This Little Light of Mine: Candle Altars in Spiritualism

In 1928 a sermon was given at Central Spiritualist Church in Rochester, New York discussing "the Golden Candle" This "golden candle" is a reference to a passage in the book of Exodus where God commands "thou shalt make a candlestick of pure gold" and that the light from this candle was to be tended "from the morning unto the evening before the Lord." This candle was understood by Spiritualists to represent the perpetual light of God's presence, and also came to be understood as a symbol for the illuminating light of Spiritualism. 

Candles have a special place in American Spiritualism; the tradition of burning candles in prayer originated in popular forms of religious devotion from Christianity (specifically Catholicism) and also Judaism. As these practices were brought in to the Spiritualist tradition they developed along uniquely Spiritualist lines. 

Spiritualism developed a fairly elaborate philosophy of natural and spiritual laws, including one popular belief  that different colors could assist in prayer and spiritual development. With the combination of light from a candle, and the color of the wax, it was understood that a Spiritualist could manifest blessings from the spirit world through the combined effort of affirmative prayer and these burning colorful lights.

In the 1940s Mikhail Strabo produced two books with the assistance of Rev. Adele Clemens of Divine Harmony Spiritual Church, A Candle to Light Your Way, and How to Conduct a Candle Light Service. Although these books didn't create the practice of candle devotions, they helped codify, record, and popularize a specific set of candle burning practices to a large number of Spiritualists. 

A Candle to Light Your Way was intended for the individual Spiritualists to learn to perform candle devotions at home. These devotions were for purposes such as healing, spiritual development, or manifesting blessings. A candle altar to the Spiritualist is somewhat similar to the boveda of Espiritistas, in that it is not only a place to commune with your ancestors and spirit guides, but involves specific ritual rules regarding the set up of the altar, placement of candles, colors, and devotional objects. 

At it's most simple the altar would have an altar cloth with a few ritually specific colored candles, on more elaborate altars objects usually included a cross, a statue or image of a spirit guide or catholic saint, a small container to burn incense, and usually a Bible, prayer book, or book of Psalms. 

When in the home, candle altars were almost always placed somewhere private, often in the bedroom on a shelf or bureau. The idea behind this is largely from the gospel adage that states "when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret." However, for those who openly served their community as Spiritualist mediums, healers, or ministers, they would often have a public altar as well. 

Public candle services in spiritualist churches could range from highly elaborate rituals with music, processional marching, and large ornate altars, to simple white candles burned on dinner plates. Public candle services were held for similar reasons to personal services, but as a form of group worship. Often as part of the service participants could take a candle home with them for a small donation, so they could continue to manifest their blessings at home. 

In the introduction to How to Conduct a Candle Light Service Rev. Adele Clemens expressed that she hoped her booklet might serve to help Spiritualist ministers not only learn more about candle services, but help develop a uniformity among the different practices. It's hard to say how effective Rev. Adele was in creating a unified system for candle burning among Spiritualists; however, a major success of these two small booklets is that the practice became as far spread as it did, and still continues today.

Although candle services have somewhat waned in popularity in Spiritualist Churches, the vast majority of Spiritualists continue to keep personal altars at home where they meditate and pray to their guides, ancestors, and to God.