gitanabarby:
Fire: The Dance of Intimacy
Something is happening, like a slow simmer tenderizing the border of things. At the boundary of the flesh and at the interface between my heart and the world, I can feel how the correct amount of heat invites what is hidden or held apart to come forth, open, show itself, soften, vibrate, delineate, copulate, expand, intertwine, define, wonder, touch, feel, love. At this sacred edge, self and other become doorway and door.
Fire moves and circulates life from the edges toward a centering principle. In humans it is our heart that holds the fire, encouraging engagement, relatedness, kinship, belonging. Over time, fire is capable of creating something completely new from a multitude of complex parts without losing the wholeness of each part. Even if each separateness dissolves in the process, it paradoxically can never lose its integrity completely when rooted in the spirit of the heart.
The firing process is about the inner work necessary for transformation. It is the inner fire we tend deep within the cauldron of the heart that steadily warms the inner journey.
Fire needs wood and air. From a small fluff of kindling, we briskly rub flint and stick back and forth. It takes time and effort for that first spark to emerge until, alas, a puff of smoke rises. The breath of soul encourages the rising of the flame. Twigs are added and then branches. The fire goddess crackles and rises as much or as little as we allow her to be by what we feed her. We must be careful to leave enough empty space between each log for the breath of the Great Belonging to breathe like a steady bellows into the embers of her heart fire.
Too much fire burns, scalds, disintegrates, destroys. Not enough fire stagnates, coagulates, molds, rots, kills. There is a fine line between death and life, self and other, war and peace, separation and unity, rejection and acceptance, fear and love.
Fire helps us to come to know other as self and self as other. Like a great symphony, or a well made stew, there is a harmony that can be found even if only for a brief time.
As I watch the flamenco1 dance begin, I can feel a palpable, unspoken ritual container of utter respect for self and other, for what happens in the dance, and the thread of mystery leading the way. As wild as things get, there is safety here. In a fury of utter presence, nothing is left out and all is welcome. Rooted in the spaciousness of the inner witness, together the dancers, musicians, and singers explore and discover together. Foot stomping and angular movements followed or preceded by slow fluid sensitivity. Ferocity, boundaries, blending, sovereignty and unity expresses itself as each dancer is mirror and doorway to another. Passions flame and rise, fall and simmer through the whole divine mess of all that life brings, waiting for the place where You and Me can discover new ways to live and harmonize as and an ever-becoming We.
In this drumbeat moment of red flowers opening
and grapes being crushed,
the soul and luminous clarity sit together.
All desire wants is a taste of you,
two small villages in a mountain valley
where everyone longs for presence.
We start to step up.
A step appears.
You say, I am more compassionate
than your mother and father.
I make medicine out of your pain.
From your chimney smoke I shape new constellations.
I tell everything, but I do not say it,
because my friend, it is better
your secret be spoken by you.
—Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi, Translated by Coleman Barks, The Essential Rumi,
p 310
Some questions to live with; to take with you like a friend into your life and wait for an answer to emerge from your body and bones: how do you experience fire in your soul? How does fire move you? What do you want to do with it? What do you notice in your heart right now? How do you experience self in relation to other? What conditioning do you have that influences your dance between self and other? What do you need that would help you to open more fully and honestly to your self and to an other? Can you sense the ‘other’ within your own being? What does this other within look like, feel like, smell like, taste like, sound like, want, need? What is the difference between self and other? Why? How can love survive annihilation?
1 Flamenco is a “form of song, dance, and instrumental (mostly guitar) music commonly associated with the Andalusian Roma (Gypsies) of southern Spain. (There, the Roma people are called Gitanos.) The roots of flamenco, though somewhat mysterious, seem to lie in the Roma migration from Rajasthan (in northwest India) to Spain between the 9th and 14th centuries. These migrants brought with them musical instruments, such as tambourines, bells, and wooden castanets, and an extensive repertoire of songs and dances. In Spain they encountered the rich cultures of the Sephardic Jews and the Moors. Their centuries-long cultural intermingling produced the unique art form known as flamenco.” —from https://www.britannica.com/art/flamenco
To learn about the Romani culture, flamenco, how it came to be, its multicultural roots and Romani diaspora, I highly recommend this wonderful video and talk by Oliver Rajamani.
TEDx Talks:
Flamenco India – exploring the Romani diaspora | Oliver Rajamani | TEDxBermuda
About the Author: Monique Gaboury is a licensed acupuncturist, in Freeland, WA, specializing in Alchemical Acupuncture. She loves sharing her passion for natural healing at her clinic and through writing her blog ‘Re-membering Wholeness, Belonging and Kinship Through Changing Times’.
Juniper Medicine Alchemical Acupuncture serving the greater Seattle area on Whidbey Island. To schedule an appointment call 360-672-1506 or EMAIL.
