Each flickering flame, a prayer and blessing shared.

I’ve continued my Hermit Streak, heeding the call towards deeper listening, watching, sensing.

That’s often the case when a creative effort or major cycle has ended: a (seemingly) fallow space of renewal — a stillpoint — comes before regeneration and rebirth.

I’ve been musing on this very thing, very much the spirit of the energy-archetypes of Virgo: Vesta (Hestia), Hermes (Mercury), and the ancient lineage of those devoted Keepers of the Flame.

With the next New Moon (September 15-16) — and particularly the ‘dark moon’ days before it — it’s perfect time to open to reflection, reverence, devotion, and Flame-Tending.

In the meanwhile, here is a lovely gem and reflection in keeping with the Virgo-Vesta spirit, from from Make Me an Instrument of Your Peace: Living in the Spirit of the Prayer of Saint Francis, by author-educator, Kent Nerburn.

“We are not saints, we are not heroes. Our lives are lived in the quiet corners of the ordinary. We build tiny hearth fires, sometimes barely strong enough to give off warmth.

But to the person lost in the darkness, our tiny flame may be the road to safety, the path to salvation.

It is not given us to know who is lost in the darkness that surrounds us or even if our light is seen. We can only know that against even the smallest of lights, darkness cannot stand.

A sailor lost at sea can be guided home by a single candle. A person lost in a wood can be led to safety by a flickering flame. It is not an issue of quality or intensity or purity. It is simply an issue of the presence of light.”

Better to light a candle
than to curse the darkness.
~ Chinese Proverb

Many spiritual traditions speak of the Divine Spark within each living thing — this little light of mine.

What if honoring and tending this Divine Spark — the ‘little light’ (or bonfire!) within — was our most vital and true purpose?

What if, with our inner-flames well tended, each of us becomes (or is) the lighthouse, tiny flame, flickering flame, candle that guides others home?

If you need a bit of inspiration, do watch and listen to this:

Big-Love on the Way, and let your Little Light shine.

Jamie