Far Eastern philosophies see fire as forceful and primal. Its physical manisfestation is our metablolism. Mentally it translates into personal drive, intention and desire. Ancient Greek philosophies classified fire as a foundational element tied to passion and desire.
Fire plays an important role in Native American traditions and is often present during ceremonies and rituals. Fire acts as a messenger and is a gift from Great Spirit. Smoke from the fire is used to cleanse sacred items as well as the body. Fire symbolizes the heart of the People and its smoke carries prayers to the Great Spirit. It represents cleansing and renewal because from the fire's ashes comes new growth , new thoughts and new plans.
What are your passions? What ignites your inner flame? What gives you a creative spark? What is your truth?
Fuel your fire.
Tend the coals.
Mind the flame.
When writing and speaking about fire, the image of a great Phoenix rising in glory and grace, is close in my mind. Stories of this mythic bird span several cultures each focusing on the creature's ability to rise anew from its own ashes - the sum of its experiences and the whole of its wisdom wrapped in a stronger, more vibrant body. Creation from destruction.The immortal essence remains.
Becoming the Phoenix
The Book of Going Forth by Day (The Egyptian Book of the Dead)
"I flew straight out of heaven, a mad bird full of secrets. I came into being as I came into being. I grew as I grew. I changed as I changed. My mind is fire, my soul fire. The cobra wakes and spits fire in my eyes. I rise through ochre smoke into black air enclosed in a shower of stars. I am what I have made. I am the seed of every god, beautiful as evening, hard as light. I am the last four days of yesterday, four screams from the edges of earth - beauty, terror, truth, madness - the phoenix on its pyre.
In a willow I make my nest of flowers and snakes, sandalwood and myrh. I am waiting for eternity. I am waiting for four hundred years to pass before I dance on flame; turn this desert to ash, before I rise, waking from gold and purple dreams into the season of God. I will live forever in the fire spun by my own wings. I will suffer burns that burn to heal. I destroy and create myself like the sun that rises burning from the east and dies burning in the west. To know the fire, I become the fire. I am power. I am light. I am forever. On earth and in heaven, I am. This is my body, my work. This in my deliverance.
The heat of transformation is unbearable, yet change is necessary. It burns up the useless, the diseased. Time is a cool liquid, it flows away like a river. we shall see no end of it. Generation after generation, I create myself. It is never easy Long nights I waited, lost in myself, considering the stars. I wage a battle against darkness, against my own ignorance, my resistance to change, my sentimental love for my own folly. Perfection is a difficult task. I lose and find my way over again. One task done gives rise to others. There is no end to the work left to do. There is no end to becoming. I live forever striving for perfection. I praise the moment I die in fire for the veils of illusion burn with me. My nose fills with the acrid smoke of death so that years from now I might look on that scar and remember how it was to hold the light, how it was to die and come again radiant as light walking on sand.
I change and change again, generation after generation. I find anguish then peace. I am satisfied with my birth and the faith to which it led me. I do not regret the discomforts and terrors of my mortality and more than I regret the company of angels. I have entered fire. I become invisible; yet I breathe in the flow of sun, in the eyes of children, in the light that animates the white cliffs at dawn. I am the God in the world in everything, even in darkness. If you have not seen me there, you have not looked. I am the fire that burns you, that burn in you. To live is to die a thousand deaths, but there is only one fire, one eternity".
(image credit to , Tara Buel)
