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

Dance
The Red World: Fire

Galina: I suppose, given that I worked as a ballet dancer professionally until I was twenty-two, that it was inevitable that I would be tapped to learn fire dancing. I started working with hand lamps, small steel lamps containing a wick, which have a tight lid and can be filled safely with lamp oil. They fit between the fingers, and one can dance with flame in one’s hands. I often use them in cleansing rituals to purify people, places, or things. I didn’t actually start with the hand lamps. That came after several months of regular training—first I had to learn to work a fire bowl and handle fire directly. This was far more frightening, and one of my colleagues, upon being presented with the opportunity to learn, actually refused. I’ve seen the same thing happen with glassblowing: one look at the blazing furnace and some folks decide it’s just not for them. The potential for injury is too great.

My developing skills with fire culminated, a year or so later, in a seven-hour ritual ordeal in which I danced for Surt, the Lord of Fire, and the court of Muspelheim. I earned the right to dance with fire. I earned it with blood, sweat, and many, many tears. Now I use fire bowls, hand lamps, and even steel fans with six blazing wicks. I don’t do poi (Polynesian fire spinning) because of an ankle injury, but this too might be an option for some of you. Fire likes movement, and its medicine can be accessed through dancing. Even if you don’t have the approval from Fire to handle any of the tools I mention (and again I emphasize that you should find a corporeal teacher to learn these techniques), you can still dance. Movement and the kinetic heat it evokes are all part of fire work. This is Fire, working with Earth, the physical form, to bestow its power on a spirit worker.

Exercise: Fire Dancing

Fire is all about movement. Even at its most balanced point, it is never, ever still. It has its voice, its song, and its dance. Fire dancing, or indeed any type of dancing, is very, very pleasing to these spirits and can help you connect to the medicine. So even if you can’t fire dance per se, dance for Fire. Learn to move; connect to its rhythms through the movement of your body. You might feel foolish at first, but Fire is an intense kinetic element, and learning to honor it through such physical work (martial arts might work as well, and Fire loves singing) is immensely pleasing to it.