ALL GODS CANDLE BURNS

For example, purple is the color associated with the god Jupiter and represents power. As you watch the purple candle burn, you can reflect upon the role of power in your life. Are you empowered? Or is someone or something holding too much power over you?

Similarly, yellow is the color associated with the god Apollo and represents things like creativity and healing. During the candle burn, you may wish to focus on channeling more of these in your life. Red is the color of Mars and represents conflict—an unavoidable aspect of life that we all need to deal with. In this way, each color and each god can help you reflect on your own life...the good and the bad, the past, present and future.

Finding Comfort & Meaning through Candle Burning

My candle burning videos add a little peace, a little relaxation, to every day. Simply watch the candle melt by Vesta’s flame and lose yourself in the beautiful process.  We all need to take time out for ourselves each day to relax and stay grounded.

Yet if you want to bring a bit more meaning and purpose to this time, you might want to focus on the unique aspects of each candle’s color, which corresponds to the aspects of the ancient Roman god or goddess associated with it.

Because this is such a useful exercise, I’ve included specific pages for each candle’s color and its accompanying god (see below list). You can start with the first video - Jupiter, which you can burn for power and strength - or go to the candle / god whose aspects you feel most resonate with you right now.

Click on each color / god to visit that page. There, you’ll find a description of each god or goddess’s key aspects (e.g. wisdom, love, abundance, etc.) and some probing questions to ask yourself about each of these as you watch the accompanying candle burning video - after all, things like strength, creativity, wisdom, love, abundance and so on, are also aspects of our lives as human beings.

The Roman Gods - From Jupiter to Pluto

Greek mythology statues bathed in purple light, depicting various deities and figures with detailed carvings and classical attire.

Each god in the Roman pantheon was associated with a particular color.

Going a Step Further - Candle Reading

To add yet another layer of purpose and meaning to your god-specific or color-specific candle burn, you can also do a candle reading. Candle reading is an ancient divination practice that involves burning down a candle and looking for meaning in the melted wax, not unlike the way astrologers look for meaning in the stars. It is performed in various ways by many cultures and belief systems.

You can perform an informal candle reading by simply watching the wax movements and formations that you see in the candles as and after they burn. Do you see any shapes that have meaning to you?

Colorful melted candle wax with flames on black surface

Candle reading: look for meaning in the melted wax.

Keep a question in mind and look for the answers during the candle burn. These might come in the form of a sudden flare, a tenacious wax spike, a steady dripping or the formation of a dramatic wax river or pool. Use your intuition to observe and interpret what you see, and to find the answers you’re looking for. Make the screen full size and pause the video to closely study and consider the candle’s melting and read the wax as it changes. Depending on what is happening in your life, and on what issues or questions are on your mind, you will see different signs—different answers—in the wax.  That’s your intuition working.

Structured Candle Reading: An “Ancient” Formal Method Inspired by the Vestals

statue of a white Vestal holding a melting blue candle

Yet candle reading is a practice that can also be very formal and methodical.  When I began writing my historical fiction novels about the Vestal Virgins of ancient Rome, I realized that the Vestals—those priestesses charged with keeping the eternal flame alight in Vesta’s temple—would certainly have had their own secret and highly ritualized way of reading the sacred flame and the wood in its hearth to look for signs from the goddess.

And I also realized that the same method could be applied to candle burning and reading… after all, fire is fire, smoke is smoke, and just as wood shifts in the hearth, wax melts on a candle.

After great study, I therefore created my own method of fire and candle reading, one that has both historic and religious merit. To read more about this, visit the Candle Reading page. You’ll learn a bit more about divination and my Vestal-inspired method of candle reading. If you wish, you can even get me to perform a custom Vesta Candle Burn for you according to my strict protocols.

Vesta Candle Reading