I was reading something on here (I think it was a comment from Marfa) about leaving a candle stub at a crossroads at night. What is the reasoning behind it? Is it something to do with Hecate being the goddess of crossroads? I'm asking because I tried it, despite looking a bit odd lurking around my neighborhood at night hanging around intersections, and something positive did happen that night. So I'm just wondering if anyone has any more information?
Placing them at the crossroads has something to do with making the working occur I believe. You see, crossroads act as a nexus point between places, and so it can act as a nexus point between worlds. At a crossroad, the physical world and the spiritual world begin to overlap, much like at Halloween and May Day. Strange things can happen at a crossroad due to this. Because of this nexus point, by burying candle stubs at a crossroads, you send your intention out into both the physical and the spiritual world, allowing it to occur on both levels, and perhaps making it more powerful as well (even if only within your mind). A crossroad also can act protectively, because this is the place where a decision is made, a road is taken and one is not. Crossroads are very special places symbolically and otherwise...it is interesting to me because I've had the most activity when I've lived on a corner house than a middle of the road house, but it may involve the predisposition of the belief.
Personally, I do not leave my candle stubs at crossroads, I bury them in my garden or under a tree. The reason I do this way, rather than at a crossroads, is because I find plants and trees to be protective entities, and they have a unique way of connecting to the universe; their roots reach deep into the earth, their branches reach high into the sky, and their trunk exists in between. In a way, a plant for me is a nexus point, and so it is the same idea, done two different ways.
Personally, I think you should stick to what suits you best, and always try new things (as long as you use common sense and don't do anything dangerous!). Trial and error is how we learn what works best for us; those and continuing to learn and walk our paths throughout our lives.
It all depends on what you are doing a ritual. You can drip candle on a cemetery. It all depends on the forces to which you are applying what you want to carry out the ritual, how much energy you want.
Kebechet gave a good answer.
in hoodoo and voodoo a crossroads is a very powerful spiritual place where the spirits cross over to this world from there realm
thats all i know about them
I actually learned about the cross roads by looking into hoodoo, its actually amazing because its a netural place actually like if you were trying to get rid of a cursed object in hoodoo you would throw its remains over your left shoulder into the crossroads in order to keep its influences far away from you but you can't look back or over your shoulder least you invite whatever you got rid of back into your life!!! Or if you cast a curse or any negative magick you would not want to keep that in your house for fear of attracting negative entities to your house or ruining your own protection,luck,etc... so one would throw there work item into the crossroads... or if you have any negative energy you want to get rid of by using an egg rub on you to trap the negative enrgy within then you would also throw that in the crossroads... Another thing is that when throwing negative things in the crossroads it equally disperses to passerby (people who walk pass the crossroads or in it) but it doesn't harm them because they only get a little piece and thats how the energy weakens and dissappates safely or travels safely to the victim or target....
Also reversal spells sealed in a crossroad work amazingly so if your cursed it'll depending on what rite you cast go back to the sender harshly I might add and stick to them or dissapate amoungst passerby people, they don't get hurt but some people can rarely get cross conditions from it....
crossroads in Russia has traditionally been associated with demons.
thought that this place is their accumulation. to the same crossroad as a communication link with the desired object.
I see crossroads as symbolic of the four directions and the union of spirit and matter, human and divine. The cross itself is a very ancient symbol. I don't particularly connect it with Hecate, although crosses have been connected to moon goddesses as well. Roads are symbolic of travel, so in placing something or performing a spell or ritual at crossroads is symbolic of the energy of your magick traveling outward in all four directions on both a spiritual and physical level. It's like stepping onto the axis between the worlds.
Crossroads - the symbol of choice in general and in particular the choice between life and death, but also a sign of transition from one space to another. As such, the intersection is endowed with ambiguous meaning. On the one hand, this place was sacred, in Christianity, the intersection is likened in its form the cross, became a place of reverence for Christ.
On the other hand, the intersection was considered as the focus of malicious, unclean forces. At intersections performed magical rituals.
