Fire & Flame
This primitive element brings light to darkness, gives warmth on cold nights and provides clarity. But fire also consumes, burns and renew. Find your inner fire, feel its strength and let its power bring you, and those around you, to light.
Fire Is…
Magnetic
If you’re sitting by a campfire, it’s impossible not to stare into the flames that flare up, die down, change from orange to blue…Constantly changing. There’s something primordial about sitting by the fire and staring into the flames. Sharing the events of the day, if you’re together, or just sitting there in silence. Just sitting and being.
Cruel
An uncontrolled fire evokes fear in us, and with good reason. Fire plays a role in virtually all cultures and religions, and fire gods are not necessarily nice. The Hindu god Angi (Sanskrit for “fire”) can be both kind and cruel, appearing in the form of lightning. Fire transforms and purifies, but not in a gentle way. It is all-consuming; nothing remains but ashes. But from the ashes, a phoenix may be born; a firebird, the exciting powerful new. If you’ve got too much fire in you, or you are incensed, you may become fanatical or burn up.
Every ritual has a fire keeper who ensures that the fire keeps burning without getting out of hand. It’s a skill knowing when to temper it and when to stir it up.
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Can Save Lives
It cherishes, warms and nurtures. The sun is a massive fireball in the sky that we see everyday.
There is also fire at the center of the earth in the form of magma. If we want to see fire between heaven and earth, we have to make it ourselves. It’s the only natural element that we can generate ourselves. That’s why fire symbolizes action.
If you can make fire, you can provide warmth, food and protection. The word “focus” is derived from Latin, which means “hearth,” the center of our attention, and of the household. The hearth symbolizes the home, where you are safe and warm, and where you are fed. Hestia, the Greek goddess of the hearth, was so important then that she had a dedicated votive altar in every household. In the hearth of the house, sacrificial offerings were burned for all special occasions, birth, weddings, deaths, setting out on journeys and returning safely.
Strength
You can get things done with your inner fire. That fire is located in your belly; you can feel it when you warm to something. That is your solar plexus, just above your navel, the chakra (energy center) that is linked to your will power. You can also feel warmth in your heart if you feel love for others, for yourself in self-compassion, and for all life. This is the kind of flame that comes from your heart chakra.
Clarity
It literally brings light. Spiritually, fire brings enlightenment. In Greek Mythology, Prometheus stole fire from the gods and gave it to mankind so that it could develop further. That’s why fire symbolizes knowledge, spirit and divine inspiration.
Catches Your Eye
If you wash up on a desert island, you’ll definitely try to make a fire because it would increase your chances of being found. It’s the same when you light a flame in yourself – your inner flame – when you’ve found your passion, the thing that really warms your soul. It pours out of your eyes and hangs around you like a warm glow. Others recognize it: you are you, and you’re doing precisely what you have to do in life. With that fire, you can inspire and enlighten, simply by being yourself.
Four Ways to Invite Fire to Bring out the Power in You
Walking on Fire
Walking on fire is an ancient ritual. If your focus and intention are authentic and strong, you can walk on red hot coals without getting hurt. Warriors did it to prepare for battle. Firewalking was also used as a rite of passage. It is a way to overcome fear and obstacles, and to inspire strength and determination in yourself. To connect you to your own fire. Fire walking isn’t something you do in your own garden with the embers from the barbecue; there are special workshops you can follow.
Take a Rest
Do you need to take a rest, bask and regain your strength? Make your own inner fireplace. Visualize a fire in a place that feels safe and good for you. It can be an opening in a beautiful forest, a beach or a cave hung with warm blankets and furs. Sit by the fire in your mind. Feel it warm you and give you strength. Perhaps some animals are lying down beside you. It can be that people you feel a strong connection within you. Anything is possible, it’s your spot. Stay as long as you want and need. You can always return to this special place inside you.
“Life is the fire that burns and the sun that lights. Life is the wind and the rain and the thunder in the sky. Life is matter and earth, what is and what is not, and what is beyond that in Eternity.” – Lucius Annaeus Seneca
Purifying
Sage is an herb that has long been used for its purifying properties. With a burning bunch of white sage you can rid a room that feels heavy of negative energy. The room will be cleansed from top to bottom, ready to be filled with light energy and love.
“Palo santo” or “holy wood” is also used to “smudge” or purpify energetically. It is obtained from a tree that grows in South America. In their rituals, shamans use a lighted piece of wood to cleanse your aura, the energy field around your body. The smoke gives off a sweet smell that in itself put you in touch with the celestial.
“Just like a candle cannot burn without fire, man cannot live without spirituality” – Buddha
Fire Ceremony
Write everything that you wish to get rid or let go of- because they don’t offer you anything positive (anymore) – on pieces of paper. Thank them. Then write down what you would like to strength in yourself and what you wish to welcome into your life. Make a fire and cast all the pieces of paper into the fire. Stay by the fire until it goes out.