This Soul Candles Ritual Guide was made for our [sold out] Soul Candles Ritual Kit - BUT you can make Soul Candles with this guide as well as gathered wick and wax or Soul Candles Dipped Wicks.
Building on the beautiful curation of Rabbi Ariana Katz from 5778, this second edition of the Ritual Guide includes history, art, photography, ritual ideas and guidance, poetry, original sofrut (calligraphy) by Rabbi Ariana Katz, editorial support from Eliana Rubin, and artistic contributions by Nomy Lamm and Irit Reinheimer.
The guide also includes a Reference List to learn more about the rich traditions of tkhines, Soul Candles and so much more.
* Excerpts from the Ritual Guide:
"May you speedily accept the prayers which are said by the light of these candles, for we pray with complete kavone (intention) and sincerity. - Tkhine for Soul Candle Spinning (Translation by Tracy Guren Klirs from Merits of Our Mothers)"
"...Walking the perimeter of the cemetery, candle makers would measure its circumference using candle wick, and measuring with candle wick across the width of headstones of their dear departed, later spin them into candles to burn for the dead, and for the living. If you can go to a place where ancestors are buried, take the spool of wick and measure along their gravestones. If they are far, measure an artifact, the length between two trees, the length of your back, the spine of a book written by a claimed ancestor..."
From Dori Midnight Re the Soul Candles practice
STONES AND THREAD: honoring/connecting with the dead
"It is customary to visit the graves of your beloved dead during the month of Elul. Since many of us cannot physically do that, we can find other ways to connect with our loved ones who have died. Consider creating a space in your home to put up photos or special objects that remind you of your beloved dead, which you can keep up through Sukkot. You may want to find an outdoor space- a tree or a bench in a park - which you can visit and bring a stone each time, as if you were visiting a grave. Perhaps you want to connect with a specific ancestor of blood or of spirit, or maybe you just want to spend time outside, being open to what comes. This can be another practice of widening our web of support and connection, offering us the chance to do reflection and repair work with the more than human and with the loved ones who have passed.
There is an Ashkenazi tradition of making Soul Candles for the Days of Awe in which people walk and measure the length of wick around the graves of their dead and make candles from those wicks. Many of us aren’t able to visit the physical graves of our ancestors or beloved dead, so instead you might want to recite their names while wrapping the wick around a stone or a tree.
