The Pattern of Fire

 Who doesn't love a glowing fireplace in the winter, or a marshmallow over a campfire? How about staring awestruck at lightening or enjoying the sun at the beach? But fire isn't just about temperature.  It's the process by which things are broken down and turned into something else. It is also seen as force or defense. In essence, fire in nature is transformation.  For example,  trees become ash, which becomes particles in the soil.  Sand becomes glass.  Fire brings things up from deep in the earth and creates something new - like an island!  So how does this pattern of transformation help us understand our bodies?
In our bodies, fire is reflected in our break down, build up processes, like digestion and metabolism.  It is also seen as force - the heart forces blood around the body, or the muscles force movement in the body.  The immune system is the defense.  Fire is life-altering illness, or tragedy.  Have you ever felt like life burned you down, only to ask you to rise like a Phoenix from the ashes?
When we ask a plant to help us with something in our body that reflects the pattern of fire, we look to those same patterns in a plant.
So what does fire look like in a plant?  They aren't exactly shooting flames from their leaves, you might say.  But think about our transformation pattern.  We will be looking for a plant that has an affinity for the body parts and processes that we described. These will be plants that help get things going, move things around, break things down, or help defend the body.   But we can also look to plants who might offer the opposite - water.  For water puts out fire, after all.  It may be that you need a little of both.
It would be easy to drop back into the 'this for that' system of healing, but we have to remember that no process or expression of nature exists in isolation. Each is dependent on the other and they exist in balance and harmony with each other. So next newsletter we're going to talk about Air!