The above is a collection of objects I gathered today that represent fire in its many different forms: warmth, the cycle of life, growth, death, creation.

In alignment with my upcoming class Elemental Magic, I'm continuing my short series on the elements. Today we're getting to know fire and some of its messages. 

Fire teaches us what it means to be alive so intensely that we can no longer sustain the living; they then teach us to witness and understand our capacity, so that we may burn consistently and create consistently. Burnout - a common experience in late stage capitalism - is a fire blazing through a house, consuming all, until there's only ash - no more house. The fire itself can be beautiful, awe-inspiring, transformative, powerful. But energy doesn't come from nowhere: something must be used for fuel. 

Fire asks us, what is our fuel? When I burn a candle, the flame is my teacher. "Here is my designated, natural, clean beeswax fuel," it says. "I am not going to burn all the flammable things in your home unless you neglect me. Put me in a good home - a jar, a dish - and don't rattle me, and we will be safe. Watch how my flame burns bright, consistently, clear, with this care."

We can choose the size of the fire, and what we burn. Sometimes we have a lot to burn, and we're ready to let it go. Sometimes all we have to burn is energy we want to keep, so fire tells us, "Wait until you have something you want to give to me." 

In the northern hemisphere, we are in frequent conversation with cosmic fire these days. The sun burns hot and long, and gives our flowers, plants and trees the energy to grow much and quickly. Our skin feels the warming of this fire. In winter, we call on familiar tools to speak with fire: logs, candles, lanterns, the heat of each others' bodies. The darkness highlights the fire we love and need as much as the summer does.

Fire is the heart of creation and destruction, that both/and duality of existence: it gives ands takes. Even if we understand the science within it, the flame is so ephemeral, yet solid, that we can understand it as magic. Let us feed our fires well, so that we may be in good relationship with our creative work, our bodies, our hearth and home, and our energy levels. When we learn to love fire for its duality, we truly know and experience it. 

Things you can do to connect with fire:

- Stand and feel the sun on your face
- Watch a candle burn
- Collect and dry herbs, flowers and other gifts to feed to your winter fire (clover flowers are abundant and great for thins) 
- Feel the warmth of your body shift in movement, stillness, rest

Fire Journal Prompts:

- What is a time you've over burnt your resources? How do you want to engage with your fire moving forward?
Where are you in the cycle of creation? Lighting a fire, starting a project? Tending one? Guiding one through its last sparks into sacred ash and rest?
- What is your body asking for today?

- What qualities of fire do you see in yourself? 


The above is just a taste of how we can be in relationship with fire. If you want to learn more about this element and the others, as well as their connection to Tarot, spellcraft, and shifting energy, sign up for Elemental Magic. 

[ID: on top of a wooden desk, laid out in organized fashion, we see a large carnelian sphere, a dried wreath of flowers and branches, a lighter with a print like a watermelon's insides, an egg painted with a rabbit, a short beeswax candle burning in its holder, a rose quartz, a small figurine of a rabbit, a stone with several fossils on its surface, and a small blue kiln-fired bowl.