Candle

The candle is a small, deliberate light. Christian and Jewish liturgical traditions use candles to mark sacred time — Advent candles, Hanukkah candles, Shabbat candles. The candle’s flame is fragile; a breath can extinguish it. Jungian analysis reads candle-dreams as the flame of conscious attention, kept alive by the dreamer’s care. A candle that will not stay lit often marks a discipline the dreamer is struggling to maintain; a candle lit by another, a gift of attention received; many candles together, a communal work underway. Notice the color of the candle and whether it burns clean.