess they are technically probably neo-pagan or something, but they don’t really present themselves as such. In any event, I think the way they are done is very clever (in that it’s occult, but not too occult) and I’d love to figure out what company makes them. Has anybody seen these? Do you know what I’m talking about? Does anybody know this company’s website? Otherwise, I’m gonna have to take a trip down to the bar and check… which wouldn’t be the end of the world, I suppose.







5 Reader Responses

  1. twistedchick Says:
    September 1st, 2005 at 11:59 pm

    They’re not neo-pagan; they’re Santeria or Vodoun. You can find out more at your local neighborhood botanica, if you have one.

  2. Tim Boucher Says:
    September 2nd, 2005 at 12:00 am

    Thanks but I don’t have one. Do you happen to know the company that makes them? They didn’t seem specifically related to Santeria to me. What I meant is that they seem applicable in many traditions.

  3. hebrides Says:
    September 2nd, 2005 at 8:45 am

    Where are you? If this bar is in NYC, I’d love to know the name so I can check it out! I have a hunch I know which candles you’re talking about. They’re a little different than the regular Santeria and saint candles as the art is a little more cartoony and the prayers on the back are less religious sounding and a little bit more, shall we say, tacky(?). I’ve seen them at the grocery store in my neighborhood. I’ll swing by tonight when I get home and check the company name on the back.
    If you don’t wanna wait that long, I betcha for sure cat yronwode could tell ya who makes them–is there a way to e-mail her off her hoodoo site? I don’t remember.

    Anyway, I’m on it.

  4. Tim Boucher Says:
    September 2nd, 2005 at 12:46 pm

    yes thats them! no i’m not in new york. thanks for checking!

  5. Tim Boucher Says:
    September 4th, 2005 at 5:03 pm

    Hey, did you ever find the company that makes those candles?

    Oh wait, here we go. Cat Yronwode does indeed have these on her site:

    http://www.luckymojo.com/candles.html

    The one in the upper left hand corner are very similar to what I saw. Are those hoodoo candles? Man, I sure hate navigating her site.

    The ones I saw were just a little different. I would say more like these ones

    http://www.neworleansmistic.com/candles/hoodooFL.htm

    Except the drawings and presentation were like “hipper” if you know what I mean



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