Joni Mitchell begins her beautiful song “Shadows and Light” with these words. “Every picture has its shadows and it has some source of light, blindness, blindness and sight” (1)

Candles create pools of light but, just as importantly, they create ever-changing shadows, the edge of the pool where you are aware of other things but are not distracted by them. The intensity of the candle-light is thus enhanced and that which it is lighting, emphasised.

Sometimes, when the flame is lit, it burns strong and steady, without movement or hesitancy, holding its shape, strong round the short, blackened wick. At other times, the flame bounces and jumps round its seat, caught by a draught, dancing and vibrant, now one way, now the other.

Some candles are lit to be deliberately left at the foot of a statue in church, in front of a picture or at some other place of significant remembrance. How many times after an accident or major event have we seen on television people bending low over a gathering of candles and flowers. The act of lighting the candle and placing it down, the prayer that goes with it are left as a token, an illumination for others to see, an image to be taken forward from that action of faith. They turn in their darkness yet leave the token of hurt faith behind. “A candle flame, intense, moving, wavering, aspiring, is both a longing to be one with God and a glimpse of the light and fire that is God himself” (2)  In our loneliness and sorrow we light a flame, a small whisper of light in a cold wind.

Sometimes, we come across a large number of candles of different shapes and sizes, lit and placed by many people, a true blaze of light, not as an image of sorrow, but one of joy and shared aspiration.  Many of the pictures that we see of the community at prayer in Taize offer such an image, a large gathering of people in prayer, facing a wall of light. We mark the passing of the days of Advent by lighting the candles of an Advent wreath and we continue in family celebrations, particularly with children, to celebrate birthdays with candles on a cake.  At other times, the single, solitary candle takes on a focal meaning that demands singular attention. It might later become the source of light to other candles, such as is the Paschal candle when it is lit at the Easter Vigil, a starting point of new life in the Risen Lord, lit at Easter and remaining ever present during the days of Paschal time. “The love we hold and that holds us-may it consume silently and gently the substance of our being in time, so that we may one day, beyond days, become pure flame in Christ” (3) The very nature of candle light is that it is self-consuming. The act of burning a wick set in a candle is time-limited. Fuelled by the wax and so diminishing with each passing hour that the candle remains alight until the point comes when there is no longer enough wax to sustain the wick, it then collapses and extinguishes itself. Slowly the remaining liquid wax sets back to its hard form and the life of the candle is complete. The flame is gone.

At the celebration of Baptism at times other than Easter, the Paschal Candle is again lit. A single point of light, a sign shared with others and spread beyond its source, that candle flame becomes synonymous with the person to whom it is offered and whose responsibility it is to carry it.  “In the beginning God created heaven and earth.  Now the earth was a formless void, there was darkness over the deep, with a divine wind sweeping over the waters. God said ‘Let there be light’, and there was light. God saw that the light was good and God divided light from darkness.” (4)

The tradition of Icon painting began long before the electric light and in many ways the appearance of the icon and its power as a votive image is diminished by the cold, bright glare of modern illumination. How much better is the slightly shadowy movement of the candle flame before the icon that in its own life seems to bring to life the inherent message of the icon and the eye dances between flame and image as each speaks its own silent song. The Orthodox Church retains the beauty of such images.

A candle blown out or snuffed out loses its light suddenly and the blackened wick gives off a curl of blue smoke, twisting and curling upwards beyond the spent candle until it suddenly becomes detached from its source and its movement is lost, all that remains is a slight, drifting haze and the distant smell of wax. After extinguishing, the wick must be broken, paired back and prepared for other occasions, shortened to avoid smoking, trimmed for further light another time.

The wax of a candle, its very substance, changes from solid to liquid as the heat of its flame causes the wax to melt and feed the wick until, gradually, the longer the candle is alight, that reservoir of wax broadens and deepens. Candles left in a draught burn erratically, the flame drawn over to one side, unevenly melting the wax core until the wall of wax gives way and the wax pool begins to leak down the side of the candle. At that point the wick burns long and begins to smoke and before long the candle fails to be a safe light, rather it becomes unpredictable and eventually must be extinguished.

The candle flame is a light of silence, no buzz or hum that is so often associated with strip lighting, just a lit silence and a changing pattern between shadow and light. For that very reason, in the depths of night, a candle flame can become a still point in a turning world when prayer is difficult and sometimes impossible.

When friends gather to share a meal, they often illuminate their table with candles, the softer light to accompany good food and conversation. There, between friends, the lights flicker and dance and for the one, momentarily out of the conversation but listening, the light can be a point of reflection. Low down in the body of the candle, the flame burns and the glow from its energy lightens the candle wall until the whole candle seems alight. Inside the wax glistens and gently drips from the wall to the wax pool. Gradually it consumes itself, and the smiles, the laughter and the knowing glances drift into the night.

I started making candles many years ago and learnt quickly that no two candles are the same. The wax that emerges from the mould and the wick that is placed in its centre are particular to its making. It burns and lights for a while, suitable to its setting and then is no more. “And it seems to me you lived your life, Like a candle in the wind” sang Elton John (5). It is either thrown away or the remains put back in the pot for melting and so contributing to further candles. Old wax reheated, filtered, cleaned and re-shaped, wicked to burn again and offer new light.  

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(1)   Shadows and Light-Joni Mitchell 1980 Elektra/Asylum records

(2)   Save the living flame-Ann Wroe pub The Tablet 28August98

(3)   The Spirit of the Place-Carthusian reflections DLT 98

(4)   The Book of Genesis-Jerusalem Bible

(5)   Candle in the wind –Music Elton John, Lyrics Bernie Taupin

          from the album Yellow Brick Road 1973

Shadows And Light Lyrics-Joni Mitchell  

Every picture has its shadows

And it has some source of light

Blindness, blindness and sight

The perils of benefactors

The blessings of parasites

Blindness, blindness and sight

Threatened by all things

Devil of cruelty

Drawn to all things

Devil of delight

Mythical devil of the ever-present laws

Governing blindness, blindness and sight

Suntans in reservation dining rooms

Pale miners in their lantern rays

It’s like night, night and day

Hostage smiles on presidents

Freedom scribbled in the subways

It's like night and day

Threatened by all things

God of cruelty

Drawn to all things

God of delight

Mythical god of the ever present laws

Governing day, day and night

Critics of all expression

Judges in black and white

Saying it's wrong, saying it's right

Compelled by prescribed standards

Or wrong ideals we fight

wrong, wrong and right

Threatened by all things

Men of cruelty

Wrong to all things-Men of delight

Keeper of the laws, the ever-broken laws

Governing wrong, wrong and right

Governing wrong, wrong and right

Wrong and right