How to Drink Light

As we (in the Northern Hemisphere) approach the dimmest part of the year, I’m reaching out to all of you around the globe with wishes for Light, inner Peace and Centeredness. We definitely need it as another wave of virus-anxiety ripples through the world!

A teaching from Kabbalah may be helpful: During this darkening time (which is by nature contractive and somewhat scary) there is an unusual emergence of primal Light, the brilliant light of Creation.* If we can get still and focus inwardly, we begin to receive its healing power. Any kind of meditation, prayer, or rituals, like lighting the Chanukah lights, helps us access it and drink it in. 

Light is a kind of food. It provides our souls with a deep nourishment that sustains us through shaky times.

Try this: As you light your Chanukah candles (or any sacred flame), sit for a while and gaze at the flame flickering before you. Imagine drinking the Light in through your eyes and filling your entire body with its radiance. The mystics teach that when we gaze into the lights, we are attuning our energy systems to their mystical frequency.** Rest here for a while and welcome in the nourishment.

If you are “doing” Chanukah, you may be interested to know: Most everyone lights according to the great sage, Hillel who taught that each night we add more light, because we should always ma’alin bakodesh, increase the holiness in the world. So we build up to a blaze by the eighth night. In this way we train ourselves to open to and take in increasing amounts of spiritual light. 

But consider his colleague Rabbi Shamai, who began by lighting all eight wicks on the first night. Each night, he lit one less, decreasing the light to one small flame on the eighth night. This is a training in impermanence. It prepares us for the loss of outer light while we interiorize the eternal light and brilliance within ourselves.

Image courtesy of Robert Zunikoff.