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..:: Fire ::..
By
Alan Schneider
Fire is the universal indicator of vitality and
vital force in the perceptual world. Of the four elements identified by
the ancients as the fundamental conditions composing reality, only fire
is present as pure energy – radiation released by the chemical reaction
of oxidation. Fire must be initiated to occur, customarily by intention
– and it is a fundamentally turbulent phenomenon, even when controlled
by whatever means are employed to that end – always ready to overcome
the restraints applied to it, and, if possible, consuming everything
combustible in its path, leaving only ashes behind.
Very few things are as intimidating to human beings as fire
out of control. Even the threat of predation, symbolized by the
predator’s fangs, came to be supplanted in the Hebrew faith by fire, as
the more powerful destroyer of the flesh. Ezra the Scribe made this
perception official when he designed the modern Hebrew alphabet of
Assyrian “square” script characters, replacing the original Phoenician
characters. What had been “sheen”, or teeth (fangs), became
“shin”, or fire – the serrated, saw-tooth pattern became three
vertical tongues of flame in the new script that is used to this day to
write Hebrew. One might well survive an attack by a hungry predator, but
to be engulfed in flames is another matter entirely! The Assyrians
themselves knew the fear-inspiring potential of fire, and were the first
military in history to develop flammable liquid for use in combat. In
their day, they were the most feared military organization in the known
world. Ezra was known to have Assyrian affiliations in Babylon, and may
have intentionally chosen their letter-structures out of secret
admiration for their prowess in combat. In fact, the Hebrews and the
Assyrians were distant relatives, having descended from the same
ancestral stock in antiquity...
So let us begin our discussion of fire with the themes of
the destruction and transmutation of form. Even in the case of the
relatively slow progression of “fire” seen in the physical metabolic
processes of digestion, absorption, excretion, and activity, the
inevitable result of elevated temperature is present. So heat is
the essence of fire, more even than the light that it also produces. As
this essence, we may say that heat is the Soul or Spirit of fire. While
light is something that we see, heat is something that we feel,
and feeling sensation is the most basic, and intimate, perception of
which the senses are capable. The Soul of fire is uniquely suited to
contact our Souls at this most basic perceptual level.
Norse mythology holds that Creation began when the active
element of fire began to interact with the passive element of ice,
producing the fluid medium of water, the original womb of all life.
Without the implicit effect of heat, light alone, which is readily
transmitted through ice, could not have accomplished the movement needed
to achieve this effect. We may say that, for the purposes of this
analogy, the Soul of fire is the Father of Creation and all life. As a
spiritual analogy, this is not all that far off from the literal
scientific understanding of the origin of the universe and life on this
planet, although expressed in heavily symbolic terminology. Without the
localized heat associated with stars, the universe would reside at
absolute zero (approximately -500 degrees farenheight) – a completely
inert condition, well beyond that of simple ice! And the nuclear
reactions characteristic of stars, although literally high energy gas
plasmas, still release heat in the form of radiation in essentially the
same fashion as a simple campfire. Without the continuous emission of
various high energy waves and particles associated with stellar
radiation, nothing would exist, and the cosmos would remain in
unmanifest or latent expression – only potentially manifest, and
utterly indeterminate in form and activity. Even the very beginning of
the universe – the “Big Bang” of science – is still conceived of by
authorities as a massive release of all the material that became the
universe of today from a micro-singularity, in the initial form of
energy. Although what the nature of this energy may have been is
still subject to speculation, its residue at the edges of the universe
is seen today as radio waves – still a form of energy.
Many primitive, archaic spiritual belief systems equate fire
with what has become designated in modern times as the human Soul. These
systems associate the heat and light released by combustion with the
warmth of Inner Love and the Light of sentient awareness sensed as
subtlety present in the Soul. Fire is intuitively felt to be a
reflection of the human condition to these traditions, and has been
actively worshipped in more than a few cases on record. Many modern
faiths have equivalent fire deities – a notable example being the Hindu
deity Agni, the God of Fire and specifically the funeral prior,
where the human Soul is released from the bondage of the body through
cremation, thus freeing it to continue on its Cosmic Journey of Karmic
expression. Yogis in India still build sacred fires to this day,
covering themselves with the resultant ashes as a testimony to their
condition of renunciation of life’s physical illusion, and affirmation
of the Atman (Soul) and Brahman (God) as the spiritual Truth beyond that
illusion. The spiritual energy within the human being is felt to be
bound somehow to the literal energy of fire, and some traditions even
maintain that by dying through immolation, all Karma is simultaneously
released, immediately returning the Soul to its origin in God in the
process, and negating the requirement for further incarnation on the
Physical Plane. In the ancient days of India, this method of dying was
actually the preferred one of Yogis, Fakirs, Pundits, and other
advanced spiritual practitioners! To have voluntarily allowed oneself to
be consumed by “the most powerful destroyer” must certainly have been an
ultimate testimony of faith and spiritual power...
Beyond the subtle concept of heat as the Soul of fire lie
even more esoteric concepts. Another more or less common feature of both
modern and ancient faiths is the concept of holy fire. This is
presumed to be issued from whatever God is held to be manifest in a
given tradition, and has many reported spiritual effects, ranging from
purification to outright destruction, both generally occurring on the
Physical Plane. There are, however, wars among the Gods (and between
Gods and Demons) that also are described in legend as being fought at
least in part with both holy light and holy fire, nor are the Gods the
only ones who attempt to use these tools – the Demons do so as well!
Again in Hindu legend, Rama’s emissary to Sri Lanka, the island home of
the demons and their chieftain, Ravenna, was impressed by the elaborate
nature of the Pujas ( Hindu religious rituals) conducted by the demons,
who paid scrupulous attention to every detail in order to obtain a
successful outcome. This extended to fire pujas as well, including
Agni’s fire rites. It is primarily in Judaism and Christianity that the
Devil has fallen so far away from God that he despises all of
God’s practices. Perhaps it was God’s use of the Angel guarding the Gate
of Eden with a sword of holy fire that put him off! Presumably the much
discussed Fires of Hell are not holy, although comparably
spiritual in character and at least as omnipresent in that realm, and in
the minds of corporeal believers here on Earth. The effect of Hellfire
as a punitive agent of the sinful still ties it too the process of
Divine retribution, however, suggesting that even this fire
manifestation may also be holy in its overall spiritual effect, and
implicitly placing the Devil in defacto partnership with God as the
“Angel” in charge of Hell!
Heat and fire as elements of spiritual purification are used
on the Physical Plane by mortal human beings as well. The practice of
walking across beds of hot coals is so well known (and documented) that
it is almost mundane (almost!) in the annals of spirituality and
psychology, both in the East and the West. The practice of swallowing
fire brands, once a strictly spiritual practice, has deteriorated to the
level of resort entertainment in many quarters – although still
spiritually practiced by some. The practice of sitting in sweat lodges
as spiritual and physical purification by Native Americans is another
common practice (and even of Anglo-Saxons), but one that the Natives are
understandably secretive about. It is held that a particularly effective
lodge session will result in the experience of spirit visions by some or
all of the participants. Furthermore, the practice of building and
performing rites around a fire is a frequent feature of Pagan practice
around the world, one that implicitly acknowledges the spiritual
significance of both the heat and light generated by the flames.mes.
Perhaps the deepest essence of the symbolic meaning of fire
is hinted at in the popular Western image of the Phoenix, a
mythological bird composed of fire, rising from the ashes of Death.
Here, the Soul of the fire and the Soul of the deceased unite into
one expression of immortality. This beautiful and exotic
image expresses well the spiritual bond with physical fire that is felt
by the human Soul and consciousness in the most esoteric regions of the
Psyche. Under circumstances where they are handled safely and kept under
reasonable control, we are all one in spirit with the flames as
they dance about in an ever-changing, and still changeless, display of
warmth and radiance. Perhaps in some as yet uncharted vista of the mind,
this is what the human Soul is most like at the level of brain
chemistry, neurology, and electro-physiology – always in transition and
change, as the neural electrical fields ripple through the brain, yet
the consistent entity that is linked with the Higher Planes of
experience, and continues to evolve toward them, in and beyond life on
the Physical Plane.
- With Love, Alan -
(CR2007, Alan Schneider)
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