Fire Walking
By Tina Gilson
Some years ago, I was invited to participate in a fire walking ceremony. I was excited and intrigued and had been up to my eyeballs in shadow work, healing, and rediscovering who I was meant to be in terms of spirituality and my uncommon abilities. I readily accepted the invitation despite not knowing what to expect.
I will not disclose the details of this event, as the privacy of all participants should be respected. I will say it was an all-day event involving some walks in the woods, meditation, a large bonfire to prepare the coals, and joining others in creating the right atmosphere and energy.
The Druid leading the walk explained the process, the proper way to fire walk, and what we could expect. The march around the fire and building of energy began, and each person took their turn walking the fire when they felt called to. There was no pressure or expectation. You could refrain from the fire walk, try it once, or do multiple passes.
The origins of firewalking go back thousands of years. Historically, it has been used for spiritual and religious reasons, rites of passage or initiation purposes, and healing practices. In modern times, it has been used for team building purposes and other social cohesion reasons.
I can say from personal experience, fire walking is empowering and an experience that can be meaningful and profound when undertaken with intent, more so than when it’s done just to say you did it or because it “sounds cool”.
While many people have concerns about getting burned, this is not a problem when you follow directions and do the walk properly. I even had a small coal get stuck between two of my toes on my second walk, and I did not get burned at all. I felt no need to rush to the bucket of water at the end of the walk.
How can one walk on hot coals without getting burned? Well, I can tell you I would not recommend trying this at home or without the direction and supervision of someone who is trained and experienced to facilitate such an undertaking. You can all but be guaranteed to get hurt. However, the laws of thermodynamics and instructions on the proper way to walk on fire make it perfectly safe to do so. Surprisingly, it doesn’t even really feel as hot as you would expect.
According to the second law of thermodynamics, when two bodies of different temperatures meet, the hotter body will cool off, and the cooler body will heat up, until they are separated or until they meet at a temperature in between. It’s basic physics. These laws make it safe to do fire walks when done properly, and dangerous when not.
Your intentions and approach can bring meaning to, or keep it out of, the experience of a fire walk. As with all rituals, what you get out of it depends on what you bring and what you put into it.
Sacred Spirit Wellness is located at The Hive Wellness Collaborative, 21 Barton Street in Bradford, VT. They can be reached via email at sacredspiritwellness1@gmail.com, on their Facebook page or www.sacredspiritwellness.com