– Visible fire is the material representation of invisible fire

Tonight at the Bonfin, we will continue the tradition established by the Master, the Ceremony of the Fire. Every year, at the autumn equinox Saint-Michel, members gather around the fire to sing, pray and contemplate the fire and link ourselves to the cosmic fire, the fire of disinterested love. This is an extract of lecture given by the Master around the fire at the Bonfin:

« We can see fire; we can use fire, but we do not really know what it is. The only thing we can say about it is that, without fire no true creation, no true transformation, can take place. The most tremendous powers are concealed in fire: it has the power to melt, liquefy, burn and transform. It is all-powerful; nothing can stand against it. The other elements – earth, water, and air – also have great powers, but they cannot really change matter. Earthquakes have the power to disturb the earth’s crust, to split open mountains, swallow up towns and villages, but earth cannot change the underlying nature of things.

Water has the power to sweep things away or to dilute them; air has the power to disperse; only fire has the power truly to transform. In the wake of fire, only ashes – or a totally transformed body – remain. Fire is the most powerful of the four elements and the most effective factor of transformation, and it is for this reason, because nothing can stand up against fire, that the initiatic tradition teaches that human beings must necessarily pass through fire in order to be transformed. Two kinds of fire dwell in humans – the fire of their passions and the fire of divine love, the fire of sacrifice.

fire n water

The fire of the passions is a raging furnace that inflicts great suffering on those it consumes. Unfortunately, most human beings prefer to suffer and be consumed by this fire rather than give up their desires. Very few understand the advantages of working with the sacred fire of divine love so as to possess the secret of the transformation of matter, in themselves first of all and subsequently in their surroundings. Those who become so hardened and calloused that only suffering is capable of improving them are obliged to pass through fire.

If you wish to avoid the fires of suffering, you must work with the fire of disinterested love, for only this can transform you and make you luminous and radiant; only the fire of love can wrap you in its flames without burning you. Perhaps, on the other hand, you still have to suffer – for, after all, you are still on earth – but if you work with the fire of divine love, you will at least know how to endure your suffering and benefit from it. The fire of the passions constrains and enslaves men and women; the fire of divine love sets them free.

oma fire

Visible fire is the material representation of invisible fire. Every time we light a fire we should think of this and renew the bonds between our soul and spirit and the heavenly fire of love, intelligence and power. If we don’t do this it is useless to light a fire. The only meaning in lighting a fire is to be set alight by the sacred fire and inflamed by its love. Only in this way will we become capable of radiating and emanating that love, so that it may create new life wherever we go.
To be continued.

Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov
The Fruits of the Tree of Life, The Cabbalistic Tradition