Seeing Truth in Fire
Think Tank #127
There’s a lot of truth in myths, magic, and old wives’ tales. Whether this truth is physical or metaphorical is to some degree unknowable.
I don’t believe in pyromancy—or, at the very least, I don’t practice it. However, after being entranced in front of a fireplace on the last day of a long vacation, I can see how someone might have come up with the concept. Images quite literally seem to spring forth from the flames. From a more figurative standpoint, the entire nature of reality can present itself in fire, from our origins to our aspirations to our ends.
For one, a fire is made of energy. It holds within it the power of transformation, of nourishment, and of comfort.
Like everything in life, its effects exist on a spectrum, and the effects which we desire live firmly in the middle. Coming in from a cold day, we want to be warmed but not burned.
Whether wood or propane, after a while, a fire devours its host. It appears destructive, but this destruction is an illusion. Matter is never lost, merely transformed—in this case, into ash.
It’s hard not to notice a fire. It assaults our senses—sight, sound, smell, touch. However, like most things of brilliance, its subtleties can go unnoticed. A crackling fire is rendered silent by the smallest distraction. Its sparks last only for a second, and unless you’re giving them your full attention, they’re hardly visible at all.
These little sparks are like us. Small blips which break apart from a larger whole. Small—insignificant, even—yet fervent.
A fire is transient. It’s always in motion. No fire stays the same from one moment to the next. No two fires are ever alike.
A fire is permanent. Its legacy lasts long after its form disappears, in the embers which collect underneath it. Everything that it has touched remains changed, long after the embers have cooled.
No wonder it’s said that our transformation from beast to man began with our mastery over fire, and that the universe itself started with an explosion.
No wonder it’s said that our world’s end will come in a spectacular blaze of flames.
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You can also buy me a coffee (yet another thing which is best when hot).
A nice reminder that I need to get my winter fire act together.
Staring at the flickering flames of a fire is hypnotic. Kinetic light has been used to induce trances for a long time, Brion Gysin made his famous "dream machine" after witnessing the hypnotic effect of sunlight dancing through the branches of trees as he rode the train.