Fire

Over on The Forest Witch’s page http://theforestwitch.wordpress.com/2010/11/08/elemental-magick-fire/ is a lovely post about Fire and it’s associations.  

To me the element of fire is generative, creative, life giving.  Fire is a metaphor for life, death and rebirth.   Forest fires char trees which are then reintegrated into the soil as life giving nutrients.  In Idaho the omnipresent lodgepole pine tree cones open when kissed by the heat of flame. Then new trees can arise from the ashes of the old.  I love bringing the Fire element into my rituals when I need power, vitality, energy and/or creativity, and of course I use lodgepole pinecones as a symbol for Fire.

Stone associations differ but a little.  Miaerowyn lists the red stones and the hot stones.  I’d like to add all igneous rocks to Fire be they extrusive (solidifying on the surface) such as basalt, obsidian, tuff, scoria, rhyolite, etc., or intrusive (solidfying in the earth) such as granite, diorite, grandiorite, etc.  Certain metamorphic rocks that are created under intense heat and pressure could also be used for Fire, particularly those shists that include garnet.  In truth though, I believe that it is the mind of the witch that matters most when making connections for elemental representations. 

I love that she has Horses listed as a Fire element.  Years ago there was a movie named Krull and in it there actually was a depiction (bad) of fire horses.  I loved the concept.  To me, horses are Fire personified.  As a teenager I was lucky enough to have horses.  One (a palamino pony named Sandy) was a creative and gifted escape artist.  I’d come home from school and he would be out and about munching on the lawn or my mom’s vegetable garden.  To figure out what was going on, I’d put him back in his corral and then watch from the house.  It took a lot of watching.  Once one escape path was fixed he’d wait a few months and come up with another one.  These are my three favorites…

Escape path 1. Open the Gate – this maneuver had him leaning over the gate, grabbing the twine in his teeth and literally opening the gate.

Escape path 2. Under the Fence – our fences were constructed with upright posts and then a top post crossing the upright posts and then wire grid fencing was strung between.  He found the one post where the staples securing the grid had worked themselves out.  He could then get on his knees, lift up the wire grid and crawl through. 

Escape path 3. Toss the Electric – one boundary of the corral was an electrified wire that ran along the  creek boundary.  The humans making the fence needed to get around a very large tree. The wire was run through a protective tube/sleeve around the tree. The tree wasn’t harmed and the horse couldn’t go through the tree.  After much spying I finally caught him escaping.  He had moved the protective sleeve to one side of the tree. He would then lift it up with his head and dash through. 

Fire; destructive, creative, motivating, heat giving, a marvelous element to ponder on this cold, wet, windy November morning.