Long before Socrates was asking his insightful questions in Athens, people understood the world to be composed of four fundamental elements— fire, water, air, and earth— and they usually listed fire first. They were the four pillars of the ancient world. Carl Jung believed this fourfold structure of the universe also appears in our psyche. Fire represents intuition and inspiration, air being our thinking function, water our feelings, and earth our senses.

Prometheus rescued mankind, in Greek myth, by giving us fire, much to the sky father’s chagrin. Zeus punished him by chaining him to a rock in the Caucasus Mountains. Every day an eagle ate poor Prometheus’ liver, and every night he was restored once more to health. This fire from heaven was a metaphor for enlightenment or secret knowledge. Moses, the bible tells us, saw a bush that was burning but was never consumed, This purifying fire is common when people come face to face with the “I am.” 

Quantum  physicist David Bohm said, “Matter is frozen light.” Physicists tell us atoms are 99.9 percent empty space. This means there is a lot of room for electrons, protons, and  neutrons to vibrate and set up energy patterns within these vast fields. Author and theologian Matthew Fox says, “The divine is washing through everything.” We all share the same source of light and life. This powerful energy lights up our bodies in fields surrounding us as auras of color, There is a continuous electromagnetic field encircling all living things like threads of fire, weaving in and out. These energy movements often generate heat. 

  Internal fires kindle our bodies and spirits to perform in new ways. Mystics speak of “burning up for God.” Our bodies, which do not stop at the boundaries of our skin, are filled with such divine energy, and some people actually feel as if they are on fire. Energy—prana, chi, qi, mana, num, Orenda—can be seen and felt as a palette of seven colors moving through our bodies. We are nested, like Russian dolls, with many energy bodies. Although our physical body is the only one we can feel with our senses, we also have mental, emotional, spiritual, etheric, and astral bodies…hold your hands close to another person’s hands, without touching, and you’ll feel palpable pulsations as you move your hands closer and farther apart. Hands are particularly sensitive instruments. Our bodies are like fire, with permeable edges and thin boundaries capable of evolving and transforming. French Philosopher and anthropologist Teilhard de Chardin wrote about our eventual “omega point,” when all consciousness would converge into a unity of love. A contemporary Prometheus, he told us we would then discover fire for a second time. An interviewer once asked French Poet Jean Cocteau, before he died in 1963, “If your house were on fire, which object would you take with you?” Cocteau responded: “The Fire!”

  The Cherokee Indians teach that yellow is the sacred fire of wisdom and the East, source of all illumination and understanding. The yellow chakra in the belly is the seat of the literal chemical fire that converts our food into energy…

“O agni, holy fire! Purifying fire! You who sleep in the wood and ascend in shining flames on the altar, you are the heart of sacrifice, the fearless wings of prayer, the divine spark hidden in everything, and the glorious soul of the sun.” —Vedic Hymn 

Hunab Ku: 77 Sacred symbols for Balancing Body, and Spirit

by Karen Speerstra and Joel Speerstra