Perhaps one of the best metaphors for fire as an agent of transformation is the traditional phoenix. The phoenix is a mythical bird that after an extensive life combusts into flames and is reborn from its own ashes.
Nietzsche wrote:
“You must be willing to burn in your own flame: how could you become new unless you had first become ashes?”
A great preparation for a world change is taking place, one in which the fiery forces participate. Thus, all the principles of the fiery laws will be given to humanity as a final touchstone. How, then can we best prepare? How do we become friends with this spiritual fire?
The fire of the heart is said to not just be a symbolic or poetic abstraction. We are taught it is a very subtle energy. And while we may not yet be able to measure this energy with physical instruments, we can feel its warmth and see its effects. When the fire of the heart is strong, we feel a great and powerful joy. Eventually this joy becomes a continuous expression of our essential nature.
The ancients implemented a trial by fire and thus fire is an agent of destruction. Perhaps it is a reminder to the neophyte that he must set aside or destroy his old image of life and self to receive the spiritual teachings and become a new and better creature. The fire of spirit brings transformation and massive change into our personal worlds with all the potential to turn our life around – from ashes to dust to re-generation. When we walk across the fiery trials, we must remember to walk with intention bringing forth our truth.
The element of Fire has a mysterious relationship between the spiritual and the material states of existence. It has been said to be closely related to the will and determination. Fire energy enhances personal power, ingenuity and assists in manifesting creative endeavors, bringing passion and motivation into any circumstance. Fire is our inner light as well as a living symbol of the Divine fire burning in every soul.
In the Tibetan’s teaching, he gives us this ancient saying:
“I am a point of light within a greater Light.
I am a strand of loving energy within the stream of Love divine.
I am a point of sacrificial Fire, focused within the fiery Will of God.
And thus I stand.”
A mystical key is offered here. When we learn to work with fire as a force of creation, destruction and transformation, we tear ourselves free from the gravity of physical reality that grounds it to “stand” as spiritual beings. Sacrifice and service to humanity would be impossible without the fiery striving of the heart doing its evolutionary work to liberate the personality.
Wisdom Teaching School 