Observations placeholder
Cirlot on fire
Identifier
004815
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
A Dictionary of Symbols – J E Cirlot
The Chinese in their solar rites, utilise a tablet of red jade, which they call Chang; it symbolises the element of fire. In Egyptian hieroglyphics, fire is also related to the solar symbolism of the flame, and associated particularly with the concepts of life and health.
The alchemists retained in particular the Heraclitean notion of fire as the 'agent of transmutation', since all things derive from, and return to fire.... in this sense as a mediator between forms which vanish and forms in creation, fire is, like water, a symbol of transformation and regeneration.
Frazer lists many rites in which torches, bonfires, burning embers and even ashes are considered capable of stimulating the growth of corn fields and the well being of man and of animals. However, anthropological research has furnished two explanations of the fire festival, as it persists today in the Valencian bonfires of the night of St John, fireworks and the illuminated Christmas Tree. … imitative magic purporting to assure the supply of light and heat from the sun, and the purification or destruction of the forces of evil