Quick Specs
- Type: Votive candles, each in its own metal cup
- Color: White
- Pack: 50 candles
- Burn time: Over 4 hours
- Height: 0.62 inch
- Scent: Unscented
Fifty White Votives, One Flame for Every Vow
The word votive comes from the Latin votum, a vow, and a votive candle is a small candle lit to mark one: a promise, an offering of thanks, a petition, a name held in mind. Reference sources describe them as typically white or beeswax yellow, and they’re lit one at a time, each with its own purpose. Their small size lets them sit on a shelf, a saucer or a crowded altar without taking over. A pack of fifty gives you a flame for each intention you’ll want to mark over a season: one candle per promise, one per thanks, one per petition. These candles are white and unscented, and each sits in its own thin metal cup, so the wax stays contained from first light to last. A burn of over 4 hours carries you through a full ritual, a reading and the quiet afterward without relighting. The wax is unscented, so the flame is the only thing you have to attend to, and the plain white color keeps the focus on the purpose you’ve named and the sentence you say aloud.
To light a votive well, say what it’s for first. A vow is specific: I’ll finish what I started, thank you for what I was given, keep this person in mind tonight. White suits that, because its meanings in candle guides are broad and gentle: purity, clarity, peace, new beginnings, blessing and protection, with connection to ancestors on several lists. It is also the all-purpose color, named as the universal substitute for any color a working calls for, so a white votive can carry whatever purpose you give it. Modern chakra charts commonly place white, with violet, at the crown. Guides differ on the details and none of them promises an outcome, which leaves the weight of the act with your own words and attention. A candle lit for a vow also gives you something to look at while you keep it. Leave the flame where you can see it from your chair, and it stays an object of attention for as long as it burns. When it’s out, the promise is still yours to keep.
Practical Ritual Applications
Use one votive per purpose. For a promise to yourself, write it on a slip of paper, light the candle, read the sentence aloud and keep the paper a foot back until you snuff the flame. For thanks, light one candle for each thing you’re grateful for, set on a tray with gaps between them, and name each as you light it. For a petition or a hope, say it once and let the flame burn through your evening. At the start of a ritual a votive marks the opening, and snuffing it closes the working. At a gathering, a row of white votives down a long table gives even light. Set each cup on a flat, heat-safe dish; my snuffers and accessories collection has the tools for putting the flames out.
How to Light a Votive Candle for a Vow or Offering
These three steps take a white votive from the box to a spoken vow, a tended flame and a cooled cup.
- Name the Vow Before You Light It
Decide what the candle is for and put it in one sentence, such as “I keep my word to myself this week.” Write it down if that helps. Place the candle on a flat, heat-safe dish, away from drafts and a foot from paper and cloth, and check that it stands level and can't tip.
- Light It and Say the Sentence
Light the white wick and say your sentence aloud once. Stay with the flame for the first few minutes while it settles, then go on with the evening's ritual, reading or gathering. Keep the flame in view while it burns.
- Snuff It When the Sitting Ends
Snuff the flame when the sitting is over, before you leave the room and before bed. The burn time is the length the candle can burn, so you can snuff it whenever the sitting ends. Let the cup cool completely before you touch it, then discard it.
The Tarot Fellow Standard
I stock these as plain white votives in a full pack because a votive’s job is to be used one at a time and often. White is the color most associated with them, and unscented wax keeps the flame plain. Each candle arrives in its own metal cup, so the wax is already contained when you take it from the pack. If you’d rather burn a candle down in a single sitting, my chime candles collection has small candles often used for that.
Frequently Asked Questions
Makers often use the two words differently. A tea light is poured into its own thin cup, while a votive in the strict sense is a free-standing candle that melts completely and needs a snug holder. These candles arrive in their own metal cups, so the wax is contained from the start. What makes them votives is the use: one flame, lit for one vow, offering or intention.
Fit depends on the holder and on the cup's width, so check before you rely on it. Set an unlit candle in the holder first; it should sit level, snug and unable to tip. The metal cup is part of the candle and heats up, so use a holder made of non-flammable material on a heat-safe base.
Yes, with room between them. Leave at least three inches between lit candles so they don't melt one another, and avoid crowding many flames together, since closely packed candles flare. Set them on a stable, heat-resistant tray a foot from anything that can burn, away from drafts. Say a separate sentence as you light each one, and put them out one at a time.
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