Neolithic Shamanism: Spirit Work in the Norse Tradition - Raven Kaldera 2012

The Red World: Fire

Hail to the spark that wakes all our nerves,

Hail to the warmth of the bonfire between us,

Hail to the flame that tempers the steel,

Hail to the song of the pot on the coals,

Hail to the embers that light our way home.

Fire was fundamental to our ancestors. Without it, they never would have survived the harsh northern winters. They’d have had no way to cook their food, warm their homes, or develop crafts like pottery, glassblowing, and metalwork. Fire brought health, warmth, beauty, and craft into their lives. It also, as all the Elemental Powers do, carried with it the potential for danger and harm. Most of all, fire demanded and continues to demand respect.

Fire is one of the most difficult elements to write about, at least for us. While this element is intensely quixotic, it is also passionate and demands certain protocols. It doesn’t much care for the static cage of the written word, something we’ll discuss a little further into this chapter. It is one of the two most ancient of elements, and its nature is that of heat, force, creation through destruction, movement, and beauty. It is never, ever still.

We did not steal fire. In the Northern Tradition, fire is part of our world, essential and integral to its creation. It is a force that enables us to resist entropy. The first thing to know about working with Fire is that it demands acknowledgment. More than any other Elemental Power that we have encountered, honored, and learned from, Fire wants recognition of the debt we owe it, recognition of its majesty and tremendous power. While we refer to learning its medicine as Fire “mastery,” there is no mastering Fire. We do not control it. We partner with it at its whim, and that whim is based on our willingness to show the proper respect. As a student of mine once put it, crudely but accurately, don’t fuck with Fire.

The second thing to know is that Fire is alive. It will not be bound. It will not be contained or controlled. It might allow you to think that it has been caged, but if it does so, it does this either for its own amusement or to bide its time until it can slip whatever bonds you have tried to place on it. Then it will laugh and merrily devour your world.