Today, I’d like to share about the Greek custom of the vigil lamp. Vigil lamps are lit in Greek homes on all big religious holidays, but in homes where loved ones have passed away they may be found lit every day, especially in the homes of widows.
Traditionally, in every Greek home, there is one corner (usually the bedroom), where icons are placed on the wall (along with the wreaths from the wedding ceremony of the home owners so the marriage can remain blessed). The vigil lamp is often placed in the same corner too. I have such a corner in my bedroom, but in the recent years, following the deaths of my Corfiot grandparents and then my mother, I created a second shrine in my study. I burn my vigil lamp in there amongst icons and photographs of my deceased family members. It all helps to keep their memory alive and my spirit connected to them.
The light of the flame serves to remind us that God is light, and that we have a divine light (our soul) inside us too. When the lamp is lit in the memory of a deceased, it is believed that it promotes the peace of their soul. Traditionally, a lamp is always kept lit on the grave for that very purpose, but those not able to visit the grave daily, may light a vigil lamp at home for the souls of their departed loved ones.
Vigil lamps come with a cup which you may fill with just olive oil, or water and olive oil if you don’t wish to keep burning the lamp all day. For example, if you intend to leave the house, as it’s not really advisable to leave a vigil lamp burning at home unattended.
Put in some water first, then the olive oil. The latter will naturally float on top. To use a vigil lamp you will also need a float made of cork and a box of waxed wicks. The wicks look long and pink, as you can see in the photograph below. After you put the wick through the hole in the float, squeeze the wick above the float with your fingernails to flatten it and thus stop it from sinking lower through the hole.
The shorter the wick on top of the float, the smaller the flame and the longer it will burn. Nowadays, tall votive candles are available to buy everywhere in Greece to place on graves. These burn unattended for days on end. However, the traditional burning of olive oil is believed to be the best offering.
The burning of frankincense usually goes together with the lighting of the vigil lamp. Personally, I burn frankincense on the big religious holidays and any other time when the energies in my home seem stuffy, negative or just off kilter. Over the years, I’ve grown quite sensitive to energy and instinctively know when to do this. There is no set interval, so if you want to try this too for your home, just use your instinct to decide when is a good time.
In the above photo, you can see the necessary tools for frankincense burning. i.e a suitable bowl (with a handle, as the bowl itself gets pretty hot), frankincense resin, and charcoal discs to put the resin on. To ignite the disc, hold it in the air between two fingers and place the flame of a lighter under it. As soon as it starts to spark, place it in the bowl and blow on it to encourage it to light up further. I light the charcoal disc in front of my open kitchen window and sometimes turn on the kitchen ventilator too, for good measure.
The reason is that when the charcoal ignites it produces thick white smoke as it starts to spark, a noxious thing to breathe in. So give it a few seconds to let out the worst of it. When it subsides, carefully drop a couple pieces of frankincense resin on the disc, depending on their size.
Depending on the size of the frankincense pieces, you may fit on the disc only 1 piece, or 2 or 3.
As you throw the pieces of frankincense on the disc, if you’re a believer, you may want to do this: If you’re putting on one piece, say, ‘God is one!’ (O Theos ine enas!). If you’re putting on two pieces, say, ‘Two are the natures of Jesus: God and Man!’ (Dio ine i fisis tou Christou. Theos kai anthropos!). If you’re putting on three pieces, say, ‘Father, Son and Holy Spirit’ (Patir, Ios ke Agio Pnevma!)
Before going around the house with the bowl in your hand, ensure you have opened one window in every room, even if it’s just a tad. Why? Because this will allow your logical mind to accept and understand the notion of ‘sending away’ the demonic aka negative (stale) energy. Negative energy in the home needs to be removed or it will cause all sorts of bad things, like misfortune, disease or disarray…
Now, if you’ve never done this before, here is what I do, and you can adjust the process to your own preferences. The information that follows is my own process, which is quite original for Greek standards. It combines things other Greeks do, along with practices of spiritual people in other countries. Use your intuition, as, for your own home, you surely know best!
Go from room to room with the bowl in your hand making sure that you go to every literal corner, and every nook and cranny. These are the places where stale energy accumulates. In every corner, make a cross in the air with the bowl and say, ‘Jesus Christ wins and makes all evil scatter’ (in Greek: Iisous Christos nika, ke ola ta kaka skorpa). Or, you can simply say, ‘In the name of Jesus Christ, leave now!’ or something similar using the power of His name.
Do not miss the bathroom. Especially the space over the toilet bowl. Honestly. I am not kidding. Do not miss particulatly dusty spaces either. Negative energy loves to accumulate in the spaces that are less than squeaky clean.
As you go around the house, stop at every window and external door, also at every TV or computer screen, every mirror, and the fireplace, if you have one. These are portals from where negative influence may enter the home. So move the bowl in front of them from a distance while vaguely tracing the outline (i.e. that of the window, the TV screen, the computer screen, your bathroom mirror etc). You don’t need to be exact with the lines you draw in the air. It’s the intention that counts.
After you move the bowl around the outline, draw with the bowl an X over the rectangle. This seals the portal and keeps negative influences out.
Stop when you reach your shrine of icons too, if you have one, and do crosses in the air in front of them, offering a brief prayer to God, Jesus, Mary or your beloved saints to help you clear your home and bless it.
When you’re done going around your home, place the bowl in the window sill until the smoke dies away and the disc grows cold, safe enough to throw away. Alternatively, put water from the tap into the bowl to drench the disc and extinguish it.
If you don’t have frankincense discs and the other paraphernalia needed to sanctify your home the Greek way, I am sure you will be able to find similar things in your country. A good choice is the use of frankincense sticks. If you live in Greece, go to your nearest supermarket or search for eshops that sell ‘ekklisiastika products’ (i.e. ‘churchware’) to find higher quality stuff. This eshop, for example, belongs to a monastery, and these tend to offer better quality and thus more aromatic resin, for example.
Is frankincense enough?
Certainly not. Not for me, anyway. I don’t take any chances when ousting stale energy, so I do three ‘sweeps’ of my house back to back! Each time I hold a different thing and always, meticulously, I go in every single corner. If I don’t have much time, I sometimes omit the third ‘sweep’ but I always do the first two.
The first one is what I’ve already described, using the frankincense. The second time I use sound. Loud sound makes stale energy run for the hills, so to speak. Bells or gongs work wonderfully for this purpose. More often than not, I use this sheep bell from the island of Limnos that my father gave me. Its sound is very loud so it’s perfect, but sometimes I use my Tibetan bowl instead. This is not as loud but makes a wonderful eerie sound that I find very satisfying and rather mystical. When I use sound, I don’t have to say any words. The loud sound does all the work 🙂
The third time I go around the house, I pick a couple flowers from my garden first. Holding them in my hand with a small icon or a cross, I go around my home to every nook and cranny, and offer blessings, speaking non-stop. “Peace! Love! Prosperity! Radiant health! Balance! Hope! Courage! Joy! Unity! Harmony!” You get the idea 🙂 The power of words is immense!
So there you have it. This is the best way I know to cleanse my home energetically. I swear the air feels lighter after that for days. One last note: It’s best to do this alone in the house. Definitely no one small, sick, weak or vulnerable should be indoors when you do this. No pets, small children and elderly people. When the energy starts to ‘run away’, you don’t want it ‘bumping into’ anyone of the sort, affecting their energy in a bad way.
For the same reason, you must be strong yourself (physically and mentally) when you do this. If unsure, say a little prayer and ask your angels or your favourite saint for protection before you start.
Hey. I know this is not for everybody. If you found this a little ‘out there’ or ‘woo woo’, I totally get it. It’s Greek culture, after all, and we can often act like a crazy bunch. I mean, take that Zorba guy… He certainly was a little loopy, LOL!
Interested in Greek Orthodox traditions? Read here all about the Greeks’ beliefs and traditions for the dead. Hope it won’t chill your blood much, LOL 😛
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Joanna boards a flight to visit the Greek island of Sifnos again after twenty years. All this time, despite the distance and her life’s circumstances, she’s been holding on to precious memories from an old summer love. Now, she’s determined to meet again the man she once left behind, hoping for a chance to prove she never forgot their old promise…
