A Wisdom Archive on Fire

Introduction and links to related topics

Fire-philosophers - Fire-Philosophers. The name given to the Hermetists and Alchemists of the Middle Ages, and also to the Rosicrucians. The latter, the successors of the Theurgists, regarded fire as the symbol of Deity. It was the source, not only of material atoms, but the container of the spiritual and psychic Forces energizing them. Broadly analyzed, fire is a triple principle; esoterically, a septenary, as are all the rest of the Elements. As man is composed of Spirit, Soul and Body, plus a four fold aspect: so is Fire.

As in the works of Robert Fludd (de Fluctibus) one of the famous Rosicrucians, Fire contains
(1) a visible flame (Body);
(2) an invisible, astral fire (Soul); and
(3) Spirit. The four aspects are heat (life), light (mind), electricity (Kamic, or molecular powers) and the Synthetic Essence, beyond Spirit, or the radical cause of its existence and manifestation. For the Hermetist or Rosicrucian, when a flame is extinct on the objective plane it has only passed from the seen world unto the unseen, from the knowable into the unknowable.

Fire-walking - Fire-walking The ability to walk unharmed across a bed of live coals, or to handle fire and heated objects with impunity. Recently this feat has been corroborated by research. It is well known to many ordinary Oriental fakirs, tribal medicine men, sorcerers, and adepts. Some mesmerists who, with a few passes, can anesthetize a limb use the same means as the fire-walkers. While some mediums are entranced before being rendered invulnerable to fire, in Tibet and India the condition is produced consciously and at will.

In all these cases the condition results from a compression of the astral fluid already existing "about a person, so as to form an elastic shell, absolutely non-penetrable by any physical object" (IU 1:378).

Nor does ordinary heat register, as such, on astral substance. This invisible shell of compressed astral fluid also accounts for the instances where the person so protected cannot be shot. In these cases the bullets appear just beyond the muzzle of the weapon, quiver in the air, and fall to the ground, as if meeting an impenetrable barrier.

This protecting, elastic shell also explains why heavy blows and attacks with sharp instruments will make no impression upon "convulsionaries" as was shown by the historic records in the cases of the convulsionaries of St. Medard (IU 1:373-6).

Fire - Fire (Living). A figure of speech to denote deity, the "One" life. A theurgic term, used later by the Rosicrucians. The symbol of the living fire is the sun, certain of whose rays develope the fire of life in a diseased body, impart the knowledge of the future to the sluggish mind, and stimulate to active function a certain psychic and generally dormant faculty in man. The meaning is very occult.

Fire-mist - Fire-Mist In The Secret Doctrine (1:83, 86-7) used to signify the fire or living intellectual life of the one element in its second stage as Father-Mother, akasa, jivatman, divine astral light, or world-soul; or again as the first or highest stage of physical or lower astral substance, in some respects equivalent to the mahabhuta creation.

Fire-philosophers - Fire-philosophers Philosophers of medieval Europe who regarded fire as the supreme principle. Their ideas were largely those of Oriental occult or semi-occult bodies; hence they may be described as either the Persian Magi, or the European followers of Robert Fludd (1574-1637), a student of Paracelsus who taught the analogy of macrocosm and microcosm and the four elements.

"The name given to the Hermetists and Alchemists of the Middle Ages, and also to the Rosicrucians. The latter, the successors of the Theurgists, regarded fire as the symbol of Deity. It was the source, not only of material atoms, but the container of the spiritual and psychic Forces energizing them. Broadly analyzed, fire is a triple principle; esoterically, a septenary, as are all the rest of the Elements. As man is composed of Spirit, Soul and Body, plus a fourfold aspect: so is Fire. As in the works of Robert Fludd (de Fluctibus) one of the famous Rosicrucians, Fire contains (1) a visible flame (Body); (2) an invisible, astral fire (Soul); and (3) Spirit. The four aspects are heat (life), light (mind), electricity (Kamic, or molecular powers) and the Synthetic Essence, beyond Spirit, or the radical cause of its existence and manifestation. For the Hermetist or Rosicrucian, when a flame is extinct on the objective plane it has only passed from the seen world unto the unseen, from the knowable into the unknowable" (TG 119-20).



Fire - the third element of the alchemical tradition Fire is a purifier, an element of change. It stands in the Southern point of the magick circle. Animals alligned with fire include lizards, many dessert creatures & the fabled Dragon. Magick employing Fire as a symbol is often centered around energy.

Fire Worship - Fire Worship. See FIRE; ZOROASTRIANISM

Fire-self - Fire-self Fire-self has several meanings, from the divine to the physical fire of vitality. When used alone, it signifies the divine-spiritual power which is the very essence of the divine monad, its individuality; and because fire in occultism is but a manifestation of pure intelligence, the fire-self is therefore the loftiest monadic or individualized egoity, divine in its essence in the human or cosmic constitution.

Fireless Progenitors - Fireless Progenitors Primeval mankind issued from the bodies of its fireless astral progenitors, who were aeriform and devoid of compactness, although these progenitors were the former astral-physical vehicles of the human stock itself.

Thus we may say that the adult issued from the body or being of his youthful progenitor, himself as a child. These progenitors are called fireless because, not having the flame or fire of mind, they could not consciously receive and contain the higher intellectual pitris or classes of the manasaputras.

Black Fire - Black Fire Qabbalistic term signifying absolute light-wisdom: " ''black'' because it is incomprehensible to our finite intellects" (TG 58).

Black Fire - Black Fire (Zohar.) A Kabbalistic term for Absolute Light and Wisdom; "black" because it is incomprehensible to our finite intellects.

Sea Of Fire - Sea of Fire In the Stanzas of Dzyan, "the Super-Astral (i.e., noumenal) Light, the first radiation from the Root, the Mulaprakriti, the undifferentiated Cosmic Substance, which becomes Astral Matter. It is also called the ''Fiery Serpent . . .'' " (SD 1:75).

White Fire - White Fire (Kab.). The Zohar treating of the "Long Face" and Short Face ", the symbols of Macrocosm and Microcosm, speaks of the hidden White Fire, radiating from these night and day and yet never seen. It answers to vital force (beyond luminiferous ether), and electricity on the higher and lower planes. But the mystic "White Fire" is a name given to Ain-Soph. And this is the difference between the Aryan and the Semitic philosophies. The Occultists of the former speak of the Black Fire, which is the symbol of the unknown and unthinkable Brahm, and declare any speculation on the" Black Fire" impossible. But the Kabbalists who, owing to a subtle permutation of meaning, endow even Ain-Soph with a kind of indirect will and attributes, call its "fire" white, thus dragging the Absolute into the world of relation and finiteness.

Cunning Fire - Known also as the serpent fire, fire of Cain (or Qayin) and cognate to the numinous *light* that the Cunning Father gave to us humans; that light representing a total awareness and awakened illumination of an interior nature. Also known as the *Fire in the Head* referred to by W. B. Yeats in his poetry. Those who bear the *Mark of Cain* are said to have access to this daimonic essence.

Elf Fire - ELF FIRE: fire used to light the balefire; produced without the use of metals; also called needfire; It also describes the fire which is kept all year long by the Elders and is used to light the balefire at the end of the year which is used to light the new elf fire.