The Threefold Flame of the Heart

Described faithfully from the tradition (short attributed phrasing only):

1. Settle and find the heart. Sit upright, eyes closed, a few slow breaths. Bring your attention down out of the head and into the centre of the chest.
2. Picture the small flame. Visualize a single small flame burning steadily in the heart, with three plumes side by side: blue on the left (power, will, faith), yellow in the centre (wisdom, illumination, clarity), pink on the right (love, compassion, warmth).
3. Read the three plumes. The tradition’s instruction (attributed to Saint Germain) is to “meditate on the qualities of each plume to determine, through soul sensitivity, which of the three is the weakest and which is the strongest.” Don’t force it — notice which quality feels alive and which feels dim in you, today: Am I all drive and no warmth? All sympathy and no resolve? Clear-headed but cold?
4. Breathe it toward balance. On the in-breath, picture the flame brightening; on each out-breath, gently feed the weakest plume — let the dim colour grow until the three stand roughly even in height. The aim, in the teaching, is the three “in balance,” so the flame can “expand as a whole.”
5. Rest in the balanced flame. Sit for a minute or two with the image of an even, steady three-coloured flame in the chest, and a felt sense of being centred between strength, clarity, and warmth.
6. Carry one word out. Note which plume you fed today (power / wisdom / love) and let that be a quiet intention for the hours ahead. (Sourcing note: the threefold-flame teaching is described across Summit Lighthouse texts; the above is faithful paraphrase with short attributed phrases, not full reproduction.)

Mark L. Prophet (1918-1973) founded The Summit Lighthouse in 1958 and, with Elizabeth Clare Prophet, set out the heart and the threefold flame as the centre of the spiritual anatomy in Climb the Highest Mountain (1972) and The Science of the Spoken Word (1974).

The blue/yellow/pink “rays” of power/wisdom/love descend from Theosophy and the I AM Activity; Prophet’s contribution was to localise them as a single balanceable flame in the heart and make balancing it a contemplative discipline.

Resting attention in the heart-centre and contemplating an inner light or balanced set of virtues is widespread; Prophet’s version is distinctive in its three named, colour-coded plumes weighed against each other for balance: - Ballard’s I AM Presence Chart contemplation — light and a higher Self above; Prophet’s flame is within the chest.

• Prophet’s Tube of Light — protective light around you, not a balancing meditation.
• The Five Daily Prayers / heart-turning of devotional traditions — recurring return to a sacred centre.
• Heart-focused breathing / loving-kindness — chest-centred attention plus slow breath to steady affect (secular and Buddhist parallels of the grounding mechanism).

Trying to see a vivid flame. Faint or merely “sensed” imagery works fine — the felt balance matters more than picture quality.

• Forcing the diagnosis. Don’t intellectually decide which plume is weak; let it surface. If nothing comes, just rest in the even flame.
• Pumping the strongest plume. The point is balance — feed the dim quality, don’t inflate the one already dominant.
• Staying in the head. If you’re analysing the colours, drop back to the breath and the chest. This is a feeling practice, not a puzzle.
• Treating it as a verdict on your worth. A “weak” plume is information for today, not a character indictment.