Of Flame and Candles

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Of Flame and Candles

 

Writ by Acolyte Casimir Wick

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Preamble

Growing up as the main caretaker of my family, it was often duty to harvest the small field of grain just yonder the hill of our abode. Tilling, turning the soil, planting and sowing the seed, only to later reap the grain that would feed my little brothers and sister. It was only when I returned from the fields under an azure moon who’s pale countenance stole the sun’s warmth was I permitted the time I treasured most- the time of candlemaking, and of silent prayer. The work of a chandler is one most humble, to craft candles by hand, molded in the maker’s eye only for his work to be consumed, to fall to the passage of time as it fulfills its sole purpose - to burn. It was each night as I carefully dipped the wick into wax, again, and again, and again, I grew closer to the Creator in my work. 

 

After beginning my process as an acolyte of the blessed faith, I have had much time to ponder. Reading through the most Holy Scrolls, of excerpts written by past Pontiffs, Saints, aelders of Wick, and through God’s cherished gift unto mortals - revelation - I write this from ignorance of a layman who may only speak from the fragments of insight granted unto me.

 

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Pertaining Flame and Light

 

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Fire is a primeval aspect of the world, one of its most primitive elements that make up the core of the Mundas. Thus being the mundane, the world is shaped by the elements GOD ordained in his most divine creation. From the earth that the Creator verily shaped by hand to bring height to Aos and Eos, and to mold the first men in clay. From the waters which flow to part mountains into valleys, to bring rain to the weary and thirsty. Air was breathed into the lungs of the first men to give them life - and yet fire was their guide, their Light. Fire may be what seperates Man from Beast In its most basic state. Fire is the warmth that protects against the cold, it is the light cast, illuminating that which was once dark. Of all the elements, it is the only one capable of donning Light. The Light when mentioned in the scrolls is a miracle, deemed only to select few within written history as a sign of His true will. It is a gentle hand, but a fragment of the creator’s own spirit lent in times of great peril, most often wrought by descendantkind’s own hand, or that of the betrayer.

 

41 Among them lay Saul, uncovered and foul, trampled by the sin he wrought. 42 And Horen glowed with the light of the tabernacle and of GOD.

 

Herein Horen is bathed in the light of the tabernacle, GOD’s own light. The tabernacle, a symbol of a divine unity between GOD and his creation, was sullied twice by mortal works. First by the betrayal of Saul, and thereby the turning of the unfaithful in Horen’s camp. Blood and debauchery brought corruption to the tabernacle from the bodies of the unrighteous and unrepentant, staining it until the time of Horen’s retribution through the Iblis War which brought him penitence. For his Virtue in standing steadfast against the ruin of Iblis, Horen and his people were promised the Seven Skies, a first mending of the tabernacle. The second sullying of the most holy tabernacle was the kinslaying of Harren by Owyn’s hand, scattering the Harren tribe.

 

51 Here, the Lord spoke “O Owyn, Son of Godwin, Son of Horen, you spill the blood of your uncle in the tabernacle of Horen. 52 Even as My holiest city was sacred in spite of Harren’s rejection, it is spoiled by the blood of kin.

 

Notably it is the act of kinslaying before the tabernacle that defiles it - for even in Harren’s lack of temperance in laying with malinkin, GOD still keeps the flame lit, the tabernacle still sacred in waiting to return Harren to the flock once he is made to REPENT. Though never is he truly able to repent, o’ fallen prophet, instead he is slain after kneeling before the righteous flame of GOD. It is through both failings, whether by corruption from the deceiver, or from the visceral emotion of the mortal man have we failed Him - has GOD’s own chosen prophets failed him. It is written that though Owyn faltered by staining the tabernacle red, redemption through faith and act alone would bring amends. This form of deific interdiction does not scrub away the sin cast nor the life taken, but rather wholeheartedly accepts that Man will sin, though is nonetheless loved by a benevolent father. As a son may misbehave, nary to listen to the elders above them; the love, wisdom, and guidance of the father is nonetheless unconditional through it all. His works are unknownable, His deeds are most mysterious, and yet through it all He ushers the sons of Man to be the most righteous, the most humble and virtuous to be found through toiling, through failure and acceptance of this failure. So does His light, His flame rest above the highest laurels of the Godkings and Orenian Emperors, paramount as a horn’s call for both faithful and unfaithful to bow beneath, as Horen and Harren once knelt.

 

It is this flame, this Light first gifted unto Horen when he accepted his role as a prophet upon exiting the waters of Gamesh - granted to Owyn as a blinding flame, who made Harren blind to the world but sighted to the truth of a loving GOD that leads us through faith and shadow. This flame of redemption is what drove Owyn to embrace the faithful remnant harrenites as Kohen, donning them in robes of white. It is the flame which brought GOD’s wrath to the heretics of Edel upon redemption of the Exalted Owyn, burning the very corruption that Saul planted within the camp of Horen to ash. The Flame is GOD’s guidance, His presence, and His unending love brought to the mortal realm for any and all, even the lowliest of heretic and heathen to bask in. It is the duty of His flock to act, to bring will to motion to mend His most holy of plans to fruition. To be flame.

 

 

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On Candles

 

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The candle, a staple within every temple, church, and monastery throughout Canondom. Placed with care in the halls of Kings and Princes down to the servants chamber just beneath, the candle is a symbol of the Light, insight, and knowledge. For many it is a simple replacement for a torch, one which does not require oil, nor burn with a noxious fume but rather a single coddled flame which offers humble light in its lonesome. To the chandler the candle is a symbol of craftsmanship and a means to achieve humility by labor. We are called by the scroll of Virtue to be humble and diligent, to not allow the sloth of Iblis to take our souls and idle hands. The humility of the chandler is to understand his work will one day melt and fade, just as the fruits of the cook’s labors shall be consumed. And while the cook may feed the body, the chandler feeds the spirit.

 

Liturgical candles are fashioned from the wax of bees typically upon a holy anointed land. Upon fields where flowers blossom without risk of otherworldly corruption and plague, it is as near to the blessed tabernacle we may achieve. The wax is melted thrice over, with all impurities boiled out of it, or sifted in the melting process. This keeps the wax, the body, pure as holy oils are added for scent. The wicks are often hewn from the hides of sheep, washed and rinsed in the rivers of the Holy See, then set to a loom and left to dry. A painstaking process of dipping the wick in the boiled wax again, and again, and again gives the candle its tapered, ellipsoidal domed top. Once the desired shape is fashioned, any excerpt recognized by the Holy Mother Church may be inscribed into the face of the candle. To finalize the consecration of a liturgical candle, a ribbon of cloth is tied to its base as it is blessed by a holy Kohen, devoting it fit for use in sacrament and mass.

 

It is the candle which acts as a conduit for one’s faith as an implement often utilized when reading a segment of a Holy Scroll, or of any text whose insight may be gleamed. The wax acts as the base, the foundation upon which faith and all source is garnered. This is not GOD, but rather the source from which further meaning is derived from his works, a pure and unadulterated form. It is truth, perhaps at times unknowable to mortals in their short sight. The wick serves as the bridge which ties innate truth of the candle’s wax base to the flame, which is action. The fire upon the wick is the conviction of the mortal, the reading of text and understanding taken as an act of will. Fire brings enlightenment through the virtue of diligence, for the Kohen must be forthright in mind, body, and spirit to learn and live the words of GOD as best he can. Fire is the action which broadens the reading and insight of holy texts, tied inherently to the wick which permits only a select amount of wax to be melted. It is assumed that GOD did not put all of his knowledge, nor even a miniscule fragment of it in the scrolls- for it is by our own hands we must learn, as we are of the mundane we must live by it.

 

Truly would we be ruined if any were to gaze upon the unfettered TRUTH of GOD if He were to deem it so, our eyes like Harren, blinded before his light should the candle’s wax be consumed in a single gulf of flame. Rather, we are to learn what is permitted by He alone, and though there is no innovation in faith, GOD has given us revelation. A fine line it is, for divine absolution rests within GOD alone, and yet we cannot become affixed and consumed purely to the divine- nae, we must root ourselves in the earth and toil. Yet in our earthly realm we must climb and clamber, and oftentimes fail to reach closer to the divine, to live or falter in the light virtue. Revelation through study demands the Kohen, and even the layman to light the candles of their home. Be it the father, the mother, lead through action and will as one. The more humble one’s stature, the closer they are to the baseness of the candle - that wax which must be cared for, worked towards. The greater the conviction to learn, act, and understand GOD’s truth, are you brought closer to flame. It does not fall into our lap in a silver spoon, but rather demands one’s full conviction of mind, body, and spirit to kneel before it and learn.

 

“Only when heeded by GOD himself, physical body and human life come together as wax and wick into candle, the result is a flame: a relationship with GOD that is characterized by two conflicting drives, by a yearning to draw nearer in tandem with a mortal commitment to draw back. The materiality of life evokes in the soul a desire to tear free of it and fuse with the Divine. But the closer the soul is drawn to GOD, all the more does it recognize that it can fulfill His will only as a distinct and physical being. So while the corporeality of the wick triggers the flames upward surge, the divine will implicit in the wax sustains its commitment to existence and life.” - Thomas Wick

 

Tend well the candles of thine home, plant the oils of myrrh and frankincense into the wax, cut thy wicks when the ends grow frayed.  Take pride in minor works, works not done in the public eye but rather in solitude for the glory of He alone. The flame of GOD rests in each and every fire, we need only be receptive yet proactive to the affects of GOD - GO! and light the candle’s wick.

 

GO! and be flame!

 

[Malins Welcome 1519]

Acolyte,

 

It is my sincere pleasure to approve your thesis and endorse your ordination to the priesthood. Please seek out your Bishop, and may the light of God shine before you.

 

Yours,

James Cardinal Rhosmark