Sacred Fire, Cults etc...

Sacred Fire, Cults etc...
Originally uploaded by mikeysklar

Mikey's previous post about our 'sacred' fire inspired me to finally
begin participating in our blog. Hello!

Humans tend to resist using words such as sacred, we feel funny embracing new practices that pay homage to the elements such as welcoming fire or thanking it for what it brings. So often we get hung in the the words themselves and the awkwardness of new actions and we wonder, "does divining an element mean I'm in a cult, a religion, what cult, what religion, what might happen... our cultural training pulls references from all directions and fills our imaginations to the point of confusion. May I remind us that the inclusion of a new view does not require that we 'give up' our current view, rather it asks that we become more vast and so able to see more than we could before. But in the doing our own view remains safely in tact.

We have already seen what happens when we do not consider the natural world sacred. It is dying all around us and we are dying with it. Perhaps we might forget the semantics or what our culture has programmed us to think and fear and consider that what matters is the point of view that brings health, harmony and happiness. If treating the elements and the natural world as 'sacred' brings us into a relationship of respect with the earth, one in which we protect it, than call it religion, a cult, a state of mind, or simply the right thing to do.

History has shown us that reality molds itself around our consciousness. What has shaped the earth into what we see before us now? Us, our ideas made manifest.

Lets not worry about if fire is really a deity. Perhaps these questions will get answered on their own. If you have a heart to check in with you are qualified to define, create, copy, or invent ways to make sacred what we rely on and have cheated of our respect. What cult does that put you in? The cult of the sane, the emotionally healthy, the I don't shit where I eat, the kind, and perhaps the cult of those alive in the future.

- Wendy