"Congo Mystic candle"

1. 1Name what it is for, once and plainly.
2. 2Dress it if you are going to — oil first, then herb or powder.
3. 3Burn it somewhere level and out of the draft, and let it finish rather than relighting it across days.

Waxing moon to draw, waning to remove.

• Blowing it out instead of snuffing it.
• Setting it where it has to be moved. A candle is meant to end where it started.

Clean glass, steady flame, wax gone

Read as a working that met nothing in its way.

Black soot up one side

Read as resistance — traditionally taken as a sign to clear before setting another.

Soot at the top only

Usually just the wick catching up at the start. Read as nothing much.

Wax left in the bottom

Read as work unfinished — many practitioners set a second candle rather than relight this one.

The glass cracks

Read as force taken by the glass instead of by you. It is also what happens when a candle burns in a draft, and the tradition says to check that first.

Flame high and loud, then low

Read as a fast start against something slower underneath.

This is what the tradition looks for, not a diagnosis. A wick sits off-centre, a draft moves a flame, and glass is uneven — most of what a candle does, it does for ordinary reasons.