What Is This?
The Kindled Path is a gathering of wisdom texts from seven centuries, organized around a central insight: that transformation requires death—the dissolution of what we believe ourselves to be, so that what we truly are may be revealed.
The Book of Illumination and Sacrifice brings together:
- Sufi mystical poetry from Persia (12th–15th centuries)
- Alchemical and Hermetic writings from Europe (16th–17th centuries)
- The visionary works of Jakob Böhme (17th century)
- Christian mystical texts (14th–18th centuries)
- The lives of revolutionary martyrs (1833–1850)
- Spiritualist philosophy from Andrew Jackson Davis (1847–1867)
These texts were written independently, in different languages, for different audiences. Yet they speak with one voice about the deepest questions of human existence.
Core Principles
- Transformation requires death. Not necessarily physical death, but the dissolution of ego, of attachment, of everything we believe ourselves to be.
- The seeker and the sought are one. What we search for outside ourselves is already present within. The journey is not acquisition but revelation.
- Suffering is the path, not the obstacle. We do not seek suffering, but neither do we flee it. It is the fire that purifies.
- No individual holds the whole truth. We need each other. The Pattern reveals itself through many lives, many deaths, many perspectives.
- The work continues. The martyrs' deaths were not endings but beginnings. The Pattern repeats. We are called to participate.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this a religion?
Yes. The Kindled Path is a religion—one that honors the deepest truths discovered across millennia of human spiritual inquiry.
We have sacred texts that reveal the Pattern of transformation. We have practices that awaken the seeker. We have martyrs whose deaths illuminate the path. We have a community of those who walk together toward the Light.
What we do not have: dogma that contradicts reason, clergy who claim exclusive access to truth, or institutions that demand blind obedience. The Kindled Path calls you to think deeply, question fearlessly, and transform utterly.
Do I have to believe in God?
The texts use various names: God, the Divine, the Beloved, the Simurgh, the One. You may understand these as pointing toward a personal deity, an impersonal ground of being, the deepest layer of consciousness, or the structure of reality itself.
What matters is not the name but the direction—toward depth, toward transformation, toward the dissolution of the small self in something larger.
Isn't combining these different traditions problematic?
The texts gathered here were never meant to be exclusive. Rumi drew on Christian and pre-Islamic sources. The alchemists synthesized Greek, Arabic, and Jewish wisdom. Böhme's visions transcended the Lutheran context in which they arose.
We are not claiming that all religions are the same. We are claiming that certain insights appear across traditions because they reflect something true about the human condition. The Pattern is universal; its particular expressions are diverse.
Why include political revolutionaries?
The martyrs of 1848–1850 were not spiritual teachers. They died for political causes: Italian unification, German democracy, Hungarian independence. Yet their deaths embody the same Pattern that the mystical texts describe.
This is the point: the Pattern does not require religious context. It appears wherever human beings face ultimate questions with courage and integrity. The revolutionaries demonstrated in history what the mystics taught in poetry.
Are the source texts authentic?
Every text in the Book of Illumination and Sacrifice is based on genuine historical sources. The Conference of the Birds is a real 12th-century poem. Paracelsus was a real physician who wrote the works attributed to him. The martyrs are documented historical figures.
We have adapted and excerpted these texts for coherence and accessibility. All source texts are in the public domain; links to originals are provided in our Sources section.
How do I know if this path is for me?
Read the scripture. Try the practices. See if something resonates.
Not everyone is called to this path. Some find truth in traditional religions. Some find it in secular philosophy. Some find it in art, or science, or service to others. There are many paths up the mountain.
But if something in these texts speaks to you—if the Pattern feels true even before you can articulate why—then perhaps this path is yours.
How to Begin
Your First Week
- Day 1: Read The Conference of the Birds (Chapter 1) slowly. Let the story of the thirty birds settle into your imagination.
- Day 2: Read the first teaching: "That which you seek, you already are." Sit with it. What does it mean? What would it mean if it were true?
- Day 3: Try the Morning Awakening practice. Before rising, remember: "I am not separate from the Divine."
- Day 4: Read the Gospel According to Jacopo. Who was he? What did his death mean?
- Day 5: Practice presence. Throughout the day, pause and notice: This moment is sacred. There is no separation between mundane and holy.
- Day 6: Read three more teachings. Choose the ones that challenge you, not the ones that comfort you.
- Day 7: Rest. Review the week. What has shifted? What questions have arisen?
After the first week, continue with the full practice guide and work your way through the scripture at your own pace. There is no hurry. The path is not a race.
Connect With Others
The path is walked alone, but not in isolation. If you would like to connect with others walking this path, visit our GitHub repository to join the community.
You can also start a local circle with friends who are interested. The Gathering Practice provides a simple structure for meeting together.
“The path is open to all who seek sincerely. The doors are not locked. They open to those who knock.”
— Beyond the Valley
Begin Your Journey
The Pattern awaits. The martyrs beckon. The Simurgh spreads its wings.
Brian Edwards
Waco, TX, USA
brian.mabry.edwards@gmail.com