Ignition

The Fire. The Central Fire of Hestia, from the Greeks. That primordial Fire that ignites the Cosmos. The suns rays, say the alchemists, strike the earth and turn the clay into diamonds and gold and silver and lead. All these metals are said to have the fire of the sun, the philosophical gold in them. Some, like lead, are just slower than others to turn into gold. There are rocks, ruled by earth, metals, ruled by water, plants, ruled by air, and animals, ruled by fire. And Fire is the first igniter of all the natural processes when looking at the wheel of the elements. Fire dominates and initiates hot, cold, dry moist, the four ancient qualities. Fire turns to earth turns to water turns to air and back to fire again. The great cycle constantly being played out throughout the physical universe, mimicing the celestial. If you can look at the most frozen piece of ice and see the fire in the frost of it, you're starting to get a hint of the ubiquity of Fire. Fire, to the ancients, was associated with Intellect. Fire is thwarted by Air, and is at it's best when it is directed. And so goes the intellect. We don't want to be airheads, do we? We want focus when we're using our noggins, we want to direct our bodies from the top down. Continuing on, what is burning, say again the alchemists, is the sulpher, the oily flow of ignited wood. What is evaporated, continue the alchemists, is mercury. Finally, again the alchemists say, what is left after the fire has gone out, ash, is salt. These are the three manifestations of material, according to the alchemists, sulpher, salt and mercury. But the key, the key was the fire. You had to have the proper fire burning before you could turn the lead into gold. Which again points to the mind. If you want to accomplish something, you gotta have the proper attitude, the right frame of mind, in order to turn the dull, leaden experience of day to day life into something precious, gold. And the central hearth is the heart. It issues from the heart, and travels to the head and results in right action. But the secret is, it all begins with Fire.