When we see the Sacred Heart aflame, or the flames above the apostles at Pentecost, it is not a story of external fire or miracle. In Neville Goddard’s terms, it is the illumination of consciousness — the recognition that imagination is the law of reality. The flaming heart is the psychological symbol of assumption fully felt and realised within the mind.
The Heart as the Seat of Assumption
The heart represents the inner centre where all assumptions are impressed. Just as Neville teaches, “Feeling is the secret.” The heart aflame signifies that a state has been assumed and felt as real. The thorns or barbed wire around the Sacred Heart symbolise resistance, old beliefs, or subconscious blocks that must be pierced for the assumption to dominate consciousness.
Piercing, Crucifixion, and Resurrection
The imagery of a pierced heart is the psychological crucifixion of old states of being. To pierce the heart is to allow the old conception of self — fears, doubts, and outer reliance — to die. The rising flame is the resurrected state of consciousness where the imagination now dominates experience. This is the process Neville describes as living from the end: assuming the fulfilled state and impressing it upon your inner world until it manifests externally.
Pentecost: The Flame of Assumed Reality
In Acts 2, the “cloven tongues like as of fire” descending upon the apostles is symbolic. Each flame represents an idea fully assumed and realised in consciousness. It is the awakening of the mind to its own creative power. The apostles’ flames are not literal fire; they are the inner illumination that occurs when a state of being has been fully imagined and felt from the inside.
Saint Jude Thaddeus: Faith in the Impossible
Statues of Saint Jude with a flame above his head represent a faculty of consciousness fully aligned with the desired state. Jude embodies faith in what seems impossible externally. The flame is the assumption fully impressed upon the subconscious. Even when the outer world contradicts, the inner state is fixed and unshakable — this is the psychological law Neville emphasises: your outer circumstances follow the assumption within.
The Flaming Heart Unified
The Sacred Heart, the flame above the apostles, and the flame of Saint Jude are all the same principle expressed differently. They symbolise the inner Pentecost — the recognition that your imagination creates your world. The heart must be pierced, old beliefs must die, and the assumption must be felt as real. Then the “fire” arises naturally, illuminating consciousness and manifesting outwardly.
“The heart aflame is the law of assumption realised: feeling your wish fulfilled within consciousness and allowing it to externalise naturally.”