Follow TV Tropes

Following

Candlelit Ritual

Go To

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/supernatural_1207_006_min.png

A profound mystic rite would look out of place under fluorescent bulbs, after all. This Ritual Magic is performed by candlelight instead: the candles might be there as a light source, as props, or as components of the ritual itself.

Candlelight can add spookiness or solemnity to the scene, especially if it's otherwise set in total darkness. If Black Magic is involved, it's evocative of both Fanatical Fire and Evil Is Not Well-Lit, and might pair well with mysterious cloaks and ominous magical sigils. More benign rituals benefit from fire's association with purification, protection, and enlightenment. For both, the candles can provide a dramatic Chiaroscuro and some Gothic flair.

The candles might also be part of the ritual's Spell Construction. In this role, they could be an Eye of Newt component in the ritual or, more rarely, as magically empowered items in their own right. They might also be used to define the ritual space, particularly in the case of Geometric or Hermetic Magic.

In either case, the symbolism of open flames and a circle of candlelight help to establish the ritual space as a threshold where the supernatural and material worlds can meet. For bonus points, they might be Technicolor Fire, Cold Flames, or otherwise overtly supernatural — or they might not. Compare and contrast Post-Modern Magik, where profound mystic rites might be perfectly well suited to fluorescent bulbs.


Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Comic Books 

    Fan Works 
  • Played with Urban Wilds. Amanita uses candles for her resurrection ritual, but performs it under the light of ordinary bulbs. The candles are necessary ritual components, with their color, position, and lighting order all playing a role in the ritual's magic.

    Films — Animation 
  • In Turning Red, the red moon ritual is traditionally performed while surrounded by dozens of candles but they are purely aesthetic.

    Film — Live Action 
  • In Becket, the Catholic rite of excommunication is performed with the Archbishop Becket flanked by a full choir, all bearing candles. After declaring Lord Gilbert cast out of the church, Becket snuffs his candle out against the ground.
  • Constantine (2005): Discussed for laughs when John is preparing the ritual that will send his soul to Hell. Angela asks him, "If this is some kind of spell or something, don't you need candles and a pentagram for it to work?" John replies, "Why, do you have any?"
  • Haunted Mansion (2023): Harriet conducts a seance to contact the ghost of Gracey, and candles light up as a result of the seance.
  • In Shredder Orpheus, post-decapitation, Orpheus's skull is used in candlelit rituals by the skateboarding youth in remembrance and for luck.

    Literature 
  • William Hope Hodgson's Carnacki the Ghost-Finder story "The Gateway of the Monster". Carnacki protects himself against the attacks of the title creature by creating a technomagical barrier that includes burning candles.
  • The Deryni series has a positive example: most formal Deryni rituals use candles at the four cardinal directions to represent the four guardian angels.
  • Parodied several times in the Discworld series:
    • The Rite of AshkEnte, which summons Death. The full Ritual takes lots of large candles, rare incense, a ceremonial octogram, and whatnot — and it's all set dressing used by self-important wizards to lend some gravitas to something that can be done with three bits of wood and a couple drops of mouse blood (or two small bits of wood and a fresh egg).
    • When Magrat mentions ceremonial candles to the other witches in Wyrd Sisters, she gets a blank look and Nanny points out she's got a perfectly good oil lamp, thanks.
    • Wizards in general are kind of obsessive about the importance dribbly candles have to the look of magic, to the point that they won't use a fresh candle until the University's team of skilled candle dribblers have been to work on it.
  • The Dresden Files:
  • The Everything Box: The Summoning Ritual to invoke the Archfiend Caleximus is performed by black-robed Apocalypse Cultists before a rune-etched altar lit only by red candles... in a trailer at a construction site, because the cultists still have day jobs.
  • Father Figure: The underground place of worship where the Order of Atheithius conducted their Black Magic rituals is lit with candles and torches.
  • In the Gentleman Bastard series, Locke Lamora is purged of a deadly poison by a highly traumatic magical ritual that uses Sympathetic Magic to link him to three candles, which burn black as they "die" on his behalf.
  • Harrow the Ninth: The Necromancer who tries to banish a hostile ghost from Harrow's body lights a circle of candles around the coffin that's their only known physical link to the ghost; they erupt in blue flame when the ritual begins. Justified by Clap Your Hands If You Believe, because they're operating in a Dream Land that's shaped by willpower.
  • Jill Kismet: Sorrows cults, worshipers of the Elder Gods, use tallow candles made from human body fat in many of their rituals.
  • In Phoenix and Ashes, Alison uses modern (for 1918) flashlights to set up a ritual and to clean up afterwards, but during the ritual itself the only light comes from candles.
  • Rai Kirah: The full Banishing Ritual to expel a rai-kirah from a human host is performed with the host in the middle of a pentagram of candles. It appears only to be a formality — with an extra sorcerer joining in, the ritual can be performed at a distance through Sympathetic Magic instead.
  • Alluded to in A Song of Ice and Fire with the Glass Candles, obsidian artifacts that can only be lit by magic. Every prospective Maester holds a nighttime vigil with three glass candles in complete darkness, symbolizing the limits of their knowledge — and their tacit disbelief in magic, which causes some consternation when an Archmaester manages to light one and use it as a Crystal Ball.

    Live Action TV 
  • Kolchak: The Night Stalker episode "The Zombie". In order to lay the title monster to rest, Kolchak must fill its mouth with salt, sew its lips together, and surround it with burning candles, all while it is currently inactive. Unfortunately for him, the zombie wakes up while he's performing the ritual.
  • Lexx: Minions of Prince the ghost, who's a Card-Carrying Villain and implicit Satanic Archetype, perform a candlelit ritual in his honor, complete with Ominous Latin Chanting.
  • The Sandman (2022), "Sleep of the Just": Roderick Burgess' Hermetic Magic ritual to capture Dream is lit by dozens upon dozens of large candles, which blow out in the Dramatic Wind as the ritual takes effect and reignite themselves when Dream arrives. They could just be set dressing like the ritualists' Black Cloaks, as Burgess is called a charlatan who lucked into a bit of genuine magic.
  • Supernatural has many candle-lit rituals.
    • Witches often have candles lit during their various rituals.
    • The psychic Pamela lights candles when she does a summoning ritual/seance. When it's successful, the candle flames becomes larger and the entity in her mind, Castiel, burns her eyes out.
  • The Witcher (2019), "Bottled Appetites": Yennefer attempts to capture a Djinn by performing a Magical Incantation over a nine-pointed star glyph with candles at the points. They blow out in a magical wind when the Djinn possesses her instead.

    Music 
  • "Dark Lady" by Cher describes how the eponymous fortune teller "lit the candles one-by-one" before reading the future in her cards.

    Video Games 
  • Bendy and the Ink Machine: At the end of Chapter 1, Henry stumbles upon a room with a pentagram on the floor and some candles. It's currently unknown what exactly these were used for, but it's strongly implied they were put together for some sort of dark ritual.
  • In Chrono Trigger, Magus's rite to summon Lavos involves a series of braziers burning blue flame surrounding his circle and the path leading to it. The flames light automatically as the heroic party approaches.
  • Divinity: Original Sin II: Lord Arhu is found in a glowing pentagram with green-burning candles at its points, trapped by a Containment Field and an Agony Beam. They're generated by three spirits and disappear, candles included, when the spirits are destroyed.
  • In The Elder Scrolls series, the Black Sacrament is a ritual prayer to the Night Mother to summon the Dark Brotherhood. It involves chanting the prayer within a candlelit circle while stabbing an effigy made of human body parts.
  • In Hollow Knight, Jiji the Confessor, who can perform a ritual to summon your Shade, dwells in the presence of a large number of candles.
  • NetHack. You need a bell, the local Tome of Eldritch Lore, seven candles and a candelabra to perform the rite that will grant access to the deepest dungeon levels where the Amulet of Yendor is.
  • Simon the Sorcerer: A ritual to banish two demons to Hell requires a double-square with 8 candles at each of the square's corners, a mouse, a human skull, and knowing the demons' true names.
  • Tattletail: On the final night, you must bring the Tattletails candles to help them perform a ritual to destroy Mama Tattletail.
  • One quest in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt requires that the player recreate a person's memory by making things exactly as they were when it actually happened. One such memory involves a person trying to summon a demonic entity and the player is given chalk and some candles. By reading a nearby book, the player learns that the proper Spell Construction is to draw a pentagram outlined by a circle and then place candles around the circle, since the circle summons the creature and the candles form a barrier that imprisons it.

    Webcomics 

    Web Original 
  • Dark Dungeons features a pagan/occult mission control center filled with spooky tapestries, robe-clad cultists, miscellaneous computer screens... and tons of candles. There's also a blazing fireplace in the room where all the RPG playing and accidental summoning of Cthulhu actually takes place. (None of these items are present in the Chick Tract on which it was based.)
  • Tribe Twelve: The Order, a Slender Man-worshiping Religion of Evil, uses candles to ramp up the creepy aesthetic of its rituals, as well as Malevolent Masks.
  • Welcome to the Shadow Zone by Andrew Bowser: In Episode 4 Onyx and Jessemyn have a candlelit "Dark Feast" to attempt to gain the favour of the "Ancient Ones".

    Western Animation 
  • Gravity Falls: The ritual to summon the extradimensional entity Bill Cipher involves a circle of candles. Unusually for the trope, it takes place in a sunny meadow.
  • The Simpsons: One episode has Marge Simpson discover her sisters Patty and Selma in the attic. The sisters have a pentagram on the floor with lit candles at the points. Marge wonders what they're doing and why.
    Marge: What are you doing?
    Patty: Trying to summon Satan.
    Marge: Why?
    Selma: Nothing good on TV.


 
Feedback

Video Example(s):

Top

Tattletail

On the final night, you must bring the Tattletails candles to help them perform a ritual to destroy Mama Tattletail.

How well does it match the trope?

5 (6 votes)

Example of:

Main / CandlelitRitual

Media sources:

Report