TENDING FIRE ~ How to Balance FIRE in a Warming World

At the BLOOM Institute each week is dedicated to the following elements of creation – MINERAL, NATURE, FIRE, WATER and EARTH. Each week we look at our lives and the human condition through the metaphor that the element provides, This week is FIRE WEEK. FIRE is a metaphor for our ability to be VISIBLE and create VALUE in  the world. For more about the work of the Institut visit: www.bloomeducation.institute

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This summer the heat in New York City has become a character with which I must contend. Before not so much. As a Jamaican I looked forward to summer, to days in the park, by the water and walking more slowly. I still do, but the heat is now too often unbearable. 

I know I am not alone in this. By all accounts our experience of the energy of FIRE is out of control. 

At BLOOM we hold that the energy of  FIRE is what allows us to see the world and be seen. It  is the energy that fuses together our sense of who we are and what our world is. It is the element of creation, it purifies things, it is invincible, and is the reflector, protector and protector of individual and collective truth.

Our warming planet tells us that our experience of the effects of FIRE is running wild, as does our current political conflicts, polarization and wars. All this is fueled by powerful media tools that can create and project images virally in minutes. The result is increased levels of stress, anxiety,  addiction, and over-consumption.

FIRE unattended can burn a house, a village and nation and world down.

Imagine that FIRE is always present, but its presence is revealed as a physical flame when the conditions are right. Yet it can be sensed before it becomes a flame.

For FIRE to be experienced, there must be the right combination of moisture, combustible material, friction, and fuel. Until these conditions are met, FIRE remains dormant, cooperating silently with the other elements of creation. We would need inner eyes and knowing to see it.

When FIRE does manifest, it reduces everything it touches to ash if not attended to.

How can we tend to this FIRE within ourselves and our world?

This is the question of this week’s journey on the Path of FIRE.

The Human Contribution

This climate crisis is predominantly man-made. 

The environment is now reflecting back to us our behaviors individually and collectively.

A balanced relationship between humans and FIRE is still one of discovery. Historically, humans have harnessed fire for warmth, cooking, and protection, but today, our use of fire—through industrial activities, deforestation, and fossil fuel consumption—is contributing to global warming.

To reduce the effects of global warming, several steps can be taken:

• Exploring New Technologies: Investing in renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, and geothermal power. According to a 2021 report by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), transitioning to renewable energy could supply 90% of the necessary reductions in energy-related carbon emissions.
• Slow our Addiction to Consumption. We are consuming more of the earth’s natural resources—faster than it is being replaced. We are out of sync with the cycle and seasons of nature.
• Reducing Conflict and Increasing Cooperation: Promoting sustainable development and equitable resource distribution. The United Nations emphasizes that cooperation is essential for addressing global challenges like climate change.
• Reevaluating Land Use: Reducing meat consumption and rethinking animal farming practices. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) highlights that livestock farming is responsible for 14.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions, primarily methane.

We know the Steps to Mitigate Global Warming but  fear of change and the desire to maintain our power and control often prevent us from engaging FIRE in an authentic way. 

To work effectively with FIRE and its effects, we must first choose to transform ourselves. And our collective transformation begins with each of us as individuals.

For us at BLOOM the possibility of FIRE  is a balanced expression of the other four elements of creation. MINERAL, NATURE, WATER and EARTH. When these elements are not present FIRE becomes unbalanced. 

FIRE — As the Maker of Images.

But before we explore the other elements and how they help to balance FIRE, let’s understand that the energy of FIRE is what creates images in the mind. And it is these mind-made images that reflect, focus and re-create our thoughts, emotions, actions, memories and experience.

Because of the energy of FIRE in us, we each  see the world and ourselves in unique ways. The way we see the world is a reflection of how we have come to know and see ourselves.  In this way we are  each seers, seeing and the scene.

We see in images through physical eyes, as much as we see with inner eyes. Images in the media burnish themselves in our mind. Images from our memories take hold and don’t leave us for better or worse. These are all our “imaginings” — products of our ability to create our reality in images. 

And we do this individually as well as collectively. 

And these imaginings can control us, to the extent that we are not aware that they are reflections of us; when we deal with them as separate from ourselves, we are engage in conflict with them, or develop attachments to them, in ways that do not grow our ability to create new images—new realities to expand. 

In FIRE all is seen and there can be no hiding. The result is inner and outer conflict with ourselves and others. 

So it is our unattended “imaginings”  that has given rise to a warming planet.

At BLOOM our practice is to  tend to this FIRE within ourselves and the world by tending to all the elements of creation.  Our fear of change and the desire to maintain our power and control often prevent us from engaging FIRE in an authentic way. To work effectively with FIRE and its effects, we must first choose to transform ourselves. And our collective transformation begins with each of us as individuals.  

How each element balances  FIRE

Let’s take a look at how each or the other elements balance FIRE.

FIRE NEEDS MINERAL

MINERAL is the element of memory and true voice.  We hold that Minerals are the fuel of FIRE. So the stories we tell ourselves about who we are and what we are here—our answer to life’s existential questions are fuel FIRE. 

So when our answers to these questions are not rooted in a cosmic truth, when they are materialistic they will fuel FIRE so that it burns quickly. When our stories about who we  are rooted in the Transcendent eternal truth, FIRE burns steadily.

FIRE needs NATURE

NATURE is the element of expansion, change and transformation. Our imaginings also need  air, so that they can change and transform. If not they become wild and ferocious. 

To balance FIRE allows our imaginings to change, give them space, by being curious and engaging with the uncertainty of things. Allow them to play and play with them? Ask “what if and what’s possible when?” 

Wonder about how they might be desiring to change, what’s next for them, and for you the seer. 

Get lost in wonderment. Hold your mind-made images with wonderment so that what we see can become what we must. 

FIRE needs WATER

WATER is the element of connection and compassion.

To tend to the FIRE we must see ourselves and the world we are seeing with compassion—for these imagines are extensions of ourselves. When we see without compassion, our images burn our mind, creating strong groves in which outer and inner conflict takes hold. 

FIRE NEEDS EARTH

EARTH is the element of belonging, safety and community. 

Today hold your mind-made images tenderly. Accept them, make space for them and yourself to be as you are. We are expressions of one cosmic journey, and our memories in images are journeying and evolving with us. The best of them are integrated to make space for new images and memories. Allow them to be, as they are. Greet them with an appreciation for the lessons they are here to teach. 

EARTH is the energy of reaping appreciation.  So feed the FIRE with appreciation—honoring the best lessons learnt, the insights, the guidance, the nourishment. 

It is a place where we can look backward and forward with gratitude. 

All this balances FIRE, giving it space for a steady burn.

Engaging with FIRE on the Path of Personal Transformation & Planetary

This week the path of FIRE invites us to begin a more balanced relationship with FIRE, both within ourselves and in the world around us.

So this week as we walk the Path of FIRE together, we will consider what we are willing to give to the FIRE within us so that it might give its best to us. Consider tending greater awareness of the—

• Brittle and Flammable Identities: We each have fixed ways of seeing the world that invite no mystery. ASK YOURSELF: What narratives about who we are and why we are here, must now be put aside?
• Clear Eyes and Greater Agency: Consider giving up safe goals and desires that only bolster our egos. ASK YOURSELF: What are the habits that keep me stuck, that I now see with clear eyes, and how can I engage my life with greater agency and choice? 
• Inter-Connectedness & Support: Our sense of separation between ourselves and others create desolate and combustible landscapes. ASK YOURSELF: Given our inner-connectedness, what feelings and needs can I openly admit, and request support from others to reduce my anger and rage?
• Abundance, Rest & Nourishment: A sense of time that removes us from the radiance, abundance and possibility of the present moment. ASK YOURSELF: Where can I now rest and allow myself to be fed by what I already have, so that I am not constantly seeking fulfillment in ways that never last?

When we fail to consider these things, our inner FIRE ramps up, disrupting the ecosystem of our bodies and our lives. Our inner imbalance is mirrored in the wider world, contributing to the present collective experience of a warming planet, and increased levels of stress and anxiety for ourselves and our loved ones.  

When we tend to FIRE, its Light comes into its own. It knows itself and all it sees. It has no self-images, it loses its self-consciousness, and just is—the luminous world.