Meditation Candles Light the Way for Prayer and Spiritual Beauty

“Look at how a single candle can both defy and define the darkness.” —Anne Frank

Few things are as inviting as a cozy home adorned with flickering meditation candles. Like twinkling stars or fireflies on a summer night, candles act as a light in the darkness and inspire a sense of warmth, hope, and magic.

From ancient times to the present, candles have played an important role in nearly every spiritual and religious tradition. Candles can be used for prayer, meditation, reflection, chakra balancing, or simply admired for their beauty. Their light is a symbol of the eternal presence of the Divine and is used as an enhancer of prayer and manifestation. The flame acts as a bridge between our thoughts and higher consciousness and has the power to essentially ignite our prayers and intentions.

Choose a Color, Choose a Chakra

By choosing and lighting particular meditation candles, you can create a personalized, sacred space in your home. The color of the candle is believed to enhance the specific energy of your intention. Each color vibrates at a different frequency and infuses and intensifies your prayer with that energy.

• Red: strength, grounding, ambition, vitality, love; balances the root chakra.
• Orange: optimism, success, joy, friendship, creativity; balances the sacral chakra.
• Yellow: communication, intellect, memory; balances solar plexus chakra.
• Green: emotion, calming, stimulates growth, prosperity; balances heart chakra.
• Blue: justice, wisdom, insight, forgiveness, healing, centering, peace; balances throat chakra.
• Indigo: spiritual growth, intuition, psychic awareness, contacting spiritual world; balances third-eye chakra.
• Violet: connection to the universe and the Divine, selflessness, transcending ego; balances crown chakra
• Pink: emotional love, joy, soulmate, friendship, femininity
• White: purification, cleansing, protection, clarity

Candle Gazing

Meditation candles can be used as a focal point as well. This relaxing practice, known as “candle gazing,” is often used to help open up the third eye and to increase focus and concentration. To begin candle gazing, sit in a comfortable position and fix your eyes on the flame, allowing it to become the center point of your thoughts. As you steadily breathe in and out, become completely absorbed by the beauty, purity, and clarity of the flickering light. This won’t be too difficult as fire is a naturally mesmerizing element. Have you ever caught yourself totally entranced by a campfire? This will feel like a similar experience.

[Read: “Candle Gazing and 4 Other Ways to Balance an Overactive Mind.”]

If you are unable to use candles in your home, perhaps because of small children, pets or asthma, you can substitute other types of lights to create a reverent and meditative space. Stringing white holiday lights along a mantle or wall will give your room the soft and subtle glow of multiple candles, and as a bonus, still create plenty of light to read a book. Another excellent choice is a Himalayan salt lamp. These beautiful lamps give off a soft pinkish light that improves the mood of a room, and they emit healthy negative ions.

If a candle is used for prayer or intention, let it burn itself out if possible. If you must leave the house, use a candle snuffer to put out the flame and then relight it when you get home. Don’t blow it out with your breath as this is believed to interrupt the prayer energy.

Rich in spiritual history, meditation candles are the perfect way to turn your home into a sacred space.

Looking for more light? Rabbi Rami illuminates the connection between spirituality and prayer.