The new moon keeps a dark and empty page, and on such a page a question may be written and given over to the night to answer.
This candle reaches toward counsel received in dream — the offering of a matter to the sleeping mind, which knows far more than the waking one will admit. Where the day’s clamor drowns all quiet knowing, sleep lets the true answer float at last to the surface.
The Working
- On the night of the new moon, write your question small and plain upon a slip of paper.
- Anoint a candle with a little oil, drawing it from crown to foot, and name the candle for your question.
- Fold the paper toward you and seal it shut with three drops of the candle’s melting wax.
- Set the sealed question beneath the candle’s holder and let the flame burn low while you make ready for sleep.
- Speak the incantation, then pinch out the flame and go straight to bed, keeping silence.
- Sleep with the sealed paper beneath your pillow, and on waking, before you rise, write down whatever the night has left you.
The Incantation
Dark of the moon, keep my question close,
carry it down where the deep mind wakes.
While I sleep, let the answer rise,
soft as wax, as a candle’s ghost.
Seal it in and sleep it through,
and give it back to me at dawn.
The dream may answer plainly or in riddle; write it whole before it flees, and its true sense will ripen through the waxing days.