If you’ve been around for a while, you may have picked up that I have been looking to localize my craft. I have found that a lot of modern magic is very Eurocentric which doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me since I live in America and would rather be using plants that can be sourced locally for my craft. I’m not giving up my culinary herbs anytime soon (I grow a garden full of them!) but I have made a pact with myself to ship as little witchcraft to myself as possible. That has led me down a rabbit hole of American folk magic, most specifically as it pertains to Southern New England where I live.
Enter the indigenous bayberry. Also known as Candleberry or wax myrtle, Bayberry is an evergreen plant that grows in sandy swamps up and down the coasts of New England. Though the bayberry plant is edible (in small quantities it can be used similar to Bay Laurel) and has some medicinal properties, I personally want to focus on the use of Bayberry as a form of wax.
Bayberry wax was a staple in colonial America (and earlier – it was used by a number of First Nation tribes) – the waxy berries can be boiled to make an olive green fragrant wax that smells lovely and burns for quite some time. It takes a lot of bayberries to make a small amount of wax, though, so bayberry candles were burned as a special occasion item.
Traditionally, one would burn a bayberry candle at the end of the year (either on Christmas or New Year’s Eve) to bless your house and family for the coming year. Hence the phrase “A bayberry candle burned to the socket brings joy to the heart and gold to the pocket.” It is used in many rootwork traditions as a money drawing herb.
It is associated with the planet Jupiter, the element of Earth, and is considered a feminine herb. Common magickal uses are for house blessings, good fortune, wishes, luck, and money drawing.
I was lucky enough to get to meet bayberry in the wild at Marconi Point in Wellfleet, MA this Autumn while my coven mate and I were out foraging for rose hips. I truly hadn’t imagined that the berries were going to be so tiny – I can see why it takes so many berries to make a single candle! I was surprised to find that crushed that berries don’t give off the classic scent that I associate with bayberries but they certainly did have an odd waxy texture.
Finding a candle made out of bayberry wax can be challenging (I found one at my local natural foods store made locally) but many of the larger New England candle companies sell candles scented with Bayberry essential oils. I also found stories from up and down the East coast of families that still burn a bayberry candle every year during the holidays. I have decided to take on this tradition myself – not only are they beautifully fragrant and long-burning but I feel like it gives me a deeper connection to my colonial ancestors who would have done the same.
Here’s to abundance for all in 2022 and beyond!