First Fire

Someone recently asked me about what makes me so passionate about firewalking. In some ways, it seems so simple yet in others it feels much more multifaceted and complex. As I ponder a flame I think about the element of fire. It is not a substance but an element. I have so many questions about its mystery even though people have been trying to explain and quantify it for ages.

I came to firewalking quite by accident. I was involved in a five day program that was offered to people dealing with illness. It happened to end with a firewalk. From the moment I heard about it I knew I was called to walk. It was a deep knowing from inside that I never questioned. I was standing in a circle of people on a cold winters evening in the high desert of New Mexico. The round hot bed of red coals reflected the shape, beauty and essence of the full moon above. I stood on the hard frozen ground with pins and needles of pain from the chill. Seemingly unaffected by those around me walking across the coals one at a time in all directions, I was transfixed by the red hot glowing embers. The embers were dancing with the spirit of fire and transformation.

Out of the silence, in my head, came the words, "I am fire". In that moment of realization my feet carried me across. So much so, in tuned and one with the fire that I later found out that I was not seen walking across. I was the fire. One, energetically connected. No separation. No difference. Purely elemental.

This was the beginnings of my teachings with the fire. Perhaps the most significant reminder of what we are made of. What we are capable of and how life works remains a mystery. Since then, I have learned to walk with prayer, healing, joy, connection, love, empowerment, elation, bliss, fun, silliness, play, reverence, alignment, grace and surrender. Fear also can be a powerful emotion that carries the body across the fire. It is a good reminder to us all. The fire brings teachings that are often beyond comprehension and beyond words. It is one of those experiences in life that can be told about but, I believe, that until it is witnessed directly or experienced by walking it is beyond even limited understanding.

Firewalking has been used for unknown thousands of years in all areas of the world and is always used in the context of healing. Healing comes in many forms including physical, emotional and spiritual. From my perspective, having dealt with a significant physical illness, I see the magic of opening to seeing life from a different vantage point of reality than what we consider ordinary reality. We are told that certain diseases are fatal yet we often meet people that have been "healed" or far outlived their diagnosis. We are told that firewalking is physically impossible since the coals are about 800 to 1200 degrees. If we can do what is perceived as physically impossible in this physical realm, what else can we do or accomplish? Firewalking helps me to see that we severely limit our view of what reality is.

Firewalking also provides such a beautiful metaphor. As the fire transforms wood to burning embers, so can we use this energy to transform ourselves. What begins in one form can change to another. As we set our sight on a goal or direction in life, it takes energy to get there. We are all capable of shifting our energy and moving in the direction of our dreams.

I have been witness to hundreds of people walking on fire. I have witnessed signs of physical healing, feelings of love, releasing of fears, feelings of accomplishment, elation and many other healings. I might not be able to tell you how or why it works, just that it does. That is why it has been practiced for so long and continues to be such a strong healing.