“Of the elements of the earth is this altar composed. It is the great cube of matter. On or in this altar burns Flame. It is this Flame that is the spirit of all created things. Man, know thyself. Thou art the Flame, and thy bodies are the living altar.” – Manly P Hall in Initiates of the Flame

Since the earliest times man has venerated fire above all the other elements. He intuitively recognized that mirrored in the mysterious, vibrant energy of physical fire was the radiant power of his own spirit.

Fire is the only element that can turn metals into liquid or gas, flickering fire, so nearly immaterial, ever moving, always aspiring…. All life either consciously or unconsciously, honours the fiery disc of day.

Sunflowers face east at dawn and west at night dancing the path of the sun. And birds delight us with their dawn chorus – their salutation to the fiery sustainer of their lives.

Sun worship is a primal as man himself.

 

The two aspects of fire

In today’s esoteric understanding the element of fire is regarded as the third element – the third rung upon the rainbow bridge. The celestial fire within the solar plexus chakra.

However, in mystical and metaphysical understanding fire is the fourth element and was regarded as the fundamental expression of nature. The reason was, and is, that fire is unlike earth(solid) water and air.

Fire is so rarefied that it permeates all other elements. It permeates and penetrates air, water and earth making them warm, whereas the other three elements are separate. Only fire alone possesses an all pervading quality.

In the physical world we only become aware of solids, water, and air as externalized forces because of resistance.

How do we know if something is a solid? We touch it and there is resistance….like stubbing your toe on a rock!

It is the same with water and wind, our awareness of them is external.

Fire has no need of admission

We have to drink water to survive, we have to breathe air to survive but fire has no need of admission. It is already present in self…the warmth of our inner thermal core.

Thus, we become aware of this warmth without touching it externally.

We can become aware of fire in two ways. We can touch a heated object and feel the physical heat….outer world understanding.

And, we can feel the spiritual fire within self. The warmth….the flush and the blush.

The energizer bunny called ‘sunny’ that keeps the body alive and nourishes the spirit.  So fire unlike the other elements has a tangible inner and outer manifestation.

Thus, we can talk of outer fire and of a soul fire within us.

Fire is a bridge between the material outer world and the inner spirit or energetic world. Fire and warmth are a gateway, and when we stand in the portal, we can observe fire from outside … and behold it from within.

Outwardly we may touch a hot rock but the warmth of our being belongs to us. It is our own spiritual fire.

Fire belongs to both spirit and matter.

The ever burning lamp

“We are the Flame-Born Sons of God, thrown out as sparks from the wheels of the infinite. Around this Flame we have built forms which have hidden our light, but as students we are increasing this light by love and service, until it shall again proclaim us Suns of the Eternal.
Within us burns that Flame, and before Its altar the lower man must bow, a faithful servant of the Higher. When he serves the Flame he grows, and the light grows until he takes his place with the true Initiates of the universe, those who have given all to the Infinite, in the name of the Flame within.

Know that the Flame that burns within thee and lights thy way is the ever burning lamp of the ancients. As their lamps were fed by the purest of oil, so thy spiritual Flame must be fed by a life of purity and altruism.

 

Let us find this Flame and also serve it, realizing that it is in all created things, that all are one because all are part of that eternal Flame, the fire of spirit, the life and power of the universe.” Manly P Hall.