A Christian lights a candle in front of an icon in a church or in front of a home iconostasis. And suddenly, instead of burning with an even, calm and radiant light, the candle begins to crack and smoke with something black.
Such a phenomenon can make a depressing impression, especially on those people who rarely visit the temple or have recently converted to faith. There is a desire to find some kind of "hidden meaning" in this, to understand why this happens, especially if this happens during the funeral service of a loved one. The thought involuntarily creeps in that this may be an allusion to the unhappy fate of the deceased in the afterlife.
Popular beliefs
There are plenty of advisers who want to explain the nature of this phenomenon to a confused person. All examples of modern "folklore" concerning a smoking church candle are reduced to one thought: if a candle smokes with black smoke, it is not without reason, it speaks of the abundance of a certain "negative energy".
What kind of “negative energy” this is, no one can really explain: physicists do not know anything about it, priests - even more so. This does not interfere with the assertion that if a candle smokes in the hands of a certain person, it means that he needs to “cleanse his aura,” and if in an apartment, it means that housing also needs “energy cleaning”. It is recommended to do this with the help of the same church candles, because their flame has the ability to destroy "dark energy". There is especially a lot of such energy in the corners, where you should stand with the candle longer, as well as in those places where it smokes and cracks most of all.
Church opinion
The clergy do not take this reasoning seriously. Lighting a candle in front of the image of the Savior or some saint is not a magical rite aimed at achieving a specific goal, but a visible, material expression of prayer. A Christian should cleanse not a mythical "aura", but a soul, and this is done through repentance, and not with the help of candles. It is possible and necessary to consecrate a dwelling, but it must be done by a priest who will perform a special ceremony that has nothing to do with "energy cleansing".
There is no need to look for any "secret signs" in everything that happens in the temple. If the Lord deems it necessary to give a sign to a Christian, He will do it in such a way that a person does not confuse this sign with anything. All other searches for hidden meaning belong to the category of superstitions that make a person fear the future and even lose confidence in God.
Crackling and smoking when lighting a church candle speaks only of its low quality. This effect can be observed, in particular, if ceresin is mixed with paraffin at the factory in the manufacture of candles. Pay attention to such phenomena, especially, you should not be afraid of them.
