While fire has had a particular meaning and its own rituals in each culture, it has been part of the sacred life of all cultures. It was natural for it to take on symbolic and religious meanings. Throughout the world, fire has been a vital source of light and warmth and integral to food preparation. Fire was thus both destructive and renewing, consuming the old and corrupt and making way for the new and pure. In the book of Revelations, God was pictured as cleansing the earth by fire at the end of time. The fiery destruction of the evil cities of Sodom and Gomorrah was an illustration of God’s power. For example, God appeared to Moses in the burning bush and once the Hebrews left Egypt, God signaled his presence through a cloud that hovered by day and a fire by night. Though not mentioned by Abraham Van Helsing, the voice of knowledge about vampires in Bram Stoker‘s Dracula, (1897) fire was considered the ultimate means of destroying a vampire in eastern European countries. The Parisian Theatre of the Vampires, as shown in Interview with the Vampire, was destroyed by fire. The elements of Earth, Air, Fire, and Water are differently assigned to the directions in the Native American Medicine Wheels those associations vary from tribe to tribe. In Ritual or Ceremonial Magic, fire is associated with Michael and with the tarot suit of Wands, and with summer, noonday, and the Hebrew letter Vau. Fire is related to reliability, solidity, law, and the order of things. Many traditions of Wicca apply fire to the south and further associate it with the color red and the elementals known as salamanders. It is light and energy, healing, desire, fertility,Īnd also destruction of the outworn. There are four elements- Earth, Air, Fire, and Water-associated with the four directions of North, East, South, and West in the magic circle.įire is connected with the God. Fire (religion, spiritualism, and occult) The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia™ Copyright © 2013, Columbia University Press. Frazer, Myths of the Origins of Fire (1930, repr. The ramifications of the human ideas about fire are tremendously complex, extending as they do into the concepts about light and the heavens. The theft of fire is a common element in the myths of many other cultures. Click the link for more information., the fire bringer. Because he foresaw the defeat of the Titans by the Olympians he sided with Zeus and thus was spared the punishment of the other Titans. He was the son of the Titan Iapetus and of Clymene or Themis.
, in Greek mythology, great benefactor of mankind. One of the greatest Greek myths is the story of Prometheus Prometheus The most carefully preserved cult in Rome was that of Vesta, goddess of the hearth, and her virgins guarded the holy fire. The connection between the Greek colony and the metropolis was the fire kindled in the colony from a brand brought from the mother city's fire. The belief that fire is sacred is widespread in mythology, and such beliefs have survived in some highly developed cultures. Click the link for more information., in which, as in many sun-worshiping religions, fire is considered the earthly representative or type of the sun.
Zoroastrianism's scriptures are the Avesta or the Zend Avesta. , religion founded by Zoroaster, but with many later accretions. Fire as a god is a characteristic feature of Zoroastrianism Zoroastrianism Its great importance to humans, the mystery of its powers, and its seeming capriciousness have made fire divine or sacred to many peoples.
In ancient Greece and later, fire was considered one of the four basic elements, a substance from which all things were composed. One of the basic tools of human culture, its use is extremely ancient, predating the existence of Homo sapiens by several hundred thousand years or more. Click the link for more information., and heat. Phenomenon associated with the chemical reaction of a gas that has been heated above its kindling temperature with some other gas, usually atmospheric oxygen (see combustion). Click the link for more information. as seen in light, flame flame, The burning of a fuel (e.g., wood, coal, oil, or natural gas) in air is a familiar example of combustion.
Rapid chemical reaction of two or more substances with a characteristic liberation of heat and light it is commonly called burning. Fire, the phenomenon of combustion combustion,