At the witching hour the day has died and the next is not yet born, and a black candle burns in that no-man’s-land like a small and willing sacrifice.
This working asks a candle to stand in your stead, to take upon its wick the grievances of a year and burn them down to a cold grey pool. It is a slow accounting — each burden named aloud as the flame lowers — until nothing is left alight, and nothing is left for you to carry.
The Working
- At midnight, ring a circle of salt upon a plate and stand the black candle at its center.
- Light the wick from a match struck only once.
- Ring the bell thrice to call the hour to witness.
- As the flame settles, name each burden of the year, one by one, into the light.
- Sit with the candle and let it burn without hurry toward its own extinction.
- When the flame at last drowns in its wax, sweep the salt away without touching the cold remains.
- Carry the spent wax and swept salt past your gate and leave them where you need not pass again.
The Incantation
Little flame, burn low and true,
I give this weary year to you.
Take each grief and take each slight,
eat them down and dim your light.
When you gutter, when you’re gone,
I am lightened, I go on.
The spell is sealed when the flame drowns itself in wax, and released when the cold remains are carried beyond your gate at first light.