The time has come to turn your heart into a temple of fire. Your essence is gold hidden in dust. To reveal its splendor you must tend the sacred fire and burn in the flame of love. -Mevlana Rumi
This is the opening letter from my teacher, Shiva Rea, that I would like to share with you. Read this for deeper understanding into the idea of "Heart Fire" or "Heart Fire Tending" that we have been exploring in class.
Tending the fire is one of the world's oldest meditations as a source of light, warmth, transformation, healing carbon-dated now to over 900,000 year ago. As a universal spiritual practice and practical metaphor, "tending the sacred fire" is a way of centering one's life-energy within the core essence (fire) of one's heart which like our sun is a source of life-giving energy and self-organizing guidance. "Tending the Sacred Fire" is how we live from our heart as we "tend" our life-energy in the ebb and flow of the world so that our passion and enthusiasm for life stays strong as internal and external forces, winds of change, or diminishing fuel in all forms - resources, energy, inspiriration - challenge our fire-keeping skills.
Fire-keeping is a metaphor for the infinite ways we stay connected to our core truth - our inner light of our heart reflected in our actual our biologicial attunement to the extraordinary light that is emitted from our sun. The sun, each second, transforms four millions tons of itself and then emites the energy that we receive some 10 million miles away.
In our bodies, our heart is the seat of our inner sun-fire circulating the sun's energy through nutrients in our bloodstream as well as a vibrational information from the pulse of the heart to every cell in our bodies. Like the sun, our heart organ emits 5,000 times more electromagnetic energy tthan our brain, communicates with other syncopating hearts over 10 feet away and in heart transplant patients the brain and the heart communicate slowly via energy and not via the nervous system. All indegenou cultures recognize the power of the heart intelligence as a guiding force, an emissary of the divine spark of knowing.
Tending the fire is an intimate journey that brings us in alignment with what holds our attention, with natural love and devotion. It is not a chore or a duty but a life-devotion. Firekeeping is primal and raw in presence. It requires discipline, honesty, personal integrity, humilty, authenticity, stamina, and compassion for when the fire goes out there is a price to be paid. As life change with us organically, like the fire, we have to shift and adjust.
Tending the Sacred Fire is a call back:
- to our heart-knowing
- our deeper navigational instincts
- the pulse of who we are
Please join me this week for class - Mon, Tues, Thurs for Lunch Hour Flow in our new Solar Studio and Wed 6:30pm for Lunar Flow in our Lunar Studio.
Deepest Heart Centered Love Kat