light does not eliminate darkness - it illuminates what IS.

the same fire that turns us to ash

solidifies the pot.

The sun sustains life with warmth

and depletes it through drought.

the heat we feel within our bodies

can be love or a fever,

passion or rage.

and if a candle is a WISH,

Where doES IT go when we blow IT out?

last October’s flow was held on my 31st birthday. inspired by the ritual of blowing out a candle, i guided us through the creation of our own candlestick holders. my references were mexican tree of life candelabras, historically used as gifts for newlyweds to call in abundance and considered today to be one of the most popular manifestations of mexican folk art.

there are codes to freedom within our artifacts.
the tree of life candelabras are no different.
beneath the lush paradises and clay figurines are whispers of ancient wisdom forced into hiding .
Colonization doesn’t just take land - it takes away truth. because art is a portal to the divine which tells no lies, it is often destroyed or diluted as an act of spiritual warfare.
that is why artisans are valuable collateral during times of war.
for the candelabras in particular, The prevailing narrative is that the they orginated in **Izúcar de Matamoros,** **Acatlán** in Puebla, and **Metepec** during the spanish invasion and subsequent conquest (1521) as a means to evangelize the indigenous people of mexico. while the use of symbols such as adam and eve, the garden of eden, and noah’s arc certainly came from that era, there is evidence that the tree of life was central to indigenous beliefs and practices long before then. there are tombs of ancient mayan kings from 600 AD with tree of life symbols on their sacophogus and surrounding tomb chambers.
“At Palenque, and in numerous other Maya centers, the ultimate expression of this ability to escape the harrowing of the underworld was the World Tree. It was the central focus of the Maya’s journey into the afterlife and the principal token of the power to overcome death. Its blossoms symbolized the purity of the human soul. In ancient Maya art this tree could be represented as a ceiba tree, a cacao tree, a calabash tree, any number of other trees, or a stalk of maize. The actual species of tree makes little difference since each is a metaphor, representing the sacred power inherent in the fabric of the cosmos to allow kings, the sun, and all other mortal things to emerge from death to new life.”
when invadors forced the artisans into missionary work , i believe they embedded this symbol of rebirth and renewal into the candelabras as a promise.

what it means:

The Tree of Life is not just a symbol—it’s a system. Originating in the ancient African civilization of Kemet (Egypt), its earliest recorded use as a spiritual framework dates back to 6000 BC. Rooted in sacred geometry, the Tree of Life offers a living map of the cosmos—a guide for understanding how every force in the universe relates to humanity and how we might ascend spiritually through those connections.

It consists of 10 spheres, or sephiroth, and 22 pathways that interlink them. The sephiroth are energetic emanations of divine power, often depicted as gods, goddesses, or aspects of the sacred. Each represents a unique perspective on divinity—and through deep awareness of them, we’re offered insight into different layers of our own spiritual path.

At the top is Kether—supreme oneness—the source that contains all other spheres within it, like nesting dolls. The pathways between spheres represent movement: the energies we must balance, the obstacles we confront, and the wisdom we gain as we walk the spiral toward wholeness.

These energies exist within each of us. The more we open to their guidance, the more we begin to harmonize our internal world with the outer one. This inner journey is often referred to as path working.

A few years ago, I discovered a path working tool called Human Design, which offers each person a unique energetic blueprint based on their time of birth. It maps out your specific configuration of open and closed pathways, aligned and resistant energies—essentially, your own Tree of Life. And yes, it looks exactly like one. If you’ve never looked into your Human Design chart, I highly recommend it. Think of it as a manual for your existence.

so where does a wish go when we blow out the candle?

it goes home.

REFERENCES:

https://www.gnosticmuse.com/kabbalah-origins/

https://mysteryinhistory.com/the-tree-of-life/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZnUXa4CIa4

https://mymodernmet.com/es/arbol-de-la-vida-artesania/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1IlTT--xbI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7D-W9XyJ_BA

https://www.byarcadia.org/post/mexican-folk-art-101-the-tree-of-life

https://isha.sadhguru.org/en/wisdom/article/fire-element-four-types-of-agni

https://www.afrikaiswoke.com/the-tree-of-life-in-ancient-egypts-metu-neter-explained/