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Bonfires, Candles and the use of Pyrotechnics
 By Micah Barnsley
Summer ending and fall is right around the corner. With that comes California's ever welcome fire season. For those that don't live in a year-round fire hazard, this time of year is usually when tempers match the length of the night, and heated emotions go the way of the day-time mercury in milliseconds. For some the fluctuating heat and cold of this time of year just isn't enough, and many people encourage the sun, and what it represents, further - by the use of fire in ritual.
Aside from the small flame representing the sun to encourage the mental jump for further warmth, fire is also used in purification rituals, smudging, help defining workspaces, focusing aids, and in creating the appropriate atmosphere to work in.
That's the short list. Let's take things one by one starting with the most common fire association - purification and consecration. In Malachi chapter 3 (yes, the Bible) there is a passage that mentions the "refiners fire". In that passage it mentions how God will purify the Levites. He would burn away the impurities in them and their actions like a refiner would do for precious metal and "then the Lord will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness". It doesn't matter what gets tossed in on the flames, it all (with a couple of exceptions) comes clean after the burning.
In the case of things that burn in fire, all they really do is change into something else. They aren't destroyed, just different. In Greek, Egyptian, Chinese and Vedic tradition the phoenix represents much the same thing - purification and rebirth as something new.
With that in mind, I tend to use flames to purify things. If I'm in a perfectly foul mood, I write down what I'm so pissed about on a sheet of paper, think it through, and then when I'm ready to release it I burn it. The destruction of the things I'm annoyed at gives me a sense of peace as I watch the flames eat up my stress and annoyance. It leeches those harmful energies from the words I used and purifies the energy - releasing it clean and without the emotional baggage. The energy is ready to be used for something else.
On the rare occasion things haven't gone as smoothly, and I have been too upset, a candle meditation is good to help me sort things out. As I reach a conclusion about something I release the energy into the candle in front of me. Each time I need to think about what's upsetting me, going back to that same candle and lighting it helps. Then, when I figure out the root of the issue I can then do a ritual cleansing of the candle by lighting it and letting it burn itself out.
Add things to the flames, or flames to objects, and you get a whole different aspect of cleansing. Smudge sticks, for instance, are used, through the smoke, to cleanse an area, person, or ritual space of negative energy, spirits and low vibrations. The smoke from the fragrant herbs clears the air and helps define purified space.
An alternative to smudge sticks is incense. Incense, more common in Eastern practice, is used similarly but allowed to burn or smolder in a fire-safe container. Though here, fire is used to aid in the release of the spices and herbs (utilizing air via the smoke) rather than as a direct agent.
Candles, and on a slightly larger scale torches, can also be used in marking out space and in a more meditative sense. Candles are great to use as a focus. The small light cast by the candle isn't likely to hurt your eyes and there is something rather hypnotic about watching the flame sway back and forth. The glow of the fire, the intangible heat that stays firmly attached to the wick, log, twig or coal - it seems so harmless and yet its capacity for chaos is barely restrained by the physical limitations of it's fuel source.
As a tool to help with visualization, some books on Wicca state that a beginner should watch a candle and practice turning it blue within the practitioner's mind. The better you get at it, the less you need the actual candle, and can start calling the image of the candle up in your mind and then turn the flame blue. Eventually practitioners can call the blue flame in their mind without needing it to start as a candle, and seal a sacred circle with the aide of an athame or a finger. That ring of blue flame then acts as a protective barrier for the person inside the sacred circle doing the work.
In that path, fire is used in a purely metaphysical sense. Taking things a step further, fire also represents light. Not so hard to see the connection given that big fiery ball that we all rotate around on this little blue-green planet of ours. The sun gives this planet light, and fire in turn represents and gives light. By working with light, different colors of light, we then find it aiding our efforts.
For example, when I look around and see things growing, and see that bright green of new leaves, it isn't terribly surprising that I associate the color green with growth and new beginnings. Green light in turn, I associate with new growth and healing. If I'm encouraging communication and growth, I may pull in some green light and wrap it around the people I'm attempting to communicate with. If I didn't, or used some other color, communication often isn't as effective. That could just be the amount of caffeine I've had that day, but I can't always chalk it up to that nice cup of sugar-loaded morning beverage. If I am trying to communicate in general, and it just isn't going well, trying to encourage the color blue, and blue light around me can be quite handy. It is a chakra color association that works rather well for me.
What ever use a person puts fire to - as versatile as it is - results of some sort are practically guaranteed. The result may just be a gathering of friends swapping stories on Midsummer's Eve, or it might be something as serious as a person leaving your life for good. Fire is one thing that you don't mess around with because the uses for it are as varied and old as ritual itself.
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