The Archetype Of Fire

Fire Symbol - Protective Assurance

Going about a rather mundane business the other evening reminded me that the fire symbol still retains as much valence today as in ages past. High desert fields of Lucky Six Farms can get surprisingly cool at night, even though our sunny southern California clime rarely experiences the kind of winter chill common in most other States. As I stacked kindling first followed by a sized gradient of dry branches in my fireplace, my thoughts noted I was setting a kind of primordial guard, one which had served humanity well for probably over a million years. For fire naturally seals an area and its inhabitants not only against inclement weather but also depredations of wild beasts and the encircling darkness of the unknown. By creating a striking image of how stygian regions of our minds might be rapidly and radically illuminated, the fire symbol has come, in many traditions, to signify spiritual illumination itself.

Fire Symbol - Carrier Of Intent

Today, we can only speculate about what fire may have meant to ancient societies where a common thread of written record cannot be established with certainty. However, where reliable histories exist, it is clear that fire, especially in ceremonial contexts, was viewed as an agent capable of accurately carrying wishes and pleas from humans to powerful disembodied entities. Flames were seen as striving ever upward, away from crass physicality and toward a celestial or astral plane. Miniscule particles constituting smoke - portions of burnt offerings themselves - inevitably accompanying this process could be observed to thin, disperse, and ultimately vanish as they rose whirling into the empyrean. Fire thus embodied the crucial passage from mundane to transcendent, from earthly to heavenly, from narrowly circumscribed human understanding to greater, all-encompassing wisdom.  

Fire Symbol - Continuity of Tradition

As I have noted in prior blogs, smudge sticks have always been and continue to be Lucky Six Farms’ most popular item. Indeed, this trend has picked up momentum as our organic White Sage smudge sticks have been augmented by Black Sage, Cedar, and Yerba Santa. Perhaps this is due to the fact that these attractive, compact wands offer a very definitive connection to Native American traditions regarding fire and its inherent symbology. Known and respected for millennia by virtually all indigenous societies throughout North and Central America, smudge sticks have seen burgeoning popularity worldwide via savvy Wiccan and New-Age practitioners along with magickal ceremonialists. We are proud to maintain this vital channel to the wonder of fire open and effective as ever!

By Alan Beck