The state of humanity’s fire

The craft of fire-making and rekindling the human spirit

In my household, since the energy price hikes and threats of power cuts, we have been trying to survive the early days of winter without turning on the heating. We have a small hearth in our living room and have been choosing to light a fire each night in this instead.

Lighting fires is no easy task, I’m reminded daily, and there is most certainly an art to it. The technique that seems to be working best for me – and I am now the designated family fire-maker due to my recent prowess – is to put a little crumpled waste paper on top of a piece of cardboard (so much of this at the office these days), stack several twigs in a wigwam construction interspersed with a few thicker branches and then put a blob of used candle wax somewhere among the kindling. On top of all of this I place a couple of logs, and get ready to light.

When I am in a rush and miss a step, it usually backfires and ends up taking longer, with many vain attempts to get it going. But even when I meticulously follow my own fire-starting protocol, it takes a good amount of time and cannot be left unattended for two minutes lest it goes out; cold, semi-charred remains being even harder to ignite second and third time round. Hence, it's become quite my evening ritual, and a pleasurable if not smoky meditation too.

Which has got me thinking about the state of Man’s fire…

Many much wiser than me have likened the human spirit to a flame and written about the importance of fire – internal, external and eternal – to our wellbeing and existence. Looking around at the majority of men and women today going about their daily grind, evidence of the fiery human spirit can be hard to find. What one sees more often than not is misery, apathy, anxiety, anger and a host of other uncomfortable emotions engendered by an anti-human system designed to put our flames out; we’ve been deceived and groomed into choosing material oblivion rather than the essence of life itself: our fire.

Nations rise and fall and, make no mistake, what we are witnessing is the end of the latest civilisation, having reached the critical mass of materialism and degeneracy, like the fall of Rome and Greece. Philosopher Manly P. Hall was 21 when he wrote the Initiates of the Flame in 1922, in which he deduces “When we turn again to the races now dead, we shall, If we look, find the cause of their destruction. The light had gone out.”

Many have called the current state of affairs a spiritual battle. I prefer the term spiritual marathon. This is the ultimate spiritual endurance test, requiring daily training and effort, going above and beyond what we only imagined ourselves capable of, with challenging circumstances and hardship a given, but so too the reward: revelations of abundant love, unity, joy and our fire.

So, is it too late to re-kindle the flame of humanity’s broken spirit? Has our light gone out? Absolutely not!

Among the never-ending shaping of all things is the light of humanity burning brightest in times of darkness, such as what we are experiencing now.

It is never too late to tend to our inner fires, which reside in our hearts. Indeed, it is imperative that we do so; there is not a minute to waste in this universal re-kindling of the spirit of Man. It is in this spirit fire that our personal and collective power resides.

Take heart in what I have learnt about fire-making recently: it may seem to take forever to keep the flame going and then, when I’ve almost given up because the wood is damp, the matches have burnt out, and the paper and cardboard have been reduced to ash and float up with every exhausting puff, the fire suddenly jumps and crackles to life in a great whooosh… and then nothing will stop it.

It is this fire to which we refer among the Seven Principles of a Better Way. We are spiritual beings that thrive when life has conscious meaning and higher purpose. When enough of us have remembered who we are, compassionate, trusting, loving and joyful beings full of the fire of life and capable of great things – once we have discarded the superficial, and really start living… whooooooooooooosh!