"What Is...?" Wednesday

Sweetening Jar

This form of hoodoo spell casting is employed when you want to set up a powerful sweetening spell in a small place and keep it working for as long as you wish. Sweetening Jars are extremely convenient and one reason for their continued popularity is that although they can be worked on an altar like other forms of bottle spell, they can also be literally hidden in plain sight in a kitchen cabinet.

Hoodoo consists of a large body of African folkloric practices and beliefs with a considerable mixture of American Indian botanical knowledge and European folklore. Although most of its adherents are black, contrary to popular opinion, it has always been practiced by both whites and blacks in America. 


Other regionally popular names for hoodoo in the black community include "conjuration," "conjure," "witchcraft," "rootwork," and "tricking." The first three are simply English words; the fourth is a recognition of the pre-eminence that dried roots play in the making of charms and the casting of spells, and the fifth is a special meaning for a common English word.

The  Sweetening Jar Spell (or Honey Jar) is one of the oldest forms of bottle spell in the world. There are so many variations that it can be classified as  a "spell family." Most of them consist of a jar of sweetener into which you place the personal concerns of the person you want to influence, along with spiritually powerful magical herbs, wrapped in a name-paper or petition packet, and then burning a candle on top of the jar after dressing it with an appropriate ritual or conjure oil.

Ingredients:

a glass jar 

honey

a piece of paper
a pen or pencil
optional herbs for the "sweetening" purpose
a candle (a color corresponding to intent)
a candle-dressing ritual or conjure oil

~ Rub your ritual or conjure oil in an upward motion on the candle and then roll it in the herbal mixture you have prepared.

~ Get a small container of  honey, karo syrup, home-made brown sugar syrup or molasses... Place your candle in the center of the  empty jar, adhered by a few drops of wax in the bottom. Pour the sweetening liquid of your choice into a jar and fill it three quarters of the way up.

Next, prepare your paper, any type of paper, preferably white but just suit the style of your intent. Write the name of your object (person or situation) to be sweetened three times. Around the name you have written three times, write your hopes and wishes for the situation in a circle without removing your pencil or pen from the paper.

Roll or fold the paper and with your fingers, push it into the honey or sweetening substance in your jar, licking your fingers when you are through. (this spell also benefits you as well) Recite this phrase as you do this ""As this honey [or syrup] is sweet to me, so will I become sweet to_______." ( a name or situation)  Light the candle (do not leave it unattended) and let it burn and cover the honey in the jar until the candle burns down to the surface. (You can add a new candle to the top, every so often, until your intent is realized.

You can make jars for each person  or situation you want to sweeten if you’re working more elaborate spells on them, or keep one jar with lots of names in it for general sweetening. You can also make vinegar or “souring” jars, which is a form of Hexing.