Fire

Fire — of all the elements, fire evokes some of the greatest images and emotions for people and for animals. Just reading the word fire brings an image or memory to mind. You see the colors of yellow, orange, and red leaping from logs. You hear the sounds of snapping and crackling as the dry wood ignites, smell the smoke as the wind shifts, and feel the warmth licking at your feet. Fire can and will stop at nothing in its path as it burns out of control and turns into a wildfire. Fire can also be very healing for the body, soul, spirit, and Mother Earth, transforming one form of energy to another.

One of life's hardest lessons is learning to trust that you will be shown the way when the time is right. Drunvalo has talked about this — about trusting your higher guidance when it tells you to stand on a street corner on a certain day at a certain time and wait for further instructions. This past spring, while doing a journey with friends, I found myself in one of those situations. We were gathered together on our favorite mountain top and quite unexpectedly a stag appeared through the fog and gave me this message: 'Be on this mountain top on June 22nd for a vision quest.'

The mountain is on the back side of 'Spirit Hollow', a center for shamanic studies in Shaftsbury, Vermont. As part of my vision quest, I received a message that I needed to attend a fire-walk workshop that had been scheduled at the center after I returned. When the event got canceled I learned that the next fire-walk would be in October. I resisted the idea only because I am usually so busy in October taking time off would be impossible. Spirit didn't agree. It kept sending me messages of fire. Unable to ignore these signs, I said 'Alright, I surrender!' — and a week before the fire-walk everything fell into place.

I Arrive at Spirit Hollow to Walk on Fire.

Fire-walking: The act of exposing the tender soles of your feet to a bed of hot coals or stones. Sound like fun? It is much more than fun. It is empowering!

Peggy Dylan of 'Sundoor, the School of Transpersonal Education and the International Fire-Walking School', describes fire-walking as an ancient ritual — a rite of initiation, healing, and faith. She relates that most people do not understand the importance of the relationship that humans have with nature in general, but especially with the fire element. According to Ms. Dylan, "We see nature as something to dominate, not commune with or see as an equal expression of the divine nature." At the school, instructors are not only taught how to teach fire-walking but also how to converse with fire.

"Fire tending is more than the idea of communing with the fire. It is also taking care of the fire, wanting to give the fire what you want the fire to give out. If you give it gentleness, then the fire will be gentle. If you need to pep up the group, then you give the fire sparkle," Dylan states.

In talking with Emery Forest, the co-director of 'Spirit Hollow', about why he did the fire-walk workshop, he had this to say. "At first I wasn't interested in doing the fire-walk." He and his wife Tracey flipped a coin as to who would stay with the children that night and who would do the fire-walk. Emery won. Emery said that he was a reluctant firewalker, because during that time period he was experiencing a lot of fear. It was the fear of the fire. He found his fear ironic since he has had a lifelong love of fire.

"As a kid," Emery said, "I always loved starting fires. I remember watching a car that had caught on fire burn. I just couldn't take my eyes away from it. I would go on a moment's notice to watch firemen battle a burning house. For the longest time I felt ashamed that I loved fire so much. My views started to shift and change when I became a Shaman and ran sweat lodges."

Emery told me that he developed a new respect and understanding of the fire element through his experience with the sweat lodge ceremony. But a deeper understanding didn't emerge in a ceremonial atmosphere — it came when he and his wife bought the land at Spirit Hollow. The story goes that after cleaning away tons of debris, all that was left were three dilapidated structures. When they called in the fire department to come and burn the buildings down, watching everything go up in flames, Emery had an epiphany: "The fire was purifying the land so that something new could grow." He knew in that moment that the flames were rebirthing the land. Instead of seeing the fire as 'bad' he realized that this element was an element of both death and rebirth — and it had something important to teach him — because 'Spirit Hollow' was born of that fire.

The night of the Fire-walk, as Emery participated in the exercises that would prepare him and others to walk on the bed of hot coals he faced that fear of fire. He didn't know it existed within him until the moment he had to make the decision to walk. Over the many years as a Shaman and then as a teacher of Shamanism, inside he knew that the seemingly impossible was, in fact, possible.

"I still had fear as I stood at the fire," he said, "and it wasn't until I watched someone else walking over the coals that I knew I could do it too. Seeing the possibility in front of me, I realized that my perceptions alone were holding me back. Doubt was the enemy, the only obstacle. This was a leap of faith." Emery affirmed that his first walk was a life changing experience.

Like Emery, I did not have time to think about the fire-walk until I arrived at Spirit Hollow and sat in the circle waiting for my turn to tell what had drawn me to have this experience. Spirit brought me here and I trusted in what was to come. I had no fear of walking on fire. Or did I? I walk barefoot all the time. My feet are tough. They could take it, I thought. The facilitator, Stephanie Foy from 'The Center of Dimensions in Healing', led us through a series of trust-building exercises. I recognized that my fears were not of fire, but of my own power within. I kept chanting to myself "You can do this. You are a great soul!"

I stood at the edge of the unmade fire, thinking, soon this will be real. Soon I would be walking across fire. My excitement was building. I listened as Stephanie gave us instructions on building the fire. She told us to hold the wood close to our bodies as you would a child. Place your prayers and intention into the wood. With my first piece of wood cradled in my arm, I walked into the dark night and gazed up at the stars. I could feel great love as I connected to Father Sky and Mother Earth. I was grateful for their support throughout my life. From my heart, I sent gratitude to the acorn, to the sapling and lastly to the tall strong tree. I placed my love and intention for this fire-walk in the log. I walked back to where the fire was being built and laid it upon the stacked logs that were blessed by the others in the circle. The fire bed was six feet long, four feet wide and at least that high.

That night, our fire tender was an experienced lady who came all the way from Maine to tend the fire for our walk. As the keeper of the flame, the fire tender is the one who keeps it burning, while the group transforms their fear of living into the joy of living.

She told us that she would know the emotion of the group just by the way the fire reacted to her touch — then she smiled and let us know that she was a 'gentle fire tender'.

We anointed the logs with oil, then stuffed paper in between the logs. We all lit the fire together, and watched he logs ignite. I felt the first shiver of fear pass through me — was I truly ready to walk?

Stephanie Foy is a calm, compassionate instructor, who led us through each exercise before fire-walking, instilling us with the confidence to actually do this. She let us know more than once that at any time, if we did not feel safe, or up to walking the fire, it was the right choice for us not to. Supporting others and the fire is an important part of fire-walking. She skillfully bonded the group together and told us that we could walk the fire once or many times — it was up to each of us.

When the fire was ready, we quietly walked as a unit with a common goal down the hillside and positioned our selves around the fire. The fire tender then prepared the fire by raking back the burning logs leaving a beautiful even bed of glowing coals. Stephanie took her place at one end of the fire. She would be there to greet each one of us with a hug. This hug was part of the celebration of being one with the fire.

When asked Stephanie about her relationship with this element, she told me that she always loved fire. "As a child I would sit as close to the fire as I could and stare at the flames. My parents had a gathering the end of summer where they would cook over a grate, and I would stand on that grate in my sneakers till they melted. I started school each September with a melted pair of sneakers." The dynamics of that relationship changed as Stephanie matured. "I have walked on fire over one hundred times and have experienced the miracles and powerful transformational effects of this ancient ritual. As an observer, I have watched the fire awaken something deep within others."

As a Cranial Sacral Therapist, Stephanie has found that people are only limited by what their beliefs allow them to experience. "In my practice, I worked with a number of MS patients who would make considerable progress in themselves, and then reach a place of disbelief of that progress. One man would remark 'I can't believe I can feel my feet' and so again, within a short time, he could not feel his feet. I sought a powerful visual tool to remind people that they can in fact change a belief that is not serving them and that they could overcome any limitation, including illness. This was something I knew firsthand, having been diagnosed with MS and going from a wheelchair and crutches to experiencing the joy of being in this body without those limitations. It is my passion to witness others achieving new goals and releasing old limitations. Fire-walking became that powerful visual tool for me. It is my greatest honor to share this work with others. When we examine the beliefs that create undesirable patterns, we are able to replace these beliefs and change our lives. As we practice the art of creating our own reality, we quickly evolve to new states of harmony."

Whatever my beliefs were, they were about to change. I sang to the fire that night. I cheered and clapped as people took their turns. Feeling the urge to walk build within me, my legs carried me to the opening of the walk. My heart pounded with anticipation. My inner voice whispered, 'Don't look down. Just look straight ahead. See all the possibilities life holds for you'. I smiled at Stephanie as she stood waiting for me with an open heart, and I walked!

I took the leap of faith that said, "I do not fear fire!" Perhaps it was my "trial by fire", the singular test that transmutes every bit of darkness to light. I took the walk of Initiation, and went through the rite of passage that said, "You are a firewalker!" I also took the walk of healing, as I was blessed with two kisses from the fire, both times in the same spot. A kiss from the fire is a slap of a burn on your foot that tells you to breath in the smoke and the healing power of fire. The kisses, I discovered, were a gift from the elemental realm, a gift that was meant for me only — when I looked at my foot the next day, there was not one mark on it.

Man has an ancient relationship with fire that goes back to the days when one man was chosen to keep the flame alive. That ancient relationship has been reawakened in me. My spirit carries it like a sacred torch. For me, fire is the candle flame that holds my gaze as I go into meditation. Fire is the element I work with when doing healing work on animals as well as humans. It is fire that transforms one energy form into another. Working with this element has taught me to watch it very closely and to ask, 'Is humanity getting the message? Are we willing to transform our fear of living into the joy of living? Do we understand that what we give to the fire, the fire gives back to us — and do we know that this force has the power to transmute and heal absolutely anything?'