Keepers Of The Sacred Flame

Stay tuned for a post on how you can create and tend your own Sacred Flame, whether you are part of a tradition or not!

Read a post of mine from Yuletide 2022 called “Keep the Candle Burning”

To Light a Sacred Flame

The imagery that I love most this time of year in the Northern Hemisphere is that of the returning light; the return of the Sun. In the Sacred Pentagraph tradition, the Sacred Flame is kindled twice per year: once at the Winter Solstice and again at the Summer Solstice. The methods by which the Sacred Flame is kindled are different for each sabbat, but I’ll be focusing on the Winter Solstice for this post.

In Book III of The Sacred Pentagraph, Tarostar writes the following about the Sacred Flame, which either hangs on a hook or is affixed to the wall on the North Wall:

Overhead hanging on a hook, or installed on a wall fixture, or standing on the credenza is an ornate metal holder, designed to hold a ruby 7-day Sanctum Lamp, kept eternally burning by lighting a new one from its flame (using a taper) before the old one burns out. This is known as the “Sacred Flame” and represents the Holy Spirit. (p. 155)

He goes on to say that all candles used in ritual are lit from the Sacred Flame and that the High Priestess is the “Keeper of the Sacred Flame, to perpetuate it throughout the year” (p. 155). The High Priestess’ duty to perpetuate and safeguard the Sacred Flame is one that comes with serious responsibility and commitment. There’s no one present to hold her to her responsibility except herself and so she must do so willingly and resolutely.

Cherie Nightwinds, a HPS in the Sacred Pentagraph and Horsa traditions, wrote of her sacred duty:

When I became a High Priestess, it was my duty to tend the Coven Sacred Flame, but is is also my duty to tend to my own Spark of Divinity and that is what I try to remember each time I light the Sanctum Lamp. I decide each day which aspect of the flame I need to focus on, whether that is going to be purification and burning away what does not serve or whether that is going to be comfort, spreading and kindling warmth and a sense of hope.

Keepers of the Sacred Flame

I dare to say that it is the individual initiates that must keep the Sacred Flame of their respective traditions alive through their actions on Earth. It’s because of this that I asked my tradition siblings from Sacred Pentagraph, Horsa, and Gala what the Sacred Flame symbolized to them. The following are their deeply moving and contemplative responses.

Thorn Nightwind writes… [The Sacred Flame] might also possible be an outer symbol representing an inner esoteric principle. Our bodies, made of flesh, could be described like a lantern upon an altar that houses a Sacred Flame that illuminates outwardly within us. In my own religious beliefs, I believe a part of the Original Spark of Life is placed within us when we were born and is given back to our Reincarnating-Self (the part of the Soul that reincarnates many lives) when we pass from this life. I believe that there might possibly exist a process that when our Soul has finished incarnating through many cycles of life, that our piece of the Sacred Flame given to us is reunited back with our Creator or the Original Source from which we came.

“Our bodies, made of flesh, could be described like a lantern upon an altar that houses a Sacred Flame…”

Cherie Nightwinds writes… The Sacred Flame is a constant reminder of the spark of Divinity that we hold in ourselves, but also the connection we have to Divinity and to each other. [W]henever we are going through some difficult or challenging situations, that is when we need to go inward and remember the spark of Divinity. To always remember that we are perpetually connected to Divinity and to others, we are never truly alone or left adrift. As individuals we can draw from that warmth and light and vitality to help us through those tough times. When the Sacred Flame is snuffed a few days before the Winter Solstice sabbat, and the ritual room is left bare and dark, this reminds me symbolically of how it must feel when as humans we find ourselves in the proverbial darkness, without any spiritual illumination. It is possibly also how it feels when we have lost that connection to Divinity, while we are in our human incarnations. Fortunately that darkness is not permanent, there is always hope, [and] that is part of the symbolic nature of the Sacred Flame.

“Fortunately, that darkness is not permanent…”

Edwin S. writes… The sacred flame in our Temple Room, to me, is Imagination, the spark within us, like the radiant sun. All things feel the sun, and through its power, its light, it manifests life. Just as sunlight can ignite a flame, our imagination has the power to manifest our deepest thoughts. We become what we envision. If our minds are ablaze with passion, we embody fire, that sacred divinity. The key lies in harnessing our mind’s full potential, focusing our entire being on the reality we wish to create. When we wholly imagine, we bring our desires into being. The Sacred Flame burning away in the Temple Room is but a reminder of the raging, inspiring, and transformative fire our minds can become.

“The Sacred Flame…is but a reminder of the raging, inspiring, and transformative fire our minds can become.”

Casey Giovinco writes… I’ve always loved this part of our practices, and as I explored the idea of the Male Mysteries in order to establish and nurture Gala Witchcraft, the Sacred Flame’s symbolism deepened for me. [A]s I wrote Garbed in Green, that love for this part of our practice deepened. I began to see that perpetual flame as so much more than light and heat. It became deeply connected to the object of sight and the manifestation of our material world as we perceive it.
[L]ight is one of the primary symbols of the Male Mysteries. Deep within the Good God’s mysteries, we find beauty, fascination, and glamour. We see this in myths like the one that depicts the relationship between Diana and Lucifer in Aradia: Gospel of the Witches when Lucifer’s beauty fascinates and entrances Diana, but we also see this in nature as well.
The fact that Diana is associated with the Darkness and Lucifer is associated with the Light…is no mere accident. The play between female and male…aligns eerily close to the reality of darkness and light in nature. All candles eventually burn out, letting darkness creep in. Stars die, leaving only the cold darkness of space in their wake. “[As] is the fate of all light, Lucifer’s light actually does get extinguished by Diana’s darkness in the myth. For the gods, it happens when the embrace in sexual union” (Garbed in Green, p. 21). The Sacred Masculine will undoubtedly be the very last thing to dissolve back into the Sacred Feminine in that split second before they merge and become indistinctness between male and female, masculine and feminine of the great Demiurge.
[T]he Sacred Flame also became a symbol of hope and power for me as a witch who embraces the Male Mysteries, however, just as the dying embers of a hearth fire produce the most warmth for the home, the Sacred Flame reminds us that our brief time on this plane of existence can be comforting as well as illuminating.