Here in Seattle we’ve been snowed in for a week. In the midst of this northern darkness, I am comforted again and again by the simplest of tools: my candles. What is it about candles that leave us so full of warmth, stillness, and hope? As I sit today looking at the unlit candles on my table, I am compelled to light them even though dusk hasn’t yet fallen. Unlit candles leave me feeling cold and forlorn. Why is that?
My inner voice answers me with a startling revelation: we ourselves are human candles, a beautiful incarnation of non-physical energy, of Light. When we are not illuminated we are superfluous in our being, for we were meant to be lit up with joy, passion, warmth, creativity, and love.
When I look at an unlit candle, I see cold wax and a blackened wick and this is just how I feel when I am not on purpose, when I am not using myself to light up my own life. When I light a candle, I see pools of soothing waxy balm and a wick afire with movement and grace. I see that wick enveloped and consumed by a flame whose purest joy is to light up everything around it in a golden arc. Isn’t that me when I am wrapped in the hot embrace of my Soul, my Inner Being, my Spirit, my Source?
Do you feel cold and exposed and superfluous in your life? If so, my advice is to get yourself illuminated. Get yourself connected to that inner fire, to the non-physical Light that gave birth to your incarnate form. When you are illumined, you sit in the center of a heat that keeps you safe and warm and comforted. That same fire also sets you ablaze with passion and purpose. If you want to illuminate your life, you must first illuminate yourself.
A simple way to do this is to meditate or pray using candles as your point of focus. Place a candle in front of you and then place four candles all around it, mirroring the directions of north, east, south, and west. As you light the central candle, silently affirm “I am now illumined.” Then spend some time feeling yourself becoming that flame. Feel you heart opening and feel yourself like the wick, embraced all around by the heat and love of your Inner Source. When you reach a place of inner peace, love, or empowerment you are ready to move to the four other candles.
Begin with the east, symbolized by the rising sun and the dawn of new beginnings. Silently affirm, “I now illuminate my creativity. New ideas for a new way of living now rise within me.” When you are ready, move to the southern candle, which symbolizes the abundance that comes forth from the earth. Affirm, “I now illuminate my prosperity. All the abundance that is my heritage can now be seen by me.” Move then to the west, symbolized by the setting sun and the rising of the moon. Here in the darkness you tap into your deepest power as a manifestor of all you desire. Affirm, “I now light the wand of my inner magician and I see that I am the creator of my reality. I now choose to create intentionally and wisely for the highest good of me and all.” Finally, light the candle of the north, which symbolizes heavenly wisdom. Affirm, “I now illuminate my inner knowing, my broader wiser perspective, my intuition. I am able to tap into that knowledge whenever I choose.”
When we are illumined we then set about the task of illuminating our lives. It is only when we are illumined that we can illuminate our creativity, our prosperity, our power and our wisdom. These flames are what assist us to attract whatever we desire into our lives. The Law of Attraction is defined as “like attracts like” but I am seeing now that “light attracts light” is a fitting description as well.
We must be alive inside like the candle serving its purpose rather than dead like the candle never used if we want to manifest our desires. More importantly, when we are alive and flickering we cast a glow that illuminates the lives of others. We become their beacon until they too see that they need only illuminate themselves. What a world this could be if every being were alit with passion, love, joy and purpose.
