Poor relationship with fire...

Talk, spells, rituals, and questions about the four elements.
Post Reply
User avatar
Deerstep
Posts: 80
Joined: Fri Sep 16, 2016 12:13 pm
Gender: Female

Poor relationship with fire...

Post by Deerstep »

So, I have a problem and I need to fix it sooner rather than later.
When I was a kid, I was great with Fire. Whenever I made campfires, the smoke rarely choked me, and the fires always burned long and hot. I could always seem to find dry firewood and tinder whenever I needed it and I was rewarded with perfect marshmallows that my family seemed to envy. I made cool candle-melting art, and I just had a great working relationship with Fire. It always pained me to have to wash the aroma of campfire smoke out of my clothes and hair when we got home.

In my later adulthood, that seems to have somehow soured. It's gotten harder and harder for me to coax a flame out of even a lighter, and I seem to be relying on lighter fluid to make my campfires more and more recently, even taking the wet spring into consideration. I keep getting burned, and my fires seem to be getting smokier and smokier and seem to follow me everywhere I go except in the case of a stiff wind, which blows out my coals completely. I count myself lucky if I can find dry wood. All of my friends back at survival school managed to get friction fires down within a week. The entire month had gone by before I could even manage a coal from my little hearthboard, even though I feel I practiced harder than anyone else.

Does anyone know how I can fix this? I depend on Fire whenever I go out camping for Esbats and Sabbats, and with Beltane coming up I really want to be able to do something very special. How can I mend my relationship with Fire?
"You're mad, bonkers, completely off your head. But I'll tell you a secret. All the best people are." ~Lewis Carroll
User avatar
SpiritTalker
Banned Member
Posts: 6237
Joined: Mon Apr 11, 2016 9:51 am
Gender: Female
Location: Earth temporarily

Re: Poor relationship with fire...

Post by SpiritTalker »

Could you be over working the effort and not allowing for air to get in?

The fire element represents the will, determination etc. Too much pressure stifles it. Are you forcing things to happen in your skills and relationships, holding too tight on the reigns rather than letting nature - time and growth - to take it's course? Do you need to lighten up?

Or the opposite? Not focusing? If you need fire-starter for the spark to catch, metaphorically the imagination needs to be engaged to attract the heat of intense focus to sustain the flame.

Deep breathing will also restore the air element. Try running a check through out your body and feel the presence of the elements. Feel the blood pulsing, the moisture of your mouth for water; feel the heat of your body for fire; feel the weight of the flesh and the bones for earth; feel the air as you breath in from nose, through the throat, into the lungs, and then exhale. If anything is hard to feel, ramp it up. Add to any low senses, don't take away from the higher one's. When all feels equal, relax and just let it be.
Post Reply

Return to “The Elements - Earth, Fire, Air, and Water”