When I was little I remember one Holiday season where we light the candles like Jewish practitioners would do and all I can remember is us just going through the motions and never really understanding WHY this is a tradition and is practiced. SO this year I decided to Wikipedia the meaning. I found a great story about how the jewish people had reclaimed a favored temple and needed to purify it. Their theory was in order to purify the temple you had to burn a candle for 8 days however, they only had enough oil for one. Miraculously the oil left the candle burning for 8 days!
This made perfect sense and what a great time of year to light the flame and purify. Fire brings 3 great qualities; heat, light and transformative power. Getting warm enough in ones body you can feel more and sync up your actions better. Lighting your focus with clear and presence only supports a more accurate use of ones abilities. Transforming energy within our own temples to serve us better in the next years sounds perfect and protective as many people get sick during these months of Holi-daze!
Hugging muscle energy in and keeping the inner bright with breath supports a well balanced and even scrubbing of our bodies temples. Even simply holding a posture and just breathing into the form clears the channels of energy as they flow through you. So 8 days of lighting candles can be the perfect metaphor for what we do in our bodies to cleanse our own temples each year.
Happy Chanukah!
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