It looked so nice and neat when Lisa Simpson and her guests did it. One girl held the lit candle over a bowl of water, and the globule of wax dripping into the bowl turned instantly into the recognizable form of a paint brush, whereupon it settled to the bottom of the bowl. “A paintbrush?” the girl exclaimed incredulously. “The wax never lies” intoned Lisa portentously. In actual practice, it’s not that easy.
Because in the Northern Hemisphere of the planet we’re getting into what I think of as ‘candle season’, I thought now would be a good time to discuss candle wax divination. There are at least two ways of practicing candle divination. One way is to dress and empower a candle to answer a specific question. The candle is then burned down completely on a non-absorbent surface, such as a mirror, and the omen is drawn from the pattern of the candlewax left behind. Hearth Witch on YouTube has done a good video on this approach to candle wax divination.