Fire Oracles

The World is Your Oracle by Nancy Vedder-Shults Nancy's forthcoming book, The World is Your Oracle, compiles hundreds of divination methods, from ancient oracles to modern-day techniques. The excerpts published here will describe a few of the ways to access the deeper layers of our minds and broaden our sense of perception. A good oracle puts us in touch with ourselves. It lets us discover our motivations, feelings and thoughts about the question we're exploring. And it connects us with the atmosphere or environment surrounding that question — making us aware of the water we swim in, but usually don't notice. To receive inner guidance, all we need is to open ourselves to what our body/mind tells us, what our emotions display, and what our unconscious knows. In this way, we can begin to hear with our inner ears and see with our inner eyes. Using these mystical senses — what we might call the sense organs of the unconscious — we perceive holistically, noticing relationships and patterns rather than isolating, classifying and judging what we observe. Once we have gathered this wisdom, we can then use the rational mind to interpret what we have learned. We live in an interconnected world, a web of life. Each segment of that web reflects the whole just like fractal designs or holography. That's why the patterns we discover through divination give us information. They mimic the relationships of the whole at a particular moment in time.

by Nancy Vedder-Shults, Ph.D.

We in the West inherited Aristotle's view of the elements. Like earlier Greek philosophers, Aristotle believed that four elements constituted all physical matter — earth, air, fire and water — but he also added a fifth, "ether," a heavenly substance that gave rise to the stars. This cosmological concept deeply influenced our culture until the sixteenth or seventeenth century, when more scientific understandings of nature began to displace it. Luckily for us, western mysticism preserved this ancient way of thinking, keeping it alive in tarot and astrology, and even in our common playing cards with their four suits.

Of the elements, fire demonstrates change most directly. In fact, many traditions name fire the great transformer, since anything that burns must certainly change. In China and Tibet, fire's symbolism resembles that of the West, although the Chinese system is more elaborate. It correlates each of the elements with a color (for fire, it's red), a direction (south), numbers (2 and 7), a climate (hot), a planet (Mars), a sound (laughing), an emotion (joy), an hour (9 a.m. to 1 p.m.) and an animal (the phoenix). Linking these characteristics together, I love the idea of a joyful, laughing fire.

In the West as in China, we associate fire with the direction south, but here it represents will power and passion, each an agent of change. The power of will provides the energy necessary to implement any personal transition, and passion transforms us in its fiery embrace. A fire can also warm us in the winter or spark the imagination as we watch its mesmerizing flames dance. It's this final quality that influences us during divination, although fire's ability to symbolically purify also comes into play.

Divination Methods
To begin, ground yourself by feeling your feet planted firmly on the earth, and then center yourself by using your favorite breathing exercise. This will help you set your antennae wide to hear with your inner ears, see with your inner eyes or feel with your inner empathy and sense of touch in order to gain the divinatory advice fire can bring to you. When an oracle has uttered its wisdom, nudged you with a feeling of rightness or opened your eyes with a new insight, be sure to express your gratitude for its guidance. And thank fire for its help as well.

Fire, Fire, Burning Bright
Watching a fire spark and flame serves as one of my favorite divination methods, because it lulls me so effortlessly into a trance state. In fact, the ancients used at least part of this technique when they employed capnomancy, the study of smoke rising from a fire. It can also work well for you if you follow the steps outlined below:

Snap, Crackle and Pop
Listening to a fire can also provide a powerful oracular experience. To use this practice as a divinatory method, follow the steps in Fire, Fire Burning Bright, except for steps 4 and 5:

Ashes to Ashes
Another technique that may prove particularly effective for visual perceivers is to burn your query. Seeing the transformation from paper to ash creates a powerful visual representation of the change an oracle can facilitate.

Decide on your divinatory query.

Smudging
Another oracular method that utilizes fire is smudging, a form of purification employing incense or a smudge stick. This technique will appeal most to people who enjoy open-ended oracles. It involves at least three of your senses: sight, smell and touch. It will help you settle into an oracular space, so that you can focus more clearly on your divinatory issue.

Important:
Usually within a few minutes you will begin to have an inkling of your inner guidance. But occasionally you will need to revisit this practice — perhaps a number of times over the following days — in order to quiet your surface mind sufficiently to access your deepest wisdom.

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