The Chamber of Fire and
Light
The Chamber of Fire and Light
A bright, warm and illuminated room. This room represents
a possibility of redemption, yet conceals a risk of fall. The constituent
elements are ambiguous too: The light is expanding, infinite, abstract.
It is redeeming and enlightening yet blinding. The fire is burning, leading
to destruction, back to dust and ashes, back to chaos: but at the time
it is also purifying, cleaning.
The candle symbolizes the soul and spirit. In
Jewish tradition, the righteous are depicted with a candle burning over
their head, over angle's floats a halo of light, and divine throne is surrounded
by fire. Evil men, on the other hand, exhibit an extinguished candle. It
is light which is nourished by the inner Tikun, internal amendment,
correction, reform. It holds the divine power to distinguish between good
and evil (burn the wicked and purify the righteous).
Fire and Light drive away the darkness (chaos),
and bring the morning (redemption). Fire leads to a purified state, allowing
the entry of the divine light, and consequently the expansion of awareness
and the "drowning" in the divine abundance and "sinking" with it to the
earth.
Ultimately, this room represents the filling of
the emptied blue heart with light, with fire; The turning of a person into
an angle with a heart of gold - the peak of the Tikun.
Legend
tells about Gods Illuminated Field of cosmic trees. God, the gardener,
cultivates these trees, watering them and pulling out the weeds, and the
trees blossom, producing wondrous fruit in the form of souls. This magical
garden is surrounded with a muddy swamp. Every once in a while God inserts
his hand into the mud and pulls out a lost soul, planting it in his garden,
thereby turning it into an illuminated tree.
The cosmic tree is rooted in the ground, and
its branches reach the heavens. It bridges between Man and Divinity, serving,
on the one hand, as a channel for divine abundance, and on the other, as
a ladder allowing Man to climb up from the world of Matter to the Upper
world of Spirit.
It is said that every night when a person goes
to sleep, his soul leaves his body, and is hung on the branches of a sacred
cosmic tree, watching him from there. In the morning, when he wakes up,
the soul returns to his body. Thus every morning a person is born anew.
The soul is like a garment a person takes off and puts back on. It is a
separate entity which can expand and grow (or alternatively dwindle and
die). It belongs to the Creator and is given to Man as a present which
he must deserve. It is given to Man in order to perform a process of correction.
The lost souls live in exile. Restless souls,
in constant movement, they cannot find their place in the world. God pulls
the lost souls out of this dark and chaotic universe, showing them the
illuminated path.