Hoodoo Candle Colours: What Each Colour Was Burned For
This table sets out what each candle colour was burned for, in the words of the workers Hyatt recorded across the South between 1936 and 1940. Every row comes from an informant, with Hyatt’s own item number so you can go to the source.
The old workers did not treat colour as decoration. A candle was a helper with a job, and the colour told it which job: to draw, to hold, to drive off or to kill.
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| Colour | Used for | From the old workers |
|---|---|---|
| Black | Death. A black candle burned on a name was burned to kill. | “Now a black candle , that’s to kill you .” (Hyatt 2779 · New Orleans, La. · informant 845) |
| Black death candle | A tall black candle with the name signed nine ways, backwards. As the candle burns down, the person droops away with it. | “It was a tall candle – it was a black candle . They call that a death candle .” (Hyatt 2804 · New Orleans, La. · informant 879) |
| Black (the law) | Burned to keep the police away from the house. | “But chew burn de black candle tuh keep de police- man away .” (Hyatt 2794 · New Orleans, La. · informant 1572) |
| Black (a house) | Burned inside a house so that it would not rent and would stay unlucky. | “dey says that would keep it from being rented – make it very, very unlucky.” (Hyatt 2786 · Waycross, Ga. · informant 1116) |
| Black and purple | Burned together for devilment, to do harm to an enemy. | “a black and a purple candle, that for devilment to do anybody harm.” (Hyatt 10192 · New Orleans, La. · informant 814) |
| Red (victory) | To overcome something or someone, burned for a set run of days, often nine. | “Then the red candle is fo’ victory – jes’ lak ef yo’ wanta overcome somethin’, yo’ burn dat so many days, see, nine days.” (Hyatt 2778 · Mobile, Ala. · informant 695) |
| Red (strife) | Fusses, quarrels and fights. Other informants called red luck, blood or bloodshed: red was the most disputed colour. | “A red candle is fusses, quarrels and fights.” (Hyatt 2781 · Mobile, Ala. · informant 664) |
| Red (to come and stay) | Lit over a name paper written nine times in a saucer, to bring a person to you and keep them. | “Write a person’s name on a piece of paper nine times for them to come to stay, and put it in a saucer and light a red candle” (Hyatt 2824 · New Orleans, La. · informant 798) |
| White (peace) | Peace and happiness in the home; also burned for luck, purity and prosperity. | “And you burn a white candle , that’s happiness – peace and happiness in your home, you see.” (Hyatt 2780 · New Orleans, La. · informant 837) |
| White (success) | Burned with a wish before going after a job or any undertaking. | “you kin jest burn dis white candle fo’ success” (Hyatt 2777 · Mobile, Ala. · informant 676) |
| Red, yellow and white | For getting a job. The boss’s name is written on all three: white for success, yellow for money, red for the wish itself. | “One candle – de white candle is fo’ success and de yellah candle is fo’ money .” (Hyatt 2787 · Memphis, Tenn. · informant 948) |
| Green (money) | Money, and luck that comes as money. Also given to St. Expedite. | “Always yo’ bums a green candle fo’ money, understand.” (Hyatt 2905 · Mobile, Ala. · informant 667) |
| Green (speed) | Chosen because it works faster than white. Burned over a folded name paper to make a thief bring stolen goods back. | “Well, they do’s the work more quicker than the white – than those other can- dles.” (Hyatt 2790 · New Orleans, La. · informant 859) |
| Blue (true love) | Burned once a lover has been brought back, to keep the love true. | “a blue candle – that’s for true love .” (Hyatt 2911 · New Orleans, La. · informant 821) |
| Blue (the home) | Health and prosperity in the house. Also burned for peace, and for children. | “A blue candle is fo’ health an’ prosperity in de home.” (Hyatt 2905 · Mobile, Ala. · informant 667) |
| White and blue | Drawing a person in your favour, worked the same way as for a court case. White is truth, blue is true; the candle heads are bitten off before lighting. | “Get a white and blue candle – see , white is for truth and blue is true .” (Hyatt 2813 · New Orleans, La. · informant 820) |
| Blue and pink | To bring back a husband or wife who has gone. The name is written an odd number of times, the candles set in a drink the person liked and burned from the wrong end. | “like if a man’s wife is gone, or a woman’s hus- band gone, she takes a blue and a pink candle.” (Hyatt 2860 · New Orleans, La. · informant 822) |
| Pink (luck) | Good luck, success and a good time; also pink for drawing a woman to you. | “Said a pink candle fer good luck.” (Hyatt 2781 · Mobile, Ala. · informant 664) |
| Pink (the saints) | Given to the Mother of Perpetual Help and other saints, on set days of the week. | “Yo’ burn a pink candle to the Mother of Perpetual Help.” (Hyatt 3022 · New Orleans, La. · informant 1558) |
| Gold (money) | Burned to bring money into the home. | “An’ there is a gold candle dat chew kin burn that will bring money into the home.” (Hyatt 2786 · Waycross, Ga. · informant 1116) |
| Gold (to stay put) | Gilded candles burned three at a time until nine are done, so no one can move you out of your house. The informant grounded it in the Bible. | “An’ when yo’ have burnt de nine, yo’ll have perfect peace” (Hyatt 2776 · Memphis, Tenn. · informant 1556) |
| Purple | Wishes granted fast. Set to the Sacred Heart, or set with dragon’s blood scratched on a hot stove for luck. Also love affairs. | “You use a purple light to that saint and that’s to get your wishes right away, too.” (Hyatt 3066 · New Orleans, La. · informant 857) |
| Brown (stolen goods) | Burned on the name of a suspected thief, to make them come back and confess. | “You can put a brown candle, and they’ll come back and say they’ve taken it” (Hyatt 2791 · New Orleans, La. · informant 798) |
| Brown (St. Anthony) | Burned to St. Anthony, for work and for bread in the house. | “Use brown candles to St. Anthony, Thursdays an’ Tuesdays.” (Hyatt 2992 · Algiers, La. · informant 1577) |
| Grey | Burned against a person: five grey candles with the name under each, one a day, to confuse them, cost them their job, defeat their business and drain their strength. | “They goes to a woman across the creek over there right in front of the Catholic cemetery and they got five gray candles.” (Hyatt 2747 · Mobile, Ala. · informant 698) |
| Lavender (dark candle) | A near-black candle burned upside down on a thief’s name, with a key on a string, to get stolen goods back. | “it’s not a black one , it’s a lavender- looking candle but it looks like its black .” (Hyatt 2918 · New Orleans, La. · informant 832) |
| Man-shaped candle | A candle made in the shape of a man, burned a little at a time to run a rival away from a woman. | “I have seed de candle – it was made de shape of a man .” (Hyatt 2805 · Vicksburg, Miss. · informant 716) |
| Colour by complexion | Some workers matched the candle to the target rather than the job: white or green for a white man, red for a dark man, blue for a brown-skinned man. | “De red candle is fo’ a dark man” (Hyatt 2794 · New Orleans, La. · informant 1572) |
How the informants set and dressed a light
The name came first. It was written on the candle itself, often with a brand-new needle, three, seven or nine times, always an odd number. Written coming towards you, it draws. Written going away from you, or backwards, it sends off.
Or the name went on paper under the candle. The paper was folded towards you, set in a saucer and ringed with honey, sugar, cinnamon or drawing powder, and the light was set on top.
The candle was anointed before lighting. Informants named perfume, rose oil mixed with table salt, and van-van oil. For harder work a candle was set in whisky, wine or coffee the target liked, or burned with salt and spit.
To reverse a candle, workers cut off the top or bit off the head, trimmed the bottom and lit it from the wrong end, or burned it upside down. Reversed candles turn work back, send people away or bring stolen goods home.
Timing and the days of the week
Many workers burned for nine days, or three candles at a time until nine were done. Drawing work was set at eleven at night on the new moon; harmful work on the waning moon. Some set green lights only after sundown, others at noon.
Colours were also tied to days: white on Monday, green on Tuesday, yellow or blue on Wednesday. Saints had their own days and colours, and a light promised to a saint had to be given.
Learn the work
Hoodoo Witch Certification Course
The course teaches candle work as the old workers did it: choosing the colour, writing the name, dressing, setting and reversing a light.
Quotes from Harry Middleton Hyatt, Hoodoo – Conjuration – Witchcraft – Rootwork, 5 vols., 1970-1978, kept exactly as recorded. Numbers are Hyatt’s own item numbers.