…
Since many of us will be playing with flames under the burning sun soon, I decided to devote this post entirely to the roles fire can play in a ritual context.
Many of you already know of my general distaste for ritual attire in most cases, but I do wear this bracelet when working with fire. You don’t have to incorporate traditional symbols into your Craft, as long as the symbols you use are meaningful to you. I came up with the fire symbol on this cuff myself, and I love it immensely.
Shavings of resinous wood from a dead pine added to a tinder bundle make achieving fire much easier.
This frame around the tinder allows me to place this…
Bundle of small twigs and dry vine stalks over the burning tinder to quickly and easily get the blaze I want.
With proper planning, fire doesn’t have to be a huge pain.
A little note about the implement I used to start this fire and how it pertains to ritual. This little stick of metal is a ferrocium rod, commonly called a ferro rod or a firesteel. By using a serrated or bladed piece of metal, you quickly shave off little pieces of this metal, which combust when they hit the air, which makes fire-starting sparks that will light your tinder. This is a modern interpretation of the strike-a-light or flint and steel set used since ancient times to start fires.
The ancient Scandinavians called their flint and steels sets “eld-virki”, or fire-workers. They believed that the sparks that came off of their firestarters were tiny shards of lightening borrow from the Norse god of thunder, Thor. I believe that the very use of such a tool is a good way of honoring fire spirits, as it is used to harness their power just the same.
Those who follow me will recognize this bone knife. It has become my new athame, because I feel such a strong connection with this tool. When I made this decision and was going through my things, I came across this:
This was my very first athame, which I kept for sentimental reasons for a long time. However, age and experience tells me that this has become a stagnant energy source, so it can be put to better use that just sitting around collecting dust. For wooden tools that we made from material taken from the earth, burning in a sacred fire is a good way to return the energy contained within to the universe, and to return the physical material to the earth in the form of fertilizing ashes.
Farewell, old friend.
This is probably my favorite photo that I have ever taken, by the way. The elements I feel closest to (earth and fire) coming together as one.
I made this little leather belt pouch to hold herbs and other plants that I collect, whether for magickal purposes or to eat. I made this a sacred fire by offering my blessing and burning an evergreen branch (in this case cedar) in the flames after I cast the Circle.
Runic magick does not have to be complicated. Here, a spell for prosperity and the blessings of one’s ancestors was written.
Burning that paper spell releases the power of the runes and sends your wishes out into the universe.
Foods are one of the more traditional offerings to the gods, and casting them into a fire works well to send them their meal!
Eat up!
Any spicy vegetable is usable in fire magick. Someone I know grows their own jalapenos, and I always have some of his peppers frozen.
Food cooked over a sacred fire is said to be very empowering, blessing the eater with strength and good health. The jalapeno roasted over this sacred fire was a double dose of “firepower”!
…
Burning the effigy symbolically reunites parent and child and thanks the gods for the bounty we enjoy.
…
Stay hydrated when we stay near fires when it is hot out. Always bring plenty of water with you!
I hope this has given you all a few ideas for something meaningful to do this summer!
Excellent guide and ritual ideas. I really feel power in the symbol for fire you’ve created. ..The Scandinavian belief tidbit was intriguing.
Just an add on: Runes used in ritual can be powerful for those following a more traditional path, but many struggle to remember and feel the power in the individual symbols. The paper-burning for blessing and prosperity can be accomplished by carefully choosing and writing words, phrases, or even a prayer. Just be sure to truly infuse the words to the energy waiting to be invoked by them. You can accomplish this by feeling their individual frequencies as you write them.
Dear friends, I just realized that it took Gautama Buddha 49 days of non-stop meditation to achieve Nirvana. In conjunction with the quote below, the length of time it takes to achieve Nirvana, to reincarnate, and for a developing child in the womb (fetus) to begin forming a pineal gland and sex organs is the same.. What the fuck is really good with the world? Please, let everyone know. This shit blew my mind.
“I already knew that the Tibetan Buddhist Book of the Dead teaches
that it takes forty-nine days for the soul of the recently dead to “reincarnate.” That is, seven weeks from the time of death of one person elapses until the life-force’s “rebirth” into its next body. I remember very clearly, several years later, feeling the chill along my spine when, reading my textbook of human fetal development, I discovered this same forty-nineday interval marking two landmark events in human embryo formation. It takes forty-nine days from conception for the first signs of the human pineal to appear. Forty-nine days is also when the fetus differentiates into male or female gender. Thus the soul’s rebirth, the pineal, and the sexual organs all require forty-nine days before they manifest.”
-DMT, the Spirit Molecule page 81-82
