Quick Specs
- Type: Tea light candles, each in its own metal cup
- Color: Purple
- Pack: 50 tea lights
- Burn time: Over 2 hours
- Height: 0.5 inch
- Scent: Unscented
Fifty Purple Tea Lights for the Reading Table
Purple is the color of the reading table, and these tea lights suit one. Each is a low disc of medium wax in a blue-leaning violet with a short white wick set into a thin metal cup. The cup holds the wax as it melts, so a lit candle stays tidy beside a deck, a notebook and a cup of tea. The wax is unscented, which matters when your attention is the instrument while you shuffle, draw and think; the only scent at the table is whatever you choose to add. A burn of over 2 hours covers a full session, from the first shuffle through the spread, the interpretation and the notes you write afterward. Because the candles are identical, a three-card spread and a long Celtic cross get the same quiet light, and a pair of flames on a tray beside the cloth frames the working space without crowding it. Fifty in the box leaves you enough to light one for every reading you do over weeks of regular practice, with candles left for the evenings when you read for friends.
Candle guides tie purple to the inner life: intuition, psychic ability, divination, spirituality, wisdom and the higher self. One author describes it as the color for linking with higher powers, for meditation and for psychic work; another lists truth and empowerment; a third adds devotion and idealism. Modern charts place purple with the third eye and crown chakras. History adds a second layer, since purple dye was once so hard to come by that it became the color of royalty, and the color still carries a note of authority and dignity. Shade shifts the mood too: a deep violet reads as spiritual and contemplative, a lighter lavender as gentle and clarifying, and this pack falls in the middle. As with every color, the lists differ from author to author and none of them promises a result, so read them as starting points. If you read cards, the flame is a signal to yourself that the ordinary day is paused for a while, and the color gives the table an identity before you’ve turned a single card.
Practical Ritual Applications
Keep the flame at the edge of the table. Before a tarot reading, set one purple tea light on a heat-safe dish beside your cloth, at least a foot from the cards, and light it as you shuffle. For a week-long practice, draw one card each evening and burn one tea light each time, writing a line in your journal while it burns. In a meditation corner, one flame in front of you gives the eyes a place to rest. During a pendulum or scrying session, two or three tea lights spaced a few inches apart on a tray give low, even light without glare. When you read for a friend, you can hand them a tea light of their own to light before the first card. My tarot decks collection has decks for the table this candle lights.
How to Light a Purple Tea Light for a Reading
Three steps set a purple tea light beside a deck and clear it away safely afterward.
- Set the Table Before You Light
Arrange your cloth, deck and notebook first, then place the candle on a heat-safe dish at the far edge of the table, a foot from any paper, cards or loose sleeves. Seat the cup in a holder made for tea lights on a stable surface where a stray elbow can't reach it, since the metal cup gets very hot.
- Light It and Ask Your Question
Light the white wick, then say your question aloud or write it at the top of a page. Shuffle, draw, and take your time with each card; the candle gives you over two hours. Stay in the room throughout, and keep sleeves and loose papers clear of the flame whenever you reach across the table.
- Snuff It Before You Pack Up
When the reading ends and your notes are written, snuff the flame before you gather the cards, and certainly before you go to bed. Putting it out first means you can stack the deck and clear the table without reaching past a lit wick. Wait until the cup is cool before you touch it, then discard it.
The Tarot Fellow Standard
I stock purple as its own pack because a reader’s table goes through candles quickly, and fifty tea lights keeps a regular practice supplied for weeks. The wax is unscented, so incense, herbs or a ritual aroma oil can set the scent of the table, and each candle arrives ready to light in its own cup. A set of identical flames also frames a spread tidily. A holder keeps that hot cup off your tablecloth, and my tealight holders collection has holders to suit a reading table.
Frequently Asked Questions
Keep it well back. Fire services advise keeping candles at least a foot from anything that can burn, and cards, notebooks and cloths all burn. Set the candle at the edge of the table on a stable, heat-safe base, away from clothes and loose sleeves, and never pass a card or paper over the flame. Stay with it while it burns, and put it out before you gather the deck.
Guides split on it. One pairs purple with both the third eye and the crown, and a reference article on the crown chakra gives its color as violet, though some texts describe the crown as white. Modern candle charts simplify older sources. Chakras come from Indian traditions, and a candle chart is a starting reference to that wider system.
A substitution chart lists blue, indigo and white as stand-ins for purple. It also suggests lighting a red tea light and a blue one side by side, so the pair stands for purple together. Both swaps are suggestions. The color is a focusing cue, so say your purpose aloud when you light the candles and let your own associations settle the choice.
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