The Central Flame

What I’d like to speak about today is the opportunity that opens to us when the heart makes the creative choice to be centered in the origin of our being. If we name what that is, it can sound like we’re naming something separate from us. But if we are going to speak about that opportunity, we have to talk about it somehow.

Uranda, who founded Sunrise Ranch and Emissaries of Divine Light, had a wonderful name for the originating source of our being—the Wonderful One Within. You could use more religious-sounding words—like the Lord God, Almighty God, or Jesus—but they might sound as though you are speaking of something distinctly different from you, something other than you. Yet, the truth of the matter is something else.

Think about this inner reality as the Central Flame. When we turn to the power within, we are turning toward a flame that is central to who we are. Magnificent. You turn toward it, and it’s like turning toward the sun. You feel the warmth of that sun in your soul. There is that eternal Central Flame.

The term Central Flame sounded so familiar as I thought about it this week. I was sure the founding literature of the Emissaries of Divine Light must have spoken about it. But I looked all over and even asked a friend about it—it’s nowhere. So, it wasn’t familiar for that reason.

I looked around to see if the term had been used elsewhere. The answer is yes, though sparingly. In the 5th century B.C., Greek philosophers known as the Pythagoreans spoke about the Central Flame. As they envisioned it, this was a reality distinct from the physical sun. They also referred to it as the Hearth-Altar of the Universe. Up to that point, Greek culture—and much of world culture—saw the cosmos as revolving around the Earth. This is thought to be the first concept of reality that changed that ancient view.

Rosicrucian texts from the 19th century reference the Central Flame, and a New Thought mystic from the early 20th century did also.

But I hadn’t read any of those texts. So, the term was familiar to me for another reason—it names my experience. The term Central Flame names something I know for myself. It is something we know together. And as that happens, there are all kinds of possibilities.

We live in a world filled with the practicalities of life. They are present in our individual lives and in the world at large. If you look out at the world, the practicalities tell us that we are facing challenges that seem almost insurmountable. What is the answer to those challenges?

A friend wrote recently that spirituality, as it is known in this postmodern age, cannot address the mega-crisis we face as humankind. He shared a comment from the founder of a well-known center for spiritual study saying that contemporary spirituality has ultimately failed to give us the answer for the world we face.

What is the spirituality of today that will meet that need? I believe it is what we are speaking of—it is a reorientation of the heart, a much-overlooked dimension of the human experience. Until there is a change of heart, you can believe what you want, practice what you want, meditate for as long as you want—but if the orientation of the heart is not turned toward something higher than itself, there is essentially no change.

The heart rules the human experience. It sets the rules of the game of life. It establishes the conditions in which we experience our lives. It creates the lens through which we view the world.

And so, until the heart reorients, there isn’t the essential change in the human being—or in humanity—that will allow for the transformation called for today.

A true turning is to the Central Flame. This flame is the central nature of our being. It is composed of the Fire of Love.

In the human experience, there must first be the ascending nature of that flame—meaning that all the fuel of our lives comes together in the heart and ignites, setting fire to our experience. The flame rises, ascending in love to the source of our being—the Wonderful One Within.

This world needs teachers of the ascending flame. Of course, you can’t teach the ascending flame if that is not your experience. But simply by having that experience, you are teaching it. You are being it. You are inviting others to know the ascending flame in themselves—to reorient, to allow that flame to ignite the heart, and to let all the factors of human experience ascend as incense before the Lord.

We are in this space together to know that for ourselves and share it among ourselves. As that transpires, the heart leaps with joy, pleasure, and praise.

The ascending flame unites us with the source of Being—the Wonderful One Within. That is worship. And if collective worship has meaning, it is that we are participating in the ascending flame together. What a pleasure! What a joy!

As the ascending flame is known, something else begins to appear. There begins to be a unified experience of one heart. Yes, there are individual dimensions of that heart. And yet, we share a collective heart. In sharing that, there is a feeling of being ourselves, of being at home. While who we are has an individual component, we belong to a Family of Souls and to the collective heart of that family. When we experience that collective heart, we are more ourselves than ever.

There is a knowing of oneness—of union with other Beings, with the source of Being, with the source of Creation, and with the Central Flame.

In that oneness, the descending flame appears. This is the fire brought by the Family of Souls into the world. We need that fire. The world needs that fire. It is the Fire of Love that transmutes and transforms. It has the magic and power to do that like nothing else.

In France, prominent world nations have come together to build a nuclear fusion reactor. Recently, the superconducting magnet system was completed. The initial phase of operations is projected for 2035. Perhaps that fusion reactor is symbolic of who we are meant to be together—fused with great power, the descending flame of Creation brought into the world to transform and create.

Here is a verse from a favorite song of mine, familiar to many of us. It’s from the Wailin’ Jennys, a group of Canadian women:

This is the sound of all of us,
Singing with love and the will to trust,
Leave the rest behind—it will turn to dust,
This is the sound of all of us.

—Ruth Moody

The song reminds me of the descending flame that we are bringing to the world. All the rest that is not of that flame can turn to dust—it ultimately does, whatever we do about it. I think we would be better off if, as the world turns to dust, there is the Central Flame that is alive and burning—so that something else is being known by humanity, out of which everything else can be created.

No longer a cacophony of ideas, communication, and misunderstanding. No longer a Tower of Babel among us as human beings. All that turned to dust. This does not mean there is nothing left—but what is left is of the Central Flame, born of human beings dancing in that fire together.

I love how Cheyne Morros named the significance of understanding between men, between women, and between men and women. As that truly happens, we participate in the Central Flame together.

There are both men and women in the ascending nature of that flame. And we all have the opportunity to know the descending flame. It is all a gift.

If you know what it is to allow the ascending flame to be present in your experience, I invite you to teach it to others within this spiritual community—to share it with others and make that ascending flame available to them. Bring it so that they may recognize it in themselves, and so it may live in this community. Let this be a community of the ascending flame.

And if you know what it is to bring the descending flame—the Fire of Love coming into the world with power, blessing, and creativity—I say Bring it! Bring it with all you’ve got. That fire is welcome here. Let us know that fire together. And if you know it for yourself, teach it in this community. Share it with others. Invite others to find that descending flame—that power and strength, that creativity, that fire—in themselves.

Here it is, and there it is. Let this be a community of the descending flame. Let us know that together. Let us teach it to each other and to anyone who wants to know it for themselves.

We are the Central Flame. This is the basis for ease in living and creating. Creating without knowing this Central Flame is hard work. That is the story of Adam and Eve leaving the Garden of Eden:

In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground.
—Genesis 3:19

We know another reality. Both these elements of the Central Flame are appearing in our experience—individually and together—so the Tower of Babel can come crashing down. We are beginning to see each other, to find each other in the Family of Souls, known by us as human beings, no longer fooled by the elements of the Tower of Babel that have deceived us all this time.

We are finding each other. We are finding ourselves. I give praise that this is happening. I could not tell you how happy I am that it is.