There is a mysterious fire within the human being. All of us have it, and it’s waiting to serve us … but in most, it is left dormant.

The Alchemists named it ‘fire’, thereby hiding and describing it in the same definition. We don’t have to believe in anything mystical to experience it. It’s simply a part of what we are, and can be felt by anyone who approaches it with the openness of discovery.

It belongs both to the body and to something else…

It’s part of us, biologically and experientially…and it’s intelligent. We might say it’s always present, as long as we’re alive, and hence its more modern name: presence.

Analogies help… If you’ve ever been outside in the snow, perhaps making snowballs to throw – without gloves – you will know the lovely feeling of active warmth that follows the intense cold of the melting ice crystals on your skin.

A useful starter exercise is to hold your hands in the ‘prayer position’, then begin taking a few deeper breaths and directing your attention to the space between the palms. After a short time, you will feel a gentle warm glow, which, at first you will mistake for simple body heat.

It’s worth pointing out that this gesture of the hands has come down to us as one of prayer. Could this be more significant than we ever thought?

Can we use the hands to spread this healing warmth? Sit quietly in a straight chair and place your ‘charged’ hands onto your thighs. At first you’ll feel the ordinary warmth. If you continue to energise it with breathing, you’ll feel something more powerful that spreads, gently.

I’ve thrown in a few comments from friends discussing this over the years.

When I began to do this, the feeling was like ‘coming home’ to myself…

See if you can direct it to your knees and then on down to your feet. Use the intelligent warmth to explore your feet. Can you use it to feel your toes; then each toe in turn? This may take a little practice…

When we know what the intelligent warmth feels like, we can choose where to begin the ‘fire’ of its presence. Our whole body is there to ‘ignite’ in this way. The effect will be to make us feel more ‘alive’ and settled.

Taking it very slowly, next week we’ll consider the inner nature of this fire … and how it might be related to other aspects of our inner and outer lives.

“Gentle,

alive,

loving

Very much me!”

©Stephen Tanham 2024

All photos taken and processed on an iPhone 12 ProMax.

Stephen Tanham is a writer-photographer and mystical teacher. He is the founding Director of the Silent Eye, which offers an exciting journey of the soul guided by lessons, inner experience and outer companionship.

There are two blog streams:

http://www.thesilenteye.co.uk

(mystically-oriented writing)

and

http://www.suningemini.blog

(general interest, poetry, humour and travel)