Fire: Some Informal Remarks

"Fire, I'll take you to burn / fire, I'll take you to learn..."

Fire yoga... to be willfully consumed by the fire from within.

This is about burning up, leaving no trace. Like the seers of the magic ring Castaneda belonged to.

These Amerindian seers could choose the moment and the way of departure from this world. How? -- By being “consumed by a fire from within”. They mysteriously vanished from the face of the earth in this way (Castaneda, The Fire from Within, 1984, p 13).

With willpower-and-vision they evoked the interior flame, burning their bodies to ashes, freeing the soul.

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The old Hindu hero Dhṛtarāṣṭra also perishes in this way, by internal fire. This we read in Bhāgavata Purāṇa, 1.13.

As a meditating recluse this king has gone through all the stages of dhyana yoga. Primarily, this means withdrawing your senses from the world. It also means meditating on the nature of God, fusing your soul spark with the eternal light.

Finally, the king burns his body to ashes by a willfully evoked magic fire – from within.

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Merge with the sacred fire! Meditate on the hidden flame in the heart!

Akin to this might be the Buddhist method of kasina tejo. Kasina means method, tejo means fire.

According to a friend this is about concentrating all one’s thought on the concept of fire. Then, a fire should arise in the body which literally could consume you.

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In other words, I guess you could say: I am the fire from within, burning up this mortal coil... / I am the eternal golden flame, burning all materialism to ashes – / consuming everything, leaving nothing behind, / blown away, outta sight, in one stroke... / Matter is energy, E=MC2.

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My nature is fire. Details aside, I'm kinda flaming, shiny, ardent.

Like: my debut in 2007 was entitled Eld och rörelse, meaning Fire and Movement [link to Swedish post].

Then it was Burning Magnesium (2018).

And this year, 2019, I published the poem I Am the Holy Flame (in We've Seen the Same Horizon, the Red Salon anthology of 2019):

I am the Holy Flame,
I am the Holy Fire...

I am the flash in the firepan,
fire and movement preaching man.

Burning all materialism to ashes.

I will burn it to ashes, then burn the ashes.

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Fire is my favorite element.

Fire is my element.

My star sign is Sagittarius. Whose characteristics are fire and movement. It is a mutable fire sign.

William Blake was also Sagittarius. And in his art there was a lot of flames and movement.

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One of the first pop songs I remember hearing was Fire with Arthur Brown (1968):

Fire, I'll take you to burn
Fire, I'll take you to learn
I'll see you burn

You fought hard and you saved and earned
But all of it's going to burn...

This haunting song made an impression on the young me.

Or, you could say: I was already aflame. The song spoke to my latent, fiery nature. It confirmed my fiery being.




Related
Castaneda: Words and Concepts
Burning Magnesium
We've Seen the Same Horizon
In Swedish: Eld och rörelse

Painting: Robert Svensson