Fire Element and Spirituality

Photo Credit: Pinterest

Fire Element and Spirituality

Fire is an element that has been revered and explored since the tradition of yoga began over 5000 years ago – from physical fire used in rituals, to the internal flame of the heart, and the digestive fire or agni. In the ancient Vedic texts, the fire deity (also known as Agni) is mentioned in one of the very first verses. It represents the fire within the sun, lightning, as well as the fires lit within homes and for more specialised sacrificial uses. 

Let us look at the elemental dimension of fire or agni – its manifestations, ways to conduct it, and above all, ways to master it. Though among the five elements, fire accounts for the smallest proportion in the composition of the human body, its influence is tremendous. In many ways, fire represents life. One major indicator for whether we are alive or dead is if the fire is still on within us, or if our body has gone cold. Life upon this planet is essentially solar-powered. The Sun is a huge ball of fire that fuels life on this planet. Any machine, while it works, invariably generates heat because fundamentally, fire is the fuel. You may call it electricity, petrol, wood, coal, or whatever else, but essentially, it is fire that lets any machine run, including our body.

In Indian culture, the element of fire is personified as Agni Deva, a two-faced god who rides on a fiery ram. The two faces are symbolic representations of fire as a life giver and a life taker. Without the fire burning within us, there is no life. But if you do not take care, fire can quickly go out of control and consume everything. When it burns our body, it is called cremation. Another aspect is we are using fire to cook, so that we can consume foods that otherwise may not be edible or palatable for us.

Just as the flames of fire can move and spread wildly, it seems that the symbolism of fire itself varies widely; representing divinity and purity, referring to wisdom and discernment, but also the element associated with evil and the flames of hell.

Something we can perhaps learn from this is that fire is an element both native to nature and able to be produced and harnessed by humans. We also have the responsibility of remembering how the power of fire can be used for both good and evil. If you’re a typically ‘fiery’ person, do you use that power to empower and light up others, or do you allow it to be destructive? Fire can be the catalyst for energy and dynamism, but it can also be destructive if we don’t know how to manage it. 

The third chakra, known as Nabhi or Manipura (which translates at the ‘city of jewels’) or more commonly the ‘solar plexus’, is our energetic fire centre. Moving from the primal, earthiness of the root chakra, through the watery flow of the sacral chakra or Svadisthana, we reach the place that governs our inner power and digestive energy.

Manipura chakra is linked to our sense of transforming ideas into actions and food into energy, as well as our willpower and perseverance. When this place is in a balanced state, we generally feel confident in our ability to complete tasks; we feel physically and mentally powerful, and can discern ‘wrong’ from ‘right’. Underactive, and we’re likely to feel weak and unconfident, with poor digestive capacity and a lack of self-belief or inability to get things done.

If there’s too much energy moving through this chakra, we may become overly fiery, angry, irritable, pushing ourselves too hard and suffering from issues like acid reflux or heartburn. This chakra is our place of inner power, so when it comes to understanding how we use our power, it’s important to keep things balanced.