Yellow Beeswax Taper Candles (Set of 12)

Sinderella's note

Yellow is the sun's color, sinner — the color of the thought you haven't said yet, the list you're going to write at the new moon, the flame you light at noon on the longest day of the year. I keep a box of yellow tapers in the kitchen drawer. Unscented. Plain. Beeswax if you can get them. Light one every time you need to think through something important. They know what they're for.

The long version

Yellow is the sun's color. In folk Catholic and Mediterranean candle magic, color does work — each color is a direction, a saint, a request made in visual shorthand. Yellow is the intellect, the will, the sun's power at its highest, the prayer offered at noon. Gold is richer — gold is for the achievement, the work you've been building toward. In practice, yellow and gold tapers serve the same function: they are the sun's candle. When Sinderella lights a yellow taper it's almost always for one of three things: a new moon intention-setting (yellow for the thought that hasn't been spoken yet), a summer solstice working (yellow for the peak of the sun's power), or a communication prayer — the writing that needs to flow, the conversation that's been stuck, the question she's been afraid to think through all the way. The practical product: a standard set of 12-inch unscented taper candles in yellow or gold. Beeswax burns cleaner and costs more; standard paraffin tapers work fine for about $12 for a set of twelve. The important thing is the color. An unscented taper doesn't compete with the candle's purpose. Saint John the Baptist (whose feast falls June 24, the traditional counterpart to the summer solstice) has been associated with gold in folk Catholic practice since the old church was young. Light one for him on the feast day. Light one for the work on every other day. Saint Lucy for the light in the dark.