Candle (experiments with)

When I first began to stare into the candle, I found that when I closed my eyes a large red dot formed in the blackness—it was perfectly circular and grew in intensity. When I opened my eyes, the red dot remained, and floated around the room as if by its own volition—sometimes it turned blue.

I half suspected that this occurred because the candle had left an impression on my retina—it’s surprising how hot a candle can be, I’ve held my hand quite high above it and found the heat still to be intense so it seemed plausible that it might impress on the retina.

However, I found that this effect was not constant—if I held the candle at the same distance on other occasions no such red dot appeared. Further, I noted that a phenomenon I first noticed after Hartsfell has intensified since I began to stare into the candle and stare into a mirror lighted by a candle.

When I came back from Hartsfell that first time I looked in my hotel mirror and saw both my eyes filled with swirling red “electricity”—the phenomenon continued and began to manifest not just in mirrors but in front of my face, often the red balls would resolve into a circle that would rotate in front of me.

This somewhat increased after my last visit to Hartsfell, but periodically falls off. However, I noticed that since I started to stare at the candle and at the mirror that the phenomenon has returned more strongly. I suspect that the candle acts like the fire of the Zoroastrians, whose religion is aniconic and uses fire to represent the divine instead. The mirror also has many such associations—the mirror-world of Buddhism or of Hildegard of Bingen.

What I think has happened is that the candle and candle-lighted mirror have purified the astral light within me, so leading the phenomenon to return—as to its exact purpose, that remains unknown to me.