The Threefold Flame and the Spiritual Spark in Man
Here’s a transformative passage from The Bridge to Freedom Journal, Book One, exploring the profound concept of the divine spark within each person as our connection to the kingdom of heaven.
The spark referenced in the passage aligns with the concept of the threefold flame in spiritual teachings. The threefold flame, often depicted as a small divine fire within the heart, embodies the balanced energies of love, wisdom, and power. In the article, this spark is described as the essence of divinity in every person, a part of the Godhead present within us all. This aligns with the threefold flame’s representation as an individualized expression of the Father (power), Son (wisdom), and Holy Spirit (love), serving as the divine spark that guides and sustains our spiritual growth.
THE SPIRITUAL SPARK IN MAN
(Part 1)
by D. T. Marches
How near is heaven? Jesus said, “The kingdom of heaven is within you,” and again he said, “The kingdom of God is at hand.” Did the Master mean that these words spoken to the simple hearers of his day should be taken literally? Most certainly he did, for he was and is a Master of Truth and would not mislead the “seeking” people who followed and trusted in him. He said another time, “If it were not so, I would have told you.” The Apostle John says in his Gospel, “In him (God) was life and the life was the light of men and the light shineth in darkness and the darkness comprehendeth it not.”
How do we find this kingdom and where and what is this light that John refers to? In the heart of every man there is a secret, airless chamber within which dwells the spark of divinity. This tiny spark is the gift of life, by which man lives, breathes and thinks. It is the motivating power of all his earthly activities, physical, mental and spiritual. It is a part of, and contains every potential quality of, the Godhead. It is the essence of being, and its emanation is light. It is threefold in nature and is, in fact, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in embryo. Where God’s presence is, his kingdom is. The body of man is, therefore, the temple of the living God.
This is the “Secret Place of the Most High” mentioned in the Psalms and is what Jesus meant when he said, “When ye pray, enter into your closet and shut the door, and pray to your Father in secret.” When one turns the attention toward this hidden sanctuary and kneels in spirit before its holy altar, the feelings invoked by this inner desire release a spiritual force which fans the spark of life into a flame. Its threefold nature representing the love of the Father, the will of the Son and the power or action of the Holy Spirit flow outward into the personality and world of the devotee, illumining the intellect and revealing God’s divine plan for the individual and the planet.
Heaven, then, is not a “place afar off.” We carry God and his kingdom around with us in our hearts. There is no peace, no happiness, no security outside of this kingdom, and it only awaits our recognition to make itself manifest. There is only one Father and one only begotten Son and that is the Christ nature of every man.
- Pen name of Mary Lehane Innocente, mother of Geraldine Innocente.
THE SPIRITUAL SPARK IN MAN (II)
By D. T. Marches
When Jesus said, “I AM the way, the truth and the life,” he identified himself with the universal flame, a spark of which is within every man and which contains the full perfection of the Godhead, just as every drop of seawater contains all the potentialities of the great ocean. He said, “What I AM, ye shall be.”
How do we find this spiritual spark within us and then connect with the universal flame of the whole? By purely mechanical means that is not any more miraculous than the radio, the telephone or the television. This spark within the heart of man is part of the great flame that is God’s heart, with all the attributes of the Godhead within it. It is through this spark that man will learn the purpose of his creation and eventually return home to join his developed flame with the great flame of his Father.
Prayer is not a hit or miss activity, nor is the scientific answer to prayer subject to “chance.” When an individual decides he wants to contact the heavenly kingdom and partake of its peace, its healing, its love, he creates a vibration within himself that causes this “spark” within the heart to glow and expand. This spark, being of the same substance and quality as the heart of God, glows and radiates IN ITS OWN REALM and draws into its consciousness, by magnetic attraction, the grace and blessings which form the very atmosphere of this realm.
This realm is where all the answers to prayer originate. The spark within the heart is already functioning there. The radiation of scientific prayer is a signal to ascended beings, who also function in the realm of creative fire, to rush to the assistance of the spark that has sent forth its call. These beings fan the flame, intensify its light, and thus make the individual flame a power in the world of the aspirant.
THE SPIRITUAL SPARK IN MAN (III)
By D. T. Marches
The tiny spark hidden in the heart of man is sometimes called the light of the soul, for it is the spiritual fire that is the very life, intelligence, memory, and animating principle, not only of the physical body, but of the consecutive consciousness which we carry with us during our entire earth pilgrimage, and which man has named, for identification, “the soul.”
This holy essence is the greatest gift that the great universal God could bestow, being part of his own heart, with all the attributes of his unspeakable perfection. It is conferred upon man, giving him the privilege and capacity of using this power of the flame to raise his own animal nature into the spiritual, gain mastery over all finite things, and become a Lord of Creation like Jesus and other Ascended Beings.
In addition to the gift of life, through this spiritual spark, anchored within the physical heart, God further endowed man, alone, of all his creation, with the use of free will to utilize this gift of life, experiment with it, and finally, through love, and not coercion, achieve mastery and victorious accomplishment of the divine pattern—the Christus.
Man has carried this spark of divinity within him through every embodiment in which he has lived. It has provided him with the energy, the intelligence, the motivating force by which he has experienced both the pleasures and the pains of the senses. This life force was ever the servant of man’s free will.
Thus, man is learning, through the “putting forth” of the energy of this spark, the lesson of cause and its ultimate effect. Eventually, having experienced enough unpleasant effects, man will begin to desire deeply to expend the energy of his own spark of life only to set up causes that will reap effects of a harmonious and happy nature. He then begins the training on the path which will ultimately crown him Lord of his own God-flame, and co-creator in love, with his Father. He can say with Jesus, “Hitherto the Father worketh, now the Father and I work together, joyously, in the kingdom” (realm of creative fire).
D.T. Marches was the pen name of Mary Lehane Innocente, the mother of Geraldine Innocente, who was a primary messenger for the Bridge to Freedom, an organization devoted to sharing teachings from the Ascended Masters. Mary Lehane Innocente used this pseudonym when writing about spiritual topics, particularly those related to divine principles and the inner spark of divinity within each person. Her writings align closely with the teachings of the Ascended Masters, emphasizing inner spiritual growth, the presence of the divine within, and the soul’s journey toward mastery. Through her work in The Bridge to Freedom Journal and other publications, she contributed to the dissemination of these esoteric teachings in an accessible way.
