Browse:Candle Colors Mixed (Volume 1, entries 2799–2800)
Candle Colors Mixed
Volume 1, entries 2799–2800. Source context: THE DOCTORS AT WORK: REPORTS FROM LAYMEN → SHRINES: ALTARS - CANDLES - SAINTS; NEW ORLEANS AREA → (2) CANDLES. Entries listed under this heading in the source volume.
Entries
Entry 2799
Yo' take a white candle an' yo' take a red candle. Yo' burn the white candle in the back an' de red candle in de front of yore place of business. Then yo'll take about - that oriental incense is the best - git about five piles of it an' yo' burn it, say fo' instance, in fo' corners of de house as near as yo' kin git. Say fo instance if the house got mo' den one room, say if it's three rooms, yo' put one in this corner an' one in dis corner [of the front room] an' one in the othah corner of the last room an' one in the othah corner [of the back room] an' put this fifth one in de middle [of the middle room]. [The two far corners of the front and back rooms, and the center of the middle room - these five points create a quincunx. The center of a crossroad is also a quincunx and a magic spot. See Quincunx, p.710.] Yo' understan' an' yo' burn that. That's supposed to bring the customers.
Entry 2800
For luck, you get some incense.
(To dress your house for luck?)
Yes, sir, some incense. Now, I've tried that. And get three candles - red, white and blue and burn them one hour apiece at night and pour some Lucky Heart Perfume on there, and that will make people come to your house.
(Lucky Heart Perfume?)
Yes.
(Where do you buy that? At the store - drug store?)
Yeah, in Memphis. There's a firm in Memphis has that. (Oh, I see. Well, how do you burn these three candles? Do you burn them all at once, or one and then the other?) You burn one - like you burn the red one tonight, the white one de next night and the blue the next. But you don't burn 'em but a hour at a time. Do that for nine nights.
(And what time do you light that candle?)
Light it when everybody is out of your room, gone, and don't let nobody in your room while it's burning.
(Do you light this at any particular time? Like nine o'clock or ten?)
Seven-thirty, if you kin get people out of de room, or else you gotta go to a higher number - nine-thirty or eleven-thirty.
(At night?)
Yes, sir.