The Fire Element
The Third Element of a Fulfilling Life
The purpose of the model of the Four Elements is to provide a map for how to achieve self-mastery or, to say the same thing another way, how to discover what the best possible life is, for each person individually. The climax of this process of discovery is symbolized by the Fire Element. In Ancient Persia, there was a tradition that illustrates the nature of the Fire Element. Appropriately, it is a tradition of the Zoroastrian religion, widely known for their ceremonial worship of Fire. In this age-old tradition, your life and all the temptations you face in that life were a “Fiery Test of Truth” (Gathas).
The Ancient Zoroastrian text, The Gathas, speaks of a human lifetime is a “test of molten metal” where, like super-hot liquified metal, you have the opportunity shape who you become through the choices you make. In other words, how you respond to the trials that present themselves, large and small, is the crucible that shapes not just your character but your future life experience as well. You are being tested on whether you can perceive the trials and tribulations of your life as opportunities for you to shape your own future life experience, or not. The suffering of life or the challenges that come up are invitations to shape your ‘molten metal’ into your very best self and your future into the best it can possibly be. This is the test that measures your mastery of the Fire Element. In this way of seeing things, your life is the place of initiation, the place where you encounter your fears and learn to overcome them. This is what the Fire Element is about.
In the first two articles of this series on the Four Elements we explored the metaphorical meaning of Earth and Air as it has been employed throughout the millennia. We learned that the Earth Element symbolized the world of forms or the physicality of our lives and Air symbolized the world of ideas and words and thoughts. We saw that both the Earth and the Air Elements have an enormous amount of scientific detail that is easy to become absorbed by and lost in. Most people spend many a lifetime absorbed in this detail of body/forms (Earth) and mind (Air), never progressing beyond the Earth and Air stages of life’s journey.
But, in those first two articles, we also saw that the Earth and Air Elements had mythic or spiritual features that provided insight into how you might advance to a higher state of consciousness. (A “higher state of consciousness” is just another way of saying a life that is filled with peace and love and creativity and abundance). All the details of the Earth and Air Elements are fascinating and fun and incredibly useful. By all means they should be mapped out and developed and studied and put to use in your life. But it is the spiritual aspect of mastery that is the most important thing.
With the Earth Element, mastery means you have a healthy body and a stable emotional state which allows for the intellect or Air Element to develop and thrive. Then, in turn, mastery of the Air Element ultimately means that you could choose to still the Air Element activities (like thinking and the mental-reinforcement of the idea of a self) at will. This sets the stage for the next step, for once sufficient mastery of the Earth and Air elements has been achieved, the experience of the Fire Element changes completely. It goes from being a force for suffering and tragedy to an agent for positive change in your life.
As much as you might like to have good relationships, to be entertained, to learn, have fulfilling work and so on perpetually, life doesn’t leave you alone in this Air and Earth absorption for long. No matter how rich or powerful or famous you are, sooner or later, the Fire Element will make its appearance in your life. The flavor it takes will be shaped by your particular brand of darkness: it might manifest in your life as anger or anxiety or sadness or shame. Or it might just be sickness or a physical malady of some kind. This idea of a trial by fire has been mythologized at least since the time of Abraham, where his faith was tested both metaphorically with the near sacrifice of his only son and literally when he was thrown into the flames by the idolatrous King Nimrod. Regardless of the form it takes for you, this Fire Element in your body or mind or life experience isn’t there for the purpose of causing you suffering. Rather, however mundane or painful it is for you, it exists to provide you with the means to master your self and advance to a higher consciousness, a better life.
So, the Fire Element is different from the first two. Unlike Earth and Air (and, as we will see later, Water), Fire doesn’t represent a stage of consciousness or way of experiencing life. Rather, it symbolizes a transition from one state of consciousness to another. It represents the force that shows you what aspects of Earth or Air that you have not yet mastered. It manifests in your life to communicate to you those parts of your body or mind that need further attention or development or healing or love. It shows you where you are resisting the flow of the universe. By uncovering this resistance, you know the places where you need to practice letting go or non-judgement or non-attachment. In this way it is like the bridge between the states of consciousness that you are so familiar with and the enlightened consciousness spoken of by spiritual masters throughout the ages. If you haven’t yet crossed the Fire Element bridge, you are still completely identified with a self and a body. Because this identification hasn’t yet burned away, life will be marked by dissatisfaction and change and limitation. The Fire Element brings the promise of ending all of this.
Viewed through this lens, a human life is an extraordinary opportunity. Having a body (Earth) and the ability to think and perceive one’s self (Air) allows for the appearance of the Fire Element, which means that suffering will occur. The presence of Earth and Air means by definition that tragedy, loss, aging, sickness and death will be part of your experience. But this also means that you have the raw materials needed to pass through the fires of initiation. This possibility of a transition from your normal state of consciousness to a higher one, as symbolized by the Fire Element, is the gift of your existence, in this life, right now.
This idea of suffering expressing a shift in consciousness is one that has been articulated by all the great spiritual traditions. Christians, for example, might depict this evolution as learning to truly and completely love god. Muslims might describe it as submitting more and more completely and precisely to the word and will of Allah. Buddhists might bring to bear the ideas of ending Samsara and experiencing Nirvana. Zoroastrians and Hindus might explain that your true self was is not in your physical form buty liesay in a timeless realm of light and oneness with the Creator. Each tradition is expressing a similar idea of progress to a better experience of life and the promise of a permanent end to suffering.
Whether it is called mastering the Fire Element, advancing through the levels of consciousness, experiencing Nirvana, remembering your true self, or learning to completely love or submit to god, in each case you are increasing your wisdom, your self-assurance, your self-control and your spirituality. You are locating the source of your happiness and power in something other than your body/mind (Earth/Air). With all these systems, having faith in and following the system’s rules and rituals is designed to have your doubts cleared, your fears erased, and your confusion eliminated. The goal in each case is to reduce separation, increase connection, and end suffering by creating the awareness of a pre-existing unity. The goal is self-mastery, self-realization and spiritual empowerment. Using the Four Elements lexicon, this is what it means to pass through the Fire Element.
Once you have mastered the Fire Element, you are in a position to be delivered to the stillness and calm of Water. This is the topic of the next article.
In this series we are looking at each of the Four Elements as stages in the progression towards a life built on love:
- INTRODUCTION
2. EARTH
3. AIR
4. FIRE (This Article)
5. WATER
You can also listen to a couple of podcasts I recorded covering similar material.
For an entirely different (and quite esoteric!) take on the Four Elements based on the teachings of the Hindu classic, The Bhagavad Gita, you can listen to the reading of Rudolf Steiner’s 1905 lecture on the subject:
For more information you can visit the Happy Mind website.
ZR.
