June 13, 2012 Blog #21 What has been your baptism of Fire?

When I think of fire, I have many images in mind. During this sabbatical, however, two primary types of fire have attracted my attention. After 5-6 weeks in Ireland and Scotland, with unseasonably sunny weather, yet cold temperatures and a strong north wind, I fled south to Crete for the heat of the sun. This area is in the north African climate zone, more than 300 sunny days a year.

The sun is easy to take for granted; it so continuously shines and warms our earth; through photosynthesis, it causes all plants to grow. Nothing on earth could exist without the solar fire. Now, here in Crete, every day is defined by the angle of the sun. I time my outings, walks, swims in order to avoid the maximum intensity of the sun each day. Morning and late afternoon are beautiful, and the civilized idea of siesta in the hot afternoon is welcome. Everything, all the shops, bank, post office, etc. close between 2-5 PM, here. The streets and town is empty as the heat of the day grows.

The other type of fire that interests me is the fire of inspiration, passion, energy, ideas, hope, love, spirit. More to say about these aspects of fire later.

A key concept about fire is that rather than being an object like water, air, or earth, it is a transformative process. When matter is heated, its atoms become excited and vibrate at higher frequency and speed, taking up more space, expanding. Every solid material has its melting point and liquids their boiling or vaporizing temperature. Fire may cause certain gases to explode with heat, light, and rapid expansion. Fire transforms the state of matter and converts it to energy of heat and light. For example, when wood is burned, the fuel is consumed, and heat and light are emitted and the matter is changed into smoke and ash. Water is vaporized into a gas. Hydrocarbons burn and produce heat and energy, with CO2 and some particulate matter as its product. Fire requires two other elements, fuel (of the earth) and oxygen(air) to burn, and it can be quenched by the element of water or by cutting off the supply of either fuel or oxygen. But what is a flame made of? Sometimes, it almost seems like there are flame spirits leaping and snapping into the warming air above the fire.

Our beloved Old Sol is pictured back to the time of cave paintings. It was one of the most salient elements of life to the hunter and the farmer, and wise men and astronomers who guided early human survival pursuits. We measure our seasons by the length of the day/night, solstice and equinox, each a cause of ancient observance and celebration. Particularly in the Celtic world, the seasons were celebrated very intentionally with a powerful spiritual correspondence to the objective reality of the day’s length, sunup to sundown. (also important to the Celts was the moon and its cycle, reflecting the sun).

For me, the sun has always relaxed me and slowed me down. I walk slower; I expect less productivity out of myself during the hottest months. I often also have more energy and joy, more spontaneity, and refreshment, stay up later and need less sleep. Many people have seasonal affective disorder or a lesser version of it. They come to life, get things done, and have more fun in summer. A surprising number of people begin to sleep and eat more, gain weight, and have lower mood, less energy and motivation as the days shorten into winter. In the northwest, we laugh at how people strip off shirts, and shoes, and begin sunbathing in March at the first sunny day over 65 degrees. Now, we also recognize that vitamin D is converted in our skin to its active form, which strengthens our bones and has a variety of other positive cardiac, vascular, neurological, and psychiatric effects.

Growing up in Oklahoma and Texas, I have had some very painful sunburns. As a kid, I had to burn at least once or twice every May/June, to get tan enough to tolerate and enjoy being outside in the summer. I loved being out in the sun, soaking up the rays. I have type 2 celtic skin, notmas vulnerable as a redhead, but the next skin type up from there. I didn’t know about sunscreens then. I just put Coppertone tanning oil and baked myself without care, in those days. I remember when our kids were small, we took a vacation in Hawaii. There was always a lot of focus on “buttering” the kids to prevent sunburn and ensure maximum enjoyment without the pain. One day, Pat and I buttered the kids thoroughly with sunscreen, and applied sunscreen to ourselves. I applied it to Pat’s back. But in the hubbub and hurry to get outside, my back was forgotten. We had a fabulous long day outside at the beach, but in the evening I realized my oversight. It was very painful and over the next few days and week, it blistered and eventually peeled. My skin was like leather for weeks. I think that’s the last serious sunburn I have had, 20 years ago. I suspect we may all have similar stories. I now have to visit the dermatologist semiannually and periodically treat actinic sun damage before it turns into cancer.

Our beloved sun is by no means benign. Its infrared heat warms us or overheats us. Some people die every year of sunstroke or heatstroke, when the body temperature regulation breaks down. We can only live and our cellular function continue in a narrow homeostatic range, between approximately 95 degrees and 105 degrees. Outside that range, we are in danger of death, by hypothermia or hyperthermia respectively. We shiver or we sweat. When our body temperature begins to drop, our arteries and veins contract and try to conserve heat in our core, becoming pale with cold extremities, vasoconstricted. We shiver to generate heat by burning calories with physical motor activity. Or when overheated, we vasodilate, opening up all of our blood vessels to try to dissipate heat. We also sweat to attempt evaporative cooling. on a daily basis, every activity, even sleeping, we area burning calories. Our cell metabolism uses oxygen and glucose for fuel, to transform glucose carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen ring molecules into CO2 and H2O and produce heat and cellular function energy. Our weight maintenance, homeostasis results from the balance of fuel, measured in calories, intake with physical activity and metabolism to burn calories. If we have a net excess of calories in versus calories burned, we will store the extra fuel as fat. Fat has 3 times as much calories per molecule as glucose does. So, fat can provide a lot of caloric potential per gram, if we are in cold climate or involved in heavy physical exercise or work.

The sun also can burn us, with ultraviolet radiation of several wave lengths, that can also lead to skin damage and cancer over time. Gamma particles and other rays from the sun disrupt communication and technological equipment, particularly during solar storms. During my early adult years, the catastrophe de jour was the hole in the ozone layer. It was and is a real phenomena, that left those exposed to solar radiation where the hole in the ozone layer was, more exposed to solar radiation and cancer. A key concern for this generation is “climate change”, also known as “global warming”. The prevailing scientific theory is that the accumulation of CO2 in the atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuel and forests, etc produces a “greenhouse effect” on our planet. In other words, a significant portion of the sun’s heat and radiation that hits the earth is reflected back into space. Increased CO2 decreases the capacity of our atmosphere to shed excess heat, trapping it in the earth’s envelope, resulting in subtle, progressive, net increase in planetary temperature. Some people doubt this theory, yet whatever the cause, there does seem to be clear evidence of climate change, melting of glaciers and polar icecap, and increased intensity of heat waves, hurricanes, and floods. The future projections for this change are ominous and seem to be accelerating.

Well how hot is the sun? According to the consensus of astronomers, the sun is 15,000,000 degrees Celsius at its core and 5500 Celsius on the surface. What produces all this heat? Nuclear fusion is produced by the incredible pressure, 700 million tons per square inch, in the sun’s core. Instead of nuclear fission which splits the atom and releases vast amounts of energy, as in nuclear bombs and power plants, fusion actually forces atoms together, exposing their nuclei, stripping the atom of its electrons, producing unbelievable amounts of heat, light, and radiation. Finding a way to produce and contain nuclear fusion for power generation on earth is a holy grail of research.

Similarly, the core of the earth is known to be molten magma, estimated to be 7,000 degrees Celsius, under extremely high pressure. Volcanos are an awesome demonstration of the elemental power of fire that erupt from the depths of the earth. The rivers of erupting and burning stone lava can be terribly destructive, but also create new land on the surface of earth (think Hawaiian Islands).

Pele, the fire goddess, is the very powerful Hawaiian indigenous goddess of the volcano fire. A key goal of Eastern spiritual life is “enlightenment”. Fire gods are widespread in Zoroasterianism, Hinduism, and in every indigenous religious tradition.

The God Zeus was terribly angry with the Titan, Prometheus, who stole fire from Mt Olympus and gave it to men. Since Prometheus was immortal, Zeus condemned him to be chained to a giant boulder, which was visited daily by a flock of Harpies, flying, vulture like women spirits, with beaks of iron, who would tear out his liver and eat it. As a child of the gods, he would grow his liver back everyday, only to be ripped open and fed upon by the Harpies again. He was doomed to this punishment forever for having stolen fire and given it to humans.

(Later, in another important myth, Charon, the half man, half horse, Centaur, the famed archetypal “wounded healer” gave up his immortality in return for the release of Prometheus.) Of course, the lightning bolt of fire belonged to Zeus, the king of the gods, and later Thor and a host of other gods for cultures throughout history and around the world.

The well known myth of Icarus is a cautionary tale for each one of us. Daedalus, the father of Icarus was a mythic Minoan (famous ancient civilization on Crete) architect who designed and built the original labyrinth to imprison the Minotaur (Half man half bull, man eater) for king Minos. Because of King Minos’ anger at Theseus and Ariadne, his daughter, running away together after Theseus killed the Minotaur and found his way back out of the labyrinth with Ariadne’s thread, he imprisoned Daedalus and Icarus.

Daedalus crafted wings out of bird feathers and bees wax and attached them to his son’s arms so that he could fly out and escape. Daedalus only cautioned his son Icarus, “Do not fly too near the sun”. But Icarus began enjoying the feeling of flying, the freedom of soaring so much that he forgot his father’s warning and flew too close to the sun. Of course, his wax wings melted and he fell to his death into the sea.

Fire, like every element is a double sided gift. It has been one of the most beneficent discoveries of humans, allowing a quantum leap in potential for technology and control of the earth. Fire provided warmth, light, and safety for early cave dwellers and hunter-gatherers. The fire was the symbol and actual hearth and home, a centerpiece of family, clan, and tribe throughout the world. Food could be cooked, water boiled to rid it of toxic microorganisms and safe for drinking. It produced steam to drive engines and later internal combustion engines that now provide energy for our cars. Fire is used in a myriad of manufacturing, electrical and technology processes with it’s power to melt metals, create alloys, solder and join components, and develop new materials much more durable than their original metallic or earthen ores.

Candles and fires lengthened the usable hours of day and night for humans to study, learn, write, teach, create, and craft all manner of new tools and technology. Torches and oil lamps etc made exploration of dark places possible. It literally and figuratively pushed back the darkness, expanding the range of light for humanity to inhabit. It drove off wild beasts. It provided a bond of brother/sisterhood when it’s heat and light were shared. Now, the light bulb allows for work to go on 24 hours per day, often. Many shift working modern tech workers are practically unaware in their daily lives of the sun and its light, warmth, and life giving proprieties.

I remember as a child, I had a fascination with fire and played with matches. Once, I accidentally lit a fire in my bedroom and tried to throw it in the trash, but the papers in the trash flamed up, out of control. I had to call for help from mom and receive the civilizing lesson every child must learn about “playing with fire”. Later, in boy scouts, I learned wood craft and skills in fire building, safety, and cooking. I loved collecting wood in the forest, and building a a cone-shaped structure or square Lincoln log like shape, to assure rapid and clean burning, smoke free fire. I felt like my heroes, Davy Crocket or Daniel Boone. I learned to cook in boy scouts over open fire or on the embers and coals, before I ever cooked anything indoors on a stove. And I have deeply precious memories of singing songs and telling stories around a larger campfire. A campfire is a place to dance, sing, perform skits and share light and warmth, and fellowship like no other. The sound of crackling wood, the smoky smell of pine, cedar, and sage brush kindling is powerfully evocative of happiness, belonging, and safety for me. As an adult, a great joy for me was to teach my kids to build a good and safe fire when we went camping. Roasting marshmallows, making schmorz? The warmth on my face made me sleepy and ready to crawl into my sleeping bag. My Celtic ancestors burned turf dried from the bogs for warmth and cooking, some still do. The smell of a turf fire still remains evocative of hearth and home to many an Irish person from their upbringing.

But the paradox of the elements is their potential for good or ill. Fire was weaponized, early with flaming arrows or fire torching the enemies home or fortress. We speak now of our soldiers being in a “firefight”. We want to make sure they have adequate fire power. The fire bombing of Dresden, Germany was one of the most devastating uses of fire in war, until we dropped two atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, producing a fire storm of unprecedented magnitude. In Viet Nam, our use of napalm, liquid fire, to defoliate and destroy the Viet Cong and their villages is immortalized in some terrifying images.

Fire was used to torture and execute people for centuries. It was used horrifically in the Salem witch trials in our early Massachusetts history. The unspeakable tradition of burning “witches” included many women of wisdom, who might have a gift of healing, know about the natural world, herbs and plants and midwifery, and lasted for a thousand years. For millennia, in he Hindu world, it was common custom called “suttee” for the widow to climb up and be burned upon her husband’s funeral pyre.

In modern day, we often think of getting burned as the worst kind of pain. Doctors have developed incredibly sophisticated burn units to treat and try to save the lives of people who have suffered severe burn trauma. Forest fires, house fires, grass fires (some begun by lightning strikes). Arson is considered among the most heinous crimes and there are a few sick psychopathic individuals who are serial arsonists. In modern psychiatry, one of the criteria for the diagnosis of Conduct disorder in adolescents and children was arson, and often led to adult Antisocial Personality diagnoses (sociopathic or psychopathic) in adulthood. There is also Pyromania, obsession with and compulsive fire setting. But, we also may burn with passion, with ardor of love, or feel our heart warmed by a kind word or good deed. Some religious traditions speak of being “on fire” for the Lord. In any case, we often think of “wild fire”.

Fire has entered our modern language in a myriad of ways. Politicians have to have “fire in the belly” in order to successfully run for president. People have fiery tempers, burn with envy or jealousy, or are hot headed. Some serious pain comes from hearing “you’re fired!” in our modern world. Yet, I love to get fired up with enthusiasm about a new project or plan. I love to have my imagination kindled, on fire with new ideas. We say “fire away” when we invites someone to tell us their spiel. The words, “ready, aim, fire!” have been adapted from war commands and firing squads to mean let’s focus and get started on a new program in business. Businesses also may be described as using “scorched earth” policies (first described in the civil war General Sherman’s terrible “march to the sea”) in their corporate raiding. In times of racial tension, the expression, “burn, baby, burn!” or James Baldwin’s book, “The Fire Next Time” spoke vividly of culture and race wars. After the Tsunami, in March, 2011, and explosion of the Japanese Fukushima nuclear reactors, scientists continue to struggle to define the areas of radioactivity, the lethal “hot zones”. Similarly, in high security microbiology research areas, the handling of the most lethal and contagious organisms could only occur in the level 4 lab’s “hot zone”. People talk about “packing heat”, or call the police, “the heat”. They were in “hot pursuit”, in a “heated conversation”, acted in “the heat of the moment”, passed the “hot potato”. When there is a lot of pressure to perform, we may say “the heat is on”, or “we are feeling the heat”. Pottery must be glazed and fired after shaping in order to harden and preserve the beauty of the clay made object. Old time sailors feared St Anselm’s (electrical) fire in a thunderstorm at sea. The lightning bolt still is a potent symbol in our modern culture. So, also is Smoky the Bear. “Only you can prevent forest fires.”:-)

Fire’s heat can be used to sterilize contaminated objects, or purify water, gold, and other materials. It can heat our homes, fill our wood stoves and fireplaces. It is used for cremation of the dead in cultures around the world. Fire is now used an art form for gourmet cooking? Sometimes farmers burn up their harvested fields to produce ash which is a nutritious fertilizer for many plantsmfor next year. The Sequoia redwood produces a seed cone that only opens and spreads its seeds when heated by a forest fire. Fires started by lightning, are natures way of clearing the underbrush and making way for new growth, opening the plants to the sun.

Fire has been a crucial symbol of spiritual issues and has been used for spiritual purposes for many millennia. Burnt offerings to gods, lighting incense, burning candles, eternal flames have all been means of sanctifying and creating sacred space and time or mediating and trying to propitiate or influence the behavior of the gods.

The Jewish Kabbalistic tradition describes a beautiful inner and outer spiritual reality of the Tikkun Olam, a Hebrew phrase meaning “repair the world” through kind deeds, social justice, community action, and service.

For the Tikkun Olam: “The inner spiritual purpose of Life”.

“Isaac Luria, the renowned sixteenth century Kabbalist, used the phrase ‘Tikkun Olam’ , usually translated as ‘repairing the world’, to encapsulate the true role of humanity in the ongoing evolution and spiritualization of the cosmos. Luria taught that God created the world by forming vessels of light to hold the Divine Light. But as God poured the Light into vessels, they catastrophically shattered, tumbling down toward the realm of matter. Thus, our world consists of countless shards of the original vessels entrapping sparks of the Divine Light. Humanity’s great task involves helping God by freeing and reuniting the scattered Light, raising the sparks back to Divinity and restoring the broken world.”

“Tikkun olam places our spiritual practice at the heart of the unfolding history of the universe: the evolution and spiritualization of the the creation. With each small act of kindness, with each moment of presence and practice, with each effort to see, cleanse, and integrate our inner life, with each heartfelt prayer, opening to higher energies and the higher will, we build the new world and serve the Divine Architect of meaning.”

“If we can raise ourselves to the station where the Divine can see and act through us, then we complete the momentous work of restoring at least one part to the Whole.” The inner process includes personal soul work to open ourselves up to the Divine Light and to seek to kindle it in others we meet along the way.

(this article from Jewish journal, “Inner Frontier, Rabbi Chaim Vital).

In God’s first visual appearance to man, in Exodus, Moses occurred in the Burning Bush, (exodus 3:1-15) that burned but was not consumed. Later, in Exodus, as Moses and the Israelites wandered in the desert, they were accompanied guided and protected by pillars of fire (Exodus 13:21-22). Many, many references to fire in the Old and New Testament were proclaimed by the psalms, prophets and later by Jesus. A reign of fire has long been one of the focuses of apocalyptic prophecy, derived from Jeremiah, Isaiah, Malachi and Revelation (18 and 20) and Daniel (3:24-25) and other prophets.

As the apostles walked the road to Emmaeus, Luke 24:13, after Christ was crucified, said “did not our hearts burn within us when he opened the scriptures to us”.
In Acts 2, 1-7 “When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. when they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken.” The Spirit, represented by tongues of fire descended on the heads (7th chakra) of the apostles on Pentecost, empowering, guiding, and giving them tremendous courage, strength, fortitude, and words to speak to the multitude (each in their own language) they encountered on their missionary journeys. It’s interesting that in the bible, the Holy Spirit is represented as coming through the waters of Baptism, later as spirit wind, and now also as tongues of fire.

The New Testament epistles speak of being pruned or purified (1Corinthians 3:13) as if by fire when describing the challenging spiritual path of following and being conformed to Christ. Separating the wheat from the chaff, and throwing away and burning the chaff is another major metaphor in scripture. Mathew 3:12. “His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into barns and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

What about Hell? Fire and brimstone, eternal fire as punishment? In Christian doctrine and scripture to this day, as well as Greek and Roman mythology, the stories of fire burning eternally in the underworld were prevalent. The devil has so often been pictured as red, with pitchfork, comfortable in hell fire. The original rebellion of Lucifer (means light bearer), who was a leading archangel against God, led to him and his allies being hurled into a lake of fire under the earth. The whole of western religious history has been replete with teaching, quotations from both New and Old Testament, and literature about Hades or Hell. Despite many of our/my modern day discomfort with this belief, it is a powerful strand in the western tradition. Think Aeneid, Dante’s Inferno, and so many more. As in so many other aspects of scripture, we are challenged to understand this potent metaphor, taking it literally or seeking to understand the hidden parable, metaphor that it describes. It is not a legitimate option to discard it.

We sometimes talk about a “baptism of fire”, meaning some difficult initiatory experience that we have been through. It suggests a certain level of maturity, endurance, experience of hardship, and resilience, among other traits. Someone who has suffered a lot might be described as having “been through the fire”. On this sabbatical, I seek renewal and rekindling of my own fire of passion for creative work and energy and enlightenment as to next steps.

I invite you to contemplate your own experience of the elemental fire in your life and in your emotions, mind, and spirit.

Fire and Ice, Robert Frost

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that destruction by ice
Is also great
And would suffice.