In Hoodoo, you need petitions for a lot of things. Banishment, enchantment, attraction, and so on. But first, what is a petition?
Short and simple: a petition is a demand or request you make for your work (spell).
You are creating something sturdy like a railroad spike that you hammer into reality with your magic.
A petition can look like a lot of things. For example, if you're trying to attract someone, you might use a photograph of the two of you together and write your petition on the back. If you're trying to attract money, you might use a bank note or a literal bill. You can tear a heart-shaped paper for love attraction. The petition can be on anything you think enhances your work, but should never be on something that you think detracts from it. If you only have the back of a recipe you printed out for Thanksgiving, I'd suggest holding off until you get more paper.
I prefer to write my petitions on paper that means something to me. I bought a handmade journal from a friend. The paper is handmade and a little pulpy. It was made with love and care and it has a good energy to it. I tear out the sheet I'll be using and write the petition out. You can draw images or add sigils and symbols, but I prefer just words unless it's really important that I use sigils.
Remember that your petition is your request or demand. You can get specific if you want, but you really want to get right to the point. Like a river or lightning, take the path of least resistance and make your petition simple and to the point. I've been taught a lot of ways to do petitions, but all traditions say to write things (names, goals, demands) using magical numbers (3, 7, etc.) and make sure you write one thing at a time before turning it clockwise 90 degrees to write the next part of your petition. For example: I recently made a Money Jar and I wrote "Draw Money Safely" and then the date I wanted money by. I turned the petition 90 degrees to the right and wrote my name, as I wanted it for me, and my birthday. Then I turned it 90 degrees again and wrote out my signature. Always have the rootworker's signature on the petition.
Next you need to fold your petition. If you want to attract something, you fold the petition towards you. If you want to banish something, fold it away from you. If you're working for a client, fold it towards them. Etc.
While not strictly speaking traditional, I like to take my Hoodoo oils specific to my work/petition and tab each corner of me petition paper and then tap the center. On occasion, when I really really want it to work and I need the extra boost, I rub my fingers with the oil and then massage the entire petition, front and back before folding it.
If you're placing the petition in a Honey/Sweet Jar, tie it up with a colored cord or blessed cord that corresponds to your petition's demands. Then place it in the jar and proceed with the jar spell.
But what if you don't have the jar? What if you want to do a simpler spell that doesn't require bottles and a ton of ingredients?
Lucky for you, your petition and your blessed candles should do the trick. If you want to banish something or really expel it quickly from your life, light a banishment candle or candle dressed with hot foot powder, and burn the petition. Throw the ashes to the wind, or bury them somewhere far away or towards the person or thing you're trying to banish.
If you're trying to attract or seal or do something more positive, place your folded petition under the candle and let the candle burn down around it.
I'll go into candle spells in another post. Thanks for reading. Good luck.