I used to love making honey jars. These were some of my very first spells. I would use little empty essential oil bottles to contain my honey along with a little name paper and petition. But I noticed over time that these spells would often take a long time to manifest any results, and far too often, they wouldn’t manifest results at all. Years later I’ve learned that honey jars aren’t the fastest sweetening spells that hoodoo has to offer and there are ways to strengthen these spells.
As far as sweetening spells go, you can find examples of these stretching back to the early days of the hoodoo tradition back when slavery was still being practiced in the American south. Honey was pretty hard to find in those days so sugar was used instead. The name papers were packed into bowls of sugar mixed with herbs and then prayed over. As the tradition of hoodoo grew and time passed by maple syrup, molasses, and finally honey were also being used depending on the situation. Honey is a very recent addition to the world of hoodoo sweetening jars.
In situations where a quick result is desired, your best bet is either sugar, maple syrup or cane syrup. I’ve even heard of people using the syrup from canned fruit (mandarin oranges, peaches, fruit cocktail, etc.). When using maple syrup or cane syrup I like to use a half water half syrup solution so the jar can be shaken while I pray or chant. This way the spell is in motion and working the way I want it to work. Typically I also add a few spoonfuls of brown sugar to really beef up the sweetening power.
When your making a sweetening jar, aside from your honey, molasses, syrup, or sugar, you’ll also want to add some good herbs suited towards drawing this person to you. If it’s a boss whose favor you want to have, I would recommend some gravel root to gain some power over them along with some master of the woods (to conquer), marshmallow root (to conquer), lavender (to keep them calm), and some sweet basil. If it’s a potential lover that you’re making your jar for then you could use honeysuckle blossoms (to sweeten), pink rose petals (to attract), red clover (to attract), damiana (for strong sexual attraction), and hisbiscus (a strong attraction). Adding herbs can really put some power into these spells.
When working with spirits in sweetening work you can evoke or call a spirit to sweeten your target and then place that spirit’s sigil/ponto/veve into the jar along with your target’s name paper while you are building and activating your jar. A candle is usually burnt on top of the jar after it’s creation to heat it up so that it will work quickly for you. A red/pink chime candle or a tea light will do nicely. After making and activating your jar, you’ll want to feed it once a week and anytime you’ll see your target. You can do this by blowing tobacco smoke over it or by holding it over burning incense so the smoke will rise over it. Burning more candles on top of the sealed jar is also important to keep the spell working. And don’t forget to shake the jar often while thinking about your target and what you want from them while you pray.
Bonus: If you work with the planets, a square of Venus can be added to the jar to really give it some oomph. Rose quartz, garnets, magnets, lodestones, or lodestone dust can also help give your jar some good drawling power. Remember that sweetening spells are a very subtle form of magick and are primarily used when you want a new lover or other sort of person to be sweet to you. A way to capture their attention and get your feet into the door. Once you have a good foothold with them i.e. a date or other short term goal, it might be good to supplement your jar with some more specific intentional work like candle spells or evocation to get what you want. This way you’re working towards your end goal (sex, a relationship, friendship, reconciliation, business, promotion, etc). When writing out your petition paper for the jar be very specific about what you want. Example: “Jane Doe is sweetened to me so that whenever she sees me she will be more and more curious and more and more attracted to me. Let her be drawn to me like a bee is drawn to pollen and flies are drawn to honey.”
If you have any questions feel free to ask them below! Hopefully this can help y’all troubleshoot your sweetening spells and get you that sweetie you’ve had your eye on!