Eternal Flames

ט"ז באייר תשס"ז

Ancient and modern Celtic witchcraft typically observes 4 cross-quarter fire festivals [1]. However, in the northern parts [2] of the ancient Celtic world, one finds that only 3 fire festivals were observed. Interestingly, this "3 and/or 4" fire festivals observed throughout the ancient Celtic world has a parallel in Jewish kabbalah and Hebrew script.

The "letter of fire" called the eternal flame in Hebrew script is called a "shin" - it has 2 forms, one with 3 flames and one with 4 flames, the shin of chochmah and the shin of binah, respectively. In both the Celtic system and the Hebrew system, the "3 and/or 4" phenomenon is associated with fire - the fire festivals of the Keltoi and the fire letter of the Hebrews.

The ancients knew something cosmically significant and encoded it into the symbols and rituals of their ancient systems. I'm not sure about other mystical systems, but in my mind, clearly the ancient Keltoi and Hebrews had this knowledge. It enchants me tremendously.

Footnotes:

[1] The 4 fire festivals correspond to the (Full) Moon Sabbats: Imbolg, Beltane, Lammas, Samhain.

[2] The north itself corresponds to the element of fire according to the Zohar (Shemot, Va'Era).

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