Roots deep inside

"Panksepp sees consciousness as something that begins very deep indeed, in the so-called peri-acqueductal grey matter in the midbrain, and 'migrates' through higher regions of the brain, especially the cingulate, temporal and frontal regions of the cortex. So he sees it as something that is not all or nothing, but has a continuous existence, transforming itself as it travels upwards, through the branches, to what he calls, by analogy with the forest canopy, the 'cerebral canopy', until in the frontal cortices it becomes high-level cognitive awareness. I like this image of the cerebral 'canopy' because it reminds us that consciousness is not a bird, as it often seems to be in the literature – hovering, detached, coming in at the top level and alighting on the brain somewhere in the frontal lobes – but a tree, its roots deep inside us. It reinforces the nature of consciousness not as an entity, but as a process." (The Master and His Emissary, Iain McGilchrist, 2009; page 221). 

It could be the mishkan's Menorah is a metaphor for this understanding of consciousness, with its roots in the tree and branches and its fruits the light of the pure, burning oil.