Tag Archives: September 11

September 11 Remembrance Day With Candleworking & Bell-Tolling

As we have done every year since 2002, please join Mystery School initiates and especially our Templar spiritual-warriors, in observing this day of remembrance.  All you need is a candle and a bell — or a glass with a spoon to substitute for the latter.
From our Mystery School’s holy days of the year calendar:

September 11 Remembrance Day With Candleworkings and Bell-Tolling

Strike a bell one time at the exact moment of 8:46 a.m. Eastern Time when the first plane hit Tower One, the North Tower in NYC.  If you don’t have a bell, you can strike a glass with a spoon.  The ringing sound — called a tolling — has long been used to remember souls of the dead.  You may also wish to toll at the following significant times (all Eastern Daylight Time):

9:03 a.m. when the second plane hit the South Tower
9:37 a.m. when American Airlines Flight 77 hit the Pentagon
9:59 a.m. when the South Tower fell
10:06 a.m. when Flight 93 hit the ground in Shanksville, PA
10:29 a.m. when the North Tower fell

Light a taper or small votive candle for each Sept 11 victim you knew by name, or knew of — such as a friend of a friend, distant acquaintance, or any victim you felt emotionally connected to such as someone from your home-town, alma mater, etc. You may also toll your bell for each name you know. If you didn’t know any of the victims by name, that’s fine, just perform the rest of the ritual as follows.

Next light a column candle to symbolize all the victims. If you have one of those fat round column candles, they serve as a good representation for all victims. Red is a good candle color for remembrance. Multi-wicked column candles are especially appropriate because they represent humanity or large groups of people.  The three-wick candles symbolize body, mind and soul, the three aspects of human beings.

After you light the candle or candles, hold each one up first toward New York City (where the first deaths occurred), then toward Washington DC, and finally toward southwestern Pennsylvania near the town of Shanksville.  You may need a map to help you determine which direction these places are from your specific geographic location.  Say in each direction, “Ignis Vitae Flagra In Aeturnum” or its English equivalent, “(May) this light-of-life burn in eternity.”  Then place the candle with reverence in a window or on your altar or other special spot.  Finish with a bell-tolling of three.  If you want to go deeper into remembrance, you can look up the list of over 3000 victims and recite their names.  Children of the victims did this recitation of names in 2002 and 2003, taking several hours to speak them all.

Keep in mind that in some places in the world today, as was done in Britain in 2003, there are groups celebrating September 11 as a sick kind of “defeat” or victory over the West.  They honor the 19 hijackers, calling them the “Magnificent 19,” praising them with huge rallies and celebrations while screaming promises of future attacks against Americans, British, Christian and Jewish peoples.

You may wish to contemplate the Dalai Lama’s advice to Americans on Sept 11, 2003 as follows:

The Tibetan Buddhist leader, who in 2003 came on a five-city, 20-day tour of the United States timed to coincide with the Sept. 11 anniversary, called on Americans to channel their lingering grief “into a source of inner strength.”

“Big, unthinkable tragedies happen,” he said. “Now, instead of keeping that and developing hatred or sense of revenge, instead of that, think long-term. The negative event, try to transform into a source of inner strength.”