When James Strang needed a house he told his followers that if they built it for him they would have an outpouring of the Spirit and have a visible manifestation of the Spirit. In July 1846, after the house was built, Strang obliged and performed a ceremony remarkably similar to the Nauvoo Endowment, but this time being called “The Illumination.” It is called this because when the participants were in a dark room at one point in the ritual, their heads glowed. Many people considered this to be a miracle and a fulfillment of Strang’s promised visible manifestation.
William Smith accused Strang of putting phosphorus that he got from Chicago in the anointing oil (here and here), and heavily criticized Strang for this. Strang would go on to denounce this explanation multiple times (here and here).
I do believe that Strang was putting phosphorus in the anointing oil, as this is quite a simple naturalistic explanation. That being said, I am intrigued by what this could bring to ritualistic Mormon practices, especially in our Endowment sessions. To explore this, I have created my own glowing anointing olive oil.
I did this by taking a small bottle of olive oil I had, and added some glowing pigment I had in my art supplies. This was my first go with standard glow pigment:
I bought a sample pack from TechnoGlow, and so I have a pretty wide range of colors I was able to try as well. I found that the smaller the grain was, the less it affected the color of the oil. Additionally, the pigments that were whiteish in normal light also did not affect the color quite as much. Here is one with a pink pigment:
I also tried making one with a blue pigment, but didn’t get a picture of it. However, I did use the blue to test how well it glows in terms of when the oil is applied. Unfortunately, blue is also the weakest glowing pigment:
Mormonism is such a broad tradition, with many strange things like this glowing anointing oil. I am so thankful that I am a part of this tradition and am able to breathe new life into it. I have put this oil in my vial on my keys and will use it if the need arises. Additionally, I will be using this oil as part of the Endowment ceremony I am creating (and will be releasing publicly soon).