Blessing of the Taper of Exorcism

This is the second of my corrected English translations from Robert Ambelain’s Sacramentaire du Rose + Croix ([1964]). Last time I gave the Blessing of the Salt of Exorcism. The taper is the other half of that pair. Both are needed before the Water of Exorcism can be made, and the water is what the later operations call for most, and it’s a very useful thing to have on hand.

A candle is about the plainest tool there is. Most of us already have one in a drawer somewhere, and lighting one to pray by is about as old as prayer. What the Sacramentaire adds is a deliberate consecration: the wax and its flame are blessed once, set apart, and from then on, wherever that taper is lit, it carries the blessing with it. The candle can then continue to be used for prayer and many other spiritual purposes, including its role in the consecration of the Water of Exorcism.

Now on to the sacralisation of the taper.

Blessing of the Taper of Exorcism

Robert Ambelain, Sacramentaire du Rose + Croix (Paris: La Diffusion Scientifique, [1964]), 45–46.

Select a candle, ideally of beeswax, and set it unlit in a candle holder on a table before you. Moisten your thumb with saliva and trace a cross on the wax. Then, hold your hands over the candle, thumbs joined in a square above the cross, and say the prayer. When you see ✠, make the sign of the cross over the taper, then return your hands to the thumbs-joined position. There is no aspersion of Water for the taper, for it belongs to the element of Fire.

I bless ✠ you, creature of wax and fire, and I sanctify ✠ you, in the name of the One who created you, who appeared to His servant Moses in the form of the Burning Bush. I exorcise you and I bless ✠ you; I adjure you and I conjure you, O creature of Fire, in the name of the Almighty and Eternal God, who makes the earth tremble and has power over all things, that you come to my aid against the Demonic Power spread throughout the world and dwelling in this place, that you put it to flight for good, it and its ministers, and that it dare no longer even approach this place. And You, Lord Jesus ✠ Christ, Son of the Living God, Light of lights, deign to bless ✠ this candle and its flame at my earnest prayer. Pour out upon it, Lord, by the virtue of Your Holy Cross, Your heavenly blessing, You who gave it to the human race to dispel all darkness. And by the sign of this Holy Cross may it receive such a blessing that, in any place where this taper is lit or set, and wherever the flame from this wax shines, the Powers of Darkness, with all their ministers, will at once withdraw and flee in terror, far from our homes, our cities, and every human dwelling. And so, by this rod of light lit in Your honor, may glory and honor be rendered to You, O Jesus ✠ Christ, who reigns with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, world without end. Amen.

Elsewhere, Ambelain says that every one of his orisons ends with an aspersion of the Water of Exorcism, four casts in the form of a cross. The taper is the exception. Water and fire don’t mix in this context, and there may not be any water made yet to sprinkle, so the blessing is given instead through a cross traced by the moistened thumb and the imposition of the hands.

With the salt and the taper both in hand, everything is ready for the Water of Exorcism, which will be the next post.

Until next time, may God bless you.

✠ ✠ ✠
Arthur