Why would you assume that the other wires were non-functional? Obviously that was the belief at the time. Is that still the belief?

They were not connected to a fixture, just wire-nutted together. There was just a light there, not a ceiling fan.

they probably are the feed for the fixture inthe other room. put them back together.

I bet one set up there is still energized. Make sure the power is off before putting them back the way they were before you started messing around.

Messing around?? Messing around?? No...NOW I'm messing around.

Thanks all, I'll put them back together.

So let me see if I have this right, someone in the past installed those wires, spliced them together, all for no reason at all? Not enough reason to leave them alone while installing the fan since they were not involved in the fan installation? Please do not run for Congress!

There was never a fan there, bus_driver.

For everyone else...there are actually three pairs of wires, and reassembling the unused pairs them did not bring my other fixture back to life. Am I supposed to join the two unused PAIRS to each other? Don't remember how they were. (%*$

They normally go black to black and white to white, If there are any ground wires, bare or green, they get all hooked together.

How do you know that they are on different circuits? By the way, how did you manage to get them apart without blowing yourself off the ladder?

Okay.

The two fixtures involved (the one I swapped out and the one affected) are on different fuses, at least that's how the panel is labeled. Is that possible? Is it a miracle? Is my house going to blow up? %!

As long as you put caps on the bare wires nothing is going to blow up. If it was going to blow up it would have done so already.

And this doesn't take into the possibility that there may be switch loops involved. At this point, I see two SAFE choices. Disconnect everything. Get a meter and determine which cable is the feed, which ones go where, and if there are any switch loops involved. Then come back with a detailed explanation of what you have and maybe someone can tell you what's going on. Or...hire a professional to come out and do it for you if you're unsure of your abilities. At least you'll have it done right and can sleep securely.

Thanks, cobraguy, I'll invest in a meter and let my Da blow himself off the ladder.

I'll let you know what happens if I can make sense of it. Thanks, everyone.

I got a voltometer and tested the three pairs. One was live, the second was switched, and othe third--nothing. After much testing of fuses and fixtures to see what went where because the two fixtures in question are not accurately indicated on the circuit panel, during which exercise I experimented with all possible wiring combinations out of the box and blew a couple of fuses, and temporarily putting aside intuition and evidence which seemed to indicate the switched wire went to the chandelier and the live wire and the third wire went to the ceiling fan in the other room, I think I might have blown the chandelier switch. But the ceiling fan in the other room works.

Thank you for mentioning switch loops, cobraguy. There was, indeed, a switch loop to the chandelier fixture. I googled switch loop and solved the problem. Everything works. I know I'm talking to myself...

not neccessarily, it's always nice to find out exactly what the problem and the fix were.

Glad you got it resolved annec.