“I must admire your skill. You are so gracefully insane.”—Anne Sexton
So I don’t know what you did this past weekend … but I went on a retreat in the woods of Western Massachusetts and walked on hot coals. Because that’s a perfectly normal thing to do. And since naked bungee jumping is out of the question (gravity is bad enough but in reverse?—no thanks) … I figured strolling the coals would be a fun alternative. But let me back up a little. A group of women were invited to participate in this pilot program for a 5-Element retreat, optional firewalk included. It sounded intriguing, terrifying, and weird—naturally I accepted.
I’ve always been a bit of a pyro anyway … who among us is immune to the mesmerizing beauty or nurturing comfort of a blazing fire? Fire is such a magnificent force and part of our daily collective lexicon. Whether used to describe passion or action when someone is “fired up,” “aflame with desire,” having a “fire in one’s belly,” or being “on fire,” for something … there is an undeniable pull to the orange angel-demon that can be used destructively, as we’ve seen in the California fires, or motivationally, sparking one to manifest their dreams in a tangible worldly way. We call our soul mates our “twin flame,” use a torch to kick off the Olympic games, burn up with fever when our bodies are fighting bacteria or viruses, we get “fired” from a job, our eulogies start and end with ashes, we blush with heat when embarrassed and our cheeks blaze red, we good-naturedly tease each other in competitions “You’re toast!” and when someone’s on a roll we cheer: “Now you’re cookin’!”
In the zodiac I am a fire sign, an Aries, and at times I have definitely had a fiery temperament, the flip side of which is burnout … the cold ash of disappointment when the last coal extinguishes whether in a relationship or job—when the spark is gone … it can be difficult to rekindle. But spiritually, fire is a cleansing and purifying agent that transforms, transmutes and translates emotion into action. Letting go of the past by writing down intentions to release old, stuck patterns and then burning them in ritualistic fashion is an enormously purging and freeing experience.
