Fire and Water

By Swami Nityamuktananda, 2011

When the wisdom teachers from across the globe talk Fire and Water, they do not mean just the flame of the campfire or the water that runs out of your tap; although they talk about that too.

Fire and water, just like earth, air and space (ether) are energies.  We know from mystics from around the globe, just as much as from most modern science, that the entire universe, in all its diversity and forms, from a galaxy to the features of earth, to our own body and mind- all are ultimately energy. 

Energy that comes out of the volition, the super-conscious space of the Divine, whether we call it God, Spirit or That which is beyond…i.e. Wakan Takan, IO or simply Absolute Reality. It is That which we cannot describe, That which is bigger than human mind and thoughts.From this the unified field (modern physics) unfold different energy fields. Different cultures have in more or less details, devised ways to describe these fields. Most cultures around the globe agree that the first un-foldment is into knowledge and energy (grandfather sky, and grandmother earth; or in the language of Indian Philosophy Purusha and Prakriti).

These as One, unfold into further energy-fields, two of them (again around the globe) are called Fire and Water. When these energy–fields have found their grossest manifest form, our senses perceive them as the water that flows in a river, the water we drink, the water which nurtures all; and as the fire that burns as the flame of a candle, as well as the mighty sun.

From the most subtle  energy field to the grossest forms , many subtler stages exist (such as  our emotions which can run hot with the fire of anger or  all-consuming passion or – be is calm and cool as moonlight , tranquil, a state of mind that we call peace!)

Knowing this we can look at Fire and Water in much greater depth. We see that each one has certain characteristics- which in their extremes are harmful to life, and in balance and harmony are the most beneficial forces that give life. We look at them often as opposing forces; after all they potentially destroy each other, yet they can keep each other in beneficial harmony, each limiting the other. To put it simply: Fireis kept in check by water, water can even extinguish fire; water is equally kept in “good working order” in its life cycle through fire (evaporation) . Fire on the other hand, can dry up water totally. Balance and harmony is the key.And it is this key which our world and how we have lived on it, as a human race, has lost! We lost the harmony within the energy-field of fire, as well as within the energy-field of water, as well as in the relationship between the two. Over the centuries so much has been written about Fire and Water, whole books have been filled, and that since ancient times. Yet our societies have forgotten the wisdom- teaching of these Elements, and with that have upset the harmony and balance on this planet of ours. It is high time, that this wisdom, the  wisdom keepers have guarded throughout time and culture, should be revived. Every culture and every indigenous tradition has its own wisdom teachings and customs around fire and water. 

In the Vedic culture of India (root of the Yoga tradition) fire played the central part; in fact the whole way of thinking had “Fire” in its “center”. Today this wisdom comes back to us from the indigenous people of the world, but it also existed, albeit hidden in the European traditions, ancient and modern. Heraclitus (Geek philosopher) for example claimed “all things are One, but appear as opposing forces in permanent interchange.” This permanent interchange, we could call it action-power or transformative power, for Heraclitus was: Fire. He refers to the world as "ever-living fire". “All things are an exchange for fire and fire for all things, as goods for gold and gold for goods….” Fire becomes an ongoing process governing all change, just like different ever-changing waters flow in the same river!  

Parmenides a contemporary scientist of Heraclitus, taught that ultimately behind all these changes, “be they of Fire or Water” is the Great Goddess, she “who dwells in the middle of all things”. In modern times people like the Physicist A. Einstein with his Relativity theory and M. Planck with Quantum physics …started their explorations by watching the fire/light in a fire-place). What is it about “Fire”? Fire is continuous, fast change, is action power! Just watch the ever moving flames; their constantly changing forms; such intensity of change! Change uses energy and sets energy free, disperses it: we say it gives of radiance; and we call that, “light”. The biggest Fire we know of is the sun; it burns continuously with the power of ten-thousand atomic explosions. The radiance dispersed, the light given off - by that, is the light and warmth that allows life to grow on earth. So sunlight is the source of life. This light/ heat/energy of sunlight is assimilated and stored (photosynthesis) in all living things, especially in plants i.e. trees. (So we cut the tree and burn the wood to free the trapped sunlight and warmth! )

So what is fire? Solar energy/light on a path of permanent changing forms; i.e. what we call fire is a moment in a process of changing one form into another this we call trans-formation. During the process, some of the energy is “lost” (released as heat and light). The trapped sunlight is freed, its ultimate direction/goal is to return to its original existence as light.

All life is - in effect - solar energy on this return journey to light. And it is that which we “tune in”, recreate, celebrate in the various types of fire- ceremonies. On some deep level of ancestral knowledge or consciousness, we know that, we are sunlight! Hence mankind has always worshipped the sun, which has led to an enormous variety of myth and legends, culminating in anthropomorphic Gods, representing the power of the sun and its different facets of burning power. 

Again what is fire? It is the gross manifest form of Light. On a subtler level there is the light of intelligence by which we can see, think, and finally reach enlightenment reunite with the “All knowing”, the One before falling into diversity (see above). Swami Rama calls the subtle light behind all light, – “light of life”, illuminating that , in its subtlest form the “ultimate light” we cannot describe; for it we have no name, in the Yogic scriptures it That called : the light of a thousand suns”.But let’s return to the simpler level of contemplation: fire is the power/the energy which allows one form to “dissolve” (one action, one self interest, one understanding, one form of knowing) in order to create a new one; as we said before, fire is permanent change; life is permanent change. Is fire and life then the same? 

Imagine you sit in-front of the Fire-pit.  Contemplate: I am very much alive, and so are you, when you read this. Every cell in our body is continuously changing food into energy, air into energy, sunlight into usable energy etc. We even say: our body burns energy (after all what else is the metabolism). Every cell of my body constantly repeats this very same process of change. That means I not only exists because of the fire/warmth/light of the sun, but I am actually with every cell performing that very job of “Fire” (burning/transforming). I am indeed millions of little fires burning! More poetically: I am many flames of one fire – or in short:  I am – you are - Fire…!And this process goes on through form after form, life after life until “it” has become so pure it has returned to light. We are in fact on the path from Fire - to Light, or even through fire to Light!

European culture has in its past a virgin Goddess that was also ‘wise woman”, SHE was the center of the house, household (and body). Her altar was a continuously alight fire, in the center of the house. She had many temples but no statues were made of her; why? Because she was “the radiant One”, the living flame was her form! Her symbol was the circle with a dot in the center, just like the symbol for Shakti (India) . To serve HER was to serve the Mother, Goddess, Shakti etc.

Modern times? Any memorial to victims of wars has an “eternal flame”! It’s all there, but we forgot how to connect the dots! Let’s not dismiss the wisdom of the ancient ones any longer, they understood! We have developed our minds and intellects our left-brains in modern world, we need to leave the exclusive, rational behind…! Sensing, intuiting is asked for. Once we can “see” the wisdom, including the parallels in all wisdom teachings around the world and the most modern knowledge (quantum theory et all.) we learn to see by a different fire: the light of subtle intelligence; learn to see by the subtle light within! Practicing Silence is the training ground for that!

Now let’s leave fire behind look at Water which is equally ‘worshipped” by many cultures as the beginning of life! There is the Vedic tradition of Varuna, the Lord of the cosmic waters…that were there at the beginning. It says in the beginning of the Old Testament (Judeo-Christian Tradition) that “the Spirit (Baruch) moved over the Waters”; in the Zulu tradition of Africa the Spirit before creation moved “over the Ocean of Nothingness”. In ancient Japanese lore, the sky-kami gives  a  sword to Izagami to stir the ocean, thus creating the first island; and then there is the description of the TAO  as the Watercourse way in Chinese tradition. If we want to be modern and ‘scientific,’ we can recall that science says: Life started within water.  

Observing Water we can easily see its cycle; permanent change of form! Now it’s a dewdrop, now the life-sap in the roots of a tree, now its in the juice of the fruit, now in your belly, now in the river, now in the ocean now evaporated in the air, in the cloud in the raindrop in the moisture of the earth, now in the dewdrop…etc. 

So Water constantly changes form – and here is the difference to Fire: Fire changes rapidly the entire substance….Water keeps its essence, it stays water but changes only the form.

Both are forms of change…. Both are forms of life! Watch any river, the river itself changes only slowly in the course of time- but the water is constantly on the move…it’s always adapting into new shapes. Yet it has a direction, it always flows to the Ocean, somehow or other, however complicated its way might appear it seeks the ocean. It has direction… As fire’s goal is light, waters goal is ocean (meaning the surrender of the individual to the All; for the good of ALL. 

What did Heraclitus say? “Fire becomes an ongoing process governing all change, just like different ever-changing waters flow in the same river!”

The slower, more life-affirming flow of water, its life sustaining quality  has been the reason for worshipping it in many cultures. Including the recent affirmation by Emoto, (well known Japanese scientist) that what has memory; he photographed water-crystals and thus proved beyond doubt that water remembers. (Hence we have healing waters impregnated by purity and prayer, hence the ceremonial and spiritual significance of water.) 

All of this makes rivers and waters special (for how long is a question, as the memory of pollution,  plastic, paper and all sorts is constantly being added!), special and sacred.

Sacred because its life sustaining, nothing can be alive without, there is no life, without water just as there is no life without fire! Contemplate: Every cell of your body contains water; in fact the most important parts of the body (brain, spinal fluids, blood etc.) are mainly water. In fact it’s a well known fact that our body consists almost entirely of water; we even breath in water (air without moisture can’t be absorbed). I exist, breath, think by the grace of water, in fact I am Water, just as I am Fire.Fire and Water - different yet the same! 

The difference? It’s easy to see: water always remains water. Its form changes but in essence it remains the same, remains in the manifest level. Fire changes by dying to itself (surrender/leaving behind) in the process of trans-forming. We have to take it to the next level of subtlety; to see that fire eventually becomes what it always was: light; as light it never changes.

In fact Fire and Water, if we go beyond the gross level are the same subtle, divine energy in different forms. (This is easily supported by science). The two appear only as opposites, but are one life-giving, life sustaining energy in two different forms; (again we have shifted level of understanding to a subtler level.  )They are two expressions of the One Great Mother of all existence, SHE who has many names! Meaning: there is only one powerful energy which moves the universe and me; it appears, amongst others, in these two forms; hence, there is on the level of subtle existence no difference between Fire and Water!What did Parmenides (ancient Greek scientist) teach? Behind all changes, “be they of Fire or Water” is the Great Goddess, SHE “who dwells in the middle of all things”. We can expand on this and say: SHE doesn’t just dwell in the middle of things – but SHE is all ever-changing existence.  

To that great Mother I bow!